A Miracle of Engineering Beyond This World

In the thick Blood Moon and Gray Fog, Castian rode his warhorse slowly along the outer edge of the Blackiron Canyon.

For the past nine days, this Gray Fog Bishop, leading his Mobile Holy Knight, has been conducting guerrilla warfare around the perimeter of the Defense Zone, effectively slowing down the Blood Moon's offensive.

This was a bloody battle from beginning to end; by the end, even the breath exhaled from the nostrils of the warhorses smelled of blood.

Castian sat upright on his horse, his back still straight, and his hand holding the reins did not tremble in the slightest. What truly showed the damage of battle was his once pure white Holy Silver robe.

The hem and cuffs of the robe were already soaked with the black blood of High-Tier Demonic Beast, and when the wind blew, the dark purple blood crust rubbed gently against the fabric.

Castian looked up, gazing into the depths of the Gray Fog.

He never doubted Shien's plan; the fact that the kid dared to show the diagrams meant he could complete it.

Having faith in something is one thing, but the construction period is another.

In Castian's view, a month was considered fast. If they could resist the final Beast Tide during the Blood Moon Season, that would be considered a success. If Shien could create an outline in nine days, that would already be considered a sign of good leadership.

He was just passing through and wanted to check on the progress. The warhorse continued forward, passing through the last layer of Gray Fog and stepping onto the canyon highlands.

But the moment his gaze fell upon it, Castian's pupils contracted. The Blackiron Canyon below was no longer the same as it had been nine days ago.

The lowlands to the west, which were once covered in mud and broken ditches, have now been leveled, with black water flowing slowly along straight irrigation canals.

Finally, it spread into a vast, desolate wasteland, shrouded in a chilling aura, with a grayish-white mist floating on the water's surface, the mist mixed with tiny metallic reflections.

Castian recognized at a glance that it contained a large amount of Holy Silver slag, making it a puddle fit for low-level Magic Creature to die.

Looking further east, the once rugged and difficult-to-traverse mountain ridges on both sides of the canyon have been carved out into a smooth and long road.

It is three meters wide, with almost no undulations, and even the gravel has been cleared away.

Several mobile communication points and horse-changing points were firmly located in blind spots out of the Magic Creature' sight.

The entire inner route follows the contours of the mountain, plunging deep into the canyon.

Castian sat on his horse, silent for a long time.

What lay before him was a fully assembled terrain meat grinder, not the half-finished product he had imagined.

A slight ripple appeared in Castian's eyes, which usually held a calm demeanor.

"Your Excellency." At that moment, a figure covered in mud came running from afar.

Castian looked at the newcomer; it was Wayne, whom he almost didn't recognize at first glance.

A few days ago, I transferred him to help Shien build this project. Wayne was a high-ranking array engineer in the Church, wearing a silver silk robe that was spotless. But now he was covered from head to toe in frozen gray-black mud.

What's even stranger is his eyes. Those eyes, which used to always be critical, are now bloodshot from staying up all night, making his eye sockets look sunken.

But there wasn't a trace of grievance on her face; instead, she was frighteningly bright, as if her whole body had been set on fire.

Castian stared at him and asked, "Where is Shien?"

Wayne swallowed hard, a slight gasp escaping his throat, his voice trembling with excitement.

"Lord Shien is at node three ahead, verifying the last batch of Rune explosive devices."

Your Excellency, you've arrived at the perfect time. The Rune on all the mountain pillars in the canyon have now been completely closed.

Wayne took a breath, his eyes practically blazing with fervor. "In half an hour, Blackiron Canyon will be fully detonated and opened."

"Half an hour?" Castian's brows furrowed sharply.

He knew the specific plan and that once the Blackiron Canyon was detonated, the entire project would be nearly complete.

How could it be so fast?

He believed that Shien was able to complete the drawings he had made.

But he just couldn't understand how this child could have driven thousands of Convicts and laborers to complete such a great project in just nine days.

"In just nine days—" he began slowly, his voice deep and strained, "In the nine days I was gone, what methods did he use to mold this lump of mud into this fortress?"

"Come with me." Wayne didn't answer immediately, but turned around abruptly and walked away quickly.

Reaching a dam, Wayne raised his hand and slapped the gray-black dam heavily.

"Your Excellency, look at this."

The surface of the dam is extremely rough, lacking both the solid Granite commonly used in the Church Workshop and the smooth, cold sheen of Mithril casting.

It looks more like a large lump of plaster that has been forcibly plastered together, with gravel, slag and broken metal mixed in, and its appearance is even ugly.

Wayne, however, slapped the paper hard, his eyes shining.

"The lord didn't ask me for a single ounce of high-grade Holy Silver. He just burned limestone, ground it into powder, mixed it with volcanic ash, crushed iron slag, added water, and repeatedly pounded it."

At first I thought this thing wouldn't last more than a few days, but it turned out to be incredibly sturdy; even when the water pressure came up, it didn't crack.

Castian looked down at the dam without saying a word.

Wayne, standing behind him, got up again and pulled out a stack of damp, wrinkled toilet paper from his pocket.

The corners of the paper were covered in mud and fingerprints, and the edges were worn, but the lines on it were dense, almost filling the entire sheet.

He unfolded the scrap paper and pointed to the top of his head.

Above the canyon, a suspension bridge spans two rock walls.

The bridge is not wide, and there are no heavy stone arches underneath, nor Rune Array.

Supporting the entire bridge are layers of interlocking iron bars and wooden beams.

Those scrap iron bars that should have been thrown into the scrap heap have now been cut to roughly the same length and nailed together to form countless intricate triangular frames, which hold the entire bridge up.

"This was drawn by the lord himself. I have studied bridge arrays for thirty years. The academy and the Church taught us to pile up stones, carve magic arrays, and then bear the weight."

But the lord didn't inscribe any magic array; he just told me to nail the iron bars together like this, making them into a series of triangular skeletons.

The force exerted on the bridge deck is distributed along the framework to the rock walls on both sides, saving a large portion of the material while increasing the load-bearing capacity.

He paused for a moment, then his eyes shone even brighter.

"I've seen the most outstanding geniuses in the academy, but I've never seen anyone do this. Without Mithril or any additional magic arrays, it's all done through the structure itself."

When I first stood on it, my legs went weak, but it really held up; it was incredibly stable.

Wayne stopped and turned to look at Castian, his eyes now devoid of any arrogance, filled only with respect.

Castian glanced at him, raised his hand and gestured for him to slow down.

Wayne swallowed hard, but his voice was still strained.

"Even the most famous architects, given the same amount of scrap materials and nine days, might not be able to complete this, but Lord, you did it."

Castian listened, though he didn't understand the specific details. But judging from the way Wayne spoke, he could tell it was remarkable.

This high-ranking array engineer from the Church was always arrogant, and he always looked down on everyone.

Getting him to bow his head and acknowledge someone is difficult enough, but getting him to use such a fervent tone to address you as "Lord" is almost impossible.

But now Wayne was covered in mud, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a laborer who had just crawled out of a mine. Yet, his fervor was uncontrollable; he had been thoroughly impressed by someone's skill.

Castian slowly exhaled a breath of white air and looked again at the interconnected fortifications deep in the canyon.

This boy still gave him that same feeling, like a mineral vein whose corner had just been excavated.

You think you've found the most valuable thing, but if you dig deeper, there's more down there.

Castian looked around for a while longer before speaking calmly, "Let's go take a look."

The two continued walking, surrounded by groups of Convicts and laborers, but there was no noise.

Some people grabbed hammers, some pushed carts, some carried wooden molds, and some poured mortar into the ditch.

Each team does only one thing; as soon as one team leaves, the next team immediately takes over, with extremely fast transitions.

Castian stood on high, looking down at the clearly defined layers of processes below, his expression complex.

These three thousand-plus people, taken individually, are not particularly outstanding. Under normal circumstances, even asking them to repair a low wall would take a long time.

But Shien didn't let them learn the whole thing; he broke it all down into smaller parts.

Team One only smashes stones, Team Two only pushes carts, Team Three only mixes mortar, Team Four only pours molds, and Team Five specializes in leveling.

You don't need to understand the whole picture; you just need to master your own part.

Castian watched the endless stream of people below, his heart sinking slightly.

Shien's true brilliance probably lies not in his blueprints, but in his ability to transform this disorganized mess into a streamlined production Assembly Line.

Of course, the bishop did not know that the most important person who truly transformed Blackiron Canyon from a pile of mud into a machine during those nine days was Shien, who possessed the Canon of Grace and Righteousness.

This Sacred Canon not only reveals loyalty, but also the abilities within a person.

Shien can tell at a glance who knows surveying, who can calculate materials, who has a steady hand, who has a sharp eye, and who is only suitable for grabbing hammers and moving trucks.

The array engineering in Wayne's mind, the experience of the old craftsmen, and the fragmented skills of the Auxiliary Soldier and Convicts in masonry, trenching, rope pulling, and pile driving were all crystal clear to him.

Moreover, he can immediately replicate and study any key and useful skills.

He grasped the essence of many things that would normally require years of apprenticeship to slowly hone, directly through the Sacred Canon.

He even used the engineering array ability that Wayne possessed.

Moreover, Shien already possessed a different set of knowledge that this world had never seen before, which was then transferred to him through the conversion of the Sacred Canon.

How is the foundation layered? How are the materials for the dam prepared? How is the force distributed to the two rock walls of the bridge? How are the processes broken down? How do people take turns like gears?

These things, which were almost miracles in Wayne's eyes, were just common sense from his previous life on Earth to Shien.

Needless to say, he also had Alchemical Construct Master like Victor to design the structure for him.

Yarrow's intuition for Construct, which allows him to see through the Magic Power blockages in materials with the naked eye, has saved him from countless detours.

Shien had to do was connect these people and their skills layer by layer, making the entire construction site run at his pace.

Another point is that if Castian hadn't provided a large number of temporary Sacred Flame to suppress the corruption of the Blood Moon Season, those Convicts and laborers would have been corrupted into Ghoul long ago, let alone the high-intensity rush to complete the work.

Meanwhile, the bishop and Holy Knight were out nearby hunting down Magic Creature to ensure their safety. It's estimated that the Convicts like Shien were all dragged out by the Magic Creature.

The selection process of the Sacred Canon, the knowledge from the previous life, the expertise of top talents, the construction window created by the Holy Knight and the Sacred Flame, plus Shien's almost ruthless coordination ability.

Without any one of these pieces, Blackiron Canyon could not have grown into its current form in just nine days.

Castian and his team continued along the newly opened ridgeline, eventually stopping at Test Station No. 3 in Blackiron Canyon.

This is already at the very beginning of the entire engineering chain.

The rock face beneath their feet was smoothed out, and several thick Black Iron pipes were driven into the ground along the mountainside. Short flags and wooden stakes were planted all around, and when the wind blew, the knots and copper plates would gently clink together.

Further down in the canyon, explosive Rune stretched into the distance along the cracks in the rock strata, their dark red light flickering on and off.

Shien stood on the edge of the high ground, his face pale and bloodless, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion.

But his shoulders and back were straight, his gaze fixed on the network of Rune below.

The underlying structure of these explosive patterns was designed by Yarrow and Victor together.

The former, with his eyes that could see through the blockages in the materials, identified which veins could be blasted, which rock layers would collapse, where to leave the land, and where to break it.

The latter, drawing on the experience of a Construct, expanded the entire system into a functional skeleton.

The final layer of explosive Rune, responsible for ignition and closure, was created by Wayne himself, squatting in the mud and mixing them one by one.

When Castian approached, Shien merely turned his head and gave a very slight nod as a greeting, after which his self-glow returned to normal.

"Loop closed, complete," the Alchemist at the bottom reported loudly. "Node three is stable, backpressure at nodes two and five is normal, and the Rune devices can operate in tandem."

Shien stared at the slowly flowing dark red patterns below, making one last confirmation. "Calibration complete, detonate."

The next instant, the entire Blackiron Canyon seemed to take a breath from the depths of the earth.

"BOOM-!!!"

The Sourceblood was used as fuel to detonate, and the first muffled thunderclap exploded from the depths of the earth, followed by the second, third, and fourth.

The explosion traveled forward along the pre-calculated stress point.

Tens of thousands of tons of rocks slid, compressed, displaced, and collapsed at the angles predetermined by Shien.

The valley, which was originally wide enough for the Beast Tide to pour in directly, was twisted into a narrow passage in the blink of an eye.

The lowlands on the west side were completely flooded by the black water, while the new cliff mouth on the east side formed a series of natural intersecting angles after the collapse.

The fortifications, Dark Bunker, Caltrops, and heavy crossbow positions that were originally scattered on both sides were connected into one after this round of landform reshaping, like iron teeth buried in the earth, tightly blocking the throat of the entire canyon.

Dust billowed into the sky, and the wind swept up gravel and Ashen across the highlands, slapping against the armor and stone railings.

Shien remained standing there, a hint of excitement on his face.

Castian gazed at the boy's profile for a long time, his eyes fixed on him. "This child will one day be a pillar of the Eternal Night Wall."