The Foundation the Mistress Left for the Young Master?

The white-glowing stone in his hand had fallen from that little girl's mouth.

It was an Exotic Treasure!

He had killed thirty-seven Monkey-Head Ghosts last night before one Exotic Treasure dropped. Today, after killing a mother and daughter, another Exotic Treasure had dropped.

The mother and daughter's drop rate was much higher.

This mother-daughter pair must have been the "Impostor Ghosts" the man in the green robe had mentioned. They had little strength of their own. Their main tactic was to disguise themselves as humans when night was about to fall and attempt to enter camps. Once their disguise was seen through, they could be killed easily.

Of course, these Impostor Ghosts could not hold Eerie Stones either. They would be burned.

"Understood."

Crippled Monkey scratched the back of his head in self-reproach. "Good thing you woke up, Young Master. Otherwise, we would've missed out on a stroke of fortune. I was mainly worried that I might accidentally hurt them."

"How could there have been any accidental injury?"

Chen Fan shook his head and laughed. "Without Eerie Stones, no camp would have taken them in. Even if they really had been human, if you drove them away, they still would have died in the Eternal Night."

"Besides, even if you had accidentally hurt them, it wouldn't have mattered."

"That was their fate."

"They had to accept it."

"Alright. You slept enough during the day, right? There may be a hard battle tonight. Come eat something. Fill your stomach so you can work."

The instant the sun set, tide-like darkness once again came racing in from the horizon. In the blink of an eye, it shrouded heaven and earth.

Eternal Night descended!

This was already the third night master and servant had spent on this wasteland.

But compared to the previous two nights, they felt far safer tonight.

"Young Master."

Sitting beside the bonfire, Crippled Monkey wolfed down the hard bread in his hand while stroking the heavy, sturdy Arrow Tower beside him, his eyes brimming with excitement. "As far as I know, a Builder capable of constructing an Arrow Tower is no longer an Apprentice Builder who can only make 'Eerie Fire'!"

"To hire a Builder to construct an Arrow Tower for one's camp, you would need at least one hundred and fifty Eerie Stones!"

"If the master learned that you could already build Arrow Towers, he would definitely regret everything he had done all these years."

There was something else he did not say aloud.

Who had told the Young Master the blueprint details for building an Arrow Tower?

Could it be...

The foundation the mistress had left for the Young Master?

Chen Fan merely smiled without replying, lowering his head to look at the stone in his arms. This was truly a fine treasure.

"Exotic Treasure Name": Building Replication Stone.

"Exotic Treasure Grade": White.

"Exotic Treasure Effect": Can be used on any building below or at level 2 to replicate an identical building.

The most valuable thing in his camp at present was naturally that level 2 Arrow Tower.

Without giving it much thought,

he pressed the stone against the Arrow Tower beside him. Immediately afterward, the phantom of another Arrow Tower, formed from countless illusory white lights, appeared in the air. The stone transformed into milky-white liquid and flowed into the phantom Arrow Tower, rapidly solidifying it until it stood on the other side of the bonfire.

One on the left and one on the right, they happened to enclose the bonfire in the middle.

Arrow Towers could only attack creatures that entered the camp's range. If placed too close to the edge of the camp, they would immediately suffer damage from Strange Entities and could easily be destroyed. Keeping them inside the camp was far more secure.

He took out another Eerie Stone and embedded it into the base of the brand-new Arrow Tower.

At this point, he only had three Eerie Stones left.

His family fortune was nearly empty.

Crippled Monkey, who had been daydreaming about the future, stood frozen after witnessing this. He was speechless for a long while before finally muttering, "Young Master."

"Hmm?"

"You need to hurry up and marry and have children."

"Why?" "Young Master, although you're only a level 1 Builder right now, your talent is greater than that of every Builder I've ever heard of. You'll definitely become an incredible Builder in the future. The sooner you spread branches and grow leaves, the sooner you'll have a great Lineage of your own."

Chen Fan laughed at that and shook his head without saying anything. Crippled Monkey seemed to have some obsession with Lineage. He was always thinking about making the Chen Family look at him differently, and now he even wanted Chen Fan to create a Lineage of his own.

Level 1 Builder.

That was this world's cultivation system.

The higher a Builder's level, the stronger their physical constitution would become, the less they would consume when constructing buildings, and the higher the grade of buildings they could create with sufficient cultivation.

But.

To him, all of that was empty talk.

Useless.

As long as he had resources and blueprints, he could construct top-grade buildings even now. The Builders of this world were all Builders crippled by the lack of a panel. Only after obtaining a panel could one become a true Builder.

In other words.

This world was actually something like a game world. However, an accident had occurred during its transformation, causing all the natives of this world to lack player panels and be unable to see them. He, the only one who could see a panel, had instead become a true player—the only player.

After all, his Endless Night Lord Panel did not actually have any particularly special function.

It was simply equivalent to a player panel.

As for absorbing Eerie Stones to raise his level, it had only one use for him: making his physical constitution stronger. Once he had more Eerie Stones in the future, he would certainly improve it, but at this stage, it was very low on his list of priorities.

Just then—

The darkness outside the camp suddenly seemed to boil, churning endlessly. They could even hear clear, piercing roars.

"It's here!"

Chen Fan swiftly rose to his feet and hid within the supports beneath the Arrow Tower. He swept his gaze around, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said in a low voice, "A big one is coming. It may break into the camp. Get ready."

"If it really gets in, don't go up to fight it. Leave it to the Arrow Towers!"

He had not set any animal traps tonight precisely because he was worried that the big one that escaped last night would return. He had not expected it to really come.

"Huff."

His breathing gradually quickened. Mainly because he did not know how strong the enemy was, nor did he know whether these two level 2 Arrow Towers could stop it.

If they could not stop it...

Then there would be nowhere to run!

The next moment!

"Skreee!"

A harsh, piercing cry suddenly rang out in the night outside the camp. Then, they saw a nearly two-meter-tall, massive Monkey-Head Ghost rush out from the darkness and plunge straight into the camp!

It was incredibly fast!

This was the first time he had seen a Strange Entity dare to charge directly into a camp with Eerie Fire.

The pressure brought by the black mist surrounding its body made them instinctively hold their breath.

Humans appeared far too insignificant before such Strange Entities.

Yet at the same time, the ballistas atop the two Arrow Towers beside the Eerie Fire turned in unison, aiming straight at the massive Monkey-Head Ghost. The Eerie Stones embedded at the bases of the Arrow Towers flashed with a faint white light that vanished in an instant.

Immediately after!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The sound of air tearing apart sliced through the night sky, ringing beside their ears.

Several crossbow bolts shot forth, accurately plunging into the massive Monkey-Head Ghost's body. Their firing speed was neither particularly fast nor particularly slow, but their accuracy was excellent, with a hit rate of over seventy percent.

The heavily wounded Monkey-Head Ghost no longer cared about revenge. Screaming and howling in agonizing pain, it rushed out of the camp at tremendous speed and vanished into the darkness.

"It ran?"

Chen Fan poked his head out from behind the Arrow Tower and looked toward the darkness outside the camp, which had returned to calm. A trace of regret and disappointment flashed through his eyes.

"What a pity."

"That Monkey-Head Ghost would definitely have dropped something good after it died."

(End of chapter)