After returning, Duke prepared to dig an escape tunnel.
He had originally prepared two basements, one concealed and one exposed, thinking that if anything changed, he could simply hide in the concealed basement.
But after visiting the site of the house destroyed by the Ghost-faced Eagle, he discovered that those wind blades had cut several meters into the ground. Clearly, hiding in the concealed basement would not be safe either.
So he had to dig an escape tunnel—and the farther it went, the better.
The moment he discovered a Spirit Beast invasion, he could flee through the escape tunnel, or hide in some section of it and lie low.
"Dig an escape tunnel? That'll take quite a bit of time." Sally was noncommittal about Duke's idea.
She did not think Spirit Beasts would invade Little Duke Farm.
Could they be coming all the way here just to chew on wheat?
"Let's treat it as a winter hobby. We'll spend the whole winter finishing the escape tunnel." Duke's tone brooked no refusal.
That night, he did not refurbish discarded Spirit Cards.
Instead, he picked up a sheet of draft paper and hand-drew a map of Little Duke Farm and the surrounding terrain.
His drawing skills were nothing special, but with Xiao Yi assisting with the composition, he still managed to make the map look quite convincing. He also designed the escape tunnels on it.
"The villa's basement will be the tunnel entrance. We'll dig one tunnel north toward Little River Bay. Then we'll build a thatched hut beside Little River Bay and use the fishing spot as cover. We'll dig another tunnel south, stopping at the farm's boundary, and conceal it with a haystack."
The two escape tunnels were soon planned out.
Thus, beginning in late November, he personally picked up