Chapter 8: Chapter 8: [Exotic Treasure Name]: Monkey Head Mushroom Seeds

This Monkey-headed Ghost was still alive.

It was clearly opening its mouth to roar, but not a single sound could be heard. It seemed extremely agitated.

It looked up at Chen Fan, opened its cavernous mouth to reveal a full set of fangs, and let out a threatening, silent roar.

It struggled with all its might, but it couldn’t break free.

Each time it swiped its claws, it left a trail of black energy in the air.

"SCHLICK!"

Beside him, Lame Monkey had already thrust his Long Spear at the first opportunity, accurately hitting the Monkey-headed Ghost’s mouth. He quickly pulled it out and stabbed again. Soon, the Monkey-headed Ghost stopped breathing and collapsed on the spot.

"Nice work."

Chen Fan heaved a long sigh of relief. So far, things were going smoothly. Tonight, he might be able to harvest more than ten Ghost Stones!

This was a very good start.

Tomorrow, he would use these Ghost Stones to craft more Beast Traps. By continually snowballing his resources, he could quickly escape his current predicament of scarcity.

The original dagger was too short.

It was easy to get hurt.

So he had dismantled a piece of wood from the Wooden House, tied the dagger to the end, and made a simple Long Spear. The result was quite effective.

"Carve the corpse."

Chen Fan tossed the Beast Trap back into the darkness and gave the order.

The Ghost Stone dug out now could be used to craft another Beast Trap. Although he didn’t have any more hemp rope, if he just tossed it out into the darkness, it could be used one more time tonight. Every little bit counts, and this was much more than a little bit.

In the time that followed,

Chen Fan kept his eyes glued to the hemp ropes, just like a Fishing Guy, his mind constantly turning over his future plans.

’Manpower is a big problem.’

’So far, I only have Lame Monkey. One person isn’t enough. If I had one or two more people, they could be weaving hemp rope for me right now.’

Soon—

A Ghost Stone was dug out of the Monkey-headed Ghost’s head and placed quietly on the ground. Just then, another hemp rope began to shake. Chen Fan immediately leaped up from his chair and yanked on the rope with all his might.

Another Monkey-headed Ghost, caught in a Beast Trap, was dragged into the camp.

Lame Monkey, already waiting, thrust his Long Spear out once more.

The two had already developed a certain rapport.

Another Ghost Stone was in the bag. But this time, an extra item dropped. After the Monkey-headed Ghost died, a mass of something glowing with white light was spat out from its mouth, looking like a handful of sand.

"Young Master!"

Lame Monkey’s eyes lit up. "It dropped a Ghost Material! After killing a Ghost Object, fragments of some of their bodies will form into Ghost Materials. For example, the Ghost Map is made from the scalp of a Human-Skin Ghost, crafted by an Artifact Refiner."

"The teacher at the Private School taught us this in class."

"It’s just..."

"This doesn’t look like a Ghost Material. After all, the other Monkey Head Ghosts didn’t drop this. It’s more like an... Exotic Treasure!"

"An Exotic Treasure?"

"It must be an Exotic Treasure. A very small number of Ghost Objects and phantoms carry special Exotic Treasures. You can obtain them after killing them. Things like Building Blueprints. Their value varies, but they’re all treasures that can only be obtained by chance from killing ghosts and can’t be crafted by humans."

"But you have to go to the Marketplace and find an Appraiser to know what it is exactly."

"..."

Chen Fan didn’t speak. He picked up the handful of sand from the ground. It was wrapped in a nearly transparent membrane, like fish roe. A panel slowly materialized before his eyes.

-

[Exotic Treasure Name]: Monkey Head Mushroom Seeds.

[Exotic Treasure Level]: White.

[Exotic Treasure Effect]: Must be planted in ’Farmland’. Takes three days to mature. Consuming after maturation will enhance physical constitution.

-

He nodded thoughtfully. ’Seeds, huh.’

’Why would I need an Appraiser for this?’

’Doesn’t the panel spell it out perfectly clearly?’

He was starting to understand this world. Whether it was Building Blueprints or Exotic Treasures, he could view their details directly on a panel. But the natives of this world couldn’t see the panels, which made the process extremely convoluted.

’In that case...’

’Maybe I can go to the Jiangbei Marketplace and browse the wares. I can see the panels for all the Exotic Treasures. Isn’t that much more direct than any Appraiser? I might even be able to find a hidden gem.’

"I know what this is."

Chen Fan stuffed the bundle of seeds into his robes, took the Ghost Stone that Lame Monkey had just dug from the Monkey-headed Ghost, and once he had two of them, he crafted another Beast Trap. Tossing it into the darkness, he said, "Let’s get back to work."

...

Time passed, bit by bit.

Suddenly,

the thick, viscous darkness receded, the Eternal Night ended, and the morning sun once again enveloped the entire world.

Day had broken.

"Hooo..."

Chen Fan let out a long breath and rubbed his sore eyes. He had been busy all night and was quite exhausted. ’I don’t know how those Fishing Guys can go at it all night. This is physically demanding work.’

But in his weary eyes, a smile he couldn’t suppress began to show.

Last night’s harvest was bountiful.

He had killed a total of 37 Monkey-headed Ghosts!

He had used two of the Ghost Stones to invest in more Beast Traps, leaving him with 35 Ghost Stones on hand.

The camp’s current total assets:

A total of 5 Beast Traps and 35 Ghost Stones.

"Go and get some sleep."

Chen Fan waved a hand, gesturing for Lame Monkey to go into the Wooden House and rest. He didn’t continue investing in more Beast Traps, mainly because he wasn’t sure if he had already caught most of the Monkey-headed Ghosts in the area. The first half of the night had been very fruitful, with catches coming in from time to time.

But in the second half of the night, they became scarce.

It would take a long time before another one was hooked.

He suspected that there were only so many Monkey-headed Ghosts nearby, or perhaps the Ghost Objects preferred to be active in the first half of the night.

"..."

Just then—

He suddenly frowned and looked outside his Wooden House. A lone Beast Trap sat out on the Wilderness, and caught in it was a tuft of white monkey fur.

By now, he was very familiar with this fur.

It was the fur of a Monkey-headed Ghost.

’Only... this was clearly left behind during an escape. A Monkey-headed Ghost can’t break free from a Beast Trap. Unless...’

He walked over to retrieve the Beast Trap, picking up the tuft of fur and rubbing it between his fingers.

’It’s harder than the fur of an ordinary Monkey-headed Ghost.’

’Could it be... the leader of this pack of Monkey-headed Ghosts?’

’Did it sense that a large number of its kind died tragically here last night and came to investigate? Does that mean it will come back tonight?’

"..."

At this thought, his eyes narrowed slightly. The man in the green robe had been very clear when he left: aside from some weak Ghost Objects, most of them merely disliked the Ghost Fire and were unwilling to get too close, but it wasn’t that they *couldn’t* get close. If his guess was right, a major crisis might befall them tonight!

’I must prepare in advance.’ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He had originally wanted to build a plot of Farmland to plant the Monkey Head Mushrooms, but that plan would have to be temporarily set aside. Surviving tonight’s crisis came first.

He turned his attention to one of the basic buildings on the Eternal Night Lord Panel.

Level 1 Arrow Tower.

Can deal a certain amount of damage to Low Level Ghosts. Cost to build: 10 Ghost Stones.

’This is it!’

He placed 10 Ghost Stones on the ground, slowly closed his eyes, and confirmed the construction with a thought in the panel.