Annie swiftly left the Ancestor Spirit Camp, and the people of the Ancestor Spirit Association began bustling about as instructed on the scroll.
This hustle lasted an entire month.
...
One month later.
A forest area dozens of miles away from the Ancestor Spirit Camp, nearly a hundred ters underground.
Here, an expansive underground space was forcibly opened using extraordinary power, with many wizard apprentices and wizards busy reinforcing every corner with earth magic to prevent collapses due to earthquakes or other reasons.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The sound of footsteps echoed, and Annie walked among them, inspecting the surroundings with a serious and solemn gaze. Whenever she spotted sothing amiss, she pointed it out bluntly.
The leader of the Ancestor Spirit Association—Barry—accompanied her, quickly relaying her observations to his subordinates, urging prompt corrections. His deanor was notably more humble than the first ti they t.
At this mont, Barry appeared much like a subcontractor accompanying the main client, Annie, inspecting the construction site.
In reality, it was more or less the sa.
"That pillar just now was obviously too thin, not eting the specifications. It must be thickened, otherwise, if it can’t withstand the pressure and collapses, at least half of this place will be destroyed," Annie comnted as she walked.
"Alright, I’ll have soone thicken it and add a secondary support to prevent any accidents," Barry quickly proposed a correction plan.
"Good." Annie nodded in satisfaction and walked to the center of the underground space, stopping there.
Looking up, she saw there was no cover or soil above. Several ters overhead, it was completely hollowed out, forming a cylindrical shape upwards.
It sowhat resembled a chimney.
However, ordinary chimneys stand aboveground, whereas this chimney was buried underground, much larger in volu, and extrely peculiar.
"How is it, Miss Annie, is the handling here satisfactory?" Barry glanced at Annie and asked, "This was all excavated strictly according to the blueprint you sent later."
"Yes, it’s satisfactory," Annie replied, "Very qualifying."
"Good to hear." Barry breathed a sigh of relief, then seed to recall sothing and asked, "By the way, Miss Annie, may I ask, what exactly does Lord Richard intend for us to do with such a peculiar underground space?
This place doesn’t resemble a warehouse or a shelter, it seems quite useless. Could it be that the blueprint you provided earlier had an error?"
Hearing this, Annie raised an eyebrow slightly, looked at Barry with slight displeasure, and coldly replied, "Why do you care so much! Lord Richard instructed you to build it, so just focus on building it well. This task rely requires so effort and involves no danger, isn’t that satisfactory?"
"No, no, I’m just a bit curious," Barry admitted.
"Set aside your curiosity. You’ll know what you need to know sooner or later, and as for what you shouldn’t know, asking won’t get you answers. If you’re not convinced, you can ask Lord Richard directly," Annie replied bluntly.
Barry’s expression stiffened slightly before forcing a smile, "Alright, alright, I won’t ask."
"That’s best. Okay, today’s inspection ends here. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with your work so far. I hope you can maintain this standard going forward," Annie said, waving a hand, "Don’t show good performance in the first half and cut corners in the second half."
"Absolutely not," Barry promised solemnly.
"Let’s hope so," Annie said, "I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave."
With those words, Annie waved goodbye and, just like before, left swiftly.
Barry remained in place, watching Annie leave, and couldn’t help but shrug, then turned to look beside him.
In the corner, the lean Moses approached, looking at Barry as he asked, "How did it go, did you find out anything?"
"No," Barry replied, sowhat disappointed, shaking his head and exhaling, "The person in question kept a tight lip and revealed nothing."
"Is that so..." Moses nodded thoughtfully and, after a mont, said enigmatically, "Perhaps... that young girl who just left doesn’t even know why that person wants us to build this here."
"She doesn’t know either? Really?" Barry asked, sowhat incredulous.
Moses’s eyes revealed a wisdom borne of age, and he calmly explained, "That young girl you ntioned is very young, proud, and quite powerful, even claiming she could defeat you wasn’t necessarily a joke. However, despite her strength, she’s not mature internally.
If she did know anything, she wouldn’t be able to keep it completely under wraps. Even if she didn’t want to reveal anything, her speech or actions would indirectly show it. Right now, she has none of those expressions, suggesting she doesn’t know anything either.
From this, we can infer two things: First, the young girl who just left isn’t yet a trusted confidante of that person. Second, the reason for constructing this place is either trivial or... more extraordinary than we imagine, hence the secrecy."
Listening, Barry nodded slightly, then raised an eyebrow and asked, "Uncle Moses, do you think it’s possible that the reason we’re asked to build this place is rely a test? In other words, perhaps he couldn’t find anything else for us to do and didn’t want us idle, so he gave us busy work. Otherwise, I really can’t figure out the purpose of constructing such a massive underground chimney."
"Perhaps, perhaps not," Moses responded mildly, accepting the situation, "For us, there’s no difference. As long as we complete the work satisfactorily, that’s enough. This task is simple and safe compared to orders to kill soone or handle so target.
If constructing this thing indeed holds no aning, then it’s fine, we’ll take our ti with it. From what the girl said earlier, this isn’t even the only site, and there are a few more to build after this. This way, for the next year or two, we won’t have to worry about riskier tasks being assigned to us.
Moreover, we’re utilizing nearly half the manpower of the Ancestor Spirit Association, but we’re not working for free. A while back, that girl brought us several blood magic scrolls, apparently parsed and improved by that person personally."
"Yes, three in total," Barry nodded quickly in agreent.
"Have you had them tested? How effective are they?" Moses inquired with concern.
"I’ve had them tested, and they work very well, indistinguishable from normal spells," Barry confird.
"That’s good," Moses nodded, eyes gleaming, "Receiving three new blood magic spells each month makes this trade advantageous for us, the Ancestor Spirit Association.
So, let’s try to maintain the status quo, perhaps this connection with that person is truly beneficial, a chance for us to regain our previous strength—a chance for revival for the Ancestor Spirit Association."
Barry nodded.
"Alright, let’s head back. Have them stay here and continue working. You and I will return to the camp to handle other matters." Moses instructed, "Reviving our strength isn’t sothing accomplished in a single statent, many areas are busier than here."
"Yes, Uncle Moses," Barry replied, following Moses away from the scene.
...
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