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The Science of Cultivation - Chapter 283: Building Up the Island
🕑 Added 2025-04-16 22:30:03 +0000 UTCIf there was one thing Li Lang knew cultivators excelled at, it was building stuff. Throughout his journey in the cultivation world, he had seen countless times where experts would simply wave their hands to erect an entirely new structure in the blink of an eye. Structures that would otherwise take mortals months to years to build. What made that possible were formation masters. Li Lang would know, considering he had been brushing up on his formation mastery.
Formations basically borrowed the power of the ley lines to cast powerful Qi arts. It just so happens that techniques with an affinity with the earth element worked best, allowing formation masters to seemingly create a building overnight. Still, that didn’t mean everyone who dabbled in the craft could do it. It required a certain level of skill and cultivation, which Li Lang didn’t have.
As a result, the group had to rely on good ol’ manpower, which cultivators had plenty of. There was no need for heavy machinery when someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm could simply lift up hundreds of tons worth of construction material.
Li Lang’s group happened to have almost a dozen of them. The students hadn’t been wasting time while they stayed in the Crucible. More and more of those who only had grade one aptitude succeeded in breaking through one after the other.
However, all of their training was put on pause when Li Lang had everyone work on building their new home.
They were all quite confused at first when Li Lang kept removing all the sand that made up the island, only to replace it with other materials, but they soon realized he was doing so because his ambitions were not small. He had been testing the stability of the foundation.
“You guys are back already?” Li Lang muttered as he nonchalantly had the Crucible summon colossal rocks, which could only be said to be huge chunks of mountains. “Did you find the materials I asked for?”
“Umm, I think so,” Long Yi replied. “We poured some vinegar on some rocks that appeared like the sample you gave us, and it fizzled. Does it really matter, though? The stuff has barely any traces of Qi at all. I don’t think it even qualifies as Mortal-grade material.”
“That’s fine. Formations can tap into the ley lines to enhance the materials later. Or did you think the sects and organizations all have large swaths of forest to provide high-quality lumber for all their buildings?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll leave it all up to you and just do what you say,” Long Yi said as he rolled his eyes.
Li Lang ignored his antics, going around the giant pillar of stone he summoned to gauge its stability. When he was satisfied, the Crucible removed it in the blink of an eye. He then summoned his Skyrunner and steered it to his companions.
“Okay, I’m ready here. Let’s go.”
***
A week later, an entirely new island had materialized off the west coast of Violet Isle. If one hadn’t been keeping track of the nearby islands, they wouldn’t have noticed anything off. However, for those who did, their jaws would’ve definitely dropped to the ground upon seeing the scene. The vastness wasn’t even the most shocking part, despite spanning over a thousand hectares; the most eye-catching from afar was the mountain range that surrounded most of the island.
After Li Lang got started in constructing the place, he got carried away the more he discovered the Crucible’s power. He could literally move mountains and fill lakes on a whim. Having witnessed the gigantic size of the undersea Qi beasts that lurked around, he decided to erect a wall around the place in the form of mountains. It made the island almost look like a super-sized stadium, where the only light that reached it was through the roof at the center.
“This—I don’t know what I was expecting when you asked for our help, only to barely need it,” Jun Ziyan muttered. “But I surely never imagined anything of this scale…”
The two fellow disciples of Sword Saint behind her nodded at her words while their eyes were still glued to the few buildings that had been built within such a short span of time.
Without the need to account for the cost of transportation of supplies and heavy equipment, Li Lang was able to build as he wished. In the end, he still kept it conservative based on his standards, though, as he wasn’t an architect. He didn’t want to waste so much time tackling grand projects like towering skyscrapers and stick to a maximum of half a dozen floors. Any higher and he would have to consider pile driving, which would complicate things.
Even so, with plentiful concrete and iron, all of which were mundane materials, he was able to build blocky low-rises. More impressively, he even set up an actual stadium that resembled more of a coliseum than anything seen from modern architecture. That was because all the buildings were undecorated blocks of concrete with some clear glass panel windows. There were no curves, everything was flat. It lacked any graceful engravings that would spice things up.
It was a result of Li Lang’s lack of adoration for the arts and architecture. Surely, any proper architect would weep at how he had misused his abilities to create something so rudimentary. It was a result born out of a lack of skill, motivation, and playing it safe. The only thing Li Lang cared about was for his structures to not collapse.
“This is more than enough for now, but we still have furnishing to do,” Li Lang reminded his stunned companions.
Clapping his hands to gather their attention, he swiftly led them into the main building. It was built with the ancient city halls in mind, a wide building with only three floors. It had two annexes flanking its side and room for wide double doors to be installed in its main entrance. The entire place was surrounded by a metal gate that Li Lang added last minute as he tried to make it stand out some more from the other structures.
The interior was plain concrete and was in desperate need of renovation, but Li Lang was satisfied with it for today. The group wandered around the spacious rooms of nothingness and soon got bored.
On their next stop, they went to the largest building, barring the stadium, with six floors and a layout of a small apartment building. Each room was similar in layout, so they didn’t tour the entire building either.
“How come there are still so many holes in the walls and stuff?” one of his students, Xiao Dong, asked.
“You’ll naturally come to learn soon once I get it done. For now, you guys should pick a room and focus on the furniture you want first. Leave the area with the holes alone for now.”
The group continued their tour and went to what seemed to be a warehouse area, where six identical structures stood. Just like all the other buildings, they all looked boring, with a plain, boxy shape.
“I plan to have this warehouse become our refining room. In fact, each of the five crafts will get its own warehouse, while the remaining will be a storehouse for now,” Li Lang explained.
The group nodded without a word and gave it a quick inspection before moving on to their last stop, the stadium.
“This is similar to the arenas other organizations have, where people can come to train or have duels. Perhaps if any of you are interested, we can host sports matches as well.”
Li Lang glanced at his students in question and found them still too dumbstruck to speak. He shook his head and placed a hand on Wei Ping’s shoulder.
“I’ll leave the rest up to you.”
His masked companion nodded, and he swiftly took his exit. He went straight toward the Crucible that was placed between the stadium and the main building, where he could retreat into Ruby’s artifact space undisturbed.
He knew it would take the group some time to get used to all the new changes. The materials and structures he had built were something they likely had never seen before. All they knew was that he crunched together some rocks and incinerated them into powder, and it somehow became building material. Then, he reinforced it by adding steel bars. By that time, Li Lang learned he could simply create everything in the Crucible first, allowing the artifact spirits to help. As a result, the others were mostly involved with resource gathering and processing.
He could understand how it was shocking to see these unfamiliar buildings being erected over the course of a week. However, he didn’t regret it. As much as concrete structures would stand out, it simply saved him too much time while producing better results.
There were too many research projects waiting for him to tend to, like the demonic cultivator techniques. Now that he had a home base set up, he didn’t have long until they needed to head out to recruit a new batch of students, either.
That’s why he rushed into Ruby’s artifact space and began finishing the last touches to complete the residences. That way, he would no longer have to worry about it for some time.
Let’s see. It should be quite easy to create pipes using artificing techniques. I just need to get a slow-burning light talisman to use as a light source.
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Comments
Scrutinizer
The materials and structure[s] he had built were something they likely had never seen before.
Scrutinizer
Sounds like Li Lang is taking inspiration from 20th century skyscraper building techniques, with all the concrete, steel, and glass. It's probably a common approach for new planetary colonies, too, given the efficiency and stability. The buildings of this island may end up looking more at home in modern Earth cities than in a cultivation world. Their sect will definitely have a unique aesthetic!
Green0Photon
It's so funny imagining the buildings
