Ground Spikes

He looked at the Level-1 Beast Trap before him.

There were currently five Beast Traps in the Camp. He had earned quite a few Eerie Stones with them over the past few days, and crafting one cost only two Eerie Stones.

Upgrading a Beast Trap to Level 2 was inexpensive as well, costing only ten Eerie Stones.

He decided to test its effects.

Then.

The ten Eerie Stones on the ground instantly shattered, turning into a milky-white liquid that flowed into the Beast Trap beside the Farmland. A panel slowly appeared before him.

-

"Upgrade the Beast Trap to Level 2 to transform it into Ground Spikes. It must be installed in a fixed location and cannot be freely moved. It can be triggered repeatedly."

"Please select an upgrade path."

"1: Blends into the surrounding environment, making it well concealed and extremely difficult to detect."

"2: Increased power."

"3: Faster spike retraction."

-

The Beast Trap before him had transformed into the ghostly outline of a square Ground Spikes Structure, one meter on each side, waiting for him to place it.

He chose the second upgrade path.

Then he placed it directly in front of the Farmland.

It looked rather out of place.

Dozens of neatly arranged holes dotted a square patch of cracked, barren ground, making it look like the heartwood of a tree riddled with wormholes. He picked up the corpse of a Strange Entity nearby, one Crippled Monkey had yet to bury in the Farmland, and tossed it onto the holes.

The next instant!

Click!

With a soft click, dozens of thick, rigid, black wooden spikes shot out of the ground like striking vipers, moving too fast for the eye to follow. They instantly pierced the Strange Entity's corpse.

Their power was leagues above that of a Beast Trap.

Only then did the thick wooden spikes begin to retract slowly. After several seconds, they withdrew into the holes, ready to trigger again the next time someone stepped on them!

This remedied one of the Beast Trap's greatest shortcomings: its inability to trigger repeatedly.

Its power had also increased dramatically.

"Not bad."

Chen Fan nodded with some satisfaction. It was cheap, effective, and free to operate, requiring no Eerie Stones to power it. As long as it wasn't destroyed, it could keep working indefinitely.

If he had chosen the third upgrade path, the Ground Spikes would retract faster, allowing them to trigger more frequently.

But he felt that the most important feature of a Ground Spikes Trap was its ability to kill in a single strike. What mattered was instantly killing any Strange Entity that stepped on it.

No amount of speed would help if it lacked power.

He had forty-six Eerie Stones left.

Standing beside the Farmland, Chen Fan straightened and looked toward the gradually darkening horizon, his eyes narrowing slightly. His building panel listed a structure called the Sacrificial Tower, which cost twenty Eerie Stones to build.

Its effects were rather vague.

-

"Level-1 Sacrificial Tower": Provides Special Resource. Construction cost: 20 Eerie Stones.

-

He certainly wasn't planning to keep many Eerie Stones on hand tonight. He was weighing whether to build a few more Ground Spikes or construct the Sacrificial Tower. The former would maximize the Camp's immediate strength.

As for the latter, judging by its description alone, it was most likely related to the Camp's middle and later stages of development. Those Special Resources probably wouldn't be useful anytime soon, and they couldn't possibly be handed to him for free. He might even have to exchange Eerie Stones for them.

It was the sort of building that devoured money.

After a long while.

He took out forty Eerie Stones and upgraded all four remaining Beast Traps to Level 2. He chose the second upgrade path for each and arranged them neatly along the side of the Farmland nearest the Camp's edge.

The Farmland was five meters wide.

One Ground Spikes Structure was one meter wide, so five covered five meters.

They matched the Farmland's width perfectly.

The arrangement looked neat and harmonious, the sort of layout that could soothe anyone's compulsive need for order.

"That's much better."

Chen Fan surveyed his handiwork with satisfaction. These five Ground Spikes Structures should provide fairly adequate protection for his Farmland. The Arrow Towers on the City Wall could handle the remaining Strange Entities. In the end, he put the Sacrificial Tower and everything else out of his mind.

First, he had to survive tonight.

If he survived, he would have plenty of time to investigate what the Sacrificial Tower did. If he didn't make it through tonight, it wouldn't matter how incredible the tower was.

Besides.

He felt that, for him right now, the Farmland mattered more than the Arrow Towers. Once the Ghoststone Vein Seed matured, it would bring in a batch of Eerie Stones. He just didn't know how many. Perhaps there would be a pleasant little surprise.

"Everything's ready. All that's left is the final push!"

He looked toward the horizon. This was the limit of what he could do. As long as tonight's strange tide didn't kill him right away, he could use the Eerie Stones dropped by tonight's Strange Entities to strengthen the Camp again and raise its potential even further!

It was an opportunity.

And a crisis.

Everything depended on whether he could hold out tonight.

Just then—

"Young Master!"

Crippled Monkey's voice came from the City Wall. Leaning over the Parapet, he shouted down, "We've finished dismantling the Wooden Hut."

"Good."

Chen Fan turned and walked toward the City Wall. As he approached, the section before him suddenly sank into the ground. He stepped inside and looked at Wang Mazi and the others standing in the heavy Rain, along with the neatly stacked lumber and several ceramic vats filled with bedding in the corner.

He took two Eerie Stones from inside his clothes and tossed them into the air.

Then.

The ghostly outline of a Wooden Hut slowly appeared in the center of the Camp. As the milky-white liquid from the melted Eerie Stones flowed into it, a sturdy, imposing Wooden Hut settled firmly onto the ground.

It was clearly several notches above the old, crude Wooden Hut.

The weather was growing colder.

And torrential Rain was falling.

The old Wooden Hut couldn't even keep out the wind, let alone the Rain. These two Eerie Stones had to be spent.

He walked into the Wooden Hut and took out another Eerie Stone, inserting it into the recess by the entrance. Then he looked at Wang Mazi and the others outside. "Everyone, come in. It's pouring out there. Get everything sorted out before dark."

"There's a fire inside. Go warm yourselves and don't catch a chill."

When Wang Kui brought these six men back to the Station, he had also brought plenty of clothes, food, and other daily necessities. These supplies needed sorting now, but Chen Fan didn't have to concern himself with that. Crippled Monkey could organize everything perfectly well on his own.

"Yes!"

Wang Mazi nodded firmly, then hurriedly called the others over to empty the ceramic vats and tidy the hut.

"Hurry!"

Out in the wilderness, Wang Kui and Little Qiu happened to run into the Qiuhe Wang Family's Station Master midway through their journey. Dressed in a Hemp Robe and carrying a long saber, he was running through the Rain with his men.

"It's almost dark! If we don't head back now, we'll be too late."

Wang Kui shouted at the top of his lungs over the torrential rain. They had been sent out to collect supplies from the nearby abandoned Stations, and with their task complete, they were preparing to return.

Visibility in the wilderness was normally excellent, but the heavy Rain had reduced it drastically. Without a Ghosthide Map, they would certainly get lost.

"It's just up ahead."

Wang Kui glanced at the Ghosthide Map in his hand, panting as he ran as hard as he could. But... the next instant, he abruptly stopped in his tracks and stared ahead in bewilderment.

Then he looked at the Ghosthide Map in his hand again.

We didn't take a wrong turn.

This is Jiangbei Chen Family Station No. 37.

But... when did that City Wall appear?

That thing wasn't in the Camp when I left, was it?