Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

Selvan arrived carrying tools instead of lists.

Nia was still finishing breakfast when the first scrape of stone sounded outside their cave. She set her bowl down and looked toward the entrance.

Shen followed her gaze.

“He said after first bell.”

“He is early.”

“Only slightly.”

Nia ate the last bite before she stood. The spring-work materials remained exactly where they had been left the evening before: shelterbark near the entrance, the two small gray stones beside it, the larger hot-pot stone farther back, and the scraped wood supports stacked against the wall. Nia’s household work strip rested above them where it could stay dry.

Selvan stepped inside far enough to stop at the work boundary.

Mari came behind him with two folded rough cloths over one arm.

“I brought these for the dust and the test work,” she said.

Selvan lowered a mallet, two chisels, a short measuring cord, and a small work cup beside the other spring materials.

“We are not touching the preparation surface today.”

Nia looked toward the two scraped lengths of dry wood.

“Because we still have nothing safe to put across them.”

“Yes.”

“Good. I would rather leave them alone than force the wrong board into place.”

Before anyone moved the stone, Nia and Shen cleared the space between the entrance and the old hot-pot mark. Shen covered the breakfast board and carried the remaining food farther toward the hearth side. The clean hand cloths near the basin moved with it. Mari kept both rough cloths on the work side of the cord.

Anything that crossed into the construction lane would be treated as dirty until it was washed again.

Nia pointed toward the entrance.

“The basket landing first.”

Selvan crouched beside the two small stones delivered from the lower work area.

“They are close enough in height that I can correct the difference without cutting much.”

Mari bent beside him.

“And I can reach between them.”

Selvan set the stones near the entrance mark Nia had cut two days earlier. He used the short measuring cord to check their distance from the threshold, then left a narrow channel between them instead of pressing them together.

Nia watched from inside the clean boundary.

“Turn the outer one.”

Selvan rotated it.

“A little farther.”

He moved it again.

Nia stepped closer without crossing into the work area and pointed toward the edge nearest the path.

“If the shelterbark ends there, the basket will sit too close to where people step through.”

Selvan laid the bark loosely over the two stones.

The inner edge stayed near the wall, but the outer corner pushed farther toward the passage than Nia wanted.

Mari went outside and brought back the empty gathering basket they used for the test. She carried it through the entrance at an ordinary pace.

Her shin passed close enough to the shelterbark that she stopped and looked down.

“That needs to move inward. I nearly caught the edge.”

Selvan shifted both supports toward the wall.

Nia studied the new position.

“Can water still run toward the entrance?”

Selvan filled the small work cup at the basin, returned to the construction side, and poured a little water onto the bare stone behind the supports.

The water traveled between them and continued outward.

“Yes.”

Shen crouched at the clean edge of the lane.

“Lift the bark.”

Selvan raised the near edge.

Shen looked beneath it at the exposed floor and the gap between the supports.

“If something medicinal leaks onto the outside of a packet, we need to be able to see where it ran.”

“The medicine packet should be on the other side,” Nia said.

“It should. I still want a mistake to stay visible.”

Mari nodded toward the open channel. “Nothing is trapped under there.”

Selvan lowered the bark.

Mari set the empty gathering basket onto it.

The bark flexed slightly but did not touch the floor between the supports.

Nia leaned closer.

“That part works.”

Selvan pressed down on the basket rim.

The outer support shifted.

Nia saw it move.

“That one cannot stay like that.”

Selvan removed the basket and turned the support over. The opposite face was flatter, but one corner still lifted when he pressed it.

He took up the chisel.

Shen stood.

“Before you cut that, move anything clean farther back. The dust will travel.”

Nia carried the covered breakfast board another few steps toward the hearth. Shen moved the clean water cup beside the basin out of the construction lane, while Mari spread one of the rough cloths across the floor near Selvan to catch the larger chips.

Only then did Selvan set the chisel against the high corner.

The first strike rang through the cave.

Stone chips landed on the rough cloth and the bare work-side floor.

Nia stayed back while Selvan removed a thin ridge from the underside of the support. Mari gathered the larger chips as he worked so they did not spread into the entrance traffic.

Voices passed outside.

A runner called Selvan’s name from the lower path.

Selvan answered without looking away from the stone.

“I will come down after this piece is settled.”

“He needs the lower shelf count.”

“I heard him.”

The runner continued upward.

Selvan checked the corrected support against the floor again.

This time it did not move.

Mari took the gathering basket outside, then carried it through the entrance at a normal pace again. Her leg cleared the landing easily. She repeated the test with the basket against her hip, and the shelterbark remained clear of her path.

Nia came to the edge of the construction lane.

“Leave the basket there for a moment. I want to test the unloading reach.”

Selvan moved aside.

Nia reached across the boundary and into the empty basket.

The nearest half was easy.

She stretched for the far edge.

Shen’s hand closed lightly around her waist before she leaned any farther.

Nia straightened.

“That is too far.”

Selvan shifted the landing inward by a small amount and checked the new position against his measuring cord.

Mari walked through again.

The passage still gave her enough room.

Nia reached into the basket a second time. Her hand reached the far side without forcing her shoulder forward.

“Here.”

Selvan marked the final support positions with two shallow scratches on the floor stone.

Nia withdrew from the construction lane and washed her hands at the basin before touching anything clean again.

Selvan left the shelterbark loose over the supports.

Nia looked at him.

“It stays removable.”

“It has to. The bark will fail before the stone does.”

Mari lifted one edge easily.

“And I can clean beneath it without moving both supports.”

Selvan nodded.

Mari carried the gathering basket back outside and returned it to its usual outer storage place.

The wet-basket landing was finished before the runner returned.

Nia looked toward the larger gray stone waiting farther back.

Selvan followed her gaze.

“That one takes longer.”

“Because of the floor?”

“Because I do not want it rocking when someone puts real weight on it.”

Nia looked toward the path.

“Kael is still at the west channel.”

“He knows I am working here.”

Selvan and Mari prepared to move the larger stone toward the kitchen side.

Shen spread the second rough cloth along the construction lane beneath the lower edge so trail grit from the raw stone would not scrape directly across the floor as they carried it inward.

The temporary dirty lane now extended from the entrance to the old hot-pot mark. Nia remained outside it unless Selvan needed her to test a reach.

They stopped before the winter measurements.

The broad preparation surface still existed only as pale scored lines along the wall. The hot-pot mark remained lower down.

Nia pointed below it.

“This was the place we chose.”

Selvan lowered the stone without releasing it.

“Stand where you would stand with the pot.”

Nia stepped into the work lane for the test.

She reached toward the hearth, then turned toward the proposed landing.

“Closer.”

Selvan shifted the stone.

Nia repeated the movement.

She could turn from the hearth and lower a vessel without crossing her arms over the preparation path they still intended to build.

“Stop there.”

Mari crouched behind the stone.

“This side is too close to the wall.”

Nia looked.

Mari could fit her fingers into the gap, but not the folded rough cloth.

Selvan moved the stone outward.

Nia tested the turn again.

Her reach still worked.

Mari pushed the work cloth behind the stone and drew it back out.

“I can clean behind that.”

Shen stood between the hearth and the future preparation line.

“What happens when the pot is steaming?”

Nia lifted her empty hands as if she were carrying a vessel and repeated the turn.

“The steam rises here.”

Shen shifted closer to the wall.

“Then clean cloth storage cannot go directly above this.”

“It was not going there.”

“One of the winter reach marks is close.”

Nia looked up.

One of the older marks sat near the path her arm would take from the hearth to the landing stone.

“That mark moves.”

Selvan looked toward the wall. “Do you want me to change it today?”

“No. We are not adding another job because one winter mark needs correcting.”

Shen studied it once more, then nodded.

Selvan lowered the gray stone.

It rocked once.

Nia heard the dull knock beneath one corner.

Selvan lifted it again.

“The floor is uneven.”

Mari looked underneath. “Can you correct the stone instead of cutting the floor?”

“Not enough.”

Nia frowned. “Why not?”

“The underside is already close to flat. If I remove more from that corner, I weaken the edge that will take the pot’s weight.”

He pointed to a shallow rise in the existing floor stone.

“I need to lower this instead.”

Nia stepped out of the construction lane.

“Then lower it.”

Selvan picked up the chisel again.

The work took longer than the entrance support.

Mari kept the first rough cloth beneath the cutting area while Shen held the other along the edge of the lane to keep larger chips from scattering farther inward. Nia stayed clear while Selvan cut a shallow seat into the floor.

The sound carried into the passage.

Two workers slowed as they passed.

One looked inside.

“You finally started the kitchen?”

“We started one part of it,” Mari said.

The worker glanced at the large stone, then at the untouched wood supports near the entrance.

“Still waiting on boards?”

Selvan answered while checking the floor. “Like everyone else.”

The workers continued down the path.

When the floor was ready, Selvan lowered the hot-pot stone again.

It stayed level.

He pressed against each corner.

Nothing moved.

Mari pushed the folded rough cloth behind it and along both sides.

She could reach every edge.

Nia washed before stepping out of the clean side for the handling test, then entered the construction lane.

Shen brought over the heavy pot they had chosen only for the placement test. It was empty and cold, and once it touched the unfinished stone it would stay with the work items until it had been washed again.

Nia carried it from the hearth position to the new landing.

The first turn felt natural.

She set the pot down.

Her wrist cleared the wall. Her sleeve stayed away from the hearth edge. She could reach both handles without leaning across the space reserved for the future preparation surface.

Shen watched her repeat the motion.

He handed her the second rough work cloth.

“Try the handle with this around your hand.”

Nia wrapped the cloth around one handle and repeated the turn.

The cloth stayed clear of the wall.

She set the pot down again.

“That works.”

Selvan looked toward the entrance.

“We still need Kael to test the weight and passage.”

“He will come when he can.”

Mari straightened and looked at the stone chips gathered on the first cloth.

“We are not putting food or a hot pot on this until the construction dust is properly cleaned away.”

“I know. Today I only wanted the position.”

The runner returned before Kael did.

This time Selvan stepped outside to answer him.

Nia could hear part of the exchange. The lower shelf count had changed because two long boards had been reassigned from a damaged market cover to a more urgent drainage brace. Selvan gave the runner another name to check before anything else moved.

He came back inside with dirt along one knee.

Nia looked toward the scraped supports near the entrance.

“Did that change anything we already have?”

“No. Those supports are still assigned to you. The full preparation board was never assigned, so the change below does not move you backward.”

“Then we keep waiting.”

Shen returned the work cloth to Mari’s side of the construction lane.

Kael arrived not long after midday.

He entered with two workers behind him, gave them instructions about the west-channel cart limit without stopping, then sent them back down the path.

Mud had dried along one side of his calf.

Before coming farther inside, he washed his hands at the basin.

His eyes went first to Nia, then to the changed entrance and the new gray stone beneath the winter marks.

“What changed?”

Nia went to him.

“The basket stops here now.”

Kael’s hand settled at the back of her waist as she showed him the removable shelterbark landing, the drainage gap, and the clearance Mari had tested.

He stepped through the entrance twice, once normally and once after taking the empty gathering basket from its outer storage place.

The landing did not interfere with either route.

Kael returned the basket outside before coming back in.

He pressed down on the shelterbark with one foot.

The supports remained still.

“This works.”

Nia pointed toward the kitchen-side work lane.

“And that needs the weight test.”

Kael crossed into the construction area.

Selvan indicated the designated test pot.

Kael set it on the new stone, then pressed down through the vessel with far more force than Nia could have managed.

The stone remained level.

He shifted his weight toward each corner.

Nothing moved.

“Check it again after today’s dust and chips are cleared,” Kael said.

Shen nodded. “Nothing hot or edible touches it before the full cleaning.”

Kael looked at the old winter mark above the new stone.

“This stone stays here?”

“The stone does,” Selvan said. “The rest still waits.”

Kael glanced toward the two scraped wood supports near the entrance.

“You still need the board.”

“Yes,” Nia said. “And we are waiting until suitable dry wood is actually available. Do not move another household or repair job behind ours.”

Kael looked down at her.

“I was not planning to.”

“Good.”

His hand remained at her waist for another moment before he stepped back toward the basin.

He washed the construction dust from his hands before returning to the clean side.

A voice called for him outside.

His attention shifted immediately.

Kael kissed Nia once, touched Shen’s shoulder as he passed him, and told Selvan to send the final stone position with the afternoon work count.

Then he was gone again.

Mari waited until his footsteps faded.

“We should clear what we dirtied before anyone uses this side of the cave normally again.”

Nia nodded. “The stone itself still waits for a proper cleaning tomorrow.”

They started with the work lane.

Selvan lifted the test pot off the gray stone and passed it to Shen without carrying it across the clean boundary. Shen washed the outside, handles, and bottom before returning it to its normal household place.

Mari gathered the loose chips into the first rough cloth. Selvan used the second to wipe the larger dust from the cut floor and the route where the raw stone had crossed. Nia stayed on the clean side until the loose construction dirt was gone.

Selvan emptied the remaining water from his work cup outside, rinsed it, and packed it with his chisels, mallet, and measuring cord.

Mari folded both rough cloths inward around the remaining grit.

“I will take these down with the other work washing.”

Selvan checked the entrance supports once more, then collected his tools.

Nia washed after handling the edge of the shelterbark during the final check. Shen and Mari washed as well before moving away from the work lane.

Selvan and Mari left together, carrying the tools and dirty work cloths with them.

The shelterbark remained loose over its two low supports near the entrance.

The gray hot-pot stone remained beneath the old winter marks, level and fixed in its shallow seat, but not yet cleaned for food use.

Later, after the cave had quieted again, Nia stood on the clean side of the kitchen and looked toward the wall.

Shen came up beside her and slid his fingers through hers.

The fixed gray stone sat beneath one of the pale winter marks. Above it, the remaining scored lines crossed an otherwise bare wall.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!