Chapter 56: The Fiend's Frantic Rage

"Damn it, this cursed sedan chair!"

Liu Hen hurriedly rushed to the entrance, unleashing another blast of compressed air to obliterate over a dozen skeletons, and then shouted to Chang Xin and the others, "Get inside quickly. We can't fight them head-on."

With her excellent eyesight, Chang Xin naturally spotted the distant paper figures and the eerie gravestones, and her expression shifted drastically.

Hearing Liu Hen's voice, she immediately shielded the Wu siblings and the two girls, Zong Ni, retreating while fighting.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Suddenly, a dense barrage of white paper money shot toward them like flying blades.

Liu Hen bolted out of the building and fiercely thrust his palm toward the oncoming paper money.

"Boom!"

The red paper money that entered the protective radius of the campfire was instantly blasted apart, and under the campfire's special property, reduced directly to ashes.

Many nearby skeletons were blown away; though not destroyed, it successfully delayed the advancing speed of the skeleton army.

Chang Xin and the others seized the opportunity to retreat back inside the building.

However, Liu Hen's previous attack had little to no impact on the skeleton army as a whole. Countless skeletons trampled over the fallen ones, charging from all directions like a tidal wave.

Simultaneously, a massive horde of paper figures in the rear frantically unleashed blade-like paper money.

Liu Hen quickly retreated into the building and slammed the door shut.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

The walls of the building reverberated with deafening crashes, as if struck by genuine steel blades.

"Rumble..."

Immediately afterward, a vast multitude of skeletons closed in, launching a frenzy of attacks against the homestead structure and sending vibrations through the entire house.

Not to mention the Wu siblings and the two girls Zong Ni, even Chang Xin felt a wave of despair at this sight.

To their surprise, however, this seemingly modest building actually managed to hold off the skeleton army.

The skeleton army summoned by the fiend failed to break in for the time being.

Everyone, including Liu Hen, breathed a massive sigh of relief.

*Entities with a level lower than the campfire have their attacks against homestead structures nullified. I wonder what level that fiend is...*

Just as this thought flashed through Liu Hen's mind—

"Crack..."

A shattering sound echoed, followed by the rapid appearance of fractures across the walls.

"Damn it!"

His expression changed, and he rushed forward to activate the construction mode, intending to repair the wall.

Upon activating construction mode, a prompt popped up:

【Fully repairing the building requires consuming one large iron ore.】

*Only one?* He was momentarily stunned.

Beside him, Chang Xin had already unleashed her full power, her body blazing with a brilliant silver-white light as she prepared to fight to the death.

The very next moment, however, she watched in astonishment as the crumbling wall magically restored itself to its pristine condition.

"Damn it, that wasted a whole piece of my large iron ore," Liu Hen muttered grumblingly, leaving him with just over four hundred pieces of large iron ore in his spatial backpack.

Chang Xin and the others: "..."

"Crack..."

Barely half a minute later, the surrounding walls began to fracture once again.

Chang Xin and the others grew tense once more.

Liu Hen hastily repaired the wall again, and the fractured barrier, which looked on the verge of collapse just a second ago, was instantly restored to perfection.

Another half a minute later, the wall fractured yet again, battered by relentless strikes from the skeleton army outside.

Liu Hen continued the repairs, consuming another piece of large iron ore to make it as good as new.

Chang Xin and the others, who had initially felt anxious and even desperate: "..."

The fiend hiding in the darkness outside: "..."

If that fiend could speak, it would likely be cursing up a storm by now.

After struggling so hard to nearly breach the building, it got repaired the very next moment.

What was most infuriating was that repairing such a structure seemed to cost the opponent no time at all.

Although the skeletons emitted no roars, and the primary body of the fiend hidden in the sedan chair likely couldn't speak either, Liu Hen faintly sensed that the creature had grown even more furious.

The intensity of the skeleton army's attacks outside increased once again, accelerating the rate at which the homestead building fractured.

"Can... can we hold this?" Chang Xin asked nervously.

"Shouldn't be a problem."

Liu Hen cast a casual glance at the remaining large iron ore in his spatial backpack and noticed hardly any depletion.

If the opponent wanted a war of attrition, he could easily hold out for another two hours or more.

And he certainly wouldn't give the enemy that kind of opportunity.

Because right now, the All-Things Pickaxe had completed its upgrade.

The Bronze-tier Level 3 All-Things Pickaxe had expanded the number of grid slots in his spatial backpack to thirty.

This in itself wasn't a massive deal, as the pickaxe's upgrade provided a negligible direct increase to Liu Hen's combat prowess.

However, with the pickaxe's level increased, the campfire's level could be upgraded once more.

Once the campfire's level rose, the quality of its evil-repelling property should improve as well.

Seizing the moment right after the wall was repaired, he hurried over to the campfire and quickly consumed three large logs and thirty magic crystals to upgrade it.

With this move, the magic crystals he possessed were nearly exhausted.

The countdown, similarly, was one minute.

"Crack..."

The shattering sound rang out again.

He rushed back to repair the wall.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The skeleton army outside grew even more frantic, seemingly attempting to smash this small building to pieces in one go.

Concurrently, numerous paper figures took to the air above the building, frantically firing blade-like paper money to batter the homestead structure.

Yet no matter how fiercely the enemy attacked, as long as they couldn't instantly obliterate the homestead structure, Liu Hen had time to repair it.

Every repair only required consuming a single piece of large iron ore.

Although the interval had shrunk to every ten seconds requiring a fix, a minute only demanded six repairs.

And each repair, provided the materials were available, could be completed with a mere thought.

Finally, upon the completion of the sixth repair, the campfire's level reached Constant Temperature Level 3, expanding its protective radius to a full thirty meters.

As the level increased, the quality of the evil-repelling property improved.

Instantly, an even warmer sensation washed over everyone's hearts.

At the same time, the attack intensity of the skeleton army and even the paper figures outside sharply plummeted.

Not only did Liu Hen feel it, but Chang Xin and the others sensed it too.

Previously, the surrounding walls would fracture nearly every ten seconds.

This time, however, they waited for a full minute and a half before cracks finally began to appear, and even then, they were merely hairline fractures.

At this rate, repairing the walls once every five minutes would pose no issue at all.

"Wuwuwu..."

A ghostly wailing sound echoed from outside, seemingly the frustrated screech of the hidden fiend.

Even so, the monster army did not give up, continuing their assault in an attempt to wear him down, clearly believing that his "outburst" of repairs must cost him heavily.

Liu Hen sneered, taking a moment to check the remaining fuel of the campfire, and found precisely as he expected—

With the enhancement of the evil-repelling property's quality, the fuel consumption rate had dramatically dropped.

At the current consumption rate, he could engage in a war of attrition with the fiend outside for another half a year.

*Want to wear me down? You probably have no idea how obsessed survival-crafting game players are with hoarding resources!*

He chuckled inwardly, feeling just like he used to when playing survival-crafting games in his past life—whenever he encountered any resource, he wanted to stuff it all into his base.

As long as his spatial backpack was large enough, he wouldn't even bear to throw away ordinary dirt.

It was coming in handy right now; even if his large iron ore ran out, he still had large logs. And if worst came to worst, he could tunnel through the foundation and continue gathering soil.

With the homestead building buffed by the campfire's level, walls constructed even from dirt materials wouldn't be much weaker in defense than they were now.

In fact, had he not planned to settle down here, he could have easily dug a tunnel and evacuated everyone.

With the All-Things Pickaxe, his tunneling speed was extraordinarily fast.

Of course, the skeletons outside—which seemed to be materialized manifestations of the fiend's power—might possess earth-burrowing abilities, making tunneling away a potential risk.

Relying on the protection and defense of the homestead building and the campfire was far safer.

*Now, I just wait for the Bronze armor set.*

Liu Hen sat down by the campfire to warm himself and pulled out bowls of tree-cake paste. "Everyone has worked hard. Each of you gets a bowl for this meal. Eat up, and soon we'll launch a counterattack against that cursed fiend."

"Counterattack?" Chang Xin asked in astonishment.

Given the current situation, she felt that simply surviving was already a miracle.

The six ordinary people also looked somewhat bewildered, unsure where Liu Hen derived such confidence.

"Just wait and see. Eat up; we'll have plenty to do later."

Without elaborating further, Liu Hen picked up his own bowl of tree-cake paste and began to wolf it down.

Come to think of it, the tree-cake paste was running low. It was the lowest-quality food he possessed, and finishing it now would free up precious space.

In the future, he would have the superior carbohydrate nutrient porridge, where a single catty could rival three catties of tree-cake paste.

Perhaps this was because the essence of the tree-cake paste had already been extracted.

Seeing Liu Hen remain so composed, Chang Xin and the others instantly felt their confidence surge and sat down to eat as well.

The experience felt surreal. With a fiend lurking outside and countless monsters assaulting their defenses, rather than fighting for their lives, they were sitting here enjoying a meal.

Initially, everyone, including Chang Xin, felt somewhat apprehensive.

Even though they could eat their fill and even stuff themselves, their minds remained unsettled, unable to truly relax.

As time ticked away, however, and the monsters outside continually failed to breach the building, everyone completely let go of their worries and placed their utmost trust in Liu Hen.

Every five minutes, Liu Hen would stand up, consume a piece of large iron ore, and repair the fractured building.

Finally, after over an hour had passed, the upgrade of the thermal armor set was complete.