Worthy of Being Called a Mountain God

It sprawled on the ground like a breathing, dark-green hill. What terrified people most was its size. In length, it was several times that of an ordinary crocodile, its rough scales layered over one another like weathered ancient rock. As the crocodile slowly drew near, Zhou Mo and the others held their breath involuntarily, their bodies tensing. The sheer intimidation radiating from this crocodile seemed far greater than that of the mourning ghost chieftain—a purely visceral terror brought on by its sheer mass. No one could watch a mountain crawling toward them without feeling fear. Forget scaring children; even an adult would burst into tears at the sight. ... "Truly worthy of being called a Mountain God." Chen Fan took a deep breath. Without avoiding the crocodile's gaze, he pulled a level-2 ghost stone from his breast pocket and tossed it out again. It seemed the creature had looked down on the low grade of the ghost stone he had offered before. If that was the case, he wouldn't be able to feed it regularly. He couldn't afford feeding it level-2 ghost stones. The next moment— The translucent, faintly green ghost stone drew an arc through the air, smacking dead-on against the crocodile's flat head. The crocodile froze for an instant, as if in disbelief. Only then did it register what had happened. Its eyes actually welled with anger and hurt; giving a whimper, it turned around and scrambled back into the darkness. He had only ever heard the crocodile vocalize twice. The first time was beneath the cliff, when it had roared with blustery fury—a booming, deafening bellow that drowned out the rain. The second time was now. The sound was exceedingly faint. Without listening closely, one could barely hear it at all, like a child who had just been bullied. "Wait!" Chen Fan called out instinctively to stop it. As if understanding his words, the crocodile actually halted in its tracks and turned back toward him, a flicker of anticipation surfacing in its enormous pupils as it stared fixedly at Chen Fan. "..." He had an inkling of where that anticipation came from. Looking down at the steaming food on the table, he hesitated a moment, then picked up a chicken leg from the hot dish with his chopsticks and tentatively tossed it outside the wall. The next instant! Rumble, rumble, rumble... The earth shook and the mountain trembled. He saw the crocodile charge straight at the wall like a tank, slamming on the brakes right before collision. First, it raised its head and peered cautiously at Chen Fan for a moment before delicately and ever so gently using the tips of its razor-sharp claws to pinch the chicken leg and pop it into its mouth. Its eyelids slowly drooped shut. Sprawling in place, its eyes radiated marvel and savoring bliss. Then it opened its eyes again. It parted its gaping maw, revealing heavy, worn-down teeth like wooden pilings. A thread of glistening drool hung from the corner of its mouth. Eagerness welled in its eyes once more as the pair of lantern-sized pupils gazed up at Chen Fan on the wall. Its tail wagged in small, clumsy, fawning arcs, thumping against the ground with dull smacks. "..." Chen Fan stood rooted in silent blankness. He had never expected this creature really didn't eat ghost stones, that it truly subsisted on meat—and apparently, compared to cold ghost creature corpses, it preferred hot, flavorful cooked meat. No wonder it stopped when he called out; it had caught the scent! Taking a deep breath, he spoke. "Qi Chong." "Here!" "Set up the stoves and light the fires. Roast all the ghost creature corpses we've gathered in the camp these past few days and feed them to it. Let it eat its fill tonight." "Understood!" ... A ghost creature carcass, sizzling and charred to a fragrant crisp, was tossed over the wall. Keeping its jaws open the entire time, the crocodile moved with an agility that completely defied its massive frame. It craned its neck slightly, cleanly caught the meat, tilted its head back, and swallowed it whole. Letting out a satisfied rumble like distant thunder, it parted its jaws wide again, gazing up at the wall with longing eyes as it waited for the next piece. "That's all of it." "You've eaten every last bit. Even the landlord has no surplus grain left." Chen Fan spread his hands helplessly, sighing as he looked down at the crocodile sprawling outside the wall. The first half of the night was already over, and their roasting hadn't stopped for a single moment; every ghost creature carcass the camp had collected over the past few days had been roasted and fed to this glutton. Yet its stomach was like a bottomless pit; it simply couldn't be filled. The crocodile's flat snout, kept agape the entire time, finally drifted shut. Looking up at Chen Fan on the wall, a hint of confusion flashed through its eyes. Then, as if realizing something, it didn't linger for a second, swiftly turning around to leave the camp and vanishing into the darkness. "It definitely isn't a ghost creature," Wang Kui remarked with emotion from atop the wall, watching the crocodile's receding figure. "Ghost creatures wouldn't act so obedient toward humans, except for pseudo-human ghosts. But ordinary wild beasts don't have this kind of build, let alone this kind of appetite. How strange. I wonder what it actually is." Chen Fan shook his head, offering no opinion. "Though, I think I know why the crocodile got so mad when you threw that ghost stone at it, Stationmaster..." Zhou Mo rubbed his nose and said faintly, "If it can't digest ghost stones, then to it, ghost stones are just excrement." "Which means..." "Pelting someone with shit—yeah, that'd probably make anyone pretty upset." "Except it wasn't mad; it ran off crying," Wang Mazi coughed lightly and said. "It's far too timid. It didn't even dare vent its anger. Feels just like a little kid." "Wait!" Quehou suddenly came to his senses and turned toward Chen Fan. "Young Master, if it can't digest ghost stones, doesn't that mean... there are lots of unowned ghost stones up in the mountains?" "It's possible, but more than likely they'd be scavenged and swallowed by other ghost creatures. It might not eat ghost stones, but other ghost creatures surely do." Chen Fan nodded slightly, turning the thought over in his mind. Not long after he first arrived in this world, a monkey head ghost chieftain had died outside the camp boundary. When dawn broke, the corpse was still there, its ghost stone left untouched by other ghost creatures. Perhaps... it was because other ghost creatures instinctively avoided the territory of a creature that exuded a powerful presence; ghost creatures likely possessed some sense of territoriality among themselves. He pushed the thought aside and looked outside the walls. "Everyone, go get some sleep. We have work to do tomorrow, so there's no need to keep watch for the second half of the night. "The wall has already been upgraded to level 3, so there won't be any problems for now. Everyone get a peaceful night's sleep tonight." Right at that moment— Boom! The sound of a ghost creature falling from the cliff echoed from the canyon basin once more. Immediately after came a dense, relentless barrage of falling bodies, crackling and popping like firecrackers—ten, fifty, a hundred, several hundred... Ghost creatures plummeted off the cliff one after another, raining down like dumplings into boiling water. Far denser than the previous nights. Far more violent. It went on for the full span of an incense stick until the bottom of the cliff was heaped with ghost creature carcasses—at least five or six hundred of them at a glance. Standing atop the wall, Chen Fan could even faintly see white light shimmering among the corpses. That was the glow of exotic treasures! Everyone stood frozen on the wall, staring down at the scene in utter bewilderment. Then, an earth-shaking commotion rumbled from the canyon passage. A colossal crocodile came charging out of the dark, sprawling down in its old spot beneath the wall. It parted its gaping maw once more, gazing up at Chen Fan on the wall with eyes full of eager anticipation. Drool dripped from between its teeth and splashed onto the ground. Its tail slapped back and forth against the earth in excited, fawning rhythms, kicking up plumes of misty spray in the rain.