“An earthquake broke out!” Zhen Jin quickly returned from the rainforest.
When the earthquake struck, he had been training the crocodile head hammer tail boa form.
What made Zhen Jin gratified, is that he didn’t see a chaotic situation upon returning.
Although he was not present, with Cang Xu, Zi Di, and Zong Ge joining hands to quickly stabilize the situation, camp repairs had already begun.
The earthquake was not big, it came and went quickly.
The things Zhen Jin was most anxious about, the keel, mast, and other ship parts, were undamaged. The construction site’s square plank ceiling showed great merit, it firmly withstood the tumbling rocks and protected everyone’s work.
An inspection later, with many piles of crushed rocks on the plank ceiling, there were many holes and even more cracks in it.
Mu Ban looked at Zhen Jin seriously and reported: “My Lord, the plank ceiling not only needs to be rebuilt, it also needs to be reinforced.”
Zong Ge tensely scowled: “We have been on this island for so long, yet this is the first earthquake.
Faced with this kind of natural disaster, even the strong half beastman felt powerless.
Zi Di followed up: “Is there only one earthquake? From the bottom of my heart, I have a bad feeling about this. If earthquakes continue to happen, our current residence is very dangerous.”
Everyone lived in caves, if a more intense earthquake occurred that collapsed the mountain, the people sleeping in the caves would be crushed or buried alive.
The ship building also had a big problem.
Originally, they used the ravine as a construction site in order to use it as a dock, thus saving a lot of labor, material, and time.
But if earthquakes continued to happen, the small ravine would become a dangerous place, a worse place than being in the open or in a flat area.
This time only a few small rocks broke, but if the next earthquake had a stronger magnitude, the large stones tumbling down might cause massive damage to the ship.
Zhen Jin sighed, then decisively said soon after: “The giant’s madness served as our warning sign.”
Cang Xu was slightly stunned, but he soon nodded in approval: “Indeed it is like this, it seems the giant has an influential role to play. His symptoms were a wonderful occurrence for us!”
Zhen Jin gave Cang Xu an appreciative glance, then said: “Tonight don’t sleep in the caves. Everyone will use tents to sleep outside.
“Beginning tomorrow, we will clear out all the trees around the ravine. We will make a smooth track that extends from the ravine clearing. If an earthquake happens, we can quickly evacuate the hull and other important ship sections.”
As Zhen Jin finished saying this, his eyes swept around him and stopped on Xi Suo.
Xi Suo’s complexion slightly changed, he soon realized Zhen Jin wanted him to continue propagating his ideas, Xi Suo then nodded and after sending his greetings to Zhen Jin, he quietly left.
Zhen Jin’s heart was clear, this time the giant’s madness was a warning sign, but it was still unreliable.
But this pretext could change everyone’s impression of the giant by a lot.
Zhen Jin needed the giant to work, he needed the giant’s important manpower.
Others might have additional words or opinions, but under the current situation, Zhen Jin could not attend to them.
A leader’s most basic responsibility was to distinguish the most important priorities.
“To the truth, I and President Zi Di have felt something approaching. An earthquake has never happened before, yet it now suddenly occurred, it seems there are unknown and radical changes occurring in the other regions. Everything is starting to become fishy.”
“Following this, we must use all our strength to build a sailing ship as fast as possible.
Speaking of this, Zhen Jin looked at the boat craftsman, his gaze strict.
“Regardless of how, you must compress the completion date.
“I can skimp on the job and materials and jerry-build!”
“First we need a ship that can sail, any projects that can be done on the ship can be delayed until we set sail.
The boat craftsman stooped at once and accepted the order: “I understand my Lord.”
That night, the boat craftsman stayed up constantly planning until he finally made a new rough shipbuilding diagram.
The diagram was different from the last one, the ship had shrunk by one fifth and many ship holds were canceled.
Originally everyone had hammocks to sleep in, however in the planned hammock area, there only remained some grass beds on the diagram.
The masts used to be connected on top of each other. Now, all the heights of the masts were cut by at least half. In the future, the mast height would be increased enroute.
Originally, beside cannons, the blueprint had ten ballistae. But now, only three cannons and half the ballistae remained.
The cannons were salvaged from the Hog’s Kiss wreckage, the original plan was to build a dozen ballistae that could substitute for cannons to a degree.
Sailing the distant seas without firepower won’t do.
Regardless of whether it was fishmen, sea monsters, or pirates, all of them were immense threats to ships.
But now, the number of ballistae no longer increased, as for the ballistae on the diagram, those were all the ones the camp currently had on hand.
“Ships need many things, we can have people contribute a respective piece of clothing, putting these clothes together will form a simple and crude sail. Actually, male underwear can also be used.” In order to cut down on time needed, the boat craftsman also took risks.
Zhen Jin’s orders were quickly transmitted, with the earthquake scaring the people, they built the ship with even more zeal.
During the day, Zhen Jin even began to personally manage everyone’s work in the ravine clearing.
With Zhen Jin there, everyone’s heart was free from anxiety, they were no longer afraid of the giant’s madness.
Everyone’s heart was under great pressure, this resulted in their manufacturing efficiency being upgraded greatly.
For the following week, the giant didn’t have any symptoms.
An earthquake also didn’t reoccur.
But food was being quickly consumed.
The people genuinely risked their lives to work, with many people actively requesting to work throughout the night, they feel that when they sleep, they are resting too much!
After all, constructing a new ship related to everyone’s life.
During the day Zhen Jin personally supervised the construction site.
All of the masts were placed in the keel.
The beams were built and combined with the frame, forming a visible embryonic form of the new ship.
The sails were built quickly, this was mostly due to have plenty of spiderwebs in reserve. It was like the boat craftsman’s previous assessment; blade spider webs were a suitable material for sails.
As the third sail was being built, another earthquake occurred.
But the giant did not show symptoms.
No one haggled over this affair, in fact, Xi Suo directed the sailors earlier to indicate the giant’s madness could not predict things accurately.
The island became more and more dangerous, everyone’s greatest concern was whether they could escape or not.
The people prayed the earthquakes to stop, but in reality, everyone’s expectations ran counter to their prayers.
As time went on, not only did the earthquakes become more frequent, they became bigger.
The plank ceiling had to be reinforced many times, however in the end, it broke.
Zhen Jin was forced to order everyone to move the fledgling ship outside the ravine.
The outside rainforest had been cut and burned down, forming a new construction site.
The new construction site was completely in the open, there already was no time to make a new dock. In fact, because of the earthquakes, a dock would collapse and smash the fledgling ship.
The difficulty, apart from earthquakes, was rain.
Moisture was a big enemy for ship building.
The hull in particular, needed to be dry and have all moisture eliminated from the wood.
Zi Di’s potions played an immense role, in addition to her, the people also dismantled their tents and reassembled them together, during rainy weather, to form a giant tent they could work inside of.
When sunny days came back, the tent would be dismantled, allowing the sunlight to shine on the fledgling ship and do it best to expel all the moisture.
After eight earthquakes, between the quaking earth and shaking mountains, everyone became overwhelmed with horror. They had discovered a column of lava and fire on the horizon.
According to Cang Xu’s evaluation, Zhen Jin and the others were on the island’s edge, while the volcano was located on the island’s center, it was the island’s core.
From Zhen Jin’s position, seeing the spectacular volcanic eruption from here was far more frightening than seeing it in the volcanic zone.
“The end is practically approaching!”
“Can we really escape from this place?”
“If the island sank tomorrow, I would not be surprised.”
Everyone was anxious.
Sensing this, Zhen Jin held a bonfire banquet no long after.
He publicly made a speech, using his divine scion knight status, the empire, honor, and contributions as excuses to boost everyone’s morale.
The speech had a clear effect.
Everyone looked at Zhen Jin, once again realizing they had a reliable leader at their side. Not only was Zhen Jin strong and had a noble character, he ensured he would not abandon anyone, and everyone believed him.
The roasted meat assailed the nostrils, and ten bottles of rum were provided. Everyone only got a small portion, but the splendid taste infatuated everyone.
This time brought relief to everyone’s tense nerves; tight brows gradually relaxed as laughter grew.
Zhen Jin carried a large piece of meat and arrived at a bonfire in the corner.
This was where the giant and boat craftsman were.
Zhen Jin gave the meat to the giant.
The giant didn’t dare receive it, but after the boat craftsman admonished him, he cowered and took it.
“These days you have done well, without you, the ship would not have been built so quickly. You must continue to try hard. Under everyone’s eyes, Zhen Jin encouraged the giant.
The giant curled up his body as he sat, seeing Zhen Jin smiling at him, he promptly lowered his head in embarrassment and stared at the meat in his hands, not knowing what to say.
Zhen Jin did not stay long, after a moment, he turned around to leave.
The boat craftsman respectfully sent him off, sincerely sighing: “My Lord, you really are different from others! I have never met someone as noble as you.”
As the father gave his cordial expression of gratitude, his words were choked with emotion and his eyes grew faintly red.
Zhen Jin patted his shoulder, looked around and attracted everyone’s attention onto himself.
He raised his voice slightly: “Everyone has a place on this ship, no one will be left behind.”
“In other words, we are all in the same boat.”
“I know, differences exist between us.”
“There are all kinds of differences between our statuses, bloodlines, appearances, and temperaments.”
“But these differences should not become doubts, antagonistic, or reasons for internal conflict. We must tightly unite, only by doing so can we have the greatest chance of escaping.”
“We are all……one of us!”
Zhen Jin used a particular tone to emphasize that final word.
He did not expect his impromptu speech would win everyone’s acclaim.
Many found themselves in love with Zhen Jin’s speech, they wanted Zhen Jin to speak more.
Zhen Jin’s words soothed their frantic hearts, their serenity allowed them to be filled with hope and motivation.
Zi Di gazed at the young leader.
Cang Xu wore a laudable smile.
Bai Ya seemed to burn with zealotry and Lan Zao maintained his usual silence.
Hei Juan quietly made a fist.
The always calm Tripleblade was also somewhat despondent.
“One of us?” Zong Ge stared into the bonfire, those words caused a past memory to appear before him.
He collapsed onto an ice-cold floor tile, a foot tenaciously stepping on his head.
“One of us?” The foot stepping on Zong Ge said in a young voice, “Ha! You actually said to me that you were one of us?”
The young Zong Ge struggled, however he could not resist the youngster’s strength and could barely open his mouth: “The same blood flows in our bodies, we have the same father, we are half siblings, don’t tell me I am not one of you?”
After saying this, Zong Ge felt the foot on his head suddenly increase in strength.
That gorgeous boot still grinded at Zong Ge’s temple.
“Shut up! You mixed breed!” The youngster stepping on him shouted.
The other youngsters standing around also yelled in succession.
“Who is your sibling?”
“Your body is filthy and muddy, by what virtue can you stand shoulder to shoulder with us? You indeed have a noble bloodline, but that is precisely your tragedy. Because it draws attention to the essence of your inferior qualities and incompetence.”
“You are our clan’s shame!”
“You tarnish our clan’s reputation!”
“Bastard!”
“An insignificant half beastman actually thought he could stand side by side with us!!”
“Wishful thinking!!”
Notes
When I saw the title, I couldn’t help but remember how that phrase occasionally pops up in American television. For the author’s next trick on how to screw over his characters, he has summoned literal natural disasters. I can almost hear Country Roads playing in the background. But at least everyone isn’t at each other's' throats as long as Zhen Jin is around to keep them together. Also don’t worry about those idiots tormenting poor Zong Ge, they eventually die from their own stupidity.