Chen Fan held the Eerie Hide, stood up, and looked back at the camp that had been practically destroyed.
Last night's battle had been truly fierce.
The Mourning Specters were an even greater threat than the Flesh Worm Ghost Eerie Tide.
The city walls had been destroyed in places, the wooden house had been wrecked, and even structures like watchtowers and the Eerie Creature Farm had collapsed. Currently, the only buildings in the camp that remained intact were two Archery Forts, a few Archery Towers, and one Eerie Fire.
The camp had almost been reduced to its original insignificance.
They still had twenty-something days of the rainy season ahead of them.
The Qian Hou was only one of the four bosses under the Eerie King. There were three more. It seemed likely that during the remaining rainy season, the other three would also come to the wasteland to clear the way for the Eerie King's arrival. And he was probably their primary target.
If staying here, he would be way too conspicuous.
When the rainy season was nearly over, the Eerie King would come too.
It sounded like trouble.
An almost certain death trap.
But—
As a transmigrator possessing the 'Perpetual Night Lord' panel, if he fled at the first sign of danger, it would be utterly disgraceful. He had to hold his ground, resist...
"Resist the hell!"
Chen Fan cursed under his breath. Should the sky fall, let the taller ones prop it up; he was still short, so he needed to run away first.
The Eerie King was going to sacrifice the lives of 'Rivernorth City' and 'Ping City' to break through in cultivation. How could his small camp possibly withstand that?
He looked around at Crippled Monkey and the others, who were busy digging for Eerie Stones. Although the battle last night was brutal, the gains were substantial, too. With these resources, he could find a safe place to relocate and start over.
There was no need to fight a hopeless battle.
There would be some losses; many buildings couldn't be moved. But that was better than dying.
Later, he'd discuss with Wang Kui and the others where would be a better place to move.
As for now...
"Heh."
Chen Fan chuckled, crouched down again, and began patting down the Mourning Specter. Looting after a boss fight, like having a smoke afterward, was a fixed procedure.
There were three Extraordinary Treasures, not counting the emerald-green lantern.
The first was a luminous pearl, white with a hint of green.
Extraordinary Treasure Name: Wind-Warding Pearl
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: Green
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: A necessary material for constructing a 'Wind Tower', a special defense structure that can generate strong winds.
"Not bad."
Chen Fan nodded. This structure would make it much easier to deal with 'Flesh Worm Ghost Eerie Tide'. However, he currently didn't have the building blueprint for a 'Wind Tower', so it couldn't be used for the time being.
The other item was a formation disk.
Extraordinary Treasure Name: Breeze Formation
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: Green
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: Must be placed within an 'Eerie Fire' and would cover the camp with a gentle breeze, slightly increasing movement speed.
The last item looked quite intimidating.
It was the size of a human head—a slowly pulsating, dark red, fleshy tumor, warm and tough to the touch.
Extraordinary Treasure Name: Mountain Embryo Corpse
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: Green
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: A special natural treasure, a product of heaven and earth. Can be used for alchemy, artifact forging, or setting up formations. If placed within an Eerie Fire, skeletons would extend underground within the camp, used to reinforce underground spaces.
"Mountain Embryo Corpse..."
Chen Fan squinted slightly as he looked at the information panel. The first two Extraordinary Treasures were removed from the Mourning Specter's mouth, products coming into being from the condensed Eerie Energy of a dead Eerie Creature.
This Extraordinary Treasure was taken from the Mourning Specter's chest; it had carried this item on it.
A very good item.
A vague idea about this Extraordinary Treasure began to form in his mind.
Chen Fan tucked all the Extraordinary Treasures into his robes. Just as he was about to examine the nearby emerald-green lantern, Crippled Monkey's shout came from behind.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw Crippled Monkey, holding a paper lantern, limping towards him with excitement. "Young Master, look at this lantern. It should be a good thing."
"Let me see."
Chen Fan took the white lantern from Crippled Monkey. This was the lantern carried by the ordinary Mourning Specters. It looked and felt like oiled paper, but he knew this thing was definitely sturdy. Those Mourning Specters had smashed walls with them.
One smash left a dent.
Even Zhou Mo, using all his strength to swing a hoe at the city wall, couldn't create a pit.
Extraordinary Treasure Name: Mourning Lantern
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: White
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: A necessary material for upgrading an Archery Fort to a level 5 Cannon Tower.
Chen Fan was momentarily stunned, then lifted his head, sweeping his gaze over the lanterns scattered all over the camp, and grinned. Good stuff.
There were easily over a thousand Mourning Lanterns here.
Assuming...
If one lantern sold for 100 Eerie Stones, that would be a total value of 100,000 Eerie Stones.
But he believed the price would definitely be higher. After all, a single Archery Tower sold for 150 Eerie Stones on the market. The material to upgrade it to level 5 couldn't possibly be less than 100 Eerie Stones.
"Good stuff. Collect them quickly, everyone work hard. We're moving today."
"Moving?"
"Yes, we'll discuss it together later."
Then he bent down to pick up the emerald-green lantern from the side. This one was clearly a grade higher than the ordinary Mourning Lanterns.
Extraordinary Treasure Name: Mourning Lantern
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: Green
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: A necessary material for upgrading a Cannon Fort to a level 6 Cannon Tower. When held and activated, it can fire a powerful beam of light against enemies. Each activation wears down the Extraordinary Treasure; it will shatter after being activated 5 times.
"Level 6 Cannon Tower..."
Chen Fan narrowed his eyes, pondering for a moment, then smiled. Did that mean he could activate it four times for free? As long as he didn't use it for the fifth time, it could still be used as an upgrade material?
"Station Master, come quick!"
Wang Kui's urgent voice came from outside the camp. "We found some chests here!"
...
"Station Master."
Wang Kui and Qiu Junior stood around several large wooden chests. "While cleaning the battlefield, we found these chests outside the camp and opened them... There were a lot of things inside."
Chen Fan looked expressionlessly at the contents of the chests, remaining silent for a while.
Finally, he took a deep breath.
Looking up at the distant rainy sky, he murmured.
"The spoils of war are always the sweetest."
There were five chests in total.
At a glance,
Two chests were filled to the brim with Eerie Stones, all sparkling, translucent, green level 2 Eerie Stones. The other three chests contained various Eerie Materials and miscellaneous items.
He didn't recognize most of them.
There were Mantis Arms, Monkey-Head Ghost pelts.
There was also blood stored in jars; he didn't know what kind of blood it was.
And hearts, livers, lungs, etc., wrapped in oiled paper—by their size, clearly not human.
A big assortment of things, neatly arranged.
This was military supplies.
All looked like materials for setting up formations. If he wasn't mistaken, the Eerie King probably tasked 'Qian Hou' with destroying the walls of the two cities, then using these Eerie Stones and materials to set up a formation or something similar.
And now,
All these things had fallen into his hands.
This haul was greater than all his previous gains combined.
"Hah..."
Chen Fan took a deep breath, then looked at Wang Kui. "Tell everyone to stop what they're doing. Meeting!"
...
They found a clear spot and sat cross-legged on the wasteland, with an Eerie Hide map laid out in the middle.
"There will be a major crisis ahead."
After briefing everyone on the overall situation, Chen Fan spoke first.
"The early arrival of the rainy season has caused the Eerie Creatures' rampage, and the Eerie King is coming to this wasteland. There are three other high-level Eerie Creatures like Qian Hou."
"Once they arrive, we will be the primary target."
"We need to relocate now to avoid this crisis."
"Everyone, speak your minds if you have any ideas." Fifteen Mourning Specter bosses were on their retreat out of the camp, protected by other Mourning Specters.
They were obviously preparing to withdraw.
"They're running?"
Chen Fan was momentarily stunned, but he quickly realized: they had reached their self-replicating limit. From this point on, any that got killed would now be dead. He immediately grinned, stood up straight, and shouted excitedly.
"Thinking of running?!"
"Now you fucking know to run!?"
He immediately created another Level 4 Archery Fort and placed it on the city wall, unleashing Arrow Storm at all costs, picking off the ordinary Mourning Specters who were using their bodies to shield the bosses.
The two Level 4 Archery Forts began sniping at the bosses.
...
As the Mourning Specter bosses began to flee, the ordinary Mourning Specters not only didn't flee, but instead attacked the camp even more maniacally.
But at this moment, Chen Fan couldn't care about that.
These Mourning Specter bosses had to die.
Otherwise, if they recuperated and came back tomorrow, his camp couldn't withstand that kind of devastation.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The Mourning Specter bosses fled while panickedly raising their dark green lanterns, firing beams of dark green light towards the city walls.
One.
Two.
Three.
Under the downpour of arrows, the Mourning Specter bosses had been steadily killed off. Finally... the last Mourning Specter boss was hit in the back of the head, staggered forward a few steps, and fell heavily to the ground.
"Die!"
Chen Fan, who had poked his head out from behind the parapet, looked at the corpse of the last Mourning Specter boss, which had almost reached the edge of the camp. He couldn't help but throw a fist pump and shout excitedly.
Next, it was time to deal with these small fries.
However, the next moment!
The instant the last Mourning Specter boss died, all the Mourning Specters inside the camp simultaneously froze in place. Their life force rapidly drained away as they toppled backwards.
They were all dead.
Looking around.
The war-torn camp was full of ruins and littered with the corpses of Mourning Specters.
...
A sleepless night.
Chen Fan and the others stood guard on the walls all night. They didn't go out to dig for Eerie Stones, lest more Eerie Tides were biding their time outside. Tonight felt not quite right.
They didn't immediately start repairing the camp.
The camp was damaged too severely; it needed to be rebuilt.
It was best to wait until dawn to start the rebuilding process. If more Eerie Tides attacked in the meantime, they could rebuild then.
Finally!
The sky... lit up.
No one slept that night, including Zhou Mo and the others. The wooden hut inside the wall had been destroyed, leaving nowhere to sleep anyway. They just took turns napping and keeping watch until dawn.
"Hah..."
When the Perpetual Night dissipated like a receding tide, Chen Fan finally straightened his back, took a deep breath, exhaling all the unease and fear from the previous night, then pumped his fist and roared, "Let's get to work!"
Crippled Monkey, Pockmark Wang, and the others had already retrieved their tools. Shouting excitedly, they rushed out of the city walls.
Some dug for Eerie Stones, some collected Eerie Blood.
The ground was covered in Eerie Creature corpses. This would be a bountiful harvest!
"Wait..."
With the retreat of the Perpetual Night, their vision was restored.
Chen Fan looked out across the wilderness outside the camp, where a huge number of Mourning Specter corpses were scattered, numbering in the thousands!!!
Last night's Eerie Tide was so massive.
Many more Mourning Specters had died along with their boss before they could even enter the camp.
He was momentarily stunned.
But then he couldn't help but laugh. His laughter grew louder and louder as he, braving the rainstorm, charged out of the city wall for the corpses of the Mourning Specter bosses. He even started humming a little tune, the camp's losses already cast aside.
The entirety of his camp wasn't worth as much as this batch of Eerie Creature corpses.
...
Chen Fan crouched beside the Mourning Specter boss's original body, his face full of excitement and anticipation as he started rummaging all over it. After the sixteen Mourning Specter bosses died, only this one still held the dark green lantern. The other fifteen lanterns had turned to dust.
This dark green lantern was an Extraordinary Treasure.
He didn't look at its stats panel.
He knew it was definitely a huge treasure, so he deliberately saved it for last.
Some people like to eat the beef in beef noodle soup first; others like to eat the noodles first.
He was the type who liked to eat the noodles first.
The best things should be saved for last.
Normally, the job of collecting Extraordinary Treasures was given to Crippled Monkey, but today, there were too many Eerie Creature corpses. It wasn't even certain if Crippled Monkey and the others could finish dissecting all today; that was a huge undertaking.
"Huh?"
Chen Fan pulled a piece of Eerie Hide from the corpse's pocket. The texture was somewhat similar to the Eerie Hide obtained from the female Eerie Creature, but not as thin, and rougher.
There was writing on it.
"Qian Hou, heed my command!
"You are ordered to lead your subordinates to the 'Rivernorth Wasteland' and destroy all city walls you see.
"Pave the way for this Lord's arrival.
"This Lord will journey to the Rivernorth Wasteland as the rainy season ends. There, I shall ascend to Eerie King bathed in the blood of the two cities.
"And on the day of my ascension, I shall wed Qiu Kui.
"Go. Let the darkness descend as scheduled.
"As one of the four bosses under this Lord's command, bring fear and despair to those weak ants hiding behind their city walls!"
"..."
Chen Fan studied the Eerie Hide in front of him, his expression blank, in silence for a long time, then gazed in the direction of Rivernorth City. So... if not for him, normally speaking, this guy should have attacked Rivernorth City last night, right?
You're a little bit narrow-minded, aren't you?
Your boss's words were obviously just grandstanding. Why would my little camp matter to you? "Destroy all city walls you see."? You couldn't even let my little farm go?
What a reckless fool.
I wonder if, since I helped Rivernorth City avert a disaster, they'll give me some reward?
I'm pretty short on money right now.
Maybe I should just move out.
Is it too late to move behind Rivernorth City now...