I built a safe house in the eerie night.

Jiang Ning stopped trying to persuade him.

Having someone to face the darkness with is certainly much easier than facing it alone, especially since these people are all capable and mentally stronger than others.

He refocused his attention on the defensive line.

This second wave of strange tides is indeed fierce, and the sheer number of them creates immense pressure.

If the three arrow towers hadn't been upgraded to Tier 2 to improve accuracy, damage, and rate of fire, the defensive line might have been in grave danger during the most ferocious phase of the attack.

Although the newly appeared "Bag-Headed Ghost" and "Abdominal-Walking Ghost" are only unranked ghosts, Jiang Ning observed through the Ghost Observation Platform that their health bars are significantly thicker.

The ordinary arrows from a Tier 1 arrow tower can sometimes only make them stagger backward, not kill them in one hit, and they need to be finished off.

Only purple arrows from a Tier 2 arrow tower, or consecutive hits, can cleanly and instantly kill it.

Fortunately, their numbers are relatively small and they do not pose a real breakthrough threat.

After nearly half an hour of fierce fighting, most of the main vanguard of this second wave of monsters had become mountains of corpses outside the village.

Only a few dozen or twenty eerie creatures were still stumbling out of the darkness, but they quickly perished under the precise shots of the arrow towers.

Jiang Ning leaned closer to the observation device and looked out at the distant mountains and fields.

The roars had thinned out somewhat, but shadowy silhouettes still lingered in the darkness.

"Is this second wave not over yet?" Jiang Ning muttered to himself, his brows still furrowed.

"Could there be a third wave...?"

Wang Fu chimed in cautiously, "Young Master, in my opinion, these newly emerged monsters like the 'Bag-Headed Monster' and the 'Bellied Monster' are unlikely to reappear in large numbers in the short term."

"Further impacts are likely, primarily from 'spirits and monsters' and 'wandering ghosts.'"

"Mm." Jiang Ning nodded.

The emergence and actions of the bizarre seem to follow some elusive pattern. Humanity has fought against the bizarre for a long time, but has not been able to fully understand the nature of this terrifying race.

At this moment, a faint voice rang out from below the observation platform, sounding clear in the brief lull of the battle cries:

"Young Master... about half of the ashes from the three central arrow towers remain... less from the two on the sides..."

Jiang Ning was slightly taken aback and looked in the direction of the sound.

After everyone else had retreated back into the house, Zhou Lei was left alone in the open space below the stage.

His thin body trembled slightly in the night wind, his face was as pale as paper, and his hands were tightly clenched together, clearly still in fear.

However, he did not back down. Instead, he raised his head and tried his best to report what he had observed to Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning then remembered that he had casually mentioned to him during the day that he should keep an eye on the ammunition reserves, and had also called him the ammunition captain. He didn't expect the kid to take it so seriously and be so brave, sticking to his duty even at a time like this.

This kid has been overcoming his fears.

This kind of mindset is truly commendable.

Jiang Ning smiled and waved to Zhou Lei.

Zhou Lei was clearly stunned for a moment, and seemed somewhat at a loss.

When he saw Jiang Ning's encouraging look, and the affirming glances from Yu Niu, Er Hu, Xiong Meng, and other familiar faces on the stage, he felt a surge of joy.

He finally mustered his courage and, using both hands and feet, somewhat clumsily climbed the wooden ladder of the viewing platform.

When he finally stood on the five-meter-high platform, the cold night wind became even stronger.

The terrifying scene outside the village, with its mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the pervasive eerie atmosphere, also assaulted his senses without reservation.

His thin body trembled, and he instinctively tried to shrink back.

But the next moment, as if fighting against something, he suddenly and briefly opened his arms, then quickly hugged himself tightly, lowered his head deeply, and said to Jiang Ning in a barely audible voice:

"Thank you... Young Master Jiang..."

This simple thank you contains so much.

There was excitement at being recognized, and even more so, gratitude at finally being able to stand up a little higher.

Jiang Ning smiled and patted his thin shoulder lightly, without saying much encouragement, but the meaning was clear.

Thus, only the six of them remained outside the village.

Just as Wang Fu had predicted, the most intense phase of the second wave of strange tides had passed.

The number of "Nangtougui" and "Fuxinggui" that subsequently arrived decreased sharply.

Only the main force from the first two nights remained, the "spirits and monsters" and the "wandering monsters," still charging sporadically at the tireless zombies.

However, their numbers and density were much lower than before, and they were quickly wiped out under the continuous volleys of arrows from the towers.

Jiangning monitored the entire process using the observation platform.

Even though some shadowy figures still lingered in the distant mountains, they were far less numerous than before.

Looking outside the village, the corpses outside the defensive line were piled up like mountains, almost as high as the bone fences and barricades.

Many fragmented and bizarre remains of flesh and blood hung from the top of the barricades, drooping down to the village side, emitting an extremely strong stench.

But ultimately, they couldn't cross that death line forged from steel thorns.

The altar's almost non-existent protection, at the last moment, provided a small boost to the defenses, mitigating the strange impact.

Nearly an hour later, a wandering spirit attempting to climb over the pile of corpses was suddenly impaled on the hillside by a purple arrow.

The roars in the wilderness gradually subsided.

The second wave of the strange tide finally stopped after nearly two hours of violent onslaught.

The air was filled with a nauseating, putrid stench, which the night wind dispersed, spreading throughout the valley and even seeping into the tightly closed houses behind it.

The villagers inside smelled it, and although they felt nauseous and frightened, their previous fears miraculously faded a lot.

They clearly saw that the village was actually killing those ghostly things and firmly blocking them from entering the village.

Their house was no longer subjected to the eerie scratching and slapping that night, nor were there any of those strange, harassing sounds that followed like shadows and whispers in their ears.

That extreme state of fear, where one must be constantly on edge, afraid to even sleep deeply for fear of revealing the slightest weakness...

It also disappeared.

Because outside, someone is keeping watch over the night for them.

The children fell into a deep sleep, enveloped in an unprecedented sense of security.

Many men, though still keeping their eyes open, had achieved a long-lost state of relaxation.

Jiang Ning looked up at the sky.

Sometime later, the thick dark clouds dispersed a little, but the stars and moon were still nowhere to be seen. Only the pale, dim light of the sky barely painted a faint glow on this dark land.

It's already... midnight.

Jiang Ning murmured.

In the first half of the night, it endured the two most intense waves of the strange tide.

If we can just get through the second half of the night, we can safely pass through this penultimate night before the altar goes out.

He exhaled heavily, feeling somewhat exhausted.

Looking to the side, Wang Fu, Xiong Meng, and the others beside him also showed obvious signs of fatigue.

They had worked hard all day and remained under constant tension throughout the night. Even with the resilience honed by their life in the mountains, they were starting to feel the strain.

"You guys go back and rest first, I'll keep an eye on things a bit longer," Jiang Ning said gently.

However, no one moved.

Wang Fu shook his head, Xiong Meng stood even more firmly in silence, and Yu Niu and Er Hu showed their determination to stand firm to the end tonight.

Zhou Lei noticed his body was trembling slightly and tried his best to straighten his back.

Seeing this, Jiang Ning said no more.

He looked again at the observation equipment on the observation platform.

The third wave of strange tides has yet to appear.

In the distance, only scattered, indistinct shadows moved slowly across the mountains and fields, seemingly without a clear target.

"Perhaps there won't be any more major shocks tonight?"

Jiang Ning had his own guesses, but a lingering unease prevented him from completely letting his guard down.

At this moment, through his magnified field of vision, he saw a strange scene at the edge of the distant mountains and forests.

A "belly-walking monster" that had been pierced by an arrow and had barely survived was now dragging its broken body, using the remaining strength in its abdomen to wriggle and crawl away from the village in the darkness.

Its appearance at this moment no longer showed any of the terror it had during the attack; only its desperate survival instinct remained.

"These things... if you say they have brains, they only know how to charge blindly; if you say they don't have brains, some of them, after being seriously injured, still know to run away and survive..."

Jiang Ning frowned, puzzled by the inanimate object.

"Perhaps they are just a very small number of outliers; most are still crazy and lack intelligence."

Seeing that the crippled belly monster had already wriggled out of its territory and out of the range of the arrow tower.

Jiang Ning shook his head, no longer paying attention, and prepared to look away.

"Oh well, I'm lucky to be alive. I'll just have run away..."

But just as he was about to look away,

"puff!"

The sound was very soft, but under the magnification of the observation device, it became an incredibly clear muffled thud.

The monstrous creature that had just crawled out and was still struggling to move suddenly had its remaining half of its head burst open like a watermelon without any warning.

Black blood mixed with an unidentified viscous fluid splattered all over the ground. The mutilated body twitched twice before becoming completely still.

It died suddenly and mysteriously in the dark wilderness far from the village.

He was not killed by arrows.

It's not necessarily because it was attacked by its own kind.

It was more like... some unseen, terrifying force that instantly ended it after it left the battlefield!