Good Stuff!

"You're not hurt, are you?" Chen Fan looked over at Quehou, who stood beside him clutching a spear. "No, Young Master." Quehou shook his head, panting heavily with lingering terror. "That ghost creature had to be at least Level 3. If not for those two arrow towers, we might've met our end right here tonight." "Back to work." Chen Fan didn't say much else. He simply signaled for Quehou to toss the bear traps out into the darkness to begin tonight's hunt. Now that the big brute had been driven off, they could get back to business as usual. The arrow towers could only attack ghost creatures within range of the ghost fire. While great for defense, they fell short when it came to offensive hunting. ... Roughly two hours passed. Chen Fan's brow furrowed slightly. Pausing, he said, "Doesn't look like we'll catch anything tonight. Let's head inside and sleep. We'll check again at daybreak." Two hours had gone by, and not a single bear trap had stirred. Not a single monkey-headed ghost was in sight. Something wasn't right. It was hard to say whether all the nearby monkey-headed ghosts had been wiped out or if that big brute earlier had called them away. He knew far too little about the Eternal Night. In fact, he knew far too little about this world in general. He needed a tutor—he had to find a way to abduct a scholar. Information was paramount. He had just crafted five bear traps, and before he could even get started, there were no ghost creatures left to trap. Still... Weren't ghost creatures supposed to be endless in the Eternal Night? Even if they couldn't catch any monkey-headed ghosts, there should have been other creatures around. Why was it completely empty? Drowsy and exhausted, Chen Fan drifted off to sleep on his bed. He only had three ghost stones left. If he didn't find a way to earn more soon, he wouldn't even be able to keep the ghost fire burning. Quehou slept on a floor pallet inside the wooden cabin. ... "Young Master!" "Young Master!" In a haze, Chen Fan was jarred awake by Quehou's urgent cries. "What is it?" Chen Fan rolled out of bed, rubbing his eyes as he walked out of the wooden cabin. Why was it that Quehou always woke up earlier than him? That scrawny fellow looked like skin and bones, yet he had vastly more energy. The next instant— Stepping out of the cabin, Chen Fan's face split into a wide grin. A dozen or so meters from camp, the giant monkey-headed ghost from last night lay motionless on the ground, stone dead. Clearly, after fleeing grievously wounded into the darkness, it had collapsed after only a few steps. Scattered beside its corpse were several glowing items. Without a doubt, these had to be the exotic treasures dropped upon its death. Quehou stood outside the cabin, shouting with excitement. Dawn had just broken, and the darkness had only recently receded, leaving the sky in a faint, hazy glow. There was no way anyone would be passing by their camp at this hour. "I'm coming!" An unstoppable smile crept onto Chen Fan's face as he strode over to the dead beast. He scooped up the two glowing items and tucked them into his tunic. It was a good thing Quehou had woken early; otherwise, someone else might have snatched them. Of course... The odds of that were slim anyway, given how seldom travelers passed through these parts. "I'll dig out the ghost stones!" Thoroughly exhilarated, Quehou detached the knife from the wooden shaft and set to work carving up the corpse. Normally, a low-level ghost creature had only one ghost stone inside it, but this beast clearly carried more. After slicing open its skull, Quehou used the knife to pry out one ghost stone after another from the flesh and blood. The whole process looked remarkably like squeezing out tonsil stones—one after another. Oddly therapeutic. Before long, all the ghost stones were extracted and arranged neatly on the ground. A full seventeen stones! Added to the three he already had, that made twenty in total. "Not bad at all." Chen Fan nodded in deep satisfaction. "Gather the corpse and stash it in the straw pile behind the cabin with the other monkey-headed ghosts. Might come in handy later." Even if it proved useless, it had to be hidden away for now. If passersby saw such an extraordinary ghost creature corpse, they would surely wonder if it had dropped something valuable, inviting needless trouble. Most ghost creatures would not eat the corpses of their own kind. Nor could humans consume them. Aside from certain organs that could be harvested as ghost materials, most carcasses were burned on the spot. Only then did Chen Fan turn his attention to the two white-glowing exotic treasures in his grasp. Any exotic treasure was impossible to craft by human hands, so none were ever of low value. The Building Duplication Stone dropped by the mother and daughter yesterday had especially raised his hopes for whatever he held now. "It'd be great if one could expand our territory or provide a steady supply of ghost stones," Chen Fan muttered, pressing his palms together in silent prayer. He was running short on space. A Level 1 Ghost Fire provided a safe zone only ten meters in diameter. With the arrow towers, the wooden cabin, and the ghost fire itself already placed within its perimeter, there was no room left for a plot of farmland. And if a farm wasn't placed within range of the ghost fire, ghost creatures would utterly ravage it once the Eternal Night fell. He had originally hoped to maintain a steady stream of ghost stones using his bear traps. Yet no monkey-headed ghosts had shown up last night, cutting off that source of income. Though he had just reaped a sizable haul, it was a one-time windfall; sustaining his supply in the future remained an issue. The first exotic treasure was a seed-type item, wrapped in a thin membrane just like the monkey-head mushroom seed. *** [Exotic Treasure]: Ghost Stone Mineral Vein Seed [Treasure Grade]: White [Treasure Effect]: Must be planted in Farmland. Maturation cycle is three days. Upon maturing, it yields ghost stones. Requires ghost creature corpses as fertilizer. *** "Good stuff!" Chen Fan beamed. Even if the other item turned out to be complete garbage, this single treasure made it all worthwhile. It seemed setting up a plot of farmland had to be put on today's agenda. There was no telling how many ghost stones it would yield. Fortunately, he had kept all those monkey-headed ghost carcasses; they would serve as perfect fertilizer. He turned his gaze to the second item. *** [Exotic Treasure]: God-Slaying Spear [Treasure Grade]: White [Treasure Effect]: Deals substantial damage to low-tier ghost creatures. Capable of resizing at will. *** "Decent enough." With a thought, the pocket-sized spear in Chen Fan's hand expanded rapidly, transforming into an imposing, formidable weapon. Its ability to resize merely meant it could toggle between standard size and a pocket version. It couldn't grow tens of meters long or anything like that. A pseudo-resizing, at best. Strictly a personal sidearm. Still, it was leagues better than their crude spears cobbled together from wooden poles and knives. "This is yours." Chen Fan tossed the spear into Quehou's arms, then turned and strode back toward the ghost fire. Although Quehou had a limp, both his physical conditioning and combat experience surpassed Chen Fan's. The spear would be put to far better use in Quehou's hands. Back in the center of the camp, Chen Fan took a deep breath, arranged the twenty ghost stones on the ground, and slowly closed his eyes.