Qualitative Leap

Inside the wooden cabin. Chen Fan sat beside the stove, looking out at the drizzle outside. To save resources at the beginning, the core area enclosed by the perimeter wall had been kept somewhat small. With the camp's ongoing expansion, space was already growing tight, and there was hardly room left for arrow towers. In a few days, it would be time to expand the area. Only then did he begin tallying last night's haul. Several ghost materials, including "monkey skins" and "mantis arms." A total of 478 ghost stones. Among them, the female ghost's body had yielded ten Level 2 ghost stones, worth 100 ghost stones. Three exotic treasures. Building blueprints were among the rarest of exotic treasures, and the sheet as thin as a cicada's wing currently in his hands was a brand-new building blueprint. - [Exotic Treasure Name]: Altar [Exotic Treasure Quality]: White [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Can be used to build an altar. Wounds can be healed within the altar. - "Heal wounds?" Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully. It was a very useful structure and one the camp currently lacked. No one had been injured in the camp last night. Only Zhou Mo, having clashed head-on with ghost creatures multiple times, had suffered minor injuries with blood oozing from the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers, nothing serious. The construction cost was not expensive either. It required only 10 ghost stones. He would build it inside the walls in a little while. The area inside the walls was increasingly cramped. With the wooden cabin, sentry tower, and sacrificial tower, plus an altar now, he needed to upgrade the ghost fire as soon as possible to expand the camp's bounds and build an outer perimeter of walls. Still... That would be no small expense. He had to finish testing the cart as soon as possible, then send Zhou Mo to the abandoned outposts on the wasteland to bring back the ghost stones inside them. He looked down at the remaining two exotic treasures in his hands. - [Exotic Treasure Name]: Torch [Exotic Treasure Quality]: White [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Single-use exotic treasure. Once lit, lasts for six shichen, possesses the effect of Level 1 ghost fire, with an illumination diameter of 1 meter. - A mobile version of ghost fire. It might be somewhat useful outside the rainy season, but in the rainy season, its utility was minimal. In the rainy season, ghost creatures would easily fly into a frenzy and charge into the ghost fire's safe zone. The final exotic treasure. It was also the most valuable piece in this haul, dropped by the female ghost: a green-quality exotic treasure. A sheet of skin. - [Exotic Treasure Name]: Ghost Skin [Exotic Treasure Quality]: Green [Exotic Treasure Effect]: A special ghost skin. Requires irrigation with "Human Blood Ghost Flowers" to manifest. - "..." Chen Fan frowned slightly. Looking at the palm-sized ghost skin in his hand, it appeared extremely ancient, faintly bearing the traces of passing time. He had no idea what a "Human Blood Ghost Flower" was, nor where to find one. He could only put it away for now. He would deal with it once he found some in the future. Once the rainy season ended, a trip to Jiangbei City was an absolute must. Staying on the wasteland left him completely cut off from news. Still... An architect's strength was only manifest within his own camp. Going to someone else's territory, in terms of physical prowess, he certainly could not defeat those cultivators. As for external means, he could indeed quickly erect a few arrow towers. Cultivators could hardly stand head-on against an architect's defensive fortifications unless there was an overwhelming difference in level—after all, a single bolt from a Level 1 arrow tower could easily kill a Level 2 cultivator like Zhou Mo in an instant. Yet a few temporary arrow towers built on the fly could never compare to the fortifications that others had developed on their own territory for so long. If he wanted to head to Jiangbei City while guaranteeing his personal safety, he would have to plan things out thoroughly. For now, however, surviving the rainy season took priority. In a daze, he lay down on the wooden bed and fell asleep. *Rumble, rumble...* The faint sound of flowing water hummed outside—the sound of Heating System 2.0 operating beyond the walls. Outside, the air was bleak, damp, and freezing, but inside, it was relatively warm and dry. ... Three shichen before the descent of Eternal Night, Chen Fan woke up. After washing up briefly, he got up, stretched, and stepped out of the wooden cabin, ready to upgrade the camp's defenses once more. He currently had 795 ghost stones in total. He first walked over to the ghost fire inside the settlement to check last night's ghost stone consumption. When upgrading the ghost fire to Level 2, one of the upgrade effects he had chosen reduced the attack costs of defensive fortifications in the camp. Last night, a total of 17 ghost stones had been consumed, mainly because Arrow Rain Storm expended a considerable amount. He took out another 17 ghost stones to replenish the ghost fire back to 50 stones. Then, he produced another 50 ghost stones and upgraded the ghost fire to Level 3. The next moment— A panel popped up before his eyes. - [Ghost fire upgraded to Level 3. Safe zone expanded to a 50-meter diameter. Intimidation toward ghost creatures enhanced.] [Please select an upgrade path.] [1: Safe zone diameter increased to 100 meters.] [2: Intimidation toward ghost creatures moderately enhanced.] [3: Qualitative Leap: Construction cost of all camp structures -1 ghost stone. This effect can be used 10,000 times per day and is only active during the rainy season (Rare).] - "..." Chen Fan stared at the panel in front of him, slightly stunned. In the past, the upgrade panels had always been simple black text on a white background, rather plain. In this upgrade path, however, while the first two options were in ordinary black text, the third option shimmered with iridescent light, looking exceptionally eye-catching. If he understood correctly, this third upgrade path did not appear every time a ghost fire reached Level 3; it was a low-probability occurrence. Among the upgrade options granted when a structure leveled up, there was a minuscule chance of rolling a rare upgrade path. Namely, a "qualitative leap." Looking at this third upgrade path, his breathing gradually quickened. Reducing the construction cost of all structures in the camp by 1 ghost stone sounded rather underwhelming at first glance. After all, building one meter of wall cost 20 ghost stones, so reducing it by 1 stone meant 19 ghost stones, barely any difference. However, for something like a bear trap, which cost 2 ghost stones to build, a reduction of 1 stone brought the cost down to just 1 ghost stone. That halved the cost. Most importantly— Copper pipes. This building module component cost only 1 ghost stone per meter to build. Under this effect, it was effectively free. Zero-cost construction. With 10,000 uses per day, that meant... He could craft ten thousand one-meter copper pipes each day at no cost whatsoever! Even though it was only effective during the rainy season, it was already absurdly broken. Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately chose the third upgrade path. The boost it offered to the camp's defensive strength was nothing short of epic. ... "..." Atop the wall. Chen Fan rested both hands on the parapet, gazing out over the safe zone that had expanded to a diameter of fifty meters. With ambition burning in his eyes and the chill of the drizzling rain against his skin, he could not help grinning. He had already figured out several uses for copper pipes by now. One of them was extending the reach of the safe zone—allowing the ghost fire to flow through the pipes to expand the safe zone's perimeter. Originally, putting this effect to full use would have taken him a long time, given the substantial expenditure of ghost stones required. But now— He had a new plan. The straight-line distance across the wasteland from Pingcheng to Jiangbei City was 170 kilometers. During the dry season, countless merchant caravans, cultivators, hunters, and travelers shuttled between the two cities using camels, horses, and other beasts of burden as mounts. They traveled by day. By night, they camped at nearby outposts. Only after several days' journey could they cross the wasteland.