Chapter 148: Doing It Yourself

The flying boat carried the disciples of the Return to Ruins Sect across thousands of miles of mountains, flying continuously along the way.

This time, all the disciples finally got a clear look at the entirety of the State of Zhao.

The vast majority of the region was desolate. Stretching as far as the eye could see, there was little else besides endless green mountains.

Every now and then, a city would appear, but the cities down below were all extremely small. Standing on the flying boat, one could overlook the myriad facets of mortal life below, prompting many disciples to sigh with emotion.

At that moment, they suddenly stopped feeling afraid.

At that moment, the altitude of the flying boat gave birth to a profound sensation within them—they were going to protect these living beings.

They were going to guard the territory of the State of Zhao!

Soon, the flying boat arrived in the vicinity of the frontier battlefield. Standing on the deck, many disciples witnessed the devastation ahead, where the flames of war raged fiercely. High up in the sky, supreme entities were locked in fierce combat.

Below, massive armies were slaughtering one another, and right beneath the flying boat stood a frontier fortress.

The supreme beings fighting in the sky seemed to have no time to pay attention to them, which allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.

If a powerhouse of that caliber were to strike the flying boat even once, the entire vessel might be completely destroyed.

The flying boat began to descend slowly.

In the end, it landed inside the frontier fortress. This was a small city, but unlike ordinary cities, it was entirely a military encampment devoid of common civilians. The sole purpose of this city's existence was to guard the borders of the State of Zhao.

After the flying boat landed, Bai Feiyu and the others quickly gathered their belongings and disembarked.

At that moment, an officer stood at the fortress gates, responsible for receiving all the disciples.

"Esteemed young heroes, please follow me. I will lead you to your encampment today!"

The officer said to Bai Feiyu and the others. Afterward, they followed the officer and walked toward a slope.

The hill ahead was not particularly tall, and along the way, the path was littered with debris, the environment rather poor.

Bai Feiyu and his companions saw a cluster of tents ahead that looked as though they had just been newly pitched. It seemed that must be their encampment.

Not far from the cluster of tents, there was a small stream, much like a brook. However, the water inside had become stagnant and no longer flowed; before long, it would likely turn into a foul ditch.

At that moment, the officer said to Bai Feiyu and the others with an apologetic expression:

"I am truly sorry, esteemed young heroes. You have come here to provide reinforcement, yet you can only be accommodated in such an environment."

"However, this is a matter of helplessness. The frontier has been plagued by war for so many years, and we simply do not have the extra energy to clean it up. Furthermore, matters happened in an emergency; the State of Zhao and the State of Zhou suddenly declared war, leaving us no time to prepare adequately."

"The water in that small stream is slightly foul, and it will require you all to dredge it yourselves."

"Only after it is dredged will the water there become usable for you. You can fetch water for daily washing and chores from there."

"As for the rest, there will be notifications for daily meal times. Moreover, if you wish to drink water, there is no water source nearby; every day, people will specially deliver a number of canteens to you. These canteens contain your drinking water for the entire day."

"Of course, if the water is not enough to drink, the water in the small stream can actually be consumed as well, as long as you set up a pot and boil the water before drinking it."

When the officer introduced this, he looked deeply apologetic. After all, these disciples were all proud talents within their respective sects.

In their sects, even if they did not live in absolute luxury, it was close enough.

They each had their own residences, yet upon arriving here, they could only live in tents. But there was no help for it; basically, all the soldiers and generals were in the same state.

"It's fine, it's fine. We didn't come here to enjoy ourselves, these things don't matter."

"Indeed, thank you very much. If you hadn't been here guarding the borders, we wouldn't have been able to live such good lives."

"Now that we have arrived, it is our turn to guard you."

At this moment, many disciples spoke up one after another. Seeing this, some of the female disciples who had originally been frowning also chimed in repeatedly, unable to bring themselves to demand anything more.

The officer nodded and then said:

"Esteemed young heroes, please settle down here for the time being. You do not need to go onto the battlefield just yet."

"When the time comes, someone will come and organize you into a troop. You will be executing special assassination missions, so I hope you can adapt to it."

Having said that, the officer turned and left.

Bai Feiyu glanced at the surrounding environment. It could be described as utterly abyssal, but this was hardly the time to be picky and choosey. Following that, Bai Feiyu led the members of the Bai Alliance together, and they went to select their respective tents.

Now, they had to tidy up this place a little. At the very least, that stream had to be cleared out.

Otherwise, getting water for their daily use would become a major problem for them hereafter.

At this moment, many disciples turned their gazes toward Bai Feiyu and asked, "Alliance Leader Bai, what should we do next?"

Among this batch of disciples, there were hardly any exceptionally powerful individuals, and those at the Shackles Realm were few and far between.

The leaders of the Eagle Alliance and other factions had not yet arrived; they were scheduled for the second and third batches. Therefore, the person with the highest combat strength here right now was Bai Feiyu. At the same time, Bai Feiyu had gathered all the disciples of the Bai Alliance, making his faction the largest force present.

Bai Feiyu looked around and then said:

"Let's split up a portion of people to dredge this small stream first. Then, we will clean up the surrounding environment. After all, we will be staying here for a long time, so if we don't tidy things up, I'm afraid problems will arise in our daily lives as time goes on."

"As for the rest of you, if you have nothing urgent to do, you can go and take a look at the other encampments. We have just arrived and have no missions assigned to us yet, so we can also help others with their chores."

"Whatever work needs to be done in this encampment, let's just do it all. We're idle anyway."

Hearing Bai Feiyu's words, many disciples nodded in agreement. Soon, one group began cleaning up within the encampment, while another group started following Bai Feiyu to find the source of the blockage in the small stream.

This stream was the foundation of their survival; it absolutely had to be thoroughly dredged, otherwise the drinking water would be impure.

After all, although people would deliver water every day, how could that amount ever be enough?

Bai Feiyu and the others were well aware that everything from here on would be unlike life in the sect—they would have to do everything themselves to ensure self-sufficiency.

Leading a group of Bai Alliance members, Bai Feiyu began walking toward the source of the small stream.