After a long journey, the tricycle slowly came to a stop beside the old camp.

"..."

Chen Fan stared at the Ghost Corpses scattered within the camp before him, his expression complex as he remained silent for a long time. This familiar camp held many of his memories.

Last night.

The old camp had been attacked by Ghost Objects.

There weren’t too many—just thirty or forty of them, all Monkey Head Ghosts. They hadn’t caused any damage to the camp.

His main purpose for this trip was to "lay the road."

He hadn’t needed to come to the old camp. When he left yesterday, he had already laid a ten-thousand-meter path with Copper Pipes and only needed to continue along that same route. But, since it was his first day away, he still wanted to come back and check on it.

"Just take the Ghost Stones."

He looked at Lame Monkey, who was untying the ropes to move the corpses, and shook his head. "I just wanted to take a look. Once the path is connected today, we can set up the Clear Wind Array. Travel will be much faster then. We can have Zhou Mo and the others come back to transport the corpses to the rear base later."

They didn’t have a flatbed cart with them, so they couldn’t take the corpses. Forcing it would only slow them down.

The Clear Wind Array was an Exotic Treasure obtained from killing the Mourning Ghost leader.

When placed inside a Ghost Fire, it could cover the camp area with a light breeze, slightly increasing movement speed.

"Let’s go."

...

They returned to the ten-thousand-meter endpoint of the path laid the previous day.

The tricycle drove slowly across the Wilderness.

Like a worker on an assembly line, Chen Fan placed one Copper Pipe after another beneath the Wilderness soil. It wasn’t a job that required skill, just a bit tiring, demanding constant, mechanical repetition.

Finally—

The tricycle slowly entered the canyon.

The Copper Pipes were laid through the canyon and into the village.

Now, all he needed to do was build another Ghost Fire to connect the two camps.

"Stationmaster."

Zhou Mo ran over, panting. "We’ve basically leveled everything. Are we going to build the new camp here?"

"..."

Chen Fan stood on the ground and looked at the surrounding village, which had been razed flat. He shook his head. "No."

Then, in one go, he upgraded the Level 3 Arrow Tower he had built on the bunker last night to a Level 5 Cannon Tower.

It consumed 400 Ghost Stones.

Upgrading to a Level 5 Cannon Tower required meeting the following two conditions.

-

「1: Consume 300 Ghost Stones.」

「2: Consume one of the following: Mourning Lantern x1, Ghost Eye x1, Octagonal Snail x1...」

-

There were 27 options in total.

Consuming any one of them, plus 300 Ghost Stones, would allow the upgrade to a Level 5 Cannon Tower.

He, of course, chose the Mourning Lantern.

After upgrading to the Level 5 Cannon Tower.

Not much had changed in its appearance.

Like the Arrow Fortress, it was still a cube of brown stone bricks, one meter in length and width. One side had a "rectangular opening" where a gleaming Crossbow Mechanism had once been embedded.

Now, however, it had become... a white paper lantern.

It looked, at least, completely non-threatening.

-

「The Arrow Tower has been upgraded to Level 5, becoming a ’Cannon Tower.’ It must be placed in a fixed position and cannot be moved easily. Its power is enhanced.」

「Please select an Upgrade Direction.」

「1: Increase Rate of Fire.」

「2: Increase Power.」

「3: Reduce Energy Consumption.」

-

He chose the second Upgrade Direction, increasing its power. What he needed most right now was sufficient power.

He tapped the back of the Cannon Tower, revealing a slot, and inserted ten Level 2 Ghost Stones.

The next moment—

The white lantern inside the opening flashed with a white light.

"BOOM!"

The instant the Cannon Tower activated, a milky-white beam of light as thick as a forearm shot out from the opening. It directly struck the cliff face opposite the canyon entrance, creating a tremendous explosion that sent stone dust flying into the air.

The beam lasted for one second, generating continuous explosions during that time.

It paused for several seconds after each shot.

Beam after beam of white light slammed into the cliff face.

He was going to carve a cavern into the mountainside to serve as his main rear base.

...

About ten minutes later.

"..."

Chen Fan stood there, his face expressionless.

The power of the Level 5 Cannon Tower was greater than he had imagined. Compared to the Level 4 Arrow Fortress, it was a qualitative leap.

But...

...the mountain was also tougher than he had expected. He even suspected it might be harder than a Level 1 City Wall. After a full ten minutes of bombardment, it had only managed to blast a shallow crater into the cliff face.

’At this rate, digging out a whole cavern will take forever.’

’Still, its toughness is a good thing.’

He wasn’t displeased. Its toughness meant that the natural barrier for his rear base would be more secure. It would just make the initial pioneering phase more difficult.

The Cannon Tower couldn’t be moved and repositioned.

This one, placed on the bunker, was now permanently fixed there. Therefore, he wouldn’t build too many Cannon Towers just for excavating the cavern, to avoid wasting resources.

...

Another hour passed.

The relentless bombardment never stopped.

The rough shape of the cavern had been carved out.

On his command, the Cannon Tower ceased its attack.

Zhou Mo and his men, holding tools, were quickly clearing away the rubble and dirt in front of the cavern’s rough entrance.

A rough cavern, five meters high, twenty meters wide, and three meters deep.

The next step was to build a City Wall. Once the wall was up, he could place Cannon Towers on it, which would speed up the excavation while ensuring the towers weren’t wasted by being fixed in place.

"..."

Chen Fan crushed a Ghost Stone in his hand.

A phantom image of a City Wall, composed of white lines, appeared before him. He slowly moved the phantom wall, aligning it with the mouth of the rough cavern.

"Hm?"

A trace of surprise flickered in his eyes.

A Cannon Tower wasn’t a precision construction tool, after all. He couldn’t possibly have excavated a perfectly twenty-meter-wide opening. There were bound to be discrepancies, like 19.6 meters or 20.7 meters.

His original plan had been to use the Cannon Tower for fine-tuning, trimming away these inaccuracies.

He hadn’t expected this.

The City Wall could merge perfectly with the mountainside.

From the phantom image, he could tell the cavern he’d carved out was 20.4 meters wide. However, he didn’t need to expand the opening to 21 meters; the excess 0.4-meter section of the wall would automatically adapt to the mountainside.

Of course, that 0.4-meter section still cost the same as a full one-meter section of the City Wall.

’This is good, too.’

It saved him a lot of trouble.

Soon—

A twenty-meter-long City Wall was built at the entrance of the rough cavern, fitting almost perfectly.

The next moment!

Ten Level 5 Cannon Towers appeared in a neat row atop the City Wall.

Chen Fan glanced down at the Glowing Green Lantern in his possession, thought for a moment, and put it away. ’Using it to upgrade to a Level 6 Cannon Tower before I’ve used up the four free chances feels like a waste.’

The ten Level 5 Cannon Towers slowly swiveled, their rectangular openings aimed at the cavern’s interior.

At his command.

The relentless bombardment began anew.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM..."

Sounds like detonators used in mining exploded and echoed through the canyon. Rock dust rained down from the high cliffs, and the ground trembled faintly.

Flocks of birds burst from the mountain forests, swarming in the air.

’There are a surprising number of birds here.’

And thanks to the rain, there was very little dust. In a way, you could call it dust-free construction.