Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan and the Camp survived an attack led by a Female Wraith whose hallucinations nearly left them helpless, then defeated her with their Arrow Towers. By morning, they had salvaged the battlefield and found a rare Building Blueprint among the spoils.

• Chen Fan snapped out of the Female Wraith's hallucination and shoved Wang Mazi and the others behind the Parapet as her hair struck at them.
• The Arrow Towers overwhelmed and killed the Female Wraith after her attempt to target Chen Fan failed.
• Chen Fan ordered the damaged City Wall rebuilt, and the Camp's people gathered eerie stones and exotic treasures while taking turns on watch.
• At daybreak, Zhou Mo left with his men and the Great Knife to gather resources from nearby destroyed Stations, while Qi Chong and his partner processed the corpses.
• A Le skinned the Female Wraith on Chen Fan's orders, and Chen Fan inspected the battlefield haul, which included three exotic treasures and a rare Building Blueprint.

Chen Fan upgraded the Eerie Fire to level three and chose a rare transformation that reduced the construction cost of every Camp structure by one Eerie Stone. He realized the free Copper Pipes could help extend the safety zone and began planning how to use them across the Wasteland.

• Chen Fan reviewed the previous night's spoils, including an Altar blueprint, a single-use Torch, and a Wraith Hide whose contents required Human-Blood Wraith Flowers.
• Chen Fan considered visiting Northbank City after the Rain season but decided he first needed to survive the season and plan for his safety outside his Camp.
• Three hours before Eternal Night, Chen Fan replenished the Eerie Fire's supply and upgraded it to level three.
• Chen Fan chose the rare upgrade that reduced all Camp construction costs by one Eerie Stone, usable ten thousand times per day.
• Chen Fan surveyed the expanded fifty-meter safety zone and realized the upgrade could make Copper Pipes effectively free, inspiring a plan to extend the safety zone toward Northbank City.

Chen Fan built a Three-Wheeler to speed up laying Copper Pipes for a Highway and upgraded an Arrow Tower into an Arrow Fort. After Zhou Mo reported that Doppelganger Wraiths had killed his companion, Chen Fan prepared to take him back and kill them.

• Chen Fan realized he needed to develop a Cart before he could lay the Highway efficiently, then called Qi Chong away from the Farmland to help.
• Chen Fan and Qi Chong tested the Three-Wheeler 2.0, laying ten kilometers of Copper Pipe in less than an hour.
• Chen Fan upgraded a Level-3 Arrow Tower to Level 4, turning it into an Arrow Fort, and chose increased firing speed.
• Zhou Mo returned to the Camp and told Chen Fan that Doppelganger Wraiths had killed his companion and left behind the resources they had collected.
• Chen Fan comforted Zhou Mo and offered to take him back to kill the Doppelganger Wraiths.

Chen Fan and Zhou Mo rode an upgraded Arrow Tower mounted on a Three-Wheeler to attack the Impostors at Wang Kui's former Camp. After killing the older Impostors and trapping the younger ones, Chen Fan sent Zhou Mo to check the Wooden Hut for baby Impostors.

• Chen Fan mounted and upgraded an Arrow Tower on a Three-Wheeler, creating an Arrow Cart, then took Zhou Mo to confront the Impostors.
• Chen Fan used three eerie stones to activate the Arrow Fort after the Impostors entered the Camp's range, and its lightning bolts killed the charging older Impostors.
• Chen Fan drove the Arrow Cart in circles to keep the Impostors in range, killing the older ones and catching the younger ones in Beast Traps.
• After the Impostors stopped emerging from the Wooden Hut, Chen Fan told Zhou Mo to investigate it while he stayed outside to cover him.

Chen Fan captured Doppelganger Wraiths and built a Breeding Farm, hoping to produce more eerie stones, before preparing the Camp’s defenses for Eternal Night. Meanwhile, a Meatworm Wraith tide attacked Northbank City, where the Wild Wolf Gang leader reinforced the City Wall as the defenders struggled to hold it.

• Zhou Mo confirmed that a Wooden Hut held Doppelganger Wraith Young, and Chen Fan suspected the Rainy Season was a breeding season for strange entities.
• Chen Fan brought 27 adult Doppelganger Wraiths and 37 young back to the Camp and built a Breeding Farm, assigning A Le to manage it.
• Chen Fan prepared a Three-Wheeler equipped with a Level-4 Arrow Fortress as another defense against Eternal Night.
• Zhou Mo wrote that Er Gou had died and worried whether the Camp could survive the Rainy Season.
• A Meatworm Wraith tide battered Northbank City’s City Wall, and the Wild Wolf Gang leader used a Token to cover it with steel plating and Strange Formation Runes.

The Wild Wolf Gang Leader spent the gang’s reserves to defend Northbank City, inspiring citizens to donate what they had. The Chen Family Head refused to help and ordered his disciples to disguise themselves as gang members and steal the donations, leaving the city’s defense and the gang’s fate uncertain.

• The Wild Wolf Gang Leader used a precious token to reinforce the city wall, then ordered the gang to open its storehouses and defend Northbank City to the death.
• Citizens brought eerie stone and exotic treasures to Wild Wolf Gang members, while a gang member left his parents to answer the emergency summons.
• The Chen Residence elders discussed the gang’s stand and the Chen Family’s failure to support the city, while the Second Elder recalled that Chen Fan had become a Builder after being driven into the Wasteland.
• The Chen Family Head rejected joining the defense and ordered Chen Family disciples to wear Wild Wolf Gang clothing and collect the citizens’ donations, especially near the North River Market.

Chen Fan discovered that the flower planted by Crippled Monkey was a mature Green Grade Human-Blood Wraith Flower, the rare material needed to reveal the writing on Wraith Hide. Meanwhile, the Chen family elders agreed they would offer him the position of Family Head if he survived the Rainy Season and chose to return.

• The Chen Family Head considered bringing Chen Fan back into the family if he survived, but resolved to eliminate him if he became a threat and refused to return.
• The Chen family elders agreed Chen Fan would make a better Family Head than Chen Quan if he survived the Rainy Season and was willing to lead them.
• After a quiet night, Chen Fan found that extending the Copper Pipe road had drained extra Eerie Stones, so he disconnected it from the Camp.
• Chen Fan sent Zhou Mo and a young worker out on the Three-Wheeler to gather resources from distant abandoned Stations.
• Qi Chong told Chen Fan that Crippled Monkey's flower had bloomed, and Chen Fan identified it as the Human-Blood Wraith Flower needed to reveal the writing on Wraith Hide.

Chen Fan learned that the Female Wraith had crafted the Wraith Hide as protective armor while waiting for her lover, a powerful Wraith King who might return during the Rain season. As he considered how to prepare for the likely threat, he and A Le investigated how the Rain affected strange entities.

• Chen Fan extracted liquid from the Human-Blood Wraith Flowers, revealing a poem and the Wraith Hide's ability to block a lethal attack.
• Chen Fan inferred that the Female Wraith had made the hide for her beloved, a Wraith King with a powerful force, and feared the King would come looking for him.
• Chen Fan tucked the Wraith Hide against his chest and considered turning the Female Wraith's stored skin into armor.
• A Le reported that young strange entities lacked eerie stones and that Doppelganger Wraiths stopped mating when sheltered from the Rain.
• Chen Fan concluded that the Rain affected different strange entities in different ways and considered whether it had caused the Female Wraith pain.

Chen Fan continued building his Eerie Fire Highway while considering the Camp’s need for more workers and learning that Wang Mazi's Subordinate had concealed Eerie Stones. As Eternal Night approached, Chen Fan decided to upgrade his Wooden Hut to see whether it could improve cultivation.

• Chen Fan laid Copper Pipes through the wilderness with Qi Chong and considered recruiting a Builder to maintain the growing network after the Rainy Season.
• Qi Chong told Chen Fan that Wang Mazi's Subordinate had secretly kept Eerie Stones instead of handing them over during the Camp’s crisis, and Chen Fan told him to keep the matter quiet.
• Chen Fan returned to the Camp, built another Level-1 Farmland, and assigned Qi Chong to transplant Crops collected from other Stations.
• Chen Fan weighed the slow benefits of cultivation against the danger of remaining weak after Zhou Mo survived a Doppelganger Wraith encounter that killed Chen Fan's Subordinate.
• Chen Fan decided to spend Eerie Stones upgrading the Wooden Hut, hoping it might offer a way to accelerate cultivation.

Chen Fan upgraded the Wooden Hut outside the City Wall into a two-story Stone House with a Shadow-Viewing Formation, then reflected on the Camp’s losses and his wish to protect its people. He remained committed to building a safe home rather than seeking power or trying to save the world.

• Chen Fan upgraded the Wooden Hut to Level 2 with Eerie Stones and chose the peace-of-mind path.
• He spent twenty more Eerie Stones to turn the hut into a two-story Stone House and selected the Shadow-Viewing Formation.
• Chen Fan admired the Camp’s improved appearance and decided to save his remaining Eerie Stones for a later upgrade.
• On the City Wall, Chen Fan remembered the subordinate who had died and considered how the Camp had carried on without a funeral.
• Chen Fan decided that his dream was to make the Camp safe enough to protect everyone who trusted him.

Chen Fan questioned Big Fish after learning he had secretly kept eerie stone, but instead of punishing him, he tried to reassure him and uncover his fear. As darkness fell, Big Fish revealed he was a Night Watcher and said he had been born to be abused.

• Chen Fan considered using a Copper Pipe to connect the healing altar to the City Wall and wondered if it could repair the defenses.
• Zhou Mo returned with a haul of supplies and 578 pieces of eerie stone, and Chen Fan warned him not to stay out so late before asking Wang Mazi’s Subordinate to remain.
• Chen Fan questioned Big Fish about his name and past, learning that strange entities had destroyed his coastal village and that he alone had escaped.
• Big Fish asked why they had to look ahead, and Chen Fan answered with crude humor that made the boy laugh through his tears.
• Big Fish revealed that he knew Chen Fan had heard about the eerie stone he had kept, then declared that he was a Night Watcher and had no dick.

Chen Fan learned that Big Fish was an eighteen-year-old Night Watcher whose power had twice destroyed everyone around her when she activated to protect them. Big Fish explained that eerie stones suppressed her power, leaving Chen Fan to understand that surrendering them could trigger a third catastrophe at the Camp.

• Chen Fan stopped the others from climbing the wall and discovered that Big Fish was a girl and a Night Watcher.
• Big Fish explained that she had been born looking like an old woman and that her first activation wiped out a Strange Tide and the Camp it threatened.
• Big Fish told Chen Fan that her first activation spared her father, but her second activation killed her father and the villagers she had tried to protect.
• Big Fish revealed that she needed ten eerie stones to suppress her power and had not been hiding them deliberately.
• Chen Fan realized that if Big Fish handed over the eerie stones, her third activation could destroy the Camp.

Chen Fan learned that Big Fish was a Night Watcher who could unleash immense power only by sacrificing his life, then faced a swarm of unfamiliar lantern-bearing Funeral Wraiths outside the Camp. The Arrow Towers revealed that the Funeral Wraiths split into duplicates when killed, and Chen Fan ordered the Camp to fight as they advanced.

• Big Fish told Chen Fan he could control his transformations and had chosen the Camp as his home, promising to activate if it came under threat.
• Chen Fan told Big Fish to rest and work with Zhou Mo, then explained to Crippled Monkey and the others that Big Fish was a boy whose family had died.
• A large group of pale, lantern-carrying Strange Entities approached the Camp, and Chen Fan named them Funeral Wraiths.
• An Arrow Tower killed the first Funeral Wraith, which split into two after dying; Chen Fan realized its lantern created duplicates and dimmed with each split.
• As more Funeral Wraiths entered the Camp's range, Chen Fan ordered everyone to engage them.

Chen Fan defended his Camp from a growing horde of Funeral Wraiths and created an automatic system that repaired the City Wall using the Altar. The Breeding Farm’s walls then fell under attack from a powerful Funeral Wraith with a Ghostlight Lantern, leaving Chen Fan facing a threat his limited eerie stones might not withstand.

• Funeral Wraiths surrounded the Camp and battered its City Wall with their White Lanterns while crossbow bolts killed them and stopped them from splitting.
• Chen Fan repaired the City Wall with eerie stones and found that Copper Pipes could carry healing liquid from the Altar to mend damage automatically.
• Chen Fan connected the Altar to the Eerie Fire so it could draw on stored eerie stones and keep repairing the City Wall.
• The Breeding Farm’s wall collapsed, releasing its Doppelganger Wraiths into the advancing horde.
• Chen Fan saw an aged Funeral Wraith use its Ghostlight Lantern to destroy Breeding Farm walls with beams of green light, and realized he lacked enough eerie stones to keep repairing everything.

Chen Fan fought a Funeral Wraith whose Ghostlight Lantern attacks destroyed his walls and defenses, while the creature multiplied whenever it was killed. He rebuilt the breached defenses around the Eerie Fire as the Funeral Wraiths continued their assault, and a mysterious female voice called out to him.

• The Funeral Wraith destroyed the Breeding Farm’s enclosing walls and blasted the City Wall, so Chen Fan upgraded the Eerie Fire to expand the Camp’s range.
• The Level 4 Arrow Fortress killed the lantern-bearing Funeral Wraith, but it split into two Funeral Wraith Chiefs, each holding a Ghostlight Lantern.
• The two Chiefs blasted open the City Wall, and Funeral Wraiths poured through the breach as Chen Fan ordered his companions to hold the Stone Steps.
• Chen Fan ordered the Arrow Towers to target the Chiefs’ limbs, but nearby Funeral Wraiths killed them, causing them to multiply into eight attackers that battered the defenses.
• Chen Fan rapidly crushed Eerie Stones to repair the City Wall and build enclosing walls around the Eerie Fire, while a tearful female voice called him “Big brother.”

Chen Fan and his companions survived a night-long Funeral Wraith attack, killed every Funeral Wraith Chief, and found a Wraith Hide revealing the attack’s intended target and the wraith leader’s plans. At dawn, they began harvesting the corpses while Chen Fan considered seeking compensation from Northbank City.

• Chen Fan hid behind the City Wall as Funeral Wraith Chiefs blasted through the defenses, then used two Level 4 Arrow Fortresses and Arrow Rain Storm to kill them as they fled.
• After the last Funeral Wraith Chief died, every Funeral Wraith inside the Camp froze and fell dead, and Chen Fan’s group kept watch through the night instead of repairing the ruined Camp.
• At dawn, Chen Fan sent Crippled Monkey, Wang Mazi, and the others to gather eerie stones and drain blood from the corpses, then rushed outside to inspect the Chief’s body.
• Chen Fan found a Wraith Hide message ordering Thousand Throats to destroy city walls in the Jiangbei Wasteland ahead of its master’s planned arrival and ascension to Wraith King.
• Chen Fan realized the attack might have been meant for Northbank City and wondered whether the city would compensate him for taking the damage.

After the Funeral Wraith’s attack wrecked the Camp, Chen Fan looted its treasures and decided to relocate before the Wraith King’s forces arrived. He gathered his companions to discuss where they should move.

• Chen Fan assessed the ruined Camp and decided that standing his ground against the Wraith King’s remaining commanders was too dangerous.
• Chen Fan recovered a Windshield Bead, a Clearwind Formation, and a Mountain-Skeleton Embryo from the Funeral Wraith.
• Crippled Monkey showed Chen Fan Mourning Lanterns, which he recognized as valuable materials for upgrading Arrow Towers, and Chen Fan ordered everyone to gather them and prepare to move.
• Wang Kui and Little Qiu showed Chen Fan five chests of eerie stones and ghost materials, which he suspected were supplies for a formation.
• Chen Fan told Wang Kui and the others that three commanders remained and called a meeting to plan their relocation.

After debating whether to keep risking the Camp for rich rewards, Chen Fan accepted Wang Kui’s plan to build a safe Rear Base and unmanned outposts across the Wasteland. He chose Big Fish’s former village by the sea as their destination and ordered everyone to prepare to move.

• Zhou Mo argued that the Camp should stay in the dangerous area and use the spoils of battle to grow stronger, while Wang Kui warned that one defeat could destroy everything.
• Wang Kui proposed keeping support buildings at a safe main base while building unmanned outposts with City Walls and Arrow Towers to lure and attack strange entities.
• Chen Fan considered how the Copper Pipe and Mountain-Skeleton Embryo could help maintain the outposts and secure a Rear Base.
• Big Fish suggested his former village at the northern edge of the Jiangbei Wasteland, a Natural Eerie Fire Zone by the sea.
• Chen Fan chose the village as their destination and told everyone to dig up the eerie stone, pack, and get ready to move.

Chen Fan prepared the Camp to relocate north and completed the Sacrificial Tower’s sacrifice before leaving. He obtained a Yellow Grade Vehicle Workshop blueprint to develop his northern base.

• Chen Fan named the relocation plan Earth Dragon Migration as the Camp’s nine people packed supplies and sorted corpses in the rain.
• After four hours of work, Chen Fan chose to finish the Sacrificial Tower’s sacrifice before the Camp moved away.
• Chen Fan ordered Crippled Monkey to bring the Funeral Wraith Chief’s corpse, then used its sacrifice points and additional chief corpses to reach 2,000 points.
• Chen Fan completed the sacrifice and received a Yellow Grade Vehicle Workshop Building Blueprint.
• Chen Fan crushed the blueprint and saw Vehicle Workshop added to his Lord Panel as a constructible building.

After the Funeral Wraiths destroyed Chen Fan’s camp, he led his people and salvaged resources toward a new base at Big Fish’s former Village. They reached the Sea-facing canyon before nightfall, and Chen Fan decided the sheltered Village was the perfect place to settle.

• Chen Fan ordered Crippled Monkey to prepare the camp’s resources and Strange Entity corpses for the move, while leaving the camp’s upgraded Eerie Fire and defenses behind as an unmanned outpost.
• Chen Fan and his people departed Chen Family Station No. 37 in a convoy of four Three-Wheelers and discussed what to call their new home.
• After a day of travel, the convoy reached Big Fish’s former Village beside the Sea just before eternal night.
• Chen Fan examined the sheer Mountain, narrow canyon, and Village within, then declared the location a perfect base and urged the convoy onward.