Early in the year.
The weather was gradually warming as spring approached, yet this time of year was often the coldest.
"Whew."
Chen Fan blew a breath of warm air into his palm and walked toward the Vehicle Workshop inside Nameless Mountain. After months of busy work, it was time to focus on Fan Domain itself; its various buildings were due for upgrades.
Just then—
Rumble!
Rumble!
A colossal sound rolled in from the horizon, shaking the mountains and trembling the earth.
The ground quivered faintly.
It felt as though the sky were caving in.
Chen Fan's expression shifted slightly. He hurried toward a nearby flying boat and took to the sky to search for the source of the noise. He could see nothing; today was foggy, and visibility was short. Pulling a transmission talisman from his robes, he said in a heavy voice, "Locate the source of the sound immediately!"
What he feared most right now was... the mountain ranges of Jiangbei collapsing.
Those continuous ranges were the physical manifestation of the Eternal Night Continent's core grand array. In truth, those mountains were the primary bulwark stopping the ghost tide from making landfall; their own defensive line merely patched the areas where array runes had fractured.
If the mountains of Jiangbei all collapsed,
that gap...
could never be plugged.
Jiangbei would have to be abandoned. He would need to make an immediate decision on whether to retreat to the New Continent or fall back to the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. Once night fell, the ghost tide would swallow Jiangbei whole.
Soon,
a reply came.
The Fan Domain member closest to the source relayed the news up through the chain of command, until it reached Chen Fan's hands.
"Domain Lord."
It was Shao Qiu's voice.
"Starting from Western Section 1 of the Jiangbei Defense Line, the ground is violently shaking, as if something is burrowing out of the earth. It is spreading rapidly along the defense line and has already reached Western Section 27."
Upon receiving the report, Chen Fan steered the flying boat with a grim face, racing toward the western stretch of the Jiangbei Defense Line.
The Jiangbei Defense Line was divided into two halves,
labeled the "Eastern" and "Western" sections.
Numbered sections designated specific points along the Jiangbei Defense Line, allowing for rapid positioning in wartime to deploy personnel, restock supplies, and route missiles.
Western Section 1
was the area directly adjoining the mountains in the west.
A short while later,
Chen Fan arrived at Western Section 38. The disturbance had already spread this far, and he saw it with his own eyes.
On the ground in front of the Jiangbei Defense Line, dirt surged to both sides as though an earth dragon were charging beneath the soil, racing upward along the line at blistering speed.
Along the Jiangbei Defense Line, all 8,500 God-Slaying Cannons lit up with glowing runes, primed to fire the moment Chen Fan gave the word. He still did not know what was happening.
The corpses of ghost creatures outside the line that had yet to be cleared were tossed into the air.
He could feel it:
a colossal entity was moving beneath the soil along the course of the Jiangbei Defense Line at incredible speed.
Furthermore—
friend or foe remained unknown.
A ghost creature?
Impossible. Jiangbei had not fallen; ghost creatures could not move in daylight.
An exotic beast?
Lured by the Exotic Beast Rearing House?
"Damn it..."
Chen Fan's lips twitched. That was actually a possibility. But wasn't the beast it lured in a bit too massive? Could his Exotic Beast Rearing House even hold it?
Judging by this display, it looked like nothing less than an earth dragon.
Friend or foe, he would wait until it poked its head out.
Chen Fan did not immediately order them to fire. Instead, he declared an emergency state of war. Many Fan Domain members still asleep were roused at once and rushed to their battle stations.
For the first time, the Jiangbei Defense Line was operating at full capacity in broad daylight,
ready to open fire at any second.
At last,
the subterranean dragon churning the soil reached the eastern end of the Jiangbei Defense Line.
The churning ceased.
The next instant—
the earth shuddered violently.
Immediately after,
a 170-kilometer-long defense line slowly emerged from the ground, standing upon the coastline mere dozens of meters from his own Jiangbei Defense Line.
"What is this?!"
Chen Fan's pupils constricted. He recognized this defense line—it was the ancient Jiangbei Defense Line he had seen in his encounter with the Undying Heavenly Master. Hadn't that line fallen in the ancient era?
Why was it appearing again now?
Moreover, he saw countless figures bustling about on the suddenly manifested defense line ahead. Only... their bodies were translucent. Clearly, they were not living people.
None of them spared a glance in his direction,
simply attending to their own duties.
Just then—
Shao Qiu's voice came through once more.
"Domain Lord, at Western Section 99 of the Jiangbei Defense Line, there's... a ghost standing in midair..."
Frowning deeply, Chen Fan steered the flying boat swiftly to the location Shao Qiu had reported. When he arrived, he saw an elderly man from afar. His temples were gray,
and a faint smile graced the corners of his mouth. His eyes held regret and unwillingness, yet carried a touch of release as he continually looked back over his shoulder at the defense line behind him. His body was translucent,
simply suspended in midair.
Chen Fan paused a moment before descending from the flying boat onto the Jiangbei Defense Line. Looking at the translucent old man hovering dozens of meters away, he hesitated before speaking tentatively.
"Greetings, Senior."
"This is the Jiangbei Fan Domain. May I ask who Senior is..."
The old man did not reply.
It was as if he had not heard at all, continuing only to look back at the defense line behind him. After who knew how long, the old man finally turned his gaze forward. He seemed to study the Jiangbei Defense Line with care, or perhaps met Chen Fan's eyes, and smiled.
"To the people of Jiangbei in future days,"
"greetings."
"This old man is the commander of the Jiangbei Defense Line, Old Ye. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"I am deeply sorry."
"We failed to hold Jiangbei. The Jiangbei Defense Line completely fell."
"Before my death, I sacrificed my life to heaven to seal and preserve the Jiangbei Defense Line."
"This is my final gift to Jiangbei."
"If..."
"if anyone can still hear these words of mine..."
The old man's voice grew fainter and more subdued, unable to hide the grief and bewilderment in his expression.
The next instant—
every person upon the defense line before them suddenly froze in place. Then, they sprang into motion with frantic urgency. Though not a sound carried across, one could tell at a glance that a ghost tide was attacking.
Chen Fan stood upon the Jiangbei Defense Line, his brow furrowed as he watched the scene unfold. All the translucent figures on the wall ahead began sprinting along the ramparts.
Yet...
the walls began to collapse one after another.
Countless corpses flew through the air.
He could not see a single ghost creature. The scene playing before him was the ancient Jiangbei Defense Line's final battle before its fall.
Until...
the wall before them was almost entirely shattered, and not a single figure remained.
In a flash,
the 170-kilometer-long defense line became riddled with cracks, shattered instantly, turned into waves of white light, and vanished into thin air.
The defense line was gone.
It was as though everything they had just witnessed was nothing more than passing smoke,
or an illusion.
All that remained upon the ground was a colossal furrow of earth stretching for 170 kilometers, vaguely reassuring them that this had not been a dream.
The old man had vanished along with the defense line.
Only the excavated furrow in the earth remained.
Immediately after,
countless ghost stones flew into midair from the furrow, gently fluttering to the ground, interspersed with anomalous treasures and blueprints.
It was like an earth dragon disgorging its hoarded treasures.
The scene before them was ethereal, hardly seeming real.
After about the time it took an incense stick to burn,
the furrow ceased spitting out anything more. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the massive gouge slowly knitted back together, returning to its pristine state as though nothing had ever happened.
"This is an array."
Chen Fan stepped outside the Jiangbei Defense Line and stood on the ground where the furrow had appeared. Qi Yue, who had witnessed the spectacle, hurried over and said with urgency, "Domain Lord, this is an array laid down in the ancient era."
"When the Jiangbei Defense Line fell back then, they buried the unspent ghost stones, anomalous treasures, and other resources deep underground."
"They refused to let them fall into the hands of ghost creatures."
"Such an undertaking required the support of a grand array."
"Furthermore,"
"upon reaching a specific trigger node, once the grand array determined that Jiangbei was no longer a fallen zone and that whatever it disgorged would not fall into enemy hands, it would manifest in the world."
"It would spit out the hidden ghost stones and supplies, leaving them to future generations."
As he spoke, Qi Yue sighed with emotion. "Hardly any faction today can lay down an array of this scale. It truly feels as though so much has been lost to time since the ancient era."
Chen Fan did not speak, only furrowing his brow slightly as he gazed at the ground beneath his feet.
He finally understood.
Jiangbei had been the ancient front line, yet not a single ghost mine had ever been found here, whereas Jiangnan, which had never been the front, occasionally yielded one. In the ancient era, before the Jiangbei Defense Line fell, every ghost mine had been buried deep beneath the earth—to a depth so profound that even Weiwei could not sense them at all.
And that phantom vision
made him feel that the people of old were remarkably pure of heart.
After a long silence,
he whispered,
"No need to apologize."
"Jiangbei is now guarded by Fan Domain. It will not fall again."
A crowd of Fan Domain members had already stepped outside the defense line, swiftly gathering the ghost stones disgorged from the depths into the warehouse. These were ancient ghost stones, preserved across thousands of years yet still entirely intact.
After this small interlude,
Chen Fan returned to Nameless Mountain. Witnessing the fall of the ancient Jiangbei Defense Line once more left him feeling that the current line was still not enough.
It had to become stronger.
Time slipped by unnoticed, and over half a year passed.
Soon,
the rainy season was set to return.
Late October.
The weather gradually cooled as the scorching heat receded.
"Hmm..."
Chen Fan walked alone through the various sectors of Fan Domain, steadily upgrading its fundamental infrastructure—for instance... the Building Workshop. He stopped before the max-level Building Workshop,
smiling.
Over the past half year, he had raised the Vehicle Workshop to Level 9, unlocking two craftable vehicles that had proven immensely helpful to Fan Domain.
For example,
upon reaching Level 8, the Vehicle Workshop gained a new vehicle:
the "Giant Ghost."
It possessed slow movement but massive carrying capacity,
standing a full twenty-three meters tall.
It was a humanoid construct shaped like a great ghost, resembling a massive automaton. Its crafting requirements were exceptionally stringent, demanding one million ghost stones and the corpse of a great ghost.
Yet its utility...
"Not bad."
Chen Fan turned his head toward the distance, where a Giant Ghost was carrying a Heaven-Reaching Pillar upon its shoulder, striding toward the rear of Nameless Mountain, leaving deep footprints with every step.
Indeed.
The Heaven-Reaching Pillar was a colossal object hundreds of meters tall.
Yet it was borne upon the Giant Ghost's shoulder, creating a striking contrast, since the pillar was far larger than the construct itself.
This was not a combat vehicle,
but a heavy construction vehicle. With the Giant Ghost, many tasks that had once been grueling could now be completed with ease.
Such as transporting Heaven-Reaching Pillars.
In the past, moving one required mobilizing the Giant Tortoise, a Martial King, and a flying boat. Now, a single cultivator at the Martial King realm piloting a Giant Ghost could transport a pillar all on their own.
This was the craftable reward unlocked at Vehicle Workshop Level 8.
As for Level 9...
Chen Fan looked over at the "sword cultivators" hovering about the Jiangbei Defense Line. The new vehicle unlocked at Level 9 was the "flying sword."
Three chi of green steel,
ridden beneath one's feet.
Extremely dashing.
Its only flaw was speed; it could not match a flying boat.
With internal member discounts, many Fan Domain members bought a flying sword for daily travel and showing off. Chen Fan had tried it himself, but didn't find it dashing at all.
At the very least,
one couldn't lean on a walking stick while riding a flying sword.
And without carrying his emerald walking stick, he felt rather insecure.
As for Level 10,
the Vehicle Workshop had not yet reached it. Upgrading to Level 10 required a rare natural treasure:
Heaven-Scourge Wood.
He had never seen or heard of such a treasure before, so he could not max it out for the time being.
Just then—
Quehou's voice sounded nearby. "Young Master, the rainy season is upon us. Everything is basically prepared; we're just waiting for your inspection."
"Coming."
Chen Fan stepped onto the Jiangbei Defense Line.
A new rainy season was about to arrive. Over the past year, the Jiangbei Defense Line had remained largely unchanged, but... a transformation was at hand.
Fan Domain had stockpiled ghost stones for an entire year.
Standing upon the ramparts and looking out across the sea, he smiled.
The next instant,
the 170-kilometer-long Jiangbei Defense Line began to tremble gently. Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, it soared upward.
Upgrading a Level 6 wall to Level 7 required 7,000 ghost stones and one monkey-head fruit per section.
Fan Domain had no shortage of ghost stones.
As for monkey-head fruits,
remember the island Wang Mazi had found? That troop of monkeys had planted vast quantities of monkey-head fruits, and over the past few years, they had continued planting on that island. Fan Domain was not lacking in monkey-head fruits either.
After consuming 1.19 billion ghost stones and 170,000 monkey-head fruits,
the walls of the Jiangbei Defense Line were uniformly elevated to Level 7,
officially stepping into the ranks of a Level 7 defense line.
Indeed.
The Jiangbei Defense Line had risen from Level 6 to Level 7,
its height reaching fifty meters.
Prompt panels popped up one after another before him.
"Wall upgraded to Level 7; sturdiness increased."
"Please select an upgrade path."
"1: Reduce the ghost stone consumption of defensive structures installed upon the wall."
"2: Slightly enhance the wall's sturdiness once more."
"3: Long-range attacks from enemies deal reduced damage to the wall."
Looking at the continuous stream of panels, Chen Fan rapidly selected the first upgrade path across the board.
On the surface, the Jiangbei Defense Line was now a Level 7 defense line
with Level 7 walls.
In terms of actual sturdiness, however, he estimated it was around Level 8, or perhaps just shy of it.
He didn't know the exact figure,
but he was certain it far exceeded ordinary Level 7 walls.
After all,
over such a long period, the Ghost Blood Patterns carved into the Jiangbei Defense Line had absorbed an untold amount of ghost blood.
"Hold on!"
Though he seemed to be ticking the first upgrade path mechanically, Chen Fan was paying close attention, and he soon spotted an unusual panel.
"Wall upgraded to Level 7; sturdiness increased."
"Please select an upgrade path."
"1: Undergone Qualitative Change (Lights of Ten Thousand Homes). The wall inherently possesses a ghost fire radius determined by the highest-level ghost fire placed upon it. This qualitative upgrade applies to connected walls (Rare)."
"2: Close-range attacks against the wall have a small chance to reflect a portion of damage back at the attacker."
"3: Long-range attacks from enemies deal reduced damage to the wall."
Chen Fan smiled.
A rare-grade upgrade path.
If this option appeared on any other defense line, it would at best save some daily upkeep for ghost fires. But when applied to the Jiangbei Defense Line,
it was a true qualitative leap.
The Jiangbei Defense Line possessed the legendary qualitative change of the Great Wall;
it could easily achieve an effect where one plus one was far greater than two.
Continuing onward,
he confirmed panel after panel, but no other upgrade path with effects that shared across connected walls appeared.
Soon,
the Jiangbei Defense Line was fully upgraded, standing fifty meters high.
A 170-kilometer-long Level 7 defense line stood proudly across Jiangbei.
Yet...
this was not the end.
It continued.
Fan Domain had hoarded a massive stockpile of ghost stones this past year precisely for a tremendous eruption of power before this rainy season arrived!
Upgrading a wall from Level 7 to Level 8 required 10,000 ghost stones and any single rare natural treasure per section.
Any rare natural treasure?
Naturally, that meant the monkey-head fruit.
Upgrade again.
After pouring in 1.7 billion ghost stones and 170,000 monkey-head fruits,
the wall began to climb once more!
It reached eighty meters.
Panels popped up in succession before him.
"Wall upgraded to Level 8; sturdiness increased."
"Please select an upgrade path."
"1: Reduce ghost fire consumption near the wall."
"2: Increase stamina and wound recovery for humans near the wall."
"3: Enhance the effects of runes inscribed upon the wall."
The third option.
He continued ticking the third upgrade path uniformly.
Ever since establishing contact with Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1, he had maintained the lowest profile possible.
The Ghost Clan already knew he was transporting grain to the front,
but perhaps because they knew he was only delivering food,
they felt it would not tip the scales of the war.
Thus, they had not assaulted the defenses in Qiuming Basin to sever his transport line—or perhaps they recognized that the line was simply too difficult to destroy. All he did was stay low, and lower still,
even causing the Ghost Clan to nearly forget the existence of Jiangbei Fan Domain.
And then,
right before the rainy season arrived, he unleashed this explosive growth. Even if the Ghost Clan harbored designs against him, they would find it nearly impossible to threaten him.
This was why he had refrained from trading Soul-Devouring Sculptures to Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1 earlier. Once those things were delivered,
it would be difficult for him to survive.
The Ghost Clan would spare no expense to track him down.
Soon,
the Jiangbei Defense Line was uniformly elevated to Level 8 walls.
A Level 8 defense line.
Yet...
even this was not the end.
Upgrading a Level 8 wall to Level 9 required 20,000 ghost stones and two rare natural treasures of any kind.
"Wang Kui."
Standing on the ramparts, Chen Fan looked toward the dazed Wang Kui beside him and asked with a smile, "How many monkey-head fruits are left in the warehouse?"
"There are still 1.97 million... All the monkey-head fruits produced recently have been stockpiled in the warehouse," Wang Kui murmured in a daze.
"Then that's more than enough."
Chen Fan gave an easy smile. Over the past months, he had basically stayed in Fan Domain without going anywhere, focusing purely on farming, and had casually grown millions of monkey-head fruits. That troop of monkeys had multiplied as well, their numbers swelling past six hundred.
A swarm of little monkeys chattered endlessly.
The big monkeys tended herds, the young monkeys planted trees, and the mother monkeys nursed infants.
Every monkey had a Fan Domain identity token, belonging to the Fan Domain Beast Pavilion.
They had already been incorporated into the regular army.
As for ghost stones...
Fan Domain still had 21.8 billion ghost stones left, all saved up over the past half year.
Plenty of ghost stones!
Plenty of monkey-head fruits!
If not now, when?
Continue!
The wall climbed rapidly, like a buried titan rising from the depths of the earth, finally halting at a height of one hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
This was the height of Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1.
In terms of wall strength, the current Jiangbei Defense Line had far surpassed Front No. 1—after all, Front No. 1 possessed no Ghost Blood Patterns.
Total consumed:
3.4 billion ghost stones and 340,000 monkey-head fruits.
"Wall upgraded to Level 9; sturdiness increased."
"Please select an upgrade path."
"1: Significantly enhance stamina recovery for humans near the wall."
"2: Significantly reduce hunger for humans near the wall."
"3: Significantly accelerate wound recovery for humans near the wall."
He selected the first option across the board.
With altars, recovery was already covered.
With granaries, no one went hungry.
Today was the final day before the rainy season arrived. Countless Fan Domain members had risen early to busy themselves, and before long, they witnessed an awe-inspiring sight.
The Jiangbei Defense Line was rising, rising, and rising again.
A half year of silence
had been for this single breathtaking revelation.
"It's still not the end?"
Chen Fan paused, looking at the information on the panel, and suddenly laughed. Even he had assumed Level 9 would be the ceiling, that reaching Level 10 would be impossible.
After all,
it was Level 9.
Already on the same tier as Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1.
It was enough.
Jiangbei was not the front line; it didn't face tides of that magnitude.
Besides, the requirements for Level 10 had to be brutally harsh, certainly beyond Jiangbei's short-term reach.
Except... the conditions were indeed harsh, but to Fan Domain, they were nothing.
"Note: Upgrading a wall to Level 10 requires 50,000 ghost stones and 5 rare natural treasures of any kind."
That was merely the cost to elevate a single segment from Level 9 to Level 10.
Such a requirement would crush many factions.
The next instant,
the Jiangbei Defense Line began climbing once more,
until it halted at two hundred meters.
This was the height of a max-level wall: two hundred meters, standing upon the Jiangbei coastline like a continuous mountain range.
Panels began popping up again.
"Wall upgraded to Level 10; sturdiness increased."
"This upgrade offers no upgrade path."
"It has reached maximum level."
Immediately after, another panel appeared.
"Wall has reached Level 10."
"Maximum level attained; cannot be upgraded further."
"Acquired max-level effect: 'Voice Like a Grand Vow': Your voice, spoken while standing upon the wall, will resound across heaven and earth."
The Jiangbei Defense Line was now a Level 10 defense line.
At last,
Fan Domain possessed its very first Level 10 defense line.
Standing atop the Jiangbei Defense Line and looking out over the sea, Chen Fan smiled lightly. What came next was taking complete control over the various vulnerable gaps across the Western Desolate Isle, such as Defense Line No. 7 and the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line.
Abandoning the original defenses,
he would construct fortifications belonging to Jiangbei alone.
He would seal off every gap on the Western Desolate Isle, creating an absolute safe zone where the Ghost Clan could never touch him. Then, he could freely provide large-scale support to various Eternal Night front lines with auxiliary structures like Soul-Devouring Sculptures.
That was a move capable of altering the entire war.
When that time came,
the Ghost Clan would certainly be provoked to fury and attempt to slip across to find him.
And then,
they would find three Level 10 defense lines stationed across the three gaps of the Western Desolate Isle.
If the front-line ghost tides couldn't even break a Level 9 line, what could a remnant that survived a crossing where ninety-nine out of a hundred perished possibly do to him?
He would forge the Western Desolate Isle into an impregnable domain.
"Domain Lord..."
Beside him, Wang Kui was completely flabbergasted. Standing near the edge of the ramparts and looking down, the sheer height made him dizzy—a full two hundred meters!
"Isn't this a bit of a waste... Jiangbei doesn't get ghost tides of that scale."
"A waste?"
Chen Fan laughed and clicked his tongue. "Why did we work so hard mining ghost stones over in the New Continent? To leave them in the warehouse to breed babies?"
"Only when our rear is utterly secure
can we do whatever we please out in the world."
"Otherwise, look at us now."
"Walking on eggshells, worried about the Ghost Clan noticing us every time we send some grain to the front. It's rather annoying."
"We still don't have enough ghost stones."
He calculated Fan Domain's remaining resources.
Upgrading to Level 10 had consumed 8.5 billion ghost stones and 850,000 monkey-head fruits.
Now,
Fan Domain had only 9.9 billion ghost stones and 780,000 monkey-head fruits left.
Completely taking over the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line and Defense Line No. 7 and upgrading both to Level 10 was out of the question for now.
However, he could take over the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line first.
Treating it as a secondary fallback line, he could build a "Fan Domain Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line" in front of the existing one. He didn't need to max it out; reaching Level 7 or 8 would be no problem at all.
That would be more than enough to handle stray ghost tides that slipped through.
After that, he would take over Defense Line No. 7.
"There's still not enough time," Chen Fan remarked with slight regret. If only he had another five years of steady, uninterrupted development.
The ghost stones in the ancient battlefield on the New Continent had been completely mined out. What they were mining now came from the natural open-pit ghost ore formed by Sovereign of All Under Heaven.
Night fell.
The rainy season arrived.
Various factions across the Guanxi Plain arrived to lend support just as they had last year. But when they reached the Jiangbei Defense Line and saw the two-hundred-meter-tall wall before them, they fell into stunned silence.
For a long time, no one spoke.
This year felt... a bit too safe.
Boom!
Thunder clapped abruptly,
formally ushering in the rainy season. When the first ghost creature surged out of the sea onto land, eyes ablaze with savagery, it suddenly froze in place. Slowly, laboriously, it tilted its head up, and up, and up.
Finally, it caught sight of the wall's summit, practically brushing the edge of the heavens.
A glimmer of clarity crept into its bloodthirsty eyes.
Looking back in utter bewilderment at the roaring great ghost issuing commands behind it, a flash of doubt and confusion crossed its face.
As if to say: You want us to breach that wall in front of us? Us? Truly us?
"Not scared this year?"
At Western Section 1 of the Jiangbei Defense Line, the Fan Domain member stationed there looked at the excited Beggar Immortal Sacred Ground disciple beside him. The two of them were assigned to this sector again this year.
"Not scared at all."
The Beggar Immortal Sacred Ground disciple's grin stretched almost from ear to ear. "I honestly don't even know what there is to be afraid of this year. Even if this place turned into the front line, I don't think it would be a problem."
"Heh."
The Fan Domain member chuckled as well. Perhaps it was time to consider getting married and having a child. In times like these, a child born into the world could actually survive.
In the darkness of the night,
high-speed rail trains departed Fan Domain one after another, passing through the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line along elevated sky rails, heading straight for Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1.
In the past, he would never have dared to transport such strategic supplies out in the open.
Now, however—
who cared?
If you have the guts, come at me.
Standing upon the Jiangbei Defense Line and admiring his Level 10 fortifications, Chen Fan was suddenly interrupted when the voice of an older man sounded from the Mother-Child Stone in his robes.
"Domain Lord Chen, I am the chief commander of Eternal Night Continent Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1."
"Hmm?"
Chen Fan's brow lifted slightly. He recognized the man's voice. Over half a year ago, when he visited Front No. 1, this man had given him a tour of the front and explained various things. But he remembered this man was the second-in-command, wasn't he?
The chief commander had been a woman.
"Sister Chan is dead. When the ghost tide attacked, the vanguard great ghost shouted provocations. Sister Chan stepped onto the wall to answer and was struck by a concealed arrow."
"I am now in charge of Eternal Night Continent Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1, serving as acting chief commander."
The voice on the other end of the Mother-Child Stone paused for a moment
before speaking again.
"On behalf of everyone at Front No. 1, I thank Fan Domain for providing the Soul-Devouring Sculptures. Selling them at a price of 100,000 ghost stones each was, I believe, done at a pure loss for Fan Domain."
"Truly, thank you."
"However..."
"we caught a traitor. Regrettably, that traitor had already leaked the information to the Ghost Clan. The Ghost Clan may attempt to slip across toward the Western Desolate Isle. I am sorry."
The transmission cut off.
Chen Fan rubbed his nose. A hundred thousand each... in truth, he had made quite a profit.
After all, the production cost was remarkably low,
only a few thousand ghost stones per piece.
Of course, he truly hadn't set an exorbitant price. For a structure capable of reducing ammunition consumption by forty percent, if a fair market price were assigned, would 500,000 ghost stones be considered expensive? Especially for the front line.
None of that mattered.
What mattered was that Sister Chan was dead?
His brow furrowed slightly as he recalled that bold, distinctive woman from when he had first arrived at Front No. 1. Hadn't the rainy season only just begun?
A great ghost shouting provocations...
"Sigh."
He let out a quiet sigh. That, too, was fate.
He would go reinforce the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line first. The ghost tide might try to slip through, so he had to prepare beforehand.
The Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line was very short,
only twenty-seven kilometers long,
and would not consume many resources.
He glanced down once more at the bounding, thrashing ghost tide beneath the Jiangbei Defense Line. Even surging upon tidal waves, they could not begin to touch the top of the ramparts; there was no need even for the God-Slaying Cannons to fire.
Let them climb.
Even if they climbed for dozens of days, they wouldn't make it to the top of the wall.
It was two hundred meters high.
Chapter 185