"You really know how to spot work that needs doing."

Pinned to the ground by the Spear, the strange entity that resembled an oversized Maggot barely struggled. It soon stopped moving and died on the spot.

"Nicely done!"

There was no time to cut open the corpse. Chen Fan pulled on the remaining ropes, dragging the Beast Traps in from the darkness. Every one held a Maggot Fiend. Crippled Monkey raised his spear again and killed them with one thrust each!

Quick and clean.

Once they were done, Chen Fan tossed the empty Beast Traps outside the Camp again, then took Crippled Monkey back into the Wooden Hut. His eyes brimmed with anticipation as he gazed into the darkness.

The strange entities seemed particularly active tonight.

After about three breaths, another length of Hemp Rope began to twitch.

Another catch.

An hour later.

Chen Fan stood bare inside the Wooden Hut. He took off his soaked coarse-cloth outer garment and wrung it hard with both hands, sending cold rainwater streaming onto the floor. Then he hung it above the Furnace inside the hut and let out a long breath.

They had made a fine haul over the past half hour, with prey getting caught every so often.

But the number of strange entities nearby seemed to be dwindling rapidly. Two incense sticks' worth of time had passed without a single one stepping into a Beast Trap. That also gave him time to get himself sorted out before he caught a chill.

The Wooden Hut made with two eerie stones was different from the one at his home base. It was sturdier and covered a larger area.

It was more than enough to keep out the wind and cold.

Several oil lamps were mounted on the walls to provide light, and a Furnace in the middle of the hut kept it warm. It needed no firewood. Placing a single eerie stone into a recess in the wall would keep it running for a year.

It consumed eerie stones, but it lasted long enough to be far more economical than Eerie Fire.

"Crippled Monkey, you learned a lot back in the day. Do you know what kind of strange entity this is?"

"Never seen it."

Crippled Monkey frowned in thought for a while before shaking his head. "I never saw anything like it in our private-school teacher's illustrated book of strange entities. The ones he taught us to recognize were all common in the Wasteland. Unless..."

"They weren't in the Wasteland before and only arrived recently. Or there are so few of them that people hardly ever find them."

"..."

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes slightly and said nothing more.

As far as he could tell so far...

Aside from its disgusting appearance, this kind of strange entity had shown nothing unusual. It had practically no strength and belonged among the weakest of strange entities. Still... tonight's hunt had confirmed one of his suspicions.

The "strange entities" in the Wasteland might really each have their own territories.

The area around his home base had belonged to the Monkey-Head Ghosts. Once he killed that group, there had temporarily been no other strange entities nearby.

They waited another half hour.

Not a single strange entity stepped into a trap. Before they knew it, both men had lain down on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

Until daylight.

Chen Fan blearily opened his eyes and pushed open the Wooden Hut's door. Cool, refreshing air washed over his face. The darkness had receded, but the downpour outside had not eased at all. Rain hammered the ground, seeping into the cracked Wasteland and breathing a little life into it.

"Time to go."

He looked toward Crippled Monkey, who was busy in the courtyard despite the heavy rain. At some point, Crippled Monkey had already woken up. He was digging every eerie stone out of last night's strange entities and putting them into a basket, then stacking their corpses and moving them onto the handcart.

"Young Master, you're awake."

Crippled Monkey ran through the downpour to the Wooden Hut and reported, "We killed forty-seven strange entities last night and dug out forty-seven eerie stones. They're all in the basket. We can take these corpses back to Camp for fertilizer, but the handcart's too small."

"So I stacked all the corpses on the Handcart and tied them down with Hemp Rope. That makes them much more secure."

"Good work."

"You really know how to spot work that needs doing."

Chen Fan looked at the handcart piled high with corpses, then took his dried Clothing down from above the furnace and put it on. He could not help marveling at how much worry a subordinate like this saved him.

He did not even need to say anything. Crippled Monkey finished the work on his own.

"Heh..." Crippled Monkey scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "For servants like us, it's not too much work we're afraid of. It's having no work to do."

"Let's go. Home."

The rain showed no sign of stopping anytime soon, and they could hardly wait for it to end before returning.

Crippled Monkey pulled the handcart up ahead, while Chen Fan followed behind, steadying the pile of corpses several meters high with his hands to keep them from falling. Cold rainwater trickled down his neck, its chill instantly clearing his head.

The clothes he had just dried last night were soaked through again after only a few steps.

The rain was not the only thing that was heavy.

The wind was fierce too.

Visibility had dropped sharply. Without the Ghosthide Map to guide them, the two of them would certainly have gotten lost in the Wasteland, unable to find their way home. Before leaving, Chen Fan had added another eerie stone to this Camp's Eerie Fire to make sure it kept burning.

It was a long journey.

The trip there yesterday had taken an hour. Today, with the downpour and such a heavily loaded handcart, it took them nearly two full hours to get back to Camp.

"Crippled Monkey, thanks for all your hard work."

Looking through the downpour at the faint outline of the Camp, Chen Fan patted Crippled Monkey's shoulder, feeling a little embarrassed.

Making a man with a bad leg pull a Handcart for two hours genuinely weighed on his conscience. He had tried taking turns with him along the way, but he had exhausted himself after only a few steps. Crippled Monkey might have a bad leg, but he was in much better shape than Chen Fan.

In the end, he could only let Crippled Monkey pull it the whole way.

"It's nothing."

Crippled Monkey wiped his rain-drenched face. Panting heavily, he trudged through the torrential Rain and picked up his pace again, pulling the Handcart toward Camp with a grin. "I don't know why, but even though I used to stay by your side too, Young Master, I always felt lost when I thought about the future."

"Now, whenever I get close to Camp, it feels like coming home."

"Just thinking about it makes me feel less tired."

"It even fills me with energy."

As they talked, the Camp came clearly into view.

"Hm?"

Chen Fan looked at Wang Kui and his subordinate standing outside the Camp in the torrential Rain, puzzled. His eyes narrowed slightly before he went over and cupped his hands in greeting with a smile. "Station Master King, I went out to take care of something and wasn't at the station. What brings you two here...?"

"..."

Standing in the torrential Rain, Wang Kui looked past Chen Fan at the Handcart loaded with corpses of the eerie creatures. Astonishment flashed in his eyes. He stood frozen for a while before remembering why he had come. His throat bobbed slightly, and he spoke with some urgency.

"Station Master Chen."

"This is urgent, so I'll keep it short. This year's rainy season has come a month early!"

"In previous years, the rainy season only started in November. This downpour will last a full month, then the Winter Season will arrive, followed by heavy snow. The Start of Spring won't come until March next year."

"Once the rainy season starts, the Wasteland is sealed off and enters a five-month period with no one traveling through it."

"During that time, every Station in the Wasteland is abandoned. No one passes through."

"They won't reopen until the Start of Spring."