"Breeding Farm"

"Yes!"

Zhou Mo tightened his grip on the Great Knife, drew a deep breath, jumped off the Three-Wheeler, and advanced on the Wooden Hut before kicking the door open.

A few breaths later.

He returned to the Three-Wheeler and hurriedly reported, "Station Master, there really is a batch of Doppelganger Wraith Young inside. None of them can crawl, and their eyes are downright chilling."

He couldn't help shivering as he spoke.

The sight really had frightened him.

The moment he entered, he saw Doppelganger Wraith Young staring fixedly at him. He strongly suspected he would relive that scene in his dreams tonight.

"Then that explains it."

Chen Fan looked at the Impostors caught in Beast Traps outside the Camp. They had grown increasingly frenzied when they saw Zhou Mo rush into the Wooden Hut. He thought he might have figured out what the Rainy Season was.

The Rainy Season...

Perhaps it was the breeding season for strange entities.

If so, it made sense that strange entities grew extremely agitated during the Rainy Season. Throughout history, no creature stayed calm while breeding. Their territorial instincts became exceptionally strong during that period, and they refused to let any outsider approach.

That also explained why strange entities usually avoided Eerie Fire during the Dry Season, yet charged into it like mad during the Rainy Season.

"Back to camp."

Chen Fan reached out and pulled Zhou Mo onto the cart. "Bring the men over and take all the Impostors here back with us."

"Alive?"

Zhou Mo paused, then turned to look at the Impostors caught in Beast Traps nearby. If all they wanted was to dig out the eerie stones, they could do that now. There was no need to return to the Camp for more men.

"Yes, alive."

Chen Fan nodded lightly.

When he first arrived, he had seen a pair of Impostors mating. A normal human pregnancy lasted nine months, but the female Impostor's belly had rapidly swollen as soon as they finished mating. She was already on the verge of giving birth.

If he put that breeding speed to use, perhaps he could obtain more eerie stones.

When only an Incense Stick's worth of time remained before Eternal Night descended.

Chen Fan returned to the Camp with Zhou Mo, Crippled Monkey, and the others. The Doppelganger Wraiths were tied together with ropes and dragged along the ground back to the Camp.

By then, the Camp's safety zone had expanded to fifty meters in diameter.

There was considerably more room.

He walked to an empty patch outside the Camp's City Wall and spent 200 eerie stones to build a square enclosure, five meters long and five meters wide, like a cage. He planned to keep "Doppelganger Wraiths" here.

On this trip, they had brought back a total of.

27 adult Doppelganger Wraiths.

37 Doppelganger Wraith Young.

He named the place the "Breeding Farm." For safety, he also built a Level-2 Arrow Tower atop the Breeding Farm's City Wall to keep the Doppelganger Wraiths from escaping. Given their strength, a Level-2 Arrow Tower was more than enough.

Besides, the Doppelganger Wraiths couldn't climb over the five-meter-high City Wall anyway.

Today's Flowers.

Had used up quite a few of his eerie stones.

He had only 268 eerie stones left.

Although killing a batch of Impostors had replenished his reserves a little, even with those eerie stones included, he had only 301. None of the Impostors he killed had dropped an exotic treasure.

"A Le."

Chen Fan looked at A Le, who stood behind Qi Chong. "From now on, besides tending the Farmland with Qi Chong, you'll also be in charge of this Breeding Farm. You need to do everything you can to get these Impostors breeding so we can obtain more eerie stones."

"Yes!"

A Le roared his reply. He looked at the Impostors being herded into the Breeding Farm with sticks by Crippled Monkey and the others, his eyes brimming with excitement at this new challenge. Come to think of it... he had raised pigs for so many years, but never wraiths.

It was all breeding livestock.

But the things he raised changed depending on whom he followed.

Only after finishing everything did Chen Fan return to the City Wall in the Camp. He watched the sky gradually darken and patiently waited for Eternal Night to descend.

The Three-Wheeler fitted with the "Level-4 Arrow Fortress" was also parked outside the walls.

It would serve as one of tonight's defenses.

Combining an Arrow Tower with a vehicle to create a mobile Arrow Tower wasn't a particularly difficult idea to come up with. At least, according to his predecessor's memories, the Chen Family had researched it for a while. In the end, however, they abandoned it. It couldn't be deployed on a large scale.

There were many reasons.

For example... the cost.

Building a Level-4 Arrow Fortress cost him only 180 eerie stones from start to finish, but other Builders generally needed more than 1,000. On top of that, they also had to build an Eerie Fire.

The Eerie Fire had to be mounted on the vehicle.

Even when it wasn't being used.

They still needed to feed it eerie stones to keep it burning. After all, building Eerie Fire cost others far more than it cost him. They could hardly treat Eerie Fire as a disposable structure the way he did.

Add in the fact that horses pulling carriages would flee wildly when they encountered strange entities, sending the vehicles out of control, along with high running costs that made it hard to recoup the investment and various other problems.

This method wasn't suitable for large-scale deployment.

But—

To him, those drawbacks were practically nonexistent.

Given enough time, he could even field a fleet of Arrow Carts and reap the benefits of scale.

Just then!

Darkness surged rapidly from the horizon. Eternal Night descended.

Night had fallen.

Chen Fan and the others kept watch atop the outer City Wall.

Zhou Mo, meanwhile, had already crawled into bed in the Wooden Hut, ready to sleep. He looked at the bedding beside him, occupied just last night but empty tonight. After a long silence, he picked up his pen and wrote today's diary entry.

"Today is the fifth night since the Rainy Season began."

"More than half a month remains before the Rainy Season ends."

"Er Gou, who had followed me all this time, died in a Doppelganger Wraith's jaws this evening."

"Can the Camp... really survive the Rainy Season?"

"Heaven knows."

Only after finishing all that.

Did he hide the diary beneath his pillow. In a daze, he stared at the Wooden Hut's ceiling, his thoughts unreadable.

Northbank City.

It was exceptionally noisy tonight.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!!!"

"Why aren't the Chen Family's retainers here yet? My section of the wall can't hold much longer! We need repairs now!!!"

"Where is everyone?!"

Countless furious shouts and curses rang out along Northbank City's City Wall.

Perhaps they came from anger, or perhaps they were meant to suppress the fear in their hearts.

The whole of Northbank City, a Natural Eerie Fire Zone, had no shortage of light even after Eternal Night descended. An enormous golden eggshell enveloped the entire city.

The City Wall that wound around the entire city like a long dragon was facing a tremendous test.

The Arrow Towers installed along the City Wall continuously fired crossbow bolts at the strange entities in the darkness.

"..."

The leader of the Wild Wolf Gang stood atop the City Wall, having brought his men up with him. Watching the Meatworm Wraiths outside hurl themselves fearlessly against the wall in the darkness, he drew a deep breath. His face deathly pale, he pulled a Token from his clothes and slammed it against the City Wall.

At once—

The City Wall surrounding Northbank City shone with black light. A thick layer of steel plating covered in Strange Formation Runes grew out of the wall as though alive, encasing the entire City Wall.

The tide immediately turned.

The City Wall, which had been on the verge of collapse beneath the mass self-detonations of the Meatworm Wraiths, held firm once more.

Only then did he roar, his face still somewhat pale.

"Hold the line, everyone!

"The wind can't keep blowing in the same direction all night! Once it changes, these Meatworm Wraiths will retreat!"

"Brothers, hold on a little longer!"

The meatworm wraith tide was among the most terrifying things in the wilderness during the Rainy Season.

Wherever it passed, not a blade of grass survived.

And tonight.

The meatworm wraith tide had reached Northbank City, intent on staining heaven and earth green.