The walls took a lot longer than the Wushi had planned. She had severely underestimated the amount of mass needed to create each of those defense structures, not to mention the length needed to cover all the space necessary to provide adequate protection to the inhabitants of the village.

She had put in a lot of energy and willpower to build each of the walls, which had resulted in her being hungry once more. Though, thankfully, she had gotten some good information regarding this mystic power of hers.

First off, using this heavenly ability wore down on her body’s energy. Second, the more she used this ability, the better she got at energy usage.

After all, she was getting more used to enforcing her will upon this world. Through all of this she was able to feel her connection to the earth and the means to warp and change the land to her needs. Before, she would have some issues scanning the ground and figuring out what lay underneath in the dirt, as well as what could be walking around these lands. But now?

She was able to scan and feel what could be wandering around these lands, so long as the beings were touching the ground at the time within a certain distance. She was able to detect any interesting objects down in the ground as well, hence why she was able to find several deposits of this petra that the locals had named during her construction effort.

She stared at the red crystals in her hand, rolling them around and looking at them with curiosity. She remembered what the villagers had said earlier, how this was similar to salt and the effect of mixing with water would result in a fast-forming stone. One thing she could confirm was that this material was certainly interesting, not quite understanding how adding water could turn this into that black substance.

Without further ado, she closed her eyes and focused. She took the moment to take a deep breath, allowing her spirit to flow through. She turned her energy towards the strange crystals in her hand, looking into manipulating it to see if she could change it as though it was dirt.

She watched as she made the petra float up into the air. The crystals all began to twirl around the air in a spiral pattern, before they began to rotate around her at a much higher speed.

The Wushi couldn’t help but marvel at the sight for a bit, even as her energy levels continued to go down and her stomach began to growl even more. She grimaced as she made all of the crystals fall right into her hand once more.

Seems like trying to manipulate petra took a lot more power than the regular dirt. She wasn’t exactly sure why this material was more stubborn to work with, but that was something she could easily get past. After all, the whole point of martial arts was to grow and learn as a person using one's body and mind. If she were to complain and whine about an obstacle that came in her way, then she would have never gotten to her current state of power.

She went ahead and pocketed the petra into one of her pockets. She’d have to inform the villagers of the petra deposit she found, but that could be done later. Right now, she wanted to admire the work she put into creating all of these walls.

She took a seat, before looking up at the giant structure formed. True to her word, she had gone ahead and created the walls and the guard towers to help keep the area safe. These all had stairs and ladders that helped lead to the top, where she had put in adequate spacing to create walkways for the guards to patrol around. She made sure to add in some larger towers connected to these walls as a means of rest as well as higher ground to shoot down at any incoming beasts.

Of course, she couldn’t build everything. One of the issues with the wall right now was the giant opening that led right into the village, something that could be resolved with a simple gate. However, she hadn’t built that yet, nor did she have any plans to do so.

After all, that was something the Wushi couldn’t be responsible for. True, she could easily do such a thing and create the gate within a few seconds, but then the issue came with how these people planned to open the entryway. She wasn’t planning to stay in this village forever and she couldn’t come back to make sure that the villagers could open and close the gate at ease.

No, this was something they would need to do themselves. As an apology, she could help with making sure the water channel reached the village without any issue, but that could come after a little bit of rest.

She sighed as she laid out on the grass. She had already taken on so many responsibilities for these villagers and now she couldn’t help but feel a bit worn out from the entire series of events.

She stared at the tower in the distance once more. She couldn’t help but grimace.

That giant building kept on shining, almost mocking her in a way. As if she was never going to be able to reach the spire and continue on being stuck helping every single person that came her way.

But so what? If she were the type to ignore the plight of the common folk, then she was no better than the trash nobles that took advantage of the people to fill their coffers. Something that she was constantly sickened and disgusted by. The absolute greed that led to harming those around them.

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She couldn’t fathom why people would do such a thing. What was the point of having money and coveting coin?

The Wushi sighed at that. Perhaps that was because she was still naive to the way the world worked. Though, she would like to believe people would always help each other without fail, even if there were no benefits from doing so.

That was what these villagers were doing with the young girl she saved, that was what they did to survive through this horrendous underworld, and that was why she was called to save the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

And with that thought in her mind, she jumped up and stretched her back.

Right, no point in lazing around when there was still so much left to do. She’d need to go train the villagers, check up on the girl she saved, get some food and water, change her clothes and take a quick bath, rest again, and then try to set up some training dummies for the people to work with.

With that, she turned around to move to the village proper, only to find herself looking at a small group of people who seemed absolutely shocked. She didn’t see the capped man within the group, but she did see some familiar faces.

One of them happened to be Kanden, whose eyes were popping right out of his head. He seemed to be dressed in a different outfit though, as he was no longer in that wooden armor. No, now he had what seemed to be a more casual outfit now. He had some brown pants, a white tunic and some wooden boots, with the same wooden spear wrapped around his back.

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” he muttered as he held his head in disbelief, “I saw you make all those homes without a single bit of sweat. I shouldn’t be surprised you were able to create an entire walled village in a few hours, I shouldn’t. But I still can’t believe you are capable of such a thing even now!”

“Is it really this shocking?” The Wushi asked with a raised eyebrow, “It’s not like I did anything bizarre.”

“I think your priorities are a bit skewed…” He grumbled, before sighing. “Well, anyways, I wanted to let you know the young girl you saved is up. She’s currently eating and drinking, so I thought you might want to go ahead and meet up with her while she’s relaxing.”

“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll go ahead and meet up with her then.” She smiled at the news.

She was glad. The fact that the child was able to recover so rapidly was quite the good news, as that meant she was capable of continuing onwards. She was not going to lie when she admitted she was looking forward to meeting with the young girl and getting more information from her, possibly about her origins. After all, she was able to survive that encounter with minimal injuries, so that meant that the village she came from must be close by.

There was also the matter of her markings, but that was possibly a private matter that the Wushi had no reason to intrude upon. After all, she wasn’t trying to interrogate the girl, she just wanted to make sure she was okay. More than that, she wanted to be sure that there was nothing that would make the child worried and that she was safe.

So, she moved onwards, ignoring the ramblings and gossip that the other men began to spread amongst themselves. She didn't care about the random words such people shared between each other, nor did she worry about her reputation in the village.

No, what mattered was action. After all, one may have a fancy title or a good standing with people, but that did not mean their character was worthy of such appearances. She had seen far too many people that had trustworthy titles and appearances, but turned out to be nothing more than cheating snakes that attempted to screw over their fellow people all for a handful of coin.

She had to walk for some time to reach the village, but she had to admit that these people had chosen to put in effort to make things better. While she had been busy setting up those walls, everyone present had worked together to improve the homes, installing doors and window frames to help provide that extra bit of security. There were some basic dirt paths being installed, as well as several random fences being designed to help direct the people towards certain locations.

She could see some people working on crafting some new weapons, a few sewing up some brand new clothing using small vines, and a few that were working with the wood and making some more doors. She couldn’t help but smile at the view, simply looking at everyone working together to form a community that worked together for the sake of the future.

With that said…

“I myself am surprised you followed me, Kanden.” The Wushi said as she turned towards her companion, “I imagined you would have stayed with your friends and explore the walls I just made.”

“Well, I would’ve, if not for the fact that you don’t know where the young girl is.” He snarked back as he managed to get right next to her. “Unless you planned on going around and traveling through the entire village to find out where she is.”

She paused in her tracks, before looking back to Kanden. She opened her mouth to respond, before realizing she didn’t have anything to retort. She gave a little breath, before smiling sheepishly back.

He didn’t seem that amused by her look. He sighed and gestured for her to follow, leading her to the destination in question. The two of them went walking for some time through the busy village, before Kanden stopped in front of a random home.

“Here we are.” He said as he gestured to the building, “She’ll be inside. Do you need anything else?”

“No, that’s enough.” The Wushi gave him a nod. “Thank you for all the help, Kanden.”

“Just doing my job.”

With that note, she went inside the building. She looked towards the bed, where the young girl was busy drinking from a large cup while there was an empty plate next to her. Within a few seconds, she managed to gasp out in joy as she put down the empty container, before finally realizing the Wushi was in front of her.

She yelped in shock and scrambled back briefly, before calming down. The Wushi waited until the girl was finished relaxing, before smiling and taking a step forward.

“Hello. Are you doing better now?”