Chapter 359: Reconstructing the Residence of Yun
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Sensing the unusual sense of tension in the atmosphere, especially in Yun Yang's abnormally ugly expression, Qiu Yunsan was struck by a bolt of sudden wisdom. He remarked inanely, "Actually, it was Dong Tianleng who had forgotten his belongings and had left it here. We are here to accompany him to retrieve them. He was too embarrassed to admit it, that is why he is taking boss as an excuse to return... "
Chun Wanfeng and Xia Bingchuan were nodding like chickens pecking at grains of rice, "Yes, right, right, right. That is truly the case! Dong Tianleng is full of lies. Boss, you have to punish him!"
Dong Tianleng felt extremely vexed at the unjust accusation, yet he had no choice but to give in and mumbled reluctantly, "Yes, yes, yes, I was embarrassed to admit that I was so forgetful that we all had to come back here..."
"Hmph!" Yun Yang grunted. His face remained stern, but his heart was, in fact, filled with warmth. It was an emotion that he had not experienced for a very long time.
Today, there was Dong Tianleng and the other three who had risked their lives to come back. There were the two elders, Marshal Qiu and Marshal Leng, who did not hesitate to go against the Four Seasons Tower, at their own peril. For that, Yun Yang was extremely glad. Although he was openly complaining, his heart was truly touched and he felt extremely fortunate. Not only was he lucky enough to have so many great friends, proving the fact that he was successful as a person, he was also grateful that he was lucky enough to turn the tide of the battle with just a few tiny, white paws. It seemed to be a storybook tale, seeing as to how lucky he was. The chances of such an occurrence were so rare, it was near impossible!
"Since you fellows are back, it just so happens that there are some other troublesome matters to take care of here. Not only to repair the entire house, there are other concerns as well. You fellows might as well just stay and help with it."
Yun Yang rolled his eyes, "There is free labor. It will be a waste to not utilize it."
"Great great, am willing to die for boss." The four noble young masters were all delighted at the prospect of lingering.
Everyone looked at each other, and could no longer hold it in, and burst out into laughter. The hilarity was viral and resounding. Their hearts were wholly relaxed. All of them felt that their brotherhood had ascended to a new stage, a true closeness of the mind, without any barriers in between.
"Now that the situation has changed, what are we going to do with the rest?" asked Chun Wanfeng in a low tone.
Qiu Yunsan replied, "For those who cannot bear the troubles with you, do you still want to keep them? Pass on my orders, send the mystical beasts back, and dismiss the others on the spot. Let them walk their own paths that they so choose."
Dong Tianleng beamed brightly, "I was thinking of that as well, how can one keep this kind of people? If one were to hold on to them, it would then be deemed as a woman's benevolence and indecisiveness, wouldn’t it?"
"It is decided then. Send the message back immediately." Xia Bingchuan was similarly determined.
"After the challenges of these battles, what is left is gold!" Qiu Yunsan uttered, "I have no objection. I don't wish to take another glance at them."
"Where will we stay, though? There are only one or two rooms that we could possibly stay in within the Residence of Yun. It wouldn't be possible for so many of us to bunk in there." Bai Yixue scratched his head.
"How can these dangerous rooms be used at all? I have gotten rich today, everyone will stay at the inn! " Yun Yang waved his hand benevolently and cried out, "The best room for each and every person! I will pay!"
...
Money did wonders and even in the vast majority of cases, money was everything! There was no need for Yun Yang to even appear personally. Lao Mei took the banknotes out and within a quarter of an hour, he had managed to find the artisans. Under the snowy weather, Lao Mei had managed to find ten teams of workers to work around the clock to reconstruct the Residence of Yun!
The corresponding wages were overpriced by at least three times the usual going rate.
Anyway, what was being spent was the money that had been extorted by the very people who caused the damage in the first place. Lao Mei spent it without any guilt or remorse.
Originally, the heavy winter period was a time of rest for these artisans; all of them were basically unencumbered. Now that they could earn a lot of money, a flock of smiths could be seen enthusiastically strolling in, one after another. If not for the fact that the number of people hired by Lao Mei was sufficiently large, and he did not refuse any person who came for the job, the frenzy in which they tried to vie for a spot would have led to a fight!
However, there were certain things that even money had difficulty solving. For example, it was impossible to mix the mud in the snow, particularly in such a heavy winter, which extraordinarily cold and chilly. Even if they were to forcefully mix it, it could not be put to use.
"Use stones instead," Yun Yang was adamant on this, "We might as well build the entire Residence of Yun using white mystical rock! We will use the white mystical rock everywhere to ensure consistency, and that everything is neat and uniform - even for the lavatories!"
White mystical rock was the lowest of mystical stones and not much mystical Qi could be absorbed by them, but if it were to be used as building material, it would be the most advanced building material within the Tianxuan Continent. Each and every piece of it was square and equilateral, well-equipped with insulation capabilities, keeping one warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
After the house that was built with this kind of material was ready, due to the similarity of the materials’ nature and the weight pressure from the top, the whole white mystical rock would merge together with absolutely no gap in between them at all!
What was more important was the fact that the white mystical rock would, to a certain degree, have an effect of advancing the cultivation base of the practitioners.
Therefore, the price of this material had always been as high as the sky. There were only a few people who would even think of using it to build their entire residence!
Even in the palace, white mystical rock buildings could only be found in a handful of courtyards, at best. Even so, it could be deemed as an extravagant luxury!
At this moment, at the behest of Yun Yang, the required reconstruction fee for the entire Residence of Yun would undoubtedly soar to an astronomical figure!
The estimation of the construction fee had caused Lao Mei to leap to his feet, feeling slightly dazed.
"Young master, the initial estimates indicate that we need at least eighty million silver taels!" Lao Mei's face had turned a sickly green. This was because the eighty million silver taels only covered the materials, whereas all the other manpower, as well as other miscellaneous fees, had yet to be accounted for. Only a single material fee for the white mystical rock had already cost so much. The whole project was likely to cost over a hundred million silver taels!
This number would have emptied the Yutang Empire’s treasury in its entirety!
"Only that much?" Yun Yang raised his eyebrows, "Then let's have it all changed to double-layered white mystical rocks! The underground chambers, do not forget, they must be strengthened as well. All the foundations are to be in white mystical rock too!"
Lao Mei stretched his neck and his eyes grew large. With such a method of construction, he was afraid that even two hundred million silver taels were insufficient.
"Yes, remember to use silver mystical rock for the roof." Yun Yang’s decadence was alarming, "Use snow mountain sandalwood for the beams of the room. As for windows, use white crystals so as to ensure the best lighting!"
Lao Mei was completely speechless.
If one were to calculate the cost for the reconstruction of the Residence of Yun, the most conservative estimation would place it at three hundred million silver taels.
"By the way, tell those workers that if they are able to rebuild the Residence of Yun within half a month, their salaries will be double that of their tripled wages now!"
Yun Yang was determined to reconstruct the Residence of Yun into becoming the most luxurious palace within the whole of the Tianxuan Continent!
This was because he had realized that he was in need of a base, especially after the battle today where he had managed to remove himself from the Four Seasons Tower's crosshairs successfully.
He intended to turn the Residence of Yun into a blind spot.
Yun Yang had decided to solidify the construction here... He also wished to scale up the underground structures, enclosing the few other neighboring ones, turning the underground tunnels into a spider's web, extending in all directions.
Everyone would be staying at their respective houses where they belonged. However, to connect them underground and making it interlinked was undoubtedly making it more convenient for Yun Yang to contact his own subordinates, allowing them to act in secrecy.
Anyway, once the Residence of Yun had been the totally destroyed, the Four Seasons Tower were made aware of the underground networks of the Residence of Yun. There was absolutely nothing special within. After they had been given the impression that nothing sinister lay below the ground, Yun Yang would then completely transform the entire tunnel system in secrecy.
Lao Mei, who was truly dumbstruck by the astronomical figure to the extent of leaving his mouth crooked, had gone off to execute the construction order. Yun Yang, on the other hand, brought the people along to book the entire Heaven to Tower Inn. Only the large and luxurious Heaven to Tower Inn could have had such a number of opulent rooms.
After that, Yun Yang himself went to the residence of Qiu Jianhan. He would, after all, have to explain it in detail to the old man. Otherwise, once the old marshal Qiu got petty, he would have no choice but to bear the aftermath of his own laziness.
This was one of the three great rogues of the capital, how could I pull a fast one on him?
Someone then came out, bearing the effects of a lecture from old Qiu. While he gritted his teeth, he had remembered only a single phrase in his heart; Dongxuan was going to deploy its troops again.
The imperial defense of the east would have to face a strenuous challenge once more.
The main reason the Empire of Dongxuan would opt for such an expedition in extremely cold and freezing weather was that the faction of Han Sanhe was currently at a disadvantage; Numerous officials were impeaching Han Sanhe with countless reasons and excuses.
Furthermore, the planned attack was extremely sudden this time around, without any warning signs. Han Sanhe would have no defense for that at all. Many of his former allies had even jumped in to accuse him ruthlessly at this critical juncture. He practically had the entire imperial court as his enemy. How was he going to explain this away?
Even with such a shrewd and ruthless character, Han Sanhe was nevertheless stuck in a dilemma.
However, it was because of this that Han Sanhe resolutely decided to mobilize a great victory in order to settle the crisis in the imperial court, withholding the waves of protesting voices.
The only object of conquest was the Empire of Yutang!
In this regard, Yun Yang's understanding was clear as a mirror.
An extremely sudden attack that was without warning?
Clearly, you were the one who had instigated the inverse scales of the Four Seasons Tower, a retaliatory strike that you provoked!
Why would you order Bai Yixue to kill He Hanqing without any reason? You deserved it!
Now that they have stood up to attack you, almost all of the action was ordered by the Four Seasons Tower, under the tower's instructions!
However, no matter what, the sudden dispatch of troops by Han Sanhe was not good news for Yutang.
It could be said that it was an extremely unfavorable war!
Recently, there were two famous generals that had been met with accidents. First, it was Yutang’s northern Marshal Yang Botao who had suffered from a public trial, where his fame perished and fell into tatters. After that, it was the successor, Fu Baoguo, who had been chosen by the old Grand Commandant, Fang Qingtian who had met with an accident, causing an unprecedented turmoil in the military forces of Yutang. Despite the fact that Tie Zheng had continued to hold the post of northern troop marshal, it was a fact that Fu Baoguo had stepped forward into the battlefield and stationed himself at the eastern boundary to keep an eye against attacks by Dongxuan at any time. There was also the fact that even though the crisis had slowly retreated, the risk was still difficult to mitigate in entirety.
How could Yun Yang not worry?
Just as Yun Yang was thinking about how to deal with this matter, he accidentally heard of the self-mumbling of the old marshal; the mainland's most insane assassin had finally been caught in Ziyou.
Yun Yang initially did not pay much heed to the old man's mumblings. Nevertheless, he ears perked up and he then curiously asked, "The most insane assassin?"
Qiu Jianhan snorted, glancing at him obliquely and uttered, "This thing has nothing to do with you. Concentrate on repairing your Residence of Yun lest your father beats you when he returns!"
However, after pondering for a moment he then explained himself, "For the past year, a mysterious assassin had appeared in the continent and had specifically targeted the high-positioned officials of the four major countries. Yutang was the sole exception, and no officials were harmed at all."
"Throughout the whole year, the senior officials and military commanders who had died in the hands of this assassin numbered as many as seventy and was nearly reaching eighty! During this period, the assassin had, on several occasions, landed in a desperate situation, yet due to his tyrannical cultivation base, he could always break a siege and survive any deadly attempt to stop him."
"Unfortunately, the fish which nibbles at every bait will be caught. During the previous assassination of the Empire of Ziyou’s military troops’ marshal, Zi Yuanlong, he was captured on the spot!"
Qiu Jianhan ended with a sad tone, "This assassin has only targeted the officials of the four countries. Nine out of ten says he is a loyal man of Yutang... having to die in such a manner is truly regrettable!"