I built a safe house in the eerie night.

Jiang Ning stared at the panel in front of him, dumbfounded for a moment, until his heart pounded in his chest, before he was overjoyed.

It truly is a case of "when one door closes, another opens"!

The golden finger daddy arrived late, but now we finally have the confidence to survive, and even fight, in this bizarre world!

Jiang Ning quickly grasped the function of the panel. Similar to the tower defense games he had played in his previous life, he used his territory as a base to collect resources, build and upgrade defensive facilities, and resist wave after wave of invasions.

His gaze swept over a dilapidated wooden hut belonging to a villager nearby, and as his eyes focused, new information emerged:

[Wooden Shelter: Level 0]

[Effect: Barely provides shelter from the wind and rain, and offers slight psychological comfort]

Upgrade requires: 100 catties of Black Tai Sui (a type of rare fungus), 10 pieces of Yin Wood.

After his initial excitement, Jiang Ning quickly regained his composure.

Unfortunately, the Changyin Mountains are not a place to stay for long. Eerie creatures roam the mountains, the environment is harsh, and there may be unimaginable horrors hidden within. It is not an ideal territory for long-term, stable farming and development.

Moreover, the altar can only last for five days at most, and Wang Fu will most likely return empty-handed, leaving him with no other options at the moment.

In these five days, we must first use Baiye Village as a fortress, utilizing all available resources to build the initial line of defense, and then slowly find a way out to rebuild our empire.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Ning suppressed his turbulent emotions and looked again at the "Grey Tai Sui" that was emitting a foul smell. At the edge of the rotting flesh, a tiny, inconspicuous glimmer of light caught his eye.

Jiang Ning held his breath and took a few steps closer.

The stench grew stronger, and despite his discomfort, he reached out and peeled back the sticky, fleshy surface.

Jiang Ning touched a hard, round bead, pried it out forcefully, and wiped off the dirt on the dry soil next to it.

The beads are pure white, with a texture that resembles jade but is not jade, and have a lustrous sheen.

[Detected "Tier 1 Rare Treasure" - Activate?]

Panel prompts will appear as needed.

Rare treasure!

Jiang Ning was greatly encouraged.

Fragmented memories flooded my mind; this was a world of extreme scarcity of resources.

One of the important ways for humans to obtain extraordinary materials, special items, and even knowledge is to kill the monsters and obtain "monster treasures" from their remaining mutant cores.

After a mysterious death, the corpse will mostly transform into basic resources similar to the Tai Sui, but there is also a very small chance that it will condense into a "strange treasure".

These extraordinary treasures contain fragments of the essence of the deceased, or distorted rules, and may yield spirit stones, rare materials, broken runes, or even architectural blueprints.

However, opening rare treasures requires special talent or a specific ritual, which ordinary people simply cannot do.

"With the control panel, we should have the key..."

Jiang Ning focused his mind on the prompt.

"open!"

[Unlock to obtain: Trap building "Devouring Flower"]

A phantom blueprint, neither paper nor leather, entered consciousness, and simultaneously, information flowed into the panel:

【Devouring Flower (Tier 1)】

[Function: After setting the trap, it will emit a special aura, attracting low-level monsters to approach and devour them, slowly digesting them, with a chance to regurgitate a small amount of resources.]

[Note: Attraction and absorption are limited, digestion is slow, and there is a risk of it bursting.]

Construction requires: Black Tai Sui (50 jin), Yin Wood (5 pieces)

[Currently available for construction—]

It can devour bizarre traps and transform them into resources.

Jiang Ning's lips curled up, and his eyes shone with surprise.

Although the "Devouring Flower" appears inefficient and fragile, what is needed now is a starting point for actively acquiring resources.

With this trap, perhaps we can try to snowball it.

Jiang Ning suppressed his excitement and looked at the thin, trembling boy beside him:

"What's your name?"

"Yu...Yu Niu, sir." The boy lowered his head, his voice weak.

"Alright, Ah Niu, go to the village and find a few strong men, bring them some tools, and come with me out of the village to work in a bit," Jiang Ning instructed.

"Yes, yes!" Yu Niu nodded hurriedly, feeling as if he had been granted a pardon, and turned to run away.

Jiang Ning then walked alone to a more sturdy stone house at the back of the village, which was the village's warehouse.

As you get closer, the "Warehouse Resources" section on the panel flickers slightly.

Pushing open the wooden door, a smell mixed with earthy and decaying vegetation wafted out, but it wasn't unpleasant.

The warehouse was dimly lit, but the light was enough to see the scene clearly.

Rows of rough wooden crates were neatly stacked on the ground, each crate filled to the brim with the "black jujube" that the villagers painstakingly harvested from the mountains every month.

According to the rules, these tributes are to be collected by people from the city every month. Now a month has passed and no one from the city has come yet, so a whole thousand catties are piling up here.

Because these resources are located within the [Territory] area, they are automatically identified and stored by the panel.

Jiang Ning slowly walked towards an open wooden box and casually picked up a piece of black oyster shell.

It feels slightly heavy in the hand, with a smooth yet resilient texture, like a mixture of oil and glue. The jet-black surface has irregular patterns and a matte finish in dim light.

Even just holding it in your hand, you can vaguely feel a kind of melancholy "nourishment" that originates from the mountains and forests.

This is the "Black Tai Sui," the source of survival for the lowest levels of society and the foundation of many things.

Jiang Ning understood.

This thing grows in the mountains and can be transformed from strange corpses. It must be the most important basic resource for developing one's territory in the early stages. One should try to acquire and accumulate as much as possible.

He put down the meat of the Tai Sui and turned back to the open space in the village.

Yu Niu was already waiting, followed by six men, all of them thin and pale, but among the generally frail villagers, they were indeed quite robust.

They carried machetes, pickaxes, and bundles of straw rope, their faces showing varying degrees of unease.

A middle-aged man, shirtless, with sallow skin and a relatively robust build, stepped forward and bowed slightly.

"Sir, we've brought everyone here. I'm Xiong Meng from the village. People usually ask for my help if anything happens. What do you need us to do?"

Jiang Ning nodded. This man was essentially the village chief. "I need to patrol the area around the village and collect some things."

He added calmly, "Mainly those are the strange remains left behind by people who died unexpectedly in the wild."

Upon hearing this, Xiong Meng's face showed obvious hesitation and fear.

"Sir, those filthy things... even if they're dead, we wouldn't dare touch them. In the past, we would wait for the magistrates from the city to come and take care of them. We... at most, we would just walk around them and let them rot in the ground."

These are deeply ingrained fears and rules.

Jiang Ning looked into his eyes. "The situation is different now. The altar won't last more than a few days, and we don't know when the reinforcements from the city will arrive. I need those things. Maybe I can find something useful to increase our chances of survival."

Xiong Meng remained silent for a long time, his gaze sweeping over the several equally fearful teenagers behind him, and then looking at Jiang Ning's thin but determined face.

This young master in charge seems quite different from those who only knew how to scold people and reap benefits.

"Alright..." Xiong Meng nodded heavily, then turned to the group and said, "Did you all hear that? Everyone grab your tools and get to work quickly out of the village!"

Several strong men responded in hushed tones, gripping their simple tools tightly.

Jiang Ning said no more and gestured for Xiong Meng to lead the way. The group then walked out of the already weak barrier at the village entrance and stepped into the misty, barren mountains.

A chilling aura enveloped Jiang Ning once again, but perhaps because it was nearing noon and there were more people around, he found it less unbearable.

Jiang Ning followed in the group, feeling both expectant and apprehensive. He hoped this trip would be fruitful.

Even finding just one more remaining "exotic treasure" to unlock a basic blueprint for a defensive building would be a huge success.

Jiang Ning followed the others and carefully searched the outskirts of the village.

Just as he expected, some strange, remaining corpses could indeed be found on the edge of this abandoned land.

Some were torn to pieces by their own kind, while others seemed to have been wiped out of life by some force in an instant, leaving only withered and twisted remains.

The villagers painstakingly gathered these "harvests" together with long sticks and pitchforks, but unfortunately they were mostly the lowest-grade materials. The "gray worms" that emitted a faint stench of corpses were barely usable, but of very low value.

Jiang Ning carefully examined every spot, but still couldn't find the rare pearl.

Half an hour later, the collected gray jujubes had piled up into a small heap, but for Jiangning's current predicament, it was a drop in the ocean, let alone the much-needed architectural blueprints.

Disappointment began to creep into my heart.

It seems that the probability of starting development by finding a "treasure chest" in the wild is too low.

Perhaps the only option is to take the risk and use the "Devouring Flower" to lure and hunt the monsters. However, without more defensive structures, it would be like playing with fire, and one wrong move could lead to total defeat.

Just as Jiang Ning was pondering this in secret.

"My lord! My lord! Over here! I've found something!"

From the other side of the ravine, Yu Niu's voice, slightly distorted, came through.

Jiang Ning perked up and immediately hurried over.

They saw Yu Niu squatting beside a rock crevice, holding a dull blue crystal in his hands.

The crystal surface is covered with scratches and its luster is dim, but its unique texture, different from that of the Tai Sui, cannot be faked.

Jiang Ning gazed back, and the information on the panel appeared:

[Low-grade spirit stone (minor flaw)]

[Description: Contains trace amounts of polluted and mixed spiritual energy. It circulates as one of the basic currencies in this world and is also a resource consumable for some low-level buildings and facilities.]

Spirit Stone!

Although not a blueprint, it is still an important resource. Currency means the ability to make a minimum exchange with the outside world, and as a consumable, it is also key to building certain facilities.

"Well done, Ah Niu!"

Jiang Ning patted the boy's shoulder forcefully, his face showing sincere affirmation. He then took the dull spirit stone, sensing the chaotic spiritual energy within it that was difficult to arouse.

"Everyone, keep searching, but be careful. Xiong Meng, you take these gray jujubes back to the village warehouse first."