“A good builder first clears the ground for his foundations in order to see whether the basic structures will support the whole. ”

Immediately after claiming the mountain for themselves, Qai and his group went to work.

Qai was no longer the same old ignorant individual and had already realized the many methods of an immortal cultivator.

So he already knew how to design his territory.

However, for the Saints Hall peak, he wanted to construct it with a little flare that belonged to his old aristocratic life.

So he called on his 100 giant Ants to mow the mountain peak until it looked like a little over a 1-mile flat surface.

With the giant Ants’ strong mandibles and cultivation bases comparable to Core Formation stage cultivators, the entire task only took an entire day.

Thereafter, he commanded every single Ant Worker to look for stone mines nearby.

Qai’s plan was to build a castle-like fortress!

Even if such construction were outside the taste of cultivators—since they preferred immortal caves—Qai still wanted to challenge the conventional wisdom.

In 3 days, the giant Ants found a large quarry of Darkgold limestone deep underground in an empty tract of land a few miles away from the mountain.

Such kind of stone was actually a low-grade material from the perspective of cultivators but the amount of which, that the giant Ants found, was enough to make cultivator clans fight for it among themselves.

Immediately, Qai sent 2 Ant Soldiers to secure the place while the rest of the Ant Workers mined the stones.

Qai consulted with Old Ye Mo if the latter had a method to refine the limestones to make a large number of bricks.

As cultivators, immortals wouldn't need mortars for constructions. In the same manner as refining treasures, construction stones may simply be ‘refined.’

“I do. But seeing your plan to build walls and buildings like mortals do, it would be faster if I have a Soulflame.”

Qai made a simple incantation, and his Cornelia Flame flower appeared on his palm.

The sudden glow of Wood type flame that wildly blazed immediately caught the attention of the old tool refinement master.

Soulflame!

The old master was taken aback.

Old Ye Mo possessed Fire element Spirit Roots. And it was that fact which led him to become proficient in tool refinement.

However, when he inspected Qai’s Soulflame, he shook his head—albeit with a look of envy.

“Your Soulflame is good but it works better with Pill alchemy. It may also work well with tool refinement, but it would be tiring to use it for the limestones. Besides, with your cultivation base, we may not be able to meet the speed of work that you desire.”

Qai paused and thought for a moment.

He did not wish to easily reveal his secret so he asked the Queen Ant if it could show the Dark Flame.

In response, the Ant General appeared instead.

Then from its mouth, a burning heat suddenly crackled and flared up in the surrounding area.

Qai had never asked the Queen Ant before to show him the Soulflame it recently acquired so it was apparently also his first time to see the Dark Flame that the Spirit Beast possessed.

Old Ye Mo’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped when the Soulflame appeared before him.

“Haha, this will do. Such a strong flame. I've never seen anything like it before.”

The old man’s focus was on the Dark Flame that he forgot to notice a much bigger giant Ant compared to the ones he had seen before.

And so when he came to his senses, he realized that when Qai previously showed him the latter’s strength, Qai was actually holding back.

‘This youngster is too deep. Perhaps it was my fortune that I did not recklessly act against his proposal.’

“Old Ye Mo, you are one of us now. Next time I find another Soulflame I would offer it either to you or Teng Hu.”

Qai was staring at the old cultivator with a grin.

“Of course, my decision would depend on the performance of you two.”

“Hah, I’ve already spent more than 2 life cycles honing my refinement skills. I could not lose to some brat.”

“Alright, let's not waste time here. This giant Ant will be under your care while you're at work. As for the Darkgold limestones, they will be delivered to you regularly.”

Qai had been wanting to ask Old Ye Mo, how had the latter achieved such heights in tool refinement. He always thought that to be a master in such endeavor, one should be in the Core Formation stage—but he had been holding his tongue back knowing that it must be the old cultivator’s secret.

And so, once again the entire mountain peak became busy.

The first part of Qai’s plan was to put up a square mile 4-by-2 meter tall walls with a single gate facing the west where the Rising Sun City laid.

Obviously, walls do not translate much into a defensive construction since cultivators could just fly over them.

But Qai wanted to put them up just the same.

He was an ambitious builder—he was once an aristocrat after all.

In his mind, he would fortify his walls with Array formations so they won't break easily.

And apart from them, there would still be several Array formations that would cover the mountain peak like a dome.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without an Illusion Array to hide his fortress on top of multiple defensive and killing Array formations. And in Qai’s thoughts, with respect to the illusion, he would just copy the concept of the ‘Evercloud’ peak.

So in the following days and weeks, Qai racked up his brain in studying Array formations from the Jade slip he acquired which recorded much-advanced Array formations.

And although his attainments were not proficient enough, he wanted to at least arrange restrictions—both with the walls and the outer dome—that would somehow be capable of fending off simultaneous attacks from several Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Within the walls, the layout he had in mind was to divide the peak into 4 major areas by a 10-meter thoroughfare made from Darkgold limestones.

The road would start from the main gate and it would eventually form into a simple cross from a bird’s eye view. But at the center of the cross, there would be a massive main hall where he could gather everyone in a sort of a meeting.

Qai also thought to establish a huge area for herbs and plants, next, a training ground, then, an area for the residential manors, and lastly, a place where several structures for the different halls would be built just like a sect would normally have—treasury hall, refining rooms, and the like.

And so, when Qai called Ji Wuheng, the Crag Brothers and Old Ye Mo, they carefully planned the blueprint of the mountain peak.

Everyone agreed about the 4 sections Qai had in mind. They were simple and only focused on the necessary things.

In the end, the entire design went on like this—from the gate, anyone who would enter would immediately notice that to the right wide thoroughfare, there would be a wide training ground, but to its left, several halls would be intricately placed.

Walking along the road, one would bump into a huge main hall which would almost look like a basic castle in Qai’s memory. It would be the central figure within the 1-mile radius territory.

Then the wide thoroughfare would extend around the main hall then split to main hall’s left, right and back, eventually forming the cross-shaped divisions.

From the back road, the manors would be built on the right side while the left would be a vast land devoted to precious herbs, flowers, plants, and grains.

Of course, in the group’s plan, the manors and roads would be first built before the rest of the structures. As for the garden plots and fields need not any construction effort–Qai simply sent the rest of his Ant Soldiers to once again collect precious herbs and plants they could find to replant them.

And when the first group of Ant Workers arrived with boulders of Darkgold limestones, Qai and his group started the building process.