A proper home needed protection from heat, cold, and rain.
Austin stood in his cabin with his arms folded. The pine walls smelled clean and sweet. The tight joints had stopped the old drafts, and the floor did not move under his heels.
Only the windows still bothered him.
The old Chu Yuan had covered them with yellowed oil paper. Most of it had rotted into greasy strips that flapped in the wind. Every morning at five-thirty, sunlight struck Austin directly in the eyes. The torn paper also let in pests, moisture, and cold.
“You can’t heat a building full of holes,” he said. “I need tight coverings that block the light.”
He took heavy iron shears from his tool chest and went to the cart of Celestial Dragon-Vein Silk.
Across the continent, clans fought wars over a single yard of this cloth. It came from thousand-year void silkworms. Great sects used it for royal robes that could stop flying swords, scatter curses, and survive lightning tribulations.
Austin unrolled three yards across the courtyard and pressed the weave with his thumb.
“Good cloth. Tight weave, no thin spots. It’ll hang well.”
He measured the windows with a notched pine stick and cut three matching panels.
SNIP. CHUNK. SNIP.
The shears passed through the immortal silk with only a few sparks. Austin trimmed the hems so they would not bunch against the sills.
Inside, he drove four nails into the window headers and stretched copper wire between them. He hung the curtains, rubbed beeswax along the wire, and tested them twice. They slid open and closed without a sound.
The harsh glare vanished. Soft pearl-white light filled the room. Any foul energy that drifted near the cabin dissolved into clean mountain air.
Austin stepped back and checked his work.
“Clean finish. No drafts, no glare, and some privacy. Looks like a proper cabin now.”
Outside, he turned to the five slabs of Imperial Spirit Jade.
Great clans used this stone for thrones and monuments. Cool green light glowed inside each piece, and the rich qi had already caused tiny moss buds to sprout around the cart wheels.
Austin scratched his jaw and looked toward the small outbuilding behind the cabin.
His outhouse.
“The path is bare red clay. One storm and it turns to grease. Then I track mud across the clean floors. Not happening.”
He did not simply drop the jade into the dirt. First, he dug down to firm ground and removed the soft topsoil. Then he hauled over coarse gravel, spread a two-inch bed, and leveled it with a straight board.
He lifted the first heavy slab against his ribs, carried it around the cabin, and set it into the bed.
THWACK.
He packed gravel around the edges and set a two-percent slope so rain would run away from the path. Then he fetched the next slab.
Ten minutes later, a straight emerald walkway ran from the back door to the outhouse. Austin walked its full length twice. No slab rocked, and no edge stuck up.
“Solid footing. No mud. That’s how you lay a path.”
Near the fence, Li Xiaoyao pressed one foot onto the jade path. It did not rock or sink.
“Master, was that stone not meant for a palace?”
“Maybe. It’s flat, and it keeps your feet out of the mud. That’s what I need it to do.”
Xiaoyao nodded. He was beginning to understand that Austin judged things by whether they helped, not by their names or price.
He went to the porch table, where the crystal jug of Thousand-Flower Divine Dew waited.
When he pulled the stopper, the air filled with the scent of honeysuckle, green apples, and frost. Austin took three long drinks.
The dew was cold and lightly fizzy. It tasted like elderflower, mint, and honey. Cool energy spread through his chest, and the ache left his back and shoulders.
Warmth flared behind Austin’s navel. The star-fire spun faster, and static snapped across his knuckles. His sight sharpened until he could see individual pine needles moving on a distant ridge.
He opened the new blueprint.
[Earth-Melter | Trench Mode]
“An automated trench cutter? Now we’re talking. Every base needs drainage. And a twelve-foot ditch with hard glass walls will stop raiders before they reach the fence.”
Austin picked up his hoe and rolled up his sleeves.
“Time to dig some real foundation trenches.”