Requesting Reinforcements! Requesting Reinforcements!

"And Nameless Mountain?" Chen Fan looked toward Nameless Mountain. Nameless Mountain was not a mountain range. It was a single mountain standing alone on the Jiangbei wasteland, and it was not even very tall—only several hundred meters. "That one isn't." The man shook his head. "Nameless Mountain really is nothing more than a mountain by itself." "What array patterns manifest as must be a mountain range. It will not be one lone mountain." "The Eternal Night Continent is vast." "I don't know exactly how vast. I haven't run the whole of the Eternal Night Continent either. I only handle message-carrying for Western Zone No. 1, and some miscellaneous affairs." The man drew a ghost-hide map from his robe and spread it on the table. "This region where you are—the Four Lands of Jiangbei and the Two Lands of Guanxi—is called, all together, the Western Desolate Isle." "This is Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. Do you see these unbroken mountain ranges on either side of it? These ranges are where the array patterns have surfaced. The canyon in the middle is the gap left where a node shattered. The Eternal Night Hall set a defense line here." "Originally—" The man hesitated slightly. "Originally, the point of this Yellow Springs Mouth defense line was, after the Western Desolate Isle was abandoned, to stop the seabed ghost tide from entering the Eternal Night interior through Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon." "About two thousand seven hundred kilometers from Yellow Springs Mouth is the nearest Eternal Night front to us. It is named Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1." "This defense line is one hundred and eight kilometers long." "It is also a line attacked by the main strength of the ghost tide." He knew well enough that the Eternal Night Hall's decision could not be helped. Even so, when he had to say aloud that the Hall planned to abandon the Western Desolate Isle, the words still came hard. Chen Fan looked at the ghost-hide map the man had taken out. Its scope was larger than any map Fan Domain presently had. He roughly compared it, though, with the broad overhead map on the launch panel of his Heaven-Reaching Pillar. He soon found Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1. On the coast. It lay within the bombardment range of a max-level Heaven-Reaching Pillar, but beyond the reach of a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar. "But—" He looked over the ranges marked one after another on the man's ghost-hide map, and his brow tightened. "You just said continuous ranges like these are basically array patterns made visible. Then why do I see, on this map of yours, that they are not only along the coast? The interior has them too." "Yes." The bare-chested man let out a long breath. "The grand array in its most perfect state would not only have had one ring of continuous mountains along the coast. Every region would have been cut off by continuous mountains as well, so that even if one region fell, it could not threaten the others." "But now." "The array patterns of quite a few regions have shattered too." "And that means, if Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1 falls, then to hold back the ghost tide landing from the seabed we would have to lay defense lines at the shattered nodes of the three regions to the rear, two hundred and thirty-seven kilometers in all." "The reason the Eternal Night Hall gave up the Western Desolate Isle—" "A great part of it is this." "Between Eternal Night Western Black Tortoise Front No. 1 and the Western Desolate Isle there is a region, the Western Plain, that has already fallen completely and become occupied ground of the ghost creatures. To move supplies, one must take the long way around." "Around by the Qiuming Basin." "But the Qiuming Basin is coastal. Every time we prepare to move a large batch of supplies, a traitor leaks the news to the Ghost Clan. Then the ghost tide outside the Qiuming Basin attacks at any cost, breaks the defense line, and cuts that batch of resources off." "And so—" "The Western Desolate Isle... is rather cut off and beyond help. The Eternal Night Hall can hardly get resources to it." Chen Fan stared at the map and began, vaguely, to understand. From Front No. 1 to the Western Desolate Isle, the straight line certainly ran nearest through the Western Plain, and the Western Plain covered the greatest area as well. The Western Plain had already fallen. Then the only way was the Qiuming Basin. But the Qiuming Basin was not safe either. Then one could only detour deep through the interior. That way, though, the journey was far too long—four or five times the distance. "What ways does the Eternal Night Hall have of moving supplies?" "Skeleton Horses, flying boats, and the like. But flying boats are hard to build, and the cost of flight is heavy. They don't suit transport on a large scale. On a small scale they're still all right." "Large-scale transport basically all depends on Skeleton Horses." "Is there nothing like a teleportation array?" The man looked blank. "The sort of teleportation array that could send someone in an instant from Defense Line No. 1 to the Western Desolate Isle." "Does Fan Domain have one?" "No. I only thought that, since the Eternal Night Hall is this strong, it might have a means like that." "If we had a means like that, the Eternal Night Continent would have begun its counterattack long ago." The man looked at Chen Fan oddly. This one really dared to dream—a teleportation array, and why not a one-press explosion next, to wipe the Ghost Clan out outright? Chen Fan exhaled, brow furrowed, thinking. Then this matter was rather hard to manage. If he wanted to open a route of transport with Front No. 1, the Western Plain was the first place he certainly could not go. That was already occupied ground of the ghost creatures. The Qiuming Basin did not look very safe either. Sea transport. Right. And how rotten an idea would that be. "Oh—right." He suddenly thought of something. "You said just now that when the Ghost Clan learns a large batch of supplies is passing the Qiuming Basin, it breaks the Qiuming Basin defense line at any cost. Is that line so easy to break?" "They've broken it so many times, and the Qiuming Basin still hasn't fallen?" "Mm." The man nodded. "The array patterns in the interior of the Qiuming Basin are intact. So even if ghost creatures occupied the Qiuming Basin, it would not mean much strategically. They would have no way to spread out in every direction." "They could only stay in the Qiuming Basin." "So the ghost tide there, under the Ghost Clan's command, will not spend too much strength breaking the line. But if it learns that a large batch of resources is being escorted through, that is another matter." "Then what of the Western Plain?" Chen Fan asked again. "On the map, the Western Plain lies in the interior of the Eternal Night Continent. It touches no sea on any side. If ghost creatures have occupied it, how do they still bring up later reinforcements?" "A good question." The man said it with a bleak note. "Ghost creatures can dig. The reason you have not seen ghost creatures digging in Jiangbei is that Jiangbei has not yet completely fallen. In a region that has completely fallen, ghost creatures can tunnel under the earth and go around a city wall." "The Western Plain lies in the interior of the Eternal Night Continent, but ghost creatures come in an unbroken stream from the sea, up underground rivers against the current, and drill out of the Western Plain." "The Western Plain has a shattered node. There is a defense line there as well, named the Western Plain Defense Line, set to watch the Western Plain and to defend inward, and to stop these ghost tides of the Western Plain from running out and spreading into other regions." "I understand." Chen Fan nodded, leaned back in the chair, lightly rubbed his temples, and sank into thought without speaking. This talk had given him a first understanding of the shape of the Eternal Night Continent. Put simply. The Eternal Night Continent now was like a piece of clothing gone somewhat ragged, and the use of their defense lines was to find the leaks and fill the gaps. The continent was torn and tattered. They stitched and patched. That was the situation. And in a situation like this, the importance of supply lines went without saying. When one defense line had more ghost stones, the surplus was promptly moved to the other lines. Only under that kind of overall arrangement did each defense line have a chance of holding its own region. But how to move ghost stones and resources to the other fronts—that was a great problem. Fallen interior regions like the Western Plain were certainly not the only one. Every added region of that kind doubled again the difficulty of moving supplies. And all the Ghost Clan had to do was wait in patience. Wait until the Eternal Night Hall itself lost all order, and the shifting of ghost stones went wrong. Once three or four regions fell, what followed would be collapse like a rolling snowball. In a short few months, all of it might fall. And once a region had fallen. If they wanted to take that region back, one last-resort means the Eternal Night Hall kept in reserve ought to be... Chen Fan looked at the obese man in a black cloak seated beside the other man, his build far beyond an ordinary person's, and said quietly, "Nightwatchers?" The obese man nodded. He forced a sound of assent out of his throat. It was extremely harsh, like a finger scraping glass. His face could not be seen. "I belong to the Outbound Action Group." The bare-chested man explained, his voice low. "One of the chief duties of the Eternal Night Hall's Outbound Action Group is to crush those sparks that might roar up into a great fire. So when we are out, we must have a Nightwatcher of level 20 or above with us." "A level-20 Nightwatcher." "The power born after he detonates himself is enough to clear, in an instant, every ghost creature in a gap of twenty kilometers." Chen Fan turned the glazed figurine in his hand. This power was far greater than a grade-six Heaven-Reaching Pillar. He even half suspected it might be greater than the power of a max-level Heaven-Reaching Pillar. The Jiangbei Defense Line was one hundred and seventy kilometers long. In theory. So long as nine level-20 Nightwatchers were set along the Jiangbei Defense Line and detonated themselves together, they could instantly clear every ghost creature in the whole region of the line. Of course, they could clear only one wave. The ghost tide that kept coming after that was something no one could stop. But. This was already astonishing enough. On the Eternal Night Continent, one person's ability was extremely small. Not to speak of nine—even ninety thousand Martial Kings could not hold the Jiangbei Defense Line. They could not hold it for a single breath. That a Nightwatcher could do this already far surpassed an ordinary cultivator. "And a Nightwatcher's self-detonation will not destroy the defense line, nor spread to humans." The bare-chested man, scars all over him, spoke without expression of a thing that seemed to have nothing to do with him. "Orders from above." "If Jiangbei truly builds a defense line, and only just holds Jiangbei, then when it can hold no longer I will activate the Nightwatcher beside me, help Jiangbei hold through this rainy season, and after that the Eternal Night Hall will find a way to send resources over and keep this defense line up." The obese man seated to one side, wrapped in an enormous black robe, made no extra movement of his body. Words that rather treated a person as a thing raised no ripple in him at all. Perhaps he had sensed Chen Fan's feeling. The obese man spoke, hoarse, one word at a time. "A Nightwatcher's fate... is to be activated." "This is very normal." The voice was harsh, a little like a sound made by a throat after it has been cut open. The rush of wind in it was strong. He spoke extremely slowly. Chen Fan was slightly taken aback. He had heard someone say this sentence. Da Yu had once said this sentence to him as well. After a long silence. Only then did he rise and look at the bare-chested man. "You've had a hard journey. I'll first arrange a place for the two of you to rest. We'll talk of the particulars tomorrow." "All right." "Oh—and." He glanced at the man's bare torso, left out in the open, and said with some hesitation, "Aren't you cold? And these scars are...?" The man laughed at once. "I am a special cultivator, a Fire-Traveling Sun. Flame is always jetting from my organs. I don't fear cold. I fear heat. As for these scars." The words had barely fallen. Suddenly a tongue of fire burned through the man's belly from the inside and drilled out of his abdomen. Practiced, he slapped out the flame that had welled up from within his body, then took out a pill and plugged it into the wound. "There. Just like that. Flame wells out from time to time, and leaves a few scars." "It's no great matter." "Does it hurt?" "A little. But you get used to it." The man smiled and looked toward Nameless Mountain. "That Person was once a member of the Eternal Night Hall's Outbound Action Group as well. Members of the Outbound Action Group basically come and go alone, aside from seeing to some miscellaneous matters." "What matters most is that a member of the Outbound Action Group must have the strength for one person to hold a swath of ghost tide." "Even if only for an instant." "People like that are extremely few in the Eternal Night Hall." "Of course." "They are not activated lightly either. Once activated, a life has basically come to its end." Wang Kui took the two of them to Fan City and settled them for the time in an inn there. Chen Fan sat alone at the table, looking down at the ghost-hide map the man had left before going, and sank into thought. If he wanted to open a link between Western Front No. 1 and Fan Domain. The Western Plain was certainly no longer a way he could take. He would have to go by the coast. First, from the Guanxi Plain into the Yellow Springs Mountains region—the region behind Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon. That too was coastal. Its coastal node had already shattered. There was a Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line there. Then deeper, all the way. Into the Qiuming Basin region. And at last, from the Qiuming Basin region, to Western Front No. 1. This was nearly the only path. He thought a long time without speaking. He was thinking how, with Fan Domain's foundation, to lay a route safe enough. Soon, day broke. As the thick darkness drew back, amid the patter of rain, a fish-belly pallor spread through the sky. Calls kept rising along the Jiangbei Defense Line. Under direction, the people who had come down off the line and the people preparing to go out and collect gradually gathered to start the meal. The smell of the food soon lay over the whole Jiangbei Defense Line. Aside from the first day, which had been foul. After Chen Fan later added a batch of wind towers, that stench had already lessened a great deal. It was not only that the smell was bad. There were quite a few poisonous gases in it as well. Breathing them for long was certainly no good thing. Building a wind tower required the anomalous treasures Wind-Sheltering Pearl and Wind-Stabilizing Pearl. Anomalous treasures, not too rare. Fan Domain had grown for so long. It had still gathered some of these. Steamed pork ribs with fermented black beans, just out of the steamer and still steaming, and the other hot dishes were soon portioned out. On the wall of the Jiangbei Defense Line. Tian Yi of the Eternal Night Hall looked at the steamed pork ribs with fermented black beans, the Chinese lettuce with minced garlic, the rib soup, the rice, and the rest upon the table before him. His stomach could truly not be held down, and began to rumble. A little embarrassed, he raised his head toward Chen Fan. "That... Domain Lord Chen, I'll start, then." "Let's eat together." Chen Fan said it with a cheerful laugh. "It's all ordinary home cooking. Poor hospitality. Please forgive us." "Sumptuous enough. Truly!" Tian Yi drew a deep breath, then at once, unable to wait, picked up a piece of rib and stuffed it into his mouth. How long had it been since he had eaten food that was proper and real? The smell rushing into his nose set his mouth watering madly. But after the first mouthful of rib went in, his face suddenly began to twist. "Hot?" "No..." Tian Yi swallowed the piece of rib, the words unclear, took the bone out and set it aside, and said a little awkwardly, "It's been too long since I ate anything this hard. I'm not used to it. My teeth ache a little." Right after that. No time to talk. He began wolfing it down again, with no manners to his eating at all. He ate with his conscience easy. If Domain Lord Chen had arranged this meal only to entertain him, he would have eaten unable to sit still. But when he saw that everyone on the Jiangbei Defense Line was eating this, his heart was much more at ease. The obese Nightwatcher beside him also made an extra movement for the first time, now and then picking up a piece of rib and setting it in his own bowl. Now and then a groan came. It was a groan of pain, like a patient in the last stage of cancer eating—extremely painful. Chen Fan watched this in silence. The people of the Eternal Night Hall lived even harder than he had imagined. They did not even eat as well as the Jiangbei Chen family once had. The Jiangbei Chen family could put meat and vegetables on the table at every meal. The Eternal Night front could only eat fried flour, flour roasted until it was cooked, and could not even get a vegetable dish. "Domain Lord Chen." Tian Yi, who had been rapidly wolfing his food, set down his bowl and chopsticks, raised his head toward Chen Fan, and grinned with the rims of his eyes a little red. "If you can truly send grain to Front No. 1, many people will be very grateful to you." "A great many people, before they died, spoke one last sentence: they wanted to eat one meal to their heart's content." "They wanted something good to eat." "I, being of the Outbound Action Group, actually have chances to get a meal. After all, I can move in the interior. But... I don't want to sneak food alone behind my brothers' backs." "Today I truly couldn't hold back." "Satisfying. Truly satisfying." "I think..." "Even if I am buried tomorrow, I will have no regrets." "And there is one more thing. I have already reported Fan Domain's potential up to the Eternal Night Hall. Last night I learned that the building of the Jiangbei Defense Line used no architect at all. It was you alone, Domain Lord Chen, who built it." "An architect of this level—even if Jiangbei falls, you, Domain Lord Chen, must not come to harm." "So I told my master at the first moment." "Rest assured." As if he knew what Chen Fan was thinking, Tian Yi drew a deep breath and then said, his face grave, "I told my master alone. By ordinary reckoning he is not my superior. But the matter was too important. I did not dare take the normal channel for passing a report up." "Aside from that, I told no one. His place in the Eternal Night Hall is very high. He will absolutely not let the news leak." "I still have urgent business on me. I need to go to Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon and see to a few things. I won't delay any longer." "Keep this mother-and-child stone. It can speak across a long distance, a single line with me alone. If anything happens, I will tell you at the first moment." With that. The two of them took their leave, boarded a flying boat, and gradually vanished from sight. They left very decisively. Chen Fan, seated in his chair, slowly picked up a rib and put it in his own bowl. He leaned back and settled, and did not speak. A long while later. Only then did he let out a soft laugh, almost in spite of himself. Last night he had already roughly worked out how to lay the route. The western interior of the Eternal Night Continent. A city on the plain was full of people coming and going, and looked extremely busy. This was a stronghold of the Eternal Night Hall, charged with the transfer of supplies, the exchange of news, dispatch across the west, and the like. And now. In a private room within the city. A white-haired elder sat alone at a tea table. The incense stand before him was already heaped with ash, and a wisp of incense smoke drifted up from it. The elder's expression was vacant. He only sent one cup of tea after another into his mouth. No one could have said how long had passed. Only then did the elder rise, shut the doors and windows, activate an array disk, and take a ghost bone from his storage ring. Once the ghost bone was taken out, it caught fire of itself though there was no wind. The black smoke it became hung in the air and did not disperse. In the blink of an eye. A black shadow faintly surfaced in the smoke. The shadow seemed very pleased. A voice that seemed both near and far sounded in the room. "You have contacted us at last. This is the most correct choice of your life." "So long as the intelligence you provide is important enough." "After the Ghost Clan occupies the Eternal Night Continent, we can guarantee your whole family wealth and honor, and share with you a thread of Heavenly Dao Blessing to lengthen your life a hundred years." In the instant the black shadow surfaced. The vacancy in the elder's eyes scattered. He knew there was already no turning back. Even if he said nothing now, once he was found out it would still be the word death. After a pause. He lowered his head toward the incense stand on the tea table and said quietly: "Jiangbei has been held. There is a faction named Fan Domain of Jiangbei. With no support from any faction, it built the Jiangbei Defense Line. A grade-six defense line." "And—" "The head of the faction, Chen Fan, is a very strong architect. He built the Jiangbei Defense Line alone." He reported upward, item by item, the news Tian Yi had reported to him. "Received." The black shadow gave a laugh, and soon slowly dispersed. The black smoke did not disperse. Instead it gathered rapidly, and there, plain to see, formed a ghost bone once more. At that moment— A knock sounded without warning. The elder quickly put the ghost bone away into his storage ring, shut down the array disk, sat again at the tea table, gave a light cough, and only then said in a low voice, "Come in." Soon. A youngster burst in, all in a fluster, his words full of excitement. "Elder Zhang, good news from Eternal Night Western Front No. 1." "They say they've taken a blue-grade building blueprint." "They want us to send an architect over quickly, to Western Front No. 1, to comprehend the building blueprint." "Hmph." The elder snorted coldly, somewhat displeased. "By normal procedure, they ought to send the building blueprint to the rear, not have us send an architect to them." But he could understand it as well. Every defense line hoped that, once these rare building blueprints were comprehended, they would be built on its own line at the first moment. So at the beginning it truly had been set down that way. Later it had turned into sending architects to the front. Otherwise the front would rather keep a blueprint and comprehend it itself than give it to the rear. Who knew, after it was given to the rear, what far-off year it would be before the turn came to build it for one's own line. He said nothing more of it. He only glanced at the excited youngster before him and let out a light sigh. The higher one stood, the more one knew, and the less hope one held for the future of the Eternal Night Continent. The Eternal Night Continent. Had no future left. At present, merely defending was already extremely hard. How could one even speak of a counterattack? He had to leave himself a way out. He did not want to go down to the bottom of the sea together with a ship that was bound to sink. He knew the Ghost Clan's words might not be fit to trust. He also knew that only by wiping out every human on the whole Eternal Night Continent could they finish a complete occupation of it. But. He felt that, since the Ghost Clan so revered human culture, it would surely try to keep a spark of humankind, would it not? There could be other ways around it. For instance, once the greater trend was already set, first settle those of them who had gone over, out upon the sea, and after the Ghost Clan had completely occupied the Eternal Night Continent, bring them back to it. "Humans truly are a race sheltered by fortune." In the darkness. A Ghost Emperor sat on the throne of a great hall, looking at the intelligence the ghost creatures below had delivered up, and murmured in something of a daze. He had not thought. That in an environment like this, a miracle could still appear among humankind. A region on the Western Desolate Isle, extremely barren, and still a faction could rise there and build a Jiangbei Defense Line on its own. All these years they had done everything they could to block the Eternal Night Hall's routes to the Western Desolate Isle, precisely so that Jiangbei would fall. So that the ghost tide could land and, striking from within and from without, push into the interior. And threaten the Eternal Night Continent's Western Front No. 1 from the flank. He had not thought... it would still be held. Only it was not the Eternal Night Hall that had held it. It was a faction named Fan Domain of Jiangbei. He had never heard of this faction at all. He lowered his head to the map in his hand, thought a long time, then tapped the map a few times in thought before giving the order: "Pass it down. Have the ghost tide in the waters of the Eternal Night Continent's Western Front No. 1 smuggle a batch of the ghost tide to the waters of the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line." "At the greatest speed, and at any cost, break into the Yellow Springs Mountains region." "Then enter the Yellow Springs Mountains region, go west all the way, break the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, go from the interior of the Eternal Night Continent to Jiangbei, and destroy Fan Domain." The words fell. A male ghost kneeling in the hall froze where he was. He raised his head toward the Ghost Emperor on the throne and said, shaken: "King." "The last few times, having part of the ghost tide of the Eternal Night Continent's Western Front No. 1 smuggle to outside the Qiuming Basin defense line already cost us an enormous price. To cross beyond the Qiuming Basin and smuggle on to the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line will cost even more." "This will make it harder for us to take Front No. 1." "One Fan Domain." "Is it worth a price so great?" "It is." The Ghost Emperor sat on the throne, his face flat, and said coldly, "Whether Front No. 1 can be taken is not overly important. Even if the Eternal Night Continent holds this front, some other front will fail to hold in the end." "So long as no miracle occurs, the Eternal Night Continent's defeat is certain." "What we must do is snuff out in the cradle every thing that might be a miracle." "If the nodes of the Eternal Night Continent were not so very troublesome, and the price of smuggling not so very great, I would have wanted to send the great army straight to the Jiangbei Defense Line and destroy Fan Domain head-on, at the greatest speed." "No need to take so many roundabout roads." The Ghost Emperor slowly rose, walked to the back of the throne, looked at the couplet hung on the wall, and said quietly, a trace of a smile at the corner of his mouth: "In human culture there is an art of war. It is called: in war, speed is precious." "Then—" "Let Fan Domain of Jiangbei learn what the Ghost Clan's 'speed is precious in war' is." "Understood." The male ghost kneeling below said nothing more. He only answered, and withdrew. Eternal Night descended. The sky darkened once more. In the vast sea before the Eternal Night Continent's Western Front No. 1, a line one hundred and eight kilometers long, countless ghost tides surged up out of the seawater and began to sprint at the defense line. The sound of explosions rose all across the sky. A new night of holding the walls had begun again. But. In the deep sea. Mass upon mass of the ghost tide was gathering on the surface, gathered neat and even, the boundary extremely sharp. One great ghost suspended in the air turned his head toward the empty waters to the north, where there was not a single ghost creature, and ordered, his face icy, "Direction north. Advance!" The next instant! The great mass of ghost tide in the seawater obeyed, and swam on toward the north through the sea in a covering flood. At that moment. "Boom!" A ghost creature charging at the very front had barely stepped into that region empty of every ghost creature when a bolt of lightning struck down without the slightest sign, and blasted this ghost creature, and a whole swath of ghost creatures around it, to ash. As more and more of the ghost tide poured into the region. Dense lightning struck without cease. A rich scorched aroma drifted in the air. The whole scene was like swinging an electric fly swatter at an extremely dense swarm of mosquitoes. The crackling never stopped. The ghost tide, fearing neither life nor death, ignored the lightning filling the sky entirely. It obeyed the order and went on north. Though countless ghost creatures died beneath the lightning, a batch of lucky ones still passed through the region. After they had sprinted several dozen meters, there was no longer any lightning over their heads. About one shichen. This ghost tide, enormous in number, at last passed completely through this death zone. But of those that lived, not one in ten remained. The great ghost suspended in the air looked at the scene before him with a pang of pain. How much strength lost for nothing. He looked toward the great ghost suspended in the air on the far side of the death zone. This batch of the ghost tide. Had smoothly reached the waters of the Qiuming Basin. His task was already complete. The two great ghosts met each other's eyes across the distance, and nodded to show they understood. Like the passing of a relay baton. The great ghost suspended in the air over the waters of the Qiuming Basin led this batch of the ghost tide racing on north across the sea. Before long they reached another region where not a single ghost creature could be seen. "Direction north. Advance." The great ghost gave the order again. The ghost tide below surged once more toward this death zone. Lightning crashed down across the sky. These of the ghost tide that had by luck passed the first death zone charged, once more and without turning back, into the death zone before them. About half a shichen. This ghost tide passed through the death zone again, and successfully reached the waters of the Yellow Springs Mountains. But. Again, not one in ten remained. A great ghost standing in the sky over the waters of the Yellow Springs Mountains had already received this batch. He met the eyes of the great ghost charged with carrying the ghost tide, and nodded once more. "Requesting reinforcements! Requesting reinforcements!" Along the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line, twenty-seven kilometers long, a piercing roar suddenly burst out, thick with fear. The man in charge of the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line roared into the mother-and-child stone in his hand, "Tonight the ghost tide's numbers have suddenly surged! Requesting support! Requesting support!" Under the night. A nearly endless ghost tide landed from the seabed and, more violent and rampant than on ordinary days, surged toward the defense line. The cannon towers on the line fired almost as if desperate. Still they could not hold it. More and more ghost creatures trampled their companions' corpses and charged up onto the line. "Reinforcements!" At that moment— The command room on the defense-line wall was suddenly smashed open by a ghost creature. Despair flashed through the eyes of the man in charge of the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line. His voice trembling a little, he roared one last time, "The Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line has fallen. No need to send aid. Please go and support the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. Their target is—" The voice cut off. This ghost creature, its head enormous, opened a huge mouth packed with sharp teeth. Thick, foul liquid streamed from it. In one bite it swallowed the man's head, and that mother-and-child stone with it, into its belly. The Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line, this night, was broken in full. More and more of the ghost tide mounted the wall, gathered together, and in the night rain drove deep into the interior of the Yellow Springs Mountains region, charging toward the defense line at Yellow Springs Mouth Canyon! It was the rainy season. There were already many ghost creatures. Ghost creatures along the way were all drawn into this ghost tide. The ghost tide's ranks grew ever larger. Even when they brushed past a city, they ignored it completely. They had no desire at all to attack a city, even though before this ghost tide that city could barely have stood a single blow. Nor did the ghost tide pause a single step for it. The target was extremely clear. Go to the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. Break the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. Enter the Guanxi Plain. Go to Jiangbei. "Quick, quick!!!" The Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, having just received the news, was in an uproar. The region they had always defended was the Guanxi Plain. Now the rear had fallen. They had to adjust, and quickly. The cannon towers began to rotate at speed, taking aim at the interior of the Yellow Springs Mountains region. In the night. A stretch of silence. Within the range of the ghost fire, one could see only the pouring rain. Not a single ghost creature could be seen. The man in charge of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, anxious and unsettled, kept roaring into the mother-and-child stone in his hand, "Man in charge of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, calling the man in charge of the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line." He repeated it three times. But no one answered. Even though he had already received word that the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line had fallen, he still called with a thread of hope. "It's not a big problem." At that moment— Tian Yi of the Eternal Night Hall patted the man in charge on the shoulder and said, his voice low, "The ghost tide in the Yellow Springs waters isn't all that numerous. If they could destroy the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line, that means their numbers are already few. The Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line can hold." "What's more—" "The two of us are here." Only when the man in charge of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line saw Tian Yi, and the obese man following at his side, did he loosen a little. He also knew he had rather lost his composure. "I... this is my first time as the man in charge of a defense line. I haven't been through a ghost tide." "It's all right." Tian Yi smiled. "Next time you'll have the experience." However. When the first ghost creature charged out of the dark into the range of the ghost fire, and then an endless ghost tide came racing out of the dark into that range, Tian Yi's face changed in an instant. The numbers of this ghost tide were absolutely not the numbers the Yellow Springs Mouth waters ought to have! At a glance there were fully several hundred Ghost Kings, and several dozen great ghosts as well. And this was only the first batch of the ghost tide to charge into the ghost fire's range. This was not the strength of ghost tide the Yellow Springs Mouth waters ought to have. In almost an instant. He understood. When he reported Fan Domain to his master, his master had suddenly asked one question: had this news been told only to him, or reported through normal channels and then told to him in addition? At the time, for some reason he suddenly grew wary, and said the news had already gone up through normal channels and that he was telling his master in addition. In his heart he trusted his master deeply. It was his master who had taken him in. It was his master who had brought him into the Eternal Night Hall. Only. When he saw this ghost tide, which was not at all what the Yellow Springs Mouth waters ought to have, rush here at such a speed, he knew his master had leaked the intelligence. These ghost tides had not even destroyed the cities along the way. That meant the target was extremely clear. Smash the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. Enter the Guanxi Plain. Destroy Fan Domain. "Master..." Tian Yi suddenly smiled, wretched. His heart felt stifled, choked until he was miserable. The roaring fire that had always been burning inside his body burned even more fiercely now. He had never imagined his master would betray Eternal Night. Master. You are clearly the one who wants most to win. He drew the mother-and-child stone from his robe, reached his superior, and said, word by word, his voice trembling: "Eternal Night Hall. Tian Yi." "Reporting an important message. Fan Domain of Jiangbei has risen. It has established a grade-six defense line to hold Jiangbei, and the lord of Fan Domain of Jiangbei is an extremely powerful architect." "Yesterday I reported this message to my master alone." "He leaked the message." "The Ghost Clan, at any cost, sent a ghost tide to smuggle through to the Yellow Springs Mouth waters. It has now broken the Yellow Springs Coastal Defense Line, and is attacking the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line." After he had reported this. He reached Chen Fan as well, and said, ashamed, his voice shaking: "Domain Lord Chen." "The news has leaked. My master is... a traitor. The Ghost Clan has already sent a great army to attack the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. It is expected to break through very soon. Fan Domain... please make ready as quickly as you can." Once he saw the strength of this ghost tide. He knew the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line could not hold. The Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line, as it had been built, had not been made to meet a ghost tide of this strength. A ghost tide of this strength already far exceeded what Defense Line No. 7 and the Jiangbei Defense Line faced. The next instant— More and more of the ghost tide had already charged into the range of the ghost fire. The cannon towers on the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line began to fire without cease, but against a ghost tide of such numbers and such strength they seemed a single beam that could not hold the whole. Tian Yi slowly closed his eyes. He hefted a blade and stood on the city wall of the Yellow Springs Mouth Defense Line. When he opened his eyes again, boundless fury burst out of him. Cracks, dense and numberless, suddenly surfaced all over his body. Like a shattered doll. Scarlet flame kept jetting from the cracks. Tian Yi drew a deep breath, gripped the great blade, looked toward the endless ghost tide below the defense line, and leapt into the air. His body like a meteor, wrapped in scarlet flame, he crashed into the ghost tide. Any ghost creature that drew near was instantly burned away to nothing. He roared, the sound full of fury: "Eternal Night Hall—Tian Yi—" "is here!"