Chapter – 23 - First Task at Chen Clan

The whole Clan Territory was so beautifully planned out that Rihanna fell in love with the place.

From the gates, tiny gardens, sitting pavilions and resting rooms marked the entry to the Clan's territory. Each garden had a different theme – some were elegant, some were colorful and wild. Some were centered around tiny lakes with vivacious water flowers and plants. Some were more forest like with wild bamboo, tall and lush trees and creepers growing around. The pavilions were also different for each location, with some made of wood, some of stone and some more crude yet naturally carved out of gigantic bones and huge tree trunks.

Narrow, stone-paved paths meandered through all these gardens, and all of them reached to the wide, open central lake at the front-center of the territory. The lake itself was filled with large, lotus-like flowers, all blooming in myriad colors. There were stone steps on all sides, both, for the cleaners to reach the water, and also for people to sit and enjoy the water and flowers from up-close.

A tiny island floated in the middle of the lake. A scattering of bamboos amidst flowering bushes decorated this island. Naturally made seats and tables were also scattered around for people to sit and enjoy the scenery over drinks and snacks. There were no connecting paths to this island, which meant that the only way to this island was by flying. Of course this was not a problem for cultivators!

The lake itself was bordered by a large, open pavilion on three sides. This pavilion had a stone floor, wooden fence and pillars, and a wooden roof, somewhat resembling an ancient Chinese pavilion. Low wooden seats bordered on all sides on the inside. The colorful cushions and seats on these benches gave off a very Indo-Arabic flavor. Sheer curtains hung low all around, billowing in the light breeze, giving off a very mystic vibe to the entire place.

Large open hearths were placed in the ground between the seats at intervals, and large stone tables were placed over them. These hearths not only kept the place warm at night, but also kept the food and drinks on the table warm.

Fluffy was too excited, and jumped off Rihanna's shoulders to scamper around. Rihanna was very scared that someone would catch him in some place he was not supposed to enter, and chop him up for snacks! So apologizing profusely, she wasted some time running after Fluffy.

Finally she found him blissfully digging away at a rather funky-smelling hole. Catching him by the collar, she spanked his buttocks a few times, then plopped him back on her shoulders. Fluffy was so shocked by this sudden, extremely inelegant punishment, that he clung to her shoulders obediently, still in a daze.

'You really think you are a dog! Digging around rabbit holes, wagging your tail – who would think of you as an elegant white fox! You look like a hog, and now you even behave like a hog! I am telling you right now – if you go off on your own one more time, I will forget you exist....and if someone catches you and wants to roast you alive, I'll even provide them with firewood!'

Fluffy whined pathetically, his eyes filling up with tears. Who had ever had a master as ruthless as this one? Why did his loving father force him to contract this useless girl? She never remembered that he needed to be fed as well. On top of that she even spanked his buttocks!! He was definitely going to write it all down and give a thorough report of all her wrongdoings to his father!

Behind this open pavilion was a tall wall made of large stone blocks, completely separating the front of the territory from the back.

The back was divided into three parts – the main mansion, where the main family of the Chen Clan lived; the Eastern side, which housed all the secondary clan members; and the Western side, which was mostly empty, and housed only the guests of the clan.

Smaller, single rooms housing 3-4 people, also stood at the back of each side. These rooms were for the commoner servants, with servants housing according to where they worked. Since there were so many commoners being hired, they were separated into men and women. The women were taken to the eastern courtyard, while the men were to stay in the servant quarters in the Western courtyard.

Behind the main mansion was another large wall made of similar stone blocks, separating the rest of the clan's territory. Rihanna couldn't manage to catch a glimpse of what lay beyond it, but heard from others that all the young cultivators of the family above the age of three would be sent to a building at the back for their training, and they would live there till they reached the age for entering the sects – sects generally didn't accept students below ten. Other important areas, pertaining to the growth and development of the cultivators of the clan as well as the clan as a whole were all built in this restricted area.

Unfortunately, the thing she was looking for was in this restricted area! She would be caught as soon as she set one foot across the line, how was she supposed to go searching for something inside it?!

'Find a way to enter. We need it.'

Really...!! The Voice was really throwing death-missions at her, then wiped his hands and disappeared, leaving her to handle all the headaches! She still hadn't gotten over her last mission...okay!

Shaking off this burden about which she could do nothing as yet, she decided to lay low and do all the work assigned to her. She needed to observe this place some more before she could plan on how to go about her mission.

"Grandpa, will you be coming with me for filling the water vats in the different rooms?"

Rihanna looked at the young boy speechlessly. Even after half a day, she still felt uncomfortable hearing him calling her 'Grandpa'! She stroked her face, trying to remember that even though she was a young girl at heart, currently she was sporting a rather wrinkled face of an old man. Aish....Grandpa it is then!

"We need to team up, right? Fine then, let's do it together. But young An, don't stress yourself too much. Your Grandpa here may look old and weak, but I am stronger than most of the commoners here! Let's go, let's go, young An, early bird catches the worm, let's quickly get to our tasks!"

Getting into her 'Grandpa' mode, she pulled along Mei An, the young boy she had met outside the Chen Clan gates, and grinning happily, went to start their first task of today.

Young An wasn't bothered at being pulled along, but he couldn't help muttering to himself... 'Worm? What is a worm? And why would the early bird want a worm and not meat of a rabbit? Is worm also a rabbit?'

At the back of the Western Courtyard was a dense green bamboo forest. Rihanna called them bamboo because they looked like bamboo. Otherwise the people of this land called it the Green Morang Tree.

Instead of bamboo shoots, this tree gave of a thick, milky sap when cut into, which was called Morang nectar. The sap was sweet, and though it could be drunk as it was, it was used for making deserts and cool, refreshing drinks to beat the heat of the day. It was extremely rich in Spirit-energy, and was a very important ingredient of Spirit-Restoration, Spirit-Enhancing and other energy related pills and elixirs.

Of course, the commoners had little to no knowledge of this. All this information was thanks to the Voice. Rihanna was busy learning about pills and elixirs even as she made her way through the forest and reached a large water reservoir.

It was made of stone, was very wide, and went a long way underground. Generally these reservoirs were connected to all the chambers of every residence of the western courtyard. Similar reservoirs existed for the main and eastern courtyard. But unlike them, the channels of the reservoir of the western courtyard was inactive.

The channels connecting the reservoir to the residences were powered with spirit stones and beast energy cores. Since there were hardly any people staying at the western courtyard, there was no need to keep the channels working. Though they would be activated once the guests arrived, the empty water vats and inner pools in the residences would be filled by the commoners to save power.

Rihanna sighed. This was going to be one long day. Even with so many people, manually carrying small vats of water to fill up all the residences....was definitely not an easy task! Leave looking around the territory, if she didn't finish the task by nighttime, she wouldn't even get food to eat at night! And she couldn't really keep pulling out barbecued meat from her sleeves every-time!

As she was splashing her vat in the water, she looked around. Though the Morang looked like bamboo, it was too precious to be cut and made into water pipes. She would probably get skinned alive if she did that. What else....Ah! There were plenty of people here, assigned to fill up the residences!

"Hey all of you, if you all want, I have a better method of filling up the residence water vats. It will not only save us time, but we can also save on energy and not get exhausted doing this job. But we all need to work together. Are you interested?"

There were more than fifty people here, and they stopped in the middle of their work, looking at each other in confusion, staring at the 'old man' with questioning gaze. They were commoners, and they were used to following orders. They followed the rules, toed the line, and did hard physical labor which didn't require much brain work. So what exactly was this 'old man' trying to do differently from what they had been doing all along?