I Build a Shelter in the Eternal Night

"I see."

Chen Fan nodded lightly and frowned. "You mean you’re about to start Molting Armor? You agreed to lend him a few pieces of your Scale Armor, but only *after* you shed them, not for him to pry them off right now."

Upon hearing this, Hey Hey’s eyes grew red and welled up with tears as it nodded repeatedly.

’Finally, someone understands me.’

’I’ve been so wronged.’

’I was just happily sunbathing after a full meal when someone grabs an awl and tries to pry off my Scale Armor. That hurts so much! Why don’t you try prying off your own scales?!’

Zhao Shengping’s apprentice, standing to the side, was completely dumbfounded. ’How did he get all that information from a nod, a shake of the head, and another nod?’

’I couldn’t see any of that.’

"You’re going to start Molting Armor?"

Chen Fan looked at Hey Hey, a flash of surprise in his eyes. He then pointed to Qi Yue, who had rushed back with him. "Like him?"

"Grrr."

Hey Hey nodded emphatically, letting out a few excited, low growls.

"Impressive."

He couldn’t help but laugh. ’This means Hey Hey’s power is about to increase again!’ "Is there anything I can do? Do you need any Heavenly and Earthly Treasures or Elixirs?"

Lying on the ground, Hey Hey shook its head and rolled around.

"You don’t need anything, you just need a full belly, right?"

"Alright."

Chen Fan looked at Qi Yue, his expression serious. "Things will be tough for the next few days."

"Understood."

Qi Yue nodded in agreement.

The Mortal Realm was running dangerously low on Ghost Corpses. Hey Hey had eaten almost all the ones he had obtained during the rainy season, leaving very few for the Sacrificial Tower. That building, which could yield special treasures by sacrificing Ghost Corpses, hadn’t been used in a long time.

It was a shame the skins from the Meat Worms’ Ghost Tide didn’t count as corpses; otherwise, they’d be flush with resources.

After the rainy season, Ghost Corpses became even harder to obtain. The Ghost Objects wouldn’t enter the camp’s perimeter at all, so they had to be hunted out in the darkness, beyond the range of the turrets.

So, the Mortal Realm had been relying on two methods to obtain Ghost Corpses.

First.

They mass-produced Earth Spikes and buried them along the coast in front of Nameless Mountain. This yielded a good number of Ghost Corpses and Ghost Stones each day, but the quantity had been dwindling recently. It was unclear whether the Ghost Objects in the area were depleted, or if they had grown smart enough to avoid the traps.

The second method was purchasing them.

Now, there was a third method. After his breakthrough to Martial King, Qi Yue could proactively enter the eternal night to hunt Ghost Objects. Of course, he could only last for about an hour before his Spiritual Qi was depleted and he had to retreat to camp.

While Hey Hey also enjoyed human food like roasted pork, those were just snacks. It couldn’t get full from them. To be truly satisfied, and to gather the energy needed for a breakthrough, it had to eat Ghost Corpses.

Just then—

Zhao Shengping slowly came to. The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Chen Fan. With teary, aggrieved eyes, he said, "Domain Lord, it really agreed! That’s the only reason I tried to pry it off."

"You misunderstood."

Chen Fan patted Zhao Shengping’s shoulder and sighed. "He’s going to start Molting Armor in a few days. Wait until after he’s done to forge the Night Traveling Clothes; work on the daggers first. You should consider yourself lucky that he can recover from injuries now and his guard isn’t as high as it used to be."

"Back in the day,"

"If you dared to pry off his Scale Armor, he would’ve swallowed you alive."

"Impressive, really."

"What gave you the guts to run up to him with an awl and try to pry off his Scale Armor? Can you imagine how much that would hurt?"

Zhao Shengping nodded, still feeling wronged, but he quickly grew excited again.

"Domain Lord, I never expected our Mortal Realm to have a Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile! That’s an extremely rare Exotic Beast, even on the Guanxi Plain. Once it reaches natural adulthood, it possesses formidable combat power. It’s a pure combat-type Exotic Beast."

"It’s strong in both offense and defense."

"Hmm?"

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow, keenly catching the hidden meaning in that statement. "A combat-type Exotic Beast? Are you saying the Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile has no other abilities?"

"That’s right, it doesn’t."

Although Zhao Shengping didn’t understand what the Domain Lord was confused about, he still explained, "We Artifact Refiners are very knowledgeable about many types of Exotic Beasts. After all, their Scale Armor, claws, and other parts are all high-quality Refining Materials."

"The Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile’s Scale Armor is perfect for forging Armor."

"It’s both sturdy and light."

"There are many types of Exotic Beasts."

"And the Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile is a quintessential combat-type Exotic Beast."

"..."

Chen Fan’s expression turned a little strange. He glanced at Hey Hey, who was lying on the ground looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes. ’A pure combat-type Exotic Beast?’

He clearly remembered this fellow swatting the legacy Light Curtain left behind by the Immortal Celestial Master at the seashore right out of the sky and swallowing it.

That Light Curtain was originally supposed to fly up into the sky and allow everyone in the vicinity to participate.

But with one swat from Hey Hey, it became his own private event.

The same thing happened later at the legacy site.

He didn’t even have to clear any of the trials. Hey Hey just slapped each one aside, and the entire ruin became his.

This was clearly a special ability targeting things like Arrays.

’So that wasn’t an ability of the Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile?’

’Could it be...’

He was beginning to have a vague idea.

The Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile’s original inability to heal might not have been an illness, but simply a genetic mutation. It had changed from a pure combat-type Exotic Beast into a Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile that was weak in combat but miraculously effective at destroying Arrays.

Its inability to heal was just a side effect.

But after it consumed the Snow Lotus, that side effect disappeared.

Now it has become a Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile that is both adept at destroying Arrays and extremely powerful in combat.

"..."

Chen Fan silently patted the Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile’s head. "It’s nothing. Go on, go play."

’I’m suddenly realizing I have a lot of valuable things around me.’

’If I were to put a price tag on Hey Hey...’