Chapter 376 - 170: "Uncle Liu! It’s me, Shao Qiu, I’m fucking back!

Chapter 376: Chapter 170: "Uncle Liu! It’s me, Shao Qiu, I’m fucking back!

"The daily consumption of Ghost Stones is roughly between 6.8 and 8 million."

"But..."

"During the dry season, the number of Ghost Tides isn’t too high. They don’t strike the entire defense line at once, so it’s rare for all the turrets to be active simultaneously. Generally speaking, consumption should be a bit lower."

"During the dry season, the No. 7 Defense Line’s daily consumption is around 4 million Ghost Stones."

"During the rainy season, however, the daily consumption of the No. 7 Defense Line rises to around 10 million Ghost Stones, sometimes even more."

"After all..."

"There are more Ghost Tides during the rainy season. Repairing the City Wall, fixing turrets—it all requires a massive amount of Ghost Stones. And most of those Ghost Stones come from the drops of slain Ghost Objects."

"..."

Chen Fan remained silent. A daily consumption of 4 million Ghost Stones during the dry season was certainly no small number. Over a month, that came to 120 million Ghost Stones.

Add to that the 300 million from the rainy season.

The No. 7 Defense Line’s total annual consumption came to around 1.62 billion Ghost Stones.

That was a truly staggering figure...

The Mortal Realm, backed by the New Continent, couldn’t accumulate even close to that number of Ghost Stones in three months. A defense line wasn’t finished just by being built. His own Jiangbei Defense Line was no different; he had to reserve enough Ghost Stones to power the turrets and other structures.

The No. 7 Defense Line was situated on the coast of the Guandong Plain.

It was like a machine that devoured gold.

Every year, it consumed 1.62 billion Ghost Stones.

And the price of those 1.62 billion Ghost Stones was that the Guanxi Plain and other areas had been safe from the impact of Undersea Ghost Tides for nearly a hundred years—the kind of massive tides numbering in the tens of millions.

After a long pause, he finally spoke again.

"How much do you know about the Eternal Night Hall?"

"Hmm..."

Shao Qiu lowered his head, pondering carefully before speaking. "It’s the largest ’organization’ on the Eternal Night Continent. I say organization, not faction, because any power willing to contribute to the continent can join."

"There’s no monthly salary for joining, and no reward."

"But you’re expected to contribute."

"Contributing to the defense of the Eternal Night Continent. It’s less an organization and more like all the powers of the continent banding together to protect it."

"Those with Ghost Stones contribute Ghost Stones."

"Those with people contribute fighters."

"Those with nothing go and build basic infrastructure, like Communication Stations, to maintain contact between regions."

"If a power doesn’t even have an Architect, they go to the powers that haven’t joined the Eternal Night Hall and demand Ghost Stones from them."

"In fact, the director of the No. 7 Defense Line has never even met the Master of the Eternal Night Hall, nor has he ever been to the heartland of the Eternal Night Continent. He’s a Guandong native, born and raised."

"He was originally the leader of his own power."

"After his power was annihilated and the previous director was killed, he was given command in the midst of the crisis, becoming the new director in charge of all operations for the No. 7 Defense Line."

"Moreover..."

"Before the last rainy season, the No. 7 Defense Line didn’t have enough Ghost Stones saved up, so they requested support from the Eternal Night Hall. At first, the Hall refused. But they later responded, saying they had done their best to dispatch a shipment of one hundred million Ghost Stones to the Guandong Plain."

"But..."

"On the way, however, a traitor leaked the intelligence. The Ghost Race received the news and, at all costs, broke through a secondary defense line. They intercepted the shipment as it was passing through the Qiuming Basin."

"The Flying Ship was sunk."

"The Eternal Night Hall informed the No. 7 Defense Line of the news, stating they had no more spare Ghost Stones to send and that they hoped the line could hold out for as long as possible."

"..."

Chen Fan suddenly stopped his work. Below the Flying Ship, the City Wall that had been slowly moving ground to a halt. His brow furrowed as he turned his head to Shao Qiu. "Did you just say... a traitor?"

He didn’t understand.

’If two human powers were at war with each other, having traitors would be perfectly normal.’

’But how could there be traitors in a war between humans and the Ghost Race? Would someone really choose to defect to them?’

...

"Yes."

Shao Qiu nodded. "A big reason the situation on the front lines of the Eternal Night Continent is so critical is that with this coming of the Eternal Night, many Ghost Objects have awakened a degree of intelligence. They’ve learned to use strategy."

"It makes them incredibly difficult to deal with."

"They use all sorts of tactics like feints and all-out assaults, putting the front line under immense pressure."

"At the same time, almost everyone, including those in the Eternal Night Hall, knows that the continent probably won’t survive this time. Still, they’re fighting with all their might to hold them back. Even if they can’t win, they can’t let the Ghost Tide make landfall so easily. Besides, as long as they keep fighting, there’s always a chance for a miracle."

"Some members of the Ghost Race have found various ways to infiltrate the Eternal Night Hall. They promise that when the Ghost Race completely conquers the Eternal Night Continent, any human who defects to them now will be given a designated territory to live in—a reward for being so pragmatic."

"People fight to the death when they have no way out. But give them even a sliver of hope for escape, no matter how slim it seems, and their resolve can easily crumble."

"Inside the Eternal Night Hall..."

"There are quite a few traitors."

"The Ghost Race on the main front is bound by certain rules and can’t come to the Guandong Plain themselves. However, they are desperate for it to fall. If it does, the Eternal Night Continent will be forced to fight on two fronts and be thrown into chaos."

"It would relieve a lot of pressure on their main front."

"That’s why, when they learned the Eternal Night Hall was sending Ghost Stones to support the Guandong Plain, they were willing to pay any price to assault that secondary defense line and intercept the shipment—even if the cost of their attack far exceeded the value of the one hundred million Ghost Stones."

"From what I know."