He discovered that Zhan Junru had not gone to bed yet. A candle was still burning in her partitioned cubicle.
Yet when Tang Wen came in, she actually did not come out to greet him.
Tang Wen found that rather strange. In the past, she would have come out the moment she heard a sound.
So he walked over and pushed open the door in the screen, only to freeze in surprise.
Holy shit, did I walk through the wrong door??
How did a beauty appear out of thin air? Had she transmigrated here?
The woman had a face like a hibiscus blossom and brows like willow leaves. Her skin was fair, soft, and dewy, as though a pinch could squeeze water from it.
Her head was tilted, her whole face resting on her arm as she slept soundly, angled toward the door in the screen.
On closer inspection, the shape of her face resembled Zhan Junru's.
Wasn't Zhan Junru a little dark-skinned and utterly ordinary-looking?
"Master... I... I... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I deserve to die for falling asleep." Puzzled, Tang Wen had reached out and lightly touched her face.
Zhan Junru woke with a start and sprang to her feet, her face flushing crimson like a ripe peach.
"Why do you look different from yesterday? Is this some kind of disappearing-person trick?" Tang Wen asked.
"Please forgive me, Master. It's all my fault." Zhan Junru dropped to her knees in fright.
"Did you put something on your face?" Tang Wen asked as realization dawned.
"Yes. The world is so chaotic that I had no choice.
"I ran into plenty of bad people before, and I became frightened.
"So my brother bought some medicine from a martial arts school for me to smear on my face. It cost him over ten taels of silver," Zhan Junru said.
"A disguise technique?" Tang Wen looked astonished.
"The people at the martial arts school said it could change my appearance. I don't know what it was," Zhan Junru said.
"Then how did you change back?" Tang Wen's interest soared. The legendary art of disguise! I actually got to see it today.
"With medicine from the martial arts school too. After boiling it, I used it to wash my face. A few washes restored my original appearance," Zhan Junru replied.
"Your chest is so full. Were you binding it with cloth?" Tang Wen looked at her high, firm breasts.
On top of that, she was wearing pink nightclothes, and the buttons at the top had not been fastened properly.
They exposed a bright red bellyband underneath. Having been married before, she positively radiated mature feminine charm, and a certain someone could not help swallowing.
"I... I had no choice. Someone once said my breasts..." Zhan Junru blushed all the way to her neck and lowered her head. That temptation could absolutely kill without paying for the crime.
"Were 'big,' right?" Tang Wen asked.
"Oh, stop it, Master. You're talking nonsense." Zhan Junru twisted bashfully and protested in a coy voice, sending Boss Tang's blood pressure soaring.
Good lord, keep this up and I'll have to take you tonight.
"Oh, it's fine, it's fine. This is good too.
"Don't disguise yourself anymore. No one here will dare bully you.
"But do fasten your buttons properly, so outsiders don't see anything."
Tang Wen hurried out of the tent to breathe some cold air. Otherwise, his blood pressure would never come down.
"Ah... I..." Zhan Junru's shriek came from behind him.
Keep your voice down, sister. You'll bring the wolves... A certain someone chuckled dryly to himself.
Another three days passed. The wire fencing was finished, and the watchtowers had been erected.
The camp had finally begun to take shape, with forty tents inside and an area of thirty to forty thousand square meters.
Tang Wen then directed people to hang signs on the tents: dining hall, kitchen, clothing workshop, warehouse, farming tools, women's quarters, men's and women's latrines, bathing rooms...
Arrangements for feeding, housing, and handling the bodily needs of these hundred-odd people had finally begun to take shape.
Naturally, Tang Wen occupied two tents all by himself.
One was reserved for receiving guests, office work, and meetings. It had also been furnished with a conference table, a desk, sofas, a tea table, and other things.
The other was his private bedroom, where he and Zhan Junru lived.
Starting on the fourth day, more people came for porridge, and another dozen or so sold themselves to the Tang household.
Ten days later, the temporary workers who had originally been waiting and watching finally succumbed to temptation and gave themselves over to the Tang household.
After all, their food, lodging, clothing, and daily necessities were nowhere near the same level as those of the Tang household's servants.
Especially once the clothing workshop produced new clothes, the Tang household's servants looked completely transformed, each brimming with vigor.
Looking back at their own group, everyone was dressed in rags like beggars.
They never had enough food or warm clothing, and slept outside in thatched huts that let in rain and wind. When a typhoon came, even the roofs disappeared.
How could those compare to the comfort of the tents? Under those circumstances, how many could resist?
Ding-dong! You have accumulated 100 points of popularity and can initiate your fourth spacetime traversal!
Tang Wen had long been waiting for that sound. It had arrived a full half month late-love that came too late.
At once, over a hundred streams of popularity swarmed into him.
Even the Six Profound Return-to-Truth Art seemed difficult to circulate, and the pain in his body was far more intense than before.
It seemed it was time to bring back some higher-tier cultivation arts.
Otherwise, when even more popularity arrived next time, he would burst to death.
After all, the Six Profound Return-to-Truth Art was only a middle-grade human-tier cultivation art. Its absorption capacity naturally could not compare with an earth-tier art.
However, earth-tier cultivation arts were too expensive. He had heard that even a low-grade earth-tier art cost several hundred taels of silver.
Of course, ordinary people in the Chu Kingdom could not afford that, but the current Tang Wen could still pay for it.
He looked into the space and discovered that the figures on the large screen had changed again.
Popularity index: 258. Land area: 2,338 qing. Wealth index: 4,000 taels of gold. Martial cultivation realm: ninth rank, perfection. Luggage capacity: 400 tons. Traversal duration: twenty days.
His cultivation had risen another small level. After a few more traversals like this, he would become an expert.
Popularity really was a wonderful thing.
Tang Wen also discovered that his eyesight seemed to have improved, allowing him to see a little farther and more clearly.
With his improved cultivation, his strength had risen to four hundred jin. He might not be able to beat Tyson, but surely he could trade a few punches with him now?
He had originally intended to wait until the map of Su Mei Island was completed before traversing again, but surveying and mapping were no simple tasks.
They required not only aerial remote sensing by drone, but also people on the ground using tools to survey and verify the data. The work could not be completed without several months.
Zhan Dongwen and the others knew nothing about any of this, and he did not know much himself.
They still needed study and training, so this plan could only be postponed.
Tang Wen returned to Yunhai City with 3,000 taels of gold.
He exchanged it for thirty-six million and spent twenty million buying back a hundred thousand taels of silver ingots.
After repaying the Luo Family several million, he had over thirteen million left and ordered another batch of blades from Song Qingyang.
Long and short bows and crossbows, as well as shields, bulletproof vests, radios, medicine, simple medical equipment, cloth...
This time, however, his luggage capacity had soared to four hundred tons.
Thus, most of the supplies Tang Wen purchased were cement and reinforcing steel.
But because the stone crusher and sand-making machine were too heavy to move easily by manpower, he also had to buy two loaders.
The Great Eastern Republic, however, strictly regulated flammable and explosive materials such as gunpowder and detonators.
Thus, even through Song Qingyang's and Zhang Zhongjing's friends, he only managed to obtain fifty jin of gunpowder to bring back for blasting into the mountain and quarrying stone.
Although the Great Chu Kingdom also produced gunpowder, its production methods were too crude and raw materials were hard to find, making it expensive.
Moreover, its gunpowder was of poor quality and naturally much less powerful.
Ding-dong! Your fifth traversal requires you to accumulate 150 points of popularity.
Damn it, this was getting harder and harder.
After arriving, Tang Wen immediately summoned Zhan Dongwen, Zhao Du, and Li Quan for a meeting.
"Zhao Du, from now on, you're the Tang household's chief guard, responsible for security. After the meeting, immediately select thirty people and intensify their training with blades, swords, bows, and crossbows.
"Also, I'll arrange for Li Quan to go to Yanling Commandery and buy a batch of Marrow-Washing Pills and Foundation-Nourishing Pills, along with cultivation arts and martial techniques.
"I hope you can lead them all onto the martial path and strengthen our Tang household.
"Zhan Dongwen, you're responsible for the Tang household's construction. Your most important task right now is building the dam.
"Don't do things haphazardly. You must strictly oversee construction according to the drawings I give you.
"Pipes also need to be laid inside it. Bu Feng, choose a few people to gather intelligence..."
Tang Wen had already asked the design institute to prepare the dam plans during his previous trip, so after the meeting, he privately instructed Zhan Dongwen on building according to the drawings.
How to lay the pipes and how to pour the cement.
That included driving piles, tying reinforcing steel, filling the gaps between stones with cement, erecting formwork for concrete, and so on.
Of course, although this dam was over twenty meters tall, the project was not particularly difficult.
That was because the dam's site had solid bedrock as its foundation, with a small hill blocking the front as well.
As long as the dam did not leak, reinforced concrete and dressed stone should keep it from being in danger of bursting.
Of course, compared with the original embankment, Tang Wen had increased its sturdiness and resistance to attack. At the very least, it had to withstand bombardment from the Great Chu Kingdom's crude black-clad cannons.
This was not particularly difficult either. A dam like the Three Gorges Dam could not be shaken even by missiles.
The Great Chu Kingdom's black-clad cannons were not very powerful. They certainly could not blast through several meters of reinforced concrete.
Before you continue