"Now this is what you call professional," Chen Fan remarked with genuine admiration. Tossing the bamboo scroll aside, he watched as emerald mist swept it up, leaving it suspended in midair.
This was his camp.
Any structure built within its borders belonged to him by default, making him the lord with supreme authority.
Naturally, the warehouse defaulted to recognizing him as its absolute master as well. However, this building possessed a delegation function that allowed him to grant full or partial authority to designated individuals.
He could also revoke this default setting to construct "unowned buildings" for sale to other factions. Once a buyer sealed the transaction with a drop of blood, that faction would become the building's highest-ranking lord.
Architects could leave no backdoors in this process.
It was the bedrock that preserved order across the world.
If this mechanism ever malfunctioned, all hell would break loose.
"Wang Kui."
Stepping out of the warehouse into the cave chamber, Chen Fan erected a four-meter-wide Level 1 wall across the entrance, then waved Wang Kui over and handed him a command token. "Go in and drip a drop of blood onto the warehouse's surface. From now on, you're the primary person in charge of this warehouse."
"You'll need to bind this token with your blood as well. It grants you free passage through the wall at Cave No. 1 and the wall guarding the entrance to Warehouse No. 1."
"For now, you're the only person permitted to enter and leave this warehouse at will."
"Manage it well."
"Understood!"
Wang Kui accepted the token reverently with both hands, his eyes alight with excitement.
"You'll have to work hard tonight. Haul everything from the old storehouse to the new warehouse, and bring all our spoils from the battlefield over as well. Don't worry about taking an exact inventory; once you've moved most of it, get to bed early."
"It's no trouble at all, not at all!"
Once all of that was arranged, Chen Fan turned to look at the crocodile trailing eagerly behind Qi Chong. He chuckled and said, "Alright, time to sleep. Didn't I already roast you a few little crabs?"
"Everyone is exhausted tonight."
"Wrap things up and get ready for bed."
"Tomorrow I'll roast some octopus for you. It'll definitely have plenty of chew."
"You don't look tired anyway. Didn't I mark a few more spots on the sinkhole's cliffs earlier? If you're not sleepy, go dig more caves tonight. The Meat Grinder's firepower still isn't quite enough; we need to keep bolstering it."
Hearing this, the crocodile halted somewhat dejectedly and stopped following Qi Chong. But at the prospect of tomorrow's roasted octopus, it perkily clambered up the winding, ascending corridor inside the cave.
It set off along the main artery to continue smashing rock and excavating cavities.
Chen Fan watched the crocodile's receding back. After a brief pause, he picked up a broadsword, carved the words "Meat Grinder Passage" into a wooden board, and set it down at the entrance of the corridor the beast had entered.
This was the main route.
Through this passage, one could reach every gun port positioned throughout the Meat Grinder defense network.
It needed a name.
That gave things a proper sense of ceremony.
He quite enjoyed naming things.
Doing it this way wasn't especially aesthetic. He would have preferred carving directly into the rock or nailing the wooden board to the wall, but the mountain stone was simply too hard to drive nails into...
He would figure out a way around that later.
It was no grand affair, but seeing it done would bring him joy.
Aside from merely surviving, a person still needed small things to be happy about.
After a grueling day, everyone was thoroughly drained. One by one, they set down their tools and prepared for sleep.
Tonight's spoils hadn't been inventoried in detail yet; that could wait until tomorrow morning.
Chen Fan stepped into the wooden cabin, washed up briefly, and got ready to turn in. The camp currently had two stone houses for sleeping: he and Quehou shared one, while the rest slept in the other. The other house was furnished with a communal sleeping platform. Camp space was not yet luxurious enough to afford everyone a private room.
"Young Master."
Sick Monkey had made his bed well in advance—a chore he had carried out every day back in the Chen family.
"Yeah, let's sleep."
Chen Fan glanced at the monkey standing nearby with a smile, stretched lazily, and said offhandedly, "Once the rainy season ends, we'll head back to Jiangbei City to take a look too."
"Are we going to take back your status as heir?"
Sick Monkey suddenly grew excited.
"No."
Chen Fan gave the monkey an odd look. "I wouldn't mind having the Chen family's resources, but the heir position doesn't interest me much. I mostly want to go in disguise to see the place. I haven't seen other people in so long that I feel cut off from the world—I need to soak up some human hustle and bustle.
"And while we're there, we can see if there are any suitable people to recruit. The camp is desperately short on hands."
"Say, Sick Monkey."
"I've always wondered: why are you so enthusiastic about me taking back the heir position?"
"Huh?"
The monkey froze for a moment, then lay down on a wooden bed nearby and whispered, "Ever since you were ostracized in the Chen family, Young Master, you were always so downcast. I thought you desperately wanted to win back your standing as heir..."
"The past is the past, and now is now."
"A person has to look forward."
Chen Fan lay in bed, hands pillowed behind his head, and smiled up at the ceiling. "Alright, blow out the lamp and get some sleep."
Soon, the oil lamp was extinguished.
The room fell into shadow, lit only by the faint glow radiating from the stove.
Many people in this world disliked sleeping with the lights out, which he could understand—it was practically a visceral fear. The dim flicker of an oil lamp offered an irreplaceable sense of security.
The room gradually grew quiet.
Only the faint breathing of two people remained.
Before long, soft snores began to rise.
One after another, everyone in the camp drifted off into deep sleep.
Only one man and one crocodile remained awake.
Inside the Meat Grinder Passage, within the quiet, narrow corridor, the crocodile excavated with fierce excitement and vigor. Slabs of hard mountain rock crumbled away beneath its foreclaws; it opened its jaws wide, swallowing every bit of falling earth and shattered stone.
It worked with tremendous gusto.
If thoughts could materialize, a line of words would surely have hovered above its head right now:
*Those plump, thick octopus tentacles will taste amazing roasted! I wanna eat it right now, right now, right now!*
*Crabs are yummy, yummy, yummy too.*
*Everything is yummy.*
And the other person still awake was... Wang Kui.
Inside Cave No. 1.
Holding the command token, Wang Kui stood before the wall shielding the entrance to Warehouse No. 1. Taking a deep breath, he raised the token with a grave expression and commanded in a raspy voice, "Open wall!"
The next instant!
The wall completely blocking the cave mouth sank smoothly into the ground, revealing the corridor leading to the warehouse.
At the sight, the wrinkles on his face trembled with sheer excitement. He raised the token once more, nearly giddy with delight.
"Close wall!"
Obeying his command, the wall rose from beneath the earth, once again sealing the chamber entrance shut.
"Hehe..."
He cast a cautious glance back toward the stationmaster's cabin. Seeing the oil lamp was dark and confirming the stationmaster was likely asleep, he excitedly tested the token again and again. The token granted him authority not only to operate this wall, but also to open the camp's main wall.
He didn't dare experiment with the main wall, however.
After all, day had not yet broken.
If a ghost creature were lurking covetously outside the camp and charged through the gap the moment the wall dropped, he would become the camp's greatest sinner—dying a thousand times over would not atone for such a disaster.
The authority granted by this token was the stationmaster's absolute vote of confidence in him.
And this warehouse, built specifically by the stationmaster, gave him real authority.
From now on, every resource entering or leaving would have to pass through his hands.
After testing it several times, Wang Kui walked down the corridor with lingering excitement and arrived in the cave where the warehouse was set. He gazed upon this structure that looked like a divine work of nature. It had no ordinary roof or pillars; it was simply a colossal boulder of raw green jade, hollowed out from within.
"So smooth and mellow..."
Wang Kui stepped forward, pressing his cheek against the giant stone's surface, intoxicated by the gentle warmth it gave off. Grinning ear to ear, he planted his hands on his hips and struck a swaggering pose.
Stepping into the corridor, he came before the door of the Mustard Seed Chamber.
Pressing his index and middle fingers together, he jabbed forward like a sword.
The emerald mist flowing throughout the warehouse answered his command instantly, sweeping up the copper pipes stored inside the Mustard Seed Chamber and sending them dancing through the air.
After playing with it for a long while, Wang Kui walked out of the warehouse thoroughly satisfied. He sat at the entrance, gazing up at the cavern ceiling, his gaze gradually growing distant.
How long had it been since he was this happy?
Thirteen years...
Even if you kept a dog for thirteen years, you'd feed it something decent now and then, wouldn't you?
He had assumed his life would never amount to anything more, until the premature rainy season overturned his entire existence. Thinking back, at what point had his fate truly shifted?
Was it the moment he learned Chen Fan's identity and immediately sent Xiao Qiu to curry favor with him?
Or was it when he heard the rainy season was coming early and sought out Chen Fan, intending to evacuate together?
After a long time, he suddenly laughed.
Truthfully, he felt he ought to thank himself. Even though he had spent thirteen years in the Wang family without a single promotion, he had never thrown in the towel or let himself rot. He had continued searching for any sliver of advancement, and upon meeting someone who might become his patron, he had done everything within his power, never giving up on himself despite years of failure.
"Time to work."
Taking a deep breath, he climbed to his feet and headed out of the chamber toward the old storehouse. He treasured his current position immensely; all he had to do was perform well enough.
Over the past few days, he had come to understand something clearly.
Here, he didn't need to fret about how to climb the ranks.
In a rapidly expanding faction, as long as you joined early enough and didn't make mistakes, even a dog could rise to an enviable height. The main reason he had never advanced in the Wang family was simply that the Wang family itself was stagnant—how could they possibly clear a spot for him?
Hard work was important.
Where you worked hard was far more important.
In the quiet camp, Wang Kui wheezed as he pushed a handcart, hauling supplies from the old storehouse piece by piece to the entrance of the new warehouse. Then, using the emerald mist, he swept the goods inside and sorted them neatly. The emerald mist flowed only within the warehouse and could only be manipulated within its walls.
"This batch of ghost stones... goes in the Mustard Seed Chamber."
"Hmm... this is the octopus Weiwei wants to eat tomorrow. Best put it in the Vitality Chamber; it won't taste good if it loses moisture."
"These bones go in the Mustard Seed Chamber. Stack them up, nice and neat."
Muttering to himself, Wang Kui stood in the warehouse corridor, guiding the emerald mist to arrange the items neatly, like building blocks.
The night passed quickly.
Darkness receded as usual, but the relentless drizzle persisted, keeping the sun hidden.
Much later, as the morning wore on, the camp gradually came alive with the warmth of human activity. Chen Fan reclined in the rocking chair atop the wall, gazing at the endless rain outside. He let out a long sigh and murmured, "Once the rain stops, I have to get a good soak in the sun."
"It's been so long since I felt sunlight."
"Food's ready!"
Qi Chong's loud shout echoed through the camp. Bowls of porridge, steamed buns, and side dishes were carried up to the wall, where everyone gathered around to begin lunch.
"Stationmaster."
Wang Kui came over enthusiastically with a bowl of millet porridge. "I stayed up a bit late last night and finished taking inventory of our resources."
"At present, the camp has a total of 2,922 ghost stones."
"Over a thousand desiccated ghost corpses, assorted ghost materials like bones, and two dropped exotic treasures—they're all inside the warehouse."
"Only that many ghost stones?"
Chen Fan's brow furrowed. "That octopus last night was named Qianhu, one of the ghost king's four chieftains. It came bearing a whole year's worth of accumulated ghost stones. Did nobody find that batch?"
Wang Kui froze, glancing toward Zhou Mo and the others before instinctively shaking his head. "No... I only received this many ghost stones..."
Almost instantly, the monkey caught on. Setting down his bowl and chopsticks without hesitation, he threw open the left wall gate and hobbled furiously toward the canyon passage, leaning on the God-Slaying Spear with every limping stride.
Zhou Mo realized what was happening at the same moment. Striding toward the depths of the camp, he swung onto a horse, charged out of the camp, and quickly overtook the monkey.
Several hundred breaths later.
Zhou Mo rode the Skeleton Horse bursting out from the canyon passage, braking hard beneath the wall. Anxiously, he called out, "Stationmaster, there are no ghost stones in the canyon at all!"
By now, everyone understood.
Since the ghost stones hadn't been found last night, it meant that before launching its all-out assault, the monster must have stashed them somewhere beforehand.
Chen Fan's brow creased slightly. Could another group of ghost creatures have stayed behind in the canyon last night to guard the ghost stones, prepared to retreat the moment things went south?
That didn't make sense.
Qianhu had entered the fray personally; would it really hold forces in reserve?
Besides, if they had been left in the canyon, then when the wall rose at the junction of the canyon and the sinkhole, they ought to have coordinated an attack from both sides to smash it down.
Standing atop the wall, he looked down at Zhou Mo and said in a calm, steady voice:
"Don't panic."
"You and Da Yu split up. Search the area around the canyon entrance thoroughly, and check the seashore while you're at it—last night's ghost tide made landfall from the sea."
"That ghost tide was formidable last night. Ordinary ghost creatures wouldn't dare approach anywhere they passed."
"The stones might still be there. Go take a look."
"Understood!"
Receiving their orders, Zhou Mo and Da Yu quickly mounted their horses and galloped out of the canyon to scout.
"Tsk..."
Chen Fan sat back on the wall, picked his bowl back up, and sipped along the rim. If that creature truly had left behind a squad of ghost creatures to guard the ghost stones and pull back if things went wrong, he would just have to accept it.
If ghost creatures were that calculating now, what else could he do?
"We lost out big this time," Quehou muttered with a tinge of anger as he returned to the wall. "These ghost creatures are too cunning."
"Lost out on what?"
Chen Fan glanced at Quehou, unable to stifle a laugh. "If you didn't gain it, you lost it, is that how it works?"
"Well... the camp could've had another five big chests," Sick Monkey murmured sheepishly.
"Relax."
Although Chen Fan felt a bit of regret, he wasn't particularly disheartened.
"Gain is my fortune, loss is my fate."
"What is meant to be mine will always be mine. Keep an even temper."
"Besides..."
"I'm seventy percent sure they're sitting right by the seashore. Zhou Mo will be hauling them back in a bit."
Chapter 88