Chapter 60: Chapter 60: There Is No More Perfect Place
"Heh heh..."
At this point, Chen Fan no longer felt any heartache over his camp’s destruction. He just stood there, unable to stop a wide grin from spreading across his face. He suddenly realized he had misunderstood Ghost Objects.
’Ghost Objects are actually good people.’
’They have Ghost Stones in their heads, their blood can be used to water flowers, and their corpses can be used as fertilizer or for sacrifices. The skin and bones you strip from them can be used as Ghost Materials, and sometimes they even drop an Exotic Treasure.’
’Aren’t they treasures from head to toe?’
’How could you call these Ghost Objects? They’re clearly walking Heavenly and Earthly Treasures.’
’It’s just that they only rampage during the rainy season. Outside of the rainy season, they basically don’t attack the Ghost Fire.’
The only small regret was that the lives of this batch of Mourning Ghosts were tied to their leader. Many of the Mourning Ghosts hadn’t even charged into the camp or had a chance to split yet. With the death of the Mourning Ghost leader, all the ones outside the camp died before they could split.
What a pity.
"Young Master, you..."
Lame Monkey, standing to the side, looked at his Young Master in a daze. The Young Master’s camp had been developing better and better, but his mental state seemed to be getting worse and worse. After working so hard for so long to build a camp, only to have it destroyed by Ghost Objects and be forced to move, how could the Young Master be smiling so happily?
"I’m fine."
Chen Fan chuckled and turned his head to look at Lame Monkey. "Go tell everyone to pack up and get ready to leave. Load up the remaining 13 Mourning Ghost leader corpses and 20 Ordinary Ghost Corpses and bring them with us."
...
「An hour later.」
Four newly built "tricycles" were lined up neatly outside the camp. Each tricycle was towing several flatbed carts.
The camp’s resources were piled onto the flatbed carts.
There was food, clothing, several large captured chests, salvaged plants from the Farmland, and so on.
They had brought basically everything they could carry.
They looked like four crude trains, parked in the Wilderness, ready to depart at a moment’s notice.
The tricycle that had carried the Arrow Fortress was destroyed by the Mourning Ghosts last night.
"Goodbye."
Standing in the Wilderness, Chen Fan gazed at the camp before him, feeling a wave of emotion as he said, "Chen Family Outpost 37."
This was where his dream began.
To be precise, this was the first place he saw when he transmigrated. The so-called Jiangbei City and everything else were just memories; this was the only place he had personally lived. Now, he felt a certain reluctance to leave.
Before leaving, he repaired all the breaches in the camp’s City Wall, ensuring it was perfectly sealed. On top of the City Wall, a total of two Level 4 Arrow Fortresses and four Level 2 Arrow Towers remained.
He also left 100 Ghost Stones in the camp’s Ghost Fire.
This would ensure the Arrow Towers continued to function and the Ghost Fire would not be extinguished.
A Level 4 Ghost Fire was valuable, and losing it would be an acceptable loss, but this particular Level 4 Ghost Fire had undergone a qualitative change to one of its Upgrade Directions...
-
"3: Qualitatively Changed. Single creation cost for all buildings within the camp -1 Ghost Stone. This effect can be used 10,000 times per day and is only effective during the rainy season (Rare)."
-
This was something he couldn’t take with him.
And this Upgrade Direction was a huge help to him; he definitely couldn’t just abandon it like this.
As long as he kept this Ghost Fire active, he could still use its effect. The only condition was that it was only effective within the camp’s range. Therefore, after establishing a foothold in the rear, he would need to return here as soon as possible and connect this place to the rear base with a Copper Pipe to ensure he could use the effect there as well.
This would become his first unmanned outpost.
’Good thing I’m leaving early.’
’Otherwise, the more established I become, the harder it will be to move. Staying in a place surrounded by enemies on all sides offers no sense of security at all.’
HUFF...
Chen Fan let out a long breath, letting the cool rainwater patter on his shoulders. He vaulted onto a nearby tricycle, gripping the control lever with both hands. Holding the Ghost Map, he gazed into the dense fog ahead. A sudden surge of heroic spirit filled his heart, and with a grand wave of his hand, he laughed and announced:
"Let’s go! To our new home!"
"You got it."
Standing behind Chen Fan, Lame Monkey saw that his Young Master was in a good mood. He grinned as well and quickly stimulated the Earth Spike. The battered old tricycle slowly started up and began to move into the depths of the fog.
They were heavily loaded, so their forward speed wasn’t fast.
The four tricycles moved in a single file line, like a long dragon.
The lead-gray curtain of rain blurred the camp behind them into a hazy ink wash painting.
The familiar Arrow Tower was reduced to a dim silhouette in the rain and fog, like an old friend bowing its head to see them off.
The convoy’s silhouette gradually faded into the rain and fog.
Zhou Mo’s voice could be faintly heard through the rain, his words filled with anticipation and excitement for the future.
"Station Chief!"
"Since we’re moving to a new home, don’t you think we should give it a new name? ’Chen Family Outpost 37’ doesn’t sound like your territory, Station Chief. It sounds like it belongs to the Chen Family."
"That makes sense. So, what name do you think we should pick?"
"How about Chen Family Outpost 1?"
"Isn’t that still the Chen Family’s?"
That was Wang Kui’s irritated retort.
"What are you talking about? The Station Chief’s last name is Chen, isn’t it? So what if it’s the Chen Family? Can’t the Station Chief establish his own family? Wouldn’t the Wilderness Chen Family be stronger than the Jiangbei Chen Family?"
"True. Is it too late for me to change my last name? I think Chen Kui sounds better than Wang Kui."
"Then I’ll be Chen Mazi."
"I’m Chen Mo."
Their voices gradually faded, leaving only the sound of raindrops pattering on the Wilderness.
This once-bustling camp,
along with its nostalgia for the past and hopes for the future, dissolved into the endless dampness and silence of the world.
In the end,
only the rain remained.
...
A day of hard travel passed.
Finally, with only the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn before eternal night descended, the convoy arrived at Big Fish’s former village. This "Natural Ghost Fire Zone," which didn’t even appear on the Ghost Map, was located at the northernmost edge of the Wilderness, bordering the sea.
...
Chen Fan jumped down from the tricycle, holding the Glowing Green Lantern. An hour definitely wouldn’t be enough time to build a full camp; they could only manage the basic structures. Their safety tonight would mainly depend on the Glowing Green Lantern in his hands.
When he first arrived in this world, he had suffered from a lack of transportation, so he had cobbled together the tricycle.
The ride comfort was terrible, with no shock absorption whatsoever. He felt like his bones were about to fall apart from the journey. But the good news was that he would have a proper military-grade Vehicle from now on and wouldn’t need to craft tricycles by hand anymore.
He stood in the curtain of rain, gazing at the village before him as it was gradually enveloped by the night. He subconsciously took a deep breath, a flicker of awe in his eyes.
’This is an absolutely magnificent creation of heaven and earth.’
He had seen mountain villages before. When he had traveled to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, the stunning sight of one mountain after another had left an unforgettable impression on him.
But this place was different.
To be precise, there was only one tall mountain, not four. At the very center of the mountain’s peak, the Creator had seemingly carved out a deep well with a giant axe, and at the bottom of this deep well was the village.
The mountain faces on all four sides of the village were not slopes, but sheer cliffs that rose almost perfectly vertically from the ground.
The rock walls were as smooth as if they had been polished, showing a cold, hard, iron-gray in the curtain of rain.
And directly in front of him was an extremely narrow canyon that led straight from the outside into the village.
Calling it "narrow" was only in comparison to the mountain itself; at a glance, it was a good thirty to fifty meters wide.
Looking through the canyon, he could faintly see the dilapidated houses of the village at the bottom and the surrounding cliffs. The area of the village was much larger than the width of the canyon.
If he had to give a precise description,
it was a three-dimensional hollow.
He could also faintly hear the sound of ocean waves crashing against a rocky shore, mixed in with the sound of the rain.
The canyon opened directly to the sea.
The great mountain had its back to the Wilderness.
When they had reached the mountain, they had to circle its entire base to find this canyon entrance that faced the sea.
...
Chen Fan smiled.
’This will be an absolutely perfect base.’
’There’s no place more perfect than this.’
"Keep moving!"
The convoy continued forward, driving toward the village beyond the canyon. The canyon was a full kilometer long and perfectly straight, without a single curve.
If the sun had been shining brightly, looking up would have revealed a perfect "slice of sky."
