Shu He returned to his stone room quietly in the pitch black of night and laid Little Xue on a blanket on his desk, he then hopped straight into bed and fell asleep almost immediately, it hadn't been too easy to get some proper sleep in the carriage or next to a campfire, so he revelled in the feeling of the soft bed and the warm blankets as his conscious drifted off to sleep.
The next morning he didn't waste any time at all, he brought a small bag filled with a few small items and lots of seeds as well, he needed them for what he planned for his house after all! Then, as soon as he was packed he exited his room and ran off straight towards the area he had marked yesterday.
Just like he had been told, it was completely untouched and as soon as he entered the territory he felt a sensation like he was the owner of the area, that he could influence it with a mere thought; He placed his bag down as he took a good look around the area, planning an image inside his head as he scanned the terrain.
"First things first…" He performed a hand-seal, and the moment he did he felt a connection to the formation that laid underneath and around him, then he directed his concentration towards a set of trees.
"These are in the way" he swiped with his hand and a light flashed and before he could even get a word out the trees began falling to one side. It was scarily efficient and powerful, sure he could have done that himself without much work, but this was far faster and didn't consume his energy.
He then pointed at the fallen trees and directed upwards with his finger and then off to the side, the logs gently drifted upwards before neatly organising themselves into a pile in the place he designated.
"Wow" He couldn't help but exclaim, he had been taught the basics before, but he can really see what they meant by 'Intuitive', it seems this formation was specifically made for building and had pre-set functions to assist the person using it.
Then he went around doing the same thing on some more trees, small plants, and bushes until he had a clean area to start building his home, he already had a clear idea, it was a place he was familiar with, the place he felt the most comfortable.
But before that, he would need to prepare the materials- that's why he brought the seeds! He gently infused them with his Qi, he wasn't in a rush so there was no need to hurry it; He then dropped the seeds in the soil and watched them grow slowly into a great tree about 10 meters high.
It was a tree very similar to oak, so the wood was fine and strong, so it was great for buildings, because he modified the seed with <
He pictured the house he wanted in his mind and when he did he could see a mental image forming for him, he focused more and more detail was added, then when he had decided on a final image a projection of the area was shown in his mind as well, the surroundings were scanned as the materials were highlighted, the tree was visually split in to segments that would be used.
'This is almost game like…' He couldn't help but smile, the formations of this sect just amazed him more and more; Like he expected though just one tree wasn't enough, so he dropped three more seedlings into the ground and waited for them to grow, then as soon as they were done the formation confirmed that the materials were sufficient, so Shu He changed his hand seal and the entire area lit up brightly.
Now, all that was left was for Shu He to sit back and watch, the trees glowed as lines were engraved into the wood, each line was a cut and after a few moments they separated and glided through the air, holes suddenly appeared in the mountain dirt as the mud compacted into a hardened wall for the foundations that large wooden logs then slotted in to.
It was like watching a collection of master craftsmen work together, except they were invisible! Shu He watched on in awe as he couldn't help but think this might have been the most fantastical thing he had seen in this lifetime, despite it just being a house being built.
It only took about half an hour as wood dust and shavings gently drifted away through the air and the sounds of wood pieces slotting together echoed, and once that half hour was up the exact house Shu He had imagined in his mind was now standing right in front of him.
He didn't go for anything grandiose, not even slightly large actually, it resembled a quaint little house only enough for a single family of three or four, it was incredibly well made and had a few fanciful engravings on the wood resembling flowers and vines, yet that just added to the homely feeling.
Shu He stood in front of the house as a warm feeling filled his chest and a gentle smile sat upon his face, he then opened the front door that was bolted with compressed wood joints and stakes and took a step inside, the sound of his feed echoing on the wooden floor and the ambience of the room made him feel chills.
'It's not quite the same but…'
"I'm home" He said to the silence.
He could almost hear the voices of his Mother asking where he'd been and his Father awkwardly sipping his tea trying not to step on his wife's toes. But it was just his imagination, just that.
Yes, he had used his old home from Green-Gate as the model for this house, the one place he truly felt comfortable, the one and only place he had lived in blissful unawareness of this world.
The current room was the area they always sat and ate their meals, there was no furniture yet, but he could just picture those memories like they had just happened yesterday, to the right was his room that was slightly larger now, he had grown since then and needed more space lest he end up with the cramped space he had back then.
To the left was his parents room…
'No, it was' he shook off the reminiscence.
To the left was a room he'd be using for experimentation, whether it be Alchemy, Medication or Techniques, to be more precise that room was the entrance, he went through the door and saw the wooden staircase leading downwards.
He took it down, it went down about 5 meters before he came to a large room that was made of solid dirt, it was entirely empty and bland, but it was exactly what he had asked for, he would get some materials to line the room and request some protective formations to be laid here at a later date.
"Just this is bigger than my stone room…" He happily nodded as he knocked on the hard mud wall, it was compressed to the point of feeling like stone so it was very secure, the formation would keep moisture from dampening it as well as there was no worry about structural integrity.
He left the basement and entered his room, again, it was about twice as large as before, slightly extending in to the rockface the building was placed against, the great thing about this formation was that he could extend the building without much trouble if he really wanted to.
He then left the building and gave it a full look over while nodding.
'Perfect' then, he went over to the right side of the house, there was another exit there just like he had back in his old one, the one he used to use as an exit to his small garden, though he honestly struggled to call it a garden anymore, at least since he visited the Four Seasons Garden.
As an Alchemy Division member and disciple of a Tier 2 Alchemist he was able to get permission to enter and obtain some herbs he wanted, he was absolutely blown away by the scale of the place that he felt ashamed to call whatever he had at home a 'garden'. The Four Seasons Garden was as the name states, a garden that contained all four seasons at once, however it wasn't as simple as it sounds, they didn't just have one area in the state of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, rather they had four areas that cycled independently, so while they would have all four seasons at once at all times, each individual garden will cycle between the four.
For example –
Garden one would have a cycle of - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
Whereas Garden two would be - Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall and so on for all four gardens.
Either way, Shu He wanted to reproduce such a thing for himself but that would cost a lot of points, the formation used in that garden was a product of a lot of work after all, so for now he would have to settle for a standard garden.
For now he didn't have the materials on hand, but he used another tree and created the boundary for his garden from tall fences and a thin crossed roof that still let the sunlight in, there weren't too many pests up here, but the birds would be enough of a pain, the formation only blocked cultivators unfortunately.
After that he flattened a large portion of the ground and made a training field, he would almost certainly gather some training dummies but there wasn't enough room for a proper archery range which was his only gripe, in the end the Beast Taming Division still had plenty of room for that though.
And there was only one thing left to do, he erected another larger building that was just one room, a large empty space entirely for storage! Since this place was secure he had no qualms leaving his valuable items here.
All in all this took only a couple of hours to do, far quicker than he had anticipated, he almost felt like he was using some sort of cheat. Unfortunately he wasn't done, nowhere near, he still had to gather all the furniture he wanted, decorations, resources for the garden, move all his stuff from his old room and much more!
And this was on top of his long to do list he already had.
He stretched his back, legs, and arms as he exhaled.
"Today is going to be a productive one!".