"..."
Chen Fan stood in the Deep Pit, looking at the bustling construction scene ahead.
The City Walls on both sides were subrged into the ground to allow the fragnted rock and earth to flow out. Zhou Mo and the others were busy dealing with the outflowing debris, but the sheer volu of work was a bit overwhelming.
It was clear the few of them couldn’t keep up.
They didn’t have suitable tools, and they were short on manpower.
At this rate.
It would take at least three days for the grand rear base he envisioned to even begin to take shape.
...
And so it went.
After a full day of hard work, with half an hour left until nightfall.
The turret stopped its bombardnt.
"Whew..."
Chen Fan let out a soft breath. Standing on the City Wall at the cave’s entrance, he looked inside. After a full day of relentless bombardnt, the cavern was now ten ters high and thirteen ters deep, its ceiling higher than the City Wall.
The entrance was smaller than the interior.
Dirt and soil would occasionally collapse from the cavern’s ceiling.
The ground was a complete ss.
"Station Head..."
Zhou Mo sat on the ground, panting, his voice hoarse. "We’re more or less done outside. We’ll have to handle the rest tomorrow."
They lacked the manpower and equipnt to haul away all the dirt and rubble, so they simply let it slide freely through the gaps on either side of the City Wall down to the original village site. The best they could do was spread it out as evenly as possible.
They hadn’t even leveled the ground inside the cavern yet.
The grand rear base was a wonderful plan.
But with just a few of them, actually executing it was proving to be a real struggle.
Behind him, Wang Mazi, Qi Chong, and the others were also panting, unable to catch their breath. They had been thoroughly exhausted these past few days.
"No rush. We’ll deal with it tomorrow."
"Good work, everyone."
Chen Fan crafted a Ghost Fire and placed it in the deepest part of the cavern. He put the two Exotic Treasures, the Clear Wind Array Plate and the Mountain Remains Embryo, inside the Ghost Fire, then connected the Copper Pipes already laid in the canyon to this new Ghost Fire.
The next mont—
The Clear Wind Array activated first.
Gusts of faintly visible clear wind covered the camp area. One could feel a slight chill around their ankles, and walking felt as if a ghost were pushing from behind, significantly increasing one’s speed.
Standing on the City Wall, he could feel the clear wind brushing past his ankles.
Chen Fan took a few steps on the City Wall. His speed was indeed much faster than usual. The sensation was quite strange, a bit like those moving walkways in airports—one step felt like two.
It also had a dust-clearing effect.
Activating it for a day consud one Ghost Stone. The larger the camp’s area, the higher the consumption.
Just then!
"CRACK... CRACK."
Thick, ghastly white bones extended from the Ghost Fire he had placed, burrowing into the ground. They began to rapidly snake through the mountain walls around the cavern. The ceiling, which had been collapsing monts ago, instantly beca extrely solid. Not even a single pebble fell.
The risk of collapse was gone.
By placing these two Exotic Treasures in the Ghost Fire, the rear base camp had finally started to look like sothing.
As for buildings like Farmland and the Sacrificial Tower, he didn’t place them for now.
The cavern floor had to be leveled before he could construct any buildings. Besides, the current space was too small; it didn’t at all satisfy his vision for the grand rear base. It would take a few more days of construction.
He tried again to build the Vehicle Workshop, the new Yellow-Level building he had acquired.
The building’s phantom outline, which should have been composed of white lines, was now made entirely of red lines.
The building’s footprint was too large.
It was equivalent to about one and a half tis the area of the current cavern, which simply couldn’t accommodate it. The only alternative was to place it in the village outside the cave, which had enough space. But that would go against his concept of a rear base. If they were attacked, the Vehicle Workshop would be the first thing destroyed.
However, although the rear base was only in its nascent stage, the crucial defensive fortifications were more or less complete.
"Everyone, get a good night’s sleep."
Chen Fan looked at La Monkey and the others with a slight smile. "I took a nap this afternoon. I’ll keep watch tonight."
The n didn’t refuse.
They walked down from the City Wall and into the temporary Wooden Houses inside the cavern, collapsing into sleep almost imdiately.
They were truly exhausted from the past few days.
The kind of tired where you can’t even stand up. When people are that exhausted, they have no energy to think about anything else. All they want is to sleep.
...
Soon, the faint sound of snoring could be heard from the Wooden Houses.
Chen Fan, however, walked out of the cavern alone and looked around.
The Deep Pit, located at the base of the mountain cliff, was vast.
It was a perfect square.
Several hundred ters wide, approximately.
The Natural Ghost Fire Zone only enveloped the village, occupying a small fraction of the Deep Pit. It couldn’t cover the entire pit and was situated right in its center.
Everyone else was asleep.
After surveying his surroundings, he resud laying the Copper Pipes. He hadn’t used up his free daily quota yet. Starting from the cavern, he began laying the pipes outward in all directions. This ti, he wasn’t paving roads.
He was expanding the camp’s periter.
Last night, so huge creature had been watching him covetously all night.
It would most likely co again tonight.
Tonight, the instant he heard any sound, he would imdiately activate the Copper Pipes, instantly expanding the camp’s periter to bring the creature into his turret’s attack range and eliminate this hidden threat.
’How can I allow another to snore beside my own bed?’
But...
It was worth noting that the Copper Pipes could be up to one ter wide. When activated, they would incorporate half a ter on each side into the camp’s area, creating a path of camp territory up to two ters wide. This was fine for paving roads.
But to cover the entire Deep Pit and bring it all within the camp’s periter would require an astronomical number of Copper Pipes.
A rough calculation suggested it would take about 200,000 ters of Copper Pipe.
His free daily quota was only 10,000 ters, and he had less than 3,000 ters left for today.
So—
Like a great tree spreading its branches, he extended the Copper Pipes from the cavern entrance across the floor of the Deep Pit.
This wouldn’t bring the entire Deep Pit into the camp’s periter, but it would light up certain areas after dark. As long as the creature appeared within these extended zones, the turrets could activate.
He also crafted five Sentry Towers and placed them evenly across the floor of the Deep Pit, connecting them to the Copper Pipes.
Once activated, the Sentry Towers provided 50 ters of vision outside the camp. Although they only provided vision and the turrets couldn’t attack those areas, as long as he had a line of sight, he could activate the eerie green Mourning Lantern in his hand.
He had to deal with this unknown creature first before the rear base could be considered secure.
...
After he finished his work, the eternal night fell as expected.
Chen Fan sat quietly on the City Wall at the cavern’s entrance, holding the eerie green Mourning Lantern. The wall was embedded in the mountainside, shielding him from the rain. He glanced up at the mountain above and waited patiently.
An unknown amount of ti passed.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The familiar sound ca again—the sound of Ghost Objects falling from the cliffs into the Deep Pit.
’It’s coming.’
He quickly focused his attention. It had been the sa last night.
Sure enough, after the sound of several Ghost Objects falling from the cliffs, there was a period of silence that lasted for about the ti it takes to burn a stick of incense. Then, he once again clearly heard a rustling sound through the rain—the sound of a colossal creature moving.
’One, two, three...’
Chen Fan patiently counted the seconds in his mind. When he finished, he abruptly activated the Copper Pipes.
Cold white flas flowed rapidly from the Ghost Fire inside the cavern into the Copper Pipes, lighting up all the Sentry Towers along the way.
The next instant!
The Deep Pit, once shrouded in eternal night, was instantly illuminated.
Branches of golden-yellow light spread across the floor of the Deep Pit. The lit Sentry Towers also instantly dispelled the eternal night at the bottom of the pit, transforming it into gray mist.
He saw it: a colossal, crocodile-like monster in the gray mist. At the base of the cliff on the edge of the Deep Pit, it was cautiously picking up a Ghost Corpse, preparing to retreat. The sudden illumination of the pit clearly gave it a fright.
The crocodile-like creature quickly dropped the corpse that was already in its jaws and charged headlong into the canyon pass, fleeing in a panic.
In the blink of an eye, it vanished from sight.
The trendous sound of its running echoed continuously between the canyon walls.
"..."
Chen Fan stood silently on the City Wall, his face expressionless. Only now did he know what kind of creature had been watching him last night. He also realized it had been extrely cautious, both last night and tonight. The sounds he had heard were the quietest it could possibly be.
When the creature actually started to run.
The sound was deafening, reverberating through the canyon, the echoes lingering for a long, long ti.
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