Chapter 82 It looks like they're taking care of a child...

Zhuang Jinfu was checking the integrity of the barrier throughout the city when Ling Shu contacted her using a lotus-patterned jade pendant.

Upon learning the location, Ling Shu rushed over.

Zhuang Jinfu squatted on the ground, her palms touching the ground as she probed, and circles of magical power rippled outwards from her palms.

"Master."

She heard someone call her, stood up from the ground, and wiped her hands with a handkerchief.

"What is it?"

Ling Shu looked around to make sure no one was there before saying with relief, "Didn't Master ask me to help you repair the barrier? Why didn't you come looking for me?"

Zhuang Jin wiped her face and stuffed the handkerchief back into her sleeve. "It's not time yet."

"Back then, I was worried that the people of Nanxi City would not agree to evacuate, so I came to you. Now that the city lord is capable and the people are united, we have successfully evacuated Nanxi City. I have no worries about the future. I can repair the barrier by myself."

"Didn't they just give me that five-colored furnace for free?"

"No. Do you remember me saying there was an earthquake in Jinli Township?"

"Remember."

"We need to check the integrity of the protective barriers in areas where earthquakes have occurred. We'll go there tomorrow."

Ling Shu looked up at the sky. Above her was a protective barrier, with water ripples hanging silently on it. Had it been broken somewhere?

As she was thinking, Zhuang Jinfu spoke up: "The barrier to prevent natural disasters is not in the sky, but on the ground."

Underground? Ling Shu looked down at the ground beneath her feet. The soil was flat and there were no signs of force.

“By striking it with magic, you can see it.”

This was an angle she had never considered before. Ling Shu gathered a ball of magic power and struck down, creating layers of golden water ripples that formed a barrier at the point of impact. The barrier was transparent and elastic, like a soft and chewy layered cake, and disappeared in a moment, indicating that it was hidden.

Zhuang Jinfu: "This barrier is called the 'Earth Barrier' because most natural disasters occur on the surface of the earth, and people also live on the ground. Therefore, it is better to set up the barrier underground than in the air. When a natural disaster occurs, if people are in danger, the Earth Barrier will pop out a barrier sphere to wrap them up and prevent them from being hit, giving the escapees twelve hours to save their lives."

Ling Shu: "Is this barrier present underground throughout the entire Southwest City?"

Zhuang Jinfu: Yes.

Ling Shu was surprised, so she asked again, "It can't be that it's underground all over the Shangqing Realm, can it?"

Zhuang Jinfu: Yes.

Ling Shu looked at her with admiration, then frowned, lowered her head and reached out to take her hand: "Aren't you too tired?"

Zhuang Jinfu's eyes flickered slightly, and he said, "It's alright."

How much longer are you going to be busy today?

"Sorry, I'll come and keep you company tonight since I'm free."

Zhuang Jinfu is really busy. After the bolt from the blue, she is even more diligent than before. She sleeps for only two hours every day and gets up before dawn to patrol the barrier. She can't be found at all. She not only patrols inside the city, but also goes to check outside the city. She said that although the South West Mountain fault zone formed by the earthquake did not injure anyone, the terrain has changed. Some places have sunk and some places have piled up rocks. The barrier that exists on the ground can automatically recognize the changes in terrain and position. There are always some places that do not fit and need to be repaired.

Ling Shu obediently hummed in agreement: "Then I'll wait for you at the city gate tonight."

It always feels like a lovers' reunion, hehe.

"good."

Night, at the city gate.

Ling Shu stood on the city gate, holding a bunch of wildflowers she had picked from the mountain, waiting for her. Zhuang Jinfu arrived on his sword.

A beautiful fairy in white robes, with the moon above her head, stands gracefully in mid-air, riding a sword, her movements as ethereal as a startled swan.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

The phrase "I've been waiting a long time" seemed to pull time back to that night... She was practicing dual cultivation to help herself replenish her cultivation level, and in the escalating atmosphere, they crossed the line and became entangled.

Zhuang Jinfu handed over a square object wrapped in bamboo leaves, saying casually, "Ciba (glutinous rice cake). I bought it at the market in a small town I passed through today."

Ling Shu's eyes fell on her slender, shapely fingers, and she recalled that unforgettable, comfortable feeling. Her face flushed, and after taking the flowers, she gave them to her as well, saying, "Here are some flowers for you."

Zhuang Jinfu accepted the flowers, a gentle smile in her eyes: "Thank you, they're beautiful." She was referring to the flowers, but her eyes were fixed on Ling Shu as she spoke.

Ling Shu didn't know what to say. She unwrapped the bamboo leaves, revealing the soft and glutinous rice cake, and began to eat it in small, demure bites. The slightly sweet filling spread in her mouth, and the aroma of sesame wafted under her nose.

"Is it delicious?" Zhuang Jinfu asked.

Ling Shu nodded honestly: "Delicious."

"Let me try some too."

"But...but I already bit into it..."

Zhuang Jin lowered his head, took Ling Shu's hand and brought it to his mouth. He took a bite of the spot where Ling Shu had eaten, and as he pulled his mouth away, he chewed on the glutinous rice cake, staring into Ling Shu's eyes with a seductive look. "It really is delicious."

Ling Shu's face felt hot.

So alluring, so beautiful, I want to kiss her.

People allow her to be disrespectful, but she can't keep taking advantage of their leniency and pushing her luck.

Ling Shu looked away and continued eating the glutinous rice cake, biting back at the spot she had bitten, as if that were a kiss. She chewed it slowly, as if the little glutinous rice cake were some kind of delicacy.

Zhuang Jinfu was not a talkative person, so he stood quietly beside her.

The little girl seemed to really like this sweet treat. She chewed it for a long time, eating very slowly, as if she didn't want to finish it. If I had known she liked it, I would have bought a few more.

The little girl was very well-behaved today; she didn't try to push her aside, undress her, kiss her indiscriminately, or ride on her waist and act like a tyrant.

He turned his head to look at her. She had lip rouge on her lips, and some of it had smudged off while she was eating, revealing her original pink lips. A little sesame seed was stuck to the corner of her mouth, and Zhuang Jinfu gently wiped it away with a handkerchief.

Ling Shu moved away after she finished wiping.

"What's wrong?"

"My lip rouge has come off, it doesn't look good."

These days she's been so busy, it's no wonder she looks unwell. Her lip rouge would come off when she ate. Zhuang Jinfu is observant, and he noticed the sesame seeds on her lips, so he must have also noticed the lip rouge that had come off.

Zhuang Jinfu chuckled, placed the flowers on the city wall, and reached out a box of lip rouge. "Shall I touch up your lip rouge?"

Ling Shu quickly finished the last bite. "Okay."

Zhuang Jinfu reached out with a handkerchief and wiped the sugar stains off her lips.

It looks like they're taking care of a child...

After applying the lipstick, she opened the cap, took a small brush, dipped it in, and gently swept it onto Ling Shu's lips. The soft bristles of the brush tickled her. Zhuang Jinfu's face was so close; her eyelashes were so long, and her willow-leaf eyebrows, though not heavily drawn, were naturally shaped, their curved shape perfectly complementing her face.

After a while, Zhuang Jinfu stopped writing, put away his things, and said, "All done."

"Thank you, Master." She smiled radiantly.

Without a mirror, it must have been painted beautifully.

The wind blew quietly on the city gate. After applying their lipsticks, no one spoke. Ling Shu quietly reached out to take her hand, but Wen Liang's hand returned to hers. Hand in hand, they looked down at the post-disaster Nanxi City from the city gate. It was dark, yet reassuring.

The atmosphere was perfect, ideal for a late-night chat. Ling Shu had always been curious about Zhuang Jin Fu's romantic history. Had she not met many suitable people all these years? Cultivating the Path of Ruthlessness meant she couldn't have desires, but what about before? Did she have any close female friends? "Master, before you cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness, did you ever like anyone?"

Zhuang Jinfu paused, looking into the distance: "Never."

"Is there someone you care about, someone you haven't forgotten for years, someone whose name makes your heart skip a beat when they're mentioned?"

Yes, the fox demon that was not saved on the first trip down the mountain. The fox demon should not have died, but it died because of its own actions, dying from the kindness of a naive cultivator.

Why did you suddenly want to ask this?

She didn't answer.

Ling Shu regretted asking that question.

Just as Ling Shu was about to press further, Zhuang Jinfu suddenly felt a pang of panic, and the jade pendant on his waist turned red. He quickly did some mental calculations.

Seeing Zhuang Jinfu calculating something with his fingers, Ling Shu quickly asked, "What happened?"

"The earth in Jinli Township has turned over."

After finishing their conversation, Ling Shu stopped talking about personal matters, and the two flew together on their swords. During this time, Ling Shu sent messages to Li Chang and Zhao Chi, instructing them to guard Nanxi City with the thirty-two cultivators and prevent bandits from breaking in and looting.

With time of the essence, Zhuang Jinfu used a teleportation array to instantly travel sixty miles away. When he arrived at Jinli Township, it was already a wasteland.

Zhuang Jinfu made a grasping motion downwards, and one after another, golden barrier spheres rushed up from under the soil and rubble, each containing countless buried people. All that was known was that those who emerged knelt down inside the barrier spheres and said, "The Immortal Venerable has manifested! Thank you, Immortal Venerable."

Zhuang Jinfu quickly used a communication talisman to send a message to the nearby military headquarters, asking them to send more men to rescue the people. Fortunately, Jinli Township had a small population of about three hundred people; it was a small village.

At this moment, Zhuang Jinfu was worried about what kind of fault zone this earthquake had formed.

She channeled her magic into the ground, then quickly rose and flew high into the sky to observe the direction the magic was traveling.

The wind was strong at high altitude, making clothes flutter. Soon a longitudinal band running from southwest to northeast appeared on the ground, following the same direction as the fault line that formed the Nanxi City. This must have been an earthquake caused by the earthquake in Nanxi City.

Naturally, it still exceeded her expectations.

Jinli Township is located on the south side of the Xingbai Mountain Range. Zhuang Jinfu imported it into the topographic map. The topographic map shows that the Xingbai Mountain rises by five meters. At the point where the fault line ends, there is a large city, Laicheng, with a population of about 100,000. If there is a second earthquake, Laicheng will hardly escape disaster.

Zhuang Jinfu immediately got down and called Ling Shu to rush to Laicheng.

Laicheng was brightly lit, and the people in the city were shouting in alarm. The streets were full of people, some carrying children or cats and dogs, walking anxiously in the streets. Some people didn't even have time to put on clothes and ran barefoot in the streets. The city gates were opened urgently, and people drove out to escape. Many more people were at a loss in the open spaces.

Without the talisman to reinforce the walls, many houses have collapsed. Without prior notice, the military commander and the security officer were unable to arrive in time to provide assistance.

At the city gate, a carriage was surrounded by people. A woman dressed as the city lord's maid stepped onto the carriage's footboard, tugged at the sleeve of a fat man inside, and shouted, "What are we going to do if you leave us like this?"

"Lord, get out of the carriage!" someone echoed.

"This corrupt official has abandoned the entire city's inhabitants! Sisters, bring him down!"

There was no honest and upright city lord.

Zhuang Jinfu and Ling Shu went against the flow of people into the city. In an open space in the city, Zhuang Jinfu placed his palm on the ground and spread his magic power. This action attracted a lot of people to watch. The streets were full of people, and it was really hard to find a place without people.

Zhuang Jinfu ignored the people around him and carefully investigated.

Oh no, the barrier around Lai City is damaged.

A powerful surge of magic energy suddenly erupted from the ground, accompanied by bursts of dragon roars.

"What is that?!" someone exclaimed.