Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan’s convoy crosses a rain-lashed Canyon and reaches a large Village hidden inside the Mountain just before Eternal Night. Chen notices that rainwater vanishes instead of pooling, and that the Canyon’s ground has no Rifts.
• Zhou Mo demonstrates his strength by striking a mound with a Hammer. The crater and the straight Canyon seem to match the shape of a hammer blow, prompting the group to wonder whether a colossal strike created the landscape and the Rifts across the Wasteland.
• Zhou Mo rejects the idea as impossible, estimating that the force required would demand a Cultivator far beyond any plausible level. Chen Fan calms the group, treating the idea as speculation and suggesting that an unexplored world might be exciting rather than frightening.
• Big Fish reveals that the mound Zhou Mo struck is his father’s grave, built from especially hard soil. He had also made graves for the others before leaving. Zhou Mo apologizes and hurriedly repairs the damage.
• Chen leads the group into the Village to set up a basic camp. At night, the Natural Eerie Fire Zone protects the settlement, where the group builds a simple Blockhouse as the rain softens.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains observant and level-headed, noticing the strange behavior of the rain and easing the group’s fear with practical reasoning and optimism.
• Zhou Mo is initially confident in his knowledge of cultivation, but becomes alarmed by the implications of the crater theory. After accidentally damaging Big Fish’s father’s grave, he shows deep remorse.
• Big Fish reveals a personal act of remembrance: he buried his father and made graves for the group. His calm forgiveness shows how much he values his new companions, whom he now considers family.
• Wang Mazi jokes about Zhou Mo’s accidental grave-smashing, teasing him even as the group recovers from the awkward moment.
• The group moves between shared curiosity, mounting unease, and renewed warmth, with Chen’s leadership helping them settle into their new surroundings.

Significant themes

• The Wasteland’s mysteries: The Canyon’s unusual drainage, missing Rifts, and hammer-shaped landscape raise questions about the world’s origins and the scale of its hidden forces.
• Fear and possibility: The same unsettling speculation that frightens the group also hints at a much larger world to explore.
• Found family and remembrance: Big Fish’s graves honor the dead while underscoring the bonds he has formed with the living.
• Care amid hardship: Zhou Mo’s apology, Big Fish’s forgiveness, and the group’s teasing show compassion and humor persisting in a dangerous world.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan and his group spend the night at the New Camp, which has only a makeshift Blockhouse and one Level-3 Arrow Tower. Chen Fan keeps watch with the powerful Ghostlight Lantern while the exhausted others sleep in shifts.
• A large Strange Entity watches the Camp through the night but never attacks. At dawn, the group finds seventy or eighty Strange Entity corpses at the foot of the cliffs; they had fallen to their deaths while jumping down. Big Fish explains that this happens during the rainy season, though the bodies usually disappear by morning.
• Chen Fan suspects the watching creature may normally feed on the fallen Strange Entities. He orders the others to clear the corpses and demolish the village houses, then leaves with Crippled Monkey for the Old Camp.
• Chen Fan plans to use that day’s seven-thousand-meter Copper Pipe allowance to finish connecting the two Camps, having built ten thousand meters the day before.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is tired and strained from days of interrupted sleep, but stays vigilant and takes responsibility for protecting the group.
• Crippled Monkey asks whether Chen Fan intends to create a Family. Chen Fan explains that he wants a broader faction based on ability, loyalty, and contribution—not blood ties or surnames.
• Chen Fan tells Crippled Monkey that he trusts him completely, wants him to train with Zhou Mo and become a powerful Cultivator, and will prioritize him for resources. Though Crippled Monkey doubts himself because of his disability, Chen Fan encourages him, and he responds with renewed determination.
• Their exchange turns lighthearted when Crippled Monkey takes Chen Fan’s motivational talk about changing the world literally; Chen Fan admits he was simply trying to encourage him.

Significant themes

• Practical survival and resourcefulness: Chen Fan makes do with limited defenses, conserves equipment, and uses each day’s construction allowance rather than letting it expire.
• Belonging beyond blood: Chen Fan’s vision for his faction values loyalty and contribution over family ties, aiming to give people with different backgrounds a genuine place in the Camp.
• Trust and self-belief: Chen Fan’s confidence in Crippled Monkey helps him overcome self-doubt and commit to improving himself.
• Exhaustion and vigilance: The night’s danger and Chen Fan’s growing fatigue underline the relentless strain of surviving in this world.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan returns to the Old Camp, where he finds the aftermath of an attack by thirty or forty Monkey-Head Entities. The Camp itself suffered no damage. He decides not to collect the corpses now, leaving that task for Zhou Mo and the others.
• Chen Fan continues laying Copper Pipe from the Old Camp toward the Village, completing the connection between the two settlements.
• At the flattened Village, he rejects Zhou Mo’s suggestion to build the New Camp there. Instead, he begins making the mountain into a secure Rear Base.
• He upgrades a Level-3 Arrow Tower into a Level-5 Cannon Tower, choosing greater firepower. The tower’s white beam proves powerful but can only slowly break through the unusually hard cliff.
• After several hours, the Cannon Tower creates the beginnings of a cave. Chen Fan builds a City Wall across its entrance; it fits the uneven opening by conforming to the mountain.
• He places ten Level-5 Cannon Towers along the wall and orders them to continue excavating. Rain keeps the construction site nearly dust-free.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows lingering attachment to the Old Camp, but remains practical: he prioritizes completing the road and postpones corpse collection. He also demonstrates patience and resourcefulness, adapting his plans as he learns how effective—and costly—his new towers are.
• Zhou Mo takes initiative by reporting that the Village has been leveled and asking whether it will become the New Camp. He and the others help clear rubble from the cave.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan tells Crippled Monkey not to haul corpses without a flatbed cart, explaining that the trip is meant to be brief.
• Zhou Mo consults Chen Fan about the cleared Village; Chen Fan turns down the proposed site and redirects the group toward building the Rear Base.
• Chen Fan directs the workers as they clear debris and later commands the Cannon Towers to resume firing.

Significant themes

• Practical planning and resource management: Chen Fan weighs transport limits, tower costs, and the value of using immovable Cannon Towers efficiently.
• Security and resilience: The mountain’s hardness is an obstacle to excavation but also promises a stronger natural defense for the Rear Base.
• Steady progress through labor: Connecting the Camps and carving out a base depend on repetitive work and sustained effort.
• Adaptation to a hostile world: Chen Fan turns available structures and resources into tools for travel, defense, and construction.

Key plot points

• Chen Fan and his exhausted companions spend the day excavating a Cave to serve as a secure Rear Base. Progress is slow because they lack manpower and equipment, and the Cave still needs more work before it can hold the planned buildings.
• Chen installs two Exotic Treasures inside an Eerie Fire: the Clearwind Formation, which boosts movement speed and clears dust, and the Mountain-Skeleton Embryo, whose bones stabilize the surrounding rock and prevent further cave-ins.
• The Vehicle Workshop is too large to fit inside the Cave. Chen refuses to put it outside, where an attack could destroy it.
• After sending the others to sleep, Chen expands the Camp’s reach through Copper Pipes and builds five Watchtowers. He hopes to spot and attack the huge creature that has been watching him at night.
• When Eternal Night falls, the creature returns. Chen lights the pipes and Watchtowers, revealing a massive crocodile-like monster gathering a Strange Entity’s corpse. Startled, it drops the corpse and flees into the Canyon.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen is pragmatic and protective: he thanks the workers, lets them rest, and takes the night watch himself rather than sharing the danger.
• His private thought—“How could I let another sleep beside my bed?”—underscores his possessive determination to keep the threat away from the people sheltering in the Cave.
• Zhou Mo reports the limits of the day’s work, while Wang Mazi, Qi Chong, Crippled Monkey, and the others show their exhaustion. They accept Chen’s offer to watch over them and quickly fall asleep.
• Chen’s calm preparation contrasts with the monster’s caution: he studies its patterns, lays out a detection network, and waits for the right moment to reveal it.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: Chen uses limited resources strategically, building defenses before expanding the base further.
• Safety versus ambition: The Rear Base is still incomplete, but Chen prioritizes secure shelter and protection over placing vulnerable structures outside.
• Isolation and responsibility: While others rest, Chen bears the danger alone.
• The unknown threat: The creature is revealed to be powerful and wary, leaving its motives and future danger unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• A gigantic, crocodile-like creature races out of the Canyon Passage and disappears. Its speed and strength impress—and concern—Chen Fan.
• Big Fish explains that villagers have seen the creature on the Mountain during daylight. They first called it the “Mountain Ghost,” then the “Mountain God” after realizing it seemed harmless and timid. Chen Fan remains unsure whether it is a strange entity.
• Big Fish reveals his Night Watcher ability, Clairaudience, which lets him hear sounds from as far as ten thousand meters away, though it works unpredictably.
• The night passes without further threats. By day, Chen Fan orders the Level-5 Cannon Tower to demolish the temporary hut and continue excavating the Cave.
• The group’s Flesh Wraith Parent-Child Seeds fail to thrive after being transplanted, but ripen early into twelve pairs of fruit. The fruit lets two people communicate telepathically within a hundred li for seven days. Qi Chong notes that an Artifact Refiner could turn it into more effective Message Talismans; Chen Fan assures him they will get one.
• As the exhausted crew rests after a long day of construction, Zhou Mo brings out an “Eternal Night Calendar” and asks how many nights have passed since the rainy season ended.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan assesses the creature cautiously, manages the camp’s construction and supplies, and remains focused on improving its communication and defenses.
• Big Fish has abandoned his former disguise and now speaks in his natural feminine voice. He explains both the Mountain God sightings and his Clairaudience ability; Chen Fan finds the skill useful but sends him back to sleep.
• Qi Chong reports the crop losses and offers practical knowledge from his time with the Sky-Pacifying Merchant Association. Chen Fan responds encouragingly and entrusts him with storing the fruit.
• The crew continues the exhausting relocation and excavation work, with Zhou Mo trying to prompt the others to keep track of time.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and perception: The crocodile’s behavior and daylight appearances leave its true nature unclear; villagers’ changing name for it reflects how understanding reshapes fear.
• Adaptation and cooperation: The group responds to crop failure by preserving what they can and considers turning the fruit into a communications resource.
• Building security and community: Excavation, farming, supply management, and better communication all serve the effort to establish a safer, more sustainable camp.

Plot points and events

• Zhou Mo, Wang Mazi, and Wang Kui discuss how many nights they have survived. It is the eighth night, and Northbank City’s group has endured roughly a third of the Rainy Season—an unprecedented feat in the city’s recorded history.
• Zhou Mo explains that he keeps a Diary to preserve what happens and notes that traditional Eerie Fire recipes are unnecessarily complicated, likely because people profit from selling the required materials.
• Chen Fan tells everyone to sleep while he takes watch. The Cave has been excavated to twenty-seven meters; he plans to finish it the next day, while placing the planned vehicle factory in a separate Cave.
• During the night, the crocodile returns with the corpses of strange entities. It confronts Chen Fan with a loud roar, but its trembling reveals its fear. When Chen Fan stays still, it eats more than thirty corpses and leaves.
• Chen Fan concludes that the crocodile is powerful but timid, perhaps unintelligent, and has an unusually large stomach.
• The group survives the ninth night. At dawn, work begins again: this is the final day of clearing new ground, completing the Rear Base’s initial groundwork.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains determined to survive, unlike others who are more accustomed to the prospect of death. His calm, watchful response to the crocodile shows growing confidence and helps him learn more about its behavior.
• Zhou Mo values recording history and preserving practical knowledge, even while living under constant threat.
• Wang Kui and Wang Mazi serve as companions in the camp’s everyday conversations, reflecting the group’s shared exhaustion and uncertainty.
• Chen Fan acts as the group’s leader, directing the others to rest and preparing the camp for the next stage. The crocodile’s wary standoff with him develops into a tentative, unspoken understanding: it eats only after he does not attack.

Significant themes

• Survival and resilience: The group’s nine-night streak marks meaningful progress against the Rainy Season’s dangers.
• Memory and legacy: Zhou Mo’s Diary and the survival knowledge passed between generations preserve human experience amid repeated destruction.
• Fear and power: The crocodile’s intimidating display contrasts with its obvious terror, while Chen Fan’s restraint lets him assess the threat without escalating it.
• Practical progress: The Cave and Rear Base represent efforts to turn temporary survival into more secure living conditions.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan and the Camp members finish excavating a Cave 36 meters into the Mountain, creating a defensible Rear Base for the rainy season. The Mountain-Skeleton Embryo stabilizes the Cave and helps clear rubble.
• The exhausted workers—especially Crippled Monkey—take pride in the work. Chen Fan judges the Cave much safer than the exposed Old Camp.
• The group inventories supplies left behind after Thousand Throats and the Funeral Wraiths were defeated. After accounting for the Cannon Towers’ heavy use, the Camp has 16,492 Eerie Stones.
• Chen Fan moves the Eerie Fire into a protected recess, upgrades it to Level 4, then Level 5, and expands its safe zone to 1,000 meters—covering the whole Canyon Hollow. He seals the recess behind a small city wall and designates the Cave as a restricted core area; future recruits will live elsewhere.
• He builds resting houses, a monitored warehouse, farmland, a Sacrificial Tower, and an Altar. The Cave gradually becomes a functional home.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan demonstrates foresight and careful leadership: he prioritizes the Camp’s security, protects the Eerie Fire from possible sabotage, and plans separate housing for future recruits.
• Crippled Monkey is physically exhausted but deeply satisfied. He values useful, demanding work far more than his former life with the Chen Family.
• Chen Fan and the workers cooperate to finish the Cave, with the Mountain-Skeleton Embryo providing crucial assistance.

Significant themes

• Hope and survival: The Cave represents a secure future through the rainy season.
• Home and community: Hard work and new facilities transform an empty excavation into a place to live.
• Security and trust: The Camp is friendly for now, but Chen Fan recognizes that growth brings risks and protects its most vital asset.
• Purpose through labor: Crippled Monkey’s pride reflects the dignity he finds in being useful.

Plot and events

• After the group settles into the new Cave, Chen Fan appoints Wang Kui warehouse keeper and orders the supplies moved from the Old Camp. Qi Chong, who has cooking experience, is tasked with preparing a hot meal and liquor for a housewarming feast.
• Chen stays behind to upgrade the Cave entrance’s 21-meter City Wall. Each meter costs 50 Eerie Stones, bringing the entire wall to Level 2. The upgrade makes it taller and sturdier, lets it seal against the Mountain, and encases the Cannon Towers for protection.
• Chen chooses an unknown qualitative transformation rather than the ordinary options. It gives all connected City Walls Thorn Counterarmor, reflecting a small portion of incoming attack force back at attackers.
• With more than 10,000 Eerie Stones available, Chen immediately upgrades the wall again to Level 3, hoping to better withstand the unknown Wraith King. Wang Kui watches the stones he was about to store vanish into the upgrade, leaving him disappointed that his new warehouse has nothing in it.
• None of the 21 Level-3 upgrades produce another qualitative transformation. Chen selects Wraith Blood Vein Patterns for every section; these can absorb blood from strange entities within the Camp and slowly strengthen the wall. The wall’s potential height rises to ten meters.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan demonstrates confidence as a leader, delegating practical tasks before focusing on defense. He is pleased by the Level-2 transformation and cautious enough to spend heavily on Level 3 because the Wraith King remains an unknown threat.
• Wang Kui is thrilled to become an official warehouse keeper after years as a low-ranking Worker Bee, but his pride is punctured when Chen spends the incoming stones before he can store them.
• Qi Chong reveals that he has worked as both a farmer and a cook, and readily takes charge of dinner.
• Chen gives Wang Kui responsibility and instructions, then assigns Qi Chong the cooking, while the men prepare the feast and supplies below.

Significant themes

• Building security through resource management: Chen invests a large share of his newfound wealth in layered defenses rather than taking risks with the Wraith King.
• Leadership and community: Alongside fortifying the Camp, Chen organizes food, rest, and a housewarming celebration for his people.
• Luck and uncertainty: Chen treats his successful transformation as good fortune, but accepts that the next upgrades may not bring another rare benefit.

Plot and key events

• After completing much of the Earth Dragon Migration and shaping the Cave, Chen Fan and his companions hold a modest housewarming feast atop the City Wall. The Level-5 Eerie Fire illuminates the Canyon Hollow, giving the Camp an unusual sense of safety.
• The quiet evening is interrupted when twenty or thirty dead Strange Entities fall from the cliff. The group assumes the familiar giant crocodile has brought them, as it has been visiting to feed.
• The crocodile cautiously enters the lit Camp and approaches the corpses while keeping one eye on Chen Fan. It swallows the bodies whole.
• Chen Fan throws an Eerie Stone beyond the wall, hoping to feed the creature. Startled, the crocodile flees, but soon returns, finishes the remaining corpses, and cautiously approaches the stone. It sniffs it, then looks up at Chen Fan with confusion and apparent anger.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Fan quietly savors the feast as a reward for the effort he has invested in building a shelter. He is calm around the crocodile and hopes it can eventually coexist peacefully with the Camp.
• Zhou Mo and the others share in the celebration, but the falling corpses abruptly turn their attention to the threat. Zhou Mo asks why Chen Fan threw the stone, prompting him to explain his theory.
• Chen Fan infers that the crocodile seeks the eerie stones inside Strange Entities, not their flesh. He suspects intelligent beings hunt Strange Entities for these stones during the Rainy Season.
• The crocodile appears wary but not openly hostile. Its tentative return suggests curiosity, though its reaction to the stone hints that Chen Fan may have misunderstood or offended it.

Significant themes

• Small comforts amid hardship: A hot meal and a safe, illuminated Camp become meaningful achievements in a hostile world.
• Building security: The feast celebrates the gradual creation of a refuge, though danger remains close at hand.
• Observation and uncertainty: Chen Fan uses the creature’s behavior to form a theory, but the crocodile’s reaction shows how much remains unknown.
• Potential coexistence: Chen Fan tries to turn a recurring visitor into a peaceful neighbor through an offering, but trust between humans and strange creatures is fragile.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan tries to feed the enormous crocodile a Level-2 Eerie Stone. It reacts as if hurt and retreats, but stops when he calls it back.
• Realizing it wants food, Chen tosses it a chicken drumstick. The crocodile eats eagerly, so he has Qi Chong roast the Camp’s stored strange-entity corpses for it.
• The crocodile consumes all the meat but still seems hungry, then leaves. The group speculates about what kind of creature it is and why it cannot digest eerie stones.
• Chen calls off the night watch, confident that the newly upgraded Level-3 City Wall is secure.
• Soon afterward, hundreds of strange entities tumble from the cliff, leaving a mound of corpses and visible exotic-treasure lights.
• The crocodile returns, settles beneath the wall, and looks up at Chen expectantly—apparently bringing the fallen entities as a new supply of food.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from cautious feeding to recognizing the crocodile’s preference for cooked meat. He orders the corpses roasted and later remains composed as the strange events unfold.
• The crocodile is revealed as huge but gentle, timid, and remarkably responsive to Chen’s voice. Its eager, almost petlike behavior contrasts with its intimidating appearance.
• Zhou Mo, Wang Kui, Wang Mazi, and Crippled Monkey discuss the creature’s nature. Zhou Mo suggests the eerie stones may be indigestible to it; Crippled Monkey realizes this could mean eerie stones remain unclaimed in the mountains.
• The group’s shared unease gives way to curiosity, then renewed astonishment when the crocodile returns with the cliff’s strange-entity “harvest.”

Significant themes

• Appearance versus nature: The crocodile looks terrifying but behaves like a shy, food-motivated animal.
• Communication and trust: A simple call and an offered drumstick establish a tentative bond between Chen and the creature.
• Unintended consequences: Chen’s feeding appears to prompt the crocodile to return with an enormous supply of corpses—though exactly how it caused them to fall remains unclear.
• Mystery and survival: The creature’s identity, the strange entities’ territorial behavior, and the glowing treasures remain unexplained.

Key plot points and events

• After the crocodile waits beneath the City Wall with its mouth open, Chen Fan orders the Camp to roast Strange Entity corpses for it. The workers spend the entire night feeding it; by dawn, it has eaten 127 corpses and leaves reluctantly.
• While everyone sleeps, Chen Fan reviews the Camp’s resources: it gained over 600 Eerie Stone, bringing its total to 4,755, and obtained two Exotic Treasures:
  • Skywake Cannon: a single-use item that dispels darkness over a wide area for ten breaths.
  • Sunflower Seed: grows in Level-2 Farmland and matures in seven days; praise and encouragement improve its yield and quality. Chen plans to give it to Qi Chong.
• Chen plans to recruit more people after the Rainy Season and eventually fortify the Canyon Passage, the only practical entrance to the Camp’s natural stronghold.
• Just as he is about to sleep, the crocodile returns with an emerald, cape-shaped stone, seemingly offering it as thanks for the meal. When Chen doesn’t take it, the crocodile swallows it, digs a hole in the cliff, and gestures for Chen to follow so he can choose another “toy.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan manages the crocodile cautiously but begins to see it not just as a source of resources, but as a friendly creature capable of gratitude. He is amused and touched by its gift, while remaining exhausted and practical about the Camp’s needs.
• The crocodile behaves docilely, eagerly accepts the food, and returns to express thanks in its own way. Its apparent generosity and strength—digging into rock that even powerful defenses struggle to damage—make it both endearing and formidable.
• Zhou Mo and the other workers endure an exhausting night preparing food. Zhou reports the crocodile’s enormous appetite before everyone finally gets to rest.

Significant themes

• Unexpected friendship and reciprocity: The crocodile’s gift reflects a sincere bond, even though it does not understand Chen’s practical hopes for their relationship.
• Resource management and survival: Feeding the creature brings rewards, but costs labor and food preparation time, highlighting the Camp’s shortage of manpower.
• The uncanny alongside the ordinary: Strange Entities, eerie resources, and supernatural treasures are handled through mundane concerns such as cooking, fatigue, and construction.
• Power and vulnerability: The crocodile is powerful enough to dig through hard rock, yet it behaves with the simple eagerness of a grateful friend.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan asks the Crocodile to dig a second cave in the cliff beside their camp. The creature understands, works through the day, and removes the excavated earth by swallowing it.
• The Crocodile finishes a cave about the size of the main one, but roughly fifty meters deep, with a level, sturdy floor. Its work consumes 127 strange-entity corpses and leaves it exhausted.
• Chen Fan praises the Crocodile, has Qi Chong bring it food, and names the new chamber Cave No. 2.
• He spends 1,000 Eerie Stones to build a Yellow Grade Vehicle Workshop inside it. The workshop can make a Bone Boat or Skeleton Horse, each costing 100 Eerie Stones plus strange-entity bones. Upgrading it costs 2,000 Eerie Stones and unlocks another vehicle blueprint.
• Chen Fan immediately orders a Skeleton Horse. It emerges from the workshop on a conveyor belt: a metallic, flame-eyed skeleton with burning hooves. He is thrilled by its fierce appearance.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows practical leadership, using gestures to communicate with the Crocodile and arranging for the Mountain-Skeleton Embryo to reinforce the new cave.
• The Crocodile proves intelligent, capable, and eager to please. Though it and Chen Fan cannot speak to each other, it responds to his approval and happily waits for food.
• Chen Fan’s excitement over the Skeleton Horse reveals his taste for intimidating, dramatic equipment.

Themes

• Cooperation across differences: Chen Fan and the Crocodile work together despite having no shared language.
• Resource costs and progress: New infrastructure and vehicles offer powerful benefits but consume valuable stones, bones, and other resources.
• Ingenuity and expansion: The new cave and workshop help the camp develop beyond its original limits.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan rides his Skeleton Horse through the Canyon Passage to the seaside, exhilarated by its speed and control. He pauses on the rocks to look out over the sea, resolving to explore beyond it someday, then returns to camp.
• Satisfied with the horse, he crafts a second one for Zhou Mo and tells him to train on it and start collecting resources from fallen outposts.
• Chen Fan devises a defensive plan for the Canyon Passage: cannon towers built into the cliffs and city walls that can rise to trap invaders. He names the setup the “Meat Grinder.”
• The plan depends on Crocodile digging tunnels through the rock and on using inactive Eerie Fire to bring the passage within camp boundaries when needed.
• Chen Fan lays Copper Pipe through the passage and discovers that the Clearwind Formation makes the Skeleton Horse faster within camp territory.
• He establishes five inexpensive Unmanned Outposts across the Wasteland, each with a small wall and four Level-2 Arrow Towers. They are linked by Copper Pipe and intended to generate resources during eternal night, with little concern if they are destroyed.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan grows more confident and ambitious, enjoying his new mount and thinking ahead about exploration, resource gathering, and defense.
• Zhou Mo is enthusiastic about receiving a Skeleton Horse, which suits his childhood fantasy of roaming as a sword-wielding hero. He eagerly accepts Chen Fan’s assignment.
• Chen Fan considers Crocodile’s digging ability a possible solution to the difficult tunnel work, treating the creature as a practical construction asset.

Significant themes

• Preparation and strategic thinking: Chen Fan turns the camp’s geography and available tools into layered defenses.
• Expansion through infrastructure: Copper Pipe links territory and outposts, extending both mobility and resource collection.
• Exploration and ambition: The sea represents unknown territory Chen Fan intends to reach eventually.
• Pragmatic risk-taking: The outposts are designed to pay off over time, and their low cost makes their loss acceptable.

Plot and key events

• Chen Fan returns to camp along the newly activated Copper Pipe, which has made travel much faster. Zhou Mo arrives from the Old Camp with about three hundred Strange Entity corpses; Chen orders them processed through the camp’s established system.
• After checking camp resources, Chen tests the crocodile’s ability to follow instructions. It accurately excavates a passage from Cave One to a point high on the canyon wall, proving far more capable than Chen expected.
• Chen brings Zhou Mo, Wang Kui, and Wang Mazi to inspect the new opening. He explains that the camp’s defenses must combine strong walls with overwhelming firepower: the Old Camp fell partly because it could not field enough towers against the Funeral Wraith Chief.
• Chen installs a Level-5 Cannon Tower behind a concealed, Level-2 wall at the opening, powered by Copper Pipe. He then proposes placing towers high around the canyon, using additional Eerie Fires to extend the camp boundary beyond its usual fifty-meter limit.
• He calls the planned system the “Meat Grinder.” Zhou Mo worries about its enormous cost, but Chen argues that it would be used only in a life-or-death crisis—and that defeating such a dangerous enemy should bring substantial rewards.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows strategic foresight and confidence, learning from the Old Camp’s destruction and prioritizing concentrated firepower as well as fortification. He is also comfortable taking ambitious risks because his special panel makes Eerie Fires much cheaper for him.
• Zhou Mo is practical and cautious: he reports the corpses, questions the need for more defenses, and raises concerns about the cost and limits of the plan.
• Wang Kui reacts nervously to the height of the new passage, while Wang Mazi is puzzled by how the crocodile found the marked spot.
• The crocodile demonstrates unusual intelligence and precision, understands Chen’s directions, and eagerly seeks his approval after completing the excavation.

Significant themes

• Learning from failure: The destruction of the Old Camp drives Chen to address the weakness of relying too heavily on walls.
• Preparation and adaptability: The camp’s defenses are designed to scale vertically and unleash concentrated force against formidable threats.
• Cost versus survival: Chen treats the expense of extreme defenses as worthwhile if they may determine the camp’s survival.
• Cooperation with Strange Entities: The crocodile’s usefulness suggests that even unusual creatures can become valuable allies when understood and directed.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan continues preparing shallow holes in the cliff face for future Level-5 Cannon Towers, using the Crocodile’s corrosive green liquid to fill them. The Crocodile soon runs out and signals that it needs to return home to replenish its supply.
• Wanting to offer Chen Fan a toy in return, the Crocodile persuades him to visit its lair. Since the Skeleton Horse cannot climb the mountain, Chen rides on the Crocodile’s back as it charges up a path it has cleared through the trees.
• From the summit, Chen gets his first view down into the Rear Base and spots Zhou Mo and the others, though the wind and rain drown out his attempt to call to them.
• The Crocodile leads Chen through its underground home, proudly showing him several orderly, well-lit storerooms packed with thousands of preserved Anomaly corpses—including meat Chen had previously cooked for it.
• In the lair’s main chamber, Chen finds the Crocodile’s sleeping area and a collection of assorted “toys.” As he considers taking a hoe, he notices several glowing exotic treasures among the pile and is stunned.

Character developments

• Chen remains resourceful and practical, preparing for future defenses despite lacking enough eerie stone for more towers. He also shows consideration by accepting the Crocodile’s invitation rather than rejecting its attempted gift.
• The Crocodile reveals unexpected speed, strength, organization, and hospitality. It is eager to share its home and possessions with Chen, and its extensive food stores suggest it is strongly motivated by fear of hunger—or at least likes to stockpile.

Significant themes

• Trust and companionship: The Crocodile and Chen communicate through gestures and have developed a friendly, reciprocal relationship.
• Preparation and resourcefulness: Chen plans defenses ahead, while the Crocodile has built a well-equipped lair and preserved large reserves.
• Unexpected value: Objects Chen initially views as mere toys include valuable treasures, hinting that the Crocodile’s collection may contain more than curiosities.

Character interactions

• The Crocodile signals its needs and intentions through gestures, then carries Chen up the mountain and enthusiastically gives him a tour.
• Chen responds with amusement and encouragement, appreciating the Crocodile’s work and pretending to consider its toys as gifts.
• Chen briefly tries to shout to Zhou Mo’s group below, but they cannot hear him through the storm.

Chapter Summary

• Chen Fan discovers Crocodile’s treasures. In Crocodile’s pile of discarded “toys,” Chen Fan finds five exotic treasures, including an Eternal Night Land Deed, which grants its holder ownership of all land within the camp, and a Wind Tower blueprint. Crocodile is reluctant to give up some of them, but agrees when Chen offers five hundred roasted corpses as payment.
• A cesspit turns out to be valuable. On the way back, Chen notices a pit full of waste and eerie stones near the cave entrance. Crocodile demonstrates that it uses the pit as a toilet. Realizing the stones can strengthen the camp’s defenses, Chen asks for them; Crocodile agrees, but makes clear it will not carry the waste in its stomach.
• The camp gathers to collect the stones. Chen returns with Zhou Mo and the others, who enthusiastically shovel the eerie stones out of the pit, clean them, and pack them into five chests. Chen supervises rather than joining the work, while Crocodile watches from the rain with an unreadable expression. The group collects 4,492 stones, mostly Level-1.
• There is even more to find. After the first pit is emptied, Crocodile uncovers another long-sealed pit full of waste and stones. Crocodile retreats from the smell, while Zhou Mo and the others rush to begin collecting again, delighted by the unexpected windfall.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Chen Fan shows his opportunistic, strategic side: he bargains for Crocodile’s treasures and recognizes that the eerie stones can speed up construction of the camp’s “Meat Grinder” defenses. His friendly approach—offering food and promising more “toys”—helps maintain his bond with Crocodile.
• Crocodile is affectionate and cooperative, treating the treasures as toys and agreeing to trade them, but it also has clear preferences and limits. Its reactions to Chen’s demonstration with an eerie stone provide comic contrast to Chen’s excitement.
• Zhou Mo and the camp residents eagerly work together to recover the stones. Wang Kui’s delight reflects how valuable the growing stockpile is to the camp.
• The group’s relationship with Crocodile is playful and trusting, though its silent, complicated gaze as they mine its cesspit suggests it may have mixed feelings about their enthusiasm.

Significant Themes

• Resourcefulness and survival: Even waste becomes a strategic resource when it contains materials needed for defense.
• Trade and companionship: Chen and Crocodile cooperate through an informal bargain that balances friendship with exchange.
• Comic reversal: What appears to be a disgusting cesspit becomes, to Chen and his people, a “mountain of gold.”

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan’s group finishes excavating a second dung pit and hauls the recovered supplies back to camp. The haul includes more than a thousand eerie stones, bringing the camp’s total to 12,975.
• Back at camp, Qi Chong tends the Level-2 Farmland and praises the Sunflower Seed growing there. He is determined to care for it properly after feeling responsible for the premature loss of the previous Flesh Wraith Parent-Child Seed.
• Chen Fan plans camp upgrades and spends 50 eerie stones to raise his Stone House to Level 4. He can choose between an Artifact Workshop, an Alchemy Workshop, and a Life Workshop; lacking the specialists required for the first two, he chooses the Life Workshop.
• The new workshop can craft everyday items from strange-entity materials. Chen Fan follows its instructions to make a Token, using a strange-entity bone, his own blood, and a prescribed heating, hammering, and quenching process. The Token can carry permissions Chen Fan assigns, allowing its bound holder to exercise them on buildings under his authority.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is practical and resourceful, eagerly calculating how many defensive towers the new eerie stones could fund and exploring the workshop’s capabilities. He is also considerate enough to hesitate before taking the glowing stones from Crocodile’s cave, even though they would help light the camp.
• Qi Chong shows loyalty and conscientiousness through his painstaking care of the Sunflower Seed, despite his embarrassment at having to offer it praise.
• Zhou Mo and the others help transport the recovered supplies, while Crocodile assists with the hauling and indicates there is nothing more to find.

Significant themes

• Survival through preparation: The group treats eerie stones and other resources as vital defenses against the deadly Rainy Season and Eternal Night.
• Responsibility and care: Qi Chong’s devotion to the seed reflects his sense of duty, while Chen Fan’s upgrades aim to protect and organize the camp.
• Growing authority and infrastructure: The Life Workshop and its permission-granting Token show Chen Fan’s expanding ability to develop the camp and delegate control over its buildings.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Fan grants Crippled Monkey a blood-bound Token that lets him pass through Cave No. 1’s Level-3 City Wall.
• He upgrades the Altar twice, bringing it to Level 3. He chooses portable Holy Water at Level 2, then stronger healing at Level 3; a further upgrade is impossible for now because it requires rare materials.
• He builds a concealed Level-2 City Wall at the entrance to Cave No. 2, completing the night’s major construction.
• As Eternal Night falls, the camp’s residents settle into their various duties while the Crocodile waits to be fed and prepares to dig tunnels.
• Little Qiu presents Chen Fan with a bone-crafted Rocking Chair he made in the Life Workshop. Chen Fan finds it restorative and puts Little Qiu in charge of the workshop.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan continues to strengthen the camp while weighing practical needs against limited manpower. His Altar upgrades show a preference for useful, balanced improvements rather than simply maximizing one feature.
• Little Qiu reveals that he learned craftsmanship from his blacksmith father. Wanting to contribute despite limited abilities, he uses the Life Workshop to make Chen Fan something personally helpful. Chen Fan recognizes his effort and entrusts him with responsibility for the workshop.
• The camp’s members each contribute in small but coordinated ways: cooking, organizing supplies, tending crops, feeding the Crocodile, and helping maintain the camp. Crippled Monkey also cares for the Crocodile by cleaning its teeth.

Significant themes

• Collective effort and community: The camp’s security and comfort depend on everyone taking on practical work.
• Leadership and trust: Chen Fan delegates authority when he sees genuine initiative, giving Little Qiu a meaningful role.
• Progress through practical choices: Upgrades and construction are guided by the camp’s immediate needs and available resources.
• Rest amid hardship: The rocking chair offers Chen Fan a rare moment of comfort, highlighting the exhaustion behind his ongoing work.

Key plot points and events

• After the Camp’s recent troubles, Chen Fan relaxes in his rocking chair and falls asleep. Watching him, Zhou Mo sees him as more than the Camp’s leader: he seems like the wall keeping the darkness at bay.
• In Northbank City, the Wild Wolf Gang Leader admits the gang has lost too many resources to reliably defend the city through the rest of the Rain season. He refuses to blame the North River Chen Family, knowing it would only provoke them, and decides to keep defending the city for now—while prioritizing his members’ lives if another major disaster strikes.
• A mysterious cultivator, close to becoming a Wraith King, discovers that Thousand Throats is dead. Thousand Throats had been sent to destroy two cities’ walls and carry supplies for a Blood Sacrifice Formation, including the precious Mountain-Skeleton Embryo.
• Unwilling to delay his breakthrough until next year, the cultivator orders Millennium and Thousand Lakes to travel to the Jiangbei Wasteland. They are to investigate Thousand Throats’ death, recover or find another Mountain-Skeleton Embryo, and gather resources.
• Thousand Lakes warns that Nameless Mountain is forbidden because a legendary figure once cultivated there and left behind a crater with a single, immensely powerful hammer blow. The cultivator hesitates, aware that even becoming a Wraith King would not make him a match for that figure.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan appears vulnerable and peaceful in sleep, yet his presence reassures the Camp and symbolizes its protection.
• Zhou Mo quietly shifts from casual companionship to reverence, recognizing Chen Fan as the Camp’s living safeguard.
• The Wild Wolf Gang Leader shows restraint and responsibility: despite severe losses, he avoids escalating conflict with the Chen Family and refuses to sacrifice his subordinates merely to preserve the city.
• The would-be Wraith King reveals his ambition and impatience. The loss of Thousand Throats threatens his plans, but he presses ahead and dispatches two powerful subordinates.
• Millennium obeys without objection; Thousand Lakes questions the order, forcing their master to confront the danger and taboo surrounding Nameless Mountain.

Significant themes

• Protection and leadership: Chen Fan’s quiet presence offers security, while the Wild Wolf Gang Leader defines leadership as protecting people, not merely territory.
• Sacrifice and survival: The city’s defense comes at a terrible cost, and leaders must decide what—and whom—they can afford to risk.
• Ambition versus limits: The cultivator’s drive to become a Wraith King pushes him toward dangerous choices, while the legend of Nameless Mountain reminds him that greater powers exist.
• Uncertainty and looming danger: The Rain season continues, Northbank City remains vulnerable, and the Wraith King’s agents are heading toward Jiangbei.

Key plot points and events

• A powerful figure referred to as “my King” decides to send his followers across the Dead Sea to Nameless Mountain in search of the Mountain-Skeleton Embryo. He believes the person known as “That One” will not return and is eager to seize the opportunity to advance to Wraith King during the current rainy season.
• Chen Fan finds that the night passed safely and inspects the seventeen passages Crocodile dug into the cliffs. He equips them with Level-5 Cannon Towers, City Walls, and energy-supplying Copper Pipes, creating an elevated defensive network that covers the Sinkhole.
• Chen Fan has 2,135 Eerie Stones left. Zhou Mo and Big Fish are away gathering supplies, and Chen Fan rides out to establish more Unmanned Outposts, which cost relatively few stones.
• In Jiangnan, a white-dressed woman offers the Green-Robed Man marriage, a place in her powerful forest city, and eventual control of it. He refuses: he intends to travel to Jiangbei and kill the members of an old enemy’s family during the man’s upcoming birthday gathering.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains practical and security-minded. He expands the Camp’s defenses while worrying about its limited supply of Eerie Stones.
• Crocodile has worked hard through the night, digging a network of passages, but is now asleep; Chen Fan is amused to discover he needs rest too.
• The King and his followers are preparing an expedition to Nameless Mountain, with the promised reward of favor and support after the King’s advancement.
• The white-dressed woman proudly presents her city and tries to persuade the Green-Robed Man with marriage and security.
• The Green-Robed Man admires the city’s construction but remains committed to revenge, dismissing marriage in favor of a planned massacre.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: Chen Fan fortifies his Camp while rival powers make plans of their own.
• Ambition and opportunity: The King risks acting now to exploit the rainy season and reach Wraith King.
• Security versus freedom: The woman offers the protection and stability of her city, but the Green-Robed Man chooses his own dangerous path.
• Resourcefulness and cost: Strong defenses and impressive cities require substantial resources, making scarcity and sacrifice recurring concerns.