Good Thing He Wasn't an Architect

Beyond that, there were many other variations. Some only permitted those bearing their own bloodline to claim the inheritance, and so forth. Regardless of the type, most ancient ruins traced back to the arrival of the Eternal Night eight thousand years ago. As for the ancient ruin before Chen Fan, it was less a ruin and more a tomb. At a glance, this underground cavern was roughly the size of the cave at Camp No. 2—quite small. Four screens of light partitioned the cavern. He stood right at the cavern entrance, where a substantial pile of ghost creature bones lay beneath his feet. Only... He lifted his foot and looked at the bones on the ground, which had crumbled into powder under a single step. Too much time had passed. These ghost creature bones were no longer usable. This ancient ruin had almost certainly been left behind eight thousand years ago. A line of characters was inscribed on the first light screen: "The world calls me the Immortal Heavenly Master. The inheritance left behind here is primarily for architects, so the trials are also focused on architects." "First Trial." "Which material is considered a hidden universal material? Usable for the upgrading and construction of the vast majority of buildings." "Simply write it upon the light screen. Entering the correct answer will grant entry to the next trial and yield a reward. Quantities are limited; first come, first served." A trace of confusion flashed in Chen Fan's eyes. Was the first trial already ramping up the difficulty? He truly had no idea. And he was certain that not only did he not know, but even Jiangnan's Tianxia Pavilion—the faction boasting Jiangnan's strongest architects and the largest number of them—would never know this piece of information either. "Looks like when the last Eternal Night ended, a huge amount of knowledge was severed..." he murmured to himself. He knew that the world had undergone an Eternal Night eight thousand years ago, but he did not know how that Eternal Night had ended, nor did he know what had transpired during it. He could only pin his hopes on Weiwei. Perhaps sensing Chen Fan's mood, Weiwei looked exceptionally smug. Striding leisurely up to the light screen, it raised a paw and swatted. *Crack.* The light screen shattered. Chen Fan simply walked into the second trial area. Across the floor lay forty to fifty stones, each encased within a light shield. He tried to pick one up, but couldn't. Passing the first trial granted the right to pick up a single stone. He hadn't passed the trial normally, so none of the protective shells surrounding the stones had receded. However... Weiwei went down the line, giving every single stone a slap. The protective shells on all the stones shattered. They were free for the taking. With a rather odd expression—and even a hint of embarrassment—Chen Fan picked up a stone and checked its panel. An ancient powerhouse on the verge of death had laid down an inheritance meant to nurture posterity, yet Chen Fan had barged in like a walking cheat code, sweeping away the entire inheritance for himself. Wasn't that a little shameless? Weiwei's method was simply absurd. Wasn't this beast a born nemesis to ancient ruins? Level 4 ghost stones. They were entirely blue, the hue of the deep sea tinged with black, radiating an aura of profound depth. A single one was worth a thousand ordinary ghost stones. All together, there were roughly forty-five thousand ghost stones here. "Not bad." He grinned. He loved this feeling of abusing cheats. He had to admit that his predecessor was truly impressive—having two Sky-Swallowing Crocodiles would surely make running cheats even more exhilarating. Weiwei swallowed the entire batch of ghost stones. Chen Fan couldn't carry them all, but Weiwei's internal stomach space was enormous, practically functioning as a portable Mustard Seed Chamber. The second trial also came with a test. "Second Trial." "Construct a ghost fire within three breaths." "Completing the construction will grant entry to the next trial and yield a reward. Quantities are limited; first come, first served." He could do this. In fact, he could do it even faster. Yet once a man had tasted stolen fruit, his own wife seemed a bit lacking by comparison; someone else's wife was always more exciting. That was precisely his mindset right now. With Weiwei here, he didn't even want to waste three ghost stones. *Smack.* Weiwei raised its paw and slapped again. The light screen shattered, revealing over a dozen unsealed white-grade exotic treasures piled across the ground, all wrapped in white light just like in the first stage. Without wasting any time, Weiwei gave each of them a slap. All of them were related to architects. For example: [Exotic Treasure Name]: White Jade Thumb Ring [Exotic Treasure Grade]: White [Exotic Treasure Effect]: When worn by an architect, slightly reduces ghost stone consumption while constructing buildings. Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully. Currently hanging around his neck was a green-grade White Jade Plaque with the exact same effect. These dozen-plus white-grade exotic treasures basically possessed the same property. However... They were completely useless to him. He only wore the White Jade Plaque because he thought its quality looked nice, wearing it as a simple ornament. He wasn't an architect to begin with, so he didn't even meet the conditions for using it. "Collect them all." He didn't need them, but others would. He could pick out a few to put up at the auction. Only then did he glance at the requirements for the next trial. "Third Trial." "Recite the construction method and logic of any green-grade or higher building, and hand-draw its blueprint upon the light screen." "Others may not recite the same building. Completing the recitation will grant entry to the next trial and yield a reward. Quantities are limited; first come, first served." Chen Fan stood frozen in place, utterly expressionless. It was a good thing he had entered this ancient ruin through unconventional means. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to take a single item. What kind of absurd questions were these? Did constructing a building really require construction formulas and logic? Didn't it take only three steps? Step one: Open the Eternal Night Lord panel. Step two: Prepare sufficient ghost stones and materials. Step three: Click confirm construction. Done. He let out a long sigh and took a step back, gesturing for Weiwei to take the stage. The architects of this world were truly pitiable, having to memorize so much. How exhausting that must be! No wonder so few architects served as leaders of their own factions. Busy with such trivia day in and day out, how could they have the time or energy to manage an organization? *Smack.* Weiwei swatted with its claw. The light screen shattered. Trial passed. Having successfully entered the third trial's reward area, he saw building blueprints strewn across the ground—twelve in total. Most were common types like arrow towers, walls, Wind Towers, and the like. Two green-grade blueprints were relatively rare, neither of which he possessed. [Exotic Treasure Name]: Anti-Air Cannon Tower [Exotic Treasure Grade]: Green [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Building blueprint. Can construct a cannon tower aimed at airborne enemies. Muzzles point skyward; cannot attack ground enemies. Effective attack range can break through the camp's high-altitude boundary restrictions. --- [Exotic Treasure Name]: God-Slaying Cannon [Exotic Treasure Grade]: Green [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Building blueprint. City defense structure. "Finally, something worthwhile." Chen Fan looked at the two blueprints in his hands and nodded with great satisfaction. The Anti-Air Cannon Tower went without saying—ever since wiping out Dan Sect, he had been searching for blueprints of similar structures. After all, if he could slaughter enemies from the air, someone else might do the same to him. He needed to be prepared so he wouldn't panic when enemies arrived. As for the God-Slaying Cannon, it was a brand-new defensive building. He didn't know how its power compared to an arrow tower, or how the power of a Level 1 green-grade God-Slaying Cannon compared to a Level 5 white-grade cannon tower. Of course, if both were Level 5, there would be no comparison. The God-Slaying Cannon would definitely be stronger. It was a full grade higher, after all. "Not bad." He was thoroughly pleased with the spoils from this trial. Only now did it barely live up to the title of Immortal Heavenly Master. Otherwise, putting on such massive airs just to leave behind a few scraps would have been utterly disproportionate. A line of characters was also inscribed on the fourth and final light screen: "Final Trial." "Construct any building on the spot until a qualitative leap upgrade path is triggered. Only one person may enter this trial." "For an architect, luck is also of paramount importance." This truly depended on luck. Chen Fan felt completely helpless about this. Even he had no workaround. Even with the Eternal Night Lord panel, triggering a qualitative leap upgrade path was entirely a matter of chance—though his odds were marginally better than others'. At the very least, he could view the panel and choose from three options. All jokes aside, every single trial in this inheritance was genuinely difficult. In the next moment, Weiwei stepped forward and delivered another slap. The light screen shattered. This was the deepest part of the cavern. Placed here was a jade slip, a yellow-grade building blueprint, and a ring. Likewise enveloped in white light, each was promptly given a slap by Weiwei. This inheritance was relatively crude. Or rather, it was not the sort of inheritance that had been meticulously planned long in advance. Instead, when Jiangbei's defenses fell and its people were wiped out, the master had hurriedly excavated a simple tomb before slitting his own throat, ensuring his corpse wouldn't be devoured by ghost creatures while leaving behind a few possessions. Chen Fan picked up the jade slip first. Truth be told, what intrigued him most about this inheritance was the mechanism itself. For instance, setting parameters upon a light screen so that once a challenger fulfilled the criteria, the screen would automatically verify the success, recognize it, and trigger the corresponding response. The core logic was remarkably similar to a computer. If he could get his hands on such a technique, bookkeeping in Fan Domain's marketplace would become vastly more convenient. Moreover, as the faction expanded in the future, coordination across various departments would become much faster and smoother, allowing him to command everything with far greater ease. The jade slip was an information slip. He was already very familiar with them. It was a more advanced method of recording data than bamboo slips, capable of storing information for extended periods without degradation over time. Gripping the jade slip in his hand, a scene instantly surfaced in his mind. This was a slip that recorded visual imagery, possessing audio-visual playback capabilities that made it far superior to ordinary jade slips. "That is..." Chen Fan stared in mild astonishment at the scene unfolding in his mind. The experience was so immersive that an instinctual urge to dive for cover surged through him. The entirety of Jiangbei! A hundred and seventy kilometers. Along the coastline, a wall once wound like an immense dragon, cleaving Jiangbei and the deep sea apart like a dividing line. He looked down upon the battlefield from a high-altitude vantage point. Hundreds of millions of runic matrices across the wall's surface were ignited, radiating dazzling brilliance through the Eternal Night. It resembled a blazing ribbon spanning a hundred and seventy kilometers. They were all Level 4 walls. A full fifteen meters tall, looking utterly impregnable. Yet on the distant horizon of the sea, a colossal, writhing wave rose steadily higher, crashing rapidly toward the shore. Only when it slammed violently against the wall did one realize— That was no wave at all. It was a living tsunami formed from hundreds of thousands of ghost creatures. Tens of thousands of cannon towers roared to life, shaking the entirety of Jiangbei. The sheer scale of this war was monumental enough to go down in history. Countless cultivators sprinted back and forth across the ramparts. Behind the wall, massive herds of Skeleton Horses galloped frantically across the wasteland, ferrying supplies and resources to the front lines. At a glance, it looked like an army of ants relying on the wall to defy the wrath of the gods. Yet the battle was already nearing its conclusion. This wall, comparable to a natural chasm, had already been breached in numerous sections. Ever-growing waves of the ghost tide surged into the wasteland, beginning their slaughter of the logistical personnel in the rear. This battle had to be from eight thousand years ago. For he spotted Nameless Mountain. Nameless Mountain had existed back then, yet it lacked the hammer crater, and the coastline appeared little changed from the present day. Chen Fan immersed himself in the scene before him, remaining silent. He could faintly see the patterns upon those Level 4 walls—they were not uniform. If... He meant *if* those walls had been uniformly inscribed with Ghost Blood Patterns, then under the assault of such an immense ghost tide, they could have absorbed vast amounts of ghost blood to harden the walls, sustaining the battle through the war itself! A hundred and seventy kilometers of uniform patterns. No architect could achieve that. Tianxia Pavilion couldn't. The Immortal Heavenly Master couldn't. Not even stronger architects could manage it—unless they were willing to tear down and rebuild every flawed wall segment over and over again, regardless of cost. Consuming exorbitant resources to build a hundred-and-seventy-kilometer Level 4 wall with purely uniform Ghost Blood Patterns was simply unfeasible. The resources required would have been enough to erect a hundred-and-seventy-kilometer Level 5 wall. Others couldn't do it. He could. Furthermore... why didn't these people have copper pipes? Every single cannon tower actually required a dedicated operator stationed beside it, constantly refilling it with ghost stones. A copper pipe was merely a white-grade building blueprint, yet it hadn't existed back then. Without copper pipes, there was no way to connect the walls to an altar. The walls couldn't self-repair. A wall that couldn't mend itself, no matter how sturdy, would eventually be ground down to dust. If this stockpile of resources had been entrusted to him, and he had personally constructed the Jiangbei defense line, there was no way the ghost tide could have breached it. No matter how many came, they would only be throwing their lives away. What a tragic waste of a defeat. He could tell that this campaign had consumed astronomical resources and manpower, yet in the end, it had failed to hold back the ghost tide at the Jiangbei perimeter. Had he been in charge, the outcome would have been entirely different. Yet... The image gradually shattered. Chen Fan withdrew his thoughts and turned his attention to the Eternal Night Lord panel in his mind, suddenly feeling a surge of confidence regarding the battle four years from now. Previously, his fear had stemmed from the unknown—he hadn't known just how terrifying the undersea ghost tide truly was. Now, he had a clear picture. As long as his Jiangbei defense line was completed, not a single ghost creature would breach it. No matter how many came, they would all die! There was further information within the jade slip. "You may have heard of my title as the Immortal Heavenly Master. Setting aside the fall of Jiangbei, my life was filled with many achievements." "I leave behind two great regrets." "The first is failing to hold Jiangbei." "The second is failing to comprehend that yellow-grade building blueprint before my death. It is the most intricate blueprint I have ever laid eyes upon." "I can say with pride that I once personally crafted a blue-grade structure. Above yellow lies blue, a grade higher than yellow." "Though I succeeded only a handful of times and failed far more often, it was precisely because of that blue-grade building that I earned the title of Heavenly Master." "I have built numerous yellow-grade structures—among the simpler ones was the Vehicle Workshop, and among the more complex was the Star-Summoning Terrace. Yet regarding this yellow-grade building blueprint that I kept on my person until death, I remained utterly unable to fathom it." "The fact that you reached this point proves your mastery as an architect is far from weak. If one day you can comprehend the building blueprint I leave behind, it will resolve a lingering regret of my life." "..." Chen Fan looked down at the yellow-grade blueprint in his hand with a rather strange expression. The cicada-wing-thin paper depicted a structure that was indeed remarkably intricate. Indeed. It was many times more complex than arrow towers or walls. It truly appeared impossible to decipher. Fortunately, he wasn't an architect. The panel laid it out with absolute clarity; he understood it at a single glance. Only... Chen Fan felt a tinge of regret. If only the man had carried that blue-grade blueprint with him as well, so Chen Fan could study it too. To this day, the camp possessed only a single yellow-grade structure—the Vehicle Workshop. He had never seen what effects a blue-grade building possessed. He would have loved to broaden his horizons.