Chapter 20: Groundspikes
????He gazed thoughtfully at the Level 1 Beast Trap before him.
??There were five Beast Traps set up around the camp now. Over the past few days, they’d brought in a respectable haul of Ghoststones—each one cost only two Ghoststones to craft.
??Upgrading a Beast Trap to Level 2 wasn’t costly either—just ten Ghoststones apiece.
??He was eager to see what they were truly capable of.
??Without hesitation—
??Ten Ghoststones shattered at his feet, dissolving into a milky-white fluid that seeped into the Beast Trap by the Farmland. A shimring System Panel unfolded before his eyes.
??—
??“Beast Trap upgraded to Level 2: Evolved into ‘Groundspikes.’ Must be anchored in place and cannot be moved at will. Can trigger multiple tis.”
??“Please select an Upgrade Path.”
??“1: Blends seamlessly into the environnt, highly concealed, nearly impossible to detect.”
??“2: Enhanced power.”
??“3: Faster Groundspike retraction.”
??—
??The Beast Trap before him flickered, becoming a translucent phantom—a one-ter square marked out, waiting for him to designate a location.
??He selected the second Upgrade Path.
??Then, he anchored it directly in front of the Farmland.
??The result was strikingly out of place.
??On the cracked wasteland, a square patch appeared, riddled with neat, evenly spaced holes—like the hollowed core of a tree gnawed by borers. He hefted a Ghostbeast corpse that Crippled Monkey hadn’t finished burying, and tossed it atop the grid.
??The next instant—
??Click!
??With a crisp snap, dozens of thick, pitch-black wooden spikes shot up from below, swift as striking vipers. In a heartbeat, they impaled the Ghostbeast corpse, moving too fast for the eye to follow.
??This was a world apart from the old Beast Trap’s ager power.
??A few seconds later, the spikes slowly retracted, sliding back into their holes. The mont anything stepped onto the patch again, the trap would spring anew.
??It perfectly addressed the Beast Trap’s greatest flaw: its inability to reset.
??And its killing power had soared.
??“Not bad,” Chen Fan murmured, nodding with satisfaction. Cheap, effective, and best of all, it didn’t require Ghoststones to operate—so long as it wasn’t destroyed, it could be used indefinitely.
??Had he chosen the third Upgrade Path, the Groundspikes would have retracted even faster, letting the trap trigger more frequently.
??But to him, the most important quality in a trap like this was its lethality—a single, devastating strike to instantly finish off any Ghostbeast unlucky enough to step on it.
??Speed was aningless if the blow lacked the force to kill.
??...
??He still had forty-six Ghoststones left.
??Standing beside the Farmland, Chen Fan lifted his gaze, squinting at the horizon as dusk enveloped the wasteland. His System Panel’s building list displayed a structure called the “Sacrificial Tower.” It required twenty Ghoststones to construct.
??Its description, however, was maddeningly vague.
??—
??“Level 1 Sacrificial Tower: Allows harvesting of special resources. Requires 20 Ghoststones to construct.”
??—
??He had no intention of hoarding Ghoststones tonight. He weighed his options: build more Groundspikes to imdiately strengthen the camp’s defenses, or gamble on the Sacrificial Tower, which seed geared toward mid- to late-stage developnt. Those “special resources” likely wouldn’t offer much imdiate benefit—and he doubted they’d co free. Most likely, he’d still have to trade Ghoststones for them.
??A classic money pit.
??After a mont’s thought—
??He took forty Ghoststones and upgraded the remaining four Beast Traps to Level 2, choosing the second Upgrade Path for each. He lined them up in a neat row along the Farmland’s edge, closest to camp.
??The Farmland spanned five ters.
??Each Groundspike covered one ter. Five traps, five ters—a flawless fit.
??The arrangent was so precise, it would satisfy even the most obsessive perfectionist.
??“That’s much better,” he said.
??Chen Fan admired his handiwork. With these five Groundspikes, his Farmland should be well protected. Any Ghostbeast that managed to get past would still have to contend with the Wall and the Arrow Tower. In the end, he decided to delay building the Sacrificial Tower.
??First, survive the night.
??If he endured this Ghost Tide, he’d have plenty of ti to investigate the Sacrificial Tower later. If he didn’t, even the finest tower in the world would be worthless.
??Besides—
??For now, the Farmland was more important to him than the Arrow Tower. Once the Ghoststone Vein Seed matured, it could yield a windfall of Ghoststones—though he had no idea how many. Perhaps he’d be pleasantly surprised.
??“All set—now I just need a favorable wind to blow!”
??He looked up at the darkening sky. This was the absolute limit of what he could do. As long as tonight’s Ghost Tide didn’t overwhelm him right away, he could use the Ghoststones dropped by Ghostbeasts to further fortify the camp.
??It was both an opportunity—
??—and a crisis.
??Everything hinged on whether he could survive until morning.
??Just then—
??“Young Master!”
??Crippled Monkey’s voice rang out from atop the Wall. He was sprawled across the battlents, shouting down, “The wooden house is fully dismantled!”
??“Good.”
??Chen Fan turned and headed for the Wall. As he drew near, the Wall retracted into the ground, allowing him to pass. Inside, he found Wang Mazi and the others, huddled against the lashing rain, with a stack of neatly arranged lumber and several ceramic jars packed with bedding.
??He drew two Ghoststones from his pocket and tossed them into the air.
??A phantom outline of a wooden house slowly materialized in the camp’s center. As the Ghoststones dissolved into milky fluid and seeped into the ground, a solid, sturdy wooden house took shape—far more robust than the shabby old shack.
??The weather was turning colder.
??And the rain was coming down in sheets.
??The old house could hardly keep out the rain, let alone the wind. These two Ghoststones were well spent.
??He stepped inside the new house, withdrew another Ghoststone, and slotted it into the recess by the entrance. Only then did he glance back at Wang Mazi and the others. “Co in, all of you. The rain’s coming down hard—tidy up before night falls.”
??“There’s a fire inside. Warm yourselves—don’t catch cold.”
??When Wang Kui had brought these six to the waystation, he’d also hauled in a stash of clothes, food, and other daily necessities. These needed sorting, but Chen Fan left that to Crippled Monkey—he could handle it all.
??“Yes, sir!”
??Wang Mazi nodded vigorously, then hurried to stow the jars and start cleaning up the house.
??...
??“Hurry up!”
??Out on the wasteland, Wang Kui and Xiao Qiu were making their way back when they encountered the Station Master of the Qiuhe Wang Clan. The man wore coarse hemp robes, a long blade in hand, sprinting through the rain with his n in tow.
??“It’s almost dark—if we don’t return now, we’ll be too late!”
??Wang Kui shouted over the downpour. Their group had been dispatched to recover supplies from abandoned waystations nearby, and the task was finally complete—it was ti to head ho.
??Normally, visibility on the wasteland was excellent, but under this torrential rain, they could barely see a thing. Without the Ghostskin Map, they would have been hopelessly lost.
??“We’re almost there,” Wang Kui said.
??Glancing at the Ghostskin Map in his hand, he panted as he forced himself to run faster. But the next mont, he skidded to a halt, staring ahead in bewildernt.
??Then he looked down at the Ghostskin Map again.
??No mistake.
??This was definitely the Jiangbei Chen Clan’s Waystation No. 37.
??But… when did that Wall appear?
??He distinctly rembered—when he’d left, there was nothing like that around the camp.
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