One Step, Two Step To Many More

A stone brick levitated onto another stone. There was a middle-aged man with a trimmed black beard and medium-short hair, also he still had no clothes on him except a necklace wrapped around his neck.

The man had his eyes closed, but a face of concentration. There were multiple stone bricks floating around him, each brick seemed to have tunnels from one end to another, inside the tunnels were symbols representing different abilities, reflective, pressure, qi cancellation, resistance, and strength.

Each brick was offensive and defensive, when a brick was laid down, it would connect with the other and they would strengthen each other. If a brick was struck the other bricks would extend a part of qi to them to make the brick abilities stronger.

Every brick contained a mass amount of qi and they had extra storage for qi, Ivor could inject his own qi into the bricks now and then to strengthen the brick qi capacity.

Ivor could make 10 bricks in 3 hours, his efficiency increased when he slowly got better a manipulating qi.

Ivor looked around him, there was a tunnel across him but it had been sealed with two large wooden arched doors, there were also two stone stairs on each side of the door heading up. Ivor had to create the first floor of one of the eight towers on top of the tunnel end.

Although the steps currently just led to a flat surface of wood, there were seven other buildings around him. All the walls were made of stone and they had big wooden doors, each door was arched, two doors about 4 meters in width and about 6 meters in height.

Inside each first floor was a light brown wooden floor, light grey stone walls with inscriptions, these inscriptions were for design, not for power. There would be text written in the mother tongue of Ivor on earth also their drawings of animals elephants, tigers, jaguar, and many nearly extinct or common animals.

Ivor made it look like each drawing had a story, there were walls filled with stories. Each time Ivor was creating a story it would have a meaning, these stories helped Ivor with his loneliness and help him understand everything has a different story.

These extra drawings or inscriptions would consume time, but Ivor did not want bland walls.

Ivor had managed to create seven first floors and there were still 71 floors to go.

...

Outside of Mount Screaming Smith.

There was a carriage going past the mountain on a road that was built many years after Ivor's family tragedy.

There was a carriage made of simple wood and iron, also the carriage was escorted by 8 extra guards, the strongest guard was a mid-foundation stage cultivator. They all wore light armor and had swords on their waist.

Inside the carriage was a man and a woman, they were siblings. The man seemed around 18 years old, above average face, long black hair, pale skin, 6 foot 1 tall, and is wearing a black and white ancient robe. The female in front of the man was around 16 years old, medium-sized breast, average-sized butt, long black hair, pale skin, beautiful face, 5 foot 4 tall, and is wearing a red, black, and white ancient robe.

"Brother, do you know this mountain's name?"

"Ju, this mountain is called the Mount Screaming Smith"

"eh, isn't that a crappy name for such a beautiful mountain?"

"There is a story behind, many years ago before we were born, villagers would say they heard a clanging sound, and this went on for tens of years."

"So why is screaming in it, just call it Mount Smith" Ju answered bluntly

"Let me finish, later the clanging sound stopped, but a scream could be heard. this scream lasted for ten straight years, it even frightened the beast of the mountain."

"but it is said, there is no sound to be heard any longer but the villagers use its name to scare children in the village to behave."

"so, it's a myth" Said Ju

"No, it is not. Father had heard the screaming within the mountain before"

"I see"

Suddenly a voice could be heard from outside.

"Young master Luo, young miss Luo. We have found a place to rest for now." said a man within the light armor, he was the mid-foundation cultivator name Lee, he had no surname since he was considered a peasant.

The two people in the carriage were named Feng Luo and Ju Luo. Feng Luo had reached the mid-foundation stage at the age of 18 which was considered a great feat, he was cultivating the sword and wind. While Ju Luo had just reached the 10th stage Qi gathering stage, she was an alchemist apprentice, her strong point was fire and wind. She was hoping to become an alchemist saint in the future, a status that had been heard in legend.

They were currently returning home from getting few herbs from the border of the country, these were herbs that Ju Luo required to create her pill.

Feng and Ju got out of the carriage and set camp at an open plain field, there was also a cliff behind them that covered their back and mostly could keep guard by what was around them in 180 degrees.

"Brother, isn't the Qi here quite strong?" Ju asked curiously

"I sense that you are right, I even feel some of my emotions are being enhanced.." answer Feng, he was being wary of what was happening.

Suddenly one of the guards started to act strange, he was the weakest guard a 9th stage Qi gathering cultivator. He walked towards Ju Luo with lustful eyes and grabbed her hand.

"HOW DARE YOU!" shouted Feng Luo, he created a crescent out of the wind with the help of his sword and cut the man's arm off.

The man suddenly came back to his sense and noticed his missing hand. The man kept staring at the arm and suddenly fainted.

The strongest guard suddenly reacted and made a quick decision

"We need to leave sir, I can feel my emotions stirring up without trying"

"I agree, let's go" answered Feng Luo

He quickly headed into the carriage with his sister and the other two guards picked up the bleeding man. They had wrapped his hand to stop slow down the bleeding.

Ju Luo in the carriage had a shocked face, she wouldn't be very bothered if someone grabbed her arm for defense but it was the first time she saw a lustful face, felt a strong grip that hurt her wrist.

She was stronger than the man in terms of cultivation but she was still scared.

"Sister, this place is dangerous. If we headed in closer all of us may have lost our senses. "

"sister... Sister!" shouted Feng Luo, he noticed his Ju Luo was still scared.

"Ah..."

"It seems you got more scared than you should, it may have been the cause of the area. " said Feng Luo, this was his interpretation of the situation.

The carriage had left the mountain but it was dark, and everyone was tired, except everyone felt they shouldn't stop.

...

Back in the mountain...

"There, first-second floor is done, it just takes a one-step, then a second step, then a... ah shit there still many to go"