Achoo!
Achoo!
Achoo!
Three loud sneezes echoed across the central dirt square of Dry-Well Village right as the sun dipped behind the red sand dunes. Within seconds, a whole chorus of coughs, sniffles, and chattering teeth followed from every corner of the cramped settlement.
Pei Xuan stood on the flat mud roof of his small lord's hut, wrapping a sheepskin cloak tighter around his shoulders. The desert was a strange and cruel place. At noon, the sun baked the sand so hot you could fry an egg on a flat rock. Yet the moment the sun went down, a biting black wind rolled off the dunes and turned the air freezing cold.
Down in the square, nearly six hundred people were packed shoulder to shoulder around ten bonfires.
Just this afternoon, Pei Xuan had returned from wiping out the Sand-Jackal Gang's oasis camp. He had brought back one thousand silver taels, a mountain of grain and dried meat, one hundred captured horse bandits led by Scarface Wolf, and two hundred half-starved refugees who had been locked in the bandit cages.
Winning the battle had felt great. Figuring out where to put everyone to sleep did not.
"Young Master! Look out!"
Pei Xuan stepped back just as a dried mud wall on the east side of the square groaned, cracked, and fell outward with a loud thud. Dust puffed into the cold night air. Beneath the collapsed wall, four burly men in yellow cloth vests scrambled out on their hands and knees, spitting gray dirt out of their mouths.
One of them had a black eyepatch and a shiny bald head. It was One-Eyed Jack, the former third boss of the Sand-Jackal Gang, now Prisoner Number One of Dry-Well Village.
"Who leaned on the wall?!" One-Eyed Jack roared, wiping mud off his nose and glaring at a huge man with a jagged scar across his cheek. "Big Brother! Was that your fat backside?! I told you this mud hut was only big enough for six people! You crammed nineteen of your horse riders inside!"
Scarface Wolf, who had been a feared Rank 2 Bone-Tempering bandit chief just six hours ago, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. A yellow iron collar sat snugly around his thick neck, right next to a matching yellow vest with the word DEBTOR painted on the chest in black ink.
"It is freezing out here, Jack!" Scarface Wolf grumbled, shivering as the night wind blew through his torn shirt. "My boys were turning into ice blocks by the latrine ditch! How was I supposed to know a wall in this village would fall down if I scratched my back against it?"
Before the two bandit brothers could start swinging fists, a fifteen-year-old girl in a green apron marched over holding two heavy iron kitchen cleavers.
Clang!
Hong Ling banged the flat sides of her cleavers together right in front of Scarface Wolf's nose. Even though she only came up to the big bandit's chest, Scarface Wolf flinched and pulled his chin back. Every prisoner in the village knew that Hong Ling kept the silver ledger, and anyone who made her mad got half rations at dinner.
"One collapsed mud wall!" Hong Ling shouted, her big dark eyes narrowing as she pulled a piece of charcoal and a wooden board from her apron pocket. "That hut belonged to Old Man Liu! Seven hundred broken mud clods, three snapped roof poles, and two smashed water jars inside! Prisoner Number Thirty-Two, Scarface Wolf, your personal repair debt just went up by forty silver taels!"
Scarface Wolf's jaw dropped. "Forty silver?! For a pile of dried mud?! Little girl, in the town market, forty silver buys a brick house with a tiled roof!"
"This is not a normal mud hut. This is an official historic building of Dry-Well Village," Hong Ling said without blinking. She tapped the wooden board with her cleaver. "Do you want to argue with the village treasury? Arguing with a tax officer costs five silver per sentence."
Scarface Wolf clamped his mouth shut so fast his teeth clicked. Above his head, a glowing blue box popped up that only Pei Xuan could see.
[ CITIZEN / PRISONER TOOLTIP: SCARFACE WOLF ] * Realm: Rank 2 Mid Martial (Bone-Tempering) * Status: Village Debtor (Fine Remaining: 540 Silver Taels) * Loyalty: 28/100 (Doubtful / Scared of Cleaver Girl) * Thought: "Why did I come here to save my idiot brother? The soup smells good, though... if I behave tomorrow, will the fat cook give me a whole Meat-Potato?"
Pei Xuan chuckled from the roof and opened his full RTS Territory Screen.
==================================================================== [ TERRITORY: DRY-WELL VILLAGE (Level 1 — Mud Settlement) ] Lord: Pei Xuan (Rank 1 Mid Martial) | Safety: C- (Overcrowded!) Map Fog of War: 5 Miles Clear -------------------------------------------------------------------- Population: 585 Total * Original Villagers & Servants: 103 (Loyalty 85–96) * First Wave Refugees: 150 (Loyalty 65–78) * Second Wave Camp Refugees: 200 (Loyalty 45–58 — Cold & Tired!) * Bandit Prisoners (Yellow Vests): 132 (Loyalty 18–52) -------------------------------------------------------------------- [ WARNING: HOUSING CRISIS! ] * Current Housing Capacity: 140 / 585 (35 Broken Mud Huts) * 445 people are sleeping on bare sand! * Effect: Loyalty drops by -5 every night for homeless residents! Work speed -20% tomorrow from cold sickness! -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> DAILY INCOME: +650 LP/day | CURRENT BALANCE: 680 LP ====================================================================
Pei Xuan's smile faded as he read the red warning box.
"Minus five Loyalty a night?" Pei Xuan muttered under his breath.
In his system, sixty Loyalty was the magic line. Anyone under sixty Loyalty gave him zero Loyalty Points at midnight. Right now, the two hundred refugees he had just rescued from the bandit oasis were sitting between forty-five and fifty-eight Loyalty. They were grateful for being saved, and Old Guo's hot Meat-Potato stew had warmed their bellies, but they were still scared, exhausted, and freezing in the wind.
If they slept on the cold sand tonight, half of them would catch desert fever, and their Loyalty would drop instead of crossing sixty at midnight!
Even worse, a Rank 0 mortal civilian only gave one point a day, while a Rank 1 martial artist gave ten points. Several of the rescued refugees were strong hunters and blacksmith apprentices who were close to Rank 1. He could not let a cold wind ruin his midnight point harvest.
Pei Xuan jumped lightly down from the low mud roof, landing on the packed dirt with a soft thud. Since breaking through to Rank 1 Mid Martial, his legs felt full of springy power, and the five-hundred-pound weight of his own body force moved smoothly through his muscles.
"Lord Pei!"
Old Wei walked over right away, his right hand resting on the hilt of his huge Rank 2 Heavy Mountain-Cleaver Saber. His left sleeve hung empty, pinned to his shoulder, and Pei Xuan noticed the old soldier's face looked a little pale in the cold wind. Whenever the night temperature dropped, Old Wei's severed shoulder ached with old battlefield poison.
"Young Master, the women and children are inside the thirty-four remaining huts," Old Wei reported in a low, gravelly voice. "Even packed like salted fish, there is no room left. Three hundred men and all one hundred and thirty-two prisoners are out in the open. I had them dig wind-pits in the sand, but the wind is shifting north. By midnight, frost will form on the dunes."
Beside them, Old Guo wiped his greasy hands on his white apron, looking worried as he stirred a massive iron cauldron of boiling ginger water. "Young Master, ginger soup only warms the belly for an hour. If we had timber, we could build wooden sheds, but there are no trees for twenty miles around Dry-Well Village. And if we mix well water with sand to make mud bricks, they take four days to dry in the sun. If we stack wet mud tonight, it will just slump into soup!"
Pei Xuan looked around the square.
Near the fires, mothers were wrapping their children in torn hemp sacks. Across the ditch, the two hundred new refugees were huddling together behind stacks of bandit saddles to block the wind. Over by the collapsed hut, One-Eyed Jack was yelling at Scarface Wolf's men as they tried to prop up the broken mud clods with sticks, only for the brittle dry mud to crumble into powder in their hands.
"Normal mud takes four days to dry," Pei Xuan said, his eyes glinting as he tapped the glowing [Tech Tree & Fusion Cube] icon in his mind. "Who said we are using normal mud?"
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He looked at his RTS screen. Under the [Sweet-Spring Well (Lv.1)] and [Cactus-Rice Farm] nodes, a third gray icon was flashing: [Basic Housing — Mud-Iron Kiln].
To unlock it directly from the system shop cost five hundred points, and it only made basic sun-dried bricks. That was too slow. If he used the Fusion Cube instead, he could combine real items from the village to create a mutated building at a fraction of the price!
"Old Wei, bring ten prisoners with wheelbarrows to the Sweet-Spring Well," Pei Xuan ordered briskly. "Have them dig up twenty loads of the thick blue clay from the bottom of the well runoff ditch."
"Yes, Young Master!"
"Hong Ling!" Pei Xuan turned to the young maid. "Take twenty refugees to the rocky ridge behind the village. Tell them to smash up two cartloads of that crumbly red desert sandstone. And have the children scrape every bucket of green cool-moss growing around the well stones!"
Hong Ling saluted with her cleavers. "Right away! Anyone who carries three baskets gets an extra salted scorpion at midnight!"
At the mention of salted fried scorpions, fifty refugees and thirty yellow-vested bandits shot to their feet, grabbing baskets and fighting over wheelbarrows. Ever since the prisoners had discovered that Old Guo's deep-fried scorpions tasted like crispy roasted pork skin and made their sore muscles feel stronger, a single scorpion was worth more than copper coins in the village.
Within fifteen minutes, mounds of sticky blue well-mud, crushed red sandstone gravel, and buckets of wet green moss were piled up on the flat open ground east of the village square.
Pei Xuan walked up to the piles and raised his right hand. To the villagers and bandits watching from the fires, it looked like their young lord was checking the quality of the dirt.
In Pei Xuan's vision, the golden three-slot Fusion Cube spun open above the materials.
==================================================================== [ FUSION CUBE — 3-SLOT BUILDING SYNTHESIS ] * Slot 1: [Sweet-Spring Well Blue Clay (x20 Cartloads)] * Slot 2: [Crushed Red Desert Sandstone (x2 Cartloads)] * Slot 3: [Spirit-Water Cool-Moss (x10 Buckets)] -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Estimated Fusion Cost: 200 Loyalty Points (LP) * Success Rate: 100% (All Flaws & Drying Time Removed!) >> FUSE NOW? [YES / NO] ====================================================================
"Fuse," Pei Xuan whispered.
[-200 LP! Current Balance: 480 LP.]
HUMMMMMM!
A deep, heavy vibration shook the ground east of the square. Pei Xuan quickly tossed a handful of dry sand into the air to kick up a thick dust cloud, hiding the golden light of the system from the watching crowd.
Inside the swirling dust, the twenty cartloads of wet mud and sandstone melted together like hot wax. The green moss turned into glowing veins of jade-colored patterns that wove through the stone, while the middle of the pile hollowed out into a roaring dome-shaped furnace with four tall chimneys and an iron conveyor chute on the side.
When the dust settled ten seconds later, the crowd gasped out loud.
Where a pile of wet dirt had been sitting a moment ago, there now stood a ten-foot-tall, dome-shaped kiln made of gleaming dark-red stone. Four chimneys puffed out warm, clean white steam that smelled faintly of fresh mint, and a heavy iron chute on the side was already stacked with two hundred neat, interlocking gray stone bricks!
==================================================================== [ FUSION SUCCESS! NEW BUILDING UNLOCKED! ] >> [ Cool-Breeze Brick Kiln (Lv.1 — Special Building) ] << -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Output: 2,000 Interlocking Cool-Breeze Bricks per hour! * Inputs Needed: Any desert sand + dirty mud + dry brushwood. * Special Effect 1 (Tongue-and-Groove Lock): Bricks click together like puzzle pieces! No mortar drying time needed! * Special Effect 2 (Warm Winter, Cool Summer): Infused with Spirit-Well Moss. Stays 72°F inside during freezing nights or scorching noons! * Special Effect 3 (Bug-Proof): Scorpions and lice cannot cross a Cool-Breeze Brick threshold! ====================================================================
"Heavens above!" Old Man Liu dropped his wooden walking stick, his eyes wide as saucers as he tottered toward the warm red kiln. "Where did this giant stove come from?! Two breaths ago that was just a pile of mud!"
"Quiet down, Old Liu!" Old Guo puffed out his fat belly and waved his iron ladle proudly, acting as if he knew everything. "Our Young Master is the ninth son of the Iron-Wolf Marquis! Before leaving the capital, an old Immortal Master gave him a secret 'One-Breath Earth-Turning Art'! Did you not see how he turned a dry pit into a sweet well and grew five-pound meat-potatoes overnight? Turning a pile of mud into a brick kiln is child's play for the Young Master!"
Around the square, the two hundred newly rescued refugees dropped to their knees, bowing their heads toward Pei Xuan in awe.
Above their heads, dozens of blue Loyalty bars flickered and jumped upward by five, eight, ten points at a time!
[ Refugee Carpenter Zhao Er: Loyalty 52 -> 66/100 (Loyal!) ] [ Refugee Widow Sun: Loyalty 48 -> 63/100 (Loyal!) ] [ Refugee Hunter Da Niu: Loyalty 55 -> 71/100 (Loyal!) ]
Pei Xuan walked over to the iron chute and picked up one of the gray bricks.
It weighed about fifteen pounds, felt smooth as polished slate, and had two raised ridges on top and two matching grooves on the bottom—just like giant stone building blocks. Even better, the brick radiated a gentle, soothing warmth against his palms.
He tossed the brick to One-Eyed Jack.
"Catch!"
One-Eyed Jack caught the brick with both hands, grunting slightly at the solid weight. He turned it over with his single eye pressed almost against the gray stone, his rough fingers tracing the square ridges and grooves.
"Hold on..." One-Eyed Jack breathed, his eyes widening. "These ridges... if you stack two of these together, they lock right into place! You don't even need wet lime mortar to hold the wall against the wind!"
He grabbed a second brick from the chute and slammed it down on top of the first.
CLICK!
The two gray bricks locked together with a crisp mechanical snap. One-Eyed Jack grabbed the top brick and shook it hard with all his Rank 1 Late Martial strength. The two stones held together as tight as if they had been carved from a single boulder!
"My goodness!" One-Eyed Jack shouted, his bald head flushing red with excitement. Before turning into a horse bandit during the great drought five years ago, Jack had spent ten years as a stone mason building watchtowers for the county army. Looking at these interlocking bricks was like a starving sword master looking at a peerless blade. "Young Master! Give me forty men and a plumb line! With bricks like these and pre-cut wooden roof beams from the bandit camp wagons, I can put up a three-room stone house in forty minutes!"
Scarface Wolf pushed his way to the front, refusing to let his younger brother steal the spotlight. "Bah! What do you know about speed, Jack? You only have one eye, so your walls will lean to the left! Young Master, give the bricks to my First Squadron! My sixty riders have stronger arms—we can build a house in thirty minutes!"
One-Eyed Jack spat on the ground and rolled up his yellow Debtor vest sleeves. "My eye is sharper than both of your cross-eyed peepers put together, Big Brother! When you built that shed at the oasis camp last winter, the roof fell on your own horse!"
"That was because the wood was rotten!" Scarface Wolf roared back.
Pei Xuan watched the two bandit bosses argue, a grin spreading across his face.
If you whipped prisoners to make them work, they dragged their feet and broke tools whenever your back was turned. But if you turned hard labor into a contest with food on the line...
Pei Xuan jumped up onto a wooden wagon box and raised two fingers.
"Listen up!" Pei Xuan's clear voice carried across the entire square. "The kiln bakes two thousand Cool-Breeze Bricks every hour! All one hundred and thirty-two Debtor Prisoners will split into two teams: Team One under Foreman One-Eyed Jack, and Team Two under Foreman Scarface Wolf! Two hundred refugees will carry sand and brushwood to feed the kiln and pass bricks!"
He pointed to Old Guo's sizzling iron wok, where a fresh batch of red scorpions and golden Meat-Potato wedges was frying in mutton fat. The rich, spicy aroma made every single bandit swallow hard.
"Tonight's goal is twenty stone houses before midnight so nobody sleeps in the dirt!" Pei Xuan announced. "For every neat, straight house a team finishes, I will take ten silver taels off the team's repair debt—AND the team that builds the most houses before midnight gets a whole iron tub of Spicy Fried Scorpions and Roasted Lamb-Potatoes!"
For one second, there was dead silence.
Then the hundred and thirty-two yellow-vested bandits let out a howl that shook the sand dunes.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Scarface Wolf grabbed four bricks under each arm, veins popping on his neck as he sprinted toward the marked street line like a mad bull. "Whoever drops a brick answers to my fist! Those fried scorpions are MINE!"
"Don't let those clumsy horse-monkeys beat us!" One-Eyed Jack snatched a hemp string rubbed with white chalk and snapped a straight line across the packed earth with surgical precision. "Dig a six-inch foundation trench! Two men on the left wall, two men on the right! Snap the corners tight! Move your backsides!"
Click! Clack! Click! Clack!
The sound of interlocking stone bricks echoed through the cold desert night like a hundred blacksmith hammers beating in rhythm.
The refugees cheered and formed four long human chains from the glowing red kiln to the building site, passing the warm gray bricks hand-to-hand. As soon as a refugee touched the warm bricks, the freezing stiffness in their fingers vanished. Even the children helped carry small half-bricks for the window frames, laughing as Old Guo walked up and down the line handing out cups of sweet, hot ginger soup mixed with Spirit Well water.
By eleven o'clock, twenty-two sturdy gray stone houses with flat timber-and-brick roofs stood in two neat rows along the eastern street.
When the two hundred freezing refugees were led inside the new houses, cries of disbelief rang out from every doorway. The moment the wooden door was shut, the howling desert wind outside disappeared completely, and the air inside the stone rooms felt as warm and cozy as a spring afternoon!
At the stroke of midnight, as One-Eyed Jack and Scarface Wolf sat panting in the dirt, happily stuffing their faces with crispy fried scorpions, a crisp golden chime rang in Pei Xuan's head.
==================================================================== [ MIDNIGHT SETTLEMENT COMPLETE! ] * Housing Crisis Resolved! Safety Rating: C- -> B! * Loyal Citizens (60+ Loyalty): 452 / 585 - 425 Rank 0 Mortal Civilians (x1 LP) = +425 LP - 27 Rank 1 Early/Mid Martial Artists (x10 LP) = +270 LP - Village Building Comfort Bonus = +25 LP >> TOTAL DAILY INCOME ADDED: +720 LP! >> CURRENT BALANCE: 1,200 LP! ====================================================================
Pei Xuan looked at the [1,200 LP] gleaming in his balance, then turned his gaze toward Old Wei, who was standing quietly by the gatehouse rubbing his aching, empty left shoulder in the dark.
With over a thousand points in his pocket, it was finally time to pay back the old soldier who had lost an arm saving his life.