Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• During a night attack, a Female Wraith’s hallucination ability leaves Chen Fan and the men on the wall dazed; Wang Mazi even begins to undress. From inside the Camp, Zhou Mo recognizes the danger and shouts until Chen Fan snaps out of it.
• Chen Fan gets everyone behind the Parapet just as the Wraith’s hair lashes toward them. The Arrow Towers continue firing despite the hallucinations, and a Level-3 fire-element tower pierces and burns the Wraith to death.
• After the fight, the survivors clear the battlefield and secure the Camp. Chen Fan demolishes a damaged four-meter section of wall and rebuilds it for fewer eerie stones than repairing it would cost. The remainder of the night brings only a few easily defeated creatures.
• At dawn, Zhou Mo heads out with a team to scavenge nearby ruined Stations. The others sort the previous night’s spoils: useful materials and wraith blood are collected, and the Flesh Wraith seed in the Farmland is watered.
• The haul includes many eerie stones, three exotic treasures, and a rare Building Blueprint recovered from the Female Wraith. The Sacrificial Tower is finally ready to be tested on the many corpses.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan stays composed under pressure, quickly counters the Wraith’s attack, directs cleanup, and makes a practical, cost-saving decision about the wall.
• Zhou Mo’s warning proves crucial: from inside the Camp, he avoids the Wraith’s influence and wakes the others.
• Wang Mazi is embarrassed by his hallucination-induced behavior. His admiration of the Wraith’s beauty becomes comic banter with Crippled Monkey, then awkwardly continues when A Le skins the corpse.
• The Camp’s people work efficiently as a team, showing growing coordination in combat, watch duty, and salvage.

Significant themes

• Preparation and resilience: defenses, teamwork, and sound leadership turn a dangerous supernatural attack into a survivable one.
• Practicality amid horror: the characters quickly shift from battle to repairs, resource collection, and corpse processing.
• Comedy against grimness: crude jokes and Wang Mazi’s embarrassment contrast with the bleak setting and gruesome work.
• Progress through survival: each attack yields materials and resources that strengthen the Camp for future nights.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan reviews the previous night’s haul: 478 Eerie Stones, ghost materials, and three exotic treasures.
• The treasures are an Altar blueprint, which can heal injuries; a single-use Torch that briefly creates a small Level-1 Eerie Fire; and a mysterious green-grade Wraith Hide, whose contents require a “Human-Blood Wraith Flower” to reveal.
• With the Camp running short on space, Chen plans to expand its walls and upgrade the Eerie Fire. He also hopes to send Zhou Mo to recover Eerie Stones from abandoned Wasteland Stations.
• After resting, Chen replenishes the Eerie Fire’s supply and upgrades it to Level 3. Its safety zone grows to 50 meters, and he receives a rare upgrade option: reduce the Eerie Stone cost of every Camp structure by one, up to 10,000 times per day.
• Chen immediately chooses this “qualitative transformation.” He realizes it makes one-Eerie-Stone components such as Copper Pipes effectively free, opening the way to extend the Camp’s safety zone far more cheaply.

Character developments

• Chen remains practical and resource-conscious, weighing each treasure’s usefulness and postponing investigation of the Wraith Hide until he finds the required flower.
• The rare upgrade sparks new ambition: he begins thinking beyond simply improving the Camp and sees how cheap construction could support a larger plan.
• He recognizes his vulnerability outside his own territory and resolves to prioritize surviving the rainy season before considering a carefully planned visit to Northbank City.

Significant themes

• Resource management and strategic growth: Chen carefully balances construction, defense, and scarce Eerie Stones.
• Adaptation and opportunity: A rare upgrade turns a minor cost reduction into a major advantage through Chen’s knowledge of Copper Pipes.
• Security versus exploration: Chen wants access to Northbank City and its information, but understands that his power depends heavily on his Camp.
• Uneven value of discoveries: A treasure’s usefulness depends on circumstances—the Torch is poorly suited to the rainy season, while the Altar fills an immediate need.

Character interactions

• Chen considers Zhou Mo’s minor injury and the danger of sending him into the Wasteland to gather resources; he also notes that a Level-1 Arrow Tower could kill Zhou Mo despite his being a Level-Two Cultivator.
• The chapter is mostly focused on Chen’s planning and internal calculations. It ends as he considers the 170-kilometer route between Flat City and Northbank City, where travelers rely on Stations to shelter overnight.

Plot and key events

• Chen Fan plans to build a 170-kilometer Highway between the region’s two Stations using Copper Pipes that carry Eerie Fire. The road would enable night-time travel, speed up trade, and let him capture the toll revenue and commercial traffic currently controlled by the Wasteland Camps and North River Market.
• He recognizes that the three major factions of Northbank City will oppose his plans. He intends to use the Rainy Season to build strength, then defeat them and open the Highway.
• After discovering that laying the pipes by hand is too slow, Chen Fan modifies a vehicle into the “Three-Wheeler 2.0.” It requires one person to steer and another to operate Ground Spikes for propulsion. With Qi Chong’s help, he lays ten kilometers of pipe in under an hour, exhausting his daily free allowance.
• Chen Fan plans to build two more Three-Wheelers for resource runs and scouting, in addition to the one for Highway construction.
• To prepare for increasingly dangerous Strange Entities, he upgrades a Level-3 Arrow Tower into a concealed, fixed Arrow Fort. He chooses increased firing speed and confirms that it can fire accurately.
• Zhou Mo returns in distress after Doppelganger Wraiths attack him and his companion. Zhou Mo escapes, but his younger companion is killed and the resources they collected are lost. Chen Fan comforts him briefly, then offers to take him back to fight the wraiths.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is ambitious and strategic, aiming to reshape regional trade while preparing for the military response. He also shows practical ingenuity by adapting the Three-Wheeler and thinking of ways to extend a Builder’s reach.
• Qi Chong works hard on the farmland and then helps operate the vehicle despite exhaustion. He asks for more farmland, but Chen Fan postpones the decision.
• Zhou Mo is shaken by the loss of his companion but reports the danger to Chen Fan. Chen Fan acknowledges his grief while urging action.
• Chen Fan and Qi Chong collaborate on Highway construction; Chen Fan leads the work and drives, while Qi Chong supplies the vehicle’s forward motion. Chen Fan later shifts from testing his new defenses to responding to Zhou Mo’s crisis.

Significant themes

• Expansion and control: Infrastructure is a means to seize economic influence and challenge the region’s established order.
• Innovation through necessity: Chen Fan adapts available technology to solve problems of labor, transport, and defense.
• Preparation amid escalating danger: The Highway project competes with the need to strengthen the Camp against increasingly powerful threats.
• Loss and resilience: Zhou Mo’s companion’s death underscores the Wasteland’s brutality, while Chen Fan’s response turns grief toward immediate action.

Plot points and events

• With nightfall approaching, Chen Fan decides to attack the Impostors near Wang Kui’s former Camp rather than wait. Zhou Mo, shaken by his companion’s death, joins him.
• Chen Fan mounts a level-four Arrow Fort on a Three-Wheeler, creating a mobile weapon he calls an “Arrow Cart.” Its bolts carry lightning and can paralyze and chain to nearby enemies, while its firing rate is upgraded.
• The Arrow Fort cannot fire outside the Camp’s range. Chen Fan solves this by using eerie stones to form an Eerie Fire and draw the Impostors toward the Camp’s attack radius.
• More than thirty Impostors charge them. The Arrow Fort’s lightning bolts kill the older attackers in groups, while Chen drives the cart to keep enemies within range.
• Once the older Impostors are dead, Chen switches tactics: he lays Beast Traps along the pursuit route, capturing the younger ones alive.
• After about ten minutes, the older Impostors are dead and the younger ones trapped. Suspecting babies remain inside the Wooden Hut, Chen sends Zhou Mo to investigate while he provides cover.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows practical ingenuity and tactical discipline. He adapts his weapon to the situation, recognizes the Arrow Fort’s limits, and chooses capture over indiscriminate killing once the younger Impostors appear.
• Zhou Mo is grief-stricken and furious after witnessing his companion die, but channels that emotion into action by driving the cart and then taking on the dangerous search of the hut.
• Wang Kui and Crippled Monkey, left behind at Camp, react with a mix of admiration and uncertainty about Chen’s unconventional invention.

Significant themes

• Resourcefulness under pressure: Chen turns ordinary defenses and a handcart into a mobile fighting machine.
• The value of human life: Chen regards the death of even one person as a serious loss in a harsh world where people are scarce.
• Adaptation and restraint: He exploits the enemies’ weaknesses, then changes from killing to trapping when he sees younger Impostors.
• Limits of technology: The Arrow Fort’s range restriction forces Chen to use a deliberate lure-and-retreat strategy.

Character interactions

• Chen orders Zhou Mo to operate the Power Rod; Zhou obeys despite his grief.
• Wang Kui explains why mobile Arrow Towers have not become common, while Crippled Monkey worries that Chen may have overlooked a major limitation.
• During the attack, Chen directs the cart and protects Zhou Mo as the Impostors pursue them.
• At the end, Chen assigns Zhou Mo to search the hut and promises to cover him.

Key plot points and events

• Zhou Mo confirms that a nearby Wooden Hut contains young Doppelganger Wraiths, whose eerie, unblinking stare frightens him.
• Chen Fan suspects the Rainy Season is a breeding season for strange entities, explaining their heightened aggression and willingness to charge into Eerie Fire.
• Chen Fan orders the captured Impostors brought back alive, hoping their rapid reproduction can yield more eerie stones.
• The group returns with 27 adult Doppelganger Wraiths and 37 young. Chen Fan builds a fortified enclosure—the Breeding Farm—and assigns A Le to manage it alongside his farm duties. He has 268 eerie stones remaining after his construction costs.
• Chen Fan prepares for Eternal Night, positioning his Three-Wheeler, equipped with a Level-4 Arrow Fortress, as an additional defense. He considers mobile arrow towers impractical for most people but potentially scalable for himself.
• At Northbank City, a massive Meatworm Wraith tide attacks the walls. The Wild Wolf Gang leader uses a Token to reinforce the City Wall with rune-covered steel plating, stabilizing the defenses and rallying the defenders.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is pragmatic and entrepreneurial: he turns the Impostors’ rapid breeding into a potential resource, delegates the farm to A Le, and plans to expand his mobile defenses.
• Zhou Mo is deeply shaken by the young wraiths and, grieving the death of Er Gou, privately wonders whether the Camp can survive the Rainy Season.
• A Le eagerly accepts responsibility for raising wraiths, treating the task as a new kind of livestock husbandry.
• The Wild Wolf Gang leader moves from visible fear to decisive action, using the Token to save the wall and encourage his men.
• Chen Fan directs Zhou Mo and the others in capturing the Impostors; Crippled Monkey and the group herd them into the enclosure.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptation: Chen Fan turns a danger into a possible source of resources and treats unusual defenses as opportunities.
• The cost of survival: The Camp’s preparations contrast with Zhou Mo’s grief and doubts, while Northbank City faces an overwhelming assault.
• Nature’s cycles and violence: The Rainy Season may be a breeding period that makes strange entities fiercely territorial.
• Unequal resources: Strategies affordable to Chen Fan may be too costly for ordinary Builders, highlighting his unusual advantages.

Key events

• The Wild Wolf Gang uses its Leader’s Token to shore up a failing section of Northbank City’s wall, spending a valuable defensive treasure.
• With the city under attack by Meatworm Wraiths in the torrential rain, the Chen and Wang families refuse to help, choosing to protect their own estates.
• The Wild Wolf Gang Leader decides that accepting protection money means he must defend the people who paid it. He orders the gang to empty its storehouses and commit all its remaining resources to the city’s defense.
• The decision inspires citizens and merchants to donate their own eerie stone and treasures to the gang. One young gang member leaves his anxious parents to answer the emergency summons, proud that the gang is protecting the city.
• At the Chen Residence, the elders debate the gang’s decision. The First Elder respects its courage but thinks the effort is futile, since the rainy season still has weeks to run.
• The Chen Family Head refuses to join the defense. Instead, he orders disciples to disguise themselves in Wild Wolf Gang clothing and collect the donations meant for the defenders.

Character developments and interactions

• The Wild Wolf Gang Leader chooses duty and loyalty over the gang’s survival, accepting that his decision may destroy the gang’s standing in the city. He consults Elder Zhu, who calmly pledges to follow his lead.
• The young gang member rejects his parents’ hope that he will pursue a safer path with the Chen Family, seeing the gang’s defense as proof of its worth.
• The Chen Family elders show unease about the family’s choices, especially the First Elder’s mixed admiration for the gang and the Second Elder’s awareness that internal strife drove the capable Builder Chen Fan away. They nevertheless obey the Family Head.
• The Chen Family Head openly places the family’s growth above the city’s people, justifying his opportunism by arguing that heaven itself does not care about human suffering.

Significant themes

• Duty versus self-preservation: The Wild Wolf Gang defends the people who depend on it, even when retreat would be safer.
• Solidarity and public trust: The gang’s sacrifice prompts citizens to contribute what they can, creating unity in the face of danger.
• Power and moral responsibility: The Chen Family has the resources to help but chooses to exploit the crisis instead.
• Faith, despair, and selfishness: The chapter contrasts the gang leader’s personal code with the Family Head’s bleak claim that, since heaven offers no help, he owes nothing to others.

Plot points and events

• The Chen Family Head reflects on his choices: he married Chen Fan’s mother, a Level 4 Builder, to restore the family’s strength, but after her death he focused on the clan and neglected his son. Now that Chen Fan has become a Builder, he considers either bringing him back as the family’s future leader—or eliminating him if he refuses and becomes a threat.
• The Chen elders agree that, if Chen Fan survives the Rainy Season and is willing, he should replace the aging Family Head. They consider him far more capable than Chen Quan.
• After a quiet night with no Strange Tide, Chen Fan discovers that maintaining the Eerie Fire across his newly laid ten-kilometer Copper Pipe road consumed extra Eerie Stones. He disconnects the unfinished road to conserve resources.
• Zhou Mo and a young worker depart on the Three-Wheeler to explore abandoned Stations and collect supplies. Zhou Mo is subdued after his brother’s death, and Chen Fan cautions them to stay safe.
• Qi Chong announces that the flower Crippled Monkey planted has bloomed. Chen Fan recognizes it as a Green Grade Human-Blood Wraith Flower, a rare material needed to reveal writing on the Wraith Hide left by the Female Wraith.

Character developments and interactions

• The Chen Family Head remains proud and convinced he did nothing wrong, yet recognizes that Chen Fan’s rise has made his years of effort seem futile. His affection for Chen Fan is conditional on his loyalty to the family.
• The elders quietly unite behind Chen Fan as the strongest candidate to lead the clan, while leaving Chen Quan out of their discussion.
• Zhou Mo’s grief has made him less carefree and more aware of the dangers beyond the Camp.
• Chen Fan responds to the flower’s discovery with restrained satisfaction, rewarding Crippled Monkey with an extra chicken leg and offering one to Qi Chong as well.

Significant themes

• Family duty versus personal resentment: The Chen Head prioritizes the clan and expects Chen Fan to serve it, despite years of neglect.
• Leadership and merit: The elders judge Chen Fan by his ability and character rather than bloodline alone.
• Hard-won survival: Chen Fan manages resources carefully, while Zhou Mo’s departure underscores that danger persists even in daylight.
• Fortune hidden in the ordinary: A flower planted casually in the Camp turns out to be a rare treasure with a crucial use.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan realizes the Human-Blood Wraith Flowers grew by chance despite lacking the membrane typical of seed-type exotic treasures. He harvests them and squeezes their liquid onto the Female Wraith’s hide.
• The hide reveals a poem and a new Green-grade effect: worn against the chest, it can block one lethal attack.
• The poem tells of a Female Wraith who fell in love with a powerful Male Wraith—apparently a Wraith King—and made the hide into a defensive treasure while waiting for him to return during the Rain season.
• Chen Fan fears the Wraith King will come looking for the woman and retaliate for her death. Since Chen’s Camp is the only settlement in the Wasteland, it will be difficult to hide. He considers having the Female Wraith’s preserved skin refined into armor.
• During the Rain, Chen observes the Doppelganger Wraiths he has captured. A Le reports that young strange entities lack eerie stones, which form as they mature. He also finds that the rain seems to contain a special energy: sheltered Doppelganger Wraiths stop mating and become aggressive, but resume mating when exposed again.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen’s confidence in his good fortune is tempered by anxiety about the consequences of killing the Female Wraith. He remains practical, planning to strengthen his defenses and make use of her hide.
• A Le contributes useful observations from his experiments, reinforcing Chen’s effort to understand strange entities before facing them.
• The Female Wraith’s poem reveals her devotion to her beloved and her skill in crafting exotic treasures, giving her death a tragic dimension. Chen reacts with guilt-tinged frustration, since her actions have left him facing a likely powerful enemy.

Significant themes

• Luck and survival: Chen credits luck for his success, but recognizes that survival also depends on preparation.
• Love and sacrifice: The Female Wraith sacrificed part of herself to protect the one she loved.
• Knowledge as power: Chen studies the creatures’ behavior and biology to improve his chances in future conflicts.
• The Rain’s influence: Rain affects different strange entities in distinct ways, suggesting it is a major force shaping life in the Wasteland.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan realizes that the Rainy Season’s month-long downpour is unlike ordinary spring and summer rain, and heads to sleep after obtaining Wraith Hide.
• He resumes extending his buried Copper Pipe Highway at night, aiming to connect Camps through an Eerie Fire network. He recognizes that a growing Camp will need dedicated workers, especially someone to maintain the pipes, and plans to recruit after the Rainy Season.
• Qi Chong reports that one of Wang Mazi’s subordinates secretly kept Eerie Stones when joining the Camp. During the meatworm wraith crisis, the man had withheld them while Zhou Mo risked his life to gather more. Chen Fan tells Qi Chong to keep the matter quiet while he considers it.
• Back at Camp, Chen Fan builds another Level-1 Farmland plot and assigns Qi Chong to transplant crops gathered from other Stations.
• Chen Fan reflects on cultivation: improving from Level 1 to Level 2 is slow and offers limited physical gains, but Zhou Mo’s survival—and the death of Chen Fan’s subordinate—has convinced him that even a small improvement could matter in a crisis.
• With roughly three hundred Eerie Stones available, Chen Fan decides to try upgrading his Wooden Hut, hoping it might unlock a useful benefit such as faster cultivation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan continues planning beyond immediate survival, expanding infrastructure and considering the staffing needed for a larger faction. He is also more willing to invest in personal cultivation after witnessing its potential importance.
• Qi Chong shows loyalty and judgment by telling Chen Fan about the concealed Eerie Stones, despite worrying that the revelation could disturb Camp harmony. Chen Fan trusts him to keep the information confidential.
• Wang Mazi’s subordinate is revealed to have acted selfishly during a crisis, withholding resources while others risked their lives. His conduct raises doubts about whether he can be trusted.
• Zhou Mo’s influence remains significant: he provided Chen Fan with a cultivation manual, and his survival after confronting a Doppelganger Wraith helped change Chen Fan’s view of cultivation.

Significant themes

• Cooperation versus self-preservation: Hoarding resources can endanger the entire group, especially when survival depends on collective effort.
• Building a lasting community: Infrastructure alone is not enough; a growing Camp will need skilled people, reliable maintenance, and trust.
• Preparation and adaptability: Chen Fan invests in roads, farming, cultivation, and experimentation to prepare for future dangers.
• Small advantages can matter: Even slow, modest improvements may make the difference between life and death.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan upgrades the Wooden Hut outside the Camp walls. At Level 2, it becomes sturdier, and he chooses the “Peace of mind” path, suited to its use as a warehouse.
• After spending another twenty Eerie Stones, he upgrades it to Level 3. The hut becomes a two-story Stone House, with much stronger defenses and shelter. He selects a Shadow-Viewing Formation, which lets him observe every corner of the house.
• The upgrades leave Chen Fan with 269 Eerie Stones. He decides to wait before attempting Level 4 and reflects that buildings can undergo major transformations at different upgrade levels.
• Looking across the Wasteland, Chen Fan thinks about the people he has met, the dangers facing the Camp, and his modest wish to build a safe home where he can protect them.
• He recalls two recent deaths: Zhou Mo’s subordinate, whose name Chen Fan never learned, and Wang Mazi’s subordinate, who had secretly kept some Eerie Stones. Chen Fan understands the latter’s hesitation, believing the young man was torn between surrendering his savings and keeping them.

Character developments

• Chen Fan has grown more comfortable in the new world. Its dependable building-upgrade system gives him a sense of security he lacked in his previous life.
• His ambitions become clearer: he does not want to rule or save the world; he wants a secure Camp and to keep the people he trusts alive.
• Chen Fan shows empathy toward Wang Mazi’s subordinate, recognizing that fear, attachment to hard-earned savings, and regret can trap someone in a difficult choice.
• The chapter also reveals his grief and unease over death, despite the Camp’s apparent acceptance of it.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan’s respect and affection for Wang Kui, Zhou Mo, Crippled Monkey, and the Green-Robed Man are emphasized through memories of their help, loyalty, and courage.
• His recollection of Zhou Mo’s subordinate highlights how casually the Camp has continued after a death, while Chen Fan privately remembers the young man.
• Chen Fan interprets Wang Mazi’s subordinate’s conflicted behavior with compassion, even though the young man hid his stones.

Significant themes

• Building and security: Improving the Stone House reflects Chen Fan’s effort to create a reliable refuge.
• Death and survival: The Camp’s silence after a death suggests that danger has made loss routine, though it still weighs on Chen Fan.
• Trust and responsibility: Chen Fan’s desire to protect those who trust him gives his leadership a personal, protective purpose.
• Empathy and human weakness: He recognizes that people’s choices may be shaped by fear, desperation, and regret rather than simple selfishness.
• A modest ideal of happiness: Chen Fan values a safe, peaceful life over power or grand ambitions.

Plot points and events

• As night approaches, Chen Fan weighs how to handle a young Camp member who has apparently withheld eerie stone. He knows that leniency or punishment will shape how the others—especially Qi Chong—judge his leadership.
• Chen Fan considers whether a newly built healing altar could repair the City Wall if connected to it with a Copper Pipe.
• Zhou Mo returns just before Eternal Night with a Three-Wheeler and a heavily loaded handcart, including 578 pieces of eerie stone. Chen Fan welcomes his success but warns him not to return so late. He then asks Wang Mazi’s subordinate to stay.
• While the Camp prepares for a possible invasion, Chen Fan speaks privately with the boy, who calls himself Big Fish. Big Fish explains that he has no surname and survived the destruction of his seaside fishing village, where strange entities descended from the cliffs during a rainy season.
• Seeing Big Fish’s distress, Chen Fan comforts him and urges him to treat the Camp as his new home. Big Fish challenges the familiar advice to “look ahead,” wondering whether the future might bring even greater tragedy.
• Chen Fan answers with deliberately crude humor, making Big Fish laugh through his tears. Big Fish then reveals that he overheard Wang Mazi say he had secretly kept eerie stone and expected Chen Fan to kill him for it.
• In the chapter’s final reveal, Big Fish says he is not a normal Cultivator but a Night Watcher. He claims he can only “look behind,” then discloses that he was born without a penis and describes himself as someone destined to be abused.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows the tension between compassion and authority: he understands why someone might test a leader, but also recognizes the need to protect the Camp’s order. With Big Fish, he chooses reassurance and humor over immediate punishment or interrogation.
• Zhou Mo returns as a capable and enthusiastic Builder, proud of his haul and pleased by Chen Fan’s concern. His role as a Path Guardian is a career he values.
• Big Fish emerges as far more than the quiet, youngest member of the Camp. His past trauma, fear of further suffering, awareness of the alleged hidden stone, and unusual Night Watcher identity suggest deeper abilities and vulnerabilities.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan encourages Zhou Mo’s work while cautioning him about the danger of returning near nightfall.
• Chen Fan’s gentle questions help Big Fish recount his past, while his physical reassurance and promise of a shared future briefly calm him.
• Big Fish challenges Chen Fan’s optimism; Chen Fan responds with irreverent humor that breaks the emotional tension.
• Big Fish confronts Chen Fan indirectly about the hidden eerie stone, revealing that he knows more than Chen Fan expected.

Significant themes

• Leadership and trust: A leader’s response to a subordinate’s actions influences the whole Camp.
• Trauma and survival: Big Fish’s village was destroyed, and his fear resurfaces even in relative safety.
• Hope versus uncertainty: The chapter questions whether looking toward the future is comforting when it may hold further suffering.
• Belonging and identity: Big Fish’s name, lack of a family surname, and final revelation mark him as an outsider struggling to define his place.
• The hidden and the unseen: His claim to be a Night Watcher—and to “look behind”—introduces an unsettling mystery just as darkness falls.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan discovers that Big Fish, whom he had assumed was male, is a girl and a special Cultivator called a Night Watcher.
• Big Fish explains that she was born appearing a hundred years old, and ages backward as her body grows younger. Her mother died giving birth to her; her father concealed her identity and raised her as his own mother.
• As a child, Big Fish was activated during a Strange Tide. Her protective power destroyed the threat—but also wiped out the entire Camp, sparing only her father.
• Years later, when Strange Entities attacked their village, she activated again. This time, everyone—including her father—was killed. She woke younger, with more knowledge of what she was.
• Big Fish later joined Chen Fan’s Camp because she wanted to protect the people around her. She has been carrying ten eerie stones to suppress another activation. She withheld them not to deceive the Camp, but because surrendering them could trigger her power and destroy everyone there.

Character developments

• Chen Fan moves from surprise and awkward humor to serious concern as he realizes Big Fish’s immense power and the danger she poses involuntarily. His questions help uncover her past.
• Big Fish reveals her tragic history and the guilt behind her behavior. Though she longs to protect others, her power makes her unable to distinguish friend from foe, turning her protective instinct into a threat.

Significant themes

• Protection and destruction: Big Fish’s power is driven by the desire to protect, yet its indiscriminate force repeatedly destroys what she wants to save.
• Trauma and guilt: She carries the burden of surviving disasters in which those closest to her died.
• The cost of power: Activation consumes her lifespan and may devastate an entire community.
• Trust and concealment: Big Fish’s secrecy is rooted in fear of harming the Camp, not selfishness.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan initially teases Big Fish about her crude speech and appearance, then listens closely as she explains her abilities and past.
• Big Fish trusts Chen Fan enough to disclose painful memories and explain why she kept the eerie stones.
• Their exchange balances Chen Fan’s blunt, irreverent reactions with Big Fish’s quiet, hesitant confession, ending with the implied danger that the Camp itself could be destroyed if her suppression fails.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan reflects on the Camp’s vulnerability and realizes that exceptional Cultivators can be far more dangerous than ordinary ones.
• Big Fish explains that each time he activates his Night Watcher powers, he gains better control. He vows to protect the Camp, even if that means activating and dying. Chen Fan tells him not to treat self-sacrifice as his purpose and sends him to rest.
• Chen Fan understands that Big Fish is young, has lived only a few years, and carries the pain of having destroyed his own village. He still forgets to ask how Big Fish overheard his earlier conversation with Qi Chong.
• A new group of Strange Entities approaches the Camp: pale, white-robed figures carrying lanterns with red candles. Since no one recognizes them, Chen names them Funeral Wraiths.
• The Camp’s Arrow Towers kill the first Funeral Wraith, but it splits into two after dying. The lantern-bearing original produces another duplicate when killed, while the lantern’s light grows dimmer. Chen orders the Camp to fight, expecting a difficult but manageable siege.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows concern for Big Fish while remaining focused on strengthening and defending the Camp. He tries to discourage Big Fish’s fatalistic view of his role.
• Big Fish reveals his devotion and vulnerability, promising Chen that he will protect him. His childlike manner is explained by his short life and traumatic past.
• Crippled Monkey and the others witness Big Fish’s emotional departure but know only that he has lost his family; their response is restrained, as such losses are common in this world.
• Chen names and studies the unfamiliar Funeral Wraiths, then rallies the others to defend the Camp.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and exploitation: Big Fish sees his powers—and possibly his life—as useful only when spent protecting others.
• Trauma and grief: His past explains both his pain and his determination to protect the Camp.
• Survival through preparation: Chen relies on defenses, observation, and resource gathering, while recognizing that unknown threats leave little room for mistakes.
• The cost of victory: The Funeral Wraiths’ duplication ability turns each apparent kill into a potential increase in enemy numbers.

Key plot points and events

• A huge horde of Funeral Wraiths emerges from the Gray Fog and surrounds Chen Fan’s Camp. Crossbow fire kills them, but their bodies split and multiply, allowing many to reach the walls.
• The wraiths batter the City Wall with their White Lanterns, gradually creating holes. Chen Fan discovers that repairing damage early costs fewer eerie stones, so he repeatedly repairs the wall.
• He connects the Altar to the City Wall with Copper Pipes, creating an automatic repair system that draws eerie stones from the Eerie Fire. The system repairs damage faster and more efficiently than the wraiths can inflict it—at least for now.
• The Breeding Farm’s wall suddenly collapses, releasing the Doppelganger Wraiths inside. Chen Fan then spots a powerful, aged Funeral Wraith carrying a Ghostlight Lantern. Its focused green beams rapidly destroy the Breeding Farm’s thick walls, threatening to overwhelm his defenses.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains inventive under pressure: he identifies how wall-repair costs work and turns the Altar into an automated defense mechanism. His confidence rises when the system succeeds, but collapses into alarm when the stronger wraith appears.
• Crippled Monkey and the others help defend the Camp by using weapons on poles to strike wraiths below the wall.
• The Funeral Wraiths behave in an eerily orderly way, advancing without rushing or climbing over one another. The powerful lantern-bearing wraith stands apart, while the others give it space.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity against overwhelming odds: Chen Fan uses observation and resource management to improve his defenses.
• The limits of preparation: Even a successful automated system cannot guarantee safety when a stronger threat appears.
• Escalating danger: The multiplying horde is already a serious threat, but the lantern-wielding wraith changes the battle by directly demolishing walls faster than Chen Fan can repair them.

Plot points and events

• A Funeral Wraith with a Ghostlight Lantern attacks the Camp from just beyond the Eerie Fire’s range. It destroys the Breeding Farm’s enclosing walls, then blasts a crater into the City Wall, consuming Chen Fan’s limited Eerie Stones to repair.
• Chen Fan upgrades the Eerie Fire to Level 4, choosing to expand the Safe Zone to a 200-meter diameter. The waiting Level-4 Arrow Fortress immediately shoots down the attacker.
• The Funeral Wraith splits into two Funeral Wraith Chiefs—but, unlike ordinary Funeral Wraiths, both retain lanterns. Their combined attacks obliterate a section of the City Wall, collapse an Arrow Tower, and open the Camp’s first breach.
• Chen Fan orders everyone to hold the stone steps, since Funeral Wraiths cannot climb the walls. The Arrow Fortress kills the Chiefs again, but they multiply to four, whose attack demolishes more walls and the Wooden Hut.
• Chen Fan orders the towers to target their limbs, temporarily pinning the Chiefs. The surrounding Funeral Wraiths then kill them, triggering another split: eight Chiefs unleash a devastating barrage.
• With the Camp on the verge of collapse, Chen frantically spends Eerie Stones to rebuild the City Wall and construct a protective ring around the Eerie Fire. A tearful female voice calling “Big brother” reaches him through the rain.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from tactical confidence after expanding the Safe Zone to mounting fear as he realizes the enemy’s numbers—and attacks—grow exponentially. Despite panic and grief over his destroyed buildings, he keeps directing the defense and prioritizes protecting the Eerie Fire.
• Crippled Monkey and the others flee the first blast and regroup across the breach. Zhou Mo and Big Fish join the defense after being awakened.
• Chen’s command to target the Chiefs’ limbs shows his ability to adapt under pressure, though the enemies’ unusual splitting mechanism defeats the tactic.
• The mysterious voice calling Chen “big brother” introduces a new, emotionally charged development amid the crisis.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptation: Chen uses an upgrade and carefully timed tower fire to counter an enemy initially beyond range.
• The limits of preparation: Automatic repairs, defenses, and structures prove inadequate against an enemy whose attacks escalate with every split.
• Attachment and sacrifice: Chen’s distress over the Camp’s destruction reveals how personally he values what he has built, while his urgent defense of the Eerie Fire reflects its importance to everyone’s survival.

Plot points and events

• Big Fish considers activating a powerful ability, but Chen Fan stops him, fearing it would kill them both.
• Sixteen Funeral Wraith Chiefs unleash a devastating beam attack, wrecking sections of the City Wall and destroying a Watchtower. Chen Fan realizes the chiefs have a limit to how many times they can split.
• When the Arrow Fortresses begin killing them for good, the chiefs retreat. Chen Fan builds a second fortress and uses Arrow Rain Storm to pursue them, even as the remaining Funeral Wraiths continue attacking the Camp.
• Chen Fan kills the final chief. At once, every Funeral Wraith still inside the Camp dies, ending the siege.
• Chen Fan and his companions keep watch through the night instead of repairing the badly damaged Camp or venturing outside. At dawn, they discover more than a thousand Funeral Wraith corpses scattered across the wilderness.
• While searching the original chief’s corpse, Chen Fan finds a Wraith Hide bearing orders from a higher-ranking figure: the chiefs were sent to destroy city walls in the Jiangbei Wasteland, clear the way for its arrival, and prepare for its eventual ascension to Wraith King. The message also mentions a planned marriage to someone named Okra.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from frightened and defensive to triumphant once he understands the chiefs can no longer multiply. He prioritizes eliminating them over protecting or repairing his Camp, then turns cheerfully to the spoils.
• Big Fish shows resolve by preparing to use his dangerous ability, but Chen Fan restrains him.
• Chen Fan and his companions endure the night together, taking turns resting and keeping watch. At dawn, they eagerly set to work harvesting the battlefield.
• Chen Fan reacts to the orders with sarcastic disbelief, blaming the dead chief for destroying his Camp and wondering whether Northbank City might compensate him for taking the attack meant for it.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptation: Chen Fan identifies the enemy’s splitting limit and changes tactics to exploit it.
• The cost of defense: The Camp survives, but its walls and buildings are badly damaged.
• Danger beyond the immediate threat: The Wraith Hide reveals that the attack was part of a broader campaign and that a more powerful enemy may arrive later.
• Humor amid danger: Chen Fan’s irreverent reactions offset the siege’s destruction and grim discoveries.

Key plot points and events

• After defeating the Funeral Wraith, Chen Fan surveys the devastation: most of his Camp’s buildings and defenses have been destroyed, leaving only a few Arrow Forts, Arrow Towers, and the Eerie Fire.
• He concludes that remaining in place is too dangerous. The Wraith King is expected to arrive near the end of the Rainy Season, preceded by three more commanders like Thousand Throats; Chen Fan’s Camp is likely to be targeted.
• Though he briefly considers standing his ground, he decides survival comes first and tells his companions they will relocate.
• Chen Fan searches the Funeral Wraith and discovers three valuable treasures: a Windshield Bead needed for a Wind Tower, a Clearwind Formation that boosts movement speed across the Camp, and a Mountain-Skeleton Embryo that can stabilize underground spaces.
• Crippled Monkey brings him ordinary Mourning Lanterns, which are materials for upgrading Arrow Towers into Level-5 Cannon Towers. Chen Fan realizes the Camp has about a thousand of them, making them potentially very valuable. He also finds a green-grade Mourning Lantern, which can both serve as Level-6 Cannon Tower upgrade material and fire a powerful beam up to five times.
• Wang Kui and Little Qiu discover five supply chests containing large quantities of Level-2 Eerie Stones and assorted monster materials. Chen Fan suspects the supplies were intended for a formation to help the Wraith King’s forces attack the cities.
• Chen Fan calls a meeting in the wilderness and explains the coming threat, asking the group to decide where they should move.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from a defiant instinct to a pragmatic decision: he chooses retreat and rebuilding over a likely futile last stand. His resourcefulness is evident as he immediately turns the battle’s aftermath into a profitable haul.
• Crippled Monkey helps by gathering eerie stone and identifying the Mourning Lanterns; Chen Fan appreciates the group’s work and includes them in the relocation discussion.
• Wang Kui and Little Qiu bring Chen Fan the supply chests, adding to the group’s resources and prompting the urgent meeting.
• Chen Fan takes a leadership role, informing the others of the looming danger and inviting their input rather than making the relocation decision alone.

Significant themes

• Survival over pride: Chen Fan rejects a heroic but reckless stand, recognizing that preserving himself and his people matters more.
• Opportunity amid disaster: Even after the Camp’s destruction, the battle yields rare treasures, upgrade materials, and military supplies.
• Preparation and leadership: Chen Fan responds to a larger threat by gathering information, assessing resources, and consulting his companions.
• The escalating danger: The coming of the Wraith King and its commanders signals that the crisis is far from over.

Plot points and events

• After losing much of the Camp in the previous night’s attack, the survivors debate whether to hide somewhere safer or keep fighting for the valuable spoils that come with danger.
• Zhou Mo argues that victory over the Wraith King’s three leaders could bring enough resources to make the Camp powerful enough to challenge the Wraith King. Wang Kui counters that this plan assumes the leaders attack one at a time—and warns that a single defeat could destroy everything they have built.
• Wang Kui proposes separating the Camp’s functions: establish a safe Rear Base for people and support buildings, then build unmanned outposts across the Wasteland, equipped only with walls and Arrow Towers. The outposts could gather resources, lure in strange entities, and warn of threats without putting the main Camp at risk.
• Chen Fan sees additional advantages: his Copper Pipe could help repair outpost walls, and the outposts could serve as a network of scouts. They would let the Camp avoid powerful enemies or draw them toward a more defensible position.
• The group chooses Big Fish’s former village—a Natural Eerie Fire Zone near the northern sea—as the Rear Base site. Its surrounding mountains could funnel attackers toward a single entrance. Chen Fan plans to blast a cave into one cliff, stabilize it with the Mountain-Skeleton Embryo, and defend the cave entrance with a City Wall.
• Chen Fan orders everyone to mine the remaining eerie stone, pack up, and move before dark.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Kui steps forward as a strategic thinker, advocating long-term survival over risky expansion. He wants not only to survive but also to improve his standing and help build a stronger Camp.
• Chen Fan listens carefully, accepts Wang Kui’s proposal, and turns it into a concrete plan based on his resources and abilities.
• Zhou Mo favors continuing to take risks for the rewards, but challenges Wang Kui’s stripped-down proposal with humor. Their exchange shows contrasting instincts: bold growth versus cautious resilience.
• Big Fish contributes a practical solution by identifying a nearby place he knows well, giving the group a viable destination.

Significant themes

• Risk versus security: Bold expansion can bring great rewards, but a single loss may be fatal.
• Resilience and room for error: A strong base should survive setbacks rather than depend on winning every battle.
• Adaptation and strategic flexibility: Separating a secure home base from expendable forward outposts lets the group gather resources while controlling exposure to danger.
• Ambition and upward mobility: Wang Kui’s goals have shifted from merely staying alive to helping the Camp grow—and improving his own future.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan begins relocating the Camp in a plan he names “Earth Dragon Migration.” The group salvages resources, household goods, and surviving farmland seeds, while setting aside some Funeral Wraith corpses as fertilizer and sacrificing the rest.
• As the Camp’s nine members work through the gloomy rain, Chen Fan checks the Sacrificial Tower. Its sacrifice meter is at 198 points; completing it at 500 would yield a green-grade resource, while reaching 2,000 promises a Yellow Grade resource.
• The group has only 1,320 corpses, leaving them short of the 2,000-point threshold. Chen Fan orders the Funeral Wraith Chief’s corpse sacrificed; it contributes 50 points. Further chief corpses from the Wraith’s split bodies allow the group to reach 2,000.
• The sacrifice produces a Yellow Grade Vehicle Workshop Building Blueprint. Chen Fan adds the workshop to his available construction options, seeing it as a major asset for developing his northern base.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is decisive and opportunistic: though eager to relocate, he pushes the sacrifice to its highest possible reward rather than settling for a green-grade resource. His delight at the blueprint reveals how much he values long-term base development.
• The Camp members each take practical roles: Big Fish joins the dissection crew; Qi Chong and A Le sort supplies and recover seeds; Crippled Monkey packs belongings and helps retrieve the Funeral Wraith Chief’s corpse.
• The group works cooperatively under Chen Fan’s direction, laboring for hours without eating or resting.

Significant themes

• Survival through preparation: The migration requires careful salvage, resource management, and planning for a future base.
• Risk versus reward: Chen Fan delays completing the sacrifice to pursue a higher-grade prize, accepting the chance that the group may not gather enough points.
• Making meaning amid danger: Chen Fan gives plans names simply to remember what he has done, suggesting a desire to leave some mark despite the possibility of death.

Plot points and events

• After the Funeral Wraiths destroy his camp, Chen Fan realizes their remains and occasional treasures are valuable resources. He regrets that most of the wraiths died when their leader was killed, before they could split apart.
• Chen Fan orders his people to load the surviving supplies and Strange Entity corpses onto four Three-Wheelers and handcarts. Before leaving, he repairs the camp’s walls, leaves defensive towers in place, and preserves the eerie fire that grants a useful construction-cost reduction during the rainy season.
• He plans to return and connect the old camp to his new base with Copper Pipes, making it an unmanned outpost.
• The convoy leaves Chen Family Station No. 37. As they travel through the rain and fog, the group jokes about naming their new home and playfully suggests taking Chen’s surname.
• After a day’s journey, they reach Big Fish’s former Village, near the sea and outside the Ghosthide Map. With night approaching, they have only time to set up basic structures.
• Chen finds the village enclosed by steep, sheer cliffs, accessible through a long, straight canyon facing the sea. Convinced its natural defenses make it ideal, he orders the convoy onward.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shifts from grief over the camp’s destruction to practical optimism: he sees the Strange Entities as valuable resources and treats the move as a chance to secure a better base. His attachment to the old camp remains, but he can let it go.
• Crippled Monkey supports Chen and helps lead the convoy, matching his master’s renewed enthusiasm.
• Zhou Mo and Wang Kui, along with the others, show growing camaraderie through their banter and shared excitement about the future.

Significant themes

• Loss and renewal: The destruction of the camp forces a departure, but also opens the way to a more defensible home.
• Pragmatism and adaptation: Chen turns threats and wreckage into resources, while preserving useful infrastructure for future use.
• Community and belonging: The group’s jokes about names and family hint at their emerging identity as a community.
• The power of place: The new village’s natural defenses offer the security Chen lacked at his exposed former camp.

Character interactions

• Chen gives Crippled Monkey practical orders, then leads the group out with an upbeat send-off.
• Zhou Mo suggests naming the new settlement; Wang Kui teases him, and the group’s playful talk of adopting Chen’s surname underscores their solidarity.
• At the destination, Chen assesses the terrain and confidently directs the convoy into the canyon.