Mind If I Steal a Little Electricity?

After seeing Seventh Elder off, Chen Fan walked alone up onto the city wall of the Jiangbei Defense Line. Standing on the wall, he gazed out toward the sea. The briny reek the sea wind threw into his face cleared his head considerably. The temperature was falling. The rainy season had already passed, and a new year had come. After a pause, he stirred his will. A copper pipe formed of white lines abruptly appeared, and in the instant it solidified it dropped toward the ground. Quick of hand and eye, he caught it and held it high in the air. He converted it into the illusory state. The copper pipe, now illusory, hung steadily in midair. Chen Fan thought it over and passed his hand back and forth through the copper pipe in its illusory state. It was as if they were not of the same dimension. He could not touch it at all. In this state the copper pipe had not the slightest capacity to bear a load. You could say that no attack could harm this copper pipe. The illusory state could be called the highest realm of defense. But. There was one building that could interact with this copper pipe: the max-level hanging basket. A hanging basket could be suspended against the surface of any building. Even if the copper pipe was in the illusory state, so long as it was a building, the two could interact. And so a plan faintly took shape in his mind. One shichen later. Fan Domain's port. Dozens of members of Fan Domain's War Pavilion, hearing the summons, hurried to the port. When they arrived, what met their eyes was an enormous Heaven-Reaching Pillar, set all alone upon the wasteland. A full several hundred meters tall. Even a dozen people with their arms spread wide could not have encircled it. It had not been set with the two hundred-odd Heaven-Reaching Pillars beside it. Aside from that. There were also eight illusory copper pipes, parallel and floating in midair. Eight high-speed rail trains had been set on the illusory copper pipes. At a glance, they were like a platform in the sky. "Domain Lord!" Zhou Mo, who had led the party here, jogged all the way up to Chen Fan. "Mm." Chen Fan gave a slight nod and pointed at the grade-one Heaven-Reaching Pillar he had just forged. "Take the War Pavilion members and push this Heaven-Reaching Pillar over. Best if it can land precisely on that platform." He wanted to try, and see whether he could send a Heaven-Reaching Pillar to the Thunderstorm Sea. The Thunderstorm Sea was such an enormous resource, and he could not extract it. It really pained him a little too much. If this plan succeeded, he would have a preliminary qualification to support the Eternal Night front line. And if Defense Line No. 7 suddenly met with crisis, he could support it at the first moment, and not let Defense Line No. 7 fall. He did not know, in any concrete way, how powerful a max-level or grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar was. But he did not think it would be stronger than so many God-Slaying Cannons on the Jiangbei Defense Line firing all at once. The main advantage lay in strategy: a means of rapidly supporting a fairly distant region. This thing's speed flying through the air was much faster than a high-speed rail. "No problem!" Zhou Mo was extremely confident. At once he looked toward the dozens of War Pavilion members he had brought and strode toward the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. Fully thirty or forty of them, all Martial Kings, and every last one a Martial King of full body tempering! This was not even all of Fan Domain's Martial Kings. There were more Martial Kings who were not near Fan Domain. After all, members of the War Pavilion did not engage in production on ordinary days. They spent basically most of their time cultivating, so their cultivation advanced far faster than that of other Fan Domain members. With Fan Domain's Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion besides, becoming a Martial King was not so rare a thing. Soon. Dozens of Martial Kings stood around the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. Amid roars they began to heave together. Spiritual energy poured out, and the veins at their arms and necks suddenly bulged. Dozens of Martial Kings exerting their full strength at once—the power was easy to imagine. The Heaven-Reaching Pillar began to tremble faintly. It had been shaken. Dozens of breaths later, the Heaven-Reaching Pillar sat perfectly steady where it was, while those dozens of Martial Kings sat on the ground panting, covered in sweat. "Useless." Chen Fan let out a light sigh. These Martial Kings were too useless. It seemed he would have to rein in the ghost stones allocated to the War Pavilion. He felt they had all been wasted. "Domain Lord." Zhou Mo jogged all the way up to Chen Fan, panting, and said in shame, "This Heaven-Reaching Pillar is a bit too heavy. If... if you let me ride a flying boat, keep level with the pillar, and push from the top, I should be able to move it." "Forget it." Chen Fan waved a hand. The next moment— Several God-Slaying Cannons on the Jiangbei Defense Line slowly turned. Their muzzles aimed at that enormous Heaven-Reaching Pillar. White patterns lit up in an instant, and the cannons fired on the pillar together. "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Scarlet orbs of energy smashed heavily into the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. Countless fragments sprayed at once from the pillar's surface. But under the powerful shock, the Heaven-Reaching Pillar also began to tilt slowly. Once it passed a certain angle, it crashed heavily toward the ground. A great cloud of dust rose. When the dust cleared. Chen Fan walked up to the Heaven-Reaching Pillar and looked at it lying across the wasteland. The panel showed that this pillar had been destroyed and could no longer store energy. The hanging basket on the aerial platform had been crushed in an instant, not a scrap of it left. The Heaven-Reaching Pillar had passed through the copper pipes in their illusory state and smashed heavily into the ground. Chen Fan's brow furrowed slightly as he thought. As things stood, wanting to transport a Heaven-Reaching Pillar to the Thunderstorm Sea was rather unrealistic. The hanging basket's load-bearing capacity was too weak, and yet it was the only building that could interact with a copper pipe in the illusory state. This thing was a bit too heavy. This road would not work. A while later. He strode toward the entrance of the undersea tunnel at the port. He meant to make a trip to the New Continent and see that Thunderstorm Sea for himself. Since he could not transport a Heaven-Reaching Pillar to the Thunderstorm Sea, he might as well go see whether he could try to draw the Thunderstorm Sea's lightning to Fan Domain. Several shichen later. Chen Fan arrived on the New Continent. He had just stepped off the platform when he saw Wang Mazi waiting anxiously at the platform exit, his face full of worry. Wang Mazi strode forward at once to meet him. "Domain Lord, I heard from Quehou that you want to take a close look at the Thunderstorm Sea." "If there's anything to be done, let us do it." "The Thunderstorm Sea is too dangerous. If you're swept in, it's almost certain death. I've come out of the Thunderstorm Sea alive twice. I'm sure I can come back alive a third time." "No need." Chen Fan walked around Wang Mazi and strode on, saying quietly, "You come with me. We won't get too close to the Thunderstorm Sea. We'll look from a relatively safe place." They boarded sea ships. And put to sea. Three sea ships left the New Continent's port and set out in grand array toward the Thunderstorm Sea! Some time later. Chen Fan stood on the deck of a sea ship and looked at the Thunderstorm Sea before him from close range, roughly several hundred meters off. Here the waves were already enormous, and the hull was rocking violently. He looked at the scene before him and was silent, saying nothing. Only by witnessing the Thunderstorm Sea with his own eyes, from close by, could one know what an impossible thing it had been for Wang Mazi to take members of the Commerce Pavilion into the Thunderstorm Sea and back again. That had been a miracle. A thick layer of black cloud covered the sky over the Thunderstorm Sea. Countless bolts of lightning kept flashing through the black cloud and striking the sea, and in the heaving water one could faintly see endless ghost creatures trapped in this region, wailing in pain. A scene like hell. "Have any of you tried to fly over the Thunderstorm Sea? From the air?" Chen Fan raised his head toward the sky above the Thunderstorm Sea. "We tried." Wang Mazi shook his head. "It simply won't work. The black cloud over the Thunderstorm Sea is extremely thick. We tried to cross that layer of black cloud, but as we drew near, the speed at which the flying boat consumed ghost stones suddenly began to surge. In a few breaths it consumed tens of thousands of ghost stones." "Luckily we were carrying a great many ghost stones. Otherwise we might have used them up then and there and fallen into the Thunderstorm Sea." "But even if one carried still more ghost stones, one still might not get through. The closer you get to the Thunderstorm Sea, the faster the ghost stones are consumed. And there is an extremely strong pull, coming up from the seabed." Chen Fan was not particularly surprised to hear this answer. After all, some ghost creatures could fly. If one could cross the Thunderstorm Sea merely by being able to fly, then the Thunderstorm Sea would not be so horrifying. At a glance. The Thunderstorm Sea had no visible end at all. Like a cage, it enclosed this Eternal Night Continent. Like a protective umbrella, it also sheltered the Eternal Night Continent from invasion by ghost creatures. He looked back at the sea island nearest him. He could clearly see a Heaven-Reaching Pillar several hundred meters tall, set steadily at the edge of that island. This was one he had forged just now, when they passed the island. Today he was going to run an experiment. He would try to see whether he could conduct the Thunderstorm Sea's electricity out, and lead it into that Heaven-Reaching Pillar. The first step. Test which materials could withstand the lightning inside the Thunderstorm Sea. The lightning here and the lightning of an ordinary rainy season looked about the same on the outside, but they were clearly not the same thing. The lightning here was more violent, and extremely frequent. And after the sea ship edged closer, bit by bit, testing its way. He faintly saw a bolt of lightning strike straight down on a ghost creature's head. That ghost creature only let out a roar of pain. There was not a single wound on its body. Once the distance was about close enough, and he was sure they would not be swept in. Chen Fan took a pile of materials from his robes and handed them to the War Pavilion member beside him who had come along, a man at the Martial King realm. First. "Ghost stone." This War Pavilion member drew a ghost stone from his robes and, with all his strength, hurled it straight toward the Thunderstorm Sea. The moment it entered the Thunderstorm Sea, before it had even fallen, a bolt of lightning smashed down onto the ghost stone, and the stone shattered at once. "All right." Chen Fan curled his lip. He had been thinking the ghost stone might work. After all, the ghost stones in the heads of so many ghost creatures looked perfectly intact. A copper pipe. The copper pipe that was thrown was again shattered by a bolt of lightning. Iron pipe, Fan Domain token, hanging basket—one possible conductor after another was hurled with force into the Thunderstorm Sea by the War Pavilion member of Martial King realm at his side. Without exception, every one of them was blasted to pieces by lightning. And there seemed to be some mechanism inside this Thunderstorm Sea. The moment something new entered. It drew lightning. "Mazi." Chen Fan turned his head toward Wang Mazi with an odd look. "How exactly did you get through the Thunderstorm Sea back then? The lightning didn't strike you?" "It didn't." Wang Mazi shook his head, equally puzzled, and said hesitantly, "Maybe because I've never made a vow in my life?" "You did. In the first rainy season, you made quite a few vows." "Uh... then maybe it's that I've never broken a vow?" "Forget it." Chen Fan stood on the deck, his body rocking with the sea ship on the water. After thinking for a while he shook his head. It seemed that neither drawing the lightning to Fan Domain nor transporting a Heaven-Reaching Pillar to the Thunderstorm Sea was realistic. Leaving everything else aside, so far he had no material that could withstand the baptism of lightning inside the Thunderstorm Sea. He would go to the New Continent first and see how the Prairie Fire Project was coming along. Just then— "Domain Lord." The War Pavilion member beside him drew a great saber from his robes and probed, "Want to try this of mine?" "Oh?" Chen Fan's brows lifted slightly. He looked at the great saber in the War Pavilion member's hand, forged entirely of earth gold. Originally, only members of the Shadow Pavilion had possessed daggers made entirely of earth gold. But ever since they had discovered a great expanse of earth gold on the New Continent, earth gold had gradually come to be used without the least restraint in Fan Domain. Not only did the hundred thousand Fan Domain affiliate members on the New Continent all use hoes made of earth gold; even the members of the War Pavilion had traded up to far grander arms. "I did forget about this. Try it." "Yes!" The War Pavilion member drew a deep breath and hurled the earth-gold great saber heavily into the Thunderstorm Sea. In the instant it entered, a bolt of lightning shot from the black cloud and smashed down onto the saber. But. This time something different happened. After the lightning hit it, the great saber instantly blazed with brilliant light all over its body, but it did not shatter. And right after that, a shocking sight occurred. The Thunderstorm Sea seemed to have been enraged. Hundreds of lightning bolts, amid flashes and thunder like the end of the world, shot from the black cloud and smashed down onto that great saber. So terrifying an attack still did not do the saber the slightest harm. Only when the saber fell from the air into the sea did the lightning cease to appear. Chen Fan looked at the scene before him and went blank for a moment. He seemed to have found a material that could withstand the lightning attacks inside the Thunderstorm Sea. Earth gold. Now it remained to be seen whether earth gold could transmit energy. He drew a voice transmission talisman from his robes and murmured. "Zhao Shengping, get up. There's work to do." "Go find Wang Kui and get a batch of earth gold. Weave me a rope, long... about seven kilometers. The faster the better. Ship it to the New Continent by high-speed rail." Soon, a night had passed. When dawn came the next day, Chen Fan received the rope sent from Fan Domain, seven kilometers long, woven entirely of earth gold. Earth gold was highly malleable. By all rights. Earth gold's defensive strength was not especially great. After all, earth gold was not a material famous for defense. He thought it might be because earth gold just happened, happened to be immune to... the lightning inside the Thunderstorm Sea. Or perhaps it absorbed it? Chen Fan once again took Wang Mazi and the others aboard a sea ship and came to the island where they had forged a Heaven-Reaching Pillar yesterday. This time the point was the experiment. He would not yet consider how to lay it out. He fastened one end of the rope to the Heaven-Reaching Pillar, then drew the other end closer to the Thunderstorm Sea. As the sea ship sailed farther out, the rope made of earth gold slowly sank to the seabed. When they drew near the Thunderstorm Sea. The War Pavilion member stuck with the hard labor tied a stone to the end of the rope, drew a deep breath, and hurled it with force toward the Thunderstorm Sea. The instant the other end of the rope entered the Thunderstorm Sea. Lightning struck on schedule. Almost in that same instant. Chen Fan and the others had already steered the sea ship quickly out of the earth-gold rope's range. The rope woven of earth gold blazed all over with blinding light. And at the same time. Chen Fan saw it. Chen Fan saw the top of the Heaven-Reaching Pillar set on the island begin to give off white light as well. That was. The sign that it was storing energy. But it scattered again very quickly. Once the section of rope thrown into the Thunderstorm Sea sank into the sea, the lightning no longer struck. But. Chen Fan smiled. He smiled very happily. He seemed already to see it: Fan Domain Cruise Missiles filling the sky, flying wildly at random over the Eternal Night Continent. The experiment was done. It could charge. Chen Fan returned to that island, looked at the charging progress on the Heaven-Reaching Pillar's panel, which had risen slightly, and glanced at the War Pavilion member beside him who was busy hauling the earth-gold rope that had sunk into the sea quickly back onto land. He drew out a voice transmission talisman. "Quehou, hear my command. Find Weiwei. Tell him this is the first task arranged for Fan Domain's Beast Pavilion. Fan Domain needs a great deal of earth gold. Have him take those monkeys to that deep pit at the greatest speed and begin mining earth gold on a large scale." "All the earth gold shipped in is to be sent to Fan Domain." "Zhao Shengping, hear my order. Take that group of artifact refiners of yours and get ready to work. I need an extremely long earth-gold rope, over a thousand kilometers long." "The New Continent will provide you with supplies." Only after the orders had gone out one by one did Chen Fan put away the voice transmission talisman. He looked at the dark mass of the Thunderstorm Sea not far off and smiled. Mind if I steal a little electricity? You've got an awful lot of it by the look of you, more than you can use. Might as well spare him a share. He needs it rather badly. He was going to build a lifeline between the Thunderstorm Sea and Fan Domain. A lifeline that could transmit rainy-season lightning. A lifeline that could rapidly store energy for Fan Domain's Heaven-Reaching Pillars. And this lifeline would not run through the undersea tunnel. It would run through the air. He would forge an extremely long illusory copper pipe in the air, then forge a max-level hanging basket along the copper pipe to serve as the base layer, then lay this rope woven of earth gold over that base. The lifeline could then be complete. And the rope that entered the Thunderstorm Sea from the air would only hang suspended in the air. It would not fall into the sea. The trial was done. Time to carry it out. Fan Domain's ability to get things done had always been terrifying compared with other powers. Fan Domain had no elders. Although it had pavilion masters, the pavilion masters basically did not interfere in core decisions. Every decision concerning Fan Domain was personally ordered by Chen Fan. Every time Chen Fan gave an order. Every member of Fan Domain, high and low, would set about rushing and laboring for that plan. There was no need to ask anyone's opinion, and there was no one's interference. Once the orders went down, one after another, Fan Domain began to turn. Although Zhao Shengping did not know what the Domain Lord meant to do either, that was not his concern. His task was to forge this immeasurably long rope. And at the same time. Chen Fan had already returned to Fan Domain. He rode a flying boat through the air and began laying illusory copper pipes several hundred meters above the ground. The hanging basket was the only building that could interact with an illusory copper pipe. Aside from that, even a copper pipe that had not been made illusory would not do. A copper pipe not yet illusory, up in the air, would fall into the sea for lack of a point of support, even if it was connected to an illusory copper pipe. So. The forging had to be a little slower. He needed first to create the copper pipe, hold it in his hand, align it with the illusory copper pipe already forged ahead, and only then make it illusory. In this way he could forge, in the air, a lifeline made entirely of illusory copper pipes. The speed would certainly be much slower than laying copper pipes across the wasteland. But it was still faster than digging an undersea tunnel. "One. Two. Three..." Chen Fan did not feel the least bit tired. Rather, tireless and taking pleasure in it, he rode the flying boat and forged one illusory copper pipe after another in the air. All of these were Fan Domain's lifeline. And a lifeline that could not be destroyed. Two months passed just like that. The time came. Eternal Night Calendar, the three hundred and eighty-first year, the seventh day of the third month. In these two months, essentially all of Fan Domain's members and resources had been doing three things. Mining the New Continent, laying the Prairie Fire Project, and forging the lifeline. Three lines at once. Fortunately, the challenges Fan Domain had faced these past few years had been no small ones, and there was already a good deal of experience in deploying people. Otherwise even settling into the work would have taken a long time. And on this day. The day the lifeline was finally laid at last had come. Chen Fan stood at the edge of the flying boat's deck, looking at the Thunderstorm Sea not far before him, and at the endless, semi-transparent illusory copper pipe floating in the air behind him. A sense of pride rose of itself. This was the result of what he had busied himself with these two months. Just then— An extremely long high-speed rail came racing from the far end of the illusory copper pipe, like a high-speed rail driving down from the Ninth Heaven, traveling several hundred meters above the sea. The high-speed rail soon stopped at the end of the illusory copper pipe. And at the very front of the high-speed rail was a coil of earth-gold rope wound together. This high-speed rail was extremely long. It covered the entire illusory copper pipe, and had consumed quite a few of his ghost stones. It served as the foundation. The War Pavilion member beside him climbed from the flying boat onto the high-speed rail, took up that coil of rope, and hurled it with force from the air toward the Thunderstorm Sea. Soon. The rope entered the Thunderstorm Sea and sank completely to the seabed. And at the same time, that War Pavilion member jumped onto the flying boat. They had tested it these past days. Earth gold's conduction was indeed quite good. And once it was in a conducting state, that rope woven of earth gold could not be touched by hand. It would kill a man. Chen Fan drew a voice transmission talisman from his robes, looked at the length of earth-gold rope that had sunk completely into the sea, and contacted Fan Domain. "It's too long. Pull it back a little." Not long after the words fell. The rope laid over the foundation began to move slowly backward. "A little more." "Pull. Pull. Keep going!" "Good. Stop!" "Everything is perfect." Chen Fan stood on the flying boat's deck, looking at that length of earth-gold rope drifting in midair over the Thunderstorm Sea, constantly bombarded by lightning, then looking at the earth-gold rope on the illusory copper pipe more than a thousand kilometers long, which was now blazing with blinding white light. He murmured, his expression dazed. He was thinking of one thing. He did not know how long the Thunderstorm Sea had existed, but he very much wanted to know whether he was the first person to steal electricity from the Thunderstorm Sea. "Return!" Chen Fan broke into a smile. The flying boat turned quickly and flew toward the Eternal Night Continent. The Eternal Night Continent. The temperature had not yet risen. It had even snowed. All of Jiangbei was covered by a thin layer of snow. At a glance, it was as if the world had sunk into white. Chen Fan had already returned to the Eternal Night Continent. Although he had not had a proper rest in two months. At this moment he had not the slightest thought of resting. Instead he landed quickly at the port. After landing at the port, one could clearly see an earth-gold rope, blazing all over with piercing silver-white light, falling from the air to the ground, like the Milky Way descending from the Ninth Heaven. This earth-gold rope, dropping from the illusory copper-pipe track in the air to the ground, was not drifting with the wind. Chen Fan had specially made a vertical illusory copper-pipe track to fix the rope. The rope extended all the way to the ground. And on the ground, hundreds of earth-gold ropes scattered in every direction, leading toward the Heaven-Reaching Pillars one by one. At this moment. Those hundreds of earth-gold ropes laid on the ground were all in a dim state, and Wang Kui, Zhao Shengping, and the others had also brought their people to gather nearby. The circuit had not yet been formally connected. Those hundreds of earth-gold ropes linked to the Heaven-Reaching Pillars ultimately converged on one high-speed rail carriage, and the end of the earth-gold rope drawn from the Thunderstorm Sea was likewise a high-speed rail carriage on the ground. Chen Fan stirred his will. The two high-speed rail carriages, not far apart, joined flush in an instant. The next moment! Those hundreds of earth-gold ropes lit up together, shedding their former dimness. A great quantity of lightning energy surged along the earth-gold ropes toward the Heaven-Reaching Pillars. Hundreds of Heaven-Reaching Pillars, in weather that was not a thunderstorm, flickered with white light one after another and began to charge. Looking at the scene before him, Chen Fan smiled very happily. Wang Kui, Zhao Shengping, and the other Fan Domain members around them also roared with excitement. If at the start they had not known what the Domain Lord meant to do, once the work was half done they had gradually guessed the Domain Lord's plan. Now those hundreds of Heaven-Reaching Pillars entering a charging state meant the Domain Lord's plan had succeeded! Fan Domain's foundation had grown stronger once more! It was already near dusk. Amid the excited roars of the Fan Domain members, Chen Fan smiled very happily as well, looking at the two carriages docked together beside him. This was a switch he had made. When these two carriages disconnected, those hundreds of earth-gold ropes at the end would break their conduction. That way it would be convenient to connect more earth-gold ropes. In the end he still had not transported the Heaven-Reaching Pillars to the Thunderstorm Sea. But he had transported the Thunderstorm Sea to Fan Domain. He walked toward that group of Heaven-Reaching Pillars and began checking the panels. He looked for a full half a shichen. After half a shichen, he had his conclusion. The Thunderstorm Sea's lightning was indeed out of the ordinary. The charging speed was much faster than before. A max-level Heaven-Reaching Pillar that had originally needed a full three years under the baptism of lightning before it finished charging now... needed only one year. And he had a vague feeling the power might be greater. After all, the lightning in the Thunderstorm Sea clearly looked far more powerful than ordinary lightning. A grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar had originally needed ninety days to charge. Now it needed only thirty days. Thirty days, and a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar could be filled. A strategic weapon, supplied by this lifeline, was fast becoming an everyday weapon. And he could finally see what the power of a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar was like. "A pity." Chen Fan was a little regretful. The Prairie Fire Project on the New Continent had consumed a great reserve of Fan Domain's ghost stones. For the moment there were not enough to forge more Heaven-Reaching Pillars for energy storage. He had to wait until the Prairie Fire Project was finished first. But. It would not be long. He expected that before this year's rainy season, the Prairie Fire Project on the New Continent could be completely laid. He had gone to the New Continent to inspect it. The progress was very good. Especially Quehou. The progress was fast, fast enough to surprise even him. Quehou had already improved enough to take charge of matters on his own. That night. Fan Domain held a victory banquet. But the guest of honor, Chen Fan, had excused himself. Worn out from two months straight, he now lay on the bed spread-eagled, sleeping sweet and sound. A faint smile still lingered at the corners of his mouth. Tonight he dreamed again. He dreamed that Fan Domain led the Eternal Night Continent in a counterattack. Thousands of Heaven-Reaching Pillars rose from Fan Domain and, amid roars, shot toward the Eternal Night front line. Every Heaven-Reaching Pillar that burst open could instantly clear a great swath of ghost tide. This sleep was indeed a sweet one. After waking, Chen Fan washed up in a hurry and went straight to the port. He looked at those two hundred-odd Heaven-Reaching Pillars giving off white light, his eyes full of smiles. He had been tired for months. He ought to give himself a proper tour. Perhaps it was a quirk of his. He especially liked, after finishing a great project, to do nothing at all for the next few days, and simply tour that project of his. Just like the Jiangbei Defense Line. After it was finished, he had strolled the Jiangbei Defense Line for days. The hundreds of earth-gold ropes extending to the Heaven-Reaching Pillars were buried underground. Otherwise it would have been a bit too dangerous. He checked, one by one, the first batch of grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillars he had laid out. This batch of grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillars had already stored more than half their energy. In roughly nine more days, the storing would be done. He had already started the countdown. Nine days later. It would be the first test detonation of Fan Domain's grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillars. Time passed in a flash. Nine days went by. Eternal Night Calendar, the three hundred and eighty-first year, the seventeenth day of the third month. On this day. Defense Line No. 7 received guests. Chen Fan brought Wang Kui, Zhao Shengping, Quehou, Wang Mazi, and the other core members of Fan Domain. They set aside all the work in their hands for the moment and arrived at Defense Line No. 7. Seventh Elder, who had long since received word, was already waiting on the platform. Only, after seeing this scene. He was still a little at a loss. "Domain Lord Chen." Seventh Elder walked up to Chen Fan, looked at that crowd of Fan Domain's core members, and probed hesitantly, "This is..." This was the whole nest turning out! "It's nothing." Chen Fan looked at Seventh Elder with a merry laugh. "Came to give Defense Line No. 7 a little support." "Support?" For a moment Seventh Elder could not make head or tail of it. This was not the rainy season. There was only the ordinary ghost tide every night. How could Defense Line No. 7 possibly fail to hold? "Mm." Chen Fan sighed, a little helpless. "Fan Domain has rolled out something new. I've named it the Fan Domain Cruise Missile. Find a place to test its power." "Fan Domain has too few ghost creatures." "We'll try it here at your Defense Line No. 7." "Got it!" This time Seventh Elder understood. On the city wall of Defense Line No. 7. Eternal Night descended. Darkness like ink instantly covered the whole Guandong Plain. At the same time the roars of endless ghost creatures rose, amid the clamor of cannon fire. The ghost tide made its daily attack on Defense Line No. 7. Defense Line No. 7 was long accustomed to this. Chen Fan led Wang Kui and the others up onto the wall of Defense Line No. 7, craned his head out, and looked at the sky-blotting ghost tide beyond the line. After thinking a moment, he forged a grade-ten ghost fire on the wall. The original range of sight expanded in an instant. The visible range grew considerably all at once. A grade-ten ghost fire's range was no small thing. "Not bad." Chen Fan nodded in satisfaction. This time he could see more clearly. Only then did he look at the Missile Launch panel before him. It was a bird's-eye map. Two fingers kept spreading apart. After the map enlarged rapidly, he saw Defense Line No. 7, and the green dot that represented himself. Now. Wherever his finger pointed, he could strike. For some reason, he suddenly felt an urge to point at that green dot. He did not know what would happen. But he quickly cast this rather absurd idea to the back of his mind. His finger pointed to a spot not far ahead of the green dot. Right after. Far away, beside Fan Domain's port, a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar that stood on the ground, already fully charged, tore itself from the earth amid an enormous rumble and slowly rose into the sky. And it kept breaking apart. The outer shell rapidly detached. When it had risen high, the original heavy shell several hundred meters tall was gone. Only a relatively slender pillar a dozen meters tall remained, its tail still spewing deathly white lightning. After rising to a certain height. It changed direction. Above the clouds, it shot toward the Guandong Plain at extreme speed! "One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths." The moment he tapped, Chen Fan began counting silently in his heart. He needed to judge this Heaven-Reaching Pillar's exact speed. "Eleven breaths. Twelve breaths." "Twenty-one breaths." When his silent count reached twenty-one breaths, he heard it. He heard a piercing sonic boom suddenly come from behind him, and the sound closed in at extreme speed. Then a Heaven-Reaching Pillar nearly wrapped entirely in deathly white lightning fell from the sky. It pierced the darkness and smashed down into the endless ghost tide below. The next moment— Day broke. Ahead of Defense Line No. 7, a blue-white sun nearly a kilometer across bloomed fiercely upon the sea. The blinding glare almost instantly made everything within the ghost fire's range as bright as day. No. Brighter than day. And against that incandescent white, countless scarlet lightning pythons burst apart. Only then did a heaven-shaking boom reach their ears. The unlucky great ghost at the very core, the one that had been hit, was devoured almost instantly, and the ghost tide around it was swiftly swept up by the scarlet lightning pythons. Almost at the same moment, the ghost creatures beyond counting that had been charging Defense Line No. 7 suddenly burst apart together, turning into blossoms of eerie green sparks. A single glance, and it was a magnificent sight. When the explosion gradually ended. A thick layer of charred black ghost-creature residue floated on the sea, and a faint mist was rising. A pungent stench made of every kind of smell drifted toward Chen Fan and the others. The range of the blast. Fully over ten thousand meters. No one could reckon exactly how many ghost creatures had died in this one attack, but the eye could see it plainly. The ghost tide, which had been like locusts, had suddenly... cleared a great swath. Extremely conspicuous. Like the crown of a programmer's head. A glaring bald patch. Seventh Elder, there beside them, froze where he stood. He stared at the empty region outside Defense Line No. 7 that still had not filled back in, both eyes blank as he stood dumbstruck. Only after a long while did he murmur, dazed. "Domain Lord Chen, this is...?" Chen Fan broke into a smile. He too looked at that region cleared in an instant, the corner of his mouth curved, and said softly, "The Fan Domain Cruise Missile. But I've given it a better-sounding name. Heavenly Punishment." "You need only pay a certain number of ghost stones." "And you may apply to Fan Domain for Heavenly Punishment support." This was the first test detonation of a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar. He was very satisfied with the power. Its power was who knew how many times greater than a grade-one Heaven-Reaching Pillar's. And this was only a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar. What if it were grade ten? What if... it were a grade-ten Heaven-Reaching Pillar that possessed a Heavenly Dao blessing? A grade-ten Heaven-Reaching Pillar would have a max-level effect, greatly increasing its power. So a grade-ten Heaven-Reaching Pillar was not merely one grade more powerful than a grade-nine. It also had one more max-level effect. The power of a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar was greater than a God-Slaying Cannon. Most important of all. It could support from a long distance. And it could instantly clear a region. When some point on a defense line was about to fall, one Heaven-Reaching Pillar sent down could buy enough time to repair the line. Zhou Mo and the others who had come with Chen Fan looked at one another, and each saw the excitement and pride in the others' eyes. This was the first formal test detonation of the Fan Domain Cruise Missile. A perfect close. Most important of all... Fan Domain did not have only this one Heaven-Reaching Pillar. Not only did it possess a greater number of them, there were still higher-grade Heaven-Reaching Pillars that had not finished charging. "Let's go." Chen Fan looked at Seventh Elder and smiled. "I still have things to do back home, so I won't stay long. Fan Domain's voice transmission range covers the Four Lands of Jiangbei and the Two Lands of Guanxi. If you need support, just contact me directly through a voice transmission talisman." "Heavenly Punishment of this grade is called grade-six Heavenly Punishment inside our Fan Domain." "With the relationship between the two of us, I'll count the first three grade-six Heavenly Punishments as free." "After three, you'll have to give me some ghost stones. After all, this thing isn't cheap to forge, and it's quite a lot of trouble." He sighed, a little moved. It had taken him a full two months to lay the lifeline. Before that, he had not even had enough of these things for himself. How could he have supported anyone else? Now that there was a lifeline, output had increased quite a bit. He only had to wait for the Prairie Fire Project over there to finish, and then he could stockpile a few more Heaven-Reaching Pillars. "Chen... Domain Lord Chen."