I Am Chen Fan, from Jiangbei's Fan Domain

The Holy Lord of the Immortal Slaughter Holy Land remained where he was, expressionless, silent for a long time. The Great Elder took the chance to turn the talk aside and asked, a trace of puzzlement in his voice. "Holy Lord." "Do you know exactly who that person is? How could a mere wisp of aura he left behind suppress the Jiangbei seabed ghost tide for nearly two hundred years? If I remember right, he has already been gone for almost two hundred years, hasn't he?" A seabed ghost tide was not on the same level as a ghost tide on land. Take scale alone. They were as different as the sun and the moon. A ghost tide vast enough to blot out the sky, held down beneath the sea for nearly two hundred years by one wisp of aura left behind—that power was a little too terrifying. "I don't know the specifics." The Holy Lord of the Immortal Slaughter Holy Land shook his head, brow faintly furrowed. "Even through that information channel of mine, which no one else has, I could not find a single thing about him. One point, though, is certain. Even within the Eternal Night Hall, that person seems to be one of a kind. There is no second." "Otherwise, if the Eternal Night Hall had a few more figures like that, would they still be on the defensive? They would have counterattacked long ago." "True." The Great Elder nodded, thoughtful. He had no idea what realm of cultivation could wield means so terrifying. But he soon thought of something else. "Then I think you, Holy Lord, are even more formidable. Back then, you actually dared to scheme for the Snow Lotus that person left behind." "What has no owner belongs to the one fated for it." "Aren't you afraid he'll come back and kill you?" "That doesn't make sense. That was clearly something he didn't want. I took it. How could he kill me for that? Besides, if he really does come back, I'll apologize." "And if an apology does no good?" "Then I die. What else is there to do?" The Holy Lord looked at the Great Elder with some irritation. "Who doesn't die? Can you live forever, or what? If a person lives only for absolute safety, then there is no point in doing anything. Where is there any such thing as absolute safety?" "Enough." "I'm going to sleep. Call me if something comes up." The first day after the rainy season descended. Chen Fan woke early indoors, walked to the city wall of Cave No. 1, gave a languid stretch, and only then casually tossed a handful of withered grass onto the open ground that had been cleared beyond the wall. A phantom of a ghost-fire building, formed of white lines, appeared out of nowhere and rapidly condensed. The instant it condensed, Fan Domain members who had long been waiting beside it quickly carried it onto the Fan Domain high-speed rail nearby. Ghost fires formed one after another. Soon. One train was fully loaded. At the sound of the whistle, the train began to accelerate and raced along the tracks toward the Port. In the end, this train would pass through the undersea tunnel and reach the New Continent. There, members of Fan Domain's Commerce Pavilion would set ghost fire after ghost fire in the corresponding positions, according to the points marked by the Logistics Pavilion. An unlit ghost fire could be moved at will. This was his Prairie Fire Project on the New Continent, which would consume 3.39 billion ghost stones. Only a full year later would any result even faintly show. For the sake of this project. When the rainy season came, quite a few veteran members of the Logistics Pavilion had been temporarily transferred to the New Continent to survey points. Roughly two shichen later. It was noon. Chen Fan did not go on forging ghost fires. He sat in a rocking chair, looked at a plate of plump, round dumplings on the table, and smiled. "Not bad." He very much liked eating dumplings. Especially in weather like this, with the rainy season upon them and the temperature falling. He picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks, dipped it in vinegar, and put it in his mouth. In the instant the fragrance and the juice burst across his tongue, he gazed, deeply satisfied, toward the Jiangbei Defense Line, which covered a great stretch beyond the canyon passage. Delicious. Dumplings, and an elder brother's wife. A man always found one of the two impossible to resist. He found dumplings impossible to resist. He felt that if he himself were a ghost creature, and an enemy set out a plate of dumplings as bait to lure him in, he would certainly take it. Who could refuse a plate of dumplings fresh from the pot, still giving off steam? In the distance. He could faintly see quite a few Fan Domain members busy at work. They were carrying into Fan Domain the corpses of ghost creatures that had died last night beyond the Jiangbei Defense Line, dissecting them, and then storing them in the warehouse. The whole process already followed a set procedure. No need for him to step in. He no longer had to personally direct what to do and what to do, as he had in the first rainy season. Fan Domain had gradually grown up. Many small matters he had never thought of, someone would see to for him. For instance. The Fan Domain cafeteria. It could seat over ten thousand people eating at the same time, though there were basically never that many eating at once. He did not even know when this Fan Domain cafeteria had been finished. He only remembered Wang Kui coming to him then, saying he wanted to apply to put up a cafeteria. Workers had been hired to build it. It had no special effect, but it did look extremely grand. As for the Guandong Plain. Fan Domain's high-speed rail had stopped running during the rainy season. Several sections of copper pipe in the Guandong Plain, Jiangnan, and other regions had been damaged by ghost creatures. The rail could not pass as usual. He would have to go and repair them after the rainy season before the trains could run again. For the time being, they could not ship him ghost-creature corpses. They would have to wait until the rainy season ended. But that was fine too. He could take in one big haul all at once. Chen Fan's brow tightened slightly as he thought about how to reinforce the copper pipes. Every time the rainy season came, ghost creatures damaged his copper pipes. It was a nuisance. He could hardly build a ring of city wall along both sides of the tracks. The cost would be far too high. Fan Domain's high-speed rail lines were not that numerous yet. He could still manage the repairs. If the rail later led into more regions, how would he repair it? He could work himself to death and still not keep up. If only he could get hold of another Heavenly Dao Stone. Perhaps the Heavenly Dao's blessing upon the copper pipes would include some defensive effect. Thinking this, he picked up another dumpling and put it in his mouth. "Mm." Chen Fan's brow eased. He nodded, satisfied. Delicious. Time slipped past bit by bit. This rainy season, Fan Domain had not suffered much of a blow. It was not a seabed ghost tide. Nor was it a rainy season that had come early. It could hardly do Fan Domain any harm at all. If a rainy season of this degree could put Fan Domain in danger, then these past few years of growth would have been for nothing. And so time slowly came to the end of the rainy season. The New Continent. The Prairie Fire Project here had already made a certain amount of early progress. "Huff—huff—" A member of Fan Domain's Logistics Pavilion stood on open ground, panting as he drove a Fan Domain Banner hard into the earth and fixed it fast. Only then did he take a strange treasure from his robes and look into the distance. It was a strange treasure that could measure distance. Two smaller round tubes made it up, like a telescope. After measuring the distance, he vaulted onto a flying boat, quickly reached the target, compared it with the ghost-hide map, and, once he was sure it was correct, planted another Fan Domain Banner there. And he repeated the step again and again. Looking out. Across the vast wasteland, one could faintly see many flying boats in the distance rising and settling without cease. The Logistics Pavilion had broken the whole into parts. Every Fan Domain member was equipped with one of the most basic flying boats, charged with measuring distance and planting banners. The more precise the measured distance, the fewer ghost fires would need to be forged. And to the rear. Dozens of flying boats were likewise scattered, rising and settling continuously in the air. "There!" A Commerce Pavilion member standing at the edge of a flying boat's deck pointed at the Fan Domain Banner clearly visible on the ground in the distance. He glanced at the nearly one hundred ghost fires on the deck behind him and ordered, "Set it down there. There is no ghost fire there yet." Soon. The flying boat landed near the banner. They pulled the banner up, stowed it in the boat, and set down a level-ten ghost fire. They lit the ghost fire. After a ghost fire rose to level ten, its full-level effect was that it consumed no ghost stones at all. Of course, that was only enough to maintain the ghost fire itself. It could not supply energy to other buildings. Then they left at once. The Fan Domain Banner. A special spirit treasure. It could be seen clearly from quite far away, but only if the weather was decent. If the weather was too severe—heavy rain, thick fog, a sandstorm—it would grow much blurrier. Nothing suited a landmark better. All across the New Continent, the place was busy. Fan Domain, that great machine, had begun to run in earnest. Large numbers of Logistics Pavilion members surveyed distances and marked points ahead. Commerce Pavilion members set ghost fire after ghost fire onto the marked positions. A smaller number of Logistics Pavilion members, far to the rear in Fan Domain, kept forging Fan Domain Banners and a whole series of daily goods, and shipped them, together with the ghost fires forged by the Domain Lord, to the New Continent by high-speed rail. At every ancient battlefield, Fan Domain had laid out a temporary station. Quite a few Fan Domain affiliate members began to scatter across the ancient battlefields, digging out ghost stones and picking up ghost bones. This was an enormous project. By one person's strength, it was simply impossible to finish. As the members of the Logistics Pavilion and the Commerce Pavilion gradually pressed deeper into the heart of the New Continent, going back and forth grew inconvenient. They no longer needed to return to New Continent Outpost No. 1 to replenish flying-boat ghost stones, banners, ghost fires, and the like. Instead, a new batch of flying boats handled resupply from the rear, delivering the proper supplies to each flying boat at the front. And within this month. Chen Fan made a special trip to the New Continent. Inside New Continent Outpost No. 1, he forged quite a few signal towers. The signal towers were not small: ten meters high, the same width from top to bottom, cylinders. This was a building that could be moved. Wang Mazi was responsible for laying signal tower after signal tower across the interior of the New Continent, so that communication would stay open. And so the rear could dispatch with accuracy. "Commerce Pavilion Squad No. 37, there is a gap seventeen li to your northwest. Go and look at once." "Commerce Pavilion Squad No. 48, along your original line of advance, a marked point in a mountain was missed. Turn back at once and complete it." "Logistics Supply Formation No. 3, set out at once for Areas No. 1, No. 3, and No. 4, and resupply the logistics stations in these three areas." "Rear received. Logged. Logistics Marking Team No. 17 is short of ghost stones and needs them replenished in time." New Continent Outpost No. 1. Inside an enormous wooden cabin. A sand table sat on the table, and a full several dozen people stood gathered around it. These several dozen were the dispatch team for this Prairie Fire Project, directing the work through voice transmission talismans. This was the Heavenly Derivation Sand Table. A strange treasure kept in Fan Domain, moved to the New Continent specially for the Prairie Fire Project. Its effect was very simple. It could link multiple ghost-hide maps and gather them on the sand table into one complete map. Over these past days Wang Mazi had finished exploring the whole New Continent and drawn one scattered ghost-hide map after another. Once all of them were gathered onto the sand table, they formed a sand table that held the New Continent entire. And along the stretch near the coastline. Ghost fires were lit in a dense mass. Like will-o'-the-wisps, these ghost fires pushed inward, layer upon layer, toward the depths of the New Continent. A ghost fire appeared on a ghost-hide map only after it was lit, and only then did it appear on the sand table as well. That way, it was easy to judge which regions had been missed. It made the work much easier. Which stretch had been missed could be seen at a glance. Quehou stood to one side with a grave face, constantly looking it over. He was the chief dispatcher. Everything on the New Continent was his charge, and this Prairie Fire Project was naturally his to see through as well. The rainy season was ending. Over this past month. He had watched with his own eyes as the enormous sand table before him went from dim and colorless at the start to being lit little by little. By now a very large region had been lit. That was the light of ghost fires being kindled. He could not describe the feeling. Perhaps he was deceiving himself a little, but he felt something of Fan Domain launching a counterattack and beginning to drive ghost creatures out across the board. Although there was not a single ghost creature on the New Continent. He believed. Sooner or later, this scene would come to pass on the Eternal Night Continent. When this scene came to pass on the Eternal Night Continent, that would be the hour of their victory. He did not know when that day would come, but he believed it would come. Because of this, Fan Domain's stores of ghost stones were also draining away in a steady stream. He did not actually know, once ghost fires covered the whole New Continent, what upper limit they might win their way to. He only knew that since the Young Master had given this matter to him, he could not let anything go wrong. Before the army moves, the grain and fodder go first. Logistics had always been vital, especially with a line stretched so long. Fortunately, Fan Domain had a Logistics Pavilion Master. The Logistics Pavilion Master, Xiao Qiu. The Hundred Grains Pavilion Master, Qi Chong. These two pavilion masters had now stayed on the New Continent and begun directing the work at close range. A steady stream of supplies was carried by large numbers of flying boats to the logistics stations in the New Continent's interior. From those stations, the supplies went on toward the front. They could not send supplies straight from New Continent Outpost No. 1 to the foremost line. That would consume a great deal of time. The New Continent was not small. And so. At every interval across the New Continent, a logistics station was set down. These stations were responsible for keeping every Fan Domain member supplied. "Actually, this is pretty good too." Xiao Qiu stood on the city wall of New Continent Outpost No. 1, looked at the busy crowd beyond the wall, and said softly, "I don't know what upper limit the Domain Lord means either, but this is excellent tempering." "The pressure is intense, and quite a few newcomers who just joined the Logistics Pavilion have already grown seasoned. They know Fan Domain's procedures better and better. We've trained a good many new people." "This way, if Fan Domain later needs to move Logistics Pavilion members on such a scale on the Eternal Night Continent, the Logistics Pavilion will not fall into a panic. We'll be fully able to meet it." "Indeed." Qi Chong, standing beside him, clicked his tongue. "For the Hundred Grains Pavilion, it is a kind of tempering too." But he soon could not help laughing. "Xiao Qiu, the way you speak and act is getting steadier and steadier." "I have to be steady." Xiao Qiu shook his head, helpless. "The Logistics Pavilion has more members than any other in Fan Domain. So many people to dispatch and manage—how is that steadiness? I'm simply too tired to smile." "If you're tired, you can retire." "What kind of crap is that?" "Xiao Qiu, you really have changed. You even know how to curse now." "Look at you. You never used to put on this official air." "Ahem." Qi Chong gave a light cough, brought back the right hand he had clasped behind him, and set the teacup in his hand on the parapet beside him. "Out in the world, if one is still as timid and shrinking as before, it will inevitably hurt Fan Domain's standing." "All right. I won't talk with you anymore." "I have to get back to work." With that. Qi Chong picked up the teacup, turned, and left, though as he went he muttered, "Looks like the Logistics Pavilion's meal standard will have to come down a notch." The corner of Xiao Qiu's mouth twitched. He turned toward Qi Chong's departing back. "Pavilion Master Qi, I was wrong." "What did you say?" Qi Chong turned toward Xiao Qiu with feigned surprise. "I said I was wrong. I shouldn't have cursed at you just now." "It's nothing, it's nothing." Qi Chong laughed and waved a hand, grand and unconcerned. "We're old brothers who came through the rainy season together. How could I mind a little thing like this?" "Then the meal standard..." "What meal standard? The meal standard is already set. How would I dare change it as I please? I'm off." That said. Only then did Qi Chong clasp one hand behind his back and go, laughing. After Qi Chong's figure vanished from sight, Xiao Qiu at last could not help smiling. He turned back to the city wall and looked at the busy Fan Domain beyond it. It was truly good. If only time could stop at this moment. Busy as it was, there was no danger. He was somewhat afraid of a ghost tide's coming. He did not much want to see people he knew die when a ghost tide arrived. The rainy season had come to its close. The Guandong Plain. Every member on Defense Line No. 7 wore an extremely strained expression, excitement and unease tangled together. With the support they had received, right up until the rainy season was about to end, not one stretch of Defense Line No. 7 had fallen. They badly wanted to celebrate, but the rainy season was not over, so they could not. Only after tonight passed would the rainy season be fully settled. And so they wore expressions like these. "All of you, get your spirits up!" The sky was gradually darkening. If nothing unexpected happened, tonight ought to be the last night of the rainy season. Even if it stretched on, it would be two or three days at most. It would not drag on long. Seventh Elder looked much steadier, though a thread of a smile still lingered in his eyes as he faced the core members of Defense Line No. 7 standing before him. "Even if the rainy season has not ended once tonight is past, only two or three nights will be left." "Tonight, have everyone stay on the sharpest alert." "Once we get through this rainy season, we can welcome another year of rest." "Yes!" The core members below answered as one, then scattered along the ninety-seven kilometers of Defense Line No. 7 and returned to their own sectors. After all this was done. Only then did Seventh Elder walk to the city wall. Alone, he looked at the Soul-Devouring Sculptures set along the foot of the wall, and at the altars laid upon the wall. He let out a long breath and gazed toward the depths of the Guandong Plain. He did not know which power that gentleman came from, or which region. But. At this moment he was truly grateful for that gentleman's support. With this batch of Soul-Devouring Sculptures, not one sector of Defense Line No. 7 had fallen during this rainy season. Most important of all. The casualties had fallen greatly. The copper pipes linked the ghost fires to the Sword Rain Cannon Towers, which meant that when a ghost tide came, there was no need for so many people to risk their lives going onto the wall to fill the towers with ghost stones. The number of deaths would naturally drop by a great deal. Defense Line No. 7 had several hundred thousand people. But in truth. Most of them were displaced people with no home to return to, taken in along Defense Line No. 7. By day they dug ghost stones from the ghost-creature corpses beyond the line. He looked at the mass of ghost-creature corpses heaped on the wasteland like a hill and murmured, "The rainy season will be over soon. The high-speed rail ought to be running again soon too." He had saved up a huge number of ghost-creature corpses. The weather was turning cold, so they would not rot. Nor would that rain make the ghost-creature corpses swell. Rain in the rainy season was not quite the same as ordinary rain. He hoped the other party would like them. Besides that. He looked at the two strange treasures in his robes. One was shaped like a stone, rough on the outside and rather heavy, the sort that, tossed on the ground, no one would spare a glance. The other was only shaped like a banner, and quite small. Both strange treasures were still unopened. He did not know what effects they had. He had not taken them to Defense Line No. 7's appraiser to have them opened. He had simply kept them. Last night, a great ghost of tremendous power had struck Defense Line No. 7. Thanks to the altars, the broken stretch of wall was repaired very quickly, and the enemy was not let through into the line. And they had killed it. After this great ghost died, it dropped these two strange treasures. He meant to give them to that gentleman, a small gift in return. He would not open them to see the effects, because he worried that once he saw the effects, he would be unwilling to give them away. Better not to look at all. Just then— A sudden scorching heat came from within his robes. Seventh Elder's expression shifted. He drew out a small stone riddled with holes, closed his palm completely around it, and a voice sounded in his mind, audible to him alone. "Defense Line No. 7 did not fall during the rainy season. What unexpected thing occurred?" A hoarse man's voice. There was no feeling in it. The question was extremely direct. Seventh Elder hesitated and looked toward the Soul-Devouring Sculptures at the foot of the wall. This was word from the Eternal Night Hall. He knew why the Eternal Night Hall would ask. Because the Hall, unable to free its hands, had already been powerless to support Defense Line No. 7 before this rainy season descended. They had not said it outright, but they had essentially already given up on Defense Line No. 7. Or rather. They might have given up entirely on the Guandong Plain, the Guanxi Plain, the Four Lands of Jiangbei, and even the stretch of the Eternal Night heartland nearest them. But now that Defense Line No. 7 had held through this rainy season, the Eternal Night Hall would judge that something unexpected had happened. "Just before the rainy season was about to descend, Defense Line No. 7 had the luck to dig up several ghost mines of no small yield nearby. That was how we held through the rainy season." He had first thought to say that the ghost tides this rainy season had been fewer. But he worried that would skew the Eternal Night Hall's judgment of the whole situation. He had also thought to say they had received aid from the powers of the Guanxi Plain. But it was obvious that even if every power on the Guanxi Plain emptied its stores, it would not be enough to hold one defense line. That would expose that gentleman. After weighing it, he settled on this account. His lips only moved a little. He made no sound at all. Yet his voice traveled along the Mother-and-Child Stone in his hand to the Eternal Night Hall member charged with contacting him, a thousand li away. "Understood." The other's cold, feelingless voice soon sounded in his mind. "What is the yield of the ghost mines? Is it enough to build, in Jiangbei, a Jiangbei Defense Line one hundred and seventy kilometers long?" "If it is enough, the Eternal Night Hall will do all it can to send a group of architects." "Not enough." Seventh Elder shook his head without the slightest hesitation. How vast a ghost mine would one have to find before it could build a defense line? It was simply impossible. "Received." The other's feelings no longer held the slightest ripple, whether at learning that Defense Line No. 7 had not fallen or at learning that ghost mines had been found. "The aura left in Jiangbei will dissipate in two years." "The Eternal Night Hall is already powerless to support Jiangbei." "Seventh Elder, the one in charge of Defense Line No. 7, is ordered to bring every core member of Defense Line No. 7, carry as many ghost stones, strange treasures, and the like as possible, and, after this year's rainy season ends, travel east all the way to Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon, on the rim of the Eternal Night Continent." "Abandon Defense Line No. 7." "What!?" Seventh Elder's face went deathly white in an instant. He knew the Yellow Springs Mouth region. It was a stretch of the Eternal Night Continent near the Guanxi Plain. Because of its special terrain, it all but split the Eternal Night Continent and the Guanxi Plain cleanly in two, and so it was called Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. This meant. The Eternal Night Hall had completely abandoned every region west of Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. That included the Four Lands of Jiangbei and the Two Lands of Guanxi. "Then what of the people in the region west of Yellow Springs Mouth?" "Wait to die." The other's voice still held no ripple, not even a chill. It was more like a flat telling of an utterly ordinary matter. "The Eternal Night Hall's Front No. 3 and Front No. 4 fell one after another during the rainy season." "The losses were beyond counting." "To fill in Front No. 3 and Front No. 4, the Eternal Night Hall spared nothing and, behind the regions where No. 3 and No. 4 had fallen, hastily raised two defense lines." "The Eternal Night Hall's resources are now badly exhausted." "We can only build one defense line at the entrance to the Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon region. The shattered node there is smaller, and the line that must be built is shorter. Holding one line is always easier than holding two." "I refuse to carry it out!" Seventh Elder roared, anger in it. "How can you abandon so many regions? Do you know how many people this will kill?!" "At least—at least—" "At least tell everyone, and let everyone withdraw together." Even hearing Seventh Elder's furious cursing, the other gave no reaction, and only went on in that flat telling. "If you have that many Skeleton Horses and enough logistics, you may try to take everyone away." "Or if you can finish the Jiangbei Defense Line, and hold Defense Line No. 7 with no support." "How is that possible!" Seventh Elder roared, more shaken than he had ever been. "Does the Eternal Night Hall not even have the ghost stones left to build the Jiangbei Defense Line?" "None left." When Seventh Elder heard the other speak those three words so flatly, he suddenly came down from his agitation. After a long silence, his eyes rimmed red, he said hoarsely, "Understood." "I will not leave. Defense Line No. 7 will not send away a single person. We will hold Defense Line No. 7 to the death." "Seventh Elder is Seventh Elder only on Defense Line No. 7." "Seventh Elder will die only on Defense Line No. 7. He will not die in any other region." This time the other did not answer at once. Only after a pause did the tone, rarely, carry a thread of feeling. Hoarsely, the voice said, "When Eternal Night ends at last, the ages shall be bright as day." "We respectfully see Seventh Elder off to his death." "We will win." The Mother-and-Child Stone in his palm gradually lost its warmth, and the link was cut. Seventh Elder stood alone on the city wall. His eyes full of despair and unwillingness, he looked toward the tents at the foot of the wall. Rain beat on him, but it did not put out the fire in his heart. It only left him more and more agitated. He did not know how long passed. At last, unable to hold his feelings down, Seventh Elder, his face nearly breaking, roared and kicked wildly at the city wall before him. Clearly. Clearly... Defense Line No. 7 had already held through this rainy season. The situation had clearly already turned better. If nothing unexpected happened, Defense Line No. 7 would have no real trouble through the next several rainy seasons. They could hold for years, and could even become entirely self-sufficient. But the Eternal Night front had lost two defense lines this rainy season. The Eternal Night Hall no longer had the strength to build the Jiangbei Defense Line, and had decided to abandon this region. This news shattered his illusion completely. All of them would have to die. The Four Lands of Jiangbei, the Guanxi Plain, the Guandong Plain—so many people, and all of them would have to die. He did not resent the Eternal Night Hall. He knew the Eternal Night Hall had truly done all it could. He only felt despair and pain at his own powerlessness. He knew there was nothing wrong with the Eternal Night Hall's decision. The Four Lands of Jiangbei and the Two Lands of Guanxi were a huge island jutting from the Eternal Night Continent, sea on three sides, two nodes shattered, so that two defense lines had to be built. But if this region were given up. One only had to go east all the way across the Guanxi Plain. At Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon—the crossing between the Eternal Night Continent and their side, that stretch along the Eternal Night Continent's coast—one defense line would be enough, and only one line would need to be held. With resources short. Giving up a region was inevitable. He could understand it completely. But it was precisely this understanding, together with his unwillingness and his helplessness, that made him suffer so. The joy of having held through the rainy season vanished in an instant. In two years, Jiangbei would fall, and Defense Line No. 7 would be the first to fall. And at the same time. Everyone in the region west of Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon would die. He rather hated those powers of the Guanxi Plain. When Defense Line No. 7 had begged for aid, they had looked on as if they saw nothing. But if he truly had to watch these people die before his eyes, he found he could not quite do it. "That gentleman. Right, right—that gentleman...!" Coming to himself all at once, Seventh Elder was like a drowning man clutching a straw. A thread of hope flickered in his eyes as he began quickly searching his robes for a voice transmission talisman. But soon. He froze where he stood. That gentleman had not left him a voice transmission talisman. Most important of all, even if he did make contact, what then? Even if the other side was a power handed down from ancient times, what of it? How could one power possibly afford to build a defense line? Even if he pleaded again. And the other side was willing. They would have the will, and not the strength. Seventh Elder, red veins webbed across his eyes, stood blankly where he was and looked toward the tents at the foot of the wall. Just then, a member of Defense Line No. 7, passing beside him, could not hold his feelings back. Pressing his voice as low as he could, he said, "Seventh Elder, we held!" The voice was kept very low, but the excitement in it nearly spilled over. Seventh Elder was briefly stunned. Only at the last did he force out a rather strained smile. "Yes." "We held." Darkness heavy as ink surged in from the edge of the sky. Eternal Night descended. This was the last night of the rainy season. Every member of Defense Line No. 7 was excited. They surged onto the top of the wall, ready to hold this final night. At the last moment, they could not slacken. Each of them roared toward the countless ghost tides rushing out of the sea beyond the line, as if taunting them, or as if celebrating. Never before had such a scene appeared on the deathly still Defense Line No. 7. Every face brimmed with a hope and an excitement never seen before. In rainy seasons past they had held as well, but many people had died. Under those circumstances, even after the rainy season passed, friends dying at their side would shroud all of Defense Line No. 7 in grief, deathly and still. This time was different. This time there were almost no casualties. While every member of Defense Line No. 7 was worked up. Only Seventh Elder stood blankly where he was. He raised his head toward the endless darkness overhead, and toward the pouring rain that blotted out the sky, and felt a suffocating despair drown him whole. He even felt his breathing grow faintly difficult. The next moment. Blackness flooded his sight, and he actually fainted where he stood. The next day. Day broke, the rain stopped, and the sky was clear for ten thousand li. The heavy rain that had lasted thirty days stopped in an instant the moment day broke. Only a hint of rain left in the air proved that a storm had passed the night before. Chen Fan, a cashmere overcoat draped over him, walked up onto the city wall of Cave No. 1. He looked outside, lazily stretched long and slow, and only then smiled at Shao Qiu behind him. "Let's go. Come with me to Defense Line No. 7." "Over the rainy season, Defense Line No. 7 ought to have piled up quite a few ghost-creature corpses. This first shipment, we still have to go ourselves." "Wang Kui, count out a batch of ghost stones from the warehouse and load them onto the high-speed rail." The rainy season was over. He glanced at the calendar hanging on the city wall. Eternal Night Calendar, year 381, the beginning of the year. Another new year. Only two years remained until the seabed ghost tide came ashore. "Let's go." The weather was turning cold. Chen Fan, the cashmere overcoat draped over him, sat on Fan Domain's high-speed rail and went south along the tracks through Jiangnan, bound for Defense Line No. 7. He looked at the view beyond the window. Humming a nameless little tune. His mood was fairly good. The Prairie Fire Project on the New Continent was proceeding in good order. From Defense Line No. 7 he could also take in a large batch of ghost stones. Fan Domain was growing, steady and quick. Everything was getting better. Whenever they passed a stretch where ghost creatures had damaged the copper pipes, Chen Fan got down from the train and repaired them. But this only made him more determined to find, as soon as he could, some way to keep the copper pipes safe. And so. They went, and they stopped. The high-speed rail was much slower. Even so, they reached Defense Line No. 7 in the afternoon. Chen Fan stepped down from the train, looked at the rather lively line, watched it carefully for a moment, and smiled. Noisy as it was, excitement shone on every face. Clearly. Defense Line No. 7 had not only held. The casualties ought to have been very small as well. And those ghost-creature corpses, piled into a hill. All of them were his. He could exchange them for quite a few things in the Sacrificial Tower. Soon. Seventh Elder came out of the noisy crowd with several subordinates and walked up to him. "Seventh Elder." Chen Fan swept a glance around and said, casual and smiling, "The rainy season is over. I've come to collect the goods. Looks like Defense Line No. 7 held up pretty well this rainy season?" "I..." Seventh Elder's face was faintly deathly pale, his eyes bloodshot, his condition extremely poor. He was already a man in his seventies or eighties. Seeing him like this, one could not help fearing he might drop dead at any moment. "What's the matter with you?" Chen Fan's brow creased slightly. "Did you catch a chill in the rainy season?" Seventh Elder's condition was so poor that he looked a little like a human-mimic ghost. Put him in Fan City, and he would be marked for close inspection. "I..." Seventh Elder drew a deep breath, waved for the people with him to disperse, and only then stood alone before Chen Fan. Despair and unwillingness mingled in his voice, and it trembled slightly as he said, "Gentleman, every member of Defense Line No. 7, high and low, is deeply grateful for your support." "But..." "The Eternal Night Hall has abandoned Defense Line No. 7. The Eternal Night Hall has built a new defense line at Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. In two years, countless ghost tides will come ashore from the Jiangbei seabed." "The Eternal Night Hall has no strength to build a new defense line in Jiangbei." "Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon lies at the easternmost edge of the Guanxi Plain. That is the true coastline of the Eternal Night Continent. Our Four Lands of Jiangbei, together with the Two Lands of Guanxi, are only a large island jutting from the Eternal Night Continent." "I am telling you this." "Gentleman, please leave as soon as you can. I will not go. I cannot watch so many people die like this for nothing. I want to guard them on this last stretch of the road." After Seventh Elder finished, his condition suddenly improved a good deal. A thread of resolve flashed through his eyes. "Gentleman." "These past days, I have truly been grateful for your support." Chen Fan's brow creased slightly. He understood. The Eternal Night Hall did not intend to come to Jiangbei to build a defense line anymore. They did not even have the ghost stones left to build one Jiangbei Defense Line? "Has the Eternal Night Hall's front already reached a crisis like this?" "Yes. The Eternal Night front lost two defense lines. Quite a few people died." "Let me look." Chen Fan took a ghost-hide map from his robes and looked. At the easternmost edge of the Guanxi Plain was a stretch of unbroken mountains, and in the mountains a large gap. That gap was Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. After a while. He had more or less made out the situation. He looked at Seventh Elder, a little moved, and said, "It's nothing. Don't panic." "Jiangbei has a defense line." "A Jiangbei Defense Line one hundred and seventy kilometers long now sits safe and steady in Jiangbei. Defense Line No. 7 will not fall. The Jiangbei Defense Line will not fall either." "All of us can live on." Seventh Elder froze where he stood. A trace of incomprehension flashed through his eyes. How could Jiangbei possibly have a defense line? In the past, Jiangbei had relied entirely on the aura that person left behind to cow the ghost creatures beneath the sea. Where would a defense line have come from? The Eternal Night Hall would not go so far as to lie to him. What's more, the front had already lost two lines. The Eternal Night Hall truly did not have the resources to build a new defense line. So where had this defense line come from? But in the next moment. It was as if a bolt of lightning slashed through his mind. He suddenly thought of something. His lips trembled, and he looked at the man before him in something close to disbelief. Could it be—