Standing on the wall, Chen Fan pulled his gaze back from Quehou and the others below, turning his eyes to the "ghost-skin map" in his hand. His expression shifted with complex emotions, and he remained silent.
This map had been given to him by the green-robed man who was the very first guest to lodge at the outpost.
Raindrops fell onto his eyelashes, blurring his vision, yet he could still clearly see that ninety percent of the "outposts" that had once glittered like stars across the map had gone dark. Only seven or eight outposts clung forlornly to life across the wilderness.
Tonight was the second night of the rainy season.
Yet—
The outposts across this wilderness were already almost completely wiped out.
Before nightfall had descended this evening, he had taken a special look at the ghost-skin map. There had still been twenty-eight outposts back then, all situated deep in the wilderness. Unable to evacuate in time, they had no choice but to brace themselves against the rainy season.
And now...
The first half of the night had not even passed, yet twenty outposts were already gone.
Among them was the "makeshift outpost" he had constructed out in the wilderness yesterday. Before leaving, he had even tossed a ghost stone into its ghost fire, intending to continue hunting tonight according to plan. But plans could never keep up with changes; that outpost had also perished in the ghost tide.
Right at that moment!
A burst of white light flashed across the "ghost-skin map." When the glow faded, another white dot representing an outpost blinked out.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
No one could sleep.
He did not know how the people in the other outposts were enduring tonight. Just imagining that suffocating feeling of despair and helplessness made his chest tighten.
...
Soon, Quehou returned to the wall lugging a large porcelain vat. There were too many ghost stones to fit into hemp sacks, so he had simply used a vat to hold them all.
"Young Master."
Breathing heavily, Quehou pulled three objects glowing with white light from his lapel and held them out. "I've tallied them up. Four hundred eighty-four ghost stones in total, plus three exotic treasures."
"Good."
Chen Fan quickly skimmed the information on the three exotic treasures before continuing to look out into the gray mist beyond the camp from atop the wall.
The flesh worm ghosts had retreated.
Yet the crisis had not passed; the female ghost with the eerie laughter was bound to return.
However...
This time, he felt no fear. Holding out against the flesh worm ghost tide and surviving had drastically bolstered his reserves. He did not immediately expend the ghost stones to upgrade the camp's defenses.
Right now, he needed to feign weakness.
The unseen female ghost riding inside the palanquin clearly possessed a degree of intelligence.
If she realized the camp's defenses were too formidable, she might give up on her vengeance—an outcome he did not want to see. A female ghost like that was certain to drop excellent loot upon death.
The instant she charged into the camp, he would immediately upgrade the camp's fortifications.
A classic move: feign sleep to lure the foe, and trap the turtle in a jar!
...
Time slipped by bit by bit.
The flesh worm ghost tide had passed, showing no signs of returning for the moment, and not a single ghost creature could be seen in the gray mist. Clearly, facing a tide of flesh worm ghosts was a near-certain death sentence even for other ghost creatures.
Yet none of them dared relax in the slightest.
Tonight's ghost tide had shown every one of them the true meaning of the words "The rainy season descends, and ghost tides run rampant." Just eight simple words, yet the despair lurking behind them was enough to suffocate a man.
Just then—
"They're here!" Quehou was the first to spot them, whispering in a hushed voice.
It was already the latter half of the night. Close to a hundred ghost creatures finally surged out of the gray mist once more—all familiar faces.
Bamboo pole ghosts, mantis ghosts, monkey head ghosts.
And a palanquin borne by four bamboo pole ghosts.
"They really just won't let go, will they?"
Chen Fan wiped the rain from his face. Pretending to be completely oblivious, he lowered the wall a notch into the ground to tempt them to charge right into the camp in one fell swoop, as the arrow towers could not attack ghost creatures outside the camp perimeter.
If the enemy didn't enter camp territory, he had no way of dealing with this pack of ghost creatures.
Yet... after waiting patiently for roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, this pack of ghost creatures showed not the slightest inclination to storm the camp. They simply stood quietly in the gray mist like wax figures, utterly motionless.
"..."
Chen Fan's brow furrowed slightly. He lowered his voice. "Xiao Qiu, go outside the wall and pretend to pick up a ghost stone. Don't actually grab it, just go through the motions. The second I tell you to come back, get right back inside."
The 484 ghost stones Quehou had collected were only the drops from killing the flesh worm ghosts.
The corpses of the ghost creatures left behind from when they first met the enemy were still lying quietly outside the wall; he had saved them specifically for this moment.
Xiao Qiu did not hesitate in the least. He headed straight down the stone steps along the wall and stepped outside, feigning ignorance as he prepared to sift through the corpses and dig out ghost stones. Under normal circumstances, this pack of ghost creatures should have seized this opening to launch a charge—after all, the female ghost possessed a degree of intelligence.
And yet...
When Xiao Qiu walked outside, the ghost creatures not only failed to charge, but actually retreated slowly until they backed out of the gray mist and vanished into the Eternal Night.
Utterly bewildered, Xiao Qiu turned around at a loss and looked up at Chen Fan on the wall.
"Come back."
Chen Fan sighed softly. There was no need to waste further effort; the female ghost was smarter than he had anticipated.
After all—
A camp capable of withstanding the brunt of a "flesh worm ghost" tide already spoke for itself; it certainly wasn't something a mere hundred ghost creatures could overrun. The female ghost had realized this as well. Even though he had deliberately exposed a vulnerability, she had made no move, choosing instead to withdraw.
For now, it was unclear whether she had given up on revenge, or was biding her time to make careful plans.
All he could do was remain vigilant.
For the rest of the night, not a single ghost creature stepped into the gray mist near the camp. Terrifying though the flesh worm ghost tide was, surviving its onslaught created a brief safe haven in the surrounding area, keeping other ghost creatures away.
The next moment!
The heavy, magma-like darkness high in the sky receded swiftly like an ebbing tide, revealing an expanse of overcast clouds spanning the entire sky.
Dawn broke.
Another night survived.
...
Inside the wooden cabin.
Zhou Mo sat by the stove, having long since changed into dry clothes. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with a brush in hand, he wrote stroke by stroke on the kraft paper in his lap.
"Today is the third day since the arrival of the rainy season."
"Not a single death."
"Last night, we endured the onslaught of a flesh worm ghost tide and the probing attack of higher-level ghost creatures, surviving by a stroke of luck."
Having finished writing these lines, he looked with a complicated expression at the thirty circles he had drawn with his brush on the cabin's inner wall. Two of the circles were already crossed out.
According to patterns from past years, the rainy season typically lasted about thirty days. During this time, ghost tides ran rampant and danger lurked everywhere.
Once those thirty days passed, the winter that followed would not be nearly so grueling; at the very least, massive ghost tides would no longer ravage the wilderness.
Two nights had passed.
To survive this rainy season, twenty-eight days remained.
Right then—
The cabin door pushed open.
Zhou Mo scrambled to his feet, setting the kraft paper aside. "Stationmaster."
"Mm."
Chen Fan gave a slight nod. Grabbing a towel hanging to the side, he dried his soaked hair as he sat down by the stove. He picked up the kraft paper from the floor, glanced over it, and asked casually, "Keeping a journal?"
"Uh-huh..." Zhou Mo nodded somewhat awkwardly. "Just scribbling for fun. Normally, I don't write journals or anything like that."
Chapter 28