The Archery Towers on the city walls began to shriek.
One by one, crossbow bolts tore through the curtain of rain, accurately striking the Mourning Specters that stepped into the camp.
Fall.
Get up.
Split.
The Mourning Specters kept splitting, growing ever more numerous. More Mourning Specters were entering the camp from the gray mist beyond.
Their pace wasn't fast, but their appearance was unsettling. Combined with their sheer number and deathly silence, they exuded a fearsome presence amid the pitter-patter of rain.
...
"Hmm..."
Chen Fan suddenly frowned. Standing atop the wall, he looked out beyond the camp. Mourning Specters were converging from all directions, gradually filling up the camp. He felt his two plots of farmland likely wouldn't survive the night.
If flanked by mountains on three sides, the camp only needed one wall; that would be much better. They would have been under far less pressure.
But that was clearly impossible.
Dayu's village had been destroyed by Eerie Creatures that jumped into the village from the cliffs.
The next moment—
A flash of white light flickered atop the Level 3 Archery Tower beside him. The Arrow Storm had been activated. Crossbow bolts shot high into the air, then rained down on an area in front of the city wall.
A blank area was cleared out.
The Mourning Specters had low physical defense; a single crossbow bolt to a vital spot could kill one.
But their duplication ability compensated for this weakness.
Thud.
By now, a Mourning Specter in the lead had reached the base of the city wall. Its face was deathly pale and expressionless. It lifted the white lantern in its hand and smashed it heavily against the city wall.
It let it drop, raised it, and swung it out again.
Just as it raised it for a third swing, a crossbow bolt pierced its forehead.
The moment it fell, the white lantern in its hand had gone out, and it ceased splitting further.
Chen Fan leaned over the city wall, peering down at the section of wall that had been struck twice, where two palm-sized pits had appeared. They didn't affect the wall's foundation—the wall was a full 3 meters thick. Keep hammering away as you please; you'll need to hit it a whole lot more to destroy it.
But...
More and more pits showed up as an increasing number of Mourning Specters passed through the Arrow Storm defense line, reaching the base of the wall and smashing their white lanterns against the stone wall.
They came from all sides.
The camp was encircled.
And with a sweeping look, he saw these Mourning Specters even forming queues in the gray mist outside the camp. Due to their large number and slow pace, they were congested out there in the mist like a traffic jam. Clearly, in the Perpetual Night beyond the gray mist, there were even more Mourning Specters.
...
"The offensive is getting intense."
Chen Fan gazed at these Mourning Specters out there, his expression slightly grim. There was good news and bad news.
Good news: The Mourning Specters were quite well-behaved. They weren't hastily pushing their way anywhere, nor were they climbing the wall by clambering over one another, all good boys and girls.
Bad news: Their numbers were a bit excessive, and the city wall was being slowly damaged.
Fortunately, he had enough Eerie Stones reserved.
845 Eerie Stones were enough to get through the night.
The next moment—
The four city walls transformed into illusory shapes composed of white lines, which only he could see.
Cost for this repair: 7 Eerie Stones.
"Repair."
As the illusory shapes solidified, the broken white lines reconnected. The pits that had been smashed into the city wall by the Mourning Specters were instantly restored.
He roughly understood the repair mechanism.
The lighter the damage to the city wall, the lower the repair cost.
The heavier the damage, the higher the repair cost.
If damaged too much, it would even cost more to repair than build it from scratch.
On the city wall...
Crippled Monkey and the others had tied spears, broadswords, and other weapons to the ends of wooden poles, continuously thrusting them downwards.
These were low-level Eerie Creatures; even ordinary weapons could inflict damage on them, though of course, they were unable to instant-kill them like a crossbow bolt.
Chen Fan turned around to look at the Altar inside the camp, a building used for healing injuries. He thought the principle behind it should be the same.
He used Eerie Stones to repair the city wall and also to heal injuries.
Then theoretically, the Altar should be able to repair the city wall, right?
Theory established, now for practice.
Today's free quota had been used up.
As several Eerie Stones were crushed, surreal forms of Copper Pipes emerged, materializing on the ground, connecting the Altar to the city wall.
Click.
A faint, almost inaudible crisp sound was heard.
Milky white liquid flowed out from the Altar, traveling along the copper pipes all the way to the base of the city wall.
Thud.
Below the wall, the moment a Mourning Specter had just raised its white lantern and smacked it against the city wall, no sooner had the pit formed than it was repaired, before the Eerie Creature could bring the lantern down again.
"It worked!"
Chen Fan poked his head out, taking in this scene from the city wall, a flicker of excitement in his eyes. It actually worked. This meant that as long as the Altar contained enough Eerie Stones, his city walls would automatically repair themselves.
No manual operation required.
Moreover, he sensed that the rate at which Eerie Stones were consumed was even lower than the cost of manual repairs.
He built another copper pipe, connecting the Altar to the Eerie Fire.
This way, the Altar would consume the Eerie Stones from the Eerie Fire. He only needed to ensure the Eerie Fire had an ample supply of the stones, saving him much trouble.
He named it...
City Wall Auto-Repair System.
Unless an Eerie Creature could lay waste to the city wall with a single slap, he could stay secure as long as the Eerie Stones didn't run out.
Just at that moment—
Crash...
The sound of a collapsing wall came.
That was...
The wall of the Eerie Creature Farm had fallen.
The Pseudo-Human Ghosts inside rushed out like wild horses that had slipped their reins, mingling among the Mourning Specters, pressing toward the city wall.
"How could this be?"
Chen Fan furrowed his brows. Given the Mourning Specters' strength, how could this wall have broken down so quickly?
Just as he was about to extend the Altar's copper pipe to the wall of the Eerie Creature Farm.
He immediately understood why.
A big one had arrived.
Outside the camp, in the gray mist, an aged, stooped Mourning Specter stood holding an emerald green lantern, its eyes vacant. The other Mourning Specters all detoured around it, creating a small space around it, leaving it in the spotlight.
Before he could react.
This Mourning Specter lifted its emerald green lantern again.
An arm-thick beam of emerald green light shot out, accurately striking another wall of the Eerie Creature Farm. The three-meter-thick wall instantly developed a deep crater. Another emerald-green beam streaked out, and this wall also slowly collapsed.
Reduced to rubble.
"Unbelievable! Just unbelievable!!"
Chen Fan's face darkened, and his breathing involuntarily grew rapid. He felt again the despair from that night when the Flesh Worm Ghost Eerie Tide struck. This guy could destroy a city wall with just two beams of green light.
Even with the auto-repairing walls, he still didn't have enough Eerie Stones.
He needed time to think.
But this guy's emerald green lantern wouldn't stop to think. Another beam of emerald green light accurately struck another wall of the Eerie Creature Farm.