Everywhere It Reached Was His Domain!

He connected this twenty-meter copper pipe to the one linked to the ghost fire, threading it through the base of the wall. It ran straight out of the camp. It extended one meter beyond the perimeter. The next moment— The moment he finished crafting it, the copper pipe solidified, and the cold white flames from the ghost fire flowed into it. Then, an astonishing scene unfolded before his eyes. The area around that one meter of copper pipe extending outside the camp had actually turned into a safe zone! "..." Chen Fan's breath hitched. Staring at the "Copper Pipe" building module on his lord panel, he could not hold back a boisterous laugh after a long pause. "Good, good! Wonderful!" This "Copper Pipe" could actually expand the reach of the safe zone! The ghost fire flowed along the copper pipe, and everywhere it reached became his domain! Wild architectural ambitions immediately surged in his mind! For instance... A night road! Traveling by night simply did not exist in this world. But with the copper pipe, he could entirely construct a road usable during the Eternal Night. Once he had enough resources in the future, he could even encircle the entire continent with copper pipes. Then the whole Eternal Night Continent, as far as the eye could see, would be his domain! If the Eternal Night Continent were a human body, then his copper pipes would be the capillaries spreading through every inch of it. And this was merely the most basic application of the "Copper Pipe." ... Squatting outside the camp, he looked at the copper pipe lying across the parched wasteland. With a thought, the pipe reverted once more into a phantom outline of lines, and a three-way connector appeared at its end. It could now link three copper pipes. This building module had a massive advantage: even after solidifying, it could return to a phantom state and be modified freely without consuming any resources. At the moment, this copper pipe was ten centimeters wide. The safe zone extending from either side of it was half a meter each, for a total width of one meter. He wanted to see if adding a thicker pipe would change the safe zone's coverage. He immediately crafted another copper pipe, one meter in diameter, and connected it to one of the joints. The remaining two joints remained sealed without pipes attached. He was experimenting. After all, connecting a ten-centimeter pipe to a one-meter pipe was a bit awkward. It was like driving a massive rig. The dimensions were completely mismatched. However— When in doubt, leave it to the panel. As the phantom outlines of the two pipes slowly merged, the wildly mismatched pipes fused into a seamless whole. There was not a single trace of welding, appearing as though they had been forged that way from the very start. At the same time, the safe zone flanking this one-meter-wide copper pipe was still half a meter on each side, totaling one meter. Yet, accounting for the footprint of the copper pipe itself, this section of safe zone jutting outside the camp reached two meters across. "Phew..." Chen Fan exhaled softly and stood up. With a thought, the copper pipe sank into the earth, buried beneath the desolate soil without leaving a single trace. Even Quehou and the others had no idea what was happening; they only knew he seemed to be crafting a structure they had never seen before. After all, Quehou and the others could only discern the camp's safe zone once the Eternal Night fell and the ghost fire's protective halo expanded. As the camp's master, Chen Fan naturally knew about its changes immediately. "What a great item!" Chen Fan grinned once more. Ordinary structures were like the number 1; they offered no room for customization. If an arrow tower was over three meters tall, it could only be built at that height, neither taller nor shorter. It was fixed. This building module, on the other hand, was like a 0.1 that allowed complete customization. Whether it was width, length, joints, or being straight, curved, or serpentine, everything could be customized freely without spending extra ghost stones. Taken on its own, a building module had no value. Yet it could be applied to every structure. As a result, he could use it to create endless variations like 1.8, 2.7, or 3.1—structures offering immense flexibility that perfectly adapted to his camp. His control and freedom over the entire outpost would rise exponentially, giving him vastly more room to operate! ... Chen Fan paid the pipe no more mind; it was merely an experiment. He still needed to test whether copper pipes could interact with other structures. Over the next hour, he was exceptionally busy. He continuously linked different buildings together with copper pipes, searching for potential synergies. After consuming forty-seven ghost stones to craft various test pipes, he finally stood atop the wall, looking down at the camp within with a satisfied grin. With hands on his hips, his eyes shone with pride. This was his domain. Even the chilly rain seemed like celebratory champagne in his eyes. First, he had connected the two arrow towers to the ghost fire via copper pipes. Activating an arrow tower consumed ghost stones, and reloading them by hand each time was too troublesome. That was especially true when activating the active skill Arrow Rain Storm, which required reloading after every single use. Even if the reload time was short, it still imposed a delay. Furthermore, as the number of arrow towers grew in the future, he would not be able to manage them all. Now that they were linked, the arrow towers would draw ghost stones directly from the ghost fire first. This eliminated the hassle of constant manual reloading and ensured there would be no interval between uses if an emergency demanded back-to-back casts of Arrow Rain Storm. It had evolved from single-shot reloading into a fully automated system. When an arrow tower activated, ghost stones inside the ghost fire would shatter, channeling energy through the copper pipe directly into the tower. Additionally... He had crafted another copper pipe, running one end to the boiler over the cabin's hearth and the other to the roof. Rainwater would flow down the pipe into the boiler and heat to a boil. He had then crafted yet another pipe, connecting one end to the boiler and threading the other through the cabin's walls and beneath the floor. Scalding water would circulate through the pipes, keeping the interior warm. He dubbed it "Heating System 1.0." He had just stepped inside to test it. The cabin was remarkably warm, devoid of the damp chill from the night before. While Heating System 1.0 was nearly flawless, it had one small drawback: it lacked a pressure source. With copper pipes bending up and down, the hot water had trouble flowing smoothly. Without circulation, the heat would not last long, and circulation pumps did not exist in this world. Where there was a will, however, there was a way. He already had a plan. Premise 1: The ground spikes trap triggered whenever it detected weight. Premise 2: Triggering the ground spikes trap did not consume ghost stones. Conclusion: This was a power source—or, more accurately, a piston—that could trigger repeatedly without consuming any resources. It would only break after a very long period of use. Therefore, he planned to use this piston to create a heating system with automated hot water circulation. That, however, would be his planned "Heating System 2.0." Tonight, he needed to attend to other matters. For now, Heating System 1.0 required manual replenishment. Whenever the room cooled down, he had to detach the pipe, pour out the water, and refill it. It was slightly cumbersome, but sufficient for the moment. ... Building modules offered immense freedom, though they could not be upgraded; there was no upgrade option. "Now this is what an architect should be capable of..." Standing on the wall and looking down at the camp, Chen Fan's eyes gleamed with satisfaction. Before, although the camp had multiple buildings, they had felt disconnected and rigid. But with the addition of the copper pipes, it was as if blood vessels now bound every structure together. Only now did the camp feel truly alive. Only now did it feel like an extension of his own arm. ... Having finished all this, Chen Fan walked down the wall in high spirits, preparing to head over to the section damaged by the flesh worm ghosts the previous night to make repairs. The self-destruction of the flesh worm ghosts had inflicted some damage on that stretch of wall. Fortunately, it was not severe and had not compromised the foundation. Right then— Zhou Mo led his subordinate through the torrential rain toward the camp exterior, calling out to the people inside, "Stationmaster, we're back!" Quehou hurried forward. After verifying that neither of them was a pseudo-human, he brought them before Chen Fan. "Stationmaster." "We were one step too late. Everyone at Qiuhe Wang Family Outpost No. 16 hanged themselves last night." "Their bodies were already cold by the time we got there." "Across the entire wasteland... our outpost is all that's left..."