Stockpile Grain, Delay the Crown!

But the events of today had made one thing abundantly clear to him: very few travelers passed through this area. He could not earn many ghost stones by charging lodging fees. If he wanted to survive long enough, he had to obtain ghost stones by killing ghost creatures. He could not simply sit back and let his meager reserves dwindle. He needed a stable source of income! The next moment— He thrust his arm directly into the scalding flames of the ghost fire. Bizarrely, neither his skin nor his clothes suffered the slightest harm. Drawing an intact ghost stone from the embers, he held it together in his palm with the ghost stone he had just earned, and slowly closed his eyes. Immediately after! Under Quehou's incredulous gaze, the two ghost stones in Chen Fan's hand began to melt rapidly. Turning into a milky-white liquid, it slipped through the gaps between his fingers, but before it could hit the ground, it shifted into dozens of illusory white threads floating in midair. They began to weave together with precise regularity, gradually solidifying. Seconds later. A steel bear trap fell from the air and landed on the ground. This was a Level 1 Bear Trap he had just crafted by consuming two ghost stones. It could inflict damage on low-tier ghost creatures, providing him with a continuous stream of ghost stones! "It worked." Chen Fan stood where he was and looked down at the exceedingly simple-looking bear trap, a smile forming on his face. The tangled mess of emotions—the tension, fear, and bewilderment brought on by suddenly transmigrating into this perilous, unknown world—dissipated considerably in that moment. At the very least... there was hope. He was no longer in despair. "Young Master!" Having witnessed it all with his own eyes, Quehou's face was pale and he trembled with intense excitement. But glancing toward the wooden hut, he forced his voice down and quavered, "Young Master, you... you awakened as an architect!" "And you succeeded on your very first build!" "If the Master hears of this, you can return to the family immediately and receive the finest treatment! No one will ever dare bully you again!" "The Master will definitely see justice done for all the wrongs you’ve suffered over the years!" "No need." Chen Fan chuckled, a gleam flashing in his eyes. "I don't particularly care for having other people decide things for me." ... Several centuries ago, the Eternal Night descended. The world's order collapsed in an instant. Countless people perished at the hands of ghost creatures, leaving corpses strewn across the wilderness. Yet through the trial and error of countless lost lives, humanity slowly uncovered a way to survive. By absorbing a single ghost stone, one could enhance their physical constitution and even learn techniques to combat ghost creatures, just like immortals. Such people were collectively known as cultivators. However— in this world, hiding remained the primary means of survival. No matter how powerful a cultivator was, they could not hold out in the dark against an endless, surging tide of ghost creatures. When the Eternal Night fell, anyone who strayed from a ghost fire would eventually be worn down and killed, regardless of their strength. Yet a lucky few, upon absorbing a ghost stone, would awaken as special cultivators, possessing exceedingly rare abilities. For instance, Night Walkers could still retain a certain field of vision after the Eternal Night fell. Or alchemists, who could use the corpses of ghost creatures alongside spiritual herbs to craft medicinal pills of diverse, miraculous effects. Compared to ordinary cultivators, special cultivators like Night Walkers and alchemists were vastly more potent and commanded many more means. Any faction would treat them as honored guests, offering substantial monthly stipends if they agreed to sign contracts and join. And among these special cultivators, one stood at the absolute pinnacle, the rarest of all: architects! Structures like the ghost fire were the handiwork of architects; no one other than an architect could craft such a creation. Without architects, this world would have perished long ago. From the towering walls of every city to the fortifications guarding each family's stronghold, all were the work of architects! The true foundation of any faction was measured by whether or not it possessed an architect. The foundation of the Jiangbei Chen family was a consecrated Level 5 architect! The Chen family possessed seventy-seven outposts in total, and the ghost fire at every outpost came from that consecrated elder's hands. Those outposts, in turn, generated an endless flow of revenue for the family. And Chen Fan— he had now become an architect as well. Except... his abilities were on a far higher level. According to his memories, all current architects were unable to use building blueprints directly. When killing high-tier ghost creatures, there was a small chance a building blueprint would drop. Other architects had to examine the appearance of the structure depicted on the blueprint, gather the corresponding materials, add ghost stones, and blindly experiment with construction. Once they succeeded, they would memorize the recipe, guarding it as an exclusive secret passed down only by word of mouth. For example, the ghost fire—the most widespread structure and one of the few whose formula had leaked—had a widely circulated recipe: "Requires 10 to 30 ghost stones, a strand of hair from a mimic ghost, the head of a piggyback ghost, the heart of a daylight ghost, a wisp of dry grass... a total of seven materials." In reality, though, according to the basic Ghost Fire blueprint on Chen Fan's panel, constructing a ghost fire required only three ghost stones and a wisp of readily plucked dry grass to serve as kindling. As for why such a convoluted recipe had come about... It was entirely because others couldn't see the full contents of the building blueprints. Through trial and error, they mashed seven messy materials together, and the others simply neutralized one another until only the wisp of dry grass remained. Simply put, it was like stacking so many bugs together that the code somehow ran anyway. If a single step was missing, the whole thing collapsed. Furthermore, it didn't actually require so many ghost stones. Without using a building blueprint directly, energy was lost during the process. Because Chen Fan used blueprints directly, his energy efficiency was one hundred percent. Compared to other architects, building anything cost him far less and was vastly more stable. If others had to climb a mountain by winding along treacherous mountain roads, he was riding a cable car—the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. More efficient, more direct, and faster! ... "Phew..." Exhaling softly, he gingerly placed the Level 1 Bear Trap at the edge of the circle of light, then kicked it out into the darkness, looking forward to what it would yield by morning. He had no intention of returning to the Jiangbei Chen family. His predecessor would surely have wanted to rush back to the Chen family at the first opportunity, craving his father's recognition above all else. But Chen Fan harbored no such foolish notions. Once a man seeks another person's validation, his life is already half ruined. Besides, even if he wanted to go back, he couldn't. Without a voice transmission talisman or sufficient travel expenses, he had no way to return to the clan or even contact them. What he needed to do was slowly build a shelter of his own right here. Only after amassing enough power to protect himself would he consider anything else. In this world, it wasn't just the ghosts at night that devoured people; there were monsters walking under the daylight as well. He couldn't just focus on dealing with ghost creatures. Stockpile grain, delay the crown! This six-character strategy would be his plan for the foreseeable future. He wasn't going anywhere. He was staying right here, firmly rooted to this ground!