I built a safe house in the eerie night.

Jiang Ning calculated his current assets: there were still 800 jin of black Tai Sui left in the warehouse, only 3 pieces of Yin Wood, plus the low-grade spirit stone he had harvested yesterday.

If we can gather enough resources tonight, we can try building two "Bone Arrow Towers" for emergency defense.

However, arrow towers are ranged attack structures and are inherently fragile. If they are not properly protected, they can easily be destroyed by the rushing monsters, which would be a waste.

Jiang Ning raised his eyes and looked at the dilapidated fence outside the village, which was barely functional. He then got up and walked to the village entrance.

Those simple fences had long since fallen apart under the eerie trampling and erosion of time, with rotten wood and vines scattered all over the ground.

Previously, the village had effective protection from the altar's protective barrier, but the villagers never paid attention to these physical defenses. Coupled with their long-term numbness in the struggle for survival, they only knew how to mechanically harvest the Tai Sui (a type of rare fungus), and no one properly repaired it. Over time, it fell into this state of disrepair.

Jiang Ning bent down and picked up a broken piece of fence wood, and relevant information appeared before his eyes:

[Fence: Completely destroyed]

[Repairable (requires 10 catties of *Tai Sui* and 1 piece of dead wood per meter)]

[Can be upgraded to "Tier 1 Simple Wooden Wall" (each meter requires: 50 jin of Tai Sui and 5 pieces of Yin Wood). After upgrading, it has a certain ability to block low-level strange attacks and protect territory buildings.]

Upgrade to a Tier 1 wooden wall?

This is much more practical than a simple fence. If a section of wooden wall could be built around the key locations of the village, and arrow towers were placed behind it, the defensive effect would be greatly enhanced.

However, Jiang Ning estimated that the most vulnerable area at the village entrance would require a wall of about fifty meters to form an effective barrier.

To encircle the village, you would need at least two or three thousand catties of *Tai Sui* (a type of rare fungus), as well as two or three hundred pieces of *Yin Mu* (another type of rare fungus), a truly enormous amount of resources.

Jiang Ning shook his head. The warehouse currently only had so much stock, not even enough to cover a small portion.

After much thought, I could only settle for second best and wait for the collection team to return in the evening. Then I would concentrate my resources on upgrading the most crucial section of the wall and build arrow towers around it.

Then, Jiang Ning turned and walked towards the dim altar in the center of the village. Standing before the stone platform where the faint light of the runes had almost gone out, the [Heavenly Craft] interface responded again:

【Altar (Baiye Village)】

[Status: Extremely Weak (Holy Blood Reserves: 4)]

[Scope: The current village boundary is considered valid territory]

[Upgrade requires: 1,000 catties of Black Tai Sui, 100 low-grade spirit stones]

[Upgrade Effects: Range increased by approximately 50%, ability to shield against and interfere with strange phenomena slightly enhanced, daily "Holy Blood" required for maintenance slightly reduced.]

This made Jiang Ning smile wryly again.

Upgrading the altar in one go? 100 low-grade spirit stones? That seems like an astronomical figure right now.

For now, the hope is to find a new source of "holy blood" to keep the altar from burning.

As he thought about it, his thoughts drifted back to the time when the original owner of this body was attacked.

The ambush on the way into the mountains was a clear and ruthless attack, not a random spur-of-the-moment decision. The original owner had to fight desperately to escape into the depths of Changyin Mountain. Fortunately, the ambush attackers did not pursue him too far, otherwise he would not have survived.

But who is the mastermind behind this?

The original owner was, after all, from the Jiang family, one of the three major families in Danhua City. Although they were not highly regarded, they were still a direct descendant.

Those who would dare to use such a deadly method are either people within the clan who desperately want him to disappear, or rivals who are openly and covertly fighting with the Jiang family, such as... the Liu family?

Jiang Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, and at the same time, a graceful yet blurry female figure flashed through his mind.

That was the original owner's fiancée.

Could it be her? This marriage, arranged by both families, seems to have some underlying conflicts of interest.

Thinking back further, the process by which the original owner "committed a crime" in the city and was exiled is also somewhat strange upon closer examination, as if he was being led step by step into a trap.

Jiang Ning finally shook his head, suppressing these chaotic thoughts.

If I have the chance to leave Changyin Mountain alive, I will naturally investigate these grudges thoroughly and repay them tenfold!

But thinking about these things now is pointless. If we can't get out, it's all just empty talk and will only make the people behind us even more smug.

A cold, stern look flashed across Jiang Ning's face, but he quickly composed himself.

He then walked out of the village, intending to check on how Yu Niu and his team's search was progressing.

As Jiang Ning walked out of the village and into the withered grove outside, he felt better than he had the day before.

Although he was on tenterhooks the whole time and barely slept for the past two nights, the upgraded cabin probably made him feel much better.

Jiang Ning looked up. Ahead lay an endless, dense, dark forest, with damp, cold mist swirling among the branches, casting twisted and swaying shadows.

A sense of oppression, originating from the wild and the unknown, silently rushed over.

The Changyin Mountains have existed for far too long.

In my memory, this mountain has always been a synonym for "great misfortune." I don't know how it came into being, but from the moment it appeared, it became a nest where strange things breed and linger.

Those "respectable people" in the city usually don't even want to get close, yet they covet the various resources produced in the mountains.

This led to the emergence of refugee villages like Baiye Village.

The city's powerful figures used residency qualifications as bait to drive countless homeless migrants into the mountains to work for them.

Every day, countless refugees die in the deep forest, perishing in the mouths of strange creatures, yet people still rush forward one after another for that sliver of a chance at peace.

In Baiye Village, which originally had a population of about 100, nearly a third of the villagers died in just over two years. Most of them disappeared silently in the wild, not in the village itself.

The lives of those at the bottom of society are the least valuable.

A chill ran through Jiang Ning's heart.

"Young Master Jiang! Young Master Jiang!"

Yu Niu's excited shouts came from afar. Jiang Ning didn't seem to mind the name.

Then the dark-skinned boy came running over, holding two dull spirit stones, each about the size of a fingernail.

"Our people just found it in the woods," Yu Niu said, handing it over like a treasure.

Jiang Ning took it and saw that it was indeed a spirit stone that had just been extracted, probably left over from the strange remains of the person who died here last night.

Even if it's just a low-grade spirit stone, and the quantity is small, every little bit helps.

"Well done." Jiang Ning patted Yu Niu on the shoulder encouragingly, then looked at the few young men working silently behind him, offering generous encouragement and subtly emphasizing:

"We can't let any resource slip by. Right now, we're accumulating capital little by little."

He then instructed, "Besides the spirit stones, those strange, remaining corpses, especially the skeletons, must be carefully sorted out, along with the gray spirits attached to them, and transported back to the village to be stored up. You never know when we might need them."

Yu Niu nodded vigorously and called to his companions to continue working.

Jiang Ning also joined the search.

However, whether they died naturally in the wild or attacked the village last night, most of these strange creatures remain at the level of "wandering spirits and monsters," that is, they are low-level monsters that have not officially "entered the ranks" and are only killing on instinct.

But even this most basic form of the bizarre can be deadly to ordinary people.

Currently, the village may be able to barely hold on, relying on the soon-to-be-extinguished altar and possibly rudimentary defenses.

But what if it attracts a higher level of "advanced" monster with even more bizarre abilities?

This possibility weighed heavily on Jiang Ning's mind.

Anxiety was inevitable, so he could only force himself to focus on what he could do in front of him.

The subsequent search yielded little result; aside from finding a few more low-grade spirit stones, no "extraordinary treasure" was discovered.

Jiang Ning stopped Yu Niu and several other young men with strong blood and energy from their adventurous thoughts of exploring deeper into the village. He then ordered the collected gray Tai Sui and the strange skeletons that had been cleared out to be packed up and transported back to the village.

Not long after returning to the village, Xiong Meng also returned with his men.

They dragged back several thick logs with dark patterns, and several black stones with crooked textures on their surfaces.

"Young Master Jiang, look at this stone, is it the kind you described?" Xiong Meng asked, pointing to the stone in his hand.

Information about the [Black Stone] immediately appeared before Jiang Ning's eyes.

It is also one of the materials needed to upgrade the stone house!

He glanced at the sky and adjusted his plans:

"Xiong, Meng, Yu, and Niu, you take everyone and head into the mountains. Focus on cutting down the Yin Wood. Don't worry about the strange remains and black stones for now. Today's goal is to bring back as much Yin Wood as possible. We must be back in the village before nightfall!"

The two men accepted the order, regrouped their forces, and set off again from the village towards the mountains.

Jiang Ning stayed in the village and began to count the supplies that had been brought back.

The bones of the strange corpse, plus those stored from yesterday, can probably be converted into more than a hundred bone arrows if "charged and shaped" according to the blueprint of the "Bone Arrow Tower".

The two arrow towers are divided equally, and each tower can fire about fifty shots.

I just don't know the exact power, or how many arrows it would take to take down a low-level monster.

However, the panel only says "driven by resentment", so it should be quite good.

Jiang Ning was actually quite looking forward to the performance of the arrow tower.

Then look at the yin wood that was felled. Although the number of whole logs was not large, according to the conversion standard of the [Tiangong] panel, this batch of rough wood was exactly equivalent to 40 "yin wood", no more and no less, just enough to build two "bone arrow towers".

On a whim, I decided to do it right away.

Jiang Ning brought up the [Tiangong] interface and selected [Building Blueprint - Bone Arrow Tower].

Immediately, the silhouette of a tall, clearly defined arrow tower appeared before his eyes, like a building preview in a game.

Once the location is selected, resources are invested, and instructions are given, this building can materialize out of thin air using the power of [Heavenly Craftsmanship].

But Jiang Ning didn't rush to confirm.

The placement of the defensive towers is crucial, and since the village's territory is currently limited and the altar has not yet been upgraded, every inch of usable land must be carefully considered.

He walked back and forth several times, visually estimating the range and coverage area, and quickly simulating in his mind the direction from which the strange creature might attack.