Earth Dragon Migration

Chen Fan climbed atop the ruined wall and looked down at the busy figures in the camp. Resting both hands on the parapet, he gazed toward the distant horizon in calm silence. He dubbed this relocation plan the "Earth Dragon Migration." For some reason, he loved giving names to the things he did. It served no grand purpose—it was simply his way of remembering them, so that if death ever came for him, he would not feel as though his entire life had been spent in vain. Including himself, there were nine pairs of hands in the camp. Apart from him, everyone was hard at work. Da Yu, Wang Mazi's former subordinate, had not accompanied Zhou Mo out to scavenge resources as he had yesterday. Instead, he joined the butchering brigade, working swiftly to dig ghost stones from the ghost creatures' corpses. Qi Chong led his pig-farming brother, A'le, in organizing whatever intact resources remained in the camp's warehouse. At the same time, they dug up the Flesh Ghost Mother-Child Seed from the farmland—which had miraculously survived the previous night's carnage—preparing to transport it to the new base. Quehou headed into the ruins of the wooden cabins inside the camp, stuffing pots, pans, bowls, clothes, and other supplies into porcelain vats. There were no ghost stones inside the split corpses of the mourning ghosts, but their bodies could still be put to use. Over a thousand mourning ghost corpses lay strewn about. Taking all of them was completely out of the question; they could only pack a small portion to use as farmland fertilizer and sacrifice the rest. "Phew..." Exhaling softly, Chen Fan wasted no more time and walked toward the sacrificial tower in the center of the camp's ruins. The tower remained intact, and Wang Mazi and several others were quickly hauling corpses stripped of their ghost stones over to its base. The entire camp bustled with frantic activity in the drizzling rain. Hauling corpses was exhausting work. With over a thousand bodies, it would take a fair amount of time. He looked down at the ghost-skin map in his hand, calculating the time required to reach that natural ghost fire zone to the north. Moving base was no easy task, especially when such a vast battlefield still needed to be cleared. ... Four hours later, at midday. Hardly anyone paused along the way, giving no thought to food or rest. This was where the value of a Level 2 cultivator became apparent. Zhou Mo clearly possessed more stamina than the rest. Fortunately, they had all consumed the lion's mane mushrooms that boosted physical attributes over the past few days, so none of them collapsed from exhaustion. "..." Chen Fan looked at the miniature, seven-tiered sacrificial tower standing about a meter tall, carved from bluestone beside the ruins of the wooden cabin. [Sacrifice ghost creature corpses to obtain special resources.] [The stronger the ghost creatures and the greater their numbers, the higher the value of the special resources obtained.] Most of the ghost creature corpses he had slain over the past few days had been flayed, drained of blood, and sacrificed to this tower, yet he had not received a single special resource. Below the sacrificial tower's panel was a progress bar: - [198/500 Sacrifice Points.] [Upon completion of this sacrifice, you may obtain a green-grade special resource.] - During his first sacrifice, the progress bar had sat at "100 Sacrifice Points." Tossing in a hundred ordinary ghost creature corpses had quickly filled it. Had he chosen to complete the sacrifice then, he would have received a white-grade special resource. He had simply stopped himself. He had suddenly realized that reaching five hundred sacrifice points was not that difficult, and hitting five hundred would yield a green-grade reward. Among them, Qiu Kui's corpse had contributed twenty sacrifice points. He had originally planned to stockpile five hundred points before completing the ritual. However... Now that they had to relocate, this sacrificial tower could not be brought along, nor could the unfinished sacrifice progress. Thus, he intended to finalize the sacrifice before departing. As corpse after corpse was cast before the tower, the bodies began to rapidly dissolve. As though a flesh worm ghost had self-detonated right beside them, they liquefied into an odorless, viscous fluid that was drawn straight into the tower. Slowly, the bluestone structure began to transform. The tower's first tier swiftly shifted to a milky white. Then, as the progress bar climbed, the second tier gradually became coated in an eerie green glow. Very soon, five hundred sacrifice points were reached! - [500/2,000 Sacrifice Points.] [Upon completion of this sacrifice, you may obtain a yellow-grade special resource.] - "Yellow grade..." Chen Fan started slightly. This was the first time he had ever seen the yellow grade appear. If he completed the sacrifice now, he would get one green-grade special resource; repeat it a few more times, and he could amass several green-grade resources. Green grade was already far from low. Even now, he held only a handful of green-grade exotic treasures. Yet yellow grade... He had truly never laid eyes on one, and he truly wanted it. He was still short by 1,500 sacrifice points, which meant 1,500 ordinary ghost creature corpses. That was definitely beyond what they had. Quehou and the others had already tallied up the exact count of ghost creature corpses, and even including those dragged from the farmland that had not yet finished decomposing, there were only 1,320 left. He was still short by 180 sacrifice points. His choices were either to cut the sacrifice short here and leave with a green-grade exotic treasure, or depart first and return to this outpost later to finish the sacrifice. "Bring me that mourning ghost chieftain's corpse," Chen Fan instructed Quehou beside him. Although he could not see the ghost creature's exact level, he figured that as one of the ghost king's four great chieftains, it ought to be worth at least 180 points, right? Before long, the mourning ghost chieftain's corpse was brought over. Tossed before the sacrificial tower. Sacrifice complete. Obtained 50 sacrifice points. ... Chen Fan laughed aloud. He suddenly found ghost creatures capable of splitting, like the mourning ghost, utterly delightful. It would be wonderful if he encountered more of them in the future. A single chieftain corpse yielded fifty points, and he still had fifteen more of these flesh worm ghost chieftain bodies, all of which had split off from that mourning ghost chieftain. Continue the sacrifice! Soon, every last ghost creature corpse had been hurled before the sacrificial tower, pushing the progress bar to 1,850 points. After tossing in three more mourning ghost chieftain bodies, the sacrifice reached exactly 2,000 points—not a single point more, not a single point less. The third tier of the sacrificial tower turned completely pale yellow. Complete sacrifice. The three colors across the tower's surface rapidly faded, reverting to plain bluestone. The sound of shifting gears clicked from within the tower, and a box sprang up from the top, holding a paper-thin... building blueprint. "..." Chen Fan picked up the yellow-grade building blueprint. A flicker of shock flashed through his eyes, and unable to suppress his mounting excitement, he broke into a grin. Every single structure currently in his camp was white-grade. He did not possess even a single green-grade building. And now, he had directly obtained a yellow-grade building blueprint! Special resources came in many varieties, including ghost stones, exotic treasures, ghost materials, and building blueprints. Among all special resources, building blueprints were unquestionably the most valuable. His luck was remarkably good; with this blueprint, he could develop his rear base in the north far more effectively. - [Exotic Treasure Name]: Vehicle Workshop [Exotic Treasure Grade]: Yellow [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Building blueprint; can manufacture multiple types of vehicles. - It was an exceedingly simple description, yet loaded with possibilities. He crushed the building blueprint in his grip, and soon after, he saw a new buildable structure appear on his Lord Panel: [Vehicle Workshop].