Chapter 98 - 91: "The Sage Never Acts Great, and Thus Can Achieve Greatness.
Chapter 98: Chapter 91: "The Sage Never Acts Great, and Thus Can Achieve Greatness.
"I’d still take them."
"True... I’d still take them too..."
"But—"
He frowned slightly. "Even if they did take them all, shouldn’t there at least be an open-air latrine pit with signs of digging? We haven’t even seen a pit."
"The latrine pit must be nearby. Keep searching."
"It’s unlikely that such a great figure would bother taking the Ghost Stones from a latrine pit before leaving."
"If he’s that stingy..."
"...why not take the Snowdrops and the Mountain Embryo?"
Just then—
Several hundred meters from the cave entrance, the distant crocodile suddenly lifted its head and let out a loud roar, a sound filled with excitement and a hint of wanting praise.
"Found it!"
Chen Fan’s eyes lit up. He charged over with the Godslaying Spear in hand. The crocodile was sprawled in a clearing, where it had already clawed out a hole.
"Good job, Hey Hey! Make the pit bigger!"
"When we get back tonight, you can have a skull to crack!"
...
Half an hour later.
Chen Fan stood expressionlessly beside the excavated latrine pit, prodding a stone with his Godslaying Spear to examine it. The pit was ancient, devoid of any foul odor. After long years of decomposition, the excrement had turned into fossil-like stones.
They had already smashed many of the stones.
Not a single Ghost Stone had been found.
It made him feel like he was gambling on raw jade.
Two things were certain.
First.
Hey Hey’s parents did, in fact, have latrine pits. However, they were rather particular, locating them far from the entrance to their lair.
Second.
That so-called "great figure" was incredibly stingy.
Not a single Ghost Stone was left in this pit; the guy had taken every last one when he left.
"Heh."
Chen Fan couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation. It was hard to imagine that a great figure who could collapse a mountain with a single hammer strike would, before leaving, make a special trip to a latrine pit to dig for Ghost Stones. ’Quite the penny-pincher.’
"As expected of a great predecessor."
Standing at the edge of the latrine pit, Zhou Mo clasped his hands together in solemn reverence. "I’ve always wondered what Level of cultivation one would need to shatter a mountain with a single blow, and just how many Ghost Stones that would consume."
"Now I understand."
"It is precisely this mindset of not wasting a single Ghost Stone that supported our predecessor in reaching such a lofty realm."
"As the saying goes—"
"’All difficult things arise from the easy. All great things arise from the small.’"
"Today, seeing our predecessor cherish even such insignificant things, I finally understand the meaning of ’the Sage never acts great, and thereby is truly great.’"
"To think I once dreamed of achieving everything in a single leap. I was truly a fool beyond measure."
"Predecessor, I am enlightened."
"Enlightened, my ass."
Chen Fan shot Zhou Mo an annoyed look. "Are you still having your epiphany over here? Get everyone to search elsewhere. Since we found the first latrine pit, there must be a second and a third."
"That ’great figure’ couldn’t have possibly taken all the Ghost Stones from every single pit, could he?"
"Smash open all the stones in this pit, too."
"Maybe there’s a little something left at the bottom."
...
Another half an hour passed.
Expressionless, Chen Fan stood before yet another latrine pit with Lame Monkey and the others. He was silent, saying nothing for a long time.
After unearthing the first latrine pit, they’d found the pattern. Hey Hey’s parents didn’t like their latrines too close to their lair’s entrance; they were all located at a distance. One after another, they dug up a third, a fourth, a fifth... for a grand total of six latrine pits.
You could say they’d reaped a great harvest.
Not a harvest of Ghost Stones, mind you, but of fossilized feces.
"Young Master."
Standing to the side, Lame Monkey glanced tentatively at the fossils in the pit and asked.
"Should we take all these fossilized droppings back with us? Hey Hey’s parents seemed incredibly powerful. After decomposing in the earth for centuries, maybe this stuff is valuable in its own right. We might have a use for it later."
"That makes sense."
Chen Fan let out a light sigh. Though still disappointed, he accepted the reality and nodded. "Alright, let’s get to work. Pack all these fossilized droppings into the chests and bring them back. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a use for them later."
Lame Monkey’s words did give him an idea.
He remembered that Ghost Objects, especially non-sentient ones, were extremely sensitive to this kind of aura. If they were to arrange these fossilized droppings in one place, ordinary Ghost Objects wouldn’t dare to come near. It would be like having a natural, non-luminous Ghost Fire.
In that sense, it wasn’t a total loss.
As they say, a thief never leaves empty-handed. They’d been digging here for so long; they couldn’t just go back with nothing to show for it, could they? What would that make them?
"Get to work."
Chen Fan clapped his hands and, looking at his crew, broke into a smile again. "This is all precious treasure! Pack it all up, and don’t leave a single piece behind!"
"Station Chief," Zhou Mo sidled up, thoughtfully proposing a new theory.
"I think we might have been caught in a logical trap. We learned from the Ghost King that 180 years ago, a great figure referred to as ’That One’ left this place."
"And this canyon we’re in is the crater left by that great figure’s hammer."
"We know this great figure was likely a Cultivator of a very high Level."
"He probably wasn’t an Architect or anything like that, since there are no ruins around here. But as a great figure, he must have had a retinue of followers, right? So it’s highly likely that the great figure himself didn’t dig for the stones, but ordered his followers to do it. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder all the Ghost Stones were taken, is it?"
"And so?" Chen Fan tilted his head at Zhou Mo, not quite following his train of thought.
"What I mean is, if that’s the case, then this predecessor isn’t quite as I imagined. Not so admirable, after all."
"Stop having your damn epiphanies and get back to work."
Waving Zhou Mo away, Chen Fan went back to scanning the surroundings, not quite ready to give up hope.
He walked on, continuously plunging Lame Monkey’s Godslaying Spear into the ground. He felt exactly like a tomb raider probing the earth with a Luoyang Shovel.
Except, other people robbed tombs. He was robbing shit.
Another half an hour went by. In that time, everyone packed the fossilized droppings into chests, and the crocodile made several trips up and down the mountain to carry them all back to their main camp.
Chen Fan glanced at the sky and finally gave up. He’d been probing the ground for a long time without finding any new pits. It seemed there were truly only those six, and none of them contained a single leftover Ghost Stone.
"Alright, let’s head home."
Chen Fan casually plunged the Godslaying Spear into the ground at his feet one last time. As he pulled it out, he started walking toward the waiting crocodile, ready to head home. It was getting late.
But at that very moment.
He suddenly noticed something on the tip of the spear he’d just pulled from the ground: a faint, milky-white liquid.
"What’s this?"
Chen Fan froze for a second, then it hit him. He was all too familiar with this substance—it was the milky-white fluid released when a Ghost Stone shatters.
His last thrust had shattered a Ghost Stone buried underground.
"Hey!"
Chen Fan’s excitement flared. He looked over at the crocodile, which was waiting to take them home, and bellowed, "Don’t just lie there! Get over here and dig this spot up! Let’s see what’s underneath!"
"Could it be a latrine pit that wasn’t cleaned out?"
Zhou Mo, Lame Monkey, and the others were instantly thrilled. They scurried over, their eyes filled with anticipation as they watched the crocodile dig. The hope that had just been extinguished now burned brightly once more.
Soon, a new pit was excavated.
Sure enough, it was a Deep Pit.
The previous latrine pits had all shown signs of excavation. After that great figure dug out the Ghost Stones, he’d refilled the pits. He was surprisingly considerate.
But this Deep Pit showed no signs of excavation whatsoever. Nor were there any fossilized droppings.
At the bottom of the Deep Pit, there were no fossils—only Ghost Stones mixed in with the dirt. At a glance, they could see scores of eerie-green Ghost Stones scattered among a multitude of white ones, a truly dazzling sight.