On the wasteland.
Only after confirming that the young man could not see him from that angle did the man in the green robe, hiding behind the low earthen slope, let out a long sigh. He once again took out an eerie-skin map from his robes, preparing to take a slightly longer detour to the “Jiangbei Market.”
According to his planned route,
after leaving this station, he should have headed straight east.
But.
This wasteland was extremely flat, with an unobstructed view in every direction. He felt that, as an esteemed expert, if he were to walk such a long distance right under those two people’s gazes, it would rather undermine his bearing.
As an esteemed expert, one ought to perform a good deed, then flick one’s sleeves and vanish in the blink of an eye, leaving not even a wisp of cloud behind.
“I really am…”
He could not help shaking his head, somewhat amused by his own childish thoughts. Only after a long while did the curve of his lips gradually fade. Brutality and irritation flickered in his eyes as he turned his head toward the direction of the Chen family’s Station No. 37 in Jiangbei and murmured,
“Back then, why wasn’t there a single person willing to pull me up like this?”
“If there had been… perhaps there would never have been today’s Old Demon of Jiangbei.”
After confirming that the man in the green robe had already gone far away, Chen Fan quickly walked to the haystack behind the wooden hut and took out the “Level 1 Beast Trap,” along with the eerie creature that had fallen for it last night.
The beast trap could be reused multiple times; its drawback was that it could only take effect once per night.
This eerie creature resembled a monkey. It looked just like a small, nimble monkey.
Its monkey mouth took up almost two-thirds of its face, and its densely packed teeth looked extremely unnerving.
Every eerie creature had an Eerie Stone inside its body.
Eerie Stones were also the most important currency in this world.
“Young Master, this eerie creature is called a ‘Monkey-Head Ghost.’ It’s a common low-level eerie creature, usually between levels 1 and 3. It poses little danger, and its distinguishing trait is that it moves extremely quickly. Its Eerie Stone is located at the back of its head.”
“…”
Chen Fan looked at Lame Monkey with slight surprise. “How do you know that?”
He did not even have this memory in his mind. Back in the Chen family, Lame Monkey had only been a servant, so how did he know?
“When we were assigned under Young Master’s name, all of us servants underwent three years of training, including some private school lessons. During class, they taught quite a lot of knowledge about eerie creatures.”
“I see.”
Chen Fan looked thoughtfully at the map in his hand. He did have a vague memory of this. In fact, there were also private school lessons for the core members of the clan, but at the time, his predecessor had been wallowing in self-destruction. How could he have gone to such a place?
“I remember now. Back then, the family also gave you one Eerie Stone and had you absorb it to become a cultivator?”
“Yes.”
Lame Monkey’s voice weakened. “After the training ended, all the servants received one Eerie Stone. A few lucky ones became special cultivators and were personally taken away by the family head.”
“After that, I never obtained another Eerie Stone. My physical constitution is no different from before.”
“They say I’m a cultivator, but there isn’t the slightest aura of a cultivator on me.”
Chen Fan nodded and said nothing more. He also remembered now. Originally, although he had been targeted within the family, it had not been too obvious. But when he turned sixteen and absorbed an Eerie Stone yet failed to awaken as any kind of special cultivator, even the family head, who had still held some hope for him, completely gave up on him.
From then on, his status plummeted.
Very soon—
Lame Monkey rolled up his sleeves, took out a small knife from his robes, cut open the eerie creature’s corpse, and dug out an Eerie Stone covered in blood. Only after wiping it clean on his hemp clothes did he hand it to Chen Fan.
At this point,
together with the two Eerie Stones inside the “Eerie Flame,” he possessed a total of three Eerie Stones.
“…”
Chen Fan moved a chair out from inside the hut and sat beside the Eerie Flame, thinking over his grand plan for earning Eerie Stones next. He did not need to go to the “Jiangbei Market” to find an architect to construct buildings for him. These basic buildings were things he could build himself.
He just needed enough Eerie Stones.
He had a way to quickly obtain “Eerie Stones.”
Wholesale “Eerie Flames.”
This building was widely used in this world, and the market for it was also huge. Many “architects” could also produce “Eerie Flames” and take them to the market to sell. The listed price was around sixty Eerie Stones.
The cost was around fifty Eerie Stones.
Almost every architect could build this structure, so there was not much of a premium.
But—
his cost was only three Eerie Stones. Even if he sold them for fifty Eerie Stones each, he could quickly amass a fortune.
Only…
it would be a little too conspicuous, and it would smash many people’s rice bowls. Moreover, this place was still a long distance from the “Jiangbei Market,” and he could not go that far for the time being.
He still had to focus first on the “Beast Trap.”
A beast trap could only catch one eerie creature at most in a single night, but that was mainly because it was a single-target trap. If, after it caught an eerie creature, the trap could be retrieved and reset at the same time, then it could continue working.
After eternal night descended, he certainly would not enter the darkness to reset the beast trap.
But there was no need for a person to go in.
He only needed to make a small hemp rope. By pulling the beast trap from the darkness back into the safe zone, he could reset it again.
“Lame Monkey.”
Chen Fan raised his head and looked at Lame Monkey. “Do you know how to weave hemp rope from dry grass?”
“Yes.”
“You’re simply a genius.”
He could not help sighing in admiration. “Your task today is to use the pile of dry grass behind the wooden hut to weave a few hemp ropes. They don’t have to be too long; three or four meters will do. I’ll go out to gather information. After you’re done, catch up on some sleep during the day. We’ll take action tonight.”
“Understood.”
Lame Monkey answered crisply and directly, without asking at all what the hemp ropes were for.
After arranging Lame Monkey’s task, Chen Fan took a few pieces of dry flatbread from inside the hut and quickly swallowed them down with water from the copper kettle. Once he had more or less filled his stomach, he left the camp, holding the “eerie-skin map,” and walked toward the nearest Eerie Flame.
He planned to take a look at the situation at the other stations.
The difficulties currently before him were not limited to having too few Eerie Stones. There were also issues like insufficient food and water resources.
This “eerie-skin map” was very useful. Not only did it display the real-time status of nearby Eerie Flames, a green light dot representing the holder would also appear on the map to ensure one would not get lost. As for the red Eerie Flame on the map, whose color was different from the other Eerie Flames, that was his camp.
He climbed over a small earthen slope
and walked west the whole way.
About thirty minutes later, he saw the Eerie Flame camp closest to him.
He lay flat on the cracked wasteland and observed carefully.
“It should be a Level 2 Eerie Flame…”
“Otherwise, its safe range wouldn’t be able to accommodate this many wooden huts. Seven wooden huts in total: two large ones and five small ones.”
“But there are no walls.”
“There’s also a patch of reclaimed farmland.”
“Four people in total.”
He observed while murmuring to himself. Those four people seemed to all be members of this camp. There did not appear to be any passing travelers. Indeed, just as the man in the green robe had said, this station’s environment looked much better than theirs.
Under the same overnight fee of one Eerie Stone, his station had no competitiveness at all.
P.S. A new book sets sail. I hope everyone will like the story this time. You can support the author through adding it to your collection, leaving comments, giving tips, monthly tickets, and so on. Thank you all for your support. My deepest thanks.