"Alright!"
Qiu Junior scrambled up from the farmland and rushed toward the open city gate, stumbling and rolling along the way. This time, no Eerie Creatures charged into the camp.
...
When Qiu Junior, covered in mud and dirt, returned panting heavily inside the city walls and climbed up the stone steps to the battlements, he saw everyone looking at him. Their eyes were filled with complex emotions—admiration, respect, and... awe.
It was a look he had never seen before in his life.
He had never experienced a moment like this.
Involuntarily, he straightened his back, raised the glowing white item in his hand, and handed it to Chen Fan with a grin. "Station Master, I got it."
"Well done."
In the night rain, on the city wall.
Chen Fan, with a complex expression, took the Extraordinary Treasure from Qiu Junior. "Why did you run toward the farmland instead of back inside the walls?"
"There wasn't enough time."
Qiu Junior felt his throat aching, perhaps from shouting too loudly earlier. Now that he was back, his legs felt weak and powerless. "The Eerie Creatures were faster than me, and it was closer. If I had run toward the city walls, I definitely wouldn't have made it."
"Even if they hadn't caught me, they would have surely broken through the walls."
"Brother Wang treated me well. Station Master, you took me in during the rainy season. Everyone is fighting to survive this rainy season. I didn't want to be the one to get everyone killed. If someone has to die, it should just be me."
"Also, I thought with the Archery Towers here, the number of Eerie Creatures must be decreasing. As long as I made it to the traps and held on a little longer, maybe I could survive this crisis."
"..."
Chen Fan said nothing more but took the Extraordinary Treasure from Qiu Junior and patted his shoulder. "I remember you're called Qiu Junior, right? You were quite decisive and did a great job this time."
In reality.
The situation Qiu Junior described—the city falling and everyone dying—wouldn't have happened.
If there hadn't been enough time, Chen Fan would have closed the city gate.
It's just...
He hadn't expected Qiu Junior to handle it so perfectly—decisive judgment and, most importantly, the spirit of self-sacrifice. Honestly, few people could have held back from running toward the walls in such a situation, solely for fear of causing others to die.
He knew he couldn't have done it himself.
He was keen enough to sense that because of Qiu Junior's actions, the group now held a different feeling in their hearts—an emotional resonance that might inspire others to make similar choices in future crises.
Humans are social animals.
Emotions are contagious.
For now, no more Eerie Creatures were charging into the camp. Chen Fan squinted into the darkness beyond the rainy night. He wondered if it was just a coincidence that the Eerie Creatures in the dark attacked just as Qiu Junior left the walls and reached the edge of the camp.
And...
These attacking Eerie Creatures resembled a mantis and were extremely fast, even faster than the bamboo-pole-like Eerie Creatures from the first wave.
They were clearly better suited for pursuit than city assault.
In contrast, the bamboo-pole Eerie Creatures, standing over three meters tall, were more suitable for attacking the walls.
He strongly suspected that the Eerie Creature outside that had emitted an eerie laughter at the beginning might possess a certain level of intelligence. It could see the camp's layout and was prepared to launch a coordinated attack at any moment.
However, its intelligence was likely not very high, or at least the Eerie Creatures it controlled weren't very smart.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have fallen so easily into the traps.
"..."
Chen Fan looked down at the Extraordinary Treasure in his hand, squinting slightly. It was a piece of Eerie hide as thin as a cicada's wing, similar in texture to the "Eerie hide Map." On it, crimson lines depicted a structure.
A structure resembling an Archery Tower.
But taller.
And narrower.
It was a building blueprint—an exceedingly rare type of Extraordinary Treasure. Among all Extraordinary Treasures, building blueprints were especially uncommon. This was the first one he gained.
Extraordinary Treasure Name:* Watchtower Building Blueprint
Extraordinary Treasure Grade: White
Extraordinary Treasure Effect: Can be used to construct a watchtower, which provides a 50-meter field of vision outside the camp.
Without hesitation, he immediately crushed the building blueprint in his hand. Unlike other Architects, he didn't need to study it. As soon as he crushed it, a new constructable building, "Watchtower," appeared in his Perpetual Night Lord panel, requiring only 10 Eerie Stones to build.
He currently had 130 Eerie Stones.
The next moment—
The ethereal form of a ten-meter-tall, narrow tower, composed of countless white lines, floated in the air. As the 10 Eerie Stones in his palm shattered and transformed into a milky-white liquid that flowed into it...
The shape of the tower gradually solidified and stood next to the wooden hut inside the city walls.
Its base was only one meter wide and long.
Wider at the bottom, narrower at the top.
At its peak was embedded something resembling a luminous pearl.
The moment the "Watchtower" solidified, the field of vision instantly expanded. Outside the camp's perimeter, which had been shrouded in absolute darkness as deep as an abyss, a 50-meter radius turned from pitch black to a pale gray.
Outside the 50-meter range, the darkness remained impenetrable.
He could clearly see, within the pale gray mist, hundreds of Eerie Creatures moving in groups, swiftly passing by their camp and heading deeper into the darkness, like a great animal migration.
They flashed by.
It was hard to see clearly.
But...
Four bamboo-pole Eerie Creatures were carrying a crimson sedan chair. They didn't join the great migration but instead stood fixed about thirty meters from the camp, surrounded by roughly a hundred other Eerie Creatures.
Three types in total.
Bamboo-pole Eerie Creatures and Mantis Eerie Creatures.
The names were his own inventions. The third type was the monkey-headed Eerie Creature he had encountered initially, and they were the fewest.
Among this group of Eerie Creatures, one bamboo-pole Eerie Creature and one Mantis Eerie Creature were noticeably larger than their kind.
"..."
Standing on the wall-walk, Chen Fan took a deep breath and gazed into the gray mist outside the light of the Eerie Fire. The watchtower provided him with more information; the 50-meter field of vision was undeniably helpful.
He finally understood what was happening.
Most likely...
The two larger Eerie Creatures were underbosses. The reason for the low number of monkey-headed Eerie Creatures was that he had killed many of them. And the absence of a underboss among the monkey-headed Eerie Creatures was because he had already killed it.
Upon its death, it had contributed two Extraordinary Treasures: "Eerie Stone Vein Seed" and "God-Slaying Spear."
Inside the sedan chair was likely the one who had laughed earlier. It had come seeking revenge after discovering its subordinate's death.
Fortunately...
A glimmer of relief crossed his mind. The watchtower allowed him to see how many Eerie Creatures were passing his camp. If all of them had charged into his camp recklessly, he would have been doomed!
There was no way to defend against them.
Only this band of Eerie Creatures was biding their time outside the camp, while others moved past and ignored the place, as if in a frantic hurry.
Two Level 2 Archery Towers were definitely not enough.
Back then, the two Level 2 Archery Towers hadn't been able to kill the monkey-headed Eerie Creature leader on the spot. It had escaped the camp and bled to death dozens of meters away. Now, there were two such leaders and an even more formidable boss.
Level 2 Archery Towers were inadequate.
He needed Level 3 Archery Towers.
Fortunately, he had saved enough Eerie Stones to upgrade the Archery Towers.