While Chengcheng County was in complete chaos,
A problem emerged during the construction of Gaojia Village’s city gate.
The issue lay with the rope.
The city wall Li Daoxuan hastily built with Lego bricks was tall, large, and wide. Though he deliberately left the gate arch smaller, it still stood two zhang tall and two zhang wide.
Gates this enormous required numerous tree trunks bound tightly together.
But the villagers’ grass ropes, lacking both quality and quantity, proved useless.
Grass ropes were already scarce. Hand-twisted by the villagers using crude techniques, they barely sufficed for tying table legs, bed legs, plows for farming, or pitchfork handles. For trunks as thick as arms, though? Utterly inadequate…
“Disaster! The rope here snapped again.”
“Village Chief, your rope crumbles with a light tug.”
The villagers scrambled in utter disarray.
Li Daoxuan watched from outside as the tiny people toiled for shichen, only for two grass ropes to break, causing the entire row of bound trunks to collapse. The poor folk had no choice but to start over.
What could help them?
His gaze swept over the chaotic equipment scattered at home, suddenly landing on the dust-covered fishing tackle bag in the corner—an idea flashed in his mind.
He vividly recalled researching fishing line specs when purchasing some. Among them was a 0.4-gauge line, just 0.104mm thick.
Even magnified 200 times within the box, its diameter would only reach 2cm. Compared to the villagers’ grass rope, it was like heaven and earth.
“Gao Yiye! Gao Yiye!”
Gao Yiye, desperately twisting grass rope, heard the Great deity’s call. She hurriedly looked up, her small, quite lovely face etched with reverence and devotion. “Great deity, what is your command?”
“Take this rope. Have everyone use it to bind the city gate timbers.”
Li Daoxuan cut a length of the 0.4-gauge fishing line and slowly lowered it.
Gao Yiye quickly beckoned the villagers. All looked up to see a transparent rope descending from the sky—no thicker than a finger, resembling a cooked wide glass noodle…
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances. “What… what kind of strange rope is this?”
Gao Yiye announced, “The Great deity bids us use this to tie the wood, to secure the city gate.”
The villagers: “Huh?”
Though filled with doubt, none dared voice it aloud.
Only when the “wide noodle” touched the ground and they touched it themselves did their faces light up with awe. “This transparent rope… it’s unbelievably strong.”
“Far stronger than our twisted grass rope.”
“Though only finger-thick, it’s tougher than grass ropes thick as arms.”
“Quick! Fetch a knife! Cut a length to test binding some timber!”
Villagers brought knives to cut the line. But the line’s formidable toughness posed quite a challenge to their dull blades. Sweat poured as they finally managed to sever a length after immense effort.
However, the harder this thing was to cut, the stronger it proved to be. Delighted, the villagers cut a few more sections, bound two logs together, and had people pull from both sides, trying to snap it. But no matter how hard they pulled, the fishing line remained unstrained.
“As expected, this thing is much stronger than grass rope!”
“Could this be… the Binding Immortal Rope used by immortals?”
Someone had inadvertently said this, causing everyone nearby to turn ashen: “How awful! We cut the Binding Immortal Rope… would that bring bad fortune?”
Gao Yiye laughed heartily: “Look at how useless you are! The Great deity says this isn’t a Binding Immortal Rope, just a toy of His. Feel free to use it, it’s fine. He has plenty more.”
Hearing this, the villagers grew even more awestruck. If even the Great deity’s toy thread was this incredible, how astonishing must the Binding Immortal Rope be?
With this thought, some villagers began dropping to their knees again.
Li Daoxuan scolded impatiently: “Stop kneeling all day! Spend more time on proper work!” ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel-fire.net
Impersonating his tone, Gao Yiye laughingly berated them. Those villagers awkwardly scrambled up, scratching their heads, and rejoined the gate-making effort.
With the strong rope, the pace of work accelerated rapidly. In no time, they bound a row of logs into a shape resembling wooden rafts. Standing it upright, it formed a large gate panel, two zhang tall and one zhang wide. They just needed to make two such panels to assemble an operable city gate.
Just then, a villager standing sentry atop the gate shouted loudly: “Ah! Gao Chuwu and the others are back! Huh? They’ve brought outsiders!”
The villagers set aside their work and gathered near the gate to see the commotion.
Li Daoxuan’s gaze, however, went straight to the edge of the scenic box…
Soon, Gao Chuwu dashed into the scenic box first. Following him were a man dressed as a manservant, a plump, fair-skinned middle-aged woman holding the hand of a ten-year-old girl, a maid protecting the girl’s side, and finally, three village youths.
The panicked and disheveled group of eight ran desperately toward Gaojia Village.
When Gao Chuwu’s party had left Gaojia Village early in the morning, Li Daoxuan hadn’t yet placed the Lego bricks wall into the box. So, Gao Chuwu and the others had no idea a wall now existed. Seeing from afar that Gaojia Village was encircled by an enormous, strange, multicolored brick wall, they were filled with dread, unsure what had happened at home.
Thankfully, the sentinel on the gate waved toward them and called: “Gao Chuwu! Chuwu! You’re back?”
Recognizing the villager, Gao Chuwu felt relieved. Running closer, he yelled: “What happened in the village? Why is there suddenly such a weird wall?”
The sentinel scolded him laughingly: “What ‘weird wall’? It’s the Great deity’s gift! Dare you call it weird? If the Great deity stops feeding you, just see if you cry!”
Gao Chuwu’s face paled in fright upon hearing this. He quickly shouted at the sky: “Great deity, I was wrong! I’m brainless, my words are like farting! Please don’t take offense, dear Great deity!”
Li Daoxuan wouldn’t get angry over such trifles; he just chuckled heartily.
Gao Chuwu’s group hurried through the still gateless archway and slipped into the village. The four newcomers—three women and one man—appeared timidly, their eyes cautiously darting around the surrounding people.
Finally, their gaze settled on the colossal wall and the strange transparent ropes, unable to look away. Yet, as newcomers, they dared not ask questions outright; any doubt they kept bottled inside.
Gao Chuwu spotted Gao Yiye in the crowd, ran up to her, and blurted in haste: “Yiye, tell the Great deity—those four are Thirty-Two’s wife and daughter, servant, and maid. He went to find a blacksmith for the Great deity! Please ask the Great deity to watch over his family.”