Chapter 420 - 177: Ruling the World, Ghost Tide Landing

Chapter 420: Chapter 177: Ruling the World, Ghost Tide Landing

The current date was the end of October, in the year 382 of the Eternal Night Calendar.

The rainy season was only a few days away. This year, it would be no ordinary rainy season. It would be the moment the aura of that being dissipated, the moment the Undersea Ghost Tide would make landfall.

The 170-kilometer-long Jiangbei Defense Line stood tall along the Jiangbei Coastline. Many Mortal Realm Members were bustling about, making final preparations for the coming Ghost Tide.

"Four years."

"It’s been four years."

Chen Fan let out a long breath of white mist. The air was growing colder, and a bit earlier in the season than usual. It had been over four years since he first arrived in this world.

Four years ago, he had learned that the Undersea Ghost Tide was about to make landfall.

He had spent these past four years preparing for this very moment.

Now...

that moment had finally arrived.

The entire Mortal Realm had mobilized, everyone working together for the sake of this one battle.

"Domain Lord."

Wang Kui strode to Chen Fan’s side and glanced down at the notebook in his hand. "I just had someone check," he reported. "All turrets and Soul-Devouring Sculptures on the Jiangbei Defense Line are in their designated positions. Nothing is damaged."

"We also have one hundred backup Soul-Devouring Sculptures in the rear, ready to be deployed as replacements at a moment’s notice."

"In addition—"

"Far behind Nameless Mountain, all 200 altars are operational and can provide sufficient repairs for the Jiangbei Defense Line."

"Furthermore, the Mortal Realm’s reserves have reached 7.8 billion Ghost Stones."

"Mm."

Chen Fan gave a slight nod. ’The Mortal Realm’s reserves wouldn’t normally be this high,’ he thought. ’Just mining the New Continent, we could never have gathered this many Ghost Stones in a single year.’

But after receiving the "Ruling the World" reward, the Ghost Ore that spawned naturally as a result generated over three billion Ghost Stones for them in just one year.

’We’ve already made back our investment.’

’Broke even in a single year.’

’Everything from here on out is pure profit.’

Of course.

The "Ruling the World" reward would cause Ghost Ore to spawn continuously on the New Continent for the next three years. They hadn’t mined all of this year’s lode, having only excavated a small portion.

The main reason was a shortage of manpower for mining.

The Mortal Realm had originally planned to recruit more unofficial members.

But...

After the Golden Rain ended, they discovered that only those who had been bathed in it could reach the New Continent. Others couldn’t even enter via the Undersea Tunnel, let alone go there to mine.

A massive Ghost Fire shield had completely sealed off the New Continent.

It didn’t just repel Ghost Object invasions.

It also prevented anyone else from landing.

Upon discovering this, Chen Fan had a good idea of the reason. The New Continent would produce countless Ghost Ores over the next three years thanks to the "Ruling the World" reward. This shield was likely a form of protection to prevent that reward from being snatched away.

’Progress might be a bit slow,’

’but with a hundred thousand unofficial Mortal Realm Members on the New Continent, it couldn’t be that slow. They still managed to produce several billion Ghost Stones in a year.’

It was a recovery reward for an entire continent, and the Mortal Realm had exclusive rights to it.

’It’s almost more than we can handle.’

"There’s one more thing—"

Wang Kui continued his report, "The Jiangbei Defense Line is 170 kilometers long. We’ll need a huge number of people if we want to go out and collect Ghost Corpses and mine Ghost Stones after fending off the Ghost Tide each night, just like we did at the No. 7 Defense Line."

"But we just don’t have the manpower."

"If we’re going to recruit a large number of unofficial Mortal Realm Members..."

Before Wang Kui could finish,

Chen Fan cut him off. "No need to recruit. Send out a notice. Have all the powers from the Four Areas Jiangbei and the Guanxi Plain send personnel to support us. They’ll be mainly responsible for partial logistics and post-battle collection."

"Since they aren’t our people, won’t there be..." Wang Kui trailed off, hesitant.

"No."

Chen Fan shook his head. "Have the leader of each power personally manage and supervise their own people. If anything goes wrong, we’ll hold the leaders accountable. Supervision and Management are what they do on a daily basis; it’s what they’re good at."

"This will greatly reduce the chances of things like people pocketing Ghost Stones."

"Go on."

"Understood."

Chen Fan watched Wang Kui’s retreating figure. He placed his hands on the battlements of the Jiangbei Defense Line, let out a long sigh, and focused his will.

Hundreds of millions of Ghost Stones stored in the Mortal Realm Warehouse suddenly shattered in unison, transforming into a milky-white liquid that surged through the Copper Pipes toward the Jiangbei Defense Line.

Section after section of the Jiangbei Defense Line began to light up in succession, like a row of falling dominoes.

The City Walls began to rise, one after another!

Empowered by 850 million Ghost Stones, the Jiangbei Defense Line’s uniform Level 5 City Walls all rose in unison to Level 6!

Panels began to pop up continuously before his eyes.

-

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

[Please select an Upgrade Direction.] ℯ

[1: The City Wall can self-destruct, unleashing 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 probability of receiving reflected damage.]

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

-

He swiped through the panels one by one, uniformly selecting the third option for every section.

Occasionally, a Direction of Qualitative Upgrade would pop up.

But they were all useless.

If one of those happened to appear as the third option, he would have to demolish that section of the City Wall and rebuild a new Level 6 City Wall to plug the gap.

Any Direction of Qualitative Upgrade that only affected a single section of the wall, rather than all connectable sections, was useless to him.

Before long— 𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ

Under the light of the setting sun, the brand-new Jiangbei Defense Line stood tall along the Jiangbei Coastline.

A uniform wall, now entirely Level 6.