I built a safe house in the eerie night.

Xiong Meng followed the instructions, called over someone, and together they tied the collected gray jujubes with straw ropes and carried them back to the village.

The remaining few, including Yu Niu, continued to search carefully along the edge of the ravine at Jiang Ning's instruction.

Yu Niu was visibly stunned when Jiang Ning praised him. His dark, thin face was filled with excitement, and his eyes shone brightly. Then, he turned around and, like an ox, stubbornly plunged into the crevices of the rocks overgrown with withered grass, showing extra effort.

Jiang Ning carefully put the spirit stones in his hand away from his body.

He looked at the hunched figures busily working in the mountains and fields, and his thoughts grew even heavier.

If it can be developed, I will indeed need reliable manpower, and I can also provide them with the rare protection and order they need in this world.

But the worst thing is to collapse halfway through before it even gets going.

Although these villagers are refugees and seem docile, if they are truly faced with a life-or-death situation and resources are cut off, who can guarantee that they won't turn into hungry wolves that turn on them?

Loyalty and stability naturally require sufficient interests and power to maintain.

It's too early to think about these things now.

Jiang Ning put aside distractions; his immediate priority was to gather resources and survive the next few days before the altar collapsed.

They dared not stray too far from the village. Deep in the Changyin Mountains, the old forests were dense, and the gathering of yin energy bred an ominous presence. Perhaps in some shadowy place lurked something far beyond the level of the "Grey Tai Sui".

As time passed, the hazy sun climbed higher into the sky.

As noon approached, no further discoveries were made.

Jiang Ning waved to indicate that he was taking a break.

Xiong Meng returned to the village and quickly retrieved a coarse linen package.

Inside were several pieces of cut black sea cucumber meat, with a rough surface sprinkled with powder, probably a mixture of salt and grass seeds.

This is equivalent to cooking, barely removing some of the fishy smell and adding a minimum amount of saltiness.

Several villagers silently accepted the distribution, then casually squatted by the rocks or simply sat on the ground, bowing their heads and laboriously gnawing on the food.

The meat was tough and tasteless, but they didn't show much expression on their faces; they were already used to it.

Fires cannot be lit in the mountains; that's just how it is.

Xiong Meng handed the smallest, and best-looking, piece of Tai Sui meat to Jiang Ning: "Sir, please have some."

Jiang Ning took it, but the faint smell of decay made him lose his appetite.

He just looked at the people in front of him eating in silence, just to maintain their basic survival, and felt a little uneasy.

Having lived two lives, as a normal person from a peaceful era, such naked and blatant hardship still touches the heart with compassion.

He secretly imagined that if there were a future, he would make sure that those who followed him could at least eat a decent meal with peace of mind every time.

Without resting after the meal, the search continued until the sun began to set.

A weary figure appeared on the path at the village entrance; it was Wang Fu who had returned.

His steps were heavy, his face ashen, and his back was empty.

Jiang Ning waved and called out from afar.

Wang Fu approached, his voice hoarse, "Young Master, Qingniu Village... refuses to lend us any money. Their own inventory is only enough for one month, and besides..."

He paused, "They are a village under the jurisdiction of the Liu family, and they have always had some minor disagreements with our Jiang family."

Jiang Ning understood.

The various powerful families are intertwined, and friction among the lower-level villages is commonplace.

"Thank you for your hard work, Uncle Fu. Don't worry, I have a solution."

Wang Fu sighed and shook his head, his eyes filled with an unyielding stubbornness.

"No, young master, tomorrow... I'll cross the eastern mountain and go to ask around in the more distant villages. I've heard that several key routes in and out of Changyin Mountain seem to be blocked by something, and several villages are trapped in the mountains. The situation is bad, and many people are starting to panic..."

"Uncle Fu," Jiang Ning interrupted him, "believe me, you'll see."

As he spoke, he pointed to several villagers who were still bent over searching on the hillside not far away.

Wang Fu followed his finger and was taken aback at first, but then he understood what Jiang Ning was doing, and an expression of disbelief appeared on his wrinkled old face.

"This is... collecting strange remains? But these rare treasures require special talents or complicated rituals to activate, so we..."

He saw Jiang Ning's calm and confident face, and a startling thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Wang Fu's voice trembled slightly, "Young Master, you... could it be that you've awakened a talent?"

Jiang Ning nodded slowly: "Yes, 'Master Craftsman'."

"Heavens...Master Craftsman?!" Wang Fu gasped, his eyes widening in astonishment.

You must understand that in this world, those with special talents are already among the elite.

Common alchemists, talisman masters, and array masters—those who can process and transform extraordinary materials—are highly sought-after guests by various powerful families, holding prestigious positions.

But the "Master Craftsmen" are the true elites!

They can transform resources and blueprints into tangible buildings and defenses with a variety of magical effects.

Every family of any considerable size must have at least one master craftsman.

Those magnificent city walls and core buildings that sheltered the region could not be built by anyone but the most skilled craftsmen!

Wang Fu never expected that his young master, who had been weak and neglected since childhood, would awaken such a rare talent under such desperate circumstances, a talent that was enough to change his destiny!

After the initial shock, a surge of elation welled up inside me.

Looking at Jiang Ning's radiant face, the almost extinguished hope in his heart was rekindled.

"Good...good! That's great, young master!" Wang Fu was so excited that he was incoherent, and his back straightened up a bit.

"With the skills of a master craftsman, we... have hope!"

Faced with Wang Fu's barely suppressed surprise, Jiang Ning simply nodded calmly.

A flame naturally ignited in his heart, but he did not let this emotion cloud his judgment.

He looked up and gazed into the distance.

The sky in the mountains was gradually darkening, and the hazy light was quickly swallowed up by the even more somber shadows.

From the deep, dark forest in the distance, low, unintelligible hissing and rustling sounds began to rise and fall.

It's getting dark; they're coming.

The night is a world of eeriness, an ironclad rule that has been proven by the blood of humanity in this world for thousands of years.

After sunset, one must retreat to a place protected by an altar or similar barrier.

"It's getting late. Pack your things and head back to the village," Jiang Ning decisively ordered.

Today was a modest success: a low-grade spirit stone and a bunch of gray Tai Sui. Perhaps tomorrow I can explore the outer areas again.

But the real highlight is tonight.

They pinned their hopes on the "Devouring Flower," hoping to see a true glimmer of hope in hunting down the supernatural.

The group dragged their weary bodies back to the village.

Almost all the villagers had gathered in the village, and dozens of pairs of eyes looked over at them, their gazes filled with hope, fear, numbness, and a hint of inexplicable resentment.

The news that Wang Fu returned empty-handed obviously spread, which meant that the altar should be extinguished soon.

Many people wondered to themselves, if Jiang Ning hadn't been attacked and lost his "holy blood" while entering the mountains, would things have come to this?

However, they only dared to keep these thoughts to themselves, and no one dared to actually say them out loud.

Jiang Ning walked silently through a series of complex gazes until he returned to his wooden house.

He stopped, turned around, and faced the refugees struggling on the edge of despair. His voice was not loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly:

"I will do my best to ensure everyone survives, provided you trust me."

He simply said he believed it and felt there was no need to make grand promises in this situation; empty encouragement would be useless.

For those whose edges have been smoothed by hardship and who only value practicality, any flowery words seem pale.

The villagers remained largely silent, with only children and women showing helplessness in their eyes.

At that moment, a timid voice rang out:

"I...I believe in Young Master Jiang! Young Master Jiang is a capable man, a good man!"

It is Yu the Ox.

His dark face flushed red as he mustered his courage to utter those words.

The villagers looked at the unremarkable young man with surprise.

Jiang Ning looked on, somewhat surprised.

Just because I praised him, the boy's eyes lit up?

In the crowd, an elderly man with gray hair and a emaciated appearance spoke in a trembling, hoarse voice:

"Young Master Jiang, can we really survive? As long as we can live, even if... we have to continue doing hard labor in these mountains, we're willing..."

These words expressed what everyone was thinking.

The right to live in the city and the chance to escape this misery have become unattainable luxuries.

They just wanted to live. They had endured the hardships of the past two or three years, and there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. No one wanted to die in the darkness before dawn.

Jiang Ning looked at the pairs of eyes filled with despair yet still retaining hope, and felt a heavy heart, but he did not show any further emotion.

Let's get through tonight first.

He said only this one sentence, then turned and pushed open the door to go inside, leaving the bewildered villagers in the deepening twilight.

Outside, Xiong Meng sighed, stepped forward and said a few words of comfort in a low voice.

Jiang Ning sat on a simple stone bench inside the house, ignoring the sounds outside.

With a thought, he brought up the [Celestial Craftsman] panel, found the ["Devouring Flower"] section, and then silently recited:

"put up."

Almost at the same time he confirmed it, the resources marked "Black Tai Sui" and "Yin Wood" on the panel decreased by the corresponding amount.

Immediately afterwards, a few wisps of black smoke seemed to rise from the direction of the warehouse, only to vanish into thin air in an instant.

Before Jiang Ning, black smoke appeared out of thin air, rapidly swirling and condensing. In just a few breaths, a strange plant materialized.

It was pitch black all over, shaped like a magnified, ferocious man-eating flower. The thick petals had barbs along their edges, and the center was not a stamen, but a slightly open, dark mouth covered with spiraling teeth.

A putrid, sweet, and nauseating stench filled the air.

Jiangning held his breath to adapt.

This is precisely the "bait" that attracts low-level, eerie creatures.

He didn't stop; he chose to build again.

Another plume of black smoke emerged and condensed, and a second identical "Devouring Flower" appeared beside it.

Two eerie plants exuding an ominous aura stood side by side, almost taking up half of the room.

Wang Fu, who had been silently watching from the sidelines and witnessing the whole process, was now dumbfounded. He stared intently at the two strange plants that had appeared out of thin air, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word for a long time.