Only after Lame Monkey left the wooden hut did Chen Fan rise and begin looking through what was inside.
He had sent Lame Monkey out to solicit guests with a fluke mentality. In truth, he knew very well that it was basically useless. The sky was almost dark; the travelers on the nearby wasteland had long since found places to settle down.
This waystation had actually lasted this long.
Perhaps there were eerie stones left behind by the previous station master, but even after he turned the entire wooden hut upside down, he did not find a single forgotten eerie stone.
The whole hut was extremely crude.
One wooden bed.
Enough dry rations and water for two people to last three or four days, one table, one chair—and apart from that, nothing.
They had truly reached the end of the road.
“...”
Chen Fan sat in the chair in silence for a long while before finally making up his mind. He had noticed a small earthen slope nearby; standing on it would offer a better view. After the sun rose tomorrow, he would go up there to solicit guests. Perhaps he could attract passing travelers.
This way of doing things might draw the displeasure of nearby waystations.
But the “Chen family” was no small clan. With the Chen family’s name, he should be able to bluff the other party. If he could not, then there was nothing to be done. He was already close to death; if he still kept hesitating and worrying about everything, he might as well kill himself outright.
Just then—
He suddenly felt a surge of palpitations.
Almost by instinct, he pushed open the door and looked into the distance. Sure enough... a dense darkness was sweeping over from the horizon at terrifying speed, constantly devouring the dusk like a bloodthirsty monster.
In this world, night did not descend through a slow alternation of light and shadow.
It changed rapidly.
Like a jar of ink being poured over white paper.
And once darkness fell, countless eerie creatures would appear within it.
“Lame Monkey!”
It was Chen Fan’s first time seeing such a scene. His expression changed slightly, and he instinctively wanted to call Lame Monkey into the hut. Yet there was no sign of Lame Monkey outside. Only after sweeping his gaze around did he spot him—at this moment, Lame Monkey was staggering across the wasteland toward the wooden hut!
A full hundred meters away.
But Lame Monkey was lame, after all, and seemed to be injured as well. He moved extremely slowly. At this rate, there was no way he could reach the hut before the darkness covered everything.
Behind Lame Monkey followed a middle-aged man in a green robe, his hands clasped behind his back. His steps were unhurried, and a faint smile hovered in his eyes as he kept one step behind Lame Monkey, as though he had no fear whatsoever of the dense darkness about to engulf them from not far away.
“Huu...”
Chen Fan took a deep breath. With an ugly expression, he sensed the condition of his body and roughly estimated the time. Immediately after, without the slightest hesitation, he charged out of the wooden hut and sprinted madly toward Lame Monkey!
The instant he moved several meters away from the hut—
That lingering terror surged into his heart at once. He could even smell the thick stench of blood in the air, and feel a faint, hair-raising sensation along his back!
Under that fear,
he actually ran even faster than usual. When he rushed in front of Lame Monkey, he had no time to say a single word. He immediately hoisted Lame Monkey onto his shoulder. Fortunately, Lame Monkey was thin; though it was somewhat strenuous, Chen Fan could still bear it.
“Fuck!”
Chen Fan could not help roaring, as though venting his emotions, and also as though resisting some unknown fear. He instinctively turned his head to glance at the dense darkness rapidly sweeping in from the horizon. He had no mind at all to pay attention to the traveler Lame Monkey had solicited. Carrying Lame Monkey, he lowered his head and sprinted madly back toward the wooden hut!
One step...
Two steps...
He had never felt that this distance of a hundred meters was so far.
Finally!
The instant he clearly felt the tangible darkness sweep past his back, he rushed into the “golden halo.” His body tumbled uncontrollably to the ground. He struggled to climb up, panting hard, his eyes full of terror as he looked at everything before him.
The darkness had completely enveloped the entire waystation.
The light emitted by that mass of “eerie fire” was like a transparent golden eggshell, covering the entire wooden hut and forming a golden halo on the ground.
Outside the halo
was a darkness so dense that visibility was zero. There was no moonlight, no clouds—only chilling sounds that came from time to time, and the occasional flash of pale, sharp claws in the darkness.
Eternal night had descended.
And only then—
did he notice that the middle-aged man in the green robe, who had been following behind Lame Monkey the entire time, was now standing within the golden circle, looking at the two of them with a smile that was not quite a smile.
“Huu...”
Chen Fan took a deep breath. The instant he had seen Lame Monkey outside the safe house, he knew Lame Monkey must have risked his life to go up the slope to solicit guests. The view there was good enough, but this was not the time to talk about that. He stood up and calmed himself before looking at the green-robed man and saying in a deep voice,
“This is Waystation No. 37 of the Jiangbei Chen family.”
“Those who are not members of the Chen family must pay one eerie stone to stay the night. If you are a member of the Chen family or an ally, please show the Jiangbei Chen family passage token.”
He could tell that the man before him was no ordinary mortal.
“How nice.”
The green-robed man took an eerie stone from his robes and flicked it into Chen Fan’s arms, smiling. “Seeing you two makes me think of the days when I struggled in the past. Once upon a time, I was just like you, fighting desperately for a single eerie stone.”
“Does this waystation of yours only have one room?”
“Yes.”
Chen Fan nodded. “This is an ordinary waystation.”
The man nodded as well and said nothing more. He simply turned and walked into the wooden hut, then closed the door.
Only after the man entered did Chen Fan forcibly suppress the excitement in his heart. At this moment, he could clearly feel his heart pounding wildly—not merely because he had earned one eerie stone, but even more because...
His golden finger had arrived!
The instant the man flicked that eerie stone to him, he felt a stream of heat rapidly flow through his body, forming an ancient bronze panel deep within his mind.
-
“You have obtained one eerie stone.”
“Eternal Night Lord panel activated.”
“You may consume eerie stones to upgrade, construct, and strengthen various buildings within your domain.”
“Current buildings within your domain:”
“Level 1 Eerie Fire”: Safe area diameter: 10 meters. Upgrade requires 10 eerie stones.
“Currently able to construct 5 types of basic buildings and 1 special building...”
“Level 1 Beast-Trap Snare”: Can inflict a certain amount of damage on low-level eerie creatures. Construction requires 2 eerie stones.
-
“Huu...”
Chen Fan tightly gripped the eerie stone in his hand and gazed at the dense darkness outside the halo, gulping cold air into his lungs. At this moment, he looked rather wretched, his body covered in withered grass, but his eyes shone with a brilliant light!
He knew he now possessed the key to surviving in this world.
But...
It was only a key. How long he could live would depend on how he used it!
Immediately after—
With almost no hesitation, he walked over to the “eerie fire.” Three eerie stones lay quietly within the flames.
Two of them were still completely intact.
The other was somewhat dim.
Under normal circumstances, these three eerie stones would be enough for him to spend three nights on the wasteland.