A Pocket Cabin, Pretty Good

"Not bad." Chen Fan said little else, handing the kraft paper back to Zhou Mo. "Keeping a record is good too. If we survive the rainy season, this will be the best medal to prove our resilience. How did you sleep last night?" Once the danger had largely passed during the latter half of the night, he had sent Zhou Mo, Qi Chong, and their respective men inside to sleep, all in preparation for the operations once day broke. "Slept great. I'm full of energy and ready for a mission anytime." "Good." Chen Fan pulled the ghost-skin map from his robes, pointing to several marked spots as he instructed, "Last night, nearly every outpost across the wilderness was wiped out with zero survivors. Only two outposts made it through. "One is ours, Jiangbei Chen Family Outpost No. 37. "The other outpost is nine kilometers away from us in a straight line. "Your mission today is to take your men, head to that outpost, bring back whatever portable resources they have, and bring their people over to our outpost. "They were fortunate to survive last night, which means their luck is decent, but luck won't protect them forever in the rainy season. "We need to huddle together for warmth. Every extra person is an extra ounce of strength." "Understood." Zhou Mo nodded heavily in agreement. Pulling his own ghost-skin map from his robes, he looked toward that fortunate outpost. If memory served, it seemed to be Qiuhe Wang Family Outpost No. 16. He had met that outpost's stationmaster a few times, but they had never interacted much. "Traveling in torrential rain is difficult. Keeping yourself safe is the highest priority. If you encounter any uncontrollable situation, abandon the mission immediately and rush back to camp." After Chen Fan gave this warning, he turned his gaze to Qi Chong, who had just been awakened and was hastily pulling on his clothes. "Qi Chong." Standing up and facing Qi Chong, he said earnestly, "Your mission is to head to the nearby outposts that were destroyed last night and bring back any usable supplies. There's no fixed quota—visit as many as you feel you can handle. "Just remember to keep flipping the hourglass. "Once the hourglass has been flipped eight times, return to camp immediately, no matter where you are." "Yes, sir!" Qi Chong scrambled into his clothing, his bleary eyes snapping open as he answered loudly. During the rainy season on the wilderness, the deadliest factor was having no way to gauge time by the sky. Rain poured incessantly. If they failed to return to camp within the allotted time, the only thing waiting for them would be... the descent of Eternal Night. An hourglass was one way to track time in the wilderness. Each run of the sand meant half a shichen had passed. After eight consecutive turns, less than two shichen would remain until nightfall, at which point one had to rush back to camp immediately. ... One section of the wall slowly retracted into the ground. Having choked down a few bites of dry rations, Zhou Mo and Qi Chong held their ghost-skin maps, braved the torrential downpour, and led their men out of the camp, their footprints fading one by one into the mist. On the wilderness, not a single outpost had raincoats, conical bamboo hats, or any other rain gear. After all... Rain fell on this wilderness only during the rainy season; normally, such gear was utterly useless. And when the rainy season did arrive, that stuff was completely useless anyway... "Once you finish up here, go get some sleep," Chen Fan called out to Wang Kui and the others, who were busy dissecting ghost creature corpses on the wasteland outside the wall. Afterward, he walked over to Quehou, who was carefully righting seedlings beside the farmland. Last night, the flesh worm ghost tide had swept right across the fields. The destruction left in its wake was considerable. "Young Master," Quehou said, his heart aching. "Out of seventeen lion's mane mushroom seedlings, seven were trampled to death. Out of twelve ghost stone vein seedlings, four were trampled. "A heavy loss." "It's fine. Far better than expected," Chen Fan remarked with feeling. "It's already a blessing that this many survived. From the looks of it last night, I thought the entire field would be uprooted. All right, you should head inside and rest soon too. Once I finish taking inventory, I'll turn in as well." "Young Master, do you remember that seed I found in the wooden cabin and planted in the field?" "Of course I remember. Why, did it sprout?" "Just sprouted!" Quehou pointed eagerly toward a corner of the farmland, where several buds scarcely larger than sesame seeds had just poked out of the dirt. "It's a flower! Judging by this pace, it won't be long before it blooms." "Oh?" Surprised, Chen Fan crouched beside the farmland and looked at the brownish flower buds nestled amidst the fresh grass in the corner. He had assumed back then that it was just some moldy wheat seed, never expecting it to be a flower seed—much less that it would actually grow. Talk about resilient! One had to realize that the "lion's mane mushroom" and "ghost stone vein" seeds were special seeds dropped by ghost creatures, which was why they could sprout so smoothly. For an ordinary crop to survive in such torrential downpours was truly extraordinary. "All right," Chen Fan clapped Quehou on the shoulder with a smile. "Go back inside, grab a bite, and get some sleep. There will still be work to do once we wake up this afternoon." "Understood, Young Master." Cradling the God-Slaying Spear in his arms, Quehou didn't argue further and headed toward the wooden cabin inside the wall. By now, Wang Kui and his crew had finished dissecting all the ghost creature corpses outside the wall. In total, they gathered 41 ghost stones, no exotic treasures, and a fair amount of harvested ghost materials. The carcasses were left outside the wall for now, to be dealt with after some sleep. Chen Fan sent the men inside to rest. Alone, he began taking stock of the camp's assets. He originally had four ghost stones in his robes. Adding the 484 dropped by the flesh worm ghosts and these 41, the total reached 529 ghost stones. There was also one used ghost stone—the one originally pried from the arrow tower, which he had slipped back into the tower's socket after dawn. "Five hundred and twenty-nine ghost stones..." Standing beside the farmland, Chen Fan stared out into the overcast distance amidst the pouring rain. After a dazed pause, he chuckled softly. The heavens were fair. They handed you a crisis, but brought opportunities along with it. If not for last night's flesh worm ghost tide, it would have taken him a long time to amass 529 ghost stones. An ordinary stationmaster's monthly stipend was merely ten ghost stones. This was equivalent to nearly five years of a stationmaster's earnings. It was roughly one-third of Wang Kui's total earnings over thirteen years with the Wang family. Only then did he rein in his thoughts and look down at the three exotic treasures in his hand, all dropped the previous night. There was no rush to use them; he would inspect them after waking up. Having spent the entire night on edge, his mind was groggy. Decisions made in this state were seldom wise. Best to sleep first. Just as he turned to head back to the cabin, the corner of his eye caught that tiny bud swaying in the heavy rain. After a moment's hesitation, he picked up a few suitable scraps of broken planks from beside the wooden cabin inside the wall, walked back to the field, and built a makeshift little shelter over the flower bud. It was scarcely the size of a palm. A pocket cabin. Pretty good. Content, Chen Fan rose, returned to the cabin, and peeled off his soaked hemp clothing. Glancing at Quehou, who had already drifted off to sleep hugging the spear, he smiled, lay down on an adjacent bed, and gradually fell into dreamland. Another night survived. The rainy season had its upsides; at the very least, it kept all kinds of devious schemers away, buying him plenty of time to grow his strength. For example... Once daylight broke and word got out that Jiangbei Chen Family Outpost No. 37 was still standing strong, things ought to be quite lively back at the Chen family in Jiangbei City. When someone marked for death refused to die, it always made certain people sit on pins and needles.