——(POV third person)——

At this point in time, 29 disciples were here in the fort and 20 new disciples would soon enter the vicinity. It wasn't hard to guess that these twenty were representing two holy lands as it is harder for disciples from the smaller powers to work together in such a large group when they don't have something that binds them together like the sect's disciples have.

Group leaders gathered to welcome the newcomers who entered the fort.

The newcomers were from the Temple of Emptiness and the Divine Arrow sect. The Buddhist monks were easy to locate and the bows that the Divine Arrow sect's disciples were carrying were hard to miss.

"Namo Amitabhaya Buddhaya.

" Xuan Muni, the leader of the disciples from the Temple of Emptiness said as he bowed a little. (A

/N: lit: Bow for the sake of Amitabha Buddha)

"Greetings, fellow cultivators. I am Hou Shuqing from the Divine Arrow sect.

" Hou Shuqing introduced himself.. He is the chief disciple of the Divine Arrow sect and he is close to the current patriarch.

"Welcome, am I right to assume that you are here to join the alliance?

" Li Huang asked them. It was no secret that the Temple of Emptiness was known to try to stay out of the conflicts but it wouldn't hurt to make sure that everything is in perfect condition between them.

"Yes. No one saves us but ourselves. This is a test to show us we have to rely on each other and I am glad to see that you too understand it.

" Xuan Muni said with closed eyes.

Li Huang cupped his fists to him and then turned to Hou Shuqing to see what he had to say.

"Our sect is here to help too. When I heard the punishment I thought of building towers to handle the beasts easier but when I heard your plan to build a fort, I couldn't help myself but come here.

" Hou Shuqing said. He had a hobby that involved reading a lot of books about the art of war so he was really excited about this 'punishment' and how they can use the fort to their advantage.

"Great. With this, now five of the seven holy lands have gathered here. I would like to ask Temple of Emptiness to help with some formations around the fort and some of the disciples of the Divine Arrow sect to man the towers.

" Li Huang said. Using Buddhist formations would help them greatly in the upcoming fights as they have high healing capabilities.

"That is what we planned to do.

" Xuan Muni said with a small nod.

"My fellow disciples are ready for this.

" Hou Shuqing also nodded enthusiastically.

"Than I will have to ask you to finalize the plans with our group's leader, Junior sister Hu Anjing.

" Li Huang pointed at Hu Anjing who was surprised that he called him junior sister.

Sensing her surprise, Li Huang sent her a sound transmission.

~'I didn't want to explain that your master is my senior martial sister and so on…'~ Li Huang said as this would happen every once in a while and Li Huang had to explain it again.

~'I don't care about the reasoning but the result was nice… kind of.'~ Hu Anjing sent a sound transmission back.

After a short talk, they separated and Li Huang, Cai ZhenKang, and other members of the guard team went toward other sides of the inner wall that were yet to be built.

"Okay, let's start building a little. This is the map for this side, study it and start working. We will be back out after we finish the inner wall. I have a feeling that we have to hurry and get one of the defensive layers finished sooner.

" Li Huang said and handed the team members a couple of maps so that they can understand the designs better.

He then turned to Cai ZhenKang and looked at him.

"I just wanted to remind you that Hu Anjing is supervising the building process.

" Li Huang said to let Cai ZhenKang know that he has to work with focus and don't play around when they are building.

Cai ZhenKang nodded a couple of times. He didn't need Li Huang to say more as he knew what would await him if he were to mess up in the building process.

"Let's get to work.

" Li Huang said. There was one more reason for Li Huang to insist on finishing these walls fast, he wanted to make it harder for Jin Fen to come and go unnoticed. Li Huang looked at Lai Xinyue and was thinking about what was Jin Fen's story for having this big of a crush on her.

Shaking his head, Li Huang got back to building the wall.

——(POV third person, back at the meeting tent)——

…

"So all of the disciples from the Temple of Emptiness would first help us with the formations and then they will help with the walls and towers.

" Hu Anjing asked Xuan Muni to finalize their talks.

"Yes. We can finish this work in a few hours.

" Xuan Muni said. A monks lifestyle was such that these sort of works was nothing much to them so he had no problem with this. That aside if they were to stop trying their hardest it would go against their teachings.

"About Divine arrow sect, all your disciples will stay at the fort to help in the defenses. Is that alright with you?

" Hu Anjing asked. They come up with this plan in this meeting. Some beast hordes attack the fort every once in a while and although the guard team is working on these beasts, many of the beasts would go straight toward the fort so the guard team can't do anything about them. Having these ranged attackers decrease the burden on the building team and they can fully focus on building and they won't have to fight the beasts every 5 minutes.

"Yes. I also like to know more about our strategy for fighting the beasts.

" Hou Shuqing nodded and asked. He wanted to integrate his plans into the strategy to make it more smooth and effective.

"For now, you can handle your team with your previous strategies but when all the building processes are finished we will talk about an integrated strategy.

" Hu Anjing said. At this stage having a strategy that was created for 100 people and applying it only on 10 people would only create flaws so she refrained from explaining this any further.

"Let us get back to work.

" Hu Anjing said. Everyone walked out of the tent. Xuan Muni and Hou Shuqing walked to their fellow disciples to explain their roles and Hu Anjing went toward the building team.

Along the way, she could see Ye Ling coming toward her.

"Did something happen Ye Ling?

" Hu Anjing asked.

"Senior sister, a group of seven people are getting near the fort from the west side.

" Ye Ling explained. As she was working on that part she felt them entering her Qi sense and then she came to Hu Anjing to report.

"I see. Let's go together.

" Hu Anjing said. She was only trying to make sure that nothing unexpected would happen as Li Huang had warned her about Jin Fen and what he might do, because of that she was trying to stay vigilant at all times.

…

Although the distance wasn't short, it didn't take Li Huang and Ye Ling more than a minute to get there. The participants that saw two strangers appear in front of them got on guard but when they saw the robes that they were wearing they felt a little more at ease.

Hu Anjing gave them time to say something and checked the surrounding for any sign of Jin Fen but unfortunately, she didn't find anything and it seemed that he is not here, or at least is not here now.

After a few seconds, one of them came forward and cupped his fists while bowing.

"Greetings, we are disciples that entered the trial from the smaller sects. We came here to join the fort if that is possible.

" That disciple, Kang Guanyu said politely as he didn't want to offend these two ladies in any way.

"You have come to the right place. Follow us, the fort is further this way.

" Hu Anjing nodded and said as she pointed toward the fort.

Hu Anjing and Ye Ling had to decrease their speed to let the new disciples follow them without falling behind. In five minutes they were inside the fort and Ye Ling told the new members what to do and put them under the supervision of the white moon sect vice-leader, Yuan Yunyu.

"Ye Ling, go and tell Hou Shuqing from the Divine Arrow sect that I want reports regularly and if they felt someone entering their Qi sense they have to report it.

" Hu Anjing told Ye Ling after she reported to her that she has handled the new members.

"I understand.

" Ye Ling nodded and said.