Soldiers to Generals, Water to Earth

If these men could be successfully brought up to speed, the camp's core cadre would begin to take real shape. Aside from letting everyone get acquainted, another important purpose of this evening chat was to gauge their temperaments and capabilities. From the looks of it, things were quite promising; each of them had something they excelled at. As for himself... He excelled at discovering what others were good at. ... Just as everyone was chatting enthusiastically, the voices came to an abrupt halt, and the cabin fell dead silent. A sudden wave of dread surged in everyone's chest. Chen Fan stood up, walked to the entrance of the wooden cabin, and pushed open the door. Looking out toward the distant horizon where darkness was sweeping in at breakneck speed, he said softly, "It's here." Then, without the slightest hesitation, he stripped off his dry clothes, changed into the damp, coarse linen clothes by the doorway that had yet to dry, grabbed a spear from the nearby weapon rack, and stepped out into the pouring rain. Even though they had brought over the supplies from the other outposts to the camp, clothing remained scarce. Changing clothes when going outside ensured there would always be a dry set waiting inside; otherwise, staying in drenched clothes all the time would cause heat rash and sores. Quehou was the first to react. He swiftly swapped his clothes, grasped the God-Slaying Spear, and limped into the rainy night, sticking closely behind Chen Fan. There were many people in the camp now, and while all of them seemed to have submitted to the young master, human hearts were unfathomable and nothing could be taken for granted. He had to guard by the young master's side at every moment to prevent anyone from striking in secret. The others quickly changed their clothes as well and dashed out into the rainy night. ... On the wall. Grasping various weapons, Chen Fan and his group stood behind the battlements against the torrential downpour, looking out beyond the camp. With the arrival of Eternal Night, darkness completely enveloped the camp. Above their heads and all around lay an abyssal, suffocating blackness. Only the radiance emitted by the ghost fire sheltered the entire camp beneath it, like an inverted eggshell. These weapons were all brought over by the other stationmasters when they joined him. They were ordinary weapons, capable of harming low-level ghost creatures, but they would be of little use against higher-level ones. Only an exotic weapon like the one Quehou wielded would remain effective when facing higher-level ghost creatures. "Rustle, rustle, rustle..." A flurry of rustling sounds rose from the darkness outside the camp, like a swarm of insects sweeping past. They could not pierce the darkness with their eyes, but the sounds traveled to their ears with terrifying clarity. The sheer numbers implied by the sound alone were enough to strike dread into anyone's heart. Zhou Mo held his breath involuntarily, his grip tightening hard around the hilt of his blade, terrified of making the slightest noise that might lure the ghost creatures in the dark straight into the camp. *Screeech...* A harsh, grating sound suddenly tore through the darkness, like fingernails scraping repeatedly against rusted sheet metal, piercing and excruciating to the ears. "..." Chen Fan frowned slightly and could not help but tighten his hold on the spear. Tonight was vastly different from previous nights; the commotion had never been this immense over the past few nights. He had originally possessed some confidence, but now he was no longer certain whether they could hold the line. The next instant— A burst of loud laughter abruptly echoed from the darkness. The sound was piercingly high-pitched. There was not a trace of joy in the laugh, only the frenzy of an all-consuming vengeance bent on destroying everything. Mixed with the patter of the rain, it sent chills down everyone's spines. Wang Kui's legs were already trembling, his face crumpled on the verge of tears. Though not a single ghost creature had shown itself yet, the men were already under immense psychological strain. Immediately after that, the high-pitched laughter that had swept over everything like a violent storm abruptly plummeted into a deep, low pitch, shifting into intermittent sobs that lingered around their ears. The weeping was not loud, yet it chilled the soul. The laughter grew increasingly piercing, like the overlapping shrieks of countless female ghosts, surging into the camp like a tsunami. Just when everyone's sanity was stretched to the breaking point, the laughter abruptly stopped. Then, dozens of ghost creatures surged out of the darkness and bounded into the camp, clawing and lunging toward the wall. They were... humanoid ghost creatures, towering over three meters tall and thin as bamboo poles. Their arms were exceptionally long, reaching almost down to their ankles. Their sharp, elongated fingers gleamed with a ghastly white pallor. A type of ghost creature never seen before. At the same time— The two nearest Level 2 arrow towers atop the wall pivoted their ballistas in unison, locking onto the dozens of ghost creatures charging into the camp. With a violent shudder from the ballistas atop the towers, A bolt nearly as thick as an infant's forearm turned into a streak of black, cutting through the heavy rain and hurtling forward with the force of thunder and a shrill whistle. *Swoosh!* The bolt punched clean through the chest of the foremost ghost creature with pinpoint precision, pinning it straight to the ground. The bamboo-thin creature merely twitched a few times before falling still. Bolt after bolt shot forth in rapid succession. Before long, all twenty-odd ghost creatures were completely eliminated. Only one managed to reach the base of the wall, but its desperate, full-powered swipe failed to leave even a faint white scratch on the stone wall. "Phew..." Seeing this, Chen Fan breathed a sigh of relief. The tension that had coiled tight in his chest finally eased a bit. Pulling his hand from his tunic, he looked down at the twenty-some corpses of the ghost creatures within the camp and smiled. Beside one of the fallen creatures, he even spotted an object glowing with white light. An exotic treasure. Finally, another exotic treasure had dropped. After crafting all the traps and the wooden cabin during the day, he had been left with three ghost stones. When Wang Kui went to those two abandoned outposts, along with living supplies, he had brought back 127 ghost stones. Those stones had originally been other people's entire fortunes, but once their outposts fell, the ghost stones became ownerless property. And it had all fallen into his lap. Right now, he had 130 ghost stones in total. He had kept these 130 ghost stones as an emergency reserve rather than spending them right away. Later, if there were too many ghost creatures for the two arrow towers to handle, he could craft more towers; if exceptionally strong ghost creatures appeared that the Level 2 arrow towers struggled against, he could use these ghost stones to upgrade the towers to Level 3. He had room to advance or retreat. Soldiers to generals, water to earth. Only by keeping his options open could he handle whatever came with ease. The farmland lay on the left. This wave of ghost creatures had ignored it completely, so they naturally hadn't triggered the five Ground Spikes traps set before it. Tonight, the primary objective was to ensure the camp's survival; the secondary objective was to keep the farmland safe. As this wave of ghost creatures was thoroughly wiped out beneath the wall by the arrow towers, the hearts that had been caught in everyone's throats finally settled, gradually giving way to excitement. The camp seemed... seemed... remarkably safe! "Stationmaster!" Wang Kui leaned over the battlements in excitement, gazing down at the pile of ghost creature corpses. "From the looks of it, even if their numbers doubled, we could still hold them off!" He had originally called him "Young Master," but Chen Fan told them all to just address him as "Stationmaster," since "Young Master" was inappropriate. So he had switched his form of address. "..." Chen Fan narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked into the depths of the darkness. Although the wall and arrow towers had proven effective, he did not let his guard down in the slightest. After all, he knew very well that this was merely an appetizer. If nothing else, that eerie laughter certainly had not come from these bamboo-thin ghost creatures. That meant a formidable ghost creature was still lurking in the darkness, watching the camp like a predator, waiting to strike at any moment.