Chapter 136 - 110: "Throw One Punch to Avoid a Hundred
Chapter 136: Chapter 110: "Throw One Punch to Avoid a Hundred
The Mortal Realm wanted a seat at the table.
Under these circumstances, he deliberately cultivated the image of a young and impetuous leader for the outside world. Killing the Young Master of the Pill Sect one day and attacking the Pill Sect the next perfectly fit this persona.
He had no choice.
His foundations were still shallow. If one person provoked him today and another tomorrow, his resources would be quickly depleted. But if he cultivated the reputation of a madman—someone who, if provoked, would attack their enemies’ home base even at the cost of mutual destruction—then far fewer people would dare to cross him.
It was like the difference between an activated Night Watcher and an inactive one—the former was a much greater deterrent.
This battle had to be fought.
And it had to be a decisive victory, one that would make others fear the Mortal Realm.
After a long moment,
He finally spoke, his voice low. "Have everyone take inventory of our resources tonight, then get to sleep early."
"Yes."
...
The night was deep and silent.
Lame Monkey and the others were already asleep. Only Wang Kui was still busy in the Warehouse, conducting the final inventory.
Chen Fan looked down at his hands.
The Ghost King’s attack had yielded a great number of Ghost Stones and Exotic Treasures.
But the most valuable among them,
were the three dropped by the Ghost King that he now held, along with seven others he had sorted out.
-
「Exotic Treasure Name」: Ghost Eye.
「Exotic Treasure Level」: Green.
「Exotic Treasure Effect」: An essential material for upgrading an Arrow Tower to a Level 6 Cannon Tower. Holding this Exotic Treasure after Eternal Night falls grants ten meters of visibility in the darkness.
-
Right now, the strongest cannon towers in the camp were Level 5.
The two Level 6 Cannon Towers had been utterly destroyed by the Ghost King. One of them had even been a Level 6 Ghost Eye Cannon Tower with a "Rare Direction of Qualitative Upgrade," which was a real shame.
But fortunately,
seven Ghost Eyes had dropped, enough to build seven more Level 6 Cannon Towers.
’I’ll install all of them on the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage.’
’It would be a bit of a waste.’
’But the reality wasn’t as optimistic as he’d let on to Lame Monkey. How could a major power that had been developing for so long not have a few trump cards? To be safe, he had to bring everything he had.’
’As long as I can open up the trade route.’
’After the rainy season in Jiangnan ends, my ability to see the panel will allow me to continuously purchase large quantities of Ghost Eyes or other materials needed for Level 6 Cannon Towers.’
The remaining three Exotic Treasures had all been dropped by the Ghost King.
-
「Exotic Treasure Name」: Port.
「Exotic Treasure Level」: Green.
「Exotic Treasure Effect」: A Building Blueprint for constructing a port on a coastline to allow ships to dock.
-
’I can’t use this for now.’
But—
’—it might be useful later. Perhaps I could trade with factions across the sea. So far, I haven’t seen any faction that has ships.’
’Assuming there are any factions over there.’
’Then again, I have no idea how a ship would handle the darkness. It sounds like a free meal for the Ghost Objects in the sea.’
-
「Exotic Treasure Name」: Celestial Derivation Sand Table.
「Exotic Treasure Level」: Green.
「Exotic Treasure Effect」: Can consume multiple Ghost Maps to gain the effects of all consumed maps. Can display the real-time life-or-death status of faction members holding Tokens. Can be connected to other buildings.
-
This was a large-scale map.
A more advanced version of the Ghost Map.
The Jiangbei Ghost Map became ineffective upon entering Jiangnan territory, its surface shrouded in a hazy fog. The same was true for the Jiangnan Ghost Map when taken into Jiangbei.
While in Jiangnan, one couldn’t see any changes on the Jiangbei Ghost Map.
But with the Celestial Derivation Sand Table, he could stay in Jiangbei and view the Jiangnan Ghost Map in real-time. A decent Exotic Treasure.
On top of that—
The Shadow Array could also be linked to the Celestial Derivation Sand Table.
This meant he no longer had to check for creatures entering his Shadow Array’s range through the Eternal Night Lord Panel deep within his soul.
The view from the Shadow Array would appear directly on the Celestial Derivation Sand Table.
There was no need for him to constantly monitor the Eternal Night Lord Panel.
"..."
He gazed at the pocket-sized Sand Table in his hand. He could vaguely make out several white dots representing the range of his Shadow Arrays. The Sand Table could change size at will.
’As long as I build enough Shadow Arrays and have someone constantly monitoring them, it will be incredibly difficult for any Assassin to infiltrate my territory.’
’This is a huge undertaking.’
’Right now, the camp’s construction during the rainy season is focused entirely on defenses, with almost no quality-of-life projects. After this is all over, I’ll need to find a batch of workers to build up my rear support area.’
’There will be so much to do.’
But...
’But whether or not I can do any of it in peace depends on the destruction of the Pill Sect.’
The final Exotic Treasure was...
-
「Exotic Treasure Name」: Observatory.
「Exotic Treasure Level」: Yellow.
「Exotic Treasure Effect」: Blueprint for a Wonder. Must be built on high ground. Can observe the movements of the Ghost Tide over a large area. Requires killing a Ghost King within the faction’s territory to meet the construction requirements.
-
This was the first Wonder he had ever obtained a blueprint for.
It was also the first time he’d even heard of the concept.
Just then—
Wang Kui walked out of the Warehouse and looked up at Chen Fan, who was sitting on the City Wall. "Domain Lord, the resources have all been tallied."
...
「Inside Warehouse #1.」
Wang Kui reported, holding a bamboo scroll he had brought from the Archives Room.
"A total of seventeen factions came to offer their congratulations. Most of them are major, well-known powers."
"Mm."
Chen Fan nodded slightly. ’That’s normal. The waystations in the Wilderness haven’t been rebuilt yet. Only factions with significant power could make a round trip within a single day.’
’You’d need a Skeleton Horse to do it.’
"The gifts of Ghost Stones total 92,700. Including the reward for killing the Ghost King and other sources, the camp’s current total is 112,300 Ghost Stones."
"Medicine King Valley sent the most: ten thousand Ghost Stones."
"The Hill and Valley Royal Family was second, with 9,832 Ghost Stones."
"In third place..."
"Tell me who gave the least."
"The Jiangbei Commerce Association gave the least. Three thousand Ghost Stones and nothing else."
"Haaa..."
Chen Fan exhaled slowly, his expression calm and silent. ’That’s quite a haul,’ he thought. But what surprised him was the Hill and Valley Royal Family.
"The Hill and Valley Royal Family sent 9,832 Ghost Stones?"
"Yes, and that’s not all. Besides the Ghost Stones, they also sent seventeen unopened white-level Exotic Treasures, eleven opened white-level Exotic Treasures, two unopened green-level Exotic Treasures, one opened green-level Exotic Treasure, and two Building Blueprints. All have been placed in the warehouse."
"..."
After a moment’s pause, Chen Fan suddenly laughed. "So decisive?"
He’d seen plenty of people cut their losses to survive.
His own retreat from the old camp had been a similar calculation.
But he had never seen anyone cut things off so cleanly. This was basically the entire fortune of the Hill and Valley Royal Family. To put it bluntly, Patriarch Wang’s family would instantly go from a life of luxury to that of commoners.
In a way, it also spoke volumes about Patriarch Wang’s authority within his family.
"Bring those Exotic Treasures out. I want to take a look."
...
Aside from the Hill and Valley Royal Family, the Exotic Treasures sent by the other factions were almost all unopened.
Although it was hard to judge the exact value of an unopened Exotic Treasure, you could still get a sense from its appearance.
According to the unwritten rules of the world, the value, from highest to lowest, was generally as follows:
「Blueprint > Token > Array Plate > Weapon > Seed > Other」.
Even if unopened, a Blueprint was most likely a Building Blueprint and was guaranteed to be valuable.
Token-type Exotic Treasures also had a high chance of being good, like the Clear Wind Array that had been embedded in the Ghost Fire.
Seed-type Treasures were easy to identify—a bunch of seeds wrapped in a membrane. They were rarely anything special.
As for the ’Other’ category...
...this was the hardest category to judge. They came in all sorts of bizarre shapes, like miniature towers or fans. Ninety-nine percent of them were junk, but that remaining one percent could contain a real jackpot.
This also made them the best-selling type in the Marketplace.
Many Loose Cultivators were willing to take a gamble.
If they got lucky, it was like trading a bicycle for a motorcycle.
Some of the factions had included Exotic Treasures with their Ghost Stones, but—as if by agreement—they had all sent Seed-type Treasures. He checked their panels one by one, but none of them were particularly outstanding.
Then again, it was rare for Seed-type Treasures to be anything special.
Furthermore, one could usually guess what kind of Seed-type Treasure it was just from the color and type of seeds. The ones these people had given him were clearly just carefully selected, ordinary Seed-type Treasures.