I Build a Shelter in the Eternal Night

All he had to do was tear down the randomly flawed City Walls and rebuild them.

But the cost...

It was astronomically high.

The cost for others to build and upgrade City Walls was much higher than his. Even if they bankrupted the entire Guanxi Plain with such an endeavor, they still couldn’t create a 170-kilometer no-fly barrier.

But he could.

"..."

Chen Fan suddenly started to laugh. According to the scenes from the Ancient Battlefield recorded in the Jade Scroll, when the Undersea Ghost Tide made landfall, many Ghost Objects were swept up by waves and smashed against the City Wall. A smaller number were carried by the waves right over the City Wall, wreaking havoc on the rear lines.

The Undersea Ghost Tide didn’t have any flying Ghost Objects.

But the Anti-Aircraft Cannons on the City Wall were meant to deal with those Ghost Objects that were swept over the wall by the waves.

Their effectiveness wasn’t particularly great.

But if his Jiangbei Defense Line was uniformly Level 5, and supplemented with a large number of Level 10 Godslaying Cannons, it would no longer be a defense line. It would be a slaughterhouse he had cordoned off with a wall.

How many Ghost Stones and Exotic Treasures would that bring in?

How many Celestial Dao Blessings?

He couldn’t help but grin just thinking about it.

Of course.

The prerequisite was that he could save up enough Ghost Stones in these four years. The task was monumental, and the journey was long. His methods for acquiring wealth would have to be a little more... unrestrained. He’d just have to think of it as a protection fee for holding the Jiangbei Defense Line for all those other factions.

He didn’t actually know what a Celestial Dao Blessing specifically was. It might have a life-extending effect, or it could be something like a High Grade Building Blueprint. But he knew it was definitely something good. Otherwise, even *that person* wouldn’t have wanted one. Could something a figure of that caliber desired be anything less than amazing?

"Continue upgrading!"

Full of enthusiasm, Chen Fan spent another 5,000 Ghost Stones to raise this section of the City Wall to Level 6.

Another panel popped up before him.

-

[The City Wall has been upgraded to Level 6. Durability increased.]

[Please select an Upgrade Direction.]

[1: The City Wall can self-destruct, releasing immense power. The power is determined by the City Wall’s durability and Level.]

[2: Enemies attacking the City Wall at close range have a low chance of having a portion of the damage reflected back at them.]

[3: Enemies attacking the City Wall from a distance will deal reduced damage to it.]

-

All three directions were pretty good.

He rejected the first one immediately. Although, if he chose this effect for every meter of the wall, the sight of the 170-kilometer-long Jiangbei Defense Line exploding all at once would certainly be spectacular.

But—

He didn’t want to see that day come.

This 170-kilometer Jiangbei Defense Line was something he was going to pour his life into building over the next four years. If it suddenly blew up, he’d be so heartbroken he’d want to hang himself.

It was best not to choose it at all.

If he didn’t choose it, he couldn’t use it.

Once he chose it, he’d always have this feeling that a day would come when he’d have to use it.

It was just like Big Fish.

The Mortal Realm didn’t actually lack Night Watchers, but Big Fish always felt that as a Night Watcher, his primary mission was to "activate." He constantly felt that he needed to be ready to activate for the sake of the Mortal Realm at any moment. That was the problem, and Chen Fan couldn’t really say anything about it.

’Once you have it, you’re always tempted to use it.’

The second option was also unnecessary.

He had the "Thorn Armor" Direction of Qualitative Upgrade, which was better than the second option. It could reflect a portion of not only melee damage, but ranged damage as well.

That only left the third option.

After settling on the third direction,

He then looked at the panel and heaved a long sigh. The thing he had worried about most had happened.

Upgrading the City Wall from Level 6 to Level 7 required 7,000 Ghost Stones, as well as one of any of the Heavenly and Earthly Treasures like the "Monkey Head Fruit" or "Earth Core Fruit."

The Ghost Stones were one thing.

But just looking at the names of those Heavenly and Earthly Treasures gave him a headache.

The Jiangbei Defense Line was 170 kilometers long, which was 170,000 meters. This meant that every single meter of the wall would need one to upgrade, which was equivalent to needing 170,000 Monkey Head Fruits. You probably couldn’t find that many Monkey Head Fruits unless you went to Huaguo Mountain itself.

’Those are Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, man.’

’You think I’m buying cabbages?’

Buying them 170,000 at a time?

Nobody buys cabbage like that either.

However, he didn’t need to worry about it in the short term.

There was no way he could afford to build a 170-kilometer-long, Level 7 City Wall within ten years. That would be the death of him.

...

「After all that was done.」

Chen Fan finally let out a long sigh of relief. This one-meter section of City Wall, which possessed the "Great Wall" Legendary Mutation Upgrade Direction, had now been raised to Level 6, far higher than the Level of the other walls. He was safe for now.

As long as the Ghost Fire wasn’t extinguished, this City Wall could not be destroyed.

He was actually very tempted to test the Level 10 Godslaying Cannon against the Level 6 City Wall.

To see which was stronger.

The former was a higher Level and Green Level quality.

The latter was a lower Level and only White Level quality.

But a City Wall’s defense inherently increased faster than a cannon’s, so it was hard to say which was tougher.

Any person who was holding a spear and a shield would inevitably want to clash them together to see which was tougher.

Of course, thinking about it was one thing, but he would never actually perform the experiment.

He couldn’t bear to waste his Level 6 City Wall like that. If he somehow managed to ruin the Legendary Mutation, it would be game over.

「Then—」

He squatted down, picked up a stick, and started doing arithmetic in the dust on the ground, muttering to himself.

"Building one meter of City Wall costs 10 Ghost Stones. Upgrading to Level 2 requires 50, to Level 3 requires 500, and to Level 4 requires 1,000."

"The total cost for one meter of a Level 4 City Wall is 1,560 Ghost Stones."

"The Jiangbei Defense Line is 170 kilometers long."

"So the total cost is..."

"265 million Ghost Stones."

"One Level 10 Godslaying Cannon costs 37,800 Ghost Stones. For 170,000 meters, placing one every 100 meters... it’s a heavy-duty weapon, so one should be enough for that distance, meant to deal with the big guys in the Ghost Tide."

"That means I’ll need 1,700 Level 10 Godslaying Cannons."

"That’s 64 million Ghost Stones."

"Added together, that’s 329 million Ghost Stones."

"Adding in some basic expenses like Low Level cannons, Ghost Fire, Copper Pipes, and the Ghost Stones consumed by the cannons... a budget of 400 million Ghost Stones should definitely be enough."