Tonight, they would spend a simple night in this makeshift fort.

"..."

Chen Fan stood on the City Wall, his hands resting on the battlements as he gazed at the light above. The light from this Natural Ghost Fire Zone was brighter and reached higher than his old Ghost Fire. The main thing to watch out for tonight was the possibility of Ghost Objects jumping from the surrounding cliffs into the bottom of the Deep Pit.

Tonight was also their most vulnerable night.

He had only built a makeshift fort out of a few overlapping City Walls and placed a single Level 3 Arrow Tower on them.

A Level 3 Arrow Tower could be moved and repositioned within the camp’s boundaries, so it wouldn’t be a waste.

Once upgraded to a Level 4 Arrow Fortress or higher, it could no longer be moved freely.

It was best to save what he could.

He hadn’t built a Ghost Fire.

City Walls could only be built within the camp’s boundaries, but this rule could be broken inside a Natural Ghost Fire Zone, which was considered a semi-camp.

Of course.

He would need to manually replace the Ghost Stones in this Arrow Tower to supply it with energy.

Building one Level 3 Arrow Tower only required 80 Ghost Stones.

For a camp, especially one in the rainy season, this level of defense was definitely not enough.

So, Chen Fan stood on the City Wall, holding the Glowing Green Lantern as he began his solitary watch. His plan was simple: he would just have to make do for tonight. If a powerful Ghost Object broke in, he would use the lantern to fight it.

The power of this Green Level Mourning Lantern was far greater than a Level 4 Arrow Fortress; two blasts could destroy a City Wall.

He could still use it four more times.

If the enemies were weaker, he’d use the Arrow Tower. If there were many of them, he would just build a few more Arrow Towers.

As for the others, they were already taking turns sleeping inside the shelter.

They had barely slept at all last night and had worked hard all day, so they were already too exhausted to stay awake.

He was doing okay, though.

He had dozed off for a bit in the latter half of last night, so he was still in decent shape mentally.

He would swap places with those who had woken up later.

...

That night, Chen Fan stared into the darkness outside the camp, his nerves taut. Without any Sentry Towers, there was no gray fog to act as a buffer zone, which made him feel a little insecure. It was especially hard to relax while spending the night in this relatively unfamiliar place.

On top of that...

POP... POP... POP...

Amidst the sound of the rain, a series of crackling pops, like firecrackers, rang out again. This sound had already occurred several times tonight. He had initially thought it was Ghost Objects jumping down from the surrounding cliffs, but none had charged into the camp.

A short while later,

the sound of a body dragging against the ground came from outside the camp. Judging by the noise, it was a single Ghost Object, and a large one at that.

But it didn’t rush into the camp.

It seemed to be observing them.

The sounds indicated it would stay in one spot to observe for a while before moving to a new position to continue watching.

Feeling the cool sting of the rain, Chen Fan nervously tightened his grip on the Glowing Green Lantern. As soon as it dared to enter the camp, he would activate the Mourning Lantern and deliver a fatal blow.

The two sides remained in a standoff for a long time.

Until the second half of the night, it made no move to actually enter the camp. It didn’t even try to test their defenses; it only watched.

By now, Lame Monkey and the others had gotten enough sleep.

They started to take over his watch. After giving them a few instructions, he lay down in the shelter, and an uncontrollable wave of exhaustion washed over him.

An unknown amount of time passed like this, until the darkness overhead receded like the tide. Dawn had broken.

Having just woken up to stand watch with Lame Monkey and the others, Chen Fan let out a long sigh of relief. The most dangerous night was over. The large creature that had been eyeing them menacingly all night had ultimately not entered the camp.

Tomorrow night, once the camp was properly set up, he could finally get a good night’s sleep.

He’d only been getting fragmented sleep these past few days.

It had left him on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Even his head was starting to ache.

Just then—

"Chief."

Lame Monkey’s voice sounded beside him. Following his pointing finger, Chen Fan saw numerous Ghost Corpses at the bottom of the surrounding cliffs. There were at least seventy or eighty of them, all smashed to a pulp, as dead as could be.

"..."

Chen Fan paused, stunned. He looked up at the cliffs, which were hundreds of meters high. ’I was wondering about this last night,’ he thought. ’The Life Force of Low Level Ghost Objects isn’t that strong. Wouldn’t they die jumping from this high up?’

’Now I have my answer. They do die.’

’They really do fall to their deaths.’

"Big Fish."

He looked at Big Fish, who was standing to the side. "Did this ever happen in your village before?"

"Yes." Big Fish nodded. "But it only happens during the rainy season. Every rainy season, we could always hear the sound of Ghost Objects falling to the bottom of the cliffs at night. But by morning, we’d never see any corpses, just some sticky blood left behind."

"On the night my village was wiped out, the Ghost Objects that jumped from the cliffs didn’t die from the fall."

"..."

Chen Fan nodded, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the corpses. ’Perhaps the Ghost Corpses are usually eaten by that large creature from last night,’ he mused. ’Did it not act rashly last night because it was wary of us newcomers?’

He didn’t dwell on it. Turning to Lame Monkey and the others, he said, "Lame Monkey, you’re coming back to the old camp with me. The rest of you, clean this place up."

"Deal with that batch of Ghost Corpses."

"And tear down all the houses here."

"Understood."

Wang Mazi and the others all nodded.

The houses in this village were built from mud and stone, mixed with sap collected from a type of mountain tree that acted as a bonding agent. They held up well against rain, but not against hammers.

...

As soon as dawn broke, Chen Fan and Lame Monkey drove the tricycle back toward the old camp. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The old camp and the new camp were 17 kilometers apart in a straight line.

Or 17,000 meters.

Before leaving the old camp yesterday afternoon, he hadn’t wasted the day’s free building allowance. He had built a 10,000-meter-long Copper Pipe while traveling. Today, he just needed to add the final 7,000 meters to connect the two camps.

The allowance didn’t accumulate.

If you didn’t use it on the same day, it expired.

Waste was a shameful thing.

With its load lightened, the tricycle’s speed increased considerably.

"Young Master."

Lame Monkey, who was powering the tricycle from behind, suddenly asked hesitantly, "Are you trying to establish your own family?"

"..."

Chen Fan, who was in front, turned to look at Lame Monkey. He paused for a moment before continuing, "No."

"Families have a natural cohesiveness based on bloodlines, as well as an inherent exclusivity."

"But in our current camp, there isn’t a single person who shares my bloodline. Besides, many special Cultivators awaken their abilities randomly; they can’t be Acquired through effort. The family model isn’t well-suited for the Eternal Night Continent. Even if you treat externally recruited retainers with sincerity, they will always feel like they aren’t truly part of the family—that they’re an outsider."

"What I want to build is my own faction. It won’t be based on bloodlines. As long as someone is capable, loyal, and willing to contribute to the camp..."

"...the camp will take them in."

"This way, even outsiders won’t feel like they don’t belong to the faction."

"In the future, as the camp develops, more and more people will join."

"There aren’t many people I can fully trust."

"But you, Lame Monkey."

"You are the only person I can trust completely. I hope you can train hard with Zhou Mo and become a powerful Cultivator, to act as my personal guard. I will also favor you when it comes to resources."

"Me..." Lame Monkey was taken aback. When he finally processed it, he spoke with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, "Me... can I do that? But I’m just a cripple..."

"So what if you’re a cripple? I’ve seen people who were blind and missing an arm still master martial arts and become great heroes."

Chen Fan smiled and turned to look at Lame Monkey.

"Before the rainy season arrived, I saw your skills. You’re quite good."

"I believe in you."

"You need to believe in yourself, too."

"You have to know, only those who believe they can change the world can actually change the world."

"Yeah!"

Lame Monkey nodded emphatically, his eyes filled with excitement and determination. He began working the tricycle with even more vigor.

After a moment,

Lame Monkey’s muffled and confused voice came through the rain again.

"Um... Young Master, I never actually thought about changing the world."

"I know. I was just trying to sound profound."

"What does ’sound profound’ mean?"

"It means I’m encouraging you."

"Young Master, I definitely won’t let you down!"

"Keep it up."