"Is This a Prerequisite for Achieving Great Things?"

Quehou paused, looking thoroughly perplexed. "Young Master, how did you figure that out?" "Pinched my fingers and divined it." Chen Fan offered no further explanation. Smiling faintly, he picked up a mouthful of pickled vegetables with his chopsticks and popped them into his mouth. "Tastes good. Try some." After Eternal Night fell yesterday... He had spaced out for a brief while. The ghost tide had charged into the canyon then, and the time he spent daydreaming was no longer than it took to drink a cup of tea. Ghost creatures could not move during the day, and no one knew where they vanished to while the sun was up. Therefore... His guess was: This contingent of the ghost tide had likely arrived at the wasteland the previous night. However, dawn was fast approaching, so they held off on a full-scale assault. They waited until dusk fell the following day, cached the ghost stones somewhere, and only then launched their general offensive on the sinkhole. It was merely a hunch, but he felt there was a seventy percent chance of it. After all— The ghost tide could hardly have crossed the sea, made landfall from who knew where, and mounted a full assault against him in the span of a single cup of tea, could they? They had certainly found a place to rest and regroup the night before. And that staging ground was precisely where the ghost stones were stashed. "Young Master, your mindset is truly admirable." Quehou scratched his head restlessly. "If we can find those ghost stones, it'd buy enough pickled vegetables to last several lifetimes..." "One who achieves great things must remain unfazed even if Mount Tai collapses before their eyes, and unstartled even if the Yellow River breaches overhead." "Is this a prerequisite for achieving great things?" "No." Chen Fan could not help but chuckle, shaking his head. "But it makes you look like someone who can." "Looking like it doesn't sound very useful..." "Of course it's useful. Play the part long enough, and it becomes reality." He rose to his feet holding his bowl of porridge. Looking toward the crocodile, who lay sprawled atop the wall relishing every bite of an octopus tentacle, he called out loudly, "Hey, eat faster! Once you're done, we're heading to that place you mentioned to find the Mountain Skeleton Embryo." "If we find it, I'll roast two more for you." "And crack open a head while we're at it." "Roar!" The crocodile let out a low whimper to indicate it understood. Only then did it flatten itself against the ground, clasping the octopus tentacle with its two thick, powerful foreclaws. After gulping down the end of the tentacle in its grip, it cast a lingering gaze at the two remaining roasted tentacles in the porcelain vat. After a moment of thought, it refrained from eating them. Instead, it clamped the porcelain vat in its jaws and carried it deep into the camp to hide away, saving them for later. Once again sprawling outside the wall, it let the rain patter against its body and closed its eyes to rest. Chen Fan was the only one who enjoyed that lunch. Everyone else was distracted, glancing toward the canyon every now and then as if Zhou Mo might return triumphant at any second. "They found them." Chen Fan set down his bowl and chopsticks with a smile. "You can eat in peace now." "Young Master, did you divine that too?" "No, I heard it." The Flesh Ghost Mother-Child Fruit was indeed very handy. From a certain perspective, he felt it was even more convenient than a voice transmission talisman. There was no need to take out a talisman; they could communicate telepathically right in their minds. Soon enough— In the canyon passage, Zhou Mo and Da Yu returned slowly on their two Skeleton Horses, towing a handcart loaded with four large chests. Chen Fan stood outside the walls and pried one of the chests open. What met his eyes was a dazzling sight: it was packed to the brim with ghost stones. He opened the remaining chests. Three of the four were stuffed full of ghost stones. This time, however, they were not purely Level 2 ghost stones, but primarily Level 2 supplemented by Level 1 ghost stones. The last chest was crammed with a chaotic heap of assorted ghost materials. It was quite similar to the haul from Qianhou's chests. Just missing a Mountain Skeleton Embryo. "All right, take them back inside." He waved a hand with a smile toward Wang Kui nearby, then turned to Zhou Mo. "Come with me. We might be going somewhere fairly dangerous. How much of the Water-Severing Saber Technique have you mastered?" "Huh?" The smile froze on Zhou Mo's face, his throat bobbing slightly. "Not even ten percent... Stationmaster, uh, didn't you... didn't you just give it to me yesterday afternoon?" "Can't you perform any of it at all?" "Not at all..." "Forget it then." "Broad daylight has no ghost creatures roaming about. It shouldn't be too dangerous anywhere." Chen Fan said nothing more. He simply swung onto the crocodile's back, signaled for Zhou Mo to climb on as well, and patted the creature's head with an instruction. "The moment we run into danger, carry us out immediately." The crocodile showed no reaction. It seemed to consider an answer entirely unnecessary. Wasn't that obvious? Fleeing was what it did best. "Then... let's move!" As soon as the words left his mouth, the crocodile's heavy, dark-green body instantly turned into a fleshy bolt of lightning skimming the ground. Its four massive claws raked the earth, sending shards of stone flying with every thrust of power, and in the blink of an eye, it dashed into the canyon. The entire canyon echoed with heavy footfalls like rolling thunder. Atop its broad back, Chen Fan stayed low, gripping the protruding scutes tightly while feeling the jarring sway beneath him. The scenery on both sides was magnificent—the canyon walls rapidly receding and birds occasionally cutting through the heavy downpour. Yet he was in no mood to admire it. He had to hold on tight. If he were thrown off at this speed, his chances of surviving were slim. They moved faster and faster. The blurred rock faces on either side soon fell behind them. Executing a graceful drift at the canyon exit, the crocodile swung around and galloped up the mountain along the trail it had worn into the slopes over time. "Was it found by the seashore?" Inside the camp, Sick Monkey tentatively looked toward Da Yu. "Yeah, yeah." Da Yu nodded. "Brother Sick Monkey, how did you know?" "It really was found by the seashore." "Exactly what the young master divined by pinching his fingers." The monkey rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Could the young master really possess such a skill?" "Oh, right—" "Where did the handcart you brought back come from? I saw you leave without one." "When we went out to gather supplies yesterday, Weiwei brought us back. The handcarts we pulled then were left at an unmanned outpost nearby, so we just went and picked them up from there." In the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Chen Fan climbed down from the crocodile's back and stood atop the summit, looking out over the surroundings. He was currently standing on the crest of the highest ridge on the peak. Weiwei's old lair was some distance from here. It was also a fair distance from his camp. This mountain was not particularly vast, but a stretch of the ridge was relatively flat. Right now, they stood at the ridge's far end. From here, one could clearly see the Jiangbei Wasteland shrouded in mist and rain. Once the rainy season ended and the weather cleared, one could probably take in the entire expanse of the flat Jiangbei Wasteland in a single glance. Trees were sparse here. Only a scattering of solitary trunks stood around, far from forming a forest. The crocodile brought him before a boulder that blended seamlessly into the mountain itself. A hole had been hollowed out of the stone, angling down into the earth—the entrance to a cavern. "This place is..." Chen Fan's brow furrowed tightly as he stared at the cavern entrance. An intensely familiar feeling surged through him in an instant. He gently ran his fingers over the marks near the entrance, clearly left behind by heavy claws excavating the cave. The claw marks were roughly twice the size of Weiwei's. The cave opening was wider as well. "Hey, did you dig this in the past?" he asked, turning toward the crocodile behind him. The crocodile shook its head. Its claws shifted the dirt on the ground, and it raised its head to let out a whimper. "I see." Chen Fan's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression turning solemn. "You're saying this was dug by your parents long ago, but they haven't returned in a very long time, right?" Standing nearby, Zhou Mo looked blankly at the dog-like claw scratchings on the ground, then recalled the crocodile's motions, entirely unable to connect its body language with those words. "Did anyone ever come close to this place in the past?" Chen Fan asked again. The crocodile nodded, then shook its head. Zhou Mo tried in vain to decipher what the gesture meant. Did someone approach, or did no one approach? "You're saying people did approach, but you sensed them and chased them away, right?" The crocodile nodded. "Did ghost creatures ever approach?" The crocodile nodded again, then shook its head. "You mean there used to be, but none have come close recently, right?" The crocodile nodded. "When was the last time a ghost creature came close?" "A year ago?" The crocodile nodded, its forepaw patting the ground. "Understood." Chen Fan exhaled lightly, a flicker of complex emotion passing through his eyes. "Everything seems clear now. This cave was the old lair of Weiwei's parents." "Yet its parents departed long ago, though for some reason they didn't take Weiwei with them." "Afterward, even though Weiwei made a new home for itself, it continued guarding its parents' old lair, forbidding anyone from approaching. The lingering aura left here also prevented ordinary ghost creatures from daring to draw near." "The last time a ghost creature approached was one year ago." "And one year ago happened to be the exact point in time when Da Yu's village was wiped out." "Weiwei's lair was perched right on the rim of the sinkhole cliff." "A group of intelligent ghost creatures tried to breach this place to lure Weiwei away, thereby descending to the bottom of the sinkhole to attack Da Yu's village." "In that case..." His eyes narrowed as he continued his analysis. "Those ghost creatures were clearly acting under orders, but not under the ghost king's. The ghost king was obviously sending troops to Nameless Mountain for the first time, meaning they were very likely under another, unknown ghost king." "A natural ghost fire zone." "A mortal village." "What was worth such painstaking calculation? Unless there was something underneath. Did they get it?" "Most likely not." "That night, Da Yu went berserk and slaughtered every ghost creature." "Which means—" "Both inside this cavern and beneath the natural ghost fire zone, there should be treasures." "The treasure that unknown ghost king plotted for clearly wasn't the Mountain Skeleton Embryo, but rather whatever lies beneath the natural ghost fire zone..." "Let's go." After pondering for a moment, Chen Fan turned to Zhou Mo beside him and spoke softly, "The situation is already quite clear. Weiwei, lead the way. We're going down to look." "6..." Zhou Mo followed behind expressionlessly without raising a single question. He felt his name suited him well. Keeping silent was all he needed to do. Truth be told, he desperately wanted to know how the stationmaster managed to decipher the crocodile's crude and contradictory body language. If a crocodile were nodding and shaking its head at him like that, he would only assume it was having a seizure. The cavern interior was exceptionally bright. Every few steps, pebbles emitting a faint yellow light were embedded into the walls—the exact same style as Weiwei's own cave. Even the size and spacing of the food storage chambers matched Weiwei's cave perfectly. The only difference was that this cave was wider. "Weiwei." Following behind the crocodile's tail, Chen Fan suddenly chuckled. "Did you never even see your parents from the moment you opened your eyes?" Crawling at the very front of the passage, the crocodile did not turn around, only letting out a low whimper. The spacing between the pebbles embedded in the walls was identical to the spacing in Weiwei's cave. This was proof enough. Weiwei had imitated everything to the letter. Such near-exact replication typically happened when one had never seen one's parents and knew not how to survive in an unfamiliar environment. For a child, that sense of insecurity was terrifying, driving them to mimic every trace their parents left behind. In fact, Chen Fan had felt a slight inkling of doubt when he first saw Weiwei's lair—the entrance to that cave was set slightly higher than the surrounding ground. Such a design was meant to keep rainwater from flooding the cave. Yet when he first arrived at this mountain, he had noticed that all the rain falling on it dissolved into water vapor and vanished, entirely unlike the wasteland where water flowed into crevices. Unless the rain was exceptionally heavy, only fleeting puddles formed. A flood was even more out of the question. Under such circumstances, an elevated entrance design was wholly unnecessary, as rainwater could never flood the cave. Of course, rainwater during the rainy season was peculiar; perhaps in the ordinary dry season, the rain wasn't absorbed and might pose a flooding risk—that had been his original guess. Thinking back now, when Weiwei dug its own lair, it hadn't thought about design at all. It had simply made an exact duplicate of the cave carved out by its parents. "Stationmaster." "Does something feel off?" Sitting beside Chen Fan, Zhou Mo glanced behind them with an uneasy look and spoke in a hushed voice. The passage was quite bright. There was nothing abnormal. Yet... It was simply too deep. Sitting on the crocodile's back, they had been descending for a full hour. Weiwei's pace was not overly fast; it seemed rather cautious, much slower than when running up the mountain, though still far faster than the two of them sprinting on foot. The passage stretched on endlessly. He even felt that their depth had long since dropped well below ground level. They were crawling deep underground, and heading deeper still. "Wait and see." Chen Fan did not reply directly. He simply sat on the crocodile's back, letting Weiwei carry him deep into the earth. He could roughly guess why this fellow had moved out: having to run this far every time it left and returned home was truly exhausting. Eat its fill, and before it even reached bed, it would be hungry again. Still, watching its careful demeanor, terrified of shaking loose a single speck of dirt, it was clear how much it cherished this lair left behind by its parents. This was probably Weiwei's sole emotional anchor. And the fact that Weiwei had brought him here meant, in a sense, that it viewed him as its second family after its parents. In truth... This little guy was just an abandoned little crocodile who had grown up alone. They passed another food storage chamber. He glanced over, and sure enough, it was empty once more. Along the way, he had seen many food storage chambers, all completely bare. He strongly suspected that if Weiwei's parents had lived here in the past, how many ghost creature corpses would it take to fill all these chambers? At least a tenth of all the ghost creatures in the entire Jiangbei Wasteland would have to perish. That sounded about right. Just then— The view ahead suddenly brightened, and the passage came to an end. At its terminus lay an enormous cavern, and the crocodile slowly came to a halt. They had finally arrived. This was the deepest part of the passage.