Fairy, Please Forgive Me, I Never Meant to Impersonate Your Husband

Chapter 28: The Rain-Piercing Tower

“Bad fortune. No matter how much wealth one has, it all comes to nothing in the end.”

At the mention of the fat merchant Huan Su, Luo Xiangluo’s face darkened for the first time. Clearly, his death had affected her.

But twenty days had passed. The grief had settled, the tears had dried.

“Fortune is too abstract. Merchant Huan was careless in the wild, trusted the wrong people, and paid with his life. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Your analysis is sound, Master. I once advised him, but he blindly believed in the Cheng brothers’ martial prowess. They had never met defeat, which made them arrogant and reckless.

In truth, they were only at the peak of the Organ Control Realm—not even Level 20. They had no right to act so carelessly in the wild.”

“You’re a woman of insight. I chose correctly.” Wu Yuan nodded, then shifted the topic. “What are your plans now?”

A trace of sorrow flickered across Luo Xiangluo’s face, but it soon gave way to her usual charm. “I am at your mercy, Master. My fate is yours to decide.”

Wu Yuan chuckled. “Don’t play the victim. You’re no ordinary woman, especially not as a Dongjin.

Here’s a choice for you: become my subordinate. I intend to establish an intelligence division to monitor the surroundings, survey the terrain, and gather information.

If you agree, you’ll lead it. I’ll even let you name it. Think carefully before answering.”

“No need to think. I accept!” Luo Xiangluo answered immediately.

“Why?” Wu Yuan was surprised.

He had expected her to bargain for better terms, yet she agreed without hesitation.

“I have no other choice.” She shook her head. “The merchant is dead, yet I survived. Even if I returned home, I’d face suspicion. I have nowhere else to go, better to serve you.”

“You’ll be glad for this decision someday.” Wu Yuan spoke solemnly. “If you have demands, state them now.”

“I need three hundred male slaves, two hundred female slaves, and Madam Cheng as my assistant.”

“Madam Cheng?”

The title was unfamiliar, but Wu Yuan quickly realized she meant the wife of the third Cheng brother—the burly warrior who had died fighting the Throwing Centipede.

“Agreed. You’ll have everything you asked for.”

“Thank you for your trust.” Luo Xiangluo bowed again. “As for the division’s name… let it be the ‘Rain-Piercing Tower.’”

The Rain-Piercing Tower was built neither in the wooden fort nor the relay station but in a rocky hollow five hundred meters behind the station.

Previously hidden by a grove of spirit trees, the hollow had been exposed after recent logging.

The semicircular recess, roughly a hundred meters in diameter, had uneven ground and jagged rock walls—hardly an ideal construction site.

Yet Luo Xiangluo insisted.

Wu Yuan didn’t interfere.

Cai Yu, in charge of supplies, approved the request. She dispatched forty of the remaining Qingqiao Town recruits to level the terrain and permitted Luo Xiangluo to use nearby stocks of ironwood and blue-steel stone.

Meanwhile, Liu Yan’s Supervision Office delivered the five hundred slaves—three hundred men, two hundred women, along with Luo Xiangluo’s four maids and Madam Cheng’s retinue.

Despite her delicate appearance, Luo Xiangluo worked with startling efficiency.

In just two days, the slaves had laid the foundation and erected the framework for a five-story wooden tower spanning four to five thousand square meters, its three sides embedded into the rock.

Back at the relay station, Cai Yu reported to Wu Yuan:

“The Rain-Piercing Tower has already claimed three thousand cubic meters of ironwood and fifteen hundred cubic meters of blue-steel stone, nearly half of our stockpiles outside the station’s courtyard.”

“It’s fine. As long as there’s no embezzlement, better they use the materials than let them sit idle. I’m curious to see what Luo Xiangluo builds.”

“Master, I’ve heard Madam Cheng is knowledgeable in formations. She demanded extreme precision in the foundation’s layout and carved sigils at key points. If these form a complete array, the effects could be significant.

Luo Xiangluo has also requested five jin of spirit-marking fluid.”

“Granted.”

“Yes.”

Cai Yu withdrew.

Though curious about the tower’s final form, Wu Yuan knew he’d have to wait a few more days to see it completed.

But the Rain-Piercing Tower didn’t wait for construction to finish before training its agents.

Two days later, a detailed intelligence report landed on Wu Yuan’s desk, astonishing him.

Attached was a map covering a thirty-li radius northeast of the tower, detailing resources and terrain.

The area wasn’t vast, but Luo Xiangluo had achieved this with untrained slaves in such a short time. Impressed, Wu Yuan immediately set out for the tower.

He needed to know how she’d done it. If the cost had been lives, he’d be deeply disappointed.

But he doubted it—Dongjin women weren’t so foolish.

Luo Xiangluo wasn’t surprised by Wu Yuan’s visit. She had anticipated it.

Yet Wu Yuan didn’t press her aggressively. Instead, he casually asked how she’d gathered intelligence, why she’d sent scouts so soon, and whether there had been casualties.

His demeanor raised her opinion of him.

“You entrusted me with an important task, Master. Of course I took it seriously.

Madam Cheng’s attendant, Auntie Fang, discovered a patch of Mist-Shadow Banana trees five li east while gathering materials for formations. They’re perfect for crafting low-grade Mist-Shadow Cloaks.”

Wu Yuan’s eyes lit up with understanding.

“Ah, of course! Mist-Shadow Banana leaves are crafting materials. The cloaks are the simplest of low-grade equipment—tan the leaves, cut them, coat them with sunflower essence to turn them into thread, then weave them into Mist-Shadow Gauze.

The gauze forms the cloak’s main material, allowing basic invisibility and masking the wearer’s presence. Ideal for scouts, and cost-effective too.

But even low-grade Mist-Shadow Cloaks are still artifacts. Ordinary people can’t activate them without cultivation. How did you solve that?”

“Your knowledge astounds me, Master.” Luo Xiangluo sighed in admiration.

She hadn’t expected Wu Yuan to know the cloak’s crafting method—a closely guarded secret in many families.

Had Madam Cheng not possessed a fragment of a formation manual detailing this foreign technique, she could never have sent ordinary scouts out so soon.

The wilds were too dangerous, teeming with demons and deadly insects. For the untrained, encountering them meant certain death.

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“The initial solution was simple,” she explained. “We had cultivators in the tower pre-activate the cloaks for the scouts to carry.

The effect lasts only half a day and damages the cloaks, but it allowed them to learn while surveying. A worthy trade-off.”