The Breeding Farm

"Yes, sir!" Zhou Mo tightened his grip on his broadsword, took a deep breath, leaped down from the tricycle, and pressed toward the wooden cabin step by step before kicking the door open. A few breaths later, he rushed back to the tricycle and reported hurriedly, "Stationmaster, there really is a batch of pseudo-human ghost young. None of them can crawl yet, and their eyes are terrifyingly eerie." As he spoke, he couldn't help shuddering. That scene had truly terrified him. The moment he had stepped inside, he saw the pseudo-human ghost young staring straight at him. He strongly suspected he would relive that nightmare tonight. "Then my guess was right." Chen Fan looked toward the pseudo-humans trapped in the bear traps outside the outpost. When those pseudo-humans saw Zhou Mo charge into the cabin, they had grown even more frenzied. He probably had an inkling of what the rainy season was about now. The rainy season... Perhaps it was the ghost creatures' breeding season. In that case, their extreme irritability during the rainy season made sense. Throughout history, no living creature remained calm while breeding. During this period, territorial instincts peaked, barring any outside creature from approaching. This was also why ghost creatures tended to steer clear of ghost fire during the dry season, yet hurled themselves madly into it during the rainy season. "Back to camp." Chen Fan reached out and pulled Zhou Mo onto the cart bed. "Bring the men over. We're taking all the pseudo-humans here back." "Capture them alive?" Zhou Mo was slightly taken aback, turning to look at the pseudo-humans trapped in the bear traps nearby. If they only wanted to dig out ghost stones, they could do it right now; there was no need to return to camp for reinforcements. "Yes, alive." Chen Fan nodded slightly. When he had first arrived, he had seen a pair of pseudo-humans mating. Normal human gestation took nine months, yet right after mating, the female pseudo-human's belly had swelled rapidly, bringing her to the brink of giving birth. If such a reproductive rate could be harnessed, perhaps they could harvest even more ghost stones. ... When about an incense stick of time remained before Eternal Night descended, Chen Fan led Zhou Mo, Quehou, and several others back to the camp once more. The pseudo-human ghosts were strung together with ropes and dragged along the ground back to camp. By now, the safe zone around the camp had expanded to a diameter of fifty meters. The grounds were considerably more spacious. He walked to an open area outside the camp wall, spent 200 ghost stones, and constructed a cage-like square perimeter wall, five meters long and five meters wide. He intended to raise pseudo-human ghosts here. This trip had brought back: 27 adult pseudo-human ghosts. 37 pseudo-human ghost young. He called this place the "Breeding Farm." For safety, he erected a Level 2 arrow tower on the breeding farm's wall to ensure the pseudo-human ghosts would not break out. Given their strength, a Level 2 arrow tower was more than enough. Besides, the pseudo-human ghosts could not scale a five-meter-high wall anyway. Today's expenses had consumed a fair amount of his ghost stones. He had only 268 ghost stones left. Although killing a batch of pseudo-humans had replenished some, even with those added, he had just 301 ghost stones in total. The pseudo-humans he killed had not dropped a single exotic treasure. "A'le." Chen Fan looked at A'le, who stood behind Qi Chong. "From now on, besides helping Qi Chong tend the farmland, you will be in charge of this breeding farm. You need to do everything you can to get these pseudo-humans to breed so we can obtain more ghost stones." "Understood!" A'le roared his assent, glancing toward the pseudo-humans being herded into the breeding farm with wooden staves by Quehou and the others. His eyes brimmed with excitement for this new challenge. Truth be told... he had raised pigs for so many years, but he had never raised ghosts. Breeding was breeding, yet following different people meant raising entirely different things. ... Having finished all this, Chen Fan returned to the wall inside the camp, gazing at the darkening sky as he waited patiently for Eternal Night to fall. The tricycle fitted with the Level 4 Arrow Fort was also parked outside the walls, serving as one of tonight's defensive measures. Combining an arrow tower with a vehicle to create a mobile arrow tower was not a particularly difficult concept. At least in the memories of his original host, the Chen family had studied it for a time, though they ultimately abandoned it, unable to deploy it on a large scale. There were many reasons. For instance... cost. Building a Level 4 Arrow Fort cost him only 180 ghost stones in total, but other architects typically had to spend upwards of 1,000 ghost stones. On top of that, they had to construct a ghost fire. The ghost fire had to be mounted onto the vehicle. When not in use, ghost stones still had to be consumed to maintain the fire. After all, the cost for others to construct ghost fire was far higher than his; they could hardly treat ghost fire as a disposable structure like he did. Coupled with the fact that horse-drawn carriages would panic and run wild upon encountering ghost creatures, causing the vehicle to lose control, alongside high running costs that made recovering investments nearly impossible, the method simply wasn't suitable for mass application. Yet— to him, these drawbacks were practically non-existent. Given enough time, he could even roll out an entire fleet of arrow carts, achieving economies of scale. Right at that moment! Darkness surged from the edge of the sky. Eternal Night descended. The world turned black. ... Chen Fan and a few others kept watch on the walls. Meanwhile, Zhou Mo had already slipped under the covers in his wooden cabin to sleep. Looking at the pallet beside him where someone had slept just last night, now utterly empty, he remained silent for a long time before taking up his pen to write in today's diary. "Today is the fifth night since the arrival of the rainy season." "There is still more than half a month left before the rainy season ends." "Ergou, who had always followed me, died this evening in the jaws of a pseudo-human ghost." "Can the camp... truly survive the rainy season?" "Heaven only knows." When he finished, he hid the diary beneath his pillow and stared dazed at the wooden cabin's ceiling, lost in thought. ... Jiangbei City. Tonight was extraordinarily tumultuous. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!" "Why haven't the Chen family retainers arrived yet? My section of the wall can't hold out much longer, it needs repairs immediately!" "Where are they?!" Countless shouts and furious curses echoed along the walls of Jiangbei City. Whether born of rage or an attempt to suppress their inward terror, the entire city of Jiangbei, a natural ghost fire zone, did not lack light even when Eternal Night fell. A colossal golden eggshell enveloped the entire metropolis. The wall, wrapping the entire city like a serpentine dragon, was undergoing a severe trial. The arrow towers positioned atop the walls continuously loosed bolts into the ghost creatures in the darkness. "..." The Wild Wolf Gang leader stood on the wall, leading his brothers up to the ramparts. Looking out into the dark night beyond the walls at the flesh worm ghosts hurling themselves fearlessly against the stone, he drew a deep breath, his face pale as paper. He fished a token from his robes and slammed it against the wall. Instantly— A black luminescence rippled across the wall encircling Jiangbei City. A thick layer of steel plating, etched with bizarre array markings, seemed to sprout from inside the masonry like a living thing, encasing the entire wall. The deteriorating situation halted abruptly. The wall, previously on the verge of collapse under the massive self-destruct attacks of the flesh worm ghosts, held firm once again. Only then, his face still slightly pale, did the gang leader roar: "Hold the line, everyone! "The wind can't stay the same all night! As soon as the wind shifts, these flesh worm ghosts will retreat! "Brothers, hold on a little longer!" The flesh worm ghost tide was known as the most terrifying phenomenon of the wasteland's rainy season. Wherever it passed, not a blade of grass survived. And tonight, the flesh worm ghost tide had arrived at Jiangbei City, seeking to dye heaven and earth green.