Unease, Reinforcing the Village Defenses
The fully armed Dao soldiers were responsible for the village's daily patrols and defense.
Name: Li Er Race: Human Affiliation: Dao soldier of Xuanwei Monastery's Demon Subduing Hall Class: Dao soldier Level: 4 Strength: 15 Agility: 13 Constitution: 14 Spirit: 11 Intelligence: 8 Charisma: 10 Health: 186/186 Mana: 127/127 Damage: [Physical] 3-17 Defense: [Physical] 10-14 [Spell] 9-12 Skills: Basic Halberd Technique · White (advanced), Spirit Eye Technique · Cyan (advanced), Talisman Use · Cyan (advanced), Demon-Expelling Evil-Breaking Military Formation · Cyan (advanced), Soul-Slaying Technique · Blue (intermediate), Pacing the Dipper · Blue (intermediate), Mystic Art God-Descending Technique (basics) · Gold (intermediate) Equipment: Sha-Breaking Iron Halberd, Talisman Waist Pouch, Demon-Subduing Cloak Equipment: Talisman Bright Light Armor, Demon-Subduing Sword, Sha-Breaking Boots, Soul-Slaying Halberd, Talisman Paper Bag Assessment: A demon-subduing soldier tempered by countless battles, skilled with the Soul-Slaying Halberd and versed in the transformations of talismans. His killing aura was forged in the killing formations of the netherworld, and his eyes flashed like lightning, able to discern the forms of demons and monsters.
Their full sets of cyan common-grade magic tools, including armor, weapons, and even consumables such as arrows and talismans, were all cyan-glowing magic tools.
Mysterious runes flowed faintly across their dimly glowing armor and blades, revealing how extraordinary the equipment was.
Compared with the somewhat shabby outer disciples, these Dao soldiers were Xuanwei Monastery's own beloved sons!
Of course, Lin Xu saw things differently.
To the monastery, Dao soldiers were military units, pure and simple consumables. They were the foundation on which the monastery maintained its rule, so naturally it had to invest vast resources in them.
Disciples, on the other hand, produced resources. Even outer disciples could increase the monastery's income by completing missions.
Moreover, cultivators had greater room for growth. Letting disciples grow through trials was more beneficial to their future development.
The NPC humans might not have understood these profound principles, but they had instinctively made the most suitable arrangements.
In any case, once the Dao soldiers were deployed, Lin Xu immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Now, even if the dungeon made a move, Peach Tree Village would not be completely unable to fight back.
The sharp increase in Peach Tree Village's population immediately accelerated Lin Xu's plans for building up the village.
After building twenty new houses to settle the additional militia and cultivators, he began directing the villagers to reinforce the village defenses, gradually replacing the existing wooden palisade with an earthen wall.
"Rise!" Lin Xu's spiritual thoughts surged like a tide, and earth and stone churned as a wisp of Earth Vein power was drawn up through the surface.
Under the infusion of spiritual power, a section of the wooden palisade around the village, a little over ten feet long, rapidly fused with earth and stone, turning into a thick, high wall of rammed earth. It joined the neighboring sections, enclosing all of Peach Tree Village.
"Transform!" A faint yellow glow appeared on the surface of the earthen wall, and runes swam across it like living things.
In the space of a breath, the rammed-earth wall rapidly compacted and hardened, forming rough sandstone.
The Illusory Rock Form-Refining Spell could manipulate the form of earth and stone. At higher levels, it could transform ordinary soil, sand, and gravel into a rocklike material, greatly enhancing their defensive properties.
Lin Xu let out a long breath and exited the state of Thought Overclocking. His spiritual thoughts receded like the tide, and weariness washed over him.
The Bright Light Lamp in his hand gave off a soft glow, illuminating his slightly weary face.
The threat of the dungeon hung over his head like a sword, keeping his nerves taut and leaving him afraid to relax in the slightest.
The resources sent by the monastery had arrived just in time. He had already sensed that the village's defenses were weak and had gathered the villagers to rush the construction of defensive works.
But limited by resources and technique, progress had been slow and the results limited.
Of the support the monastery had sent this time, Lin Xu valued the cultivation pills and the many kinds of spells most. The Illusory Rock Form-Refining Spell, for example, was key to greatly improving the village's defenses.
He calmed his turbulent sea of consciousness. The flame in the Bright Light Lamp in his hand flickered, turning a large amount of lamp oil into mana and replenishing what Lin Xu had expended as it danced.
After a dozen or so breaths, Lin Xu's breathing gradually steadied, the turbulence in his sea of consciousness was completely calmed, and his spent mana was fully restored.
He looked toward the darkening sky beyond the village. The villagers who had gone out to work had already returned under the militia's protection, and the once crude settlement had taken shape as a village of some size after several consecutive days of reconstruction.
"A week has passed, and there's still no movement from the dungeon..." Lin Xu stood atop a newly built stone watchtower and gazed into the distance, his brows slightly furrowed.
Only after joining an NPC faction in the Spirit Realm did Lin Xu realize what was at stake.
The most reassuring aspect was the matter of authority. Humans born in the Spirit Realm had only instincts and simple behavioral logic; complex power struggles involving things like holding others back, internal strife, and fighting for power and profit simply did not exist.
For instance, he had been ordered to guard Peach Tree Village and had no need to watch out for colleagues hindering him. He could even allocate the personnel and resources the monastery sent as support entirely at his own discretion, without anyone questioning him.
But the shortcomings were just as obvious. With so many NPCs lacking initiative and doing nothing but mechanically carrying out orders, all the planning and coordination fell on him alone.
That was one thing, but the crucial problem was that the monastery's upper ranks also lacked an awareness of the need to communicate intelligence. Peach Tree Village was a frontline outpost facing the dungeon directly, yet it had received no reports whatsoever on the enemy's movements.
Thus, Lin Xu had no idea what Xuanwei Monastery was currently doing or what exactly was happening over at the dungeon.
He could only estimate the situation at the front by watching the monastery disciples and Dao soldiers who occasionally passed through the wilderness outside the village, as well as the resources being sent to the front.
"Yesterday, a squad of Dao soldiers escorted three wagons past the village. The wagons were loaded with wounded; they should have been survivors of a battle between Xuanwei Monastery and the dungeon's forces.
"The two sides must have started fighting, but I don't know how the battle is going, how many casualties there are, or whether Xuanwei Monastery has the upper hand or is retreating in defeat."
He frowned in thought, a faint sense of unease rising in his heart.
Soul-refining cultivators possessed extraordinary perception and could sense lurking danger through unseen means. The unease weighed on Lin Xu's heart. Clearly, danger was quietly closing in, and he did not have much time left to prepare.
He descended the watchtower and returned to his dwelling.
After a week of construction, Peach Tree Village's defensive system had begun to take shape, with stone walls, watchtowers, and a belt of traps gradually taking form.
The Dao soldiers' and Daoists' garrison positions and patrol routes had also been planned. Working in coordination with the militia, they formed an inner and outer defensive network.
The nighttime defenses did not require Lin Xu to handle them personally, so he devoted his attention to cultivation.
Sitting cross-legged in the quiet room, Lin Xu took out the bottle of Azure Pattern Pills bestowed by the monastery and poured out a dark red pill. Its medicinal fragrance filled his nostrils.
He swallowed the pill, and its medicinal power spread through him. The boundaries of his sea of consciousness slowly expanded by candlelight.
Four hours later, the pill had been completely absorbed, and his spiritual awareness had extended half a kilometer beyond the village.
His spiritual awareness spread silently over the night like a net, taking in every gust of wind and stirring blade of grass around the village.
The Azure Pattern Pill was specially made by the monastery to help cultivators expand their spiritual sense. Though it was not top-grade, its strength lay in its gentle, lasting effects.