Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Great Favors Need No Thanks

Dawn broke.

The day came with startling speed. The tide of darkness receded swiftly, and in moments, the pitch black gave way to a multi-hued sunrise.

That night.

Chen Fan had woken up startled several times. It was his first night in this world. A mix of anxiety, unease, and other turbulent emotions, coupled with the rustling sounds from the darkness, had prevented him from sleeping well.

The moment dawn arrived, Chen Fan was wide awake. The halo of light had vanished, and the Wooden House once again blended into the Wilderness. Only the Campfire still burned, a solitary flame.

Out on the Wilderness.

The corpse of a Ghost Object lay silently on a Beast Trap. It was monkey-like and rather small.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he strode out into the Wilderness, grabbed the Ghost Object along with the Beast Trap, and stuffed them into the Haystack behind the Wooden House. He would dissect it for its Ghost Stone later, after his guest had left, to avoid revealing too much.

...

An hour later.

The middle-aged man in the green robe finally woke up. He unhurriedly walked outside, stood there, and looked at Chen Fan, who was waiting in his original spot. Shaking the map in his hand, he said with a smile, "There’s a station near here with a much better environment than this one, and it also costs only one Ghost Stone. But yesterday, I still chose your station. Do you know why?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Without waiting for Chen Fan to reply, he stretched lazily.

"It’s because I was moved when I saw that subordinate of yours desperately trying to attract customers. It wasn’t until I arrived at your station that I understood."

"This was originally an abandoned station. There aren’t many travelers passing by; in fact, you could say there are almost none."

"Now, it’s suddenly lit up again. For you to be assigned here by your family, you must be quite ostracized. The family probably hasn’t even given you any supplies. You need Ghost Stones to maintain the Ghost Fire and keep yourself alive."

"I felt a flicker of pity."

"I wanted to help you, just like how I desperately wished someone would have helped me when I was being ostracized and targeted by my own family."

"But I don’t want to help you too much. After all, I didn’t get any help back then. Why should you?"

"So—"

"I won’t give you a single extra Ghost Stone—you haven’t earned it. I will, however, answer one question for you. You can ask now."

He looked at the young man before him with a half-smile.

He had already pieced together the young man’s story in his mind. Neither the young man nor his scrawny subordinate were Cultivators. After being repeatedly targeted by their family, they had been thrown into this godforsaken place to die.

And this place had long been abandoned.

The Ghost Fire had been extinguished.

Yet it was now lit up on the map again, meaning a new Ghost Fire had been built. The cost to build a Ghost Fire is about fifty Ghost Stones. To get rid of an ordinary family member, there’s no need to incur such a great expense.

That meant the young man before him likely had some kind of special background, making it inconvenient to kill him outright and risk gossip—for instance, being the illegitimate son of the Patriarch.

So, they had resorted to this method instead.

A faint trace of anger flickered in his eyes. He saw his past self in this young man. He wanted to help him, as if helping his former self, but he didn’t want to help too much. After all, no one had been there to help him back then.

This strange, conflicted feeling made him a little agitated.

He could already guess what kind of question the young man would ask.

It would be something about how to leave this Wilderness, or, seeing that he’d shown a bit of kindness, a direct plea to borrow some Ghost Stones with the promise of a great reward in the future.

If the young man asked such a pointless question, his flicker of pity would be instantly extinguished, and he would leave without a second glance.

"Thank you for your guidance, senior."

Chen Fan’s expression was serious as he cupped his fists in thanks. In a deep voice, he said, "Senior, to be able to travel the Wilderness alone, you must be an extraordinary person. This junior has just set foot in the Wilderness for the first time. I would like to know what I can do to increase my chances of survival out here."

"..."

After a moment of silence, the green-robed man looked at Chen Fan and suddenly broke into a laugh. "You’re just like I was back then, holding a fire in your heart. I like that about you."

"Since that’s the case, I can tell you a few things."

"If a traveler wants to enter your station, the rule of the Wilderness is that they must pay the ’Ghost Stone’ first, *before* they are allowed inside."

"There’s a type of Ghost Object called a ’Pseudo-human Ghost.’ It’s humanoid and possesses a degree of intelligence."

"It can move about before the eternal night has fully fallen. It will ask if it can enter your station, claiming it will pay the Ghost Stone after coming inside. You must refuse. It cannot enter your station without your permission. This type of Ghost Object is relatively less dangerous."

"Collecting the Ghost Stone from me after I had already entered last night was the wrong way to do things."

"But it’s not like you could have stopped me. Your station is extremely crude, with no defensive facilities whatsoever. You can’t stand against a Cultivator."

"In the Wilderness."

"Every station master’s life is bound to their ’Ghost Fire.’ No one will attack a station master, because if the master dies, the Ghost Fire goes out. However, you still need some basic offensive structures. Besides fighting Ghost Objects, you also need them to solidify your own position within the station."

"Also!"

"The Ghost Fire is not absolutely safe. Except for the weakest Ghost Objects, most of them merely dislike the ’Ghost Fire’; it’s not that they truly can’t get close. When a Ghost Tide erupts, or under special circumstances, those Ghost Objects will devour this station in an instant."

"You need the ’City Wall’ structure to ensure absolute safety."

"Based on these two points."

"To survive long enough in this Wilderness, you need a section of enclosing City Wall and a basic offensive structure. Both of these are quite common and simple to build; basically any Architect can do it. The Pavilion Master of the nearby ’Jiangbei Marketplace’ is a Level 2 Architect. You can find him to build them for you."

"But for unmovable structures like these, you need the Architect to come to your location to build them, and that will cost a fair number of Ghost Stones."

"As for how to obtain Ghost Stones, that’s not my concern."

"I’ve already helped you more than enough."

The green-robed man suddenly shook his head and laughed, realizing he couldn’t keep talking. He had originally intended to answer only one question, but the other party had asked such a broad one that he couldn’t help but say a few extra things.

He pulled a map from his robes and tossed it to Chen Fan.

"This is a Ghost Map of the surrounding area. It updates in real-time with the status of every ’Ghost Fire’ in the Wilderness."

"Three months from now, I will pass through this part of the Wilderness again."

"When that time comes, I’ll make a point of stopping by this station. If you’re still alive then, I wouldn’t mind truly helping you out."

With that said.

The green-robed middle-aged man didn’t linger. With his hands clasped behind his back, he began to walk with slow, measured steps toward a low hill in the distance. Yet, despite the slowness of his movements, his actual speed was incredibly fast, creating a bizarre sense of contrast.

"Senior!"

Chen Fan clutched the leathery map in his hand and shouted at the man’s departing back, "Words can’t express my gratitude! Might I have your name, so that I may repay this debt in the future?"

The man didn’t reply, only waving a hand dismissively without looking back.

His figure gradually vanished into the Wilderness.

"Hooo..."

Chen Fan looked down at the leathery map in his hand and murmured, "This senior is certainly a character..."

’This information is incredibly valuable. It’s a huge help to me!’

’My predecessor was so busy stewing in his own misery and resentment toward the family that he didn’t have a single goddamn memory of this crucial information.’