Kind of Interesting.

Night had grown deep. Chen Fan returned to Fan Domain and sat on the city wall of Cave No. 1, gazing up at the darkness overhead, dark as a curtain of sky, faintly lost in a daze. It was already past the third month. Once this year's rainy season had passed, next year the Jiangbei ghost tide ought to make landfall. He had done nothing. He simply sat there in a daze. Life did not need to be too busy. Besides keeping one's head down and working hard, lifting one's head to look at the road was especially important. The stars would point out the way forward, though it had been a long time since he had seen a star. This damned Eternal Night. Not even a star to be seen. A long while later. A night wind swept in. Chen Fan let out a long breath, shook his head, and laughed. He rose, walked down from the wall toward the wooden cabin, and made ready to sleep. From here on, there was nothing left that he needed to worry about. He only needed to wait patiently for the work on the Spark Sets the Prairie Ablaze side to finish. Time slipped away bit by bit, and Fan Domain developed steadily through its passing. Fan Domain had stood in Jiangbei for nearly three years. And in these three years. Much had changed. Setting aside the change in Fan Domain's strength as a whole, many small places were also slowly changing where no one noticed. For example... Da Yu. When Da Yu first met Chen Fan, she had looked about eighteen. Nearly three years had passed. Now she looked about fifteen or sixteen. Younger. And at this moment— Da Yu had her sleeves rolled up, her face earnest, standing in the fields of Sunset City. She waded through the muddy water, setting rice seedlings. She had already resigned as deputy master of the War Pavilion and become deputy master of the Hundred Grains Pavilion. A department that was not exactly idle, but did not carry too much pressure. The colleagues got along in easy harmony, too. There was not much competition among them. "Da Yu." Gongyang Yiyue, following behind her, had likewise rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs. He kept to the next row and matched her rhythm as he planted, muttering all the while, "This pairing of ours is already starting to look a bit like a grandfather and his granddaughter." "On ordinary days, the way people look at me is a little strange." "As if I'd done something utterly wicked." Ever since the last time, when Fan Domain stood up for the Gongyang clan of Jiangnan and went to the Guanxi Plain to wipe out the Hantian Sect, the two of them had basically understood what was in each other's hearts. But they had not laid it out in the open. They kept to a bond that was both close and friendly. If one had to put words to it. One could borrow a rather common line. More than friends, not yet lovers. Perhaps because they were both Nightwatchers, each could always understand the thought buried deepest in the other's heart, and they drew one another in without quite meaning to. It was like a male dung beetle and a female dung beetle suddenly appearing in a swarm of fireflies. These two dung beetles, a different kind entirely, could hardly help clustering together. It was not only the pull of feeling. It was the pull of like toward like. "What's the rush." Da Yu was enjoying the life she had now. Her eyes curved like crescent moons, and a thread of slyness showed in her voice. "In a few more years, the way people look at you really will be strange." "That's all right, then." Gongyang Yiyue smacked his lips. "In a few more years you'll have become a child. That might not seem strange." Da Yu's body stiffened slightly. She straightened, turned her head, and looked at Gongyang Yiyue. Only after a long pause did she say quietly, "Don't you feel miserable? We can't be like normal people." "We have no future." "You can only watch me grow smaller, bit by bit." "What kind of talk is that!" Gongyang Yiyue stroked his beard and glared, whiskers bristling. "I think it's at least better than watching a person grow old bit by bit. And think about it. Haven't all those people missed their other half's childhood?" "I'm different." "I can keep you company through your childhood. When you grow smaller bit by bit, I can look after you." "I think that's happiness." Da Yu paused, then suddenly laughed. "Hearing you put it that way, it really does seem a little easier to accept than growing old bit by bit." "Who says it isn't." Amid their talk and laughter, they started scuffling again. They smeared the muddy water in their hands across each other's cheeks and began chasing one another through the fields. The members of Fan Domain's Hundred Grains Pavilion, busy all around, had long grown used to the sight. These days Gongyang Yiyue was almost like one of their own people of Fan Domain, staying in Sunset City all day long. "Tch." Not far off, A Le, riding a pig and wandering about, saw the scene and sighed quietly. "Maybe I ought to find myself a wife, too." Someone else saw the scene as well. Gongyang Yue. The eldest young lady of the Gongyang clan. These days, in private, the members of Fan Domain had given Gongyang Yue a nickname: Fan Domain's Husband-Watching Stone. Ever since Qi Yue had been sent to the New Continent, he had basically never come back. He had stayed on the New Continent the whole time. And except during the rainy season, Gongyang Yue waited at Fan Domain day after day. But. These days Qi Yue had also made peace with his former self, and had begun to accept Gongyang Yue's feelings. Though they did not see each other, they often kept in touch through voice talismans. So Gongyang Yue was not miserable staying in Fan Domain. She had bought a small residence in Fan City for the purpose, and thrown herself wholeheartedly into making a little home of her own. A smile often brightened her face. The last time Qi Yue was called back for a meeting, he spent the night in that residence. So when Gongyang Yue saw this scene, she was not overly jealous. A thread of a smile simply rose on her cheeks, and she held the sword case in her arms a little tighter. She had just found it for Qi Yue in the market streets of Fan City. She had come to Sunset City to buy a few flowers from Da Yu and plant them in the courtyard. Fan Domain was in a period of steady development now, and there was not much that needed tending. So Wang Kui had finally freed his hands, and had time to go out and walk about. And his first stop. Was Fan Domain Station No. 17. This was a station on Fan Domain's high-speed rail, at the junction of Jiangbei and Jiangxi. After he entered the station, an old man came over on a cane, trembling as he walked. "P-Pavilion Master Wang. Is there some important order?" Wang Kui looked at the old man, whose eyes were full of fear, let out a soft sigh, and a flicker of ruefulness crossed his own gaze. This old man was no one else. He was the former family head of the Qiuhe Wang family of Jiangbei. Before he met the Domain Master. This man had posted him to the Jiangbei Wasteland and made him station master for thirteen years. No promotion. No raise. And the man had a saying he held as perfect truth: if you don't let the one who does the job well do it, are you supposed to let the one who does it poorly? After Fan Domain absorbed the Qiuhe Wang family. The Domain Master granted Wang Kui's request and fixed this once-glorious head of the Wang family permanently in the post of station master. By now the former members of the Qiuhe Wang family, their seniority deepening, had all gradually risen. The one who rose fastest was only a single step from deputy pavilion master. When the Qiuhe Wang family was absorbed by Fan Domain, Fan Domain still had hardly any people. Those who joined Fan Domain then truly had solid seniority. Old enough. The time had been long, they had earned a bit of merit, and the test of time had made them trusted enough. As a matter of course, they rose. Only the family head of the Qiuhe Wang family had been in charge of the station from beginning to end. "Family Head Wang, have these days left you with any resentment?" "I wouldn't dare. I wouldn't dare." The family head shook his head in a hurry. "Fan Domain has given the young people of my Wang family a future. I am already deeply grateful. How would I dare resent it?" Wang Kui looked at the man before him in silence and did not speak. These few years, the family head had aged very fast, as if he had grown much older overnight. Now his eyes were dim with age, and his steps were unsteady. "I have already asked it of the Domain Master. The restriction on you can be lifted. If you are willing, you may move upward. After all, you used to have decent experience in management." "Thank you for the kindness, Pavilion Master Wang, but..." The family head smiled bitterly, helpless. "You can see it, too. This body of mine is old now, truly unfit for any great use. These years I have watched with my own eyes as Fan Domain grew swiftly into the colossus it is today, and the young people of my Wang family are spread through posts all across Fan Domain. I truly share in that honor." "It is already enough." "Now I have only one wish, and that is that Fan Domain may develop even better." Wang Kui truly had not expected the family head to refuse. He had thought the man would be excited. After a pause, he asked again, "Suppose you were taken back more than ten years." "And at that time you already knew what the future held. Knew Fan Domain would rise. Knew I would rise." "Would you still have arranged for me to serve thirteen years as station master on the Jiangbei Wasteland?" The Wang family head answered almost without the slightest hesitation, his words cutting and final. "Why?" "Because back then there were not many choices." A long while later. Wang Kui smiled. The resentment he had kept toward the family head, down in his heart, through all these years, scattered completely. The knot was undone. He stayed no longer. He turned and walked toward the Fan Domain high-speed rail waiting to one side. He was on leave. He was going to ride Fan Domain's high-speed rail, to see Jiangxi, to see Jiangnan, to see the Guanxi Plain. He was going to see for himself the territory Fan Domain had won over these years. Several members of the War Pavilion traveled with him, charged with keeping him safe on the road. "I'm off." Before he left, Wang Kui sat aboard Fan Domain's high-speed rail, smiled, and waved to the family head. "Look after yourself. That body of yours doesn't look too well." Medicine King Valley. By now it was an alchemy power that had all but monopolized the sale of every pill across the Four Lands of Jiangbei, a veritable colossus. Wang Kui's first stop was Medicine King Valley, because he had heard that Medicine King Valley had built a theme park here. He had only just stepped off the high-speed rail. And he heard quite a clamor all around. Children were seldom seen in the Four Lands of Jiangbei. These days the birth rate was not high at all. Once a ghost tide came upon a pregnant woman, she had nowhere to run. A little too slow, and she was nothing but a meal. Nor was anyone willing to raise a child in times like these. But after he reached Medicine King Valley. He could hear the noise of quite a few children. Men who on ordinary days wore icy faces while serving the various powers as station masters, guards, martial instructors, and the like now had smiles opening across those year-round cold cheeks like spring blossoms. Some led their children by the hand. Some set the children on their shoulders. They moved with the crowd through the Medicine King Valley Theme Park. In this age, when ghost tides ran rampant and countless people died of them at every moment, a smile like that was extremely rare. "Kind of interesting." Curious himself, Wang Kui led his attendants off the high-speed rail and looked at the scene before him. He had long known of the matter from the reports the Dark Pavilion sent up. But that had only been intelligence in writing. Seeing it with his own eyes for the first time today, he found it rather novel. All sorts of amusements to do with alchemy. For example. The Immortal Vines. One rode a hanging basket and slid along tracks of glowing vines across the sky over Medicine King Valley, looking down on the fields below: moonlight mushrooms that danced, Seven-Star orchids that spat mist, and ticklish ginseng disguised as ordinary weeds. The end of the ride was the Enlightenment Tea Pavilion. There was spirit tea refined specially by Medicine King Valley. Beside it were sunflowers that burst out laughing when they heard a joke. Every child racked their brains for the joke they thought funniest, and then the Medicine King Valley staff beside them would give the child a gift according to how happy the sunflowers were. Besides that— there was the Mirror House. After taking a special pill and entering this Myriad-Flower Mirror Palace, everything before one's eyes turned upside down. From the laughter that came out of it now and then, one could tell it was great fun. And there were plays. Wang Kui glanced at a high stage not far off, ringed by a crowd. The story was probably this: an outer disciple driven out by his sect fell from a cliff, obtained a secret treasure of alchemy, then astonished an entire assembly of alchemists, and was sought after by countless people, while his original sect regretted the loss of a genius alchemist. Of course. The thing that drew every eye. Was that toad. The exotic beast that had once guarded Medicine King Valley was now the closing act of the theme park. Quite a few people came for no other reason than to touch this Gold-Swallowing Toad up close. "Good heavens." Wang Kui looked at the scene before him and stood there slightly stunned. Seeing a thing with one's own eyes was nothing like learning it from words. The shock was entirely different. Fan Domain had developed extremely fast these years. But. The other powers did not seem to have developed slowly, either. Without his noticing, Fan Domain seemed to have changed many things in the Four Lands of Jiangbei, and set many things on a course very different from before. "Pavilion Master Wang!" Just then— the Valley Master of Medicine King Valley, his face ruddy and bright, came toward Wang Kui in long strides with the Young Valley Master and several elders. "An honored guest at our door. The moment I got word, I hurried over. Has Pavilion Master Wang come with instructions from Domain Master Chen?" "No." Wang Kui smiled and shook his head. "I came out for a stroll on my own. My first stop was your Medicine King Valley. I'd heard the valley has done well these years. Seeing it today, it truly is a new scene." "It's all thanks to Fan Domain." The Valley Master said it with some feeling. "Come. I'll show you around myself." "And over there?" Wang Kui was indeed interested in the theme park before him. His brows lifted slightly as he looked toward the Gold-Swallowing Toad not far off. Quite a few children and adults alike were lining up to try to communicate with the exotic beast. "That? They're testing their own magnetic fields." "Magnetic fields?" "Mm." The Valley Master said it offhand. "An exotic beast's wits are higher than an ordinary beast's. But some people can understand an exotic beast with basically no mistake, while others can hardly communicate with one at all. That is a matter of magnetic fields." "Every exotic beast has its own magnetic field. If yours is close to this beast's, then you can basically tell what it means to say, and the beast will feel closer to you, too." "The most basic condition for subduing an exotic beast is that your magnetic field must first be close to its." Wang Kui nodded, thoughtful. This did settle a doubt he had carried. He finally understood how the Domain Master could tell what Weiwei meant from that abstract body language of Weiwei's. It seemed the Domain Master's magnetic field and Weiwei's were relatively close. He watched a while longer. "They've all failed. Seems there isn't one person whose magnetic field is close to this Gold-Swallowing Toad of your Medicine King Valley." "Not so." The Valley Master said it with some feeling. "The more an exotic beast loves slaughter, the more uncommon its magnetic field. The gentler the beast, the more common the field. Xiao Jin is one of the especially gentle kind. Its field is actually very common." "Quite a few of them just now really were close to Xiao Jin's field." "Only Xiao Jin wasn't willing to bother with them." "Why?" "They didn't buy candy." The Valley Master pointed at a stall to one side. "If they buy candy and go to Xiao Jin, Xiao Jin is delighted. No candy, and even if the fields are close, Xiao Jin won't pay them any mind." "This fellow wasn't like that before." "Back in Medicine King Valley it followed people about like a tagalong. Every time a disciple passed, it would trot over and stick its head out, hoping to be petted. But look at its size. Like a hill. Quite a few disciples got a bad fright. In time, no one walked past it anymore. They all went around." "Xiao Jin was very sad in those days." "Later, when Fan Domain's high-speed rail opened, Xiao Jin found that it seemed very popular, that quite a lot of people actually liked it, and then it grew proud. Anyone who doesn't feed it candy, it ignores." "Before, if someone petted it for no reason at all, it could stay happy for three days." There was a great deal of feeling in the Valley Master's words. "Uh." Wang Kui's expression turned a little odd. "A toad that likes candy?" "Not strange, is it?" "A bit, actually. Shouldn't it like mosquitoes and such?" "It eats those, too. Medicine King Valley has many fields, and quite a few mosquitoes. On ordinary days Xiao Jin eats them all. It used to eat them as meals. Now it eats them as work. Naturally they don't taste as good as they used to. A bit like finishing a task." "How about it... Pavilion Master Wang, will you go pet it, too?" "May I?" "Of course." The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley took Wang Kui up to sit on the Gold-Swallowing Toad's head. Xiao Jin looked sticky all over, but to the touch it was extremely dry. Seated on the head of this hill of a Gold-Swallowing Toad, looking out at the crowd all around, Wang Kui could not help smiling. These years he had stayed in Fan Domain and almost never gone out. This time, with Fan Domain in a steady stretch and not much that needed doing for the moment, he had found a moment to ask the Domain Master for a short holiday and come out for a stroll. The first stop, Medicine King Valley, felt good to him. It really was quite interesting. On the Guanxi Plain, strife that had lasted more than a hundred years had stopped completely. From beginning to end, Fan Domain had never once said, stop fighting. But. Even though Fan Domain had not said a word, once Fan Domain rose, these powers fought no longer. They entered a stretch of steady growth. There was no more point in fighting on. Because the strife had ended. The powers had also lifted their travel-restriction orders. The trade roads were open again. Coming and going, trade and exchange had grown easier, and the roads had naturally grown livelier. Every day. Quite a few people from Fan Domain in Guanxi rode the high-speed rail to Fan Domain, and quite a few people from the Four Lands of Jiangbei rode Fan Domain's high-speed rail south to the Guanxi Plain. Different customs were blending quickly. "Dumplings when you board, noodles when you step down." "Please!" The Holy Lord of Tuxian Sacred Land stood at the foot of the mountain with a group of elders, his face solemn, looking at the Fan Domain high-speed rail stopped below their sacred land. These days Fan Domain had extended another batch of rail lines. Because there was not enough capacity. Many of the old single tracks had gained an extra line, and many more stations. Their Tuxian Sacred Land had also been fortunate enough to gain a direct station. The one stepping down from the train now was no one else. It was Shao Qiu, master of Fan Domain's Dark Pavilion. "Hmph." Shao Qiu, down from the train, glanced at the bowl of longevity noodles in the Holy Lord's hands and snorted. "That's a Jiangbei custom. Forgotten I'm a man of the Guanxi Plain, too?" "Spare me the chatter." "I didn't come here today to prove how impressive I am." "I came to tell everyone that I am taking back everything I lost." "Are you ready? If you are, I'm about to begin." "No problem." The Holy Lord of Tuxian Sacred Land looked gravely back at his subordinates. Soon Tuxian Sacred Land seemed unchanged on the surface, but it had clearly gone on alert. "Hoo." Seeing this, Shao Qiu drew a deep breath and slowly pulled up the hood of his night-travel suit. In broad daylight, his body actually turned into a thread of gray mist and vanished where he stood. He had come with only one purpose. And that was. To slip into the heart of Tuxian Sacred Land. He had failed last time. This time he would not fail again. About as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea later. Shao Qiu came down the defense line of Tuxian Sacred Land with the Third Elder in hand, looking satisfied, and grinned at the Holy Lord. "Last time I was only seventeen. Failing to get in was perfectly normal. Care to look again this time?" Last time, the target of his infiltration had been this very Third Elder. That failure had left no small knot in his heart. He had come this time expressly to untie it. "Impressive. As expected, heroes rise young!" The Holy Lord, waiting at the foot of the mountain, raised both hands in open admiration, two thumbs up. "Last time, to tell the truth, we only found you by luck. It was our sacred land's exotic beast that discovered you." "This time, Pavilion Master Shao, your way of slipping in has gone up a level. Our beast never noticed a thing." "Truly impressive." Shao Qiu stared at the Holy Lord for a long while, then suddenly laughed, turned, and started up the mountain. "All right. What's past is past." "And from now on, stop flattering people. It's really false." "False?" The Holy Lord of Tuxian Sacred Land chuckled and followed. "A bit." Shao Qiu nodded. "Where are those noodles? Bring them over. I'm a little hungry." "Right here." "No side dishes?" "There are. Fine braised fare is heating in a pot up the mountain. You can eat whenever you like." "I want something fresh. Slaughter that exotic beast of yours that found me last time, and we'll eat it." "This—uh—" "I'm joking." "Ahem." The Great Elder of Tuxian Sacred Land, following behind, looked helplessly at Shao Qiu and the Holy Lord as they walked toward the summit. He knew the Holy Lord truly had not held back. Just now the sacred land really had gone on full alert. And Shao Qiu had still slipped in with ease. It was not actually strange. When he saw that Shao Qiu was earth gold from head to foot, even his shoes, he had no temper left. Had it been him, he might have made it up there, too. Let alone Shao Qiu, who was already skilled at infiltration. As for the Third Elder. He only stood to one side, his face full of helplessness. "Great Elder, ten years ago, weren't you the Third Elder? Why drag me down? Shouldn't it have been you?" "Ahem." The Great Elder gave an awkward little cough. "Shao Qiu clearly wanted the Third Elder. He doesn't care who is sitting in the seat. Less talk. Get up the mountain." He was the architect of Tuxian Sacred Land. Ten years ago. If Shao Qiu's assassination had not failed, the grass on his grave would probably not be short by now. Fortunately, it had failed. But for some reason, he sometimes felt he could hear in the Holy Lord's tone that the Holy Lord regretted the failure of Shao Qiu's assassination back then. Was he that much of a nuisance? By now it was the Eternal Night Calendar, Year 381, the first day of the eighth month. This year's rainy season was not far off. Chen Fan was strolling as he pleased near the port, leaning on his emerald cane. This stretch had not been busy. Aside from the group still at work on the New Continent, the rest of Fan Domain's core had basically all gone out to amuse themselves. They had been busy a long time. They ought to rest a little. He had not gone. He would rather stroll his own little plot than go out to play, and add something new now and then. For example. Chen Fan stopped and looked with satisfaction at the pomegranate trees near the port. They were in flower, a vivid red, quite lovely. He had planted a good many trees. That way Fan Domain would not look so bare. They set the place off well. He thought it quite good. Very pretty. All of them had been transplanted from Jiangnan. These days, every day, quite a few trees fresh from the soil were brought to Fan Domain. They could flower, and they could bear fruit. He thought this sort of tree was best. Good to look at, and good to eat. Since his stroll had brought him here, he naturally had to look at that batch of Heaven-Reaching Pillars. He walked up to the several hundred pillars standing on the ground and checked the energy-storage panels one by one. These days he had been turning over a question. And that was. Might the lightning in the Thunderstorm Sea be the key to holding those ghost creatures? If he stole the lightning, if he stole too much, might the Thunderstorm Sea shatter? But after several months of watching, he had found something. The lightning was not there to trap the ghost creatures at all. It was purely to torment them, like a punishment. If they did not want to be struck, they had to dive into the sea. Dive into the sea, and they suffocated. When they could not hold any longer and had only just put their heads out, a bolt blasted them back down. And since they did not die, it was pure torment. He had begun to feel that this Thunderstorm Sea might not be meant to protect the Eternal Night Continent, nor to imprison the Eternal Night Continent, but simply to torment these ghost creatures. Whichever it was, once he found that the lightning he stole did not affect the Thunderstorm Sea, he set the worry down. And the little he took could hardly affect the sea much in any case. Chen Fan turned to look at the earth-gold circuit hanging several hundred meters above the sea, and smiled, satisfied. After he had inspected the Heaven-Reaching Pillar cluster, he strolled on. What was there to enjoy out there? He did not understand it. Was Fan Domain not enjoyable? This was plenty of fun. Before long, Chen Fan had wandered to the back slope of Nameless Mountain and looked at the processing plant there. Great heaps of ghost creature corpses were piled beside it. Quite a few members of Fan Domain were working over the corpses. Once the useful ghost bones and ghost materials were collected, the corpses were set aside. Now and then they even turned up a few ghost stones, anomalous treasures, and the like. All of it went into storage. Through this stretch, Fan Domain had kept buying ghost creature corpses from Defense Line No. 7. They had bought a great many, and every corpse they bought was piled here. After a second round of processing, the corpses were sent to the Sacrificial Tower. The Sacrificial Tower. A building that yielded special resources when ghost creature corpses were offered to it. Chen Fan walked up to the small, finely made Sacrificial Tower and looked at its panel. Great quantities of ghost creature corpses were steadily turning to liquid, pouring wholly into the tower, and vanishing. The Sacrificial Tower could not be upgraded. The same as the copper pipe. None of the buildings that could not be upgraded could be upgraded, nor gain any path of upgrade, nor any max-level effect. They did not even exist in the codex of max-level buildings on the Eternal Night Lord panel. But they could use Heavenly Dao Stones. Ordinarily, a Heavenly Dao Stone could only be used on a max-level building. The copper pipe, for one, had once taken a Heavenly Dao Stone. "999,221/1,000,000 sacrifice points." "When this sacrifice is complete, one yellow-grade special resource may be obtained." A little more, and he would have a yellow-grade special resource. Yes. It took a full million ghost creature corpses, if they were ordinary ones. At the start, back at the old camp, two thousand sacrifice points had been enough for a yellow-grade special resource. Now it took a million. The price had risen the second time he tried to obtain a yellow-grade special resource by sacrifice. After that, it kept rising. He had wanted to skip yellow-grade special resources and obtain a blue-grade one directly, but the Sacrificial Tower's panel told him he had to finish obtaining every yellow-grade special resource by sacrifice before he could begin sacrificing for blue. He had tried building another Sacrificial Tower. Useless. The threshold was shared. Just then— the bar was suddenly full. The third layer of the tower before him turned a pale yellow. From inside came the sound of mechanisms turning, and the top of the altar sprang up. A thing set within was revealed. A stone. So crude that if it were dropped on the road, no one would pick it up. Chen Fan smiled. He had not even looked at the panel, and he already knew what the treasure was. Sure enough, as expected, another Heavenly Dao Stone. Quite good. At the same time. The writing on the Sacrificial Tower's panel began to change. "Yellow-grade special resources have been exhausted. This grade can no longer be obtained through sacrifice." "122/10,000 sacrifice points." "When this sacrifice is complete, one blue-grade special resource may be obtained." From here on, sacrifice would yield only blue-grade special resources. The price had reset as well, back to ten thousand sacrifice points. Of course, only for the first. When he wanted more blue-grade special resources by sacrifice, the price would climb all the way, until the blue-grade resources gained by sacrifice reached their limit, and then he would obtain a higher grade. Not bad, all the same. And... Perhaps it was only that he had seen too little. Whether at Defense Line No. 7, or on the Guandong Plain, the Guanxi Plain, and the rest, he had never seen another power that owned a Sacrificial Tower. This was clearly a basic building that came with his Eternal Night Lord panel. Chen Fan tucked the Heavenly Dao Stone into his robe and sat to one side, chuckling as he waited. He meant to stay and see what the first blue-grade special resource would be. It was only ten thousand sacrifice points, after all. At the rate of the processing warehouses here, it would be quick. It would not take long. And. He had to think carefully about where to use this Heavenly Dao Stone. Honestly, he rather wanted to set it straight onto the Sacrificial Tower. But after a moment's thought, better to set it on the most important building. Fan Domain had quite a few max-level buildings now. He would have to consider it properly. The Guanxi Plain, at the easternmost edge, a gap in the long mountains. The place was packed. People came and went. A plainly new defense line stood here. This was the newly built Yellow Springs Pass Defense Line. Its chief use was this: when Jiangbei and the Guandong Plain fell, it could hold the landing ghost tide outside Yellow Springs Pass Canyon. The rainy season was about to come down. The defense line had begun to hurry its preparations. The man in charge of the Yellow Springs Pass Defense Line, a thickset man of middle years, stood on the wall with a complicated look, gazing out over the vast Guanxi Plain. It was empty. Not a person in sight. Like a stretch of deathly silence. The rainy season was already near. And still there was no sign of Defense Line No. 7 withdrawing to the rear. It meant Seventh Elder truly meant to hold Defense Line No. 7 to the death. A long while later. Only then did he let out a light breath and murmur. "I hope Seventh Elder can get through this year's rainy season." The Eternal Night Hall could no longer send aid to Defense Line No. 7. If he got through this year, Seventh Elder would live one year more. Of course. Next year's rainy season, Jiangbei would fall, and Defense Line No. 7 would fall with it. Not dying now only meant certain death then. That would also be the first time their Yellow Springs Pass Defense Line met its test. But one more year lived was one more year. These days, no one could say how long they themselves would live. No one could know. Just then— a woman who had come up behind him at some moment he had not noticed said softly, "Word has come from the Eternal Night Front. Front No. 3 and Front No. 4, lost in last year's rainy season, were taken back again last month." "And." "They've captured alive a Ghost Emperor of no small standing in the Ghost Clan, the Three Thousand Emperor. They're negotiating with the Ghost Clan now, hoping to trade this Three Thousand Emperor for that one." "That one." The middle-aged man's brow drew tight. Since that person had fallen into the Ghost Clan's trap and been imprisoned some years ago, that person had not been seen in a long time. If that person were to show themselves, how could Jiangbei fall? "Has the Ghost Clan agreed?" "Don't know. No clear result has come yet. But they've gotten quite a few things out of that Ghost Emperor, the Three Thousand Emperor. One piece of news has the whole of the Eternal Night Front, high and low, stirred as one." "It's said that Front No. 3 and Front No. 4 fell one after the other in the last rainy season because the Ghost Clan staked their foundation on a charge. Now they have been unable to break through for a long time, and the losses are enormous. Perhaps it will not be long before they are defeated." "Really!" The middle-aged man's eyes lit. "True and false, maybe." The woman shook her head. "You can't believe everything that comes out of a ghost creature's mouth. But one thing is certain. The Ghost Clan is suffering, too. It may be a headwind for us, but for them it is a headwind as well." "Then who has the wind at their back?" "No one. All of it is headwind. At this point, breaking the deadlock has to depend on those unstable, sudden factors." "Such as?" "Such as... mm. Such as some part of the Ghost Clan's ghost tide suddenly gaining an opportunity and growing greatly in strength. Or several nodes suddenly shattering, and ghost tides making landfall to gnaw at the Eternal Night Continent's ground. Or the Eternal Night Continent suddenly finding an enormous ghost mine." "As things stand, the two sides are locked fast. Only accidents like these can sway the fight." "It's said..." "The Ghost Clan has already sent quite a few ghost creatures to search the depths of the sea. Tashi thinks he may find some opportunity down there that will let Tashi break the Eternal Night Continent's front more easily." "Hmph." The middle-aged man snorted and muttered, "Best if Tashi not only finds nothing at all, but dies on the way." "Let's hope." The woman said nothing more. She only turned her gaze toward the depths of the Guanxi Plain and was silent a long time. Eternal Night swept in from the horizon as it always did, swift, and covered the whole Guanxi Plain together with the mountains. Only the ghost-fire light held up by the Yellow Springs Pass Defense Line made a pale-yellow corridor of life in the dark. Fan Domain. The night was deep and still. Quite a few members of Fan Domain had already gone to their dreams. Chen Fan, washed and ready, sat on the city wall of Cave No. 1 and looked at the jade slip in his hand. Yes. At this hour, Wang Kui should have come to report the day's developments in Fan Domain. But Wang Kui had gone out to amuse himself, so Chen Fan had to look through the jade slips in the warehouse himself, and see the day's records of goods in and out. He would not have known if he had not looked. One look— and he felt a bit of a headache coming on. "Eternal Night Calendar, Year 381, the first day of the eighth month, the third ke of the yin hour." "Hundred Grains Pavilion member Zhang Qi took 230 ghost-plant seeds from the Mustard Seed Chamber." "Eternal Night Calendar, Year 381, the first day of the eighth month, the third ke of the yin hour." "Artifact Pavilion member Li San took ten jin of earth gold from the Mustard Seed Chamber." "Eternal Night Calendar, Year 381..." After flipping through them for a little while, he stopped. He could not look at a bit more of it. None of it had been sorted, and the looking gave him a headache. A dense page of it. A single day's movements in and out of the warehouse ran to several hundred entries. With no one to sum them up, there was rather a lot to take in. The main trouble was that much of it was useless. He reached into his robe on instinct for a voice talisman, meaning to tell Wang Kui the holiday was over. Then he thought better of it and put the talisman back. After all, Wang Kui had only left this morning. Right now he might not even have gotten out of Jiangnan. Ending the holiday already would truly be a bit much. Forget it. Better let Wang Kui enjoy himself for a few days.