The Wilderness.
Station 16 of the Hill and Valley Royal Family.
Leading his n, Zhou Mo had walked for a long ti through the downpour, following the coordinates on the Ghost Map, before finally arriving at the station.
A few lonely Wooden Houses stood in the torrential rain.
Outside, there was a patch of Farmland, and... a Ghost Fire.
Other than that, there were no City Defense Buildings.
In fact,
Almost no station in the Wilderness had any City Defense Buildings.
After all, outside of the rainy season, Ghost Objects rarely entered camps on their own. If such an unlikely event were to happen, it would often trigger a chain reaction, rendering a few City Defense Buildings aningless anyway.
"This guy’s luck is really sothing."
Zhou Mo stood outside the camp, pounding his thighs to relieve the exhaustion from their long trek. He gazed at the simple, crude camp before him and couldn’t help but remark, "He has no City Defense Buildings whatsoever, yet he managed to survive last night."
"He’s lucky we’re here. He wouldn’t survive tonight otherwise."
"Let’s go in."
"We’ll grab a hot bite while we’re at it. Then we can get back on the road to our own camp."
Their own station had gone through a vicious battle last night, and they only survived by the grace of God. This station, however, didn’t even have a City Wall; it had made it through on pure luck.
"Old Chen?"
"Old Chen!"
Zhou Mo bellowed at the top of his lungs as he walked into the station. His voice pierced the heavy rain and entered the houses. Barging into a camp like this was ordinarily a huge taboo, but he couldn’t afford to care about such things at the mont.
’If I rember correctly, the station chief here is nad Old Chen.’
However, there was no response.
’Are they sleeping that soundly?’
Zhou Mo’s brow furrowed. He walked to one of the Wooden Houses, knocked a few tis, then shoved the door open and called out, "Old Chen, you—"
His voice died in his throat.
His right foot, which had been about to step inside, froze in mid-air.
A long while later,
He looked up at the two corpses hanging from the rafters like cured at and let out a soft sigh, his expression complex. "Looks like your luck wasn’t so great after all, Old Chen..."
The two bodies hanging from the rafters swayed in the draft.
Evidently,
After the Eternal Night fell last night, Old Chen and his subordinate couldn’t handle the pressure and chose to end their own lives by hanging themselves.
It was understandable.
He could actually understand completely.
A camp with no City Defense Buildings during an Eternal Night in the rainy season was like a lone piece of driftwood in the deep sea. The gales and storms would churn the waves, and the endless horrors lurking beneath would bring a soul-crushing despair—the kind of hopelessness that cos from seeing no future, no sunrise.
No one could withstand that kind of pressure.
The sea is beautiful.
Azure blue.
But the deep sea at night holds no such beauty; its pitch-black surface, like the Eternal Night, brings nothing but despair and helplessness.
"..."
After a long mont of silence, Zhou Mo ordered his man, "Go check the Farmland outside for any crops. Load anything useful onto that cart in the corner."
He then went forward to take down the corpses and check their pockets for anything valuable.
He also stripped their clothes and took the hemp ropes.
The Ghost Fire outside was already extrely dim. With the station chief’s death, it was gradually dying out and would be completely extinguished soon.
...
There were less than two hours until the Eternal Night would fall again.
Chen Fan woke up. He threw off his blanket, put on his clothes—which were still damp—and quickly washed his face with collected rainwater. Then, he stood at the wooden doorway, looked outside, stretched languidly, and turned to look at the furnace inside the house.
Even with the furnace,
The continuous overcast and rainy weather made it extrely damp and cold.
He hadn’t slept comfortably last night; the cold had really gotten to him.
The living conditions were a bit poor.
He was the only one in the house; everyone else was busy outside.
Stepping past the City Wall, he saw La Monkey in the Farmland, busy burying Ghost Corpses.
"Young Master."
La Monkey noticed him and trotted over, saying excitedly, "They’re growing wonderfully! They should be ready to harvest by tomorrow."
"Mm."
Chen Fan glanced at the seedlings in the Farmland outside the wall, now half a ter tall. He nodded with a faint smile. "Keep up the good work."
’By my count, tomorrow will be the third day.’
And that was exactly how long these crops took to mature.
The clean, earthy scent of the rain cleared his head. He looked down at the three Exotic Treasures he was holding—his haul from the previous night. His next task was to strengthen the camp’s defenses again, to prepare for the potential dangers of the coming night.
The first Exotic Treasure.
Was a Blueprint.
A Building Blueprint, similar to the one for the Sentry Tower, and as thin as a cicada’s wing.
But...
The building on the Blueprint was extrely crude. It was just the phantom image of a Copper Pipe, like a drainpipe, with no discernible use.
-
「Exotic Treasure Na」: Sealed Copper Pipe.
「Exotic Treasure Level」: White.
「Exotic Treasure Effect」: This Exotic Treasure is a building module Blueprint, compatible with all buildings.
-
"..."
Chen Fan crushed the Blueprint in his hand. The Eternal Night Lord Panel in his mind imdiately updated. This ti, it didn’t add a new constructible building; instead, a whole new section appeared.
-
「Currently Constructible Buildings...」
「Ghost Fire, Arrow Tower, City Wall, Farmland, Wooden House, Sacrificial Tower, Sentry Tower, Beast Trap.」
「Currently Constructible Building Modules...」
「Copper Pipe.」
-
The description for this building module Blueprint was also quite simple.
「Copper Pipe」: Compatible with all buildings. Cost to build: 1 Ghost Stone per ter.
Although he didn’t quite understand what it ant,
He knew one thing: the only way to find out was to try it himself.
He crushed a Ghost Stone. As a milky-white liquid flowed through the air, the phantom image of a one-ter-long Copper Pipe slowly materialized, hovering in mid-air. He could adjust its size at will, from as thin as a centiter to as wide as a ter.
He chose ten centiters.
The mont the phantom copper pipe appeared,
All the buildings in the entire camp simultaneously transford into phantom images made of white lines, just as they had been during their initial construction.
The Ghost Fire, City Wall, Wooden Houses, and everything else all turned into phantom outlines.
But La Monkey and the others had no reaction; clearly, only he could see this scene.
This scene before him was like...
Like...
His eyes narrowed slightly as he guided the Copper Pipe toward the Ghost Fire. When the two phantom outlines approached each other, they instantly fused together and rapidly solidified.
Then, the entire camp returned to normal.
The phantom outlines vanished.
And the Ghost Fire in the center of the camp had changed. Its base had originally been a pile of stones like a Campfire, with a cold, white fla.
Now, however, a Copper Pipe was embedded in the Ghost Fire’s base as if it were a natural part of it, fused with the foundation and resting on the ground. From a different angle, he could faintly see the cold, white fla flowing back and forth inside the pipe.
"..."
Gazing at the scene before him,
Chen Fan froze, an unbelievable possibility flashing through his mind. ’Could it be... Could it be...’
He didn’t hesitate for a second.
He imdiately spent another 20 Ghost Stones to create a 20-ter-long Copper Pipe!
As the phantom Copper Pipe floated in the air, all the buildings in the camp once again transford into outlines made of white lines.
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