Chapter 38: Heaven’s Gifts, If Untaken, Invite Calamity
????Less than two hours remained before the Eternal Night descended.
??—
??Inside the camp’s wooden cabin.
??Zhou Mo stood at the table, his report brisk and precise. “Station Master, today’s haul was pretty good. I managed to hit two destroyed waystations in one trip and brought back 218 Ghoststones. Those two outposts were sitting on quite the stash.”
??He shrugged, offering a wry smile. “Seems the station masters were stingy to the end, hoarding their Ghoststones even in death. Now it’s all fallen into our hands.”
??“I also brought back a decent amount of food and other supplies.”
??“But…”
??He hesitated, brow furrowing. “There aren’t many waystations left nearby. The rest are much farther out—probably too far for a round trip in a single day.”
??“…”
??Chen Fan sat in his chair, eyes narrowed as he studied the Ghostskin Map hanging on the wall.
??That was a real problem.
??There was only so far a person could travel on foot.
??With the Rainy Season arriving early, only the waystations near the Wasteland’s edge had ti to evacuate. The rest were wiped out, destroyed out in the wilds, leaving behind piles of unclaid Ghoststones and desperately needed resources.
??Heaven-sent, ownerless treasures—just waiting to be claid.
??As the ancients said:
??Heaven offers gifts, but if you do not take them, disaster will follow.
??Nearly thirty abandoned waystations. Even if each held only a hundred Ghoststones, that was three thousand in total—a staggering fortune, enough to upgrade the Wall to Level 2.
??He felt a surge of greed.
??But—
??Physical limits were real.
??No matter how determined, there was only so far his legs could carry him. And with the rain turning the Wasteland into a mire, travel was even harder. Unless… he had so sort of transport.
??In this world, the most common ans were horses and cals—the lifeblood of rchant caravans.
??Or there were Practitioners like the Green-robed Man, who, with the right skills, could cross dozens of ters in a single stride—effortless, almost ethereal.
??Chen Fan had neither.
??“This isn’t urgent,” he said after a mont, lowering his voice. “Let’s clear out the resources from the nearest abandoned waystations first. As for the ones farther out, I’ll think of sothing. Have you noticed anything unusual in the Wasteland? Anything different since the Rainy Season started?”
??Zhou Mo scratched his head, puzzled. “Actually, yeah. On the way back, I saw an egg—about the size of a cal’s. The shell looked soft, just lying there alone in the Wasteland.”
??“I thought, ‘What could possibly lay an egg out here?’ There aren’t any normal animals left.”
??“I went for a closer look…”
??“The egg suddenly burst, spilling out a stinking ss of egg fluid.”
??“…”
??Chen Fan’s face was unreadable. He stayed silent for a long mont before quietly saying, “Go outside and stand in the rain a bit longer.”
??“That egg might have belonged to a Ghostbeast. I can’t sll anything on you, but who knows if they can? Wash off as much of the scent as you can, or you might bring disaster down on the camp.”
??Zhou Mo’s face paled as the warning sank in. Without another word, he hurried out into the downpour.
??Only after Zhou Mo left did Chen Fan begin inventorying the camp’s resources.
??For now, food and water were in good supply.
??There were 367 Ghoststones available, not counting those already fueling the Ghostfire.
??The Ghostfire itself held another fifty Ghoststones, necessary for daily upkeep and to keep the Arrow Towers supplied.
??Currently, the Safe Zone within the camp had a diater of twenty ters.
??The inner Wall encircled a core area with a ten-ter diater.
??A small core zone—but that ant less expense when building the Wall, so Chen Fan had placed most of the vital structures inside. Less essential buildings were set outside the Wall, in the main camp.
??His next step was to expand the camp as a whole—
??And upgrade the entire Wall to Level 2.
??Then, he’d build a second ring of Wall, encircling the outer camp. That would create two layers of defense: the first to protect the ordinary buildings, and, if breached, a fallback to the fortified core.
??The problem—
??He simply didn’t have the resources for all that yet.
??Relying on Ghoststones from killing Ghostbeasts was unstable. He needed to sweep up every last Ghoststone from those ruined waystations in the Wasteland.
??But how to get there…?
??“…”
??An idea began to take shape in Chen Fan’s mind—though it seed like a long shot. His plan for Heating System 2.0 was, at its core, incredibly simple. The only reason it seed miraculous in this world was that no one here had ever thought along those lines.
??Essentially, he’d just used “Groundspikes” as pressure-triggered pistons.
??After a mont’s thought, he pulled out two Ghoststones and crafted another Beast Trap. Then, spending ten more Ghoststones, he upgraded it to Level 2—this ti selecting the option to “increase Groundspike reset speed.”
??Next, he forged a thick copper pipe, about a ter across.
??He set the copper pipe over the Groundspike.
??Then, he made a thinner copper pipe and, standing at the table, jabbed it repeatedly down onto the base of the thick pipe’s Groundspike.
??Each jab activated the Groundspike.
??And every ti the Groundspike fired, the copper pipe was launched upward—kicked back by the force.
??Montum. Thrust.
??That was it.
??He was going to build a car.
??The principle wasn’t much different from an internal combustion engine—except, instead of an “air-fuel explosion” pushing the piston, he was using the Groundspike’s activation to drive the piston.
??A crude “Groundspike engine” was already beginning to take shape.
??Add a chassis, a main drive shaft, and so gears or wheels—convert the piston’s up-and-down motion into rotation—
??And you’d have a working, if primitive, vehicle. Its speed would depend on the Groundspike’s force and how quickly it could reset.
??Gears?
??Where was he supposed to find gears in a xuanhuan world? Gears required tough, wear-resistant materials—sothing his camp was sorely lacking. Copper pipes were just building modules, not especially sturdy.
??Wait—
??A thought struck him.
??Didn’t the warehouse still have a pile of Mantis Ghostbeast Ghost Material—“Mantis Arms”?
??He’d tested those. They were tough.
??Worth a try?
??Definitely worth a try!
??Without hesitation, Chen Fan jumped down from the table, scooped up the thick copper pipe and Groundspike, and headed outside. If this worked, all the resources in those ruined waystations would soon be his for the taking.
??Thousands of Ghoststones, at least!
??—
??A little over an hour remained until Eternal Night.
??There was still ti.
??With orders given, the camp burst into activity.
??Chen Fan spent another two Ghoststones to build a brand-new wooden cabin. Wang Mazi led his n in tearing down old cabins, salvaging as many intact planks as possible, trimming and fitting them together for reuse.
??Qi Chong and his crew spent ages digging in the farmland, finally unearthing a Monkey-Head Ghostbeast corpse to skin.
??Zhou Mo crouched by the field, scowling at the blueprint Chen Fan had given him, broadsword in hand as he hacked apart and split the long, slender bones before him.
??It was the corpse of a Bamboo Ghostbeast.
??Its entire body was thin and elongated.
??The bones, likewise—long, narrow, and tough. Perfect for a drive shaft.
??Crippled Monkey, who’d spent a few years in private school and was sharper than most, walked from station to station with the blueprint, making constant adjustnts as he went.
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