"You're a genius."

On the Wasteland.

The Green-Robed Man hid behind a low mound. Only after making sure the boy could not see him from that angle did he let out a long sigh and take another Ghosthide Map from inside his robe, preparing to take a longer detour to North River Market.

According to his planned route.

He should have headed straight east after leaving this Station.

But...

The Wasteland was extremely flat, with an unobstructed view. He felt that, as an esteemed expert, walking such a long stretch under the pair's watchful eyes would be rather undignified.

An esteemed expert ought to wave his sleeve and vanish in the blink of an eye after performing a good deed, leaving not a trace behind.

"Honestly, I..."

He shook his head, amused by his own childish thoughts. After a while, the smile slowly faded from his lips. Brutality and irritation flickered in his eyes as he turned toward Jiangbei Chen Family Station No. 37 and murmured.

"Why wasn't a single person willing to lend me a hand like this back then..."

"If someone had... perhaps the Jiangbei Old Devil wouldn't exist today."

Only after confirming that the Green-Robed Man had gone far away did Chen Fan hurry to the haystack behind the Wooden Hut and retrieve the Level-1 Beast Trap, along with the strange entity caught in it last night.

The Beast Trap could be reused many times, but its drawback was that it could only trigger once a night.

This strange entity resembled a monkey, looking like a small, compact ape.

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

Every strange entity had an eerie stone inside its body.

Eerie stones were also this world's most important currency.

"Young Master, this strange entity is called a Monkey-Head Ghost. It's a common low-level strange entity, usually between levels 1 and 3, and poses relatively little danger. Its distinguishing feature is its extremely fast movement speed. The eerie stone is located at the back of its head."

"..."

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

He had no such information in his memories. How had Crippled Monkey, who had only been a servant in the Chen Family, learned it?

"When we were assigned to serve you, Young Master, all of us servants underwent three years of training. That included some lessons at a private school, where we learned quite a bit about strange entities."

"I see..."

Chen Fan nodded thoughtfully. He had a vague memory of that. There had actually been a private school for the family's core members as well, but his predecessor had been wallowing in despair back then. He would never have gone to a place like that.

"I remember now. The family also gave you an eerie stone to absorb so you could become a Cultivator?"

"Yes."

Crippled Monkey's voice grew quieter. "After the training ended, every servant received one eerie stone. A few lucky ones became special Cultivators and were personally taken away by the family head."

"I never received another eerie stone after that. My physical abilities are no different from before."

"I'm called a Cultivator, but there's no trace of a Cultivator's aura on me."

Chen Fan nodded and said nothing more. He remembered now, too. Although he had originally been singled out within the family, it had not been too blatant. But when he absorbed an eerie stone at sixteen and failed to awaken as any kind of special Cultivator, even the family head, who had still held out hope for him, gave up on him completely.

After that, his status plummeted.

Soon—

Crippled Monkey rolled up his sleeves, took a small knife from inside his robe, and cut open the strange entity's corpse. He extracted a blood-covered eerie stone, wiped it clean on his hemp-cloth tunic, then handed it to Chen Fan.

With that.

Including the two eerie stones in the Eerie Fire, he now had three eerie stones in total.

"..."

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

He just needed enough eerie stones.

He had a way to acquire eerie stones quickly.

Selling Eerie Fires wholesale.

This building was widely used in this world, and its market was huge. Many Builders also made Eerie Fires and sold them at the Market, priced at around sixty eerie stones.

The cost was around fifty eerie stones.

Almost every Builder could make this building, so there was little room for a markup.

But—

His cost was only three eerie stones. Even if he sold them for fifty eerie stones, he could quickly amass a fortune.

Except...

It would draw too much attention and ruin many people's livelihoods. Besides, North River Market was a long way from here, and he could not travel that far yet.

He still needed to focus on the Beast Trap for now.

A Beast Trap could catch at most one strange entity per night, but that was mainly because it was a single-target trap. If he could retrieve it after it caught a strange entity and reset it, it could keep working.

Once Eternal Nightfall descended, he certainly would not enter the darkness to reset the Beast Trap.

But no one needed to go in.

He only needed to make a short Hemp Rope. By pulling the Beast Trap out of the darkness and into the safety zone, he could reset it.

"Crippled Monkey."

Chen Fan looked up at Crippled Monkey. "Can you braid withered grass into a Hemp Rope?"

"Yes."

"You're a genius."

He couldn't help remarking, then continued, "Your task today is to braid a few Hemp Ropes using the pile of withered grass behind the Wooden Hut. They don't need to be too long. Three or four meters will do. I'm going out to gather information. Once you're done, catch up on some sleep during the Daytime. We've got work tonight."

"Understood."

Crippled Monkey answered crisply, without asking what the Hemp Rope was for.

After assigning Crippled Monkey his task, Chen Fan took a few dry flatbreads from the hut and quickly swallowed them with water from the Copper Kettle. Once his stomach was more or less full, he left camp with the Ghosthide Map in hand and headed toward the nearest Eerie Fire.

He planned to check out the other Stations.

The problems facing him were not limited to having too few eerie stones. He was also short on food, water, and other resources.

The Ghosthide Map was very useful. Not only did it display the current status of nearby Eerie Fires, but a green dot representing its holder also appeared on the map, ensuring they would not get lost. The red Eerie Fire, a different color from all the others on the map, marked his Camp.

He crossed a small mound.

Then headed west.

About thirty minutes later, he spotted the nearest Eerie Fire Camp.

He lay flat on the dry, cracked Wasteland and observed it carefully.

"That should be a Level 2 Eerie Fire..."

"Otherwise, its Safe Zone couldn't fit so many Wooden Huts. Seven in total, two large and five small."

"But there's no City Wall."

"And there's a patch of reclaimed Farmland."

"Four people in total."

He murmured as he observed. Those four people all seemed to belong to this Camp, with no travelers passing through. Just as the Green-Robed Man had said, this Station's conditions really did look better than his own.

With both charging one eerie stone for an overnight stay, his Station had no competitive edge whatsoever.