The Fourth Eternal Night

In a daze.

Chen Fan's thoughts stalled, and the world before his eyes seemed to fall silent.

But just then—

A thread of cool rainwater seeping down his neck, along with Zhou Mo's roar from inside the City Wall, jolted him awake.

"Chief!"

"Chen Fan!!"

Inside the City Wall, Zhou Mo stood beside the Wooden Hut with a Great Knife in hand, shouting himself hoarse in panic, trying to wake the people atop the wall.

From his perspective,

the chief and the others had suddenly fallen into a trance.

Wang Mazi had even undone his pants and started jerking off.

Eternal Night, torrential rain, Strange Entities, masturbation.

These four utterly unrelated words formed the scene before him. Though he admitted that masturbation was a pleasurable thing, this really was not a good time for it.

This bizarre sight clearly meant that the chief and the others had encountered a Strange Entity capable of creating illusions.

"Get down!"

Chen Fan was the first to regain consciousness. He looked toward the waterfall-like curtain of black hair behind the female wraith, which had already stretched out and stabbed toward them like lightning. He swiftly shoved Wang Mazi and the others to the ground, ducking behind the battlements.

People could be affected by illusions.

Buildings, however, could not.

From the moment the female wraith stepped into the camp, the ballistae atop the Arrow Towers had been firing without pause.

Bolt after bolt shot through the rainy night toward the female wraith outside the City Wall. Although most were knocked aside by the hair whipping through the air like lashes, there were enough Arrow Towers that some bolts still struck home.

As long as none of them were killed immediately by that needle-like hair, the female wraith could not withstand the Arrow Towers' damage.

Clearly,

the female wraith intended to endure the Arrow Towers' attacks and capture the ringleader first.

As long as Chen Fan died, the Arrow Towers would stop operating at once, and the Eerie Fire would slowly gutter out and vanish.

However—

He had woken up and avoided that attack.

That left the female wraith with only one road: death.

The Level-3 Arrow Tower imbued with the fire element, an Arrow Tower specially built to deal with this female wraith, began to display its might. Bolts flew at the female wraith so fast she could not dodge.

Her body was pierced clean through.

No blood flowed from the holes—only scorched flesh.

A few breaths later.

The battle was completely over.

Once the female wraith's strongest move failed to deliver a final, decisive blow, she became a lamb waiting for slaughter. Unable to endure more than a few waves of attacks, she was shot dead within the camp.

By then,

Wang Kui and the others had already broken free from the illusion.

"Damn it."

Wang Mazi pulled up his pants, his face red with humiliation and lingering fear. "That Strange Entity's methods were truly terrifying!"

Fortunately, Zhou Mo had been inside the camp and had not seen the female wraith outside the City Wall, allowing him to wake the chief. Otherwise, who knew what might have happened? That female wraith could actually create illusions—truly terrifying to the extreme.

There was no longer a single Strange Entity in the gray mist.

"You should get some sleep first."

Chen Fan looked at Zhou Mo, who had come up onto the City Wall. "You still have fieldwork tomorrow morning. Go sleep. Leave this place to us."

Only then did he turn to Crippled Monkey and the others.

"Clean up the battlefield quickly. The night is still long. More Strange Entities might come."

After the past few days,

the people in the camp had more or less settled into a rhythm together.

At a single command,

Crippled Monkey and the others rushed down to dig Eerie Stones from the Strange Entity corpses and collect the dropped Exotic Treasures. They left the Ghost Materials alone for now, planning to dissect them after dawn.

Chen Fan, meanwhile, immediately repaired the damaged City Wall.

The repair cost was seventy-eight Eerie Stones.

This time, the City Wall had been damaged quite severely, so the cost of repairs was also high.

But—

Repair it, my ass.

Only four meters of the City Wall had been damaged. Since those Strange Entities had focused on one spot, he simply tore down the damaged section on the spot and built a brand-new four-meter City Wall, spending only forty Eerie Stones.

Repairs cost more than rebuilding from scratch.

After that,

they took turns guarding the Wooden Hut atop the City Wall, so they would not have to remain too long in the cold, damp, bone-chilling environment and could avoid catching a chill as much as possible. The night soon passed.

In the latter half of the night, only a few dozen scattered Strange Entities broke into the camp. They never formed a Strange Tide and were easily dealt with.

With the camp's current strength,

as long as there was no large-scale Strange Tide or high-level Strange Entity leading it, ordinary wandering Strange Entities that entered the camp were simply there to deliver Eerie Stones. They could not pose even the slightest threat to the camp.

Dawn arrived.

The darkness was suddenly lifted away like a lid of milk foam.

Another cross was marked onto the Eternal Night Calendar inside the Wooden Hut.

This was the fourth Eternal Night they had spent in the wilderness during the Rainy Season.

As soon as it was light,

Zhou Mo led his subordinates out again, Great Knives in hand, preparing to bring back the resources from several nearby destroyed stations.

Only then did Chen Fan and the others relax and begin sorting through last night's battlefield.

Because they had taken turns standing watch last night,

none of them were particularly sleepy.

They could sleep later.

Qi Chong and the other man had already begun dissecting the Strange Entity corpses with practiced ease. Useful Ghost Materials, such as Mantis Arms, Monkey Hide, and Bamboo Pole Entity Skeletons, were all collected and piled in the warehouse, while Wraith Blood was gathered in ceramic jars.

It was worth mentioning that

even after Eternal Night arrived, the Flesh Wraith Parent-Child Seed planted in the Farmland still needed to be watered with Wraith Blood.

Qi Chong and the others had not forgotten to water it with Wraith Blood last night either.

Fortunately, the battle had not lasted long. Otherwise, they would have had to make more Copper Pipes.

Outside the City Wall,

Wang Mazi stood in the drizzle, looking at the female wraith lying quietly on the ground with several holes in her body. He squatted down and pinched her forearm, testing its firmness, then spoke with a faint sigh.

"I did lose my composure a little last night."

"But I have to admit, she was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. She was countless times prettier than the top courtesan of Osmanthus Tower in Northbank City. Calling her a celestial maiden would be no exaggeration."

"A reminder." Crippled Monkey said expressionlessly, "She was a female wraith."

"I know, but she didn't look like she had any Strange Entity mutations on her body, did she? She looked just like a normal woman. What a pity."

"Another reminder: she's already dead."

"I know. Why do you keep reminding me? You're making it seem like I have other ideas."

"I saw you lick the corner of your mouth."

"My mouth was a little dry."

Just then—

A Le strode over from not far away, using a Mantis Arm as a blade. He knelt beside the female wraith and, with practiced ease, stabbed into her scalp. Like slaughtering a cow, he swiftly slid along the joints. Before long, an intact piece of Wraith Hide had been peeled away.

That thick, raven-black long hair was also removed whole along with the scalp.

The female wraith, who had carried a trace of desolate beauty just moments ago, became a pile of mangled flesh in the blink of an eye.

"What are you...?"

Wang Mazi, who had still been sighing over her, stared blankly at the scene before him.

"Skinning."

A Le looked up at Wang Mazi and said in a muffled voice, "The chief gave the order. That long hair is good stuff and needs to be peeled off. Want me to leave you some wraith's delight? Should I ask the chief to make you a suitably sized Copper Pipe too?"

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary."

Wang Mazi said awkwardly, "I was just chatting casually. You guys make it sound like I'm some kind of... you know."

"I was only affected by the illusion last night."

"But you were the only one who took off his pants last night."

"You tied yours in dead knots. I tied mine in a slipknot."

"Heh heh."

"They're all good stuff."

Chen Fan walked around the different groups with a cheerful grin, especially pleased with the Bamboo Pole Entity leader. Its skeleton was exceptionally sturdy, making it perfect for an improved cart frame.

So many Strange Entities had brought in quite a few Eerie Stones.

They had also dropped three Exotic Treasures for him.

One had been found on the Bamboo Pole Entity leader.

The other two had come from the female wraith, one of which was an extremely rare building blueprint.

As for the Mantis Entity leader, it had dropped nothing at all. Quite poor.

Last night's harvest had been extremely plentiful.

And with so many Strange Entity corpses, the newly built Sacrificial Tower finally had a chance to be put to use.

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(End of chapter.)