The night in the 13th Street always came early, carrying a suffocating heaviness.

  John Doe stood on his leaky, wind-swept rooftop, holding the still-overheating Yin-Yang iPad high. On the screen, the interface for [Cross-Realm Support] was loading.

  A holographic projection of a middle-aged man appeared before John. He wore coarse linen clothes, a carpenter's ink marker and a ruler tucked at his waist, and his hands were covered in calluses.

  He didn't have the BGM or holy light typical of other Heroic Spirits. Instead, he looked around with undisguised disgust.

  Lu Ban (Holographic Edition) kicked at a piece of loose brick near his feet (his foot passed right through it), his brow furrowed tightly enough to crush a fly.

  "This isn't a house. This is the greatest insult to wood, stone, and architecture I have ever seen! The foundation is crumbly, the load-bearing walls are cracked like spiderwebs, and that window... is that taped on?!"

  Lu Ban pointed at John's "pride and joy"—his home—and activated Craftsman Toxic Tongue Mode.

  "In my time, the artisan who built this deathtrap would have been dragged out and beheaded for negligence! It's only in your lawless era that people dare to live in such a thing."

  John scratched his head awkwardly, using tape to stick the window back down as the wind blew it open again. "Master, please don't be too picky. I know it's a dump, that's why I hired you to reinforce it. The demolition team is coming with bulldozers tomorrow. Can you... you know... make it a bit sturdier?"

  "Reinforce?" Lu Ban sneered. "That's like putting plate armor on a skeleton that's falling apart. If the base is rotten, nothing you wear will help."

  He turned his head to look at Daoist Singularity on the other side of the screen.

  "Hey, Old Taoist, aren't you accepting jobs a little too casually? For this kind of work, you should have called down a Celestial Engineering Corps. Even a sapper battalion from the 100,000 Celestial Troops could raise a skyscraper overnight. Why make an old man like me do this patchwork stitching?"

  In the corner of the screen, Daoist Singularity was wearing anti-static gloves, repairing a server that was still smoking. Hearing this, he didn't even look up.

  "The [Physical Teleportation] function is still in Alpha Testing! That involves stuffing a living person (or god) from a high-dimensional space into a low-dimensional one! Unless it's a hardcore badass like Zhao Yun who comes with his own 'Realm-Breaking Attributes,' ordinary sappers would be torn to shreds by the space-time turbulence in seconds!"

  "Plus, this kid's body is currently a leaky sieve. He can't handle that level of energy fluctuation. Until we patch the 'Soul Firewall 2.0,' mass physical descent is strictly prohibited! Just be a good 'Remote Technical Consultant'!"

  "Fine, fine. Always exploiting the elderly." Lu Ban sighed and pulled out the legendary [Lu Ban Ruler] from his waist.

  Lu Ban's eyes changed. The disgust vanished, replaced by focus—the fanaticism of a top-tier craftsman facing a challenge.

  "Kid, listen up. Since this is remote guidance, you have to do the work yourself. I draw the blueprints and command; you move the bricks and drive the nails. Don't say I never taught you; this is the authentic 'Gongshu Mechanism Art'!"

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "Do it myself?" John looked at his hands. Aside from holding a scalpel steadily, they had no special talents. "Master, I have hemophobia. I don't fear wood, but I don't have the strength."

  Bone popped up from nowhere, carrying two massive I-beams (stolen from a scrapyard) on his shoulders. He clicked his jaw excitedly. "Boss, just tell me what to smash, and I'll smash it!"

  "There's one more problem." Grace's projection floated over, her small face filled with heartache. "Boss, even though hiring Master Lu Ban is 'Knowledge Payment' and doesn't cost Merit Points, the consultation fee is charged by the minute in New Currency! Plus these material costs..."

  She pointed to the list Lu Ban had generated: High-strength alloy nails, quick-dry cement, and various bizarre parts John had never heard of.

  "This is a huge sum! Is the money we just made from the livestream tips enough?"

  "Money can be earned again. If the home is gone, it's gone for good."

  He looked at Lu Ban. "Master, let's start. As long as it can stop tomorrow's bulldozers, I'll pay whatever it costs!"

  "Good lad, you've got guts!" Lu Ban slapped his thigh. "Then let's work! Bone, jack that beam up for me! John, get the Ink Marker!"

  For the next few hours, a time-transcending "Renovation Rave" took place in this broken building in the 13th Street.

  "Left! Three inches to the left! That's the load-bearing node! You idiot skeleton, easy! That's a wall, not your ribcage!"

  Lu Ban's holographic projection flew around the site. He couldn't touch anything, but the infrared laser from his ruler was more precise than any modern instrument.

  "John! That Tenon and Mortise (Sun-Mao) structure isn't put together like that! The protruding part is the Tenon, the recessed part is the Mortise! Yin and Yang complement each other! Don't just jam it in! That's hardwood, not your brain!"

  John sawed wood, sweating buckets, while getting scolded mercilessly.

  "Master... this is too hard... Why must we use this ancient structure? Can't we just use expansion bolts?" John couldn't help but complain.

  "Expansion bolts?" Lu Ban scoffed. "That kind of friction-reliant industrial trash loosens after two shakes! My Mechanism Art relies on 'Force Transmission'! I'm going to turn this entire building into a single entity! Even if an magnitude 8 earthquake hits, it will wobble like a roly-poly toy but won't fall!"

  "And..." Lu Ban revealed a wicked grin. "This structure has another benefit. It can hide things."

  "Yes. For example... a 'Treadle' that can launch an intruder ten meters away; or a 'Security Door' that sprays two kilograms of pepper powder."

  "What traps? That's called 'Defensive Renovation'!" Lu Ban corrected. "We are law-abiding citizens; we are simply protecting the sanctity of private property!"

  Amid the bickering of the old and young, and Bone's brute-force construction, this teetering dangerous building was undergoing a transformation invisible to the naked eye, yet completely fundamental.

  Fragile connections were locked tight by exquisite Tenon and Mortise joints. Seemingly loose floorboards were fitted with spring mechanisms capable of withstanding tons of pressure. Even the broken door was rigged with an automatic counter-lock system based on the "Leverage Principle" under Lu Ban's guidance.

  John collapsed on the floor, exhausted, a hammer still in his hand. His hands were full of splinters and blisters, but looking at his rejuvenated "home," his heart was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

  Though it still looked like a dilapidated container apartment on the outside, beneath that sheet metal skin, it had become a fortress armed to the teeth.

  Lu Ban put away his ruler and nodded with satisfaction.

  "Materials are a bit trash, craftsmanship is rough, but it's passable. At the very least, if that bulldozer dares to ram it, I guarantee the machine will fall apart first."

  "Don't thank me, remember to give a five-star rating." Lu Ban's figure began to flicker. "And remember to settle the balance. My appearance fee is expensive."

  Grace looked at the bill, sucking in a cold breath. "Boss... our savings... are zero again."

  In the morning light, the massive yellow bulldozer parked at the intersection had started its engine, roaring like a beast. A group of uniformed demolition team members, armed with clubs and shields, was marching aggressively toward them.

  "John! Time's up! Get the hell out!" Bob shouted through a megaphone. "Or we'll flatten you along with the house!"

  Bone ducked back inside, and the broken door reinforced by Lu Ban slammed shut with a CLANG.

  John looked down at the fools who didn't know what hit them, a cold sneer curling his lips.

  He pressed a newly installed button on the wall that looked like a light switch.

  "Then let's see whose shovel is harder, or if the Ancestor's wisdom is harder."