Stockpile Grain, Bide Your Time Before Claiming the Throne!

But what had happened during the day made him clearly realize that not many pedestrians passed through this area!

He could not earn many Eerie Stones by charging lodging fees. If he wanted to live long enough, he had to obtain "Eerie Stones" by killing Strange Entities.

He could not simply sit back and eat away at his reserves.

He needed a stable source of income!

The next moment—

He thrust his arm into the scorching flames of the "Eerie Fire." Strangely, neither his skin nor his clothes suffered the slightest damage. He took an intact Eerie Stone from the fire pile, held it together with the Eerie Stone he had just harvested in his palm, and slowly closed his eyes.

Immediately after!

Under Crippled Monkey's disbelieving gaze, the two Eerie Stones in his hand rapidly melted, turning into milky-white liquid that streamed through his fingers. Before it could touch the ground, it transformed into dozens of illusory white threads that floated in midair, arranging themselves in a pattern before gradually solidifying.

A few seconds later.

A "steel Beast Trap" fell from the air and landed on the ground.

This was the Level 1 Beast-Trap Snare he had just created using two Eerie Stones. It could harm low-level Strange Entities and continuously bring him Eerie Stones!

"It worked."

Chen Fan stood where he was, looking at the exceedingly simple Beast Trap on the ground with a smile. The tangled emotions brought by suddenly transmigrating into this dangerous, unknown world—tension, fear, confusion—dispersed considerably at that moment.

At least there was hope.

He was no longer desperate.

"Young Master!"

Having witnessed everything with his own eyes, Crippled Monkey's face had gone pale, and he was trembling with excitement. Yet after glancing at the Wooden Hut, he forcibly lowered his voice and said in a quavering tone, "Young Master, you actually awakened as a Builder!"

"And you succeeded on your very first attempt at construction!"

"As long as Master learns this news, Young Master, you can immediately return to the Lineage and receive the very best treatment. No one will ever be able to bully you again."

"Master will definitely seek justice for all the injustice you have suffered these past years!"

"No."

A glint shone in Chen Fan's eyes as he chuckled softly. "I don't particularly like having others decide things for me."

Several hundred years ago, Eternal Night descended.

The world order instantly collapsed. Countless people died at the hands of "Strange Entities," and corpses lay scattered across the land. Yet through the probing and sacrifice of countless lives, people gradually discovered a way to survive.

All one had to do was absorb an "Eerie Stone."

It could strengthen one's physique, and one could even learn spells to fight Strange Entities, becoming like an immortal.

Such people were collectively known as "Cultivators."

However—

In this world, hiding was the mainstream way of survival. No matter how powerful a "Cultivator" was, he could not fight the endless tide of Strange Entities in the darkness. When Eternal Night descended, if one did not stay near "Eerie Fire," even overwhelming strength would eventually be worn down to death.

And then there were the small number of lucky ones.

After absorbing an "Eerie Stone," they became special Cultivators. These Cultivators often possessed particularly unusual abilities.

For example, "Nightwalkers" could still retain a certain range of vision after Eternal Night descended.

Then there were "Alchemists," who could combine Strange Entity corpses with spiritual herbs of heaven and earth to refine pills with all manner of miraculous effects.

Compared with ordinary Cultivators, special Cultivators such as "Nightwalkers" and "Alchemists" were far more powerful and possessed more methods. They would be honored guests in any faction, and if they were willing to sign a contract and join, they would receive substantial monthly stipends.

Among these special Cultivators, one kind held the highest status and was also the rarest: "Builders"!

"Eerie Fire," for instance, was created through a Builder's methods. Apart from Builders, no one could create a construction like Eerie Fire. Without Builders, this world would have perished long ago.

Whether it was the towering City Walls of every city or the defenses around the headquarters of each Lineage, all of them came from the methods of "Builders"!

To judge the foundations of a faction, one only had to see whether it had a Builder.

The foundation of the "North River Chen Family" was an Attendant who was a Level 5 Builder!

The Chen Family had seventy-seven outposts, and the "Eerie Fire" at every single one had been made by that Attendant. Those outposts also continuously brought the Chen Family enormous income.

And he—

Had now become a "Builder" as well.

Only—

His was a little more advanced. According to the memories in his mind, none of the current "Builders" could directly use "Construction Blueprints." After killing high-level Strange Entities, there was a small chance for Construction Blueprints to drop. Other Builders could only follow the appearance of the constructions depicted on the blueprints, gather the corresponding materials, add Eerie Stones, and grope their way through repeated attempts at construction.

Once they succeeded, they would remember the recipe, regard it as an unspoken secret, and pass it down orally.

Take "Eerie Fire" for example. It was the most common construction and one of the few whose recipe had leaked. The currently widespread construction recipe was, "Ten to thirty Eerie Stones, a strand of Impostor Ghost hair, the head of a Back-Bearing Ghost, the heart of a Daylight Ghost, a strand of withered grass, and seven materials in total."

But in reality—

According to the "Eerie Fire" blueprint among the basic constructions on his panel, creating an "Eerie Fire" required only three Eerie Stones and a strand of easily picked withered grass as kindling.

As for why such a complicated recipe had been produced—

It was entirely because others could not see the complete information displayed in the "Construction Blueprint." Through trial and error, after those seven messy materials were fused together, all the other materials dissolved into one another, leaving only that strand of withered grass.

It could be simply understood as countless bugs stacking together until the process somehow ran smoothly.

Miss even one step, and it would collapse all over again.

Nor did Eerie Stones need to be spent in such large quantities. Without directly using a Construction Blueprint, energy loss would occur. But by directly using a Construction Blueprint, his energy utilization rate reached 100%. Compared to other Builders, constructing a building cost him less and was more stable.

If others climbed a mountain by taking winding mountain roads, then he climbed it by cable car. Between two points, the straight line was the shortest.

More efficient, more direct, faster!

"Phew."

He let out a soft breath, carefully placed the "Level 1 Beast Trap" at the edge of the circle of light, then kicked it into the darkness and began anticipating the harvest at dawn.

He did not intend to return to the "North River Chen Family."

If it had been the original owner of this body, he would surely have wanted to return to the Chen Family at once, since he had wanted his father's approval. But Chen Fan had no such messy thoughts.

Once a man began seeking another person's approval, half his life was already ruined.

Besides, even if he wanted to go back, he could not.

Without a Message Talisman and sufficient travel funds, he could neither return to the Lineage nor contact it.

What he had to do was slowly build a shelter that belonged to him here. Only after accumulating enough power to protect himself would he consider other matters.

This world did not only have ghosts that ate people at night. It also had ghosts that ate people during the day.

He could not only think about dealing with Strange Entities.

Stockpile grain, bide your time before claiming the throne!

These six words would be his plan for the coming period.

He was going nowhere.

He would plant himself here for good!

(End of Chapter)