59: Chapter 59: The Dongfang Family's Working Disciples
When Dongfang Shuo found Pump Station No. 3, the team leader, Old Liu, was leading several workers around a massive valve, looking troubled.
"Boss Liu, this valve is rusted shut. We've already snapped two wrenches, and it won't budge an inch!" a young worker complained, drenched in sweat.
Old Liu was a thin, scrawny man in his fifties with sun-blackened skin and a face full of wrinkles. He squatted on the ground, shining a flashlight into the valve's crevices for a long time, looking equally helpless.
"Damn it, this batch of valves was sent by those bastards at Huanyu Group before they started strangling us. The quality is just subpar. It's only been in use for how long, and it's already rusted like this?" Old Liu spat and stood up, cursing. "No choice then. Get the sledgehammer and smash it open! If it breaks, it breaks; better that than it being stuck!"
As he looked up, he spotted Dongfang Shuo walking toward them, dressed in a brand-new set of work clothes.
"Hey, kid, who are you? New here?" Old Liu got annoyed seeing his fair and tender skin. "Which department? What are you doing here?"
"Hello, Captain Liu," Dongfang Shuo stepped forward and respectfully presented his intern badge. "My name is Dongfang Shuo. Chief Engineer Wang sent me here to learn from you."
"Learn from me?" Old Liu took the badge and glanced at it, even more bewildered. "An apprentice? Are you kidding me? Can a pretty boy like you handle our work? We don't house pampered young masters here."
Several workers under Old Liu also chuckled. Their job involved dealing with mud and water pipes all day—it was dirty and exhausting. They looked down most on young people who couldn't lift or carry anything.
Dongfang Shuo didn't get angry, nor did he explain much.
He glanced at the rusted valve and asked Old Liu, "Captain Liu, can I give it a try?"
"You?" Old Liu looked at him sideways. "Do you even know how to use a wrench? Don't go twisting your wrist."
"I don't need a wrench."
Dongfang Shuo walked straight to the valve, which was taller than he was, reached out both hands, and gripped the massive circular handwheel.
"Hey, what's this kid trying to do? He doesn't want to turn it by hand, does he?"
"Is he crazy? Several of us couldn't move it with an extended wrench, and he's using his bare hands?"
"Just watch, he's bound to make a fool of himself."
The workers stood by with their hands on their hips, prepared to enjoy the show.
Old Liu also thought the young man was being ridiculous and was about to shout a reprimand, but the words got stuck in his throat.
Dongfang Shuo's arm muscles tensed, his waist and legs aligned in a powerful stance, and he gave it a sudden, violent twist!
The rusted valve shuddered, shedding large flakes of rust. To everyone's utter shock, he actually forced it to turn!
The surrounding laughter vanished instantly.
Everyone stared dumbfounded, their mouths agape and eyes nearly popping out of their heads.
The cigarette butt in Old Liu's hand burned down to his finger, but he didn't even notice.
"Holy... shit..." a young worker stammered out.
Ignoring the reactions, Dongfang Shuo turned the valve a full rotation in one breath until it was completely open.
Then, he let go, brushed the rust off his hands, and turned to the stunned Old Liu. "Captain Liu, it's open."
Old Liu's mouth twitched several times before he squeezed out the words: "You... kid... what did you grow up eating? How is your strength so immense?"
"I've practiced a bit since I was a child," Dongfang Shuo responded modestly.
"A bit?!" Old Liu's eyes were practically glued to Dongfang Shuo's arms, which didn't even look that thick.
From that day on, Dongfang Shuo took root in the pipeline maintenance team.
It didn't take more than a few days for him to completely win over Old Liu and all the workers on the team.
This young man's strength was absurd; he could carry a cement pipe weighing hundreds of pounds and walk as if flying. He was also a fast learner; after Old Liu taught him a pipe welding technique just once, he could weld better than the veteran masters. He wasn't afraid of dirt or exhaustion either. He rushed to do the jobs others disliked, like unclogging sewers or clearing silt, doing them quickly and well.
Within a few days, the "pretty boy" everyone had initially looked down upon became the treasure of the entire engineering team.
Old Liu now bragged to everyone he met: "That soldier of mine named Xiao Dong! That guy is a god descended to earth! He's worth an entire team by himself!"
Dongfang Shuo also found his own "cultivation" within this daily manual labor.
He gradually realized that when he applied his Internal Breath to these tasks, his efficiency became terrifyingly high. Whenever he was exhausted to the point of collapse and sat cross-legged to regulate his breath, he could feel a cool current of air entering his body with every breath, repairing his fatigue and even slowly remodeling his meridians.
"Isn't this the 'Spiritual Qi' the Immortal Master spoke of!"
It turned out that the Immortal Master sending him here to work wasn't just a test, but... enlightenment! Only through the most arduous labor, pushing the body to its limits, could one better absorb the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth!
Once he understood this, Dongfang Shuo's drive to work grew even stronger.
He even took the initiative to apply to Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo, asking to be sent wherever the work was hardest and most exhausting.
While Dongfang Shuo was having the time of his life "cultivating" on the construction site, a "family letter" sent through an encrypted channel traveled from the base back to the Kunlun Mountains thousands of miles away.
The letter was written by Dongfang Shuo.
The content was simple. He didn't mention how he had lost; instead, using the most devout and fanatical tone, he described the "immortal miracles" he had witnessed and the heaven-reaching methods of that "Immortal Master Jiang."
At the end of the letter, he made a request to his grandfather, Dongfang Hong:
He implored the family to immediately select ten of the most talented and pure-hearted young disciples to drop everything and rush to the Northwest base immediately.
Not in the name of a "visit," nor in the name of "cooperation."
But in the name of... "applying for a job."
To come here and serve as the most ordinary of workers.
This letter caused an absolute uproar within the Dongfang Family's Council of Elders.
Most elders felt this was a humiliating disgrace. To let the Dongfang Family's elite disciples serve as coolies for the secular world? How could the Dongfang Family maintain its standing in the Ancient Martial Arts World if word got out?
However, the family head, Dongfang Hong, remained silent for a long time after reading the letter.
Finally, he suppressed all voices of opposition.
"Do as Shuo'er says!"
He swept his gaze over the opposing elders and spoke slowly, "Face? Compared to the future of the family, what is face? Do you want to cling to this moldy archway and sink together, or do you want to seize this once-in-five-hundred-years opportunity to let the Dongfang Family truly... 'ascend to immortality'?"
Three days later.
An off-road vehicle with special license plates stopped at the entrance of the desert base.
Ten young people wearing retro training robes—five men and five women—stepped out of the car, their expressions filled with confusion and curiosity.
The youth leading them handed a letter of introduction to the guard at the gate.
"Hello, we are... the first batch of the Excellent Youth Engineering Team sent by Kunlun Group to support the construction of the 'Kuafu Project.'"
Director Zhao Lixin rushed to the gate upon receiving the news. Looking at these ten "engineers" with their eccentric style, and then at the strangely worded letter of introduction, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
He muttered to himself that Chief Consultant Jiang's team of "workers" was about to grow significantly.
A brand new "Cultivation Laborer Disciple Group" was thus born.