Eternal Night Hall, Tian Yi!

Chen Fan stood on the Jiangbei Defense Line, staring dead ahead at the coastline. By now great numbers of ghost creatures had surged up out of the seawater, covering the coastline in a dense mass as they poured toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. The speed was not fast. But the pressure they brought was nearly enough to choke a man. Even though he already knew that his Jiangbei Defense Line had absolutely no chance of being breached, after he saw this sight he still could not help holding his breath. Half of it was shock. Half of it was that it truly stank too much. A stench so thick it had nearly condensed into something solid shot straight to the crown of his head. At that moment— A bolt of lightning suddenly tore the sky, and a huge wave slammed hard against the shore. And when the lightning passed and the spray drew back, the number of the ghost tide upon the coast had, all at once, multiplied several times over again. The dense ghost tide nearly covered the whole Jiangbei coastline. Now and then one could see several great ghosts of enormous size, weapons in hand, howling with crazed looks, charging in great strides toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. They feared neither life nor death, and along the way they trampled quite a few ordinary ghost creatures to death. Whether great ghosts or lesser ghosts, all of them had cast life and death behind them. A ghost tide had no intelligence to speak of. "Hu." Chen Fan let out a light breath and activated the Clear Wind Array within the ghost fire, making everyone on the city wall a little faster, and at the same time driving off a little of the stench. The next moment— The patterns on the God-Slaying Cannon beside him suddenly lit. Like a switch. White light spread swiftly to both sides with this as the center. The God-Slaying Cannons linked along the whole way were lit through, one after another. Fully 8,500 God-Slaying Cannons on the Jiangbei Defense Line were started at nearly the same instant! In a flash, 8,500 scarlet energy shells fell into the ghost tide. "Boom, boom, boom!" Countless deafening explosions gathered into one, as if the earth itself were collapsing. The dust of the blasts, mixed with fragments of ghost creatures and seawater, flew up into the air. Overflowing scarlet energy turned into thread after thread, like pythons, and surged swiftly toward every side. A volley from 8,500 God-Slaying Cannons! This power surpassed anything any Heaven-Reaching Pillar could burst forth with. The volley of the 8,500 God-Slaying Cannons set along the 170 kilometers of the Jiangbei Defense Line nearly covered the whole Jiangbei coastline. It covered the entire region. This stretch of 170 kilometers had now become a domain of death! It was only a single volley. The first wave of the ghost tide to make landfall, great ghosts included, was cleared away completely. Almost not one slipped the net. But the truly terrible thing about a ghost tide making landfall from the seabed was that it was nearly endless. When the spray came beating in again, still more of the ghost tide came treading the waves. Chen Fan looked at the ghost tide making landfall before him. He could not even manage to see one ghost creature clearly. There were simply too many. It was hard to lock his gaze on a single lesser ghost. The other would very quickly be pressed down beneath the rest. Under numbers like these, accuracy had no meaning at all. One scarlet shell landed precisely in this stretch of the ghost tide. Countless streams of scarlet energy shot out toward every side like blood pythons, and cleared another stretch. He laughed. It looked rather satisfying. And the blood of these ghost creatures, after they died, was being swiftly absorbed by the Ghost Blood Patterns along the 170 kilometers of the Jiangbei Defense Line. The Ghost Blood Patterns, uniformly flashing with scarlet light, looked extremely eerie in the night. "Boom, boom, boom!" This Four-Year War had at last formally raised its curtain! This was not a war that would end in a short time. It was a war that would go on for as long as the Jiangbei Defense Line was not breached. The deafening explosions had become the main melody of this war. Countless exploding scarlet energy shells nearly dyed the whole Jiangbei coastline red. At the far end of the Jiangbei Defense Line, hard against the mountains, that disciple of the Immortal-Slaying Holy Land now gripped the great blade in his hands tight and looked down at the sight below. A flash of terror passed through his eyes. He had never seen a sight like this. In all his life he had never seen so many ghost creatures. He did not dare imagine it. If there were no Jiangbei Defense Line, and this ghost tide charged at him, what would happen? The only thing he could do would perhaps be to slit his own throat at the greatest speed, and in the next instant stab himself twice more through the heart, to make sure he died quickly and cleanly. But— at this moment, this ghost tide, fully capable of slaughtering all of Jiangbei empty, was being slaughtered in swathe after swathe by the God-Slaying Cannons, as simply as stepping on a swarm of ants. He looked at the several God-Slaying Cannons beside him, roaring without cease. For the first time he understood so truly why the Holy Lord feared Fan Domain so. He also finally knew why the Holy Lord had shouted about righteousness and dragged him here. To stand with righteousness was to stand on Fan Domain's side, upon the wall. Not to stand with righteousness was to stand opposite Fan Domain, beneath the wall. "How about that?" The Fan Domain member beside him was somewhat shaken at the sight as well. He had never seen it either. But over these years, as Fan Domain developed, Fan Domain members had all come to feel a certain superiority when facing members of other factions. So even though he was shaken too, he was unwilling to let too much show on his face, and laughed as if he did not care. "I was right, wasn't I?" "We won't die." "Fan Domain has held Jiangbei for several years to build this Jiangbei Defense Line. If it were broken this easily, then wouldn't these years of Fan Domain's work have been for nothing?" His sense of superiority did not come only from Fan Domain's strength. It was also because he had personally been to the New Continent, and had personally bathed in that golden rain. He knew Fan Domain's foundation was far more astonishing than the outside world imagined, and this gap in information was the true source of his superiority. Only, he had never spoken of this information to the outside. Those above had issued a gag order. To this day, no one had spoken of it to the outside. Betrayal required benefit. At present Jiangbei had no benefit that could make them betray Fan Domain. At that moment— "There!" The disciple of the Immortal-Slaying Holy Land beside him suddenly changed color and pointed into the air. Several dozen bat-like ghost creatures had suddenly flown up out of the sea. They curved through the air and, along a path meant to be as hard to notice as possible, flew toward the space above their heads. The place where they stood was the terminal sector of the Jiangbei Defense Line. Only these few of them were stationed here. Rare flying ghost creatures. "Why are there bats in the sea!" "Don't panic." The Fan Domain member clicked his tongue, and said it with feeling. The next moment, those several dozen bats dodged without cease through the air at extreme speed. They were plainly evading a possible lock from the Anti-Air Cannons, bursting out at great speed to skim across the sky over the Jiangbei Defense Line. It looked as if they were about to succeed. The Anti-Air Cannon set nearby had no reaction from beginning to end. But— the moment those several dozen bats entered the sky over the Jiangbei Defense Line, they suddenly hung still in the air. However they struggled and beat their wings, they could not go a step farther, as if they had suddenly fallen into a thick swamp. And only then did that Anti-Air Cannon seated on the Jiangbei Defense Line begin slowly to start. The Anti-Air Cannon was formed of twelve emerald petals, and all twelve petals lit together. From the flower's heart burst a sustained pillar of emerald light. In the blink of an eye, those several dozen bats were melted in an instant, and not a trace of them remained. "This..." The disciple of the Immortal-Slaying Holy Land stood blankly where he was, a thread of confusion flashing through his eyes. "The Jiangbei Defense Line. Total Air Denial. Divine ghosts barred." The Fan Domain member patted the Holy Land disciple's shoulder with some feeling. "See? I told you it was perfectly safe, didn't I?" "It's just a bit smelly. I may not want to eat fish for the rest of my life." He finally understood why Jiangbei had no habit of eating fish, while Jiangnan did. By rights, how could Jiangbei, bordering the sea, have no habit of eating fish? Now it seemed that anyone who had lived through that battle at Jiangbei on the ancient battlefield ought never to want to eat fish again for the rest of their life. Though those people were all dead, the custom had remained. And so it had come about that although Jiangbei bordered the sea, no one ate fish. The fighting gradually grew white-hot. More and more of the ghost tide came on. Driven by the waves, scattered ghost creatures that were lucky enough were flung straight toward the top of the wall. There were also some flying ghost creatures with means of attacking from a distance, hovering several hundred meters from the Jiangbei Defense Line. They beat their wings without cease. Each beat condensed a pale-green orb of light and sent it crashing toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. And to this, the Jiangbei Defense Line's answer was that 1,700 Anti-Air Cannons in all were started together. Emerald pillars of light filled the sky, nearly covering heaven and earth, and like countless laser pillars cutting a cake, they sliced the whole firmament into pieces. Most of the ghost creatures flung toward the wall by the waves were blasted into fragments. Those flying ghost creatures hovering several hundred meters out from the Jiangbei Defense Line were being cleared one by one as well. But— there were still some that slipped through, riding the spray up onto the top of the wall! "Hey!" A member of Fan Domain's War Pavilion was diligently guarding his own sector of the defense line. A wave came in, and an octopus-like ghost creature was slapped up onto the wall top beneath the spray. Brutality and viciousness flashed in its pupils as it leapt into the air and charged at him! "Good timing!" The bare-chested man roared. The cultivation of a Martial King poured forth without the least concealment. Great blade in hand, he leapt into the air as well, spun three hundred and sixteen degrees, and brought the blade chopping down hard at the ghost creature that had mounted the wall before him! The cut landed. The feel of it was soft, like a fist slamming into cotton, but the blade still split the flesh, and quite a bit of dark green liquid flowed out. And at the same time, this octopus-like ghost creature opened all its tentacles and wrapped him up. In nearly an instant, the man's scream rang through heaven and earth! In an instant, countless holes appeared across his body. He could feel the blood in his body being sucked away fast. But very quickly, he felt a stream of warm liquid pouring over him. He felt his wounds and his strength recovering fast. Roaring, he tore free and chopped down again. That stream of warm liquid came over him again. One cut. Two cuts. After he had chopped a full several dozen times, the octopus-like ghost creature that had mounted the wall had been chopped into minced meat. It looked quite suitable for a meal of dumplings. "Huff. Huff." The man was panting. With some lingering fear he glanced back at the copper pipe behind him, still spraying sacred water. Fortunately there was this. Otherwise he might have died here just now. "Hey." The Fan Domain member responsible for another sector was looking at him in displeasure and roared, "I nearly called in support for you. Can you stop showing off and put your armor on!" "All right, all right..." The man, newly spared from death, no longer dared to swagger. He hurriedly pulled on the armor made of earth-gold that he had taken off and set aside, wrapping his body completely. If he had had this armor just now, it would not have been so hard. The main thing was... this was his first time in a scene so large, and he had truly been a little too excited. Just now he had even wanted to jump down off the defense line and hack to his heart's content. The qi and blood throughout his body were boiling, leaving him unbearably hot. But now he had cooled a great deal. In a ghost tide of this scale, the role one Martial King could play was far too small. Clearing those ghost creatures that had luckily surged up onto the wall top was their only role. And behind the Jiangbei Defense Line, dozens of fully outfitted flying boats were patrolling without cease. The moment too many ghost creatures mounted any section of wall, they would be ready to begin fire support. Only... they had never found a place to use it. The Jiangbei Defense Line was fully thirty meters high. At a height like this, ghost creatures that the spray could slap up onto the wall were exceedingly few. Most ghost creatures, before they could even charge to the foot of the wall, saw a scarlet energy shell swelling in their pupils, larger, larger, and larger still. After all, it was the first day. Facing a seabed ghost tide making landfall for the first time, Chen Fan's heart was still not entirely steady, so every arrangement had been brought out at full strength. Better to have too much. It must not be too little. Soon, when the roar of the shells at last slowly stopped, and the Eternal Night, curtain-like, gradually receded, great masses of the ghost tide vanished into the seawater. Day had broken. They had made it through the first battle of the seabed ghost tide's landfall. When the black fog receded and a dim gray sky covered the Jiangbei wasteland, waves of excited roaring rose along the 170 kilometers of the Jiangbei Defense Line. Chen Fan, standing on the wall, looked at the countless ghost-creature corpses in front of the Jiangbei Defense Line and laughed. Jiangbei seemed... truly to have held. After all, it was the first night. He had been somewhat tense as well. He had kept to the wall the whole time, ready to meet any sudden turn. But... there had been no sudden turn at all. The flying boats he had prepared for support had not even been used. The Heaven-Reaching Pillars had not been started either. He had also prepared sufficient ghost stones to raise the Jiangbei Defense Line to grade seven at any time. Those had not been used either. As things looked now, everything was under control. Countless craters blasted out by the shells covered the Jiangbei coastline. Basically not a single ghost-creature corpse could be seen. Quite a few ghost stones and exotic treasures were scattered about. Several walls of the Jiangbei Defense Line sank into the ground. Under direction, hundreds of thousands of people moved in a mighty tide and began, in good order, to spread across the Jiangbei coastline, picking up ghost stones and exotic treasures, and taking away every fragment of ghost-creature corpse that could be carried. Even as fragments, they were good things. Buried in the fields, they could increase the farmland's fertility. In the instant day broke, he also received a voice transmission from Seventh Elder. "Domain Lord Chen, how are things on your side?" "All is well." "That is good." On the other end of the voice transmission talisman, Seventh Elder let out a long breath of relief. And so, time came little by little to fifteen days later. From the tension at the start, after it had now gone on for fifteen days, Fan Domain had grown accustomed to the seabed ghost tide making landfall. Even the people other factions had sent to reinforce them were not tense now, and had more or less mixed in as one with the Fan Domain members. Meeting someone familiar, they could even smile and offer a greeting. In these fifteen days, not a single ghost creature had broken through the Jiangbei Defense Line. The Jiangbei Defense Line stood here like a natural chasm, firmly suppressing the seabed ghost tide outside Jiangbei. The casualty rate was also very low. What few casualties there were came from people who stuck their heads out to watch the excitement, watched with too much absorption, unfortunately fell from the defense line, and died on the spot. It was dusk. The true meaning of a shelter was shelter. Chen Fan, standing on the Jiangbei Defense Line, gazed far toward the sea at the horizon and laughed softly, a little lost. Only now did he feel that Fan Domain seemed truly to have sheltered many people. There were many people who lived because of him. This feeling was not bad. In the air, an earth-gold cable with no visible end stretched out from Fan Domain and ran all the way into the far reach of the sea. When the ghost tide came, he had at first drawn this earth-gold cable back in. Later he found that the ghost tide could not threaten this earth-gold cable erected several hundred meters in the air, and so he had laid it out again. After all, the earth-gold cable's speed of charging was much faster than the charging of an ordinary rainy season. Continuous rain fell over Jiangbei. On the Eternal Night Continent, the rainy season was a season in which it was hard to show a smile. Anyone who could laugh aloud in this season could basically be judged to have lost their mind. And yet at this moment, there was no lack of laughter on the Jiangbei Defense Line. Members of Fan Domain's Hundred Grains Pavilion were riding flying boats, distributing bucket after bucket of hot food, portion by portion, to the people on the Jiangbei Defense Line. Those on the defense line worked in two shifts. One group was responsible for gathering by day. One group was responsible for keeping the night watch. These fifteen days had given everyone a good deal more confidence in one another. Faintly, quite a few people seemed to see hope—seemed to see hope that the Eternal Night Continent truly could withstand the invasion of the ghost tide. Chen Fan stood on the wall, laughing softly. This ghost tide had no intelligence. In other words, it was a bit like the minions in a game, while those of the Ghost Clan who possessed intelligence were the heroes in a game. Minions did not understand so much. They only knew how to charge. The ghost tide also could not pass news on to other regions. Sometimes, he did think about it. Where had so many of the ghost tide come from? They could not have popped out of thin air. But if one said they had been born, how had so many been born? At that moment— he again received a voice transmission from Seventh Elder. "Domain Lord Chen, the Eternal Night Hall's Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line has had no ghost tide attack in the fifteen days since the rainy season descended. They have already reported the news from your side upward." "In a while." "People from the Eternal Night Hall may come looking for you." "Mm." Chen Fan gave a slight nod. He knew this matter. Fan Domain's rise could not be concealed. Jiangbei, which ought to have fallen, had not fallen. Even though the Eternal Night Hall had already lost its control over Jiangbei, they would know what was going on. This was also the chance he had long been waiting for, to make contact with the Eternal Night Hall. And, while he was at it, to learn in concrete terms what the situation was like on the front of the Eternal Night Continent, and how the battle stood. In these days, Fan Domain's reserves of ghost stones had been rising without cease. Along that stretch of high-speed rail from the port to Nameless Mountain, he had built two walls, one on each side, and sealed them over with a roof. Otherwise, batch after batch of ghost stones being shipped from the port toward Nameless Mountain would be far too eye-catching if outsiders saw them. And the ghost stones the Jiangbei Defense Line gained each day could fully cover all of that day's expenses, and still earn several million, nearly ten million ghost stones every day. That was as good as fixed assets. At present, Fan Domain's three main channels for obtaining ghost stones were: extraction on the New Continent, the ghost ore born of Sovereign of All Under Heaven, and the Jiangbei Defense Line. As for the high-speed rail and the like, his pricing of it from the start had never been meant to build the high-speed rail into a primary source of profit. Otherwise he would not have set the price so low that everyone could afford to ride it. "Hey!" A member of Fan Domain's Hundred Grains Pavilion who was handing out food looked at a fat man waiting on the defense line for Eternal Night to fall, and said in some surprise, "What are you doing here?" "By rights, a faction as small as yours had no need to answer Fan Domain's denunciation." "Remember me? I used to be with the Wild Wolf Gang in Jiangbei City. We dealt with each other quite a bit." "I remember, I remember. Of course I remember." This fat man was none other than the patriarch of the Jiangbei Li Family. He had formerly been the market master of Jiangbei Market. His face was piled with smiles, and he said, a little embarrassed, "That..." "I still have a few strong men under me. I figured whatever bit of strength I can put in is a bit of strength." "Quite good. Your awareness isn't bad." The member of the Hundred Grains Pavilion laughed heartily, set a bucket of food on the wall, and only then steered the flying boat toward the next sector. "Come on, put your damn backs into it!" Fan Domain's Sunset City at this moment was extremely lively. After two expansions, Sunset City was already far larger in extent than Jiangbei City. What did it look like to cook for several hundred thousand people at once? Sunset City, and Fan Domain's Hundred Grains Pavilion, gave the answer. A river, remade, ran through Sunset City. Upstream, they washed rice. In the middle reaches, they rinsed vegetables. Downstream, they strained oil. Five thousand enormous stoves were distributed through Sunset City in a honeycomb, sharing one giant flue. At this moment every stove was burning. Blue smoke rose a hundred zhang high, answering the dusk across the distance. On the open ground beside them, spirit rice was piled high as hills. On the left, several hundred people, blades rising and falling, cut pork into chunks. On the right were a hundred people, each a cultivator of at least the sixth or seventh rank, controlling giant woks. Six-chi iron spatulas in hand, they stood on the scalding stoves and swung without cease. When a hundred steam towers lifted their lids at the same time, steam rushed straight into the clouds, orderly as a long dragon! Qi Chong, pavilion master of the Hundred Grains Pavilion, stood on a high platform. Looking down at the sight below, voice-transmission stone in hand, he roared, "Granary No. 3 is short on rice. Top it up!" By ordinary reckoning, the running of a defense line required quite a few people to begin with. Only, in most cases they ate dry rations, and now and then there would be a bit of hot noodles. Rarely did anyone light the pots and cook a proper meal. After all, the logistics for so many people were truly hard to meet. This was also why Defense Line No. 7 ate a meal of dumplings each time a rainy season ended. Ordinarily, they simply could not get a single proper, decent meal. But— for the Jiangbei Defense Line, the Domain Lord's order was to let everyone eat their fill. Qi Chong had received it. And so— the Jiangbei Defense Line had very likely become the defense line with the best food of all the defense lines on the Eternal Night Continent. Food? Ever since the New Continent had bathed in the golden rain a year ago, quite a bit of its land had become grade-ten farmland. With the Domain Lord's permission, Qi Chong had specially taken the people of the Hundred Grains Pavilion to the New Continent to open new land. They planted tract after tract of spirit rice. It ripened so fast they could not harvest it all. And after the golden rain fell, quite a few tender sprouts grew up on the New Continent. It was simply a fine place for grazing. Qi Chong went on, taking the people of the Hundred Grains Pavilion, and put out to pasture quite a number of cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and the like upon the New Continent. It could be said this way. Fan Domain's ghost stones might one day be used up. But if a day came when Fan Domain said there was not enough food to eat, he would hang himself immediately, without dragging his feet at all. Back when Fan Domain established the Hundred Grains Pavilion, the Domain Lord had not asked much of him. One of the things was this. The grain reserves must be sufficient. For example, supposing the Eternal Night Continent were lost, and Fan Domain in Jiangbei could not hold alone, the grain reserves would also decide how long Fan Domain could last. So Qi Chong looked down with a satisfied expression and laughed in delight. He felt that as pavilion master of the Hundred Grains Pavilion, he was still reasonably worthy of the post. Letting people eat their fill. Letting people eat well. That was his duty. Though the Hundred Grains Pavilion was only an inconspicuous department of Fan Domain, not like the Commerce Pavilion in its exploring, nor like the Logistics Pavilion in its charge of so many affairs, even the simplest thing must be done well. Done well, day after day. Besides, he did not think this was simple. Put someone else in his place, and they truly might not reach what he had done. Across the sea stood the New Continent. Bathed by that golden rain, this continent, once eaten away by a great war, had become tract after tract of fertile soil. Young trees had pushed up out of the earth one by one. The whole continent had taken on a thriving look. Quite a few Fan Domain members were scattered across the various ancient battlefields, and in the ghost ore formed after the golden rain descended, gathering ghost stones. And A Le, deputy pavilion master of the Hundred Grains Pavilion, standing on a flying boat, looked behind him. Vast stretches of fine fields, ten thousand mu and more, were swaying in the wind. In the past Fan Domain had only farmed inside Sunset City. Though Sunset City was not small after several expansions, however large it grew, how large could it be? They could only plant so much. They could hardly plant outside the city. Ghost creatures would destroy the crops. In the end some would still remain. It would not be ruined completely. But it always left a person displeased. This place was much better. Mu after mu joined into continuous sheets of grade-ten farmland. It was simply a fine place for farming. Those sheaves of golden wheat were a comfort just to look at. A Le laughed, drew his gaze back, and looked ahead. On the grassland in front of the flying boat, hundreds of thousands of sheep were leisurely nibbling the tender sprouts that had just grown out. Perhaps because these sprouts had grown only after bathing in the golden rain, these animals grew extremely fast as well. And beside the flock, several monkeys riding Skeleton Horses cracked whips, driving the sheep. Yes. They were precisely those monkeys belonging to Fan Domain's Beast Pavilion. As exotic beasts, their bloodline suppression over ordinary livestock was of the highest order. Added to that, they understood people, and could even learn to ride. They could be called perfect sheepdogs. And their pavilion master, Weiwei, was leisurely rolling about on the grassland. Unlike the Jiangbei Defense Line, there was not a thread of the air of danger here on the New Continent. Everyone, even the exotic beasts, had a rare air of "safety" on their faces. This air was hard to describe in words. High-speed rail raced back and forth across the New Continent. It carried away cart after cart of ghost stones toward the Jiangbei Defense Line, and the harvested wheat and other crops were likewise carted, load by load, toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. The New Continent at this moment had already plainly become Fan Domain's great rear area. It did not only provide ghost stones. It was even responsible for providing wheat, livestock, and other produce. "Truly good." A Le let out a long breath and murmured, a little dazed. If only this scene could go on forever. He actually liked this peaceful life. Five days after the rainy season descended, the side of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line had already guessed what the situation was. There really was a faction that had held Jiangbei, and had even built a defense line, and they swiftly reported this news upward. And now, the fifteenth day after the rainy season descended, a flying boat stopped in the sky above the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. A bare-chested middle-aged man covered in scars, and behind him a fat man in a black cloak whose face could not be made out, came down from the flying boat. "Is the information true?" The man was the one leading this operation. He walked straight up to the person in charge of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line and, gazing toward the depths of the Guanxi Plain, asked. "It is." The person in charge of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line said in a low voice, "Fifteen days of the rainy season have already passed, and Jiangbei still has not fallen." "Good." The bare-chested middle-aged man shut his eyes tight, drew a deep breath, and murmured, "I hope you'll give me a little surprise. The Eternal Night Continent needs a... miracle far too badly." The next moment— the man walked toward the flying boat. The flying boat rose into the air. It sped toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. Eternal Night descended. Endless ghost tides once more emerged from the bottom of the sea and charged, dense and packed, toward the Jiangbei Defense Line. The Jiangbei Defense Line, long since accustomed to it, met them with ease. Chen Fan stood on the wall, looking down at the sight. "Domain Lord." Shao Qiu emerged from behind Chen Fan and reported in a low voice, "The station on the Guanxi Plain, before dark, saw a flying boat flying toward Jiangbei. It is not one of our Fan Domain flying boats. It should reach the Jiangbei Defense Line in a little more than one shichen." "Are we to let them enter Fan Domain's territory as they please?" Chen Fan's expression was calm as he looked toward the ghost tide in the distance. No faction on the Guanxi Plain possessed a flying boat. Then it seemed it must be people sent from the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, or from a defense line on the Eternal Night Hall's side. "Stay alert. Keep them in sight. Before they make any move beyond that, do not block them." "Understood." Shao Qiu nodded, and his body slowly faded away. A little more than one shichen later, the Eternal Night Hall's flying boat sailed into the sky over Jiangbei, pressing straight for Nameless Mountain, and slowly lowered its height. It entered the range of Fan Domain's ghost fire and hung in the air above the Jiangbei Defense Line. When the surrounding darkness was driven off by the ghost fire, the view before their eyes suddenly opened wide. The bare-chested man standing on the deck felt his pupils contract sharply. He saw a grade-six city wall, 170 kilometers long, standing in Jiangbei. The seabed ghost tide had long since made landfall and was now attacking the Jiangbei Defense Line as if it did not care for its life, but all of it was beaten back by the fierce firepower on the Jiangbei Defense Line. There really was an extra defense line here. A defense line not built by their Eternal Night Hall. He looked for he did not know how long. Only then did he look around at the dozens of flying boats that had at some point risen into the air and loosely encircled him in the middle, and at several Anti-Air Cannons on the defense line that had already swung their muzzles around to aim at him. He drew a deep breath and roared, "Eternal Night Hall, Tian Yi!" "I request an audience with the one who holds power over this faction!" The voice was deafening, almost pressing down the roar of the cannon fire, ringing between heaven and earth. Soon, a flying boat stopped before him. A man in the faction's attire on the deck looked at him. "Follow me." This flying boat began to lead the way ahead. Before long, the flying boat under his feet drew level with the city wall of the Jiangbei Defense Line. He walked from the deck onto the wall and looked ahead at a man in a blue robe, leaning on an emerald cane, standing at the edge of the wall with his back to him. From the bearing of the people at that man's side, he could tell this man was the one who held power over this faction. He cupped his fists and said in a low voice, "Tian Yi of the Eternal Night Hall requests an audience." Hearing the voice behind him, Chen Fan slowly turned, looked at the two the Eternal Night Hall had sent, paused a moment, and only then said with a light laugh, "Fan Domain of Jiangbei. Chen Fan." The man who had spoken wore black trousers and was bare-chested. Wounds were packed dense across his body. Rain pattered down on him. The day was this cold, and he still wore no clothes. Beside him followed a figure of enormous size, about as large as three or four ordinary people, wrapped in a huge black robe, face unseen. Like a small hill. "Greetings, Domain Lord Chen." The man bowed once more, and only then said with a serious face, "First, on behalf of the Eternal Night Hall, I express our thanks to you. Thank you to Fan Domain for building the Jiangbei Defense Line and sheltering countless living beings." "Second." "I hope you know that I have come bearing goodwill, without a thread of ill intent." "Last." "I want to know where Fan Domain got so many ghost stones to build the Jiangbei Defense Line." "That doesn't sound like goodwill." Chen Fan laughed. "This is a core secret of Fan Domain. And there are not that many, either. You could say that for the sake of this Jiangbei Defense Line, we have already poured out the whole of our foundation." "I know a little about the Eternal Night Hall." "I know the Eternal Night Hall is responsible for building nearly every defense line on the Eternal Night Continent, and for sheltering the Eternal Night Continent. I, too, on behalf of Fan Domain of Jiangbei, express thanks to the Eternal Night Hall. Thank you to the Eternal Night Hall for sheltering countless living beings." The bare-chested man nodded, his face heavy. In truth this was only a routine question. In all likelihood Fan Domain of Jiangbei had found ghost ore left from ancient times. The amount would not be too great either. After building the Jiangbei Defense Line, there should not be much left. Most important of all—even if Fan Domain of Jiangbei really took out two or three billion ghost stones and handed them to him, it would not change the situation. What the Eternal Night Hall lacked was far more than ghost stones. Besides, how to transport them back was a problem in itself. "Understood." "That Fan Domain of Jiangbei could rise so quickly, there must be something unique about it. I came this time, on the one hand, to see whether there truly was a Jiangbei Defense Line, and on the other, to make contact with this faction." "The Eternal Night Hall hopes... it can obtain a measure of support from you." "If you have it." "What kind of support do you need? I don't know much about the Eternal Night Hall. Tell me what you need." "We need everything." The man said in a low voice, "There is nothing the Eternal Night Hall does not need. For example..." At this moment— in the pattering rain, he suddenly caught a thread of the fragrance of cooked food. His stomach growled of its own accord. He turned his head toward the rear without thinking, and saw Sunset City not far off. A huge canopy was stretched over Sunset City. And below it, countless streams of steam shot into the sky. The fragrance of the food drifted to the city wall, and even overpowered the sky-filling stench of the attacking ghost tide. "That... what is that place?" Chen Fan's brow lifted slightly. He looked at Wan Kui beside him. "Ask Qi Chong what he's doing." An answer came quickly. "Steamed pork ribs with fermented black beans. He's preparing food for the people who will come down off the defense line after dawn." "Steamed pork ribs with fermented black beans???" This man, whose face was written full of ruthlessness, suddenly froze where he stood. A little blankly, he drew his gaze back from Sunset City behind him and looked again at the people on the Jiangbei Defense Line. "You're going to eat steamed pork ribs with fermented black beans today?" "And yesterday?" "Seems it was steamed fish." "And the day before?" "That one I remember. Dumplings. The flavor was good." Chen Fan sounded as if he were tasting it again. "And the day before that?" "Should have been pork and cabbage stewed with glass noodles, or a steamed-bowl dish. I've half forgotten." "What the hell!" The man froze completely, as if he had heard some ghost story, more shaken than he had been at the sight of the Jiangbei Defense Line. "You eat this well every day?" "It's all right, I suppose. What does the Eternal Night Front eat?" "We... we eat fried flour. That is, flour fried until it's cooked, then swallowed down with water." "You don't farm?" The man raised his head and looked at Chen Fan, and said in a low, drawn-out voice, "Domain Lord Chen, the Eternal Night Front... how are we supposed to farm?" "You can plant in the interior of the continent." "The interior can grow some, yes. But the inside of the Eternal Night Continent has already been eroded. Hauling one shipment of supplies is no simple matter. A thing like food is not high in priority." For an instant, he even wanted to stay on the Jiangbei Defense Line. "Then I know what support Fan Domain can provide the Eternal Night Hall." Chen Fan laughed. "Fan Domain might first provide the Eternal Night Hall with grain, and with support for routes. But we will need some ghost stones as payment. After all, laying routes costs quite a lot of ghost stones." The man frowned hard. "The Eternal Night Hall cannot come up with a single ghost stone to hand over right now, unless—" "Unless you can collect them yourselves." "What does collect them yourselves mean?" "It means going to the Eternal Night Front to collect them in person. Quite a few of the Eternal Night Hall's transport routes have been damaged. The routes that remain are stretched tight. And with traitors on the inside leaking intelligence, large sums of ghost stones are very hard to transport to other regions. But if you are willing to go to the Eternal Night Front and collect the ghost stones yourselves, then there is no problem." As he spoke, he stared hard at the high-speed rail racing back and forth along the foot of the Jiangbei Defense Line wall. He seemed to faintly understand what Fan Domain meant by being able to provide support for routes. "Mm." Chen Fan walked over to a small hut built on the Jiangbei Defense Line. "The rain is heavy outside. Come inside and talk."