"You're Simply a Genius."

On the Wasteland.

The man in the green robe hid behind a low earthen slope. Only after confirming that the youth could not see him from this angle did he let out a long sigh, pull another Ghosthide Map from his robes, and prepare to take a longer route to North River Market.

According to the planned route,

he should have headed straight east after leaving this station.

But.

This Wasteland was extraordinarily flat, offering an unobstructed view in every direction. He felt that, as an expert, walking such a long distance right under the two men's noses would somewhat diminish his bearing.

An expert ought to flick his sleeves after doing a good deed and vanish in the blink of an eye, leaving behind not even a wisp of cloud.

"I really am..."

He could not help shaking his head, somewhat amused by his own childish thoughts. Only after a long while did the smile at the corner of his lips gradually fade. Violence and irritation flickered in his eyes as he turned his head toward Jiangbei Chen Family Station No. 37 and murmured,

"Why was no one willing to lend me a hand like this back then?"

"Then... perhaps there would be no Jiangbei Old Devil today."

After confirming that the man in the green robe had gone far away, Chen Fan quickly walked to the haystack behind the Wooden Hut and retrieved the "Level 1 Beast Trap," along with the Strange Entity that had fallen victim to it last night.

The Beast Trap could be used repeatedly, but its drawback was that it could only activate once per night.

This Strange Entity resembled a monkey and looked like a small, delicate little ape.

Its mouth took up nearly two-thirds of its face, and its densely packed teeth looked utterly horrifying.

Every Strange Entity contained an Eerie Stone within its body.

Eerie Stones were also the most important currency in this world.

"Young Master, this Strange Entity is called a Monkey-Head Ghost. It is a common low-level Strange Entity, generally between Levels 1 and 3, with relatively low danger. Its defining trait is its extremely fast movement speed. Its Eerie Stone is located at the back of its head."

"..."

Chen Fan looked at Crippled Monkey in slight surprise. "How do you know that?"

He had no memory of this in his mind. Crippled Monkey had merely been a servant in the Chen Family back then, so how did he know?

"When we servants were assigned under Young Master's name, we all underwent three years of training. That included lessons at a private school, where we were taught quite a bit of knowledge about Strange Entities."

"I see."

Chen Fan thoughtfully looked at the map in his hand. He had a vague memory of this. In truth, there was also a private school for the Lineage's core members, but his former self had been wallowing in self-destruction at the time. Why would he have gone to such a place?

"I remember now. The Lineage gave you an Eerie Stone back then and told you to absorb it to become a Cultivator?"

"Yes."

Crippled Monkey's voice weakened. "After the training ended, every servant 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 condition was no different from before."

"They called us Cultivators, but there was not the slightest trace of a Cultivator's aura on us."

Chen Fan nodded and said no more. He remembered as well. Although he had been targeted within the Lineage before, it had not been too obvious. But after he absorbed an Eerie Stone at sixteen and failed to awaken as any sort of special Cultivator, even the family head, who had once held hopes for him, completely abandoned him.

From then on, his status plummeted.

Very soon—

Crippled Monkey rolled up his sleeves, pulled a small knife from his robes, cut open the Strange Entity's corpse, and dug out an Eerie Stone stained with blood. Only after wiping it clean on his coarse hemp clothing did he hand it to Chen Fan.

At this point,

counting the two Eerie Stones from the Eerie Fire, he possessed three Eerie Stones in total.

"..."

Chen Fan carried a chair out from the hut and sat beside the Eerie Fire, considering his grand plan for earning Eerie Stones. He did not need to go to North River Market to find a Builder to construct buildings for him. He could build these basic structures himself.

He simply needed enough Eerie Stones.

He had a method to quickly obtain "Eerie Stones": mass-producing "Eerie Fires."

This building was widely used in this world, and the market for it was vast. Many Builders also made Eerie Fires and brought them to the market for sale, pricing them at around sixty Eerie Stones.

The cost was around fifty Eerie Stones.

Almost every Builder made this building, so there was not much markup.

But—

His cost was only three Eerie Stones. Even if he sold them for fifty Eerie Stones each, he could quickly rake in a fortune.

Only,

it would draw too much attention and smash many people's rice bowls. Besides, North River Market was still a long distance from here, 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 catch at most one Strange Entity per night, but that was mainly because it was a single-target trap. If, after it caught a Strange Entity, he could retrieve the Beast Trap and reset it, it could continue working.

After Eternal Night descended, he definitely would not enter the darkness to reset the Beast Trap.

But no one needed to go in.

He only needed to make a small hemp rope. He could pull the Beast Trap from the darkness into the Safety Zone, then reset it.

"Crippled Monkey."

Chen Fan raised his head and looked at Crippled Monkey. "Do you know how to braid hemp rope from withered grass?"

"Yes."

"You're simply a genius."

He could not help sighing. "Your task today is to braid several hemp ropes from the pile of withered grass behind the Wooden Hut. They do not need to be too long—three or four meters will do. I'm going out to gather information. Once you're done, catch up on sleep during the day. We have work tonight."

"Understood."

Crippled Monkey answered crisply and decisively, without asking what the ropes were for.

After assigning Crippled Monkey's task, Chen Fan took several pieces of dry flatbread from 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 Ghosthide Map as he headed toward the nearest Eerie Fire.

He planned to check on the other stations.

The difficulties before him were not limited to having too few Eerie Stones. He also lacked food and water.

This Ghosthide Map was very useful. Not only did it display the real-time status of nearby Eerie Fires, but a green point representing its holder would also appear on the map, ensuring that he would not lose his way. The Eerie Fire marked in red, unlike all the other Eerie Fires on the map, was his camp.

After crossing a small earthen slope,

he headed west.

After roughly thirty minutes, he saw the Eerie Fire camp nearest to him.

He lay flat on the cracked Wasteland and observed carefully.

"It should be a Level 2 Eerie Fire."

"Otherwise, its Safety Zone could not accommodate so many Wooden Huts. Seven Wooden Huts in total—two large and five small."

"But there is no City Wall."

"And there is a reclaimed Farmland."

"Four people in total."

He muttered as he observed. Those four people seemed to all belong to this camp, and there did not appear to be any passing travelers. Just as the man in the green robe had said, this station's conditions really were better than theirs.

With the overnight fee being the same—one Eerie Stone—his station had no competitive edge whatsoever.

PS: The new book has set sail. I hope everyone will enjoy the story this time. You can support the author by bookmarking, commenting, tipping, voting with monthly tickets, and so on. Thank you all for your support. My deepest thanks.

(End of Chapter)