Chapter 45: The Breeding Grounds
????“Yes, sir!”
??Zhou Mo gripped his broadsword tightly, drew a deep breath, and vaulted down from the trike. Step by step, he approached the wooden shack, then kicked the door open.
??Monts later—
??He hurried back to the trike, voice low and urgent. “Station Master, there’s a batch of False Human Ghost hatchlings inside. They can’t crawl yet, but their eyes… damn, it’s like they see right through you.”
??He shuddered, unable to mask his unease.
??The sight inside had shaken him.
??The mont he entered, every hatchling fixed its empty, unblinking gaze on him. He was certain he’d be seeing those eyes again in his nightmares tonight.
??“Just as I thought.”
??Chen Fan glanced at the Impostors still trapped in the Beast Traps outside the camp. The instant Zhou Mo had stord the shack, the Impostors had gone berserk, writhing and howling in a frenzy. Suddenly, he understood what the Rainy Season truly ant.
??The Rainy Season—
??It was the Ghostbeasts’ breeding season.
??No wonder the monsters grew so frenzied during this ti. Throughout history, no creature is more violent than when it’s rutting. During breeding, their territorial instincts peak, driving them to drive out any intruder with savage force.
??That explained why Ghostbeasts usually avoided Ghostfire during the dry season, yet in the Rainy Season, they charged straight into the flas in a mad rage.
??“Back to camp.”
??Chen Fan reached out and hauled Zhou Mo onto the flatbed. “Bring the others. We’re taking every Impostor here back alive.”
??“Alive?” Zhou Mo blinked, glancing at the Impostors still caught in the traps. If all they wanted was Ghoststones, they could have just harvested them now—there was no need to return to camp for reinforcents.
??“Alive,” Chen Fan affird with a nod.
??Earlier, he’d witnessed a pair of Impostors mating. For humans, pregnancy takes nine months. But for these things? The female Impostor’s belly had started swelling the mont the act was over—she was ready to give birth within minutes.
??If he could harness that breeding speed, he might be able to mass-produce Ghoststones.
??…
??With about the ti it takes an incense stick to burn before Eternal Night fell, Chen Fan led Zhou Mo, Crippled Monkey, and the others back to camp. Each Impostor Ghost was lashed together with rope, dragged across the dirt and into the camp.
??By now, the Safe Zone had expanded to a fifty-ter diater.
??It felt much more spacious.
??Chen Fan stepped out onto a patch of open ground beyond the Walls and spent 200 Ghoststones to raise a square enclosure, five ters on each side—a cage of stone walls. This would be the holding pen for their new “Impostor Ghost” stock.
??This haul included:
??- 27 adult Impostor Ghosts
??- 37 hatchlings
??He nad this place the “Breeding Grounds.” For safety, he built a Level 2 Arrow Tower atop the enclosure, enough to prevent the Impostors from breaking out. With five-ter-high walls, even these monsters couldn’t scale them.
??The day’s efforts had nearly emptied his Ghoststone reserves.
??Only 268 Ghoststones remained.
??He’d gotten a small refund for killing so Impostors, but after tallying up the total, he only had 301 Ghoststones left. Not a single Unique Treasure had dropped from the slaughtered Impostors.
??“Ah Le.”
??Chen Fan looked past Qi Chong at Ah Le. “From now on, besides helping Qi Chong with the Farmland, these Breeding Grounds are yours. Your job is to get these Impostors breeding as much as possible. The more they breed, the more Ghoststones we’ll have.”
??“Yes, sir!” Ah Le answered, eyes shining with excitent as he watched Crippled Monkey and the others herd the Impostors into the enclosure with sticks. He’d raised pigs for years, but this was his first ti raising monsters.
??Livestock is livestock, he thought. The only difference is what you’re raising, and who you’re raising it for.
??…
??With the day’s work done, Chen Fan returned to the top of the camp’s Walls, gazing at the sky as it darkened, waiting patiently for Eternal Night to fall.
??The trike, now equipped with its Level 4 Arrow Bastion, was parked outside the camp.
??Tonight, it would be a key part of their defense.
??Combining Arrow Towers with vehicles to create a mobile turret wasn’t a complex idea. In his previous life, Chen Fan recalled that the Chen Clan had experinted with it for a while, but ultimately gave up—the concept was impossible to mass-produce.
??There were plenty of reasons.
??First, the cost.
??To build a Level 4 Arrow Bastion, Chen Fan needed only 180 Ghoststones, but other Builders would burn through over a thousand, not to ntion the extra Ghostfire required.
??Ghostfire had to be mounted on the vehicle itself.
??And when not in use, you still had to keep feeding it Ghoststones—other Builders paid a fortune just to keep the flas burning. Only Chen Fan could afford to treat Ghostfire as a disposable structure.
??Then there were the horses—used to pull wagons—who panicked and bolted the mont Ghostbeasts appeared, flipping the wagon and rendering the whole investnt worthless.
??For most, it was a dead end.
??But for Chen Fan, those problems barely existed.
??Given enough ti, he could churn out a whole fleet of Arrowcarts and overwhelm his enemies with sheer numbers.
??Just then—
??Darkness swept in from the horizon. Eternal Night had arrived.
??Night fell.
??…
??Chen Fan and a handful of others stood watch atop the outer Walls.
??anwhile, Zhou Mo huddled in bed inside a wooden shack, pulling the blanket over his head. He stared at the empty spot beside him—a spot that, just last night, had been occupied. After a long silence, he picked up his pen and began to write in his diary.
??“Tonight marks the fifth night since the Rainy Season began.
??There’s still more than half a month to go.
??Er Gou, who’s been with
all this ti, was killed by an Impostor Ghost at dusk.
??Will the camp… really survive the Rainy Season?
??Heaven only knows.”
??He finished writing, tucked the diary under his pillow, and lay back, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.
??…
??Jiangbei City.
??Tonight, chaos reigned.
??“Move, move, move!”
??“Where the hell is the Chen Clan’s Builder? My section of the Wall is about to collapse and needs repairs—NOW!”
??“Where are they?!”
??Shouts and curses echoed up and down the city’s Walls. Maybe it was anger, or maybe they just needed to drown out the fear gnawing at their hearts.
??Jiangbei City—this natural Ghostfire Zone—never lacked for light, even when Eternal Night descended. A giant golden do, like the shell of a colossal egg, enveloped the entire city.
??The Walls, encircling the city like a coiled dragon, were under siege.
??Arrow Towers mounted atop the Walls fired volley after volley of bolts into the darkness, loosing blind barrages at the Ghostbeasts beyond.
??…
??The Wild Wolf Gang’s boss stood atop the Wall, his n at his side. He gazed out into the night, where Flesh Maggot Ghosts hurled themselves against the stone in suicidal waves. His face was pale as death as he pulled a token from his coat and slamd it down onto the Wall.
??Imdiately—
??The Wall surrounding Jiangbei City flared with black light. A thick, steel plate, etched with strange runes, seed to grow from within the Wall itself, spreading like living armor until the entire structure was encased.
??The collapse was halted.
??What had been on the verge of crumbling under the relentless self-destruction of the Flesh Maggot Ghosts now held strong.
??The gang boss, still bloodless, roared for his n:
??“Hold the line!
??The wind can’t blow the sa way all night—once it shifts, those Flesh Maggots will retreat!”
??“Just hang on a little longer!”
??The Ghostbeast Swarm—the most terrifying nightmare of the Rainy Season in the Wasteland.
??Wherever they passed, nothing survived.
??Tonight, the Swarm had reached Jiangbei City, threatening to drown the world in green.
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