Great Kindness Needs No Words of Thanks

Dawn broke. Daylight arrived with astonishing speed. The tide of darkness receded in an instant, and within seconds, the pitch-black sky transformed into a brilliant sunrise. Throughout the night, Chen Fan had started awake multiple times. This was his first sleep since crossing over to this world. Between his anxiety, a whirlwind of turbulent emotions, and the rustling sounds in the dark, he had barely slept well at all. The moment day broke, Chen Fan snapped wide awake. The halo of light had already dispersed, and the wooden cabin once again blended into the wasteland, leaving only the solitary bonfire still burning. Out on the wasteland, a dead ghost creature lay quietly caught in the bear trap. It resembled a small monkey. Without hesitation, Chen Fan strode out onto the wasteland and stuffed the creature along with the trap into the haystack behind the cabin. He planned to dissect it and retrieve the ghost stone once the guest inside had departed, so as not to reveal too much. ... An hour later, the blue-robed middle-aged man in the cabin finally woke up. He strolled unhurriedly out of the cabin, stopped outside, and looked at Chen Fan standing in place. Shaking the map in his hand, he said with a smile, "There is another outpost near here with far better conditions than yours, and it also charges only one ghost stone. Yet yesterday, I still chose your outpost. Do you know why?" Then, without waiting for Chen Fan to answer, he stretched lazily. "Because yesterday, seeing your subordinate desperately soliciting travelers struck a chord with me. Only after arriving at this outpost did I fully understand. "This was originally an abandoned outpost. Very few travelers pass through here—practically none at all. "Now it has suddenly been lit again. Being assigned here by your family means you were undoubtedly ostracized back home. In all likelihood, the family didn't even give you any supplies. You need ghost stones to keep the ghost fire alive just to survive. "A glimmer of compassion stirred in me. "I felt like helping you, just as I desperately wished someone would give me a helping hand back when I was similarly ostracized and targeted in my own family. "Yet I don't want to help you too much. After all, nobody helped me back then, so why should you get any help? "Therefore— "I will not give you a single extra ghost stone; you haven't earned it. I will only answer one question for you. You may ask now." He looked at the youth before him with a faint, knowing smile. He had already formed a picture of this youth's identity in his mind. Neither the young man nor that emaciated subordinate of his were cultivators. Having been repeatedly targeted within their family, they had been discarded in this godforsaken place to await death. And this place had long been abandoned. The ghost fire had already been extinguished. Yet it had been relit on the map, which meant a new ghost fire had been established. The cost of erecting a ghost fire was around fifty ghost stones. If a family merely wanted to send an ordinary nobody to die, there was no need to incur such an expense. That meant the youth before him very likely had some background, making it inconvenient for them to openly eliminate him and invite gossip—such as being the patriarch's illegitimate son or something of the sort. So they had resorted to this method. A flicker of faint anger passed through his eyes. He saw his past self in this youth. He wanted to help the boy just like helping his former self, yet he was reluctant to give too much aid; after all, no one had lent him a hand back then. This bizarre conflict left him somewhat irritated. He could already guess what the youth would ask. It would be nothing more than asking how to leave this wasteland, or, seeing that compassion had stirred within him, asking outright to borrow a few ghost stones with promises of heavy repayment in the future. If the youth asked such a meaningless question, his goodwill would vanish in an instant, and he would turn away without looking back. "Many thanks for your guidance, Senior." Chen Fan cupped his fists with a solemn expression and spoke in a deep voice: "Senior is able to traverse the wasteland alone, so you must be an extraordinary figure. This is Junior's first time stepping into the wasteland, and I wish to know what I can do to increase my chances of survival out here." "..." The blue-robed middle-aged man fell silent for a moment before looking at Chen Fan and suddenly bursting into laughter. "You are just like I was back then—carrying a burning drive in your heart. I like that about you. "In that case, I can share a few things with you. "When travelers seek entry to an outpost, the rule of the wasteland is that they must pay the ghost stones before they may enter. "There is a kind of ghost creature known as a 'pseudo-human ghost.' It resembles a human and possesses a certain degree of intelligence. "It can move about before the Eternal Night fully descends. It will ask you if it may enter the outpost and claim it will pay the ghost stone after coming inside. You must refuse. Without your consent, it cannot enter your outpost. This kind of creature poses relatively little danger. "Last night, you collected the ghost stone only after I had entered. That was a mistake. "Of course, you had no way to stop me anyway. Your outpost is exceedingly crude, devoid of any defensive structures, and utterly incapable of standing against a cultivator. "On the wasteland, the life of every stationmaster is bound to their ghost fire. No one attacks a stationmaster, because if the stationmaster dies, the ghost fire will go out. Even so, you still need basic offensive structures. Aside from defending against ghost creatures, they are also necessary to secure your authority within the outpost. "Furthermore! "The ghost fire is not entirely safe. Aside from the truly weak creatures, most ghost creatures merely loathe the ghost fire; it does not truly prevent them from approaching. When a ghost tide erupts or under special circumstances, those creatures will engulf an outpost in an instant. "You need a defensive wall to ensure absolute safety. "Based on these two points, if you wish to survive long enough on this wasteland, you need an enclosed perimeter wall and a basic offensive structure. Both of these structures are quite common and simple; virtually every architect knows how to build them. The master of the nearby Jiangbei Market is a Rank 2 architect. If you seek him out, he can construct them for you. "However, unmovable structures like these require an architect to come in person to build them, which costs quite a few ghost stones. "As for how you obtain ghost stones, that is none of my concern. "I have already helped you enough." The blue-robed man shook his head and laughed, realizing he could not keep talking. He had only intended to answer a single question, but the young man's inquiry was so broad that he had ended up elaborating on and on. Reaching into his robe, he pulled out a map and tossed it into Chen Fan's chest. "This is a ghost-skin map of the surrounding area. It will update the status of every ghost fire on the wasteland in real time. "Three months from now, I will pass through this wasteland again. "At that time, I will make a point of stopping by this outpost. If you manage to survive until then, I wouldn't mind genuinely lending you a hand." With that, the blue-robed middle-aged man did not linger for a second. Hands clasped behind his back, he strode in an unhurried gait toward the low earthen mound not far away. Yet while his steps appeared exceedingly slow, he was actually moving with incredible speed, creating an eerie contrast. "Senior!" Clutching the leather map, Chen Fan looked at the man's receding back and shouted, "Great kindness needs no words of thanks! May I have your name, so that I may repay you in the future?" The man did not answer. He merely waved a hand without looking back. His figure gradually vanished across the wasteland. "Phew..." Chen Fan looked down at the leather map in his hands and murmured, "This senior is quite free-spirited..." This information was of tremendous value and would be an immense help to him! His predecessor had spent his life absorbed in nothing but pain and indignation back in the family, leaving behind not a damn trace of memory regarding any of these crucial details.