You're Truly a Genius

Out on the wasteland. Hiding behind a low earthen mound, the blue-robed man made certain that the youth could not see him from that angle before letting out a long sigh. He retrieved another ghost-skin map from his robes, preparing to take a longer detour toward Jiangbei Market. According to his original route, he should have headed straight east after leaving the outpost. However... The wasteland was utterly flat, offering an unobstructed view in every direction. He felt that as a reclusive expert, walking such a long distance right under the gazes of those two would somewhat diminish his dignified bearing. As a grand expert, after performing a good deed, one ought to simply flick their sleeves and vanish in the blink of an eye, not leaving behind a single wisp of cloud. "I really am..." He could not help shaking his head, slightly amused by his own childish thoughts. After a long while, the faint curve of his lips faded. His eyes flickered with a surge of ferocity and irritation as he turned his head back toward Jiangbei Chen Family Outpost No. 37, muttering under his breath. "Back then, why wasn't there a single soul willing to lend me a hand like this..." "If there had been... perhaps there wouldn't be today's Old Demon Jiangbei." *** Once he was certain the blue-robed man had departed, Chen Fan hurried to the haystack behind the wooden cabin. From it, he pulled out the Level 1 bear trap and the ghost creature caught the previous night. The bear trap could be reused multiple times, though its drawback was that it could only trigger once per night. The creature was simian in appearance, resembling a diminutive monkey. Its mouth took up nearly two-thirds of its face, lined with densely packed teeth that looked thoroughly chilling. Every ghost creature possessed a ghost stone inside its body. Ghost stones were also the most vital currency in this world. "Young Master, this ghost creature is called a 'monkey-headed ghost.' It's a common low-grade creature, usually Level 1 to Level 3, and poses relatively little danger. Its main trait is its extreme speed, and its ghost stone is located at the back of its head." "..." Chen Fan glanced at Quehou in slight surprise. "How did you know that?" He had no such memory in his own mind. How could Quehou, who had merely been a servant in the Chen family, know all this? "When we were assigned to Young Master's service, all of us servants underwent three years of training. That included private tutor classes, where they taught us quite a bit about ghost creatures." "I see..." Chen Fan looked thoughtfully at the map in his hand. A vague memory stirred in his mind. In truth, there had also been private academies tailored for core family members, but his predecessor had been wallowing in despair at the time; why would he have bothered attending such places? "I remember now. Back then, the family even gave you a ghost stone to absorb so you could become a cultivator, didn't they?" "Yes." Quehou's voice dropped. "After the training ended, every servant received one ghost stone. A few lucky individuals became special cultivators and were personally taken away by the Family Head." "After that, I never received another ghost stone. My physical constitution didn't change at all." "I'm called a cultivator in name, but I don't possess the slightest aura of one." Chen Fan nodded and said nothing more. He recalled the rest as well. Originally, although he had been targeted within the clan, it had not been overly blatant. But when he absorbed a ghost stone at the age of sixteen and failed to awaken as any sort of special cultivator, even the Family Head, who had previously held out hope for him, abandoned him entirely. From that point on, his status had plummeted. Soon— Quehou rolled up his sleeves, drew a small dagger from his robes, sliced open the creature's corpse, and dug out a blood-smeared ghost stone. After wiping it clean on his coarse hemp clothes, he handed it to Chen Fan. With this, counting the two ghost stones inside the ghost fire, he now possessed three ghost stones in total. *** "..." Chen Fan carried a chair out of the cabin and sat by the ghost fire, pondering his grand plan to earn ghost stones. He had no need to visit Jiangbei Market to hire an architect; he could craft these basic structures himself. He simply needed enough ghost stones. He possessed a method to amass ghost stones quickly: Wholesaling ghost fires. This structure was widely used throughout the world and commanded a massive market. Many architects crafted ghost fires and sold them at markets for around sixty ghost stones each. The crafting cost was roughly fifty ghost stones. Nearly every architect knew how to build one, so the markup was not particularly high. However— His own cost was a mere three ghost stones. Even if he sold them for fifty each, he could reap a swift fortune. Still... That would be far too conspicuous, shattering many people's livelihoods in the process. Furthermore, Jiangbei Market was quite far away, and he could not travel such distances for the time being. He still needed to focus on the bear trap for now. A bear trap could catch at most one creature a night, primarily because it was a single-target trap. If he could retrieve it after it caught a creature and reset it, it could keep working. Once the Eternal Night descended, he certainly would not step out into the darkness to reset the trap himself. Yet no one needed to go out there. All he had to do was fashion a simple hemp rope to drag the trap out of the dark and back into the safe zone, where it could be reset once more. "Quehou." Chen Fan looked up at him. "Do you know how to weave rope out of dry grass?" "I do." "You're truly a genius." Chen Fan could not help but exclaim in admiration. "Your task today is to weave a few lengths of rope from the dry grass behind the cabin. They don't need to be too long—three or four meters will do. I'm heading out to scout for information. Once you're done, catch up on some sleep during the day. We have work to do tonight." "Understood." Quehou answered briskly and cleanly, without asking a single question about what the ropes were for. *** After assigning Quehou his task, Chen Fan fetched a few dry flatbreads from the cabin and swallowed them down with water from a bronze kettle. Once his stomach was reasonably full, he left the camp, ghost-skin map in hand, and headed toward the nearest ghost fire. He intended to see how other outposts were faring. The predicament currently facing him was not just a lack of ghost stones, but also shortages of food and water. The ghost-skin map proved remarkably useful. Not only did it display the real-time status of nearby ghost fires, but a green dot representing the bearer also floated on its surface, ensuring he would not lose his way. The crimson ghost fire that differed in color from all the others was his own outpost. Cresting a low earthen mound, he continued westward. After about thirty minutes, he spotted the nearest ghost fire encampment. Lying flat against the cracked earth of the wasteland, he observed it intently. "It should be a Level 2 ghost fire..." "Otherwise, the safe radius wouldn't accommodate this many wooden cabins. Seven cabins in total—two large ones and five small ones." "No defensive walls, though." "There's even a plot of reclaimed farmland." "Four people in total." He muttered under his breath as he watched. The four individuals appeared to belong to the camp itself, with no passing travelers in sight. It was just as the blue-robed man had said: the conditions at this outpost were indeed far superior to his own. With both places charging an overnight fee of one ghost stone, his outpost stood no chance of competing.