"Man proposes, I did my best."

"Mm."

Chen Fan looked at the travel-worn Zhou Mo before him. Zhou Mo's already weathered face had been blown red by the storm, his lips turning bluish; clearly, he was in poor condition.

An ordinary person would not have been able to endure rushing back and forth through the storm for so long.

Not to mention the psychological pressure of having to return to camp before dark.

After a brief pause, Chen Fan spoke softly.

"What a pity."

"You've had a hard journey. Go back inside, change into dry clothes, and warm yourself by the fire."

"It wasn't hard."

Zhou Mo shook his head, pulled a burlap sack from his robes, then pointed at his subordinate. "All the Eerie Stones from that camp are in here, forty-eight in total. He helped me collect them. I loaded the remaining valuable things onto this cart and brought them back. They should all come in handy."

"Good."

Chen Fan smiled and accepted the sack.

Naturally, he understood what Zhou Mo meant.

"Go rest."

There was still one shichen until nightfall.

Time was tight.

Chen Fan went alone to the section of City Wall that the Meatworm Wraiths had damaged last night. The green viscous fluid left behind after the Meatworm Wraiths exploded had caused some damage to the wall, leaving behind quite a few fist-sized holes.

The wall was three meters thick.

This level of damage was practically negligible to the City Wall.

After all, they had only been a few fish that slipped through the net; their numbers were not too great.

The next moment—

The City Wall within the camp suddenly transformed into a building phantom formed from streaks of white light. Among those white lines, he could clearly see that several lines in the area before him had snapped and needed repairing.

-

"1 Eerie Stone required for this repair."

-

"The price isn't too steep."

Chen Fan took an Eerie Stone from his robes and crushed it. The Eerie Stone immediately transformed into a milky-white liquid and slowly flowed into the building phantom before him. The snapped white lines visibly began repairing themselves at a rapid pace.

After roughly a few breaths.

The building phantom solidified once more.

The City Wall before him was once again flawless, as good as new.

"I wonder how other Builders repair City Walls."

Chen Fan tilted his head toward the gradually darkening sky and murmured. He could repair the City Wall so easily because he had a panel, but how were Builders who could not see a panel supposed to repair City Walls?

They could not possibly forge an entirely new section whenever one was damaged, could they?

He knew that Northbank City was a natural Eerie Fire zone of considerable size. The city's three major factions had joined forces to build a wall encircling the entire city, on a scale far greater than his own.

Without a means of repairing the walls, the maintenance costs would be astronomical.

He did not dwell on it.

Instead, he began counting his Eerie Stones.

He had five hundred and eight in total.

It was no small sum. It was certainly not enough to upgrade the City Wall to Level 2—the wall required sixteen hundred Eerie Stones for that—but it was enough to strengthen his camp once again.

There were currently two Level-3 Arrow Towers on the City Wall.

Their strength was sufficient.

But there were not enough of them.

Building a Level-1 Arrow Tower required ten Eerie Stones.

He first spent one hundred Eerie Stones to build ten Level-1 Arrow Towers, neatly fitting every one of them into the slots behind the battlements.

These ten Arrow Towers were all made entirely of wood, looking exceedingly fragile.

Their power was also lacking.

He then spent another two hundred Eerie Stones to upgrade all ten Arrow Towers to Level 2.

As the Eerie Stones turned into milky-white liquid.

The Arrow Towers began to change as well, growing as though they possessed life, transforming into structures of wood and stone. The sturdiness of the towers improved somewhat, and among the upgrade paths that appeared—

He chose "Increase Crossbow Power" for every single one.

He then spent twenty-six Eerie Stones to create a twenty-six-meter Copper Pipe, connecting the ten Arrow Towers to the Eerie Fire at the center of the camp.

Since he had already connected the two Level-3 Arrow Towers to the Eerie Fire within the camp from the start, he only needed to use Copper Pipes along the City Wall to connect those two original Arrow Towers in sequence to these ten Arrow Towers.

It was the shortest route.

And the most resource-efficient one.

The next moment!

The Copper Pipes connected beneath the bases of the ten Arrow Towers on the City Wall emitted white light, then swiftly sank into the wall.

He placed fifty Eerie Stones into the Eerie Fire as reserves.

They would be used to maintain the Eerie Fire's daily consumption and provide energy to the Arrow Towers.

At this point—

The camp's defenses had undergone a qualitative leap.

"..."

Standing atop the City Wall, Chen Fan looked at the Arrow Towers erected along it within the camp and smiled with slight satisfaction. With this, the camp's safety had risen dramatically once more.

Only then did he gaze into the distance at the horizon and speak softly.

"Man proposes; I did my best."

"I'll leave the rest to Heaven's blessing."

Although the camp's safety had increased substantially, it still would not withstand a frontal assault from a Meatworm Wraith Tide.

After that series of operations.

He had one hundred and thirty-two Eerie Stones remaining.

He looked at the building on the Lord Panel that he had never constructed. Now that he had spare Eerie Stones, he could build it.

"Sacrificial Tower."

"Can obtain special resources. Requires 20 Eerie Stones to build."

After twenty Eerie Stones shattered.

A Sacrificial Tower phantom formed from white lines appeared before him. It was roughly one meter tall and rather petite, an exquisitely tiny pagoda with seven levels.

It was built entirely from bluestone.

Its eaves were decorated with dark crimson.

He placed it beside the Wooden Hut.

The City Wall surrounding the camp was circular, with a diameter of ten meters. The space inside was not large to begin with, and now that it held a Wooden Hut, Eerie Fire, and Watchtower, the remaining room was already becoming cramped.

But there was no helping it. If the area grew any larger, the cost of the City Wall would rise as well.

For now, this was all he could do. He would make adjustments later.

Chen Fan looked at the exceptionally petite Sacrificial Tower before him as a panel slowly appeared.

-

"Sacrifice Strange Entity corpses to obtain special resources."

"The stronger and more numerous the Strange Entity corpses, the greater the value of the special resources obtained."

"This building cannot be upgraded."

-

"A sacrifice as in offering?"

Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully. This building's effect was quite good. The Strange Entity corpses he had killed over the past few days had all been buried in the Farmland. Although they could serve as fertilizer, it was becoming a little too excessive.

The existence of the Sacrificial Tower would make good use of Strange Entity corpses in the future.

After that, he made no further moves.

Instead, he quietly waited for Eternal Night to descend.

One shichen later.

The familiar, heavy darkness appeared at the horizon and flooded across the entire world like a tide.

The eggshell-like halo once again enveloped the camp.

"Hmm?"

Crippled Monkey, lying behind the battlements atop the City Wall, noticed the anomaly immediately. The camp's Safety Zone had originally been round—why had a section suddenly bulged outward? Confusion flashed through his eyes. "This..."

"How is it?"

Chen Fan chuckled as he looked toward the gray fog outside the camp, patiently awaiting tonight's Strange Entities.

That was his new masterpiece: Safety Zone Overflow!

That inconspicuous bulge would become the starting point of many of his wild architectural fantasies in the future.

"...Why is there an extra *head?"

"..."

Chen Fan glanced at Crippled Monkey, then withdrew his gaze and said expressionlessly, "Stay alert."