Chapter 65: “The Villagers Call It the Mountain God.”
That thing—gone in a blink, vanishing down the gorge—looked uncannily like a crocodile.
A reptile.
But far larger than any ordinary croc. At a glance, it was the size of a tank: squat yet thick-limbed, with a long, powerful tail. Its entire body was armored in coarse, brown scales.
So massive.
So fast.
If it had charged at him head-on, Chen Fan doubted even the Wall would have held.
“…”
He glanced down at the Green Lantern in his hand. There hadn’t even been ti to activate it before the creature shot out of the canyon. By far, this was the fastest Ghostbeast he’d ever seen—easily several tis quicker than the Monkey-Head Ghostbeast.
And just then—
A sound behind him.
Big Fish had woken at so point and climbed the steps to the top of the Wall, coming to stand at his side. She hesitated, then spoke: “Station Master, did a big crocodile-looking thing just co through here?”
Ever since Big Fish had confessed to disguising herself as a boy, she’d stopped pretending. Her voice had returned to its natural, feminine tone.
Still, she was quiet most days, always working in silence.
And she’d reverted to calling him Station Master.
She’d once called him “big brother,” but he’d asked her to drop it. With a girl’s voice in his ear calling “big brother,” it felt too much like a Female Ghostbeast luring him to his death.
“How did you know?”
Chen Fan turned, eyeing the girl in her hemp robe, arms folded. Suddenly, he rembered—he’d never asked how she’d overheard his conversation with Qi Chong, even though they’d been nearly ten thousand ters from Camp.
“The villagers call it the Mountain God.”
Big Fish sniffed, recalling, “Back in my village, people would spot it up in the mountains. It’s huge. When startled, it bolts—makes such a racket the whole ground shakes.”
“Up in the mountains?”
Chen Fan’s brow furrowed. After a mont’s pause, he pressed on: “You an… this crocodile appears during the day?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“Near dusk?”
“No, only ever saw it twice, both tis in the morning. No one in the village would go up the mountain near dusk. It’s skittish—every ti it sees people, it hides.”
“The first ti the villagers saw her, they called her the Mountain Ghost.”
“But once they realized she didn’t harm anyone, they renad her the Mountain God.”
“…”
Chen Fan fell silent.
Active during the day.
That likely ant it wasn’t a Ghostbeast. The only Ghostbeast he’d ever seen moving around in daylight was the False Human Ghost, and even then only near dusk. All the others vanished with the sunrise—who knew where they hid.
Still, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that this was so new type of Ghostbeast, one that could move in daylight.
“How did you hear talking with Qi Chong last ti?”
“That’s a special ability of a Watcher in the Night.” Big Fish pulled her robe tighter. “I have Wind-Ears—I can hear sounds from ten thousand ters away. But I can’t control it. Sotis it works, sotis it doesn’t.”
“That day, it just happened to work.”
“Not a bad skill.”
Chen Fan nodded. “Go get so more sleep. We’ve got work tomorrow.”
…
The second half of the night.
No more thudding noises. No more Ghostbeasts tumbling off the cliffs.
And the crocodile—whatever it was—didn’t return.
For now, this place was relatively safe.
Dawn ca quickly.
After his shift, trading places with Zhou Mo halfway through the night, Chen Fan stretched long and hard, stepped out from the temporary wooden house they’d built inside the Cave, and looked over at Crippled Monkey and the others, already hard at work. All this moving had left him little ti to rest.
Once everything was settled, he promised himself, he’d finally sleep in for real.
Plenty of supplies had been brought from the Old Camp.
Still waiting to be sorted.
“Let’s keep going!”
At his command—
The Level 5 Gun Tower atop the Wall roared to life, unleashing another barrage. The makeshift hut was instantly blown to splinters, and the barrage continued, blasting deeper into the Cave and carving out more space.
…
Outside the Cave.
Chen Fan stood at the base of the cliff, staring at the corpse the crocodile had left behind in its flight the previous night. The body was riddled with puncture wounds—evidence enough of the creature’s monstrous bite force.
So far, he hadn’t t a single Ghostbeast whose raw physical strength surpassed this thing.
And yet, with all that power, its first instinct had been to run.
He shook his head, dismissing the thought.
He squatted down, dug the Ghoststone out of the corpse, and left the body for Qi Chong, who was working the Farmland nearby.
They’d set up a temporary field inside the Natural Ghostfire Zone.
Transplanting crops from the Old Camp.
“How’s it looking?”
Chen Fan walked over, eyeing the sickly Flesh Ghost Twin Seeds growing in the field—the highest-value seeds they had, Green Grade.
“Not great.”
Qi Chong shook his head, pointing at the withered Flesh Ghost Twin Seeds. “We haven’t t the planting requirents these past few days. Whatever the Mourning Ghosts didn’t trample, the rest have all died.”
“But there’s so good news—it’s not a total loss.”
“They matured early.”
“The other crops took to the transplant just fine.”
Chen Fan took the fruit Qi Chong handed him—one large, one small, growing from the sa branch, red as cherries.
Unique Treasure: Flesh Ghost Twin Fruit (Premature)
Grade: Green
Effect: Consists of two fruits—Mother and Child. If two people each eat one, they can communicate telepathically within 100 li for seven days.
“…”
Chen Fan weighed the Flesh Ghost Twin Fruit in his hand. If they’d fully matured, the effect would have lasted a full month—but he didn’t comnt, just glanced at the Farmland. “How many pairs?”
“Twelve.”
“Keep them safe. Once the warehouse is finished, store them there.”
“Understood.”
Qi Chong nodded firmly, then hesitated. “Back when I worked for the Ping Tian Chamber of Comrce, I learned that the core material for sound transmission talismans is the Flesh Ghost Twin Fruit. If we had an Artificer, we could use these to make our own talismans.”
“That would increase both range and duration by a lot.”
“We’ll get there.”
Chen Fan clapped him on the shoulder, then headed for the Wall at the Cave’s entrance.
…
When you’re busy, ti slips by.
The day passed in a blur.
Only a cup of tea’s ti left before Eternal Night descended.
Wang Kui and the others, exhausted, lounged atop the Wall, wolfing down dry rations and sipping hot water—just enough to fill their bellies. Clearing new land was always the hardest work.
“Hey.”
Amid the group—
Zhou Mo, leaning against the Wall with a chunk of hard bread clamped in his mouth, grinned at the others. He fished a wooden board from beneath his seat, then picked up his broadsword and started carefully carving sothing into the wood, muttering under his breath.
“When we packed up to leave the Old Camp, I found this in the debris of the Wooden House.”
“The Eternal Night Calendar.”
“I was so wiped last night, I forgot to mark it.”
“Anyone want to guess how many nights since the Rainy Season ended?”
“Seven?” Wang Kui hugged his hot water flask, rolling it between his hands for warmth. “Feels like less than that—maybe five?”
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