Ghost Eye Cannon Tower

A relentless pitter-patter echoed outside the walls. It was the sound of driving rain and flesh worm ghosts slamming against the stone barrier. "Heh heh..." To Chen Fan's ears, the sound was exceptionally sweet—it sounded like an Alipay incoming payment notification. Turning back toward Sick Monkey and the others, he hurried toward the opening marked Meat Grinder Passage. "Come on, let's head up and see." A spectacle like this had to be seen in person to appreciate its full impact. Besides, flesh worm ghosts shouldn't be able to fly forty meters high, right? Ascending along the winding passage, Chen Fan lowered the wall concealing the opening and cautiously poked his head out. He froze for a second, and then an exclamation slipped from his lips. "Fuck!" He didn't swear often. Yet right now, he truly couldn't hold it back. Profanity was like pent-up essence—nobody set out to spew it, but at certain moments, it burst out uncontrollably. Sick Monkey poked his head out right behind him, and upon seeing the scene, cursed aloud as well. "Holy fuck!" From several nearby openings, the stunned voices of Zhou Mo and the others drifted through the rain. Chen Fan's original plan had been simple. Power up the Wind Tower, activate Storm Inhale, and pull in a small fraction of the flesh worm ghost tide passing by the canyon. Perhaps he had underestimated the sheer force of Storm Inhale. Or perhaps he had overestimated the weight of the flesh worm ghosts. The resulting spectacle was staggering. A colossal, twisting funnel of air visible to the naked eye was vacuuming countless flesh worm ghosts into the canyon. Instead of merely dragging them down into the pit, it hurled them incessantly against the cliffs on both sides. The flesh worm ghosts had dark brownish-black surfaces. At this moment, the torrent looked like a massive... Only a fraction slammed against the wall; the vast majority smashed into the canyon cliffs and the rocky rim encircling the sinkhole. The high-pitched shrieks of countless flesh worm ghosts resonated through the chasm like tidal waves of sound. *Smack.* Chen Fan watched with his own eyes as a flesh worm ghost crashed into the rock wall. A single impact inflicted almost no damage on the stone, but more and more of them struck the exact same spot. Thick green liquid exploded again and again. Gradually, a shallow, dark green depression was worn into the rock. Sick Monkey muttered under his breath, "Young Master, the damage to our camp is a bit severe. Once the flesh worm ghost tide recedes, the cliffs on both sides are going to look hideous, completely covered in these dark green pits... Won't that be an eyesore? Should we fill them in afterward?" "Fill them in?" "No, no, no." Chen Fan leaned against the opening and looked down at the scene below. Rain poured over his head, but his eyes danced with excitement. "This is our greatest credential!" "Once the rainy season ends, we'll establish formal contact with the other factions. Didn't we plan to build a marketplace, something like Jiangbei Market?" "I hadn't settled on a location before." "Now I know. We'll set it right along the canyon floor between these cliffs. When the time comes, everyone will clearly see these dense clusters of dark green pits." "Everyone will know:" "We—" "We weathered a massive flesh worm ghost tide and survived!" "Isn't that the finest medal of honor we could ask for?" Chen Fan was practically bursting with euphoria. His original plan for Meat Grinder Phase Two had been to install a cannon tower every five meters along the thousand-meter canyon. Now, that struck him as far too modest. Judging by the carnage, tens of thousands of flesh worm ghosts had perished in the canyon. Perhaps he could place cannon towers every five meters, staggered across different heights! "It's just a bit of a pity..." Chen Fan looked toward the canyon entrance with genuine regret. The wind wasn't blowing in the right direction tonight, and the bulk of the flesh worm ghost tide was skimming right past the canyon mouth. Even with the Wind Tower operating Storm Inhale at full power, it could only suck in a tiny portion of the swarm. Most were swept away into the distance by the night winds. It was like holding a strip of cured pork in your mouth and sucking with all your might—you slurped up most of the grease, but didn't swallow a single bite of meat. "Pingcheng is going to eat well tonight." He cast an envious glance toward Pingcheng. If the night winds didn't shift direction, the swarm would journey over hills and streams until it reached Pingcheng. Just imagine how many ghost stones that would yield... He suddenly felt that the rainy season had its advantages for humanity. As long as you were strong enough, this was the absolute best time to amass ghost stones rapidly. During the normal dry season, there was no such thing as a flesh worm ghost tide. Of course, if you lacked strength, you would end up just like he had at the old camp—a lone boat adrift on an ocean, facing an endless ghost tide in sheer terror and despair. "It really is safer here," Chen Fan mused, letting out a sigh. Just then— "Young Master, it's over." "Over?" Pulled from his thoughts, Chen Fan looked down into the canyon. The enormous, twisted funnel of air was still churning violently like a whisk beating through butter, but the dense swarm of flesh worm ghosts had vanished. Only loose gravel and debris were left spinning in the draft. "Over already?" Feeling unsatisfied, Chen Fan stood up, raised the wall to seal the opening once more, and turned to walk down the Meat Grinder Passage into the cave. "Come on, let's go inspect the spoils." The Wind Tower had already stopped spinning. Under the barrage of so many flesh worm ghosts, it should have been wrecked long ago, but under the altar's repairs, it remained completely intact. The wall had been fully restored as well. "*Burp...*" Standing outside the cave, Chen Fan looked up at the Level 3 wall guarding the entrance. Its surface was covered in Ghost Blood Patterns that pulsed with an ominous crimson light. He could almost hear the sound of the patterns drinking their fill, and he couldn't resist supplying a sound effect of his own. The battle was over, yet the lines were still greedily slurping down fluid. Flesh worm ghosts possessed no ghost blood inside their bodies, only thick green fluid. Chen Fan didn't consider that blood. Yet the Ghost Blood Patterns clearly disagreed. Countless streams of thick green fluid flowed toward the base of the wall, rapidly absorbed by the crimson etchings. He couldn't tell if it was an illusion, but the dark red patterns seemed to take on a faint greenish sheen. Finally, after the time it took an incense stick to burn, the Ghost Blood Patterns dimmed once more. This time, they were thoroughly sated. "Not bad." Chen Fan stood outside the cave wall, sweeping a satisfied gaze across the surroundings. Having absorbed so much fluid, the wall's durability would certainly leap to a new level. Better still, it made cleaning up the battlefield remarkably simple. It was much cleaner than expected. Outside the cave lay countless sheets of fleshy hide covered in human faces. Flesh worm ghosts had neither bones nor flesh—just a single skin containing green fluid. Once the fluid was drained, only the face-speckled skins remained. Covered in wrinkles, they looked grotesque in the extreme, especially beneath the pitch-black sky above. Even more skins hung from the cliffs, swaying back and forth in the wind. There was no need for dissection. Ghost stones were strewn across the ground, scattered among the skins and blanketing the entire canyon like ordinary pebbles. The sight brought a poem from his past life to mind, and he adapted it on a whim, reciting softly: "One piece, two pieces, three, four, five; Six pieces, seven pieces, eight, nine arrive; Flying into the cave, gone from the skies." He had never understood that poem before. Now he did. When faced with this many ghost stones, only the rawest numbers could capture his emotion! *Phew...* Chen Fan drew a deep breath and waved his arm. "Brothers, get to work! Carry every last ghost stone back inside!" Unable to contain their excitement, Sick Monkey, Zhou Mo, and the rest hoisted crates and charged out. Though it was a rainy night, the twenty ghost fires lit the canyon as bright as day. The flesh worm ghost tide had just passed, so no ghost creatures would dare approach; collecting the stones was virtually risk-free. Even if something appeared, the Meat Grinder remained on standby, ready to activate at any second. "Awesome." Chen Fan grinned from the top of the cave entrance wall, watching the group rapidly gather the stones below. Storm Inhale wasn't suitable for collecting loot quickly. The wind force was too strong, and ghost stones weren't particularly durable. If the cushioning skins hadn't protected them, the suction would have smashed the stones to pieces against the rock. Work like this had to be done by hand. They were simply too short on manpower. Once the rainy season ended, he would have to recruit a solid crew. Wages, however, posed a problem. Standing on the wall, he turned the matter over in his mind. After the rainy season, Zhou Mo and the others would need to be paid, and any new hires would require wages as well. Nobody worked for free. It was a simple truth: during the rainy season, he provided refuge, but afterward, everything revolved around mutual benefit. Zhou Mo might claim his life belonged to Chen Fan, but if Chen Fan didn't pay him a single ghost stone, he would practically be driving Zhou Mo to embezzle. To put it bluntly, these grown men had been cooped up for a month; they needed enough silver in their pockets to visit the pleasure houses. The camp needed hands. More people meant higher payroll expenses. Chen Fan didn't want to pay exorbitant wages; he had better uses for his funds. Thus, he decided on a combination of low wages and high benefits to draw people in. The base pay would sit slightly below the average offered by other factions, but he would provide room and board, along with substantial room for advancement. As for the high benefits, he had the Spirit Accumulation Pavilion! He figured that alone would be irresistible to many cultivators. He could also offer martial techniques like the Water-Severing Saber Technique, granting anyone who worked three full months the chance to study it. Zhou Mo had been drawn to the Wang family by the Gale Saber Technique, laboring for three years as a stationmaster just for the opportunity to comprehend it. The Water-Severing Saber Technique was of a higher grade; its appeal would naturally be far greater. "Yeah." Chen Fan nodded in satisfaction. That way, he could secure a dependable labor force without draining his reserves. Of course, newcomers brought in this way wouldn't be blindly loyal at the start. There would be no talk of living and dying with the camp. Then again, he didn't require that level of devotion anyway. They just needed to do their jobs. Besides, with Jiangbei City and Pingcheng potentially falling during the rainy season, an influx of displaced, starving refugees was practically guaranteed. Selecting a few good characters from among them wouldn't be difficult. Two hours later, the battlefield was largely cleared. A thousand-meter canyon was no small area to comb through, especially since they couldn't ride horses—a single misplaced hoof could crush a ghost stone into powder. Sick Monkey limped up to the wall and held out two exotic treasures. "Young Master, we only found two exotic treasures. The rest are all ghost stones. We haven't finished counting them yet, as they haven't all been moved into the Warehouse." With the Warehouse, manual counting was unnecessary. Once everything was stored, the records in the Archives Chamber would automatically display the exact number of ghost stones, who had brought them in, and other details with total accuracy, leaving zero room for error. There were very few exotic treasures this time—almost everything was ghost stones. "Let me see." Lounging in his rocking chair, Chen Fan took the treasures with a smile. It didn't matter if there were few exotic treasures; what he needed most right now were ghost stones to finish Meat Grinder Phase Two! Then he could comfortably await the ghost king's arrival and the end of the rainy season. [Exotic Treasure Name: Ghost Eye] [Exotic Treasure Grade: Green] [Exotic Treasure Effect: Essential upgrade material to elevate an arrow tower into a Level 6 cannon tower. When held after Eternal Night falls, grants ten meters of visibility in the dark.] "Hmm..." Chen Fan studied the item in his hands thoughtfully. It was a crafting material. He recalled the Ghost Eye. Upgrading an arrow tower to a Level 5 cannon tower required 300 ghost stones and any one of several materials, two of which were a mourning lantern and a Ghost Eye. Lately, he had been using mourning lanterns to construct Level 5 cannon towers. Aside from that, he possessed a green-grade mourning lantern that could be used for a Level 6 cannon tower. However, that treasure could unleash a powerful beam of light against enemies, wearing down with each activation until it shattered after five uses. His original plan had been to use it four times before repurposing it for construction, but an opportunity had never arisen. In that case, he might as well see how a Level 6 cannon tower crafted from a Ghost Eye turned out. Upgrading to a Level 6 cannon tower required meeting two conditions: [1: Consume 2,000 ghost stones.] [2: Consume one green-grade mourning lantern, one green-grade Ghost Eye, one green-grade Eight-Horned Conch, or any other qualified material.] "Expensive as hell..." Chen Fan curled his lip, hoping the power would justify the cost. Without hesitation, he expended the 2,000 ghost stones and the green Ghost Eye. A panel popped up before his eyes as usual. [Arrow tower upgraded to Level 6: Promoted to Ghost Eye Cannon Tower. Must be fixed in place and cannot be moved freely. Power increased.] [Please select an upgrade path.] [1: Enhanced firing rate.] [2: Enhanced power.] [3: Qualitative change available (direction unknown).] Chen Fan looked down at his palm with a strange expression. Had his luck been running unusually high lately? Just days ago, he had triggered the qualitative change for the Wind Tower's Storm Inhale. He hadn't seen the use of it back then, yet today it had delivered a miraculous result. This made one thing abundantly clear: Whenever a qualitative change appeared, choose it without overthinking! Even if it rolled a poor outcome that ruined the structure, it only wasted a few ghost stones. But if it hit something useful, the result was a true transformation! *Phew...* Taking a deep breath, he turned and bounded down the stairs, striding toward his wooden cabin. Bathe! Change clothes! Burn incense! Sincerity brought miracles! Only when you treated the process with utter reverence would the spirit within all things respond, and only then would the Ghost Eye Cannon Tower grant the desired reward. "Burning incense" was mostly figurative. There was no regular incense in camp—only a stalk of Ask-the-Heavens Incense. "Once the rainy season ends, I definitely need to buy some proper incense," Chen Fan muttered as he washed up, feeling that the ritual was incomplete without it.