Silence had settled in the room filled with people, many were paralyzed with fear of what was to come, others trying to think how they could survive and the last few trying to draw plans in their head as to how they could deal with the coming beast tide.
The three cultivators, Chao Shi, Bai Shun and Yun Hua sat at the head of the table in a formal posture with their eyes closed, they had said what they needed to so now it was up to everyone else to deal with it, they had their own job after all.
"Elder Cao" Shu Li broke the silence, signalling the pale faced elder, Cao Yang that was currently sweating beads.
He jolted and looked up to at Shu Li. "Yes?..." his voice sounding feeble, and it was lacking energy.
"We'll need to form a perimeter barricade, how much wood do you have in the storehouse?"
"Oh… you'll have to ask one of the servants, I don't know myself" Elder Cao replied, before ringing a small bell he had in front of him, a man dressed in simple clothes dashed in and kneeled next to the old man awaiting orders.
"Get me a list of resources we have in the warehouse, weapons as well" He spoke before dismissing the servant who dashed off in a hurry.
"I don't know how much but there definitely isn't enough to circle the entire village, what are we going to do?" He asked Shu Li
Shu Li looked around before he spoke once more "Do we have a map of the village?"
Responding to his question, a couple of people looked around before another reached on to the wall, pulling off a picture frame and taking the contents out and slamming them on the table for all to see, it was a high-quality map Cao Yang had obviously kept for display reasons.
Said man would have normally gone on a rampage had someone treated his items like that, but even he knew it was no time for such things.
Shu Li then grabbed a quill pen and ink that was resting on a sideboard and stared at the map for a second to think, then drew a clean circle around a spot on the map.
"What's that?" one of the surrounding members asked.
"Since we don't have enough resources nor time to reinforce the entire village it will be better to lock down a smaller area that's fortified" Shu Li explained and pointed to the circled area.
"We'll use the upper residential area, it's most the developed and is well suited for defending due to the restricted entry points" Shu He explained while pointing out the main streets on the map.
"Only there? What about everything else?" A man asked.
"My house is on the outskirts, does that mean it's doomed?"
"What about the farm! That's my livelihood we can't leave it!"
"Shut it, you fools!" Elder Cao yelled, slightly red-eyed, as he looked at the map he could feel his heart tighten as he looked at everything around it, all the fields, housing, equipment and land development, they could all be gone by the end… but if he were dead none of it would have any point!
He looked deeply at Shu He "I'll accept this proposal, as long as it means we can survive".
Shu He nodded back and then looked around.
"The barricades will take a while to put up so we'll need every able-bodied man to be on it, even children and women if they can help, it's our life on the time here, who it is doesn't matter". Many of the men looked at one another nodding in agreement.
"Old Yun" Shu Li spoke to an old man at the end of the table.
He was wearing a simple grey robe half hanging off his torso, underneath was tanned skin that, although riddled with wrinkles seemed full of life and a fair amount of well-toned muscle, his head bore a single whisp of pale white hair and his face was adorned with a fine wrapped beard.
"Ah, what can these old bones do for you, Shu Li?"
His voice raspy, he smiled to Shu Li, relaxed as if none of this concerned him.
"Sorry to ask this of you, but how many spears can you get made by afternoon tomorrow" Shu He asked while bowing.
Old Yun was a respected member of this village, he had lived in these lands before the village was established as a hermit craftsman, Shu Li deeply respected him due to his skill and manner, Shu He had also used his services in the recent years and was quite fond of him.
"It's fine, I'm getting on in age anyway if I can be of use then I'm happy; That said it won't be easy… let's see I have quite a storage of them in the back of my shop already, probably about 30 or so..? I can make a good handful by tomorrow if I work overnight but I can't say they'll be great quality".
"That'll be more than enough, thank you; For other people, there are farming tools like pitchforks that might come in use… we don't have enough time to dig a trench…" Shu He led himself into deep thought while the other members in the room chattered among each-other.
"Hey… Elder Cao" One of the members piped up and spoke to Cao Yang once more.
"What is it? If it's not important-"
"A few years back we had that mine escapade right?" He asked.
"Mine?" Cao Yang looked at him confused before clarity hit his eyes "Yes, I remember, why are you bringing it up though? If you were thinking we could hide in the mines you can stop right there, they all collapsed back then".
Shu Li frowned as he overheard the conversation "Mines?" He asked.
"Yes, a few years back we discovered a rare metal vein and wanted to begin a mining operation, but it all fell through when they collapsed in on themselves… all that money and personnel wasted… it was a few years before you came to the village." Elder Cao grunted.
"That's not why I was bringing it up, we dug with 'that' at first right?" The man formed a cylinder with his hands.
Shu Li sat up and suddenly shouted "Dynamite?!"
"Yeah that's the one!" The man pointed at Shu Li who seemed overly surprised.
"You have some of that?!" Shu Li asked Elder Cao.
"Ahh yeah, I had some bought a while back because they were said to be great for mining, cost a pretty coin… But after the operation closed down I'm pretty sure they were set in a shack near the mines… there was no way we were keeping those dangerous things near the village" He explained.
"We need someone to go get whatever is there fast" Shu Li shouted, there was a glimmer of light in his eyes as he said it.
"You heard the man, let's go!" All of a sudden, a small group of people that had been silent began moving.
"You wanna' blow those beasts to hell right, Shu Li?" Gang Bo smirked.
"You got it" Shu Li smiled back.
"Hahaha, we're here to do the fighting so this is more up our alley, I've always wanted to use some of those stuff so let us go deal with it" he said before him, and his group left the room to sort out the Dynamite.
"Go get someone to guide them to the old mining shack." Elder Cao signalled one of his attendants.
After they left the group spoke some more about specifics like how they would move all the village members, the shelters they would use, food and water and it wasn't long before all of them began to depart to get to work.
'Explosives huh' Shu He was stood in the back as the crowd kept passing him, he was listening attentively without interrupting other than that one time.
He was currently thinking about what he could do to help.
'I can help with my bow obviously, but I can't say I have confidence about aiming and killing beasts as they're raging among one another… I'll bring whatever medication I have as well, people are bound to get injured'.
His mind however was still stuck on one word.
Dynamite.
'I didn't think I'd see it in this world of cultivation, but I guess I was underestimating mortals of this world… but since I haven't heard of it since now, it's obviously not widespread, or at least too expensive to be'.
He stood still for a minute, before an awkward smile crept up on his face.
'Should I try it?'
Slowly, a plan formed in his mind.
"What're you smiling for?" Suddenly, a voice snapped Shu He out of his daze, he looked around realising it was just him and the three cultivators left in the room, the rest have moved on.
Bai Shun was staring at him with his brow raised.
"I was just thinking of what I can do to help" Shu He explained.
"With that smile on your face? Uh, sure."
The three of them stood up to leave, but before they could Shu He spoke up once more.
"Excuse me!" He shouted.
"What's wrong, Shu He, no need to be so formal" Chao Shi responded, tilting his head.
"Is there… really no chance one of you can stay behind just to help?" Shu He couldn't help but ask.
After a pause, Chao Shi sighed and looked at his two companions.
"Well… if it's a request from you then maybe…" he said, smiling at Shu He
"I…" Shu He bit his tongue, confused as to the sudden change.
"I'm joking, honestly I was planning to leave someone behind anyway just to keep a watch" He explained.
"!... Thank you very much!" He bowed as they left the room, leaving him alone.
Shu He understood fully, a cultivator was worth many men in power and ability, even he who was still a child would be able to barely match a fully grown man with his first stage cultivation, he didn't know the cultivation of the three, but he could guess that they were far above him.
Just having one of them would be a massive help!