Chapter 235 - 137: Construction and Daily Life

Chapter 235: Chapter 137: Construction and Daily Life

The next day, Xu Mo and Zhang Yun were still patrolling Sector F-6, but their route had changed to a line running parallel to the river, farther away from the bank.

During the patrol, Xu Mo felt his coordination with Zhang Yun growing more and more seamless. Without a word, a simple glance or gesture was enough to understand each other’s intentions. The two left a long trail of footprints on the scorched earth.

As their patrol route once again neared the river, Xu Mo’s exceptional eyesight caught something in the center of the current. A few long, narrow shadows, slightly darker than the surrounding water, were cruising slowly beneath the surface. Their outlines were somewhat similar to the large fish from yesterday’s attack, but they appeared to be smaller.

These fish didn’t surface or approach the bank. They just patrolled the area in the middle of the river where the current was slower, like sentinels lurking in the shadows.

Xu Mo raised a hand to signal, and Zhang Yun immediately stopped. She stared intently in the direction he indicated. Although she couldn’t see as clearly as Xu Mo, she also sensed the abnormality under the water.

Neither of them made any rash moves or tried to startle the creatures by firing their weapons. They simply continued silently along their route, keeping their distance from the riverbank until the dangerous stretch of water was far behind them.

The patrol team on the opposite bank seemed to have learned their lesson, too. They didn’t even appear within sight of the river today. It was unclear if they had changed their route or just hadn’t come this way at all.

The day’s patrol ended in this eerie calm, a kind of silent standoff with the shadows in the river. There were no attacks, no water arrows—only the mournful cry of the wind sweeping across the wilderness.

For the next few days, the patrol mission seemed to enter a sort of stalemate. Sector F-6 remained Xu Mo and Zhang Yun’s responsibility, and the river remained a silent, dangerous boundary.

Every day, Xu Mo could see those lingering shadows under the water. It seemed they were also observing, adapting. They made no move to rashly attack Xu Mo and Zhang Yun, but the sense of potential threat grew with each passing day.

Xu Mo felt as if he and the fish had reached a fragile understanding: ’You don’t come near my water, and for now, I won’t cross the line to attack you.’ But this understanding was built on the foundation of military deterrence and distance—a foundation that could crumble at any moment.

Zhang Yun had also gradually adjusted from her initial tension, but her vigilance hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

She and Xu Mo communicated a bit more than before. Besides necessary tactical discussions, they would occasionally chat about trivial things they’d seen, a small relief for their frayed nerves. Zhang Yun was clearly curious about Xu Mo’s skills and his extraordinary composure, but she knew her place and never pried directly.

The days passed in this cycle of repetitive vigilance and underlying crisis. At the end of each day’s patrol, they would turn in their equipment, collect their Contribution Points, and then head their separate ways.

For Xu Mo, these outwardly calm days were a perfect opportunity to consolidate his Iron Bone Realm Cultivation Level and observe the changes in Jiang City.

One day, after finishing the afternoon patrol, it was still early. Xu Mo didn’t head home right away. An idea suddenly took root in his mind: ’I want to see for myself what this madly ’growing’ beast of a city, Jiang City, has become. Especially the wall that carries the hopes of so many.’

With this in mind, Xu Mo ambled toward the edge of the Inner City. The "First Ring" renovations had already begun here. Many of the low, chaotic shantytowns had been razed, revealing uneven foundations underneath. The air was thick with the smell of dust and construction materials.

New foundations had already been laid in some areas, clearly for multi-story buildings. The efficiency was high, but it was also somewhat chaotic. Building materials were piled haphazardly by the roadside, and pedestrians and handcarts hauling supplies squeezed through narrow passages.

Passing through this noisy, dusty construction zone, Xu Mo walked through a reserved, guarded temporary passage and out of the original main city wall. The view before him opened up dramatically, and he was simultaneously struck by the sight of a construction project that was even grander and more clamorous.

Xu Mo’s initial plan was to walk for a while along the foundation of the "Second Ring" wall that was under construction to get a feel for its scale.

However, after walking for less than twenty minutes along a section of the eastern side where part of the wall had already been poured, Xu Mo realized just how impractical his idea was.

It was too big.

As far as the eye could see, the grayish-white wall rising from the ground was like a colossal dragon slowly lifting its head, snaking northward and southward with no end in sight.

Countless ant-like figures bustled about on top of and below the wall. The giant arms of tower cranes rotated slowly, vehicles transporting building materials formed long queues, and the roar of cement mixers, the clang of metal, the shouts of workers, and the shrill blasts of command whistles... all these sounds merged into a vast, low-frequency wave that battered his eardrums. Even the ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble slightly.

Xu Mo made a rough calculation. At his walking pace, just to circle this newly planned city wall—even without factoring in obstacles, security checks, and stamina drain—it would probably take from dawn until deep into the night, or perhaps even longer. And that wasn’t even accounting for the fact that the wall itself wasn’t fully enclosed yet; many sections were still just foundations or steel skeletons, which would require much wider detours.

"Looks like I can only see a section of it," Xu Mo chuckled to himself. He walked over to a mound of earth by the roadside that wasn’t in the way of the construction, stopped to gaze into the distance, and then walked closer to a section of the wall that had already been poured, standing about four or five meters high.

Up close, the raw, sturdy nature of the structure was even more palpable. The wall’s thickness was astounding, tapering upwards in a trapezoidal shape. The concrete used for the pour was clearly not of the ordinary grade from times of peace; its color was darker, and its texture looked exceptionally dense. The surface still bore the rough imprints of the formwork and a few air pockets. In some key areas, such as the spaces reserved for future gates, firing ports, or utility conduits, massive steel rebar and special alloy components had already been embedded, glinting with a cold, hard luster.