Chen Fan stood atop the City Wall, drawing his gaze away from Crippled Monkey and the others below to look at the Ghosthide Map in his hands. His expression was somewhat conflicted, and he remained silent.
The Green-Robed Man, the first guest to spend the night at the Station, had given him this map.
Tears fell onto his eyelashes, blurring his vision, but he could still clearly see that ninety percent of the Stations that had once shone like stars on the map had gone dark. Only seven or eight Stations remained, holding on in lonely isolation across the Wasteland.
Tonight was the second night of the rainy season.
But—
The Stations across this Wasteland had already been almost entirely wiped out.
Before nightfall, he had specifically checked the Ghosthide Map. There had still been twenty-eight Stations then, all near the depths of the Wasteland. Unable to retreat in time, they had no choice but to endure the rainy season head-on.
And now.
Before even the first half of the night had passed, twenty Stations had fallen.
Among them was the Temporary Station he had built in the wilderness yesterday. Before leaving, he had even placed an eerie stone into its Eerie Fire, planning to return tonight to continue hunting. But plans could not keep up with change, and that Station had also fallen to the strange tide.
Just then!
A flash of White Light suddenly swept across the Ghosthide Map. When it faded, another white dot representing a Station went dark.
Tonight was destined to be sleepless.
No one could sleep.
He did not know how the people at the other Stations were spending this night. Merely imagining their despair and helplessness made his chest tighten.
Soon.
Crippled Monkey returned to the City Wall with the Porcelain Crock on his shoulder. There were too many eerie stones to fit in the sack, so he had simply loaded them into the crock.
"Young Master."
Somewhat out of breath, Crippled Monkey pulled three objects glowing with white light from inside his clothes and handed them over. "I've counted them. Four hundred and eighty-four eerie stones in total, plus three exotic treasures."
"Good."
Chen Fan quickly glanced through the information on the three exotic treasures, then continued watching the gray mist outside the Camp from atop the City Wall.
The Meatworm Wraiths had retreated.
But the danger had not passed. That Female Wraith with the eerie laugh would definitely return.
Still...
This time, he was not afraid. Surviving the meatworm wraith tide head-on had greatly strengthened his reserves. He did not immediately spend his eerie stones to strengthen the Camp.
For now, he needed to appear weak.
The Female Wraith sitting inside the sedan chair, whose appearance remained unknown, clearly possessed some intelligence.
If she discovered that the Camp was too strong, she might abandon her revenge. That was not what he wanted. This Female Wraith would surely drop something good when she died.
The instant the Female Wraith rushed into the Camp, he would increase its strength.
He would feign sleep like the wolf to lure in his prey, then catch her like a turtle in a jar!
Time trickled by.
The meatworm wraith tide had passed, with no sign of returning for now. Not a single strange entity appeared in the gray mist. Clearly, even strange entities had little chance of surviving a meatworm wraith tide.
Yet none of them dared relax in the slightest.
Tonight's strange tide had truly taught them what it meant for "the rainy season to descend and strange tides to run rampant." Such a simple phrase, yet the despair hidden within it was enough to suffocate them.
Just then—
"They're here!"
Crippled Monkey spotted them first and spoke in a hushed voice.
It was now the latter half of the night. Nearly a hundred strange entities finally emerged from the gray mist again, all familiar faces.
Bamboo Pole Entities, Mantis Entities, and Monkey-Head Entities.
Along with a sedan chair carried by four Bamboo Pole Entities.
"You really won't leave us alone."
Chen Fan wiped the rain from his face and deliberately pretended not to have noticed anything. He lowered the City Wall partway into the ground, trying to lure them into charging straight into the Camp. The Arrow Tower could not attack strange entities outside the Camp's boundaries.
If they refused to enter the Camp, there was nothing he could do to this group of strange entities.
But... after he patiently waited for roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, they still showed no intention of attacking the Camp. They merely stood quietly in the gray mist, motionless as wax figures.
"..."
Chen Fan frowned slightly and said quietly, "Little Qiu, go outside the wall and pretend to pick up an eerie stone. Don't actually pick one up, just make a show of it. Come straight back the moment I tell you to."
The 484 eerie stones Crippled Monkey had collected were only those dropped by the Meatworm Wraiths they had killed.
The corpses of the strange entities from the initial fighting still lay quietly outside the City Wall. He had left them there for precisely this moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, Little Qiu immediately descended the Stone Steps and went outside the wall. Pretending to be unaware of anything, he prepared to cut open a corpse and dig out its eerie stone. Normally, these strange entities should have seized the opportunity to charge. After all, the Female Wraith possessed some intelligence.
However...
When Little Qiu stepped outside the wall, the strange entities did not charge. Instead, they slowly retreated until they withdrew from the gray mist and vanished into the Eternal Night.
Utterly bewildered, Little Qiu turned helplessly to look at Chen Fan atop the City Wall.
"Come back."
Chen Fan sighed softly. There was no point wasting any more effort. This Female Wraith was a little smarter than he had expected.
After all—
The fact that the Camp could withstand a meatworm wraith tide said everything. It certainly was not something nearly a hundred strange entities could take down. The Female Wraith had realized this too. Even when he deliberately exposed an opening, she made no move and instead retreated.
For now, he did not know whether she had abandoned her revenge.
Or intended to take her time plotting it.
All he needed to do was remain vigilant.
For the rest of the night, not a single strange entity entered the gray mist near the Camp. Terrifying though the meatworm wraith tide was, surviving its assault created a temporary safety zone in the surrounding area, keeping other strange entities away.
The next instant!
The thick darkness high above, like a layer of lava, rapidly receded like an ebbing tide, revealing rolling clouds that covered the entire sky.
Dawn had come.
They had survived another night.
Inside the Wooden Hut.
Zhou Mo sat beside the Furnace, having long since changed into dry clothes. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he held a pen and carefully wrote on the sheet of Vellum in his lap.
"Today is the third day since the rainy season began."
"Not a single person has died."
"Last night, we endured an assault by a meatworm wraith tide and a probing attack by a High-Ranking Strange Entity. We were fortunate to survive."
After finishing those words.
He looked with a conflicted expression at the thirty circles he had drawn on the inner wall of the Wooden Hut. Two had already been crossed out.
The rainy season lasted thirty days. Throughout that time, strange tides ran rampant, making it extremely dangerous.
The Winter Season that followed those thirty days would not be so difficult to endure. At least there would be no large-scale strange tides ravaging the Wasteland.
Two nights had passed.
To survive this rainy season, they still had twenty-eight days to go.
Just then—
The door to the Wooden Hut was pushed open.
Zhou Mo hurriedly stood and set the Vellum aside. "Station Master."
"Mm."
Chen Fan nodded lightly, casually drying his soaked hair with a towel hanging nearby. He sat beside the Furnace, picked up the Vellum from the floor, and glanced over it before asking offhandedly.
"Keeping a diary?"
"Yeah..." Zhou Mo nodded somewhat awkwardly. "Just writing a little for fun."
"I don't usually keep a diary or anything."
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