Chapter 34: Humans Have Three Urgencies

The remaining choice was even more unexpected to everyone. Wei Yuning's team totaled exactly two hundred and fifty people, including all the remaining laborers, forty‑nine female cultivators, and a little over one hundred and twenty Yun Yin Sect disciples.

Qing Ge's team had one hundred and eighty‑four people, the fewest of all. The ever‑cheerful Qing Ge had lost his usual composure, his face taking on a slight gloom.

It was understandable that the laborer squad joined Wei Yuning's group, and the number of female cultivators made sense; they must have discussed it internally and distributed them evenly among the three teams, but the selection of Yun Yin Sect disciples seemed a bit unreasonable.

Of course, Wei Yuning was too lazy to guess their thoughts; he was just a little displeased with the final total.

It was just noon.

Unlike the cool mountain climate of the Yun Yin Sect headquarters, the low‑altitude grassland was scorching under the blazing sun. After the teams were divided, aside from a few captains frowning and pondering the next tasks, the cultivators scattered in a clamor, each looking for shade to escape the heat.

The Beast Garden was vast, two to three kilometers wide east‑west and four to five kilometers long north‑south, surrounded by tall sturdy wooden fences. Its breeding area and living area were separate; the sector where Wei Yuning's group stood was at the southern end of the Beast Garden, part of a living zone, with about ten breeders residing there. Because it was a low‑grade Beast Garden populated mainly by ordinary beasts and posed little danger, everyone except the wolf cultivator were mortal warriors, who lived in five small huts right at the southern entrance of the breeding area. The mortal warriors knew the newcomers were cultivators and no one failed to recognize them and greet them; cultivators and mortals were essentially two different worlds.

There were no extra rooms for everyone to stay, so everything had to be self‑sufficient; even the shade of a tree became a good place to escape the scorching heat.

Just half an hour ago the cultivators were a tangled mass; now they had split into three clearly distinct squads, each harboring a faint sense of hostility toward the others.

"Bastard, this shade was claimed first by our Second Squad!"

"Pah, does this shade have a name? Will it answer you if you call it?"

"Alright, alright, I'll go find a senior brother from Heaven Sword Hall and have a proper talk with you!"

"Afraid of you? Senior brother Qing Cong is my captain; shall I fetch him to reason with you?"

"Fine, you're ruthless—retreat!"

Members of the First and Second Teams started arguing first.

Wei Yuning saw this and thought, what's going on? If this keeps up, chaos will break out sooner or later.

"Come on, brothers and sisters of the Third Squad, let's set up camp by the lake!" Since Wei Yuning was the captain, his orders had to be obeyed, even though the three deputy captains of Badao Hall were eager to spar; when Wei Yuning spoke, they had to suppress their urge to find opponents.

"Exactly, dogs may bite people, but people must not bite dogs. For our safety, stay away from mad dogs. Come on, let's go set up camp by the lake!" Chang Fei, who was packed beside Wei Yuning, shouted along.

The words had an immediate effect; the reckless troublemaker instantly raised the Third Squad's hatred meter to the maximum.

"You bold madman, courting death!"

"Looking for death, I'll teach you a lesson!"

"So it's Chief Chang, no wonder you're so arrogant!" Qing Wu stepped out from the crowd, showing a mocking smile. Yet it was clear he still harbored some apprehension about Chang Fei's background and did not advance further.

Wei Yuning opened his mouth wide, at a loss for words; he truly hadn't known Chang Fei also went by the nickname 'Chief Chang'.

Chang Fei's face turned green, clearly irritated by the 'Chief Chang' remark, but he burst into laughter, pointing at Qing Wu: "Who did I say it was? Turns out it's the Third Young Master of Elder Ri Niao—my apologies, my apologies!"

The surrounding disciples' expressions became as vivid as could be; they bowed their heads, whispering to each other, probing the origin of the anecdote.

"You dare, brat!" Qing Wu roared, leapt up, raised his fist, and lunged toward Wei Yuning.

At that moment, a majestic, robust figure stepped forward.

"If you want to fight the captain, you must first get past me, Man Niu!"

A dust‑colored phantom swirled around Man Niu, and he likewise raised his fist, confronting Qing Wu head‑on. Man Niu knew Wei Yuning, his fellow dormitory mate; although his cultivation speed was astonishingly fast, his strength and realm were severely mismatched. In terms of fleeing, there were few peers at his level, but in a direct clash, even though Man Niu hadn't yet established a Foundation, Wei Yuning still wasn't stronger than him.

"Boom"—both let out a muffled grunt. Qing Wu landed steadily, while Man Niu stepped back half a pace; however, because Qing Wu had just used his body's momentum, the two were fairly evenly matched.

"Not bad, where did this big guy come from, are you a laborer?" Qing Wu flicked his hand, his expression serious.

"Not bad, but I just established my Foundation last night!" Man Niu said honestly.

"Oh, so you're already that impressive right after Foundation—guess I'm uninformed. Since you stepped up, let me counter with a move!" With a clang, Qing Wu drew the sword at his back and said earnestly.

"What are you, worthy of sparring with my brother Niu?" At that moment, Wei Yuning suddenly charged forward, clutching a lump of blackish stuff, and hurled it at Qing Wu.

Qing Wu sidestepped, looked down, and found it was merely a clump of sludge.

While puzzled, he heard Wei Yuning shout "Ji!" and a vine as thick as an arm shot out of the black sludge, instantly coiling around his thigh.

He screamed and struggled, but couldn't break free. In that instant, the vine thickened to the size of an adult's arm, and finer vines sprouted from the main stalk, climbing upward, enveloping Qing Wu's entire body.

Clang, Qing Wu collapsed to the ground, uttering a strange cry: "My butt! Ouch, my butt."

Wei Yuning ignored the fallen Qing Wu, waved his hand and said, "Move!"

"What's wrong with his butt?" Man Niu followed Wei Yuning closely, asking puzzled.

Wei Yuning's expression was complicated, he said nothing, while beside him Chang Fei chuckled, "He won't have to worry about constipation anymore!"

The Third Squad left, leaving Qing Wu wrapped like a rice dumpling.

"Woo… woo…" Qing Wu, entangled in the green vines, could no longer speak.

"Senior Brother Qing Wu!"

"Senior Brother Qing Wu, what's happening to you?"

"Woo… woo…"

"Quick… quickly cut the roots!"

"What kind of technique is this!"

"I don't know!"

"Never seen it!"

"Looks a bit like Binding Technique!"

"Fool, how can a Binding Technique last this long?"

"Seems like a Tree Demon's method!"

"What Tree Demon? It's just a vine. To me, it resembles the Growth Technique of a Wood‑spirit root disciple!"

"Nonsense, is there such a bizarre Growth Technique?"

"Bizarre? Now I recall, that guy can make a sunken golden wooden post grow; it's normal he can use such a strange method!"

"This…"

"Sss…" Everyone inhaled a cold breath together.

"Oh no, Senior Brother Qing Wu's butt seems to be bleeding!"

"Heavens, what a vicious technique!"

On the open ground near the lakeshore.

"Yes, dig a large pit right here — three zhang deep, one and a half zhang wide, twenty zhang long. Once it's dug, use giant logs as a lid on the surface, cover it with soil, and leave angled entry holes on this side, with one squatting position every meter!" It was already around three in the afternoon, and as team captain, Wei Yuning began worrying about the whole team's food and lodging for the night.

Food and drink weren't much of a problem — among the supplies they'd brought were yellow sweet potatoes and fruit beverages, plus copper pots and kettles for cooking, and the Beast Park had no shortage of meat.

But for two to three hundred people to camp safely and comfortably, food and drink were far from the only concern. Wei Yuning was no camping expert; back on Earth he had only ever pitched tents. Still, compared to the natives of this other world, someone from an information society was not only more knowledgeable but also far ahead in his thinking.

Unlike the other vice-captains, his first consideration was how to solve the problem of answering nature's call. Two hundred and fifty people — if everyone just relieved themselves wherever they pleased, this area and its surroundings would turn into a veritable "minefield."

They had originally come for romance and leisure hunting on the side; if one careless step could set off a "landmine," that would be rather awkward. Even if disciplined cultivators knew to bury their "mines" afterward, with so many people and eyes around, there was always the chance of being caught in the act. Male cultivators could let it go, but the refined ladylike image that female cultivators maintained would collapse in a single glance.

So nothing else was urgent — a spacious, clean, well-hidden communal latrine with separate sections for men and women was the top priority to build.

Just a few li away was the edge of the eastern Cloud Mist Forest, so timber was plentiful. The disciples of the Hegemon Blade Hall hacked at men and beasts like slicing melons — effortless and carefree — and felling trees was even less of an issue. Cultivators' strength went without saying; their arms were comparable to qilin arms, and hauling a thousand-plus-jin log was like child's play.

Besides the large latrine that took priority, the simple kitchen and simple campsite had also begun their preliminary earthwork. All the weeds and shrubs on the ground had been burned clean by fire-spirit-root disciples, leaving hard, level ground — just waiting for the logs the Hegemon Blade Hall disciples would haul back.