Chapter 20: Beginning the Barrier Construction
After finishing his morning training, Shen made his way over to the construction site. Seeing that quite a few people were already hard at work, he nodded in satisfaction. Yokota Kiyomi walked up to greet him.
"Good morning, Lord Shen. Thank you for everything you've done for the Yokota Clan."
"It's nothing. Alright, I'm going to begin setting up a barrier on the surrounding trees. Tell your clansmen not to come disturb me unless it's necessary. Setting up the barrier takes a great deal of concentration, and it'll probably take about three days to finish. During these three days, inform your people to avoid using chakra as much as possible. Of course, simple body enhancement is still fine," Shen said as he looked at the busy crowd around them.
"Yes, I'll pass the word along. My lord, you haven't eaten breakfast yet, have you? We've prepared some simple food. If you don't mind, would you like to eat with us?" Yokota Kiyomi asked with a smile.
"Sure. You know what I used to eat, so how could I possibly mind? Ow, Yokū and the other maid are still asleep, they'll figure breakfast on their own."
Following Yokota Kiyomi to the dining area, Shen saw that a number of simple long tables had already been set up. They had clearly been thrown together in a hurry after arriving the night before.
Sitting down at the table and looking at the fragrant breakfast porridge steaming before him, Shen couldn't help but pick up a bowl and start gulping it down. Seeing how heartily Shen was eating, the surrounding members of the Yokota Clan also ate in cheerful spirits.
"Lord Shen, I'm not sure whether you know much about the beasts in the surrounding area, but last night I took some of our people out hunting, and we didn't find a single beast nearby," Yokota Ruma said while eating.
"Mm, that's my fault. Yesterday, when I cleared out this patch of land, I made a bit too much noise and scared all the beasts away. It's fine. After a few quiet days, they'll gradually come back," Shen said, only then remembering how much of a disturbance he had caused while clearing the land. The Yokota Clan, coming from farther away, would naturally not have known, but the beasts living nearby had definitely been frightened badly enough to flee.
"So that's what happened. Then we'll just eat the food we brought with us for the next few days," Yokota Ruma said with a nod of understanding.
"There's no need. There are only around a hundred people in your clan right now. Later, I can go farther out and hunt down a couple of large animals for you, and that'll be enough," Shen said casually. It was not a difficult task. With his Byakugan, finding prey was simple, and hunting it would be even easier, so he took the job upon himself without a second thought.
"Th-that won't be necessary, Lord Shen. It's only a few days. We brought enough food to last for half a year, so there's really no need to trouble you so much," Yokota Ruma said, startled. He did not dare trouble Shen with something like that.
"It's no trouble at all. I haven't properly explored this forest yet anyway, so I can take the chance to have a look around," Shen replied with a smile. He was not the kind of person to hide behind his status. Since it was not a particularly troublesome matter, helping out was no big deal.
"Then… I'll leave it in your hands, my lord," Yokota Ruma said respectfully.
After quickly finishing breakfast, Shen set off to hunt. He flew swiftly deeper into the forest and activated his Byakugan, beginning a wide-ranging search for large beasts. After looking for a while, he found two bears, each standing five or six meters tall, with total body lengths of more than ten meters.
Though they were enormous, they were still only beasts and posed no threat to Shen whatsoever. After killing them with ease, he shaped chakra into two ropes, tied up the massive bear carcasses, and rose into the air. Though he could still fly, carrying two enormous bears meant he could no longer fly very high, nor very fast.
Even so, Shen brought the two carcasses back to the construction site as quickly as he could. The Yokota Clan all stared in amazement at the two enormous beasts, and their reverence for Shen's strength only deepened.
"Alright, I'll leave the prey to you to deal with. I need to go set up the barrier now." Shen clapped his hands and let out a breath. Carrying those two beasts had not been easy. After handing them over to Yokota Ruma, he headed toward the outer perimeter.
When he reached the edge of the clearing, Shen looked around, then chose a large tree ten meters away from the open ground. Placing his hand against it, he used chakra to examine the tree's condition. Satisfied, he nodded. Although it had two insect infestations, that did not affect its roots' ability to absorb nutrients, which made it perfectly suitable for setting up a barrier.
He placed both hands against the trunk and began pouring chakra into it. A sizzling sound, like red-hot iron branding flesh, rose from the tree, and white smoke steadily billowed from the spot where Shen's palms rested.
After a while, Shen pulled his hands away. On the tree trunk, in the area covered by his palms, a series of runes had appeared.
These runes were secret symbols passed down within the Ōtsutsuki Clan. Even though Shen knew them now, it was only because his cold-blooded father had forced him to learn them while teaching him the advanced cultivation method.
Later, Shen had also taken the opportunity to ask others to teach him these auxiliary techniques. The Ōtsutsuki Clan did not place much value on such things. Generally, when members of the main family went out, they would bring along branch family members they trusted, and menial tasks like setting up barriers naturally fell to the branch family. So for branch family members, learning these runes was not particularly difficult.
"Very good. Even though this is my first time using it, the rune imprint came out perfectly clear. Thanks to you, Slug," Shen said with a smile as he examined the flawless runic brand.
"It was nothing. All I did was increase how much strain your body could bear. As for chakra control, that is something you've already mastered extremely well, Shen-kun," Slug said softly from Shen's shoulder.
"Then let's keep going!" Shen said, psyching himself up before heading toward another tree. For the next three days, he would need to circle this entire clearing and continuously brand these runes onto the surrounding trees.
Throughout the whole morning, one large tree after another was marked with runes by Shen. He moved constantly from tree to tree, repeatedly imprinting rune after rune. Whenever his chakra ran out, he refined more on the spot. With Slug's help, he did not have to worry about draining his body dry.
"Whew, done. No, I need to rest for a while. There are only eight rune combinations in total, but inscribing them is just too mentally exhausting. Even with my mental strength far beyond that of ordinary people, I can't keep going like this," Shen said, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he sat down on the ground, leaning against a tree trunk and panting.
"Yes, Shen-kun, you've already worked very hard. Let me help relieve some of your fatigue now." Slug's entire body began glowing with green light, and Shen immediately felt a cool clarity wash over his mind, like a breeze passing through a desert.
At the sensation, Shen couldn't help letting out a groan. The comfort was so intense that he almost sank into it. After a while, Slug stopped.
"This is all I can do for you. I can ease your mental fatigue, but the restoration of your spiritual power still has to happen slowly on its own. That's beyond what I can help with," Slug said apologetically.
"You've already helped a great deal. Now that the mental fatigue has been relieved, my spiritual power will recover faster too. At this rate, after resting another ten minutes, I should be able to continue setting up the barrier," Shen said with a smile. He could clearly feel that his recovery speed was much faster than before.
After a little over ten minutes, once Shen felt he had recovered enough, he stood up and began a new round of rune inscription work. Three cycles of inscribing and resting later, the whole morning had passed, and compared to the work that still remained, what he had finished was little more than a drop in the ocean.
"Looks like this is going to keep me busy for quite a while," Shen said with a bitter smile as he stretched lazily. Being able to finish this much in one morning was already his limit. After all, it was his first time setting up such a large barrier, and also his first time engraving runes on this scale.
The barrier he had set up before around his house had only been an ordinary barrier formation. It simply created a fixed chakra circulation around a certain area to ensure safety.
That kind of barrier was nothing special. At most, it could block attacks from ordinary beasts. Once the chakra was exhausted, it became useless. And if the chakra circulation was broken—like when the wooden stake in front of his house had been destroyed before—then the barrier would collapse as well.
But the barrier he was constructing now was no ordinary one. It had the function of concealing chakra. Even if someone deliberately examined this place, all they would see was an ordinary stretch of forest.
This sort of barrier existed specifically to defend against the Byakugan, a product of the internal competition within the Ōtsutsuki Clan that had already been mentioned before. And besides this one, Shen still had to set up another type of barrier to prevent the Divine Tree from detecting the chakra activity here. That barrier was even more important.
After all, Kaguya could not keep her Byakugan activated at all times to search this forest. But the Divine Tree was connected to the planet's entire energy network. If something anomalous persisted here long enough, the Divine Tree would definitely detect it. At that point, Kaguya—who was nearly one with the Divine Tree—would undoubtedly notice the abnormality here.
"Lord Shen, it's time to head back for lunch. Your meal has already been prepared," Yūko said as she arrived to call for him.
"Oh! It's Yūko. So, did you eat breakfast?" Shen asked teasingly the moment he saw it was her.
"Mm… I missed it. I'm still hungry now. Lord Shen, let's hurry back. I'm starving," Yūko said as she came over, grabbed Shen by the arm, and started tugging him back toward the construction site.
"Wouldn't it be faster if I just flew you back?" Shen laughed, flicking her lightly on the forehead. Then he lifted her and flew back toward the camp. It was Yūko's first time flying, and she was so frightened that she clung tightly to Shen's arm and screamed.
Seeing how terrified she was only made Shen laugh even louder, while Slug crawled over onto Yūko and began calming her down. Feeling a warm sensation spread through her body, Yūko slowly opened her eyes. Looking down at the people below, who were walking toward the dining area, she widened her eyes in amazement and let out a delighted cry.
Very soon, the two of them arrived at the dining area. Quite a few people were already eating, and lunch had already been specially prepared for Shen at the place where the higher-ups of the Yokota Clan dined, so he did not need to line up like everyone else to receive food.
"Lord Shen, thank you for your hard work this morning. This is your lunch. If it doesn't suit your taste, please forgive us. If there's anything wrong with it, please tell us, and we'll correct it immediately," Yokota Ruma said. He had always treated Shen with the utmost respect. Even after Shen regained his emotions and was no longer cold and detached, Yokota Ruma still addressed him with absolute seriousness.
Shen had no complaints about the meal, so lunch passed pleasantly enough. Looking at a patch of land nearby where numerous trenches had already been dug, Shen couldn't help admiring the Yokota Clan's efficiency.
"This is all thanks to you. If you hadn't taught us chakra, there's no way we could have completed the foundation work this quickly," Yokota Ruma said, bowing to Shen in gratitude. He knew that Shen had already done far too much for the Yokota Clan—whether it was eliminating the Fūma Clan, teaching them chakra, or helping their entire clan relocate. The Yokota Clan would remember every one of those debts in their hearts.