The Ghost Object that had vanished into the canyon pass in the blink of an eye looked just like a crocodile.

A reptile.

But it was far larger than any ordinary crocodile, looking like a tank at first glance. It had short, stout limbs, a long and powerful tail, and a body covered in brown Scale Armor.

So enormous.

So fast.

If it had charged directly at him, he seriously doubted the City Wall could have stopped it.

"..."

Chen Fan glanced down at the Glowing Green Lantern in his hand. He hadn’t even had a chance to activate it before the creature shot out of the canyon. It was the fastest Ghost Object he had ever seen, several times faster than the Monkey Head Ghosts.

Just then—

He heard a voice from behind him.

Big Fish had woken up at some point and walked up the steps to the City Wall. Standing beside him, she asked hesitantly, "Station Head, did a big, crocodile-like creature just pass by?"

Ever since Big Fish had voluntarily revealed she was a woman disguised as a man, she no longer kept up the pretense, and her voice had reverted to its normal feminine sound.

She still wasn’t very talkative, however, preferring to just work in silence.

She had also gone back to calling him Station Head.

She had called him "Brother" before, but he’d put a stop to it. A woman’s voice calling him "Brother" so close to his ear sounded too much like a female ghost coming to claim his life.

"How did you know?"

Chen Fan turned his head to look at Big Fish, who stood beside him in her linen clothes with her arms crossed. He remembered that he still hadn’t asked her how she had managed to hear his conversation with Qi Chong from ten thousand meters away while she had been back at the camp.

"The villagers call it the Mountain God."

Big Fish sniffled, recalling, "Villagers used to encounter it when they went up the mountain. It’s quite large, and it bolts when startled. The sound of it running is so loud it’s like an earthquake."

"Up the mountain?"

Chen Fan’s brows furrowed. After a pause, he continued, "Are you saying this crocodile also appears during the day?"

"Mhm."

"Around dusk?"

"No, it was only seen twice, and both times were in the morning. The villagers don’t go up the mountain near dusk. It seems very timid. It hides whenever it encounters people."

"The first time they saw it, the villagers called it a mountain spirit."

"Later, when they found out it didn’t harm people, they started calling it the Mountain God."

"..."

Chen Fan fell silent.

’Appears during the day.’

’That means it’s probably not a Ghost Object. The only Ghost Object I’d encountered so far that could be active in daylight was the Fake Human Ghost, which was active around dusk. The rest of the Ghost Objects were nowhere to be seen during the day; who knew where they went to hide.’

’But I can’t rule out the possibility that it’s a type of Ghost Object that can be active during the day.’

"How did you hear me and Qi Chong talking last time?"

"It’s a special ability of a Night Watcher." Big Fish pulled her clothes tighter. "I have what you could call supernatural hearing. I can hear things from ten thousand meters away, but I can’t control it. It comes and goes."

"I just happened to hear you that day."

"A useful ability."

Chen Fan nodded lightly. "Go back to sleep. There’s more work to do tomorrow."

...

In the latter half of the night, no more thudding sounds echoed, which meant no more Ghost Objects were falling from the cliff.

And the crocodile didn’t come back.

This really was a relatively safe place.

The sky soon brightened.

Chen Fan, who had taken over the watch from Zhou Mo for the latter half of the night, gave a long stretch. He walked out of the temporary Wooden House inside the cave and glanced at Lame Monkey and the others, who were already busy at work nearby. With so much to do for the move these past few days, he hadn’t gotten much sleep.

’Once everything is settled, I’ll finally get to sleep in comfortably.’

A lot of the supplies moved from the old camp had not yet been put away.

"Continue!"

At his command, the Level 5 Cannon Tower on the City Wall unleashed another barrage. It instantly obliterated the temporary hut, the blast continuing with unabated force deeper into the cave, further carving out its interior.

...

「Outside the cave.」

Chen Fan stood at the bottom of the cliff, looking at the corpse the crocodile had dropped when it fled last night. The body was riddled with clearly visible puncture holes, a testament to the creature’s immense bite force.

’At least so far, I haven’t encountered a Ghost Object with more physical strength than this crocodile.’

’With that kind of strength, is its first reaction upon seeing an enemy really to run?’

He shook his head and didn’t dwell on it.

He simply crouched down and dug the Ghost Stone out of the corpse. As for the body, he gave it to Qi Chong, who was busy in the Farmland nearby.

They had set up a temporary patch of Farmland in the Natural Ghost Fire Zone.

It was used to transplant the crops from the old camp.

"How are things looking?"

Chen Fan walked into the Farmland and looked at the batch of sickly-looking Meat Ghost Mother and Child Species. These were Green Level seeds, and the most valuable among all the transplanted crops.

"Not good."

Qi Chong shook his head, pointing at the group of Meat Ghost Mother and Child Species in the Farmland. "Their cultivation requirements haven’t been met these past few days. The rest of the Meat Ghost Mother and Child Species that weren’t ruined by the Mourning Ghost have all died."

"But there’s good news. They’re not completely dead."

"They matured prematurely."

"The other crops were all transplanted successfully, though."

Chen Fan took the fruit Qi Chong handed him. It was a pair, one large and one small, growing from the same stem. They were bright red and looked like cherries.

-

[Exotic Treasure Name]: Meat Ghost Mother-Child Fruit (Premature).

[Exotic Treasure Level]: Green.

[Exotic Treasure Effect]: Divided into a Mother-Child Fruit pair. When two people each consume one, they can communicate telepathically within a hundred li. The effect lasts for seven days.

-

"..."

Chen Fan weighed the Meat Ghost Mother-Child Fruit in his hand. ’If they were fully mature, the effect would last for a month.’ But he didn’t comment on it, instead just looking at the Farmland. "How many pairs are there?"

"12 pairs."

"Collect them and store them properly. Move them into the Warehouse once it’s built."

"Understood."

Qi Chong first nodded firmly, but after a pause, he added hesitantly, "I used to work for the Pingtian Commerce Association. I know that the raw material for Sound Transmission Talismans is the Meat Ghost Mother-Child Fruit. If we had an Artifact Refiner, we could use these as the raw material to make our own Sound Transmission Talismans."

"That would greatly increase the effective range and duration."

"We will."

Chen Fan patted Qi Chong’s shoulder, then walked towards the City Wall at the cave entrance.

...

Time always flies when you’re busy.

A day passed quickly.

The eternal night would fall in about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Wang Kui and the others sat on the City Wall, exhausted. They were making do with a simple meal of dry rations and hot water. Breaking new ground was always the most tiring work.

"Heh."

In the middle of the group, Zhou Mo, who was leaning against the City Wall with a piece of hardtack in his mouth, suddenly grinned at everyone. He pulled a Wooden Board out from where he was sitting, then picked up his Big Saber and began carefully carving on the board, mumbling indistinctly.

"When we were packing up to leave the old camp, I found this in the ruins of the Wooden House."

"The Eternal Night Calendar."

"I was too tired last night, I forgot to mark it."

"Guess how many nights of the rainy season have passed?"

"Seven nights?" Wang Kui, hugging a canteen full of hot water and rolling it back and forth to warm his hands, said uncertainly, "It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. Five nights?"