Dawn broke.
Daybreak came with astonishing speed. The tide-like darkness swiftly receded, and in no time at all, pitch black had transformed into the brilliant colors of the morning sun.
That night,
Chen Fan had startled awake several times. It was his first sleep since crossing over to this world; tense and uneasy, with all sorts of emotions tangled together, and the rustling sounds in the darkness besides, he had barely slept well.
The instant the sky brightened, Chen Fan quickly woke. The halo of light had already dispersed, and the entire wooden hut once again blended into the wasteland, with only that bonfire still burning in solitude.
Out on the wasteland,
a dead eerie creature lay quietly on the beast trap. It was monkey-like and looked rather small.
He barely lingered. Striding out into the wasteland, he stuffed the eerie creature together with the beast trap into the haystack behind the wooden hut, intending to dissect it and extract the Eerie Stone after the guest inside had left, so as not to expose too much.
An hour later,
the middle-aged man in blue robes finally woke. Taking his time, he walked outside and looked at Chen Fan, who was standing where he was. Shaking the map in his hand, he said with a smile, “There is a station nearby with a better environment than yours, and it likewise only costs one Eerie Stone. Yet yesterday, I still chose your station. Do you know why?”
Then, without waiting for Chen Fan to answer, he stretched lazily on his own.
“Because yesterday, when I saw that subordinate of yours desperately trying to draw in customers, I was somewhat moved. It wasn’t until I came to your station that I understood.”
“This place was originally an abandoned station. There aren’t many travelers passing through—one could even say there are practically none.”
“Now it has suddenly been lit up again. For you to be assigned here by your family, I imagine you must be quite ostracized within the family. It’s very likely they didn’t even give you any supplies. You need Eerie Stones to maintain the Eerie Fire and keep yourself alive.”
“I felt a little compassion.”
“I wanted to help you, just as back then, when I was also ostracized and targeted within my family, I especially hoped someone would lend me a hand.”
“But I didn’t want to help you too much either, because back then, I didn’t receive help from anyone. On what basis should you get help?”
“So—”
“I won’t give you so much as one extra Eerie Stone. That is not what you deserve. I can only answer one question for you. You may ask now.”
He looked at the youth before him with a smile that was not quite a smile.
He had long since sketched out this youth’s identity in his mind. This youth and that thin, weak subordinate were both not cultivators. After being targeted repeatedly within their family, they had been thrown into this godforsaken place to wait for death.
And this place had originally been abandoned long ago.
The “Eerie Fire” had already gone out.
Yet it had been lit up again on the map, which meant another “Eerie Fire” had been built anew. The cost of building an Eerie Fire was roughly around fifty Eerie Stones. If they merely wanted to send an ordinary member of the family to his death, there was no need to spend such a large sum.
Then the youth before him most likely had a certain status or background, making it inconvenient to kill him openly and invite gossip—perhaps an identity like the family head’s illegitimate son.
Thus, they had adopted such a method.
A faint trace of anger flashed through his eyes. From this youth, he saw his past self. He wanted to help this youth as though helping his past self, but at the same time, he did not want to help too much. After all, back then, no one had helped him.
This strange contradiction made him somewhat irritable.
He could roughly guess what question this youth would ask.
It would be nothing more than how to leave this wasteland, or, seeing that he had taken pity, directly asking whether he could lend him some Eerie Stones, with a promise of generous repayment in the future.
If this youth asked such a meaningless question, his compassion would instantly be extinguished, and he would leave without looking back.
“Many thanks for your guidance, Senior.”
Chen Fan cupped his fists with a solemn expression and said in a deep voice, “Senior can travel through the wasteland alone, so you are certainly no ordinary person. This junior has stepped into the wasteland for the first time and would like to know what I can do to increase my chances of survival in the wilderness.”
“...”
The middle-aged man in blue robes fell silent for a while before suddenly looking at Chen Fan and laughing. “You are just like I was back then, holding a breath of resentment in your heart. I like that about you.”
“In that case, I can tell you a bit.”
“If a traveler intends to enter the station, the rule of the wasteland is that they must first pay the ‘Eerie Stone’ before they may enter.”
“There is a type of eerie creature called the ‘False Human Ghost.’ It is humanoid and possesses a certain degree of intelligence.”
“It can move before eternal night has fully descended. It will ask you whether it may enter the station and state that it will pay the Eerie Stone after entering. You must refuse, because before obtaining your consent, it cannot enter your station. This type of eerie creature is relatively less dangerous.”
“Last night, you collected the Eerie Stone only after I entered the station. That was the wrong approach.”
“But you also had no way to stop me. Your station is extremely crude and has not the slightest defensive facility. It cannot stand against cultivators.”
“On the wasteland,”
“every station master’s life is bound to the ‘Eerie Fire.’ No one will attack a station master. Once the station master dies, the Eerie Fire goes out as well. Even so, you still need some basic attack structures. Aside from resisting eerie creatures, they are also needed to consolidate your position within the station.”
“And!”
“The Eerie Fire is not absolutely safe. Aside from truly weak eerie creatures, most eerie creatures merely detest the ‘Eerie Fire’; it is not that they truly cannot approach it. When an eerie tide erupts, or under special circumstances, those eerie creatures will devour this station in an instant.”
“You need the structure known as a ‘city wall’ to ensure absolute safety.”
“Based on these two points,”
“if you want to survive long enough on this wasteland, you need a section of enclosed surrounding city wall, as well as a basic attack structure. These two structures are both quite common and quite simple. Basically every architect knows how to build them. The master of the nearby ‘Jiangbei Market’ is a Level Two architect. Find him, and he can build them for you.”
“But this kind of immovable structure requires the architect to come to you to construct it, and it will cost quite a few Eerie Stones.”
“As for how to obtain Eerie Stones, that is not something I need to concern myself with.”
“I have already helped you enough.”
The blue-robed man suddenly shook his head and laughed, realizing that he could not keep talking. He had originally only planned to answer one question, but the other party had asked an extremely vague one, causing him to unwittingly follow the thread and say a few more things.
He took a map from his robes and tossed it into Chen Fan’s arms.
“This is an eerie-hide map of the surrounding area. It will update the status of every ‘Eerie Fire’ on the wasteland in real time.”
“Three months from now, I will pass through this wasteland again.”
“When the time comes, I will specifically pass by this station. If you are still alive by then, I will not mind truly helping you once.”
With that said,
the middle-aged man in blue robes did not linger at all. With both hands clasped behind his back, he strode steadily toward the low earthen slope not far away. His steps were clearly extremely slow, yet in reality his walking speed was extremely fast, giving off a bizarre sense of contrast.
“Senior!”
Clutching the leather map in his hand, Chen Fan looked at the man’s departing back and shouted, “Great kindness needs no thanks, but may I ask Senior to leave your name? In the future, I will surely repay you!”
The man did not answer. He merely waved his hand without turning back.
His figure gradually vanished into the wasteland.
“Phew...”
Chen Fan lowered his head and looked at the leather map in his hand, murmuring, “This senior is rather free-spirited...”
This information was extremely valuable and of great help to him!
Before his death, the original owner of this body had been wholly consumed by pain and resentment within the family. As for the memories of these key pieces of information—there was fucking none of it at all.