The rusted corrugated iron doors of Workshop Number Four shook under the impact of heavy sledgehammers.
CLANG! CLANG! BOOM!
Dents the size of dinner plates bulged outward across the metal sheeting. Rivets snapped, ricocheting against the concrete floor like stray bullets.
Inside the drafty, cavernous brick hangar, the air smelled of aged cedar shavings, dried drafting ink, and metallic iron dust. Rows of wooden drafting tables held hand-carved architectural models of ancient Chinese timber pagodas, earthquake-proof mortise-and-tenon joints, and high-density foundation arrays.
In the center of the workshop stood fifty-year-old Master Lu Jian.
His hair was iron-gray, tied back in a traditional bun. He wore a patched canvas apron dusted with sawdust, and his right leg was encased in a cracked, rusted steel medical brace. In his calloused right hand, he gripped a heavy, two-foot steel drafting compass like a weapon.
Behind him huddled twenty loyal apprentice draftsmen and veteran masons. Several held wooden T-squares and stone-mason chisels, their knuckles white with fear.
Lin Mo’s [Pure-Heart Eye] activated automatically through the cracked glass skylights:
[Target: Master Lu Jian ("Lu Ban'er"), Age 50.]
[Moral Integrity Score: 92/100 (Unyielding Master Builder & Array Heir).]
[Special Trait: Nine-Palace Architectural Mechanism & Structural Feng-Shui Lineage.]
[Status: Bankrupted by Zhao Real Estate; Right Tibia Fractured by Cartel Enforcers.]
[Target Pool: 20 Loyal Apprentices & Masons — Average Goodness: 86.8/100.]
Outside the buckling doors, a harsh, guttural voice roared over the sound of sledgehammer strikes.
“Lu Ban’er! Stop hiding behind your wooden toys!” the cartel enforcer yelled. “You blew up thirty million yuan of Zhao Real Estate’s school foundations with mining dynamite! Boss Lei Bao holds your commercial penalty notes! Open this door right now, or we will smash your other kneecap and sell your apprentices to illegal brick kilns!”
A young apprentice draftsman of nineteen began to weep quietly, clutching a roll of parchment blueprints to his chest. “Master Lu... we have no more money... they will kill us...”
Master Lu Jian stood firmly on his good left leg, tapping his heavy steel compass against the floor.
“Dry your tears, Xiao Liang!” Master Lu barked, his voice hoarse yet unyielding. “My ancestors built watchtowers that stood through ten-magnitude earthquakes! An architect who pours concrete over hollow scrap-steel to save his own skin is a murderer! I blew up that foundation because eight hundred children would have died under the rubble! I would rather die on this concrete floor with clean hands than live as Lei Bao’s pet dog!”
BOOM!
A final sledgehammer blow tore the iron lock from its mounting.
The two rusted doors groaned and swung inward. Thirty burly cartel thugs in grease-stained jackets surged into the workshop, wielding crowbars, iron pipes, and heavy sledgehammers.
At their head stood a scarred brawler with iron knuckles named Scar-Jaw. He stepped over the threshold, his eyes fixing on Master Lu Jian’s cracked leg brace with sadistic glee.
“You talk too much, cripple,” Scar-Jaw sneered, raising his lead pipe. “Break his left leg first! Then smash every drafting table in this building!”
Before a single thug could take two steps across the cedar shavings, a tremendous roar tore through the afternoon air.
CRASH!
A five-ton black-and-gold armored executive van smashed straight through the outer brick wall beside the doorway!
Bricks, mortar, and red dust exploded into the room in a blinding cloud.
Through the settling dust strode Commander Tie Niu.
Tie Niu did not draw a weapon. His eyes were cold, dead, and lethal. He stepped forward like a rampaging armored rhino, his heavy shoulders dropping into a low combat charge.
THUD! CRACK! BANG!
In less than five seconds, four thugs were sent flying ten yards through the air, crashing into the brick walls and sliding down into unconscious heaps.
Tie Niu’s right hand clamped onto Scar-Jaw’s throat like an industrial steel vise. He lifted the two-hundred-pound enforcer three feet off the floor with one arm.
With a single fluid motion, Tie Niu slammed Scar-Jaw face-down onto the concrete floor. The lead pipe clattered harmlessly away.
Thirty armored Iron Guards poured through the breached wall, their tactical shields locking into an impenetrable wall of black alloy. Within ten seconds, all thirty debt-collectors were disarmed, pinned to the floor, and zip-tied like captured swine.
The workshop fell into dead silence, broken only by the groans of the defeated thugs.
Master Lu Jian lowered his steel drafting compass, his chest heaving with shock. His twenty apprentices stood frozen, their eyes wide as saucers.
Footsteps echoed softly against the concrete.
Lin Mo walked through the breached brick wall, stepping over scattered debris with calm, measured grace. Su Wan and Dr. Gu Qinghe walked beside him.
Lin Mo stopped three paces from Master Lu Jian.
He looked at the hand-carved pagoda models, then at the steel compass in Master Lu’s calloused hand, and finally at the older man’s defiant eyes.
“Master Lu,” Lin Mo said softly, his voice carrying the warmth of an early spring thaw. “An architect who sacrifices his own fortune and limbs to protect eight hundred schoolchildren from a tofu-dreg collapse is a true craftsman. You should not have to defend your workshop with a compass.”
Master Lu Jian blinked through his graying brows. “You... who are you? Did the Zhao Consortium send you to take my blueprints?”
“I am Lin Mo,” he replied. “Chairman of Taichu Benevolence Group. This is our Chief Executive Officer, Su Wan, and the Dean of Taichu Sanctuary Hospital, Dr. Gu Qinghe.”
Master Lu gasped. “Taichu Group? The entity that acquired Grand Golden-Plume Plaza and founded the free hospital?”
“The very same,” Lin Mo nodded.
He pulled his emerald-green [Benevolence Charity Card] from his pocket and handed it to Su Wan.
“Su Wan,” Lin Mo commanded. “Execute an immediate commercial relief endowment of twenty-five million yuan.”
Su Wan tapped her tablet screen with practiced precision.
“First,” Su Wan announced clearly, “twenty million yuan disbursed directly into the municipal escrow account of the District Commercial Court. All fraudulent penalty claims, debt judgments, and commercial liens filed by Zhao Real Estate against Master Lu Jian are liquidated in full.”
Master Lu Jian’s knees wobbled violently. “Twenty... twenty million yuan in debts... cleared?!”
“Second,” Su Wan continued, her eyes fixed on the display, “five million yuan allocated as Master Lu Jian’s personal signing endowment, immediate living stipends for his twenty apprentices, and full operational funding for Taichu Heavenly Construction.”
“Total expenditure: twenty-five million yuan,” Su Wan concluded.
Lin Mo pressed his thumb against the tablet sensor.
BEEP!
[DING! Monumental Pure-Heart Benevolence Expenditure Confirmed!]
[Recipient 1: Master Architect Lu Jian (Goodness: 92/100) — Received: ¥20,000,000.00 Debt Liquidation & ¥3,000,000.00 Signing Package.]
[Recipient 2: 20 Apprentice Draftsmen & Masons (Avg Goodness: 86.8/100) — Received: ¥2,000,000.00 Stipends & Tool Endowments.]
[Calculation: Total Spent: ¥25,000,000.00 RMB | Multiplier: 100x Pure-Heart Return.]
[Refund Amount: +¥2,500,000,000.00 RMB Transferred to Personal Vault!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +2,500,000 BMP Awarded!]
[Personal Liquid Vault Current Balance: ¥19,202,180,000.50 RMB!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 4,822 Verified Righteous Allies!]
A tremendous, roaring cascade of pure golden benevolence qi poured into Lin Mo’s dantian.
The energy was radiant and vast, swirling like a sun inside his lower abdomen. His Rank 1 Absolute Peak Martial foundation hummed with absolute, unyielding density. His internal meridians glowed with golden light, completely ready to undergo the sacred transformation into Rank 2 Iron-Jade Bones.
Nineteen point two billion yuan in liquid vault balance, Lin Mo observed silently. And an ancient master architect whose loyalty cannot be bought with all the gold in the province. Spending money on upright craftsmen is the most rewarding enterprise in existence.
Dr. Gu Qinghe stepped forward, carrying a jade-stoppered glass vial.
“Master Lu, please sit on this drafting stool,” Dr. Gu said gently, kneeling beside the master builder’s cracked leg brace.
With a swift surgical motion, Dr. Gu unbuckled the rusted steel brace. He uncorked the vial, pouring a warm, jade-green ointment over Master Lu’s scarred, misaligned shinbone: [Rank-1 Bone-Mending Marrow Liniment].
A soothing, herbal aroma filled the workshop.
A cool, jade-like tingling sensation swept through Master Lu’s leg. Within thirty seconds, the deep, agonizing bone ache that had tormented him for three months dissolved completely.
CRACK-CRACK-SNAP.
The misaligned bone fragments in his tibia clicked back into anatomical perfection. Crushed cartilage regenerated with vibrant elasticity.
Master Lu Jian gasped. He placed his right foot flat onto the concrete floor.
He stood up.
He took one step. Then another. He stomped his right heel firmly against the solid floor without the slightest trace of pain or weakness!
“My leg...” Master Lu Jian whispered, staring down at his limbs in utter, weeping astonishment. “My leg is healed! I can walk! I can climb scaffolding again!”
The twenty young apprentices dropped their T-squares and rushed forward, weeping and laughing as they embraced their teacher.
“Master’s leg is healed!” “Our debts are gone! We are free!”
Master Lu Jian turned to face Lin Mo.
Tears streamed down the weathered creases of his cheeks. He dropped to both knees before Lin Mo, placing his palms flat on the wood shavings.
“Chairman Lin,” Master Lu Jian choked out, his voice shaking with profound, solemn devotion. “You cleared my debts, saved my apprentices, and gave me back my legs. My ancestors passed down the secret architectural manuals of the Nine-Palace Vitality Arrays. From this day forward, Lu Jian and his clan will build your empire with our lives!”
Lin Mo stepped forward and helped Master Lu to his feet with gentle, unbreakable strength.
“Stand tall, Chief Architect Lu,” Lin Mo said warmly. “You are now Chief Architect of Taichu Heavenly Construction. Your first assignment is our riverfront site: the eighty-eight-story Taichu Sanctuary Sky-Tower and Vocational School.”
Master Lu Jian walked to his central drafting table. With trembling reverence, he unlocked a heavy, brass-bound rosewood portfolio case.
Inside rested his preliminary structural blueprints and a set of intricate copper drafting gears: the modern architectural schematics for the Sanctuary Sky-Tower.
Master Lu spread the preliminary blueprints across the cedar table. The elevations were drawn with mesmerizing precision, combining modern aerodynamic structural calculations with traditional interlocking mortise-and-tenon load distribution.
“Chairman Lin, look at the central foundation layout,” Master Lu explained, his eyes shining with artistic brilliance. “My ancestors designed foundations that anchored directly into subterranean granite veins. Once we clear the bedrock pit, I will bring out my Lu clan’s sealed heirloom manual so we can embed an ancient seismic-damping foundation array into the tower’s core. It will not merely be an office building; it will be a living fortress.”
Lin Mo studied the complex geometric curves. His deadpan mind appreciated the sheer, staggering efficiency of the design.
Traditional structural engineering combined with modern skyscraper architecture, Lin Mo thought, nodding slowly. A building that absorbs earthquakes and optimizes airflow will save millions in maintenance bills and insurance premiums. True craftsmanship is simply superior long-term economics.
Master Lu placed the portfolio case into Lin Mo’s hands.
Then, his joyful expression tightened into severe professional gravity.
“Chairman Lin, I will build you the strongest, most majestic sanctuary tower in the country,” Master Lu said, his voice dropping into an urgent whisper. “But we face an impossible hurdle.”
Lin Mo tilted his head. “What hurdle?”
Master Lu looked at him with grim, serious eyes.
“Lei Bao and the Zhao Consortium control the construction supply cartel in this city,” Master Lu warned. “They have locked down every single concrete batching plant and steel rolling mill in Jiangcheng! And word has already spread that any worker who joins Taichu will be blacklisted by every construction company in the province!”
Master Lu clenched his calloused fists, his voice filled with fierce determination and deep anxiety.
“Chairman Lin, building an eighty-eight-story tower requires two thousand certified master masons, heavy crane operators, and precision welders—plus thirty thousand tons of high-strength structural alloy steel!” Master Lu said, his brow creased with worry. “Lei Bao’s enforcers are patrolling the labor exchanges with lead pipes right now. How do we recruit two thousand honest builders and break the cartel’s steel monopoly within twenty-four hours?!”