Final Spark, Light Them Up!

"Oh, by the way, King." Amidst the wave of cheering, the old ghost standing beside Ninety-Five's foot suddenly remembered something and asked hesitantly, "The Fan Domain won't be able to find this place, will it?" Ninety-Five, who had been reveling in joy, shuddered reflexively at the question. A flicker of dread crossed his eyes. The Fan Domain... Hearing those two words now felt like a conditioned reflex. After spending that year in their company, he thought he had come to understand the Fan Domain somewhat. But upon learning that the King of the Royal Clan had perished at their hands, he knew his understanding had been woefully lacking. Yet he soon drew a deep breath and broke into a grin. "Don't worry. We're very, very far from the Fan Domain—so far that no one even knows the distance. We'll certainly never cross paths with the Fan Domain again." In truth... It was indeed vastly remote. This was another sea accessed through a spatial rift in the Primitive Continent, separated from the Eternal Night Continent by an unfathomable expanse. Theoretically speaking, they would never meet again in this lifetime. Nor would he ever return to the Primitive Continent. He had already struck his name from the Ghost Clan. Whether the Primitive Continent shattered or not had nothing to do with him anymore. The Ghost Clan? Unfamiliar. He was the King of the Retirement Clan. Retirement was wonderful, just like his retirement year before, though it always felt as if something small was missing. Standing tens of meters tall, Ninety-Five clicked his tongue and looked around, smiling in satisfaction. Meanwhile, across the distant ocean. A massive, ethereal Black Tortoise—reconstituted in the Underworld Gate basin seven days ago—was sprinting across the sea with an impassive gaze. It charged directly toward the small island where Ninety-Five resided. Crossing the Thunderstorm Sea posed no difficulty whatsoever to the phantom beast. Though far, punishment shall reach. The mission must be fulfilled. Such was the Black Tortoise. This was Absolute Lock-on. Once locked onto a target, even if the prey died and revived, it would lock on anew. *** Jiangbei Fan Domain. Chen Fan stood on the ramparts with a broad smile. Seven days had passed since they had trapped and slain the King of the Royal Clan. Over these seven days, the ghost tide had not mounted another assault, granting them a generous window to digest their spoils. The most notable achievement was... All the architectural blueprints gathered over this period had been identified. Today, on the seventh day, he found the blueprint for the Vermilion Bird Cannon. Indeed. The set was complete. The Heavenly Dao Cannon could now be assembled. White Tiger Cannon, Black Tortoise Cannon, Azure Dragon Cannon, Vermilion Bird Cannon. The Four Divine Cannons were all accounted for. He turned his head to look at the Vermilion Bird Cannon resting beside him upon Fan Domain Underworld Gate Defense Line No. 1. Its barrels were slender, with nine barrels twisted together. The surface bore relief carvings of a vermilion bird, resembling a rocket launcher. [Building Name]: Vermilion Bird Cannon [Building Grade]: Blue [Building Level]: Level 10 [Building Effect]: City Defense Building [Max-Level Effect]: Vermilion Bird Manifestation: One of the Four Divine Cannons. When all four divine cannons are forged simultaneously, they can be fused into the Heavenly Dao Cannon. The Black Tortoise Cannon was Absolute Lock-on. The White Tiger Cannon was Absolute Might. The Azure Dragon Cannon was Absolute Death. And the Vermilion Bird Cannon was... Absolute Speed. With a thought from Chen Fan, the patterns along the Vermilion Bird Cannon's chassis flared to life. The carved vermilion bird on the barrels seemed to animate, spreading its wings to take flight. A faint, resonant cry of a vermilion bird echoed through the air as the nine barrels began spinning rapidly. Volleys of shells trailing crimson, molten light ripped across the sky, slamming violently into the desolate plain outside the defense line and blasting out massive craters. The projectile speed of the Vermilion Bird Cannon was astonishingly fast, rivaling even the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. And now... It was time for the four to become one. Chen Fan drew a deep breath. Looking at the four blue-grade divine cannons mounted nearby, he pressed the fusion option on the building interface in the depths of his soul. In the next instant, the Azure Dragon soared into the nine heavens, and the Black Tortoise anchored heaven and earth. The White Tiger roared across the mountain ravines, and the Vermilion Bird cried out in all directions. The four artillery towers seemed to come alive, rapidly melting and coalescing into an exceptionally exaggerated heavy cannon. It occupied a colossal footprint, roughly equivalent to seven or eight God-Slaying Cannons combined. The overall design appeared ancient and austere. It resembled a monumental siege gun perched on the battlements of an ancient stronghold. There was no trace of luxury. It was not an unconventional turret like the Black Tortoise Cannon. It lacked the magnificent exterior of the Azure Dragon Cannon. Nor did it radiate the rampant savagery of the White Tiger Cannon at first glance. It looked utterly ordinary. Aside from being rather large, it possessed virtually nothing distinctive. Even its status panel was remarkably plain. [Building Name]: Heavenly Dao Cannon [Building Grade]: Purple [Building Level]: Level 10 [Building Effect]: City Defense Building [Max-Level Effect]: All Things as Straw Dogs: Equal Longevity with Heaven and Earth. Chen Fan narrowed his eyes slightly as he regarded the panel. Truth be told, he could not tell what made it so formidable. The only peculiar aspect was that this building required no upgrades; without him investing any materials, it was Level 10 upon creation. Which meant max level. Currently, the level cap for most structures within the Fan Domain was Level 10. He had assumed that higher-grade structures would have higher level caps, but that was not the case here either. Still, the name of the max-level effect sounded rather bold. *All Things as Straw Dogs.* To test its capabilities, he turned and descended from the ramparts, heading straight for the teleportation array to travel to the Jiangbei Desert. That was an ideal proving ground. It was unsuitable to conduct tests at the Fan Domain Underworld Gate Defense Line; he intended to keep the Heavenly Dao Cannon as an ace in the hole to catch the Royal Clan off guard. If the Royal Clan caught wind of its power beforehand, it would spoil the surprise. *** Jiangbei, Desert. Chen Fan stood aboard the flying boat, looking down at a temporary wall tens of meters high and a single Heavenly Dao Cannon mounted upon it. He calculated silently. One Heavenly Dao Cannon required fusing four max-level divine cannons. He had already verified that if four Level 1 divine cannons were fused, the resulting Heavenly Dao Cannon would be Level 1. If one Level 10 and three Level 1 divine cannons were fused, the result would still be Level 1. In other words, the cost of a single max-level Heavenly Dao Cannon was ten million ghost stones. The price was certainly steep. A God-Slaying Cannon cost a mere 37,800 ghost stones to forge. This meant the Heavenly Dao Cannon was destined to remain an unconventional ordnance rather than standard issue; the mainstay conventional turret would still be the God-Slaying Cannon. The next moment, as the copper pipes illuminated and the runic patterns across the Heavenly Dao Cannon mounted on the wall flared with light, he learned that it possessed two firing modes. One was pinpoint strike, and the other was area-of-effect. He decided to try the area-of-effect first. As the Heavenly Dao Cannon lit up, dark clouds swiftly gathered out of nowhere across the sky above. Immediately after! The cannon fired an inconspicuous shell straight into the overcast clouds. After a pause of a few breaths... A sudden crash of thunder detonated. In an instant, an almost boundless deluge of lightning cascaded from the dark clouds in an extraordinarily dense, berserk barrage, carpet-bombing the Jiangbei Desert. The light of the sun and moon vanished from between heaven and earth. As far as the eye could see, there was only a torrential storm of roaring lightning strikes. The blast zone was so vast that it blanketed nearly a third of the desert. Standing aboard the flying boat, Chen Fan stared in a daze at the spectacle before him. His vision blurred as countless bolts of lightning crashed down, barely grazing the vessel. His eyes were filled with nothing but lightning flooding the sky. The Heavenly Dao Cannon belonged to him, so naturally, it would not target him. The torrential lightning storm raged for roughly the duration of an incense stick before abruptly dissipating, and the dark clouds dispersed. Looking down at the desert again, vast stretches of crystalline granules had formed over the sand. One salvo from the Heavenly Dao Cannon consumed one million ghost stones. Quite cheap, actually. It was comparable to the cost of a single shot from the Black Tortoise Cannon. This was the area-of-effect attack, suited for dealing with massive ghost tides. Next, he prepared to test the pinpoint mode. However... When he tried to lay the barrel flat, aiming parallel to the desert floor, the Heavenly Dao Cannon on the panel began flashing red. The manual fire button turned gray and unclickable, accompanied by a small gray prompt in the lower-right corner: *Force Fire?* Only when he elevated the barrel to an upward angle did the panel cease flashing red. "Strange?" Aboard the flying boat, Chen Fan furrowed his brow, looking down at the Heavenly Dao Cannon stationed in the desert below. What was going on? He distinctly remembered that back at Fan Domain Underworld Gate Defense Line No. 1, leveling the barrel horizontally had not triggered a red alert on the panel. Why did it flash red here? Could it be... The blast was so immense that it would damage the Fan Domain? This location was situated in Jiangbei, and there were indeed numerous Fan Domain structures outside the desert perimeter. Back to the defense line. Although he could force the shot, the panel was flashing red, and there was no need to deliberately oppose the system's warning. A few breaths later, Chen Fan returned to Fan Domain Underworld Gate Defense Line No. 1. With the teleportation arrays in place, traveling back and forth was effortless and consumed almost no time. He looked toward the Heavenly Dao Cannon mounted upon the defense line. He leveled the barrel. Aiming directly toward the Underworld Gate basin, Ninety-Five's former habitat. This time, the panel did not flash red. It could fire normally. However, three options popped up. [1: Heaven Cannon. Consumes 1,000,000 ghost stones.] [2: Dao Cannon. Consumes 10,000,000 ghost stones.] [3: All Things as Straw Dogs, Equal Longevity with Heaven and Earth. Consumes 100,000,000 ghost stones.] Chen Fan raised an eyebrow. The Heavenly Dao Cannon offered quite a few firing modes. A single pinpoint method alone offered three tiers, and the most expensive shot required an astounding one hundred million ghost stones. Was this a joke? Forging a Heavenly Dao Cannon had only cost him ten million ghost stones. He would try the one-million shot first. In the next instant, with the barrel held level, several beams of white light abruptly manifested before the muzzle to form the character *Heaven*. Immediately after, an exceptionally thick pillar of scorching light erupted from the barrel, blasting into the Underworld Gate basin. The Underworld Gate basin was already devoid of the ghost tide; the main force had pulled back, leaving only scattered ghost creatures behind. The pillar of blazing light was a full hundred meters thick. Five thousand meters. Like a red-hot iron rod plunging through butter, the ghost creatures in its path were practically vaporized on contact. He could sense an extraordinarily terrifying momentum from that beam of light. A Ghost Emperor would never be able to withstand it—instant death. Even stronger beings would find it difficult to endure. Chen Fan stared blankly at the scene before him. If this Heavenly Dao Cannon were stationed at Nameless Mountain, and the ghost creatures could only attack through the canyon, it would truly be a case of one man holding the pass against ten thousand. It looked vaguely familiar. Wasn't this Lux's ultimate ability? *Final Spark, Light Them Up!* It worked best when the enemies lined up in rows, skewering them all in a single pass. In certain specialized terrain, it was like a divine intervention. The searing beam of light slowly dispersed. Time to try the Dao Cannon, costing ten million ghost stones per shot. Chen Fan looked at the Heavenly Dao Cannon, itching to test it. If the one-million shot was already this strong, what about the ten-million shot? Yet, gritting his teeth slightly, he decided to skip directly to the one-hundred-million shot. Although it was somewhat extravagant, he needed to know its full power to wield the Heavenly Dao Cannon effectively. After he selected confirm fire, the Heavenly Dao Cannon did not trigger immediately. Instead, an icon resembling a nuclear warhead popped up, flashing red continuously. *Immense destructive power. Please confirm activation with caution.* "Confirm!" Had there been no warning, he might have hesitated, but the warning only made him want to fire it more. No young man could resist lighting a firecracker; the bigger the bang, the more thrilling it was. And if he could resist that, he certainly couldn't resist blowing up a dog bowl with one. The next moment, as liquefied ghost stones poured steadily through the copper pipes into the Heavenly Dao Cannon, the weapon began charging. Before the muzzle, beams of white light coalesced into eight characters: *All Things as Straw Dogs, Equal Longevity with Heaven and Earth.* A few breaths later, the barrel ignited with blinding luminescence. Standing beside the cannon, Chen Fan felt his perspective violently yanked upward into infinity. He felt as if his soul had been pulled from his body, suspended high above the nine heavens, overlooking the entire Eternal Night Continent. This was the first time he had viewed the Eternal Night Continent with such complete clarity. His gaze pierced through the layers of clouds, looking down upon the expanse below. He immediately located the position of the Western Desolate Isle. From this height, it stood out prominently. Yet before he could process why he was in this state, he saw it. He saw a searing white light abruptly erupt from the Western Desolate Isle—a beam of radiant light. And this beam was penetrating deep into the heart of the Eternal Night Continent at unfathomable speed. The scorching beam blazed straight toward the easternmost reaches of the Eastern Eternal Night Continent, bisecting the entire landmass. Every ghost creature along its path was instantly reduced to ashes. After several breaths, the beam reached the far end, lingering for a dozen breaths before slowly fading away. Chen Fan's perspective snapped back to normal. Chen Fan fell silent. Beside him, Sick Monkey and Qi Yue fell silent. Everyone along the defense line fell dead silent. Every pair of eyes turned in unison toward the absolute straight, absolute smooth swath of nothingness, roughly twenty kilometers wide, stretching before the defense line. This swath of nothingness extended from the ramparts, ignoring all terrain obstacles—piercing mountain ranges, severing rivers, shredding cloud banks—and racing to the far end of the continent at an indescribable speed. Theoretically speaking, if one had enough ghost stones, one could erect a Heavenly Dao Cannon every twenty kilometers across the Eternal Night Continent and fire them all at once, each launching the one-hundred-million *All Things as Straw Dogs, Equal Longevity with Heaven and Earth*. In a single instant, all ghost creatures across the entire continent would be completely wiped out. Of course, the price would be that the Eternal Night Continent would become rather flat. Chen Fan stared blankly at the sight until the sound transmission talisman in his pocket vibrated repeatedly with the voice of the Valley Master of Medicine King Valley, snapping him out of his daze. "Domain Lord, we've saved That Person." "Good, I'm heading over now." He drew a deep breath and strode toward the teleportation array behind him. A vague idea of how to conquer the Eternal Night Continent formed in his mind: if he could herd all the ghost creatures into a single straight line, a few salvos from the Heavenly Dao Cannon would clear them out entirely. But how could he gather the Ghost Clan into a single line? As he walked, he shook the Heaven-Inquiring Bell in his hand. "Is there a way to gather the Ghost Clan into a straight line?" "Heaven's secrets must not be revealed; I cannot inform you," a raspy voice whispered in his ear. Chen Fan curled his lip and tucked the bell back into his robes. This was one of the exotic treasures seized after the great battle seven days ago. The Heaven-Inquiring Bell. [Exotic Treasure Name]: Heaven-Inquiring Bell [Exotic Treasure Grade]: Purple [Exotic Treasure Effect]: Inquire about any question. Each inquiry consumes 10,000 ghost stones, regardless of whether an answer is provided. If an answer is provided, it consumes 1,000,000 ghost stones, regardless of the question's value. No daily usage limit. His assessment of this treasure was that it was exceptionally handy. It was his first purple-grade exotic treasure—the Heavenly Dao Cannon didn't count, as it was a building. Although many inquiries returned with "no comment," it was still very useful. It was equivalent to an unlimited-use Heaven-Inquiring Incense, and cheaper to boot. He had grown accustomed to tossing out casual questions whenever he pleased; after all, even if no answer was given, it only cost ten thousand ghost stones. *** Fan Domain, Sunset City. A middle-aged man clad in green robes was currently planted in a medicinal herb field, just like Tian Yi in the past. He watched with a smile as Weiwei and Weiwei's parents frolicked nearby. "Weiwei, why did Chen Fan give you such a name back then? Didn't you object?" The stouter crocodile beside him shook its head, grinning with a menacing, wide-mouthed smile. "Roar..." Weiwei let out a low rumble. "Speaking human tongue was taught to me by the Boss; I can't teach you. Besides, you're a crocodile—why are you always thinking about speaking human words? That's not good." Just then, Chen Fan arrived with Sick Monkey. Watching the three crocodiles wrestling and rolling on the ground, the exhaustion weighing on him dissipated considerably, and he smiled lightly. Weiwei's parents had been saved. Though their injuries had not fully healed, they would survive. The He clan of Jiangnan, who had researched exotic beasts for generations, truly possessed real skill. Weiwei was saying goodbye to his parents. Seeing Chen Fan approach, he scurried over to Chen Fan's feet in delight, rolled onto his back, and then darted off toward the outskirts of Sunset City. Weiwei had been very busy these days. He only had time to check on his parents occasionally. Most of his time was spent subduing the exotic beasts. Indeed. The great exodus across the Eternal Night Continent had not only involved humans; exotic beasts hiding in various corners had also fled toward the Western Desolate Isle alongside the crowds. These exotic beasts that escaped to the island were all taken under Weiwei's wing. But many possessed stubborn temperaments, so Weiwei was busy taming them one by one. "Go on, Weiwei." After watching Weiwei depart, Chen Fan leaned on his emerald cane and walked up to the middle-aged man buried in the earth. "How should I address you, sir?" "Just call me That Person." "Well then, Mr. That, how is your physical condition?" "Acceptable." The middle-aged man, whose lower legs were buried in the soil and tied to a scarecrow, let out a helpless sigh. "Over the past few days, your people haven't spared me from their torments. Using ghost blood flowers to substitute for blood vessels—I wouldn't have dreamed up such torture in a lifetime. How did you come up with that?" Chen Fan glanced at the Valley Master of Medicine King Valley beside him. "I haven't asked yet—how did you save Mr. That?" "Well..." Sensing that the atmosphere was turning awkward, the Valley Master shrank his neck and murmured, "Treating a dead horse like a live one. We tried every method, and then... he came back to life." "For example?" Chen Fan asked. "For example..." the middle-aged man spoke on behalf of the Valley Master. Lifting his robe, he pulled an altar from his abdomen and tossed it onto the farmland. "For example, burying an altar inside my stomach. The medical methods of the Fan Domain are rather peculiar. Still, you needn't blame him. My waking up was indeed thanks to him. The Heavenly Dao's rain seven days ago granted me a breath of life. Had I been indoors and missed that rain, I wouldn't be opening my eyes right now. I feel a bit weak. Pull me out, won't you? Let's take a walk." *** Along the Jiangbei Defense Line. Chen Fan and the middle-aged man walked shoulder to shoulder atop the ramparts. Having clawed his way back from the brink of death, the middle-aged man clasped one hand behind his back and gazed in a daze at the humans bustling across the desolate plain. "You already know my identity. Ask whatever you wish to ask. The Eternal Night Continent has suffered this great calamity; lives have been devastated, leaving ruins everywhere. Having your Fan Domain here is a great blessing for the Eternal Night Continent." Chen Fan walked impassively along the defense line, occasionally reaching out to touch the cold stone walls. The person beside him was actually the Heavenly Dao of the New Continent. Before the New Continent fell, he had self-detonated to perish alongside the ghost tide, ending up in a state that even he could not fully comprehend—neither Heavenly Dao nor human. "The Eternal Night Continent is a Tier 1 continent?" "Yes," the middle-aged man nodded slowly. "I do not know how vast this entire world is, but I am certain the Eternal Night Continent is merely a remote corner. Once the Eternal Night Continent ascends to a Tier 2 continent, the level cap for buildings will increase. Certain restrictions will also be unlocked, giving birth to blueprints of higher grades. For instance, the Fan Domain's Heaven-Reaching Pillar—normally, that is a building only unlocked on a Tier 2 continent. I don't know how the Fan Domain obtained it." At this point, the middle-aged man gave Chen Fan a peculiar look. "Furthermore, I just sensed a disturbance across the Eternal Night Continent. Those were the traces left by a Heavenly Dao Cannon. That, too, is a structure belonging to Tier 2 continents. You haven't received authorization, so where did you get it?" *Authorization?* Chen Fan pondered silently. There had been no authorization; the panel simply showed the word *Fuse*. He clicked it, and it fused. He hadn't felt any restrictions. Yet he quickly understood. Others didn't have a panel, so naturally they couldn't click fuse. Seen this way, the panel was more like a personal Heavenly Dao—one with full administrative privileges. "A stroke of luck," he brushed past the topic and continued, "What are the primary role and responsibilities of a Heavenly Dao?" "Good question," the middle-aged man exhaled. "The Heavenly Dao itself possesses neither emotions nor consciousness; it serves to link what is above with what is below. This world has a Supreme Heavenly Dao. For example, when the Eternal Night Continent fulfills all conditions to ascend to a Tier 2 continent, its Heavenly Dao reports this news upward to the Supreme Heavenly Dao. The Supreme Heavenly Dao then bestows blessings, upgrading the Eternal Night Continent to Tier 2. The local Heavenly Dao cannot upgrade the continent on its own. Its personal authority is very low." "Take another example. When the seabed ghost tide made landfall and the Fan Domain guarded Jiangbei, the Heavenly Dao bestowed blessings. That is one of the few autonomous authorities of a Heavenly Dao: distributing rewards according to merit. Or the core formations underlying the Eternal Night Continent—those are also the handiwork of the Heavenly Dao, or rather, its instinctual reaction when assaulted. It has no emotions. Across the entire world, almost nobody can converse face-to-face with a Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao does not reply." Chen Fan remained silent for a long time, walking side by side with the man along the defense line. After a moment, he asked, "Mr. That, what are the conditions for the Eternal Night Continent to ascend to a Tier 2 continent?" The middle-aged man did not answer right away. He looked deeply at Chen Fan before speaking. "The conditions for a Tier 1 continent to upgrade to Tier 2 are not simple. It requires a unified faction that possesses twenty max-level buildings, ensures its ghost fire is upgraded to Level 10, and completes the Sovereign of All Under Heaven quest. Fulfilling these conditions allows ascension to a Tier 2 continent." "That's not right," Chen Fan frowned slightly. "Mr. That, when the Fan Domain arrived at the New Continent, it achieved unification there, possessed twenty max-level buildings, and completed the Sovereign of All Under Heaven quest. Yet the New Continent did not ascend to a Tier 2 continent." The Fan Domain had achieved twenty max-level buildings long ago. The reward back then had been a blue-grade resource lucky bag, which granted him considerable ghost stone reserves. "Indeed," the middle-aged man said faintly. "That continent once had a name; it wasn't called the New Continent, but the Apocalypse Continent. Ordinarily, the Apocalypse Continent should indeed have ascended to a Tier 2 continent. But did you forget what I just said? What elevates a continent is the Supreme Heavenly Dao. A local Heavenly Dao must first report the matter upward before the Apocalypse Continent can advance. With nobody to report on your behalf, how could it ascend? The Apocalypse Continent has no Heavenly Dao; its former Heavenly Dao is standing right before you." "When the Heavenly Dao of certain races or continents perishes for various reasons, those races and continents become rootless entities. None of their achievements are reported upward. That is why some races that have lost their Heavenly Dao become utterly desperate to conquer continents—because only by claiming a continent can a new Heavenly Dao be born for their race, allowing them to be embraced once more by this world." Chen Fan nodded. He understood the gist of it. "Is the Ghost Clan the same?" "No..." The middle-aged man shook his head with grave solemnity. "The Royal Clan you saw are a 'specialized race.' You can understand them as having a baseline awareness of this world, though they are likely a weak race unqualified to join the War Quagmire. Still, against Tier 1 continents, they can exert overwhelming dominance. They know precisely what they gain by conquering a continent. Their goal is to wage war in all directions and plunder Black Abysses." "The Ghost Clan is different. The Ghost Clan are ghost creatures that spawned naturally after the Primitive Continent was completely overrun by darkness. In terms of life tier, creatures born on the Primitive Continent are higher than those spawned from dark mist—the Royal Clan. Of course, that does not mean they are stronger. The Ghost Clan knows next to nothing about this world; they only know their Primitive Continent is on the verge of fracturing and they must swiftly conquer another. Concepts like races, continents, Black Abysses, and the War Quagmire are foreign to them. In fact, their understanding of a Heavenly Dao is limited to the idea that with one, they can reproduce." "What is the Primitive Continent?" Chen Fan asked, brow furrowed. "That traces back to ancient times," the middle-aged man said in a trance-like tone. "A very long time ago, there was only one continent in this world. Aside from humans, there were many other races—such as the elves with their pointed ears, fair men and women; the goblins skilled in metallurgy; the scarce dragon race; and more. Later... darkness invaded. The Primitive Continent shattered. Continent upon continent across heaven and earth carried the remnants of those races, while the Primitive Continent broke into hundreds of fragments scattered through the dark. Fragments of the Primitive Continent hold immense value; if one appeared in the War Quagmire, countless factions would engage in a mad firefight over it. The Primitive Continent where the Ghost Clan resides is one of those hundreds of fragments. If possible... if the Fan Domain can conquer and assimilate that Primitive Continent, it would be an immense boon to your future development." Chen Fan frowned, digesting the information. This was his first time gaining such a direct understanding of this world. "Yet the Royal Clan doesn't seem to care about that primitive realm? They care more about the Eternal Night Continent." "What do they know?" the middle-aged man said helplessly. "They are an inferior race that doesn't even qualify for the War Quagmire, only able to scavenge around the perimeter. How would they know anything about the Primitive Continent? In their eyes, they probably just found a spatial rift, happened to stumble into a pitch-black unknown continent, and through it, managed to descend onto the Eternal Night Continent. They're rejoicing at finding a weak Tier 1 continent, treating that Primitive Continent merely as a transit station. Their Heavenly Dao likely knows, but their Heavenly Dao won't tell them." "Why?" "A Heavenly Dao does not communicate directly with its race or continent. You forgot again—the Heavenly Dao has no emotions. It is essentially a living dead focused solely on its designated duties." "One more question." Chen Fan asked what mattered most to him: "What is the War Quagmire?" "Ah..." The middle-aged man murmured as if lost in memory. "That is an extraordinarily chaotic place. How should I describe it? The Fan Domain's Heaven-Reaching Pillars are merely conventional reconnaissance weapons there. Heavenly Dao Cannons exchanging fire are a common sight—and not Level 10 Heavenly Dao Cannons, but Level 20 or even Level 30 ones. Every day, races and continents join, and every day, races and continents are blasted into fragments and wiped out entirely. Once you enter, you sink deeply as if into a quagmire, making it nearly impossible to escape unscathed." "The prerequisite to enter... If it's a continent, it must be Tier 2, and a defense line must be constructed along its entire perimeter, completely composed of Level 20 defenses, just to barely qualify. Otherwise, the moment you enter, the shockwaves alone will tear you to pieces. Nobody would even need to actively attack you; you would shatter on your own." "Continents can move?" Chen Fan keenly caught the underlying information. "Of course," the middle-aged man chuckled. "Upon ascending to a Tier 2 continent, a blueprint called the Profound Heaven Thruster is unlocked. When the continent's inhabitants or defenses slay ghost creatures, there is a chance for this blueprint to drop. Installing large quantities of Profound Heaven Thrusters along the edges allows the continent to move." "Understood." Chen Fan nodded. He suddenly realized that Mr. That was far more vital than he had imagined: a Heavenly Dao capable of real-time dialogue was something no other race or continent possessed. "What is the Thunderstorm Sea?" "That, I truly do not know," the middle-aged man sighed helplessly. "I have never seen nor heard of it before." "One last question." Chen Fan spoke again. "I want to gather all the Royal Clan's ghost tides into a straight line and obliterate them all at once with the Heavenly Dao Cannon. Although it sounds fanciful, do you think it's possible?" The middle-aged man fell silent. After a long while, he spoke. "That's impossible. Forget it. Ghost creatures aren't fools; they won't stand in a neat row waiting for you to blast them." The two walked shoulder to shoulder along the Jiangbei Defense Line. Behind them, Wang Kui and Sick Monkey followed quietly, listening with rapt attention. This was the first time they had learned about the broader truths of this world. *** Meanwhile, on the other side. In a great hall within the darkness-shrouded primitive realm. Scores of Royal Clan generals sat impassively inside the palace, occasionally scratching their bodies. The darkness of this continent made their skin itch. "We need unity now." A new king had yet to be chosen. The old ghost continued to preside over the assembly, keeping his eyelids lowered to hide the gleam in his eyes. He said in a raspy voice, "The Royal Clan's Black Abyss was stolen through an unforeseen accident. Most likely, another race discovered it and seized the opportunity to plunder it. In the past, the Black Abyss was heavily guarded, but with the late King's passing, many defenses were withdrawn. We must immediately conquer the Eternal Night Continent and locate a new Black Abyss. Without one, we have lost our source of fresh troops." "According to everyone's consensus, over the next seven days, all generals will muster their forces to launch a joint general offensive across three defense lines: the Underworld Gate, Jiangbei, and the Guandong Plain. The first general to breach the defenses shall become the new King of the Royal Clan. What say you all?" As the words fell, the Ghost Kings in the hall exchanged glances, each reading the agreement in the others' eyes. This was good; this way, everyone had a chance to become king. Otherwise, deciding solely on who possessed the highest darkness affinity felt unfair. Like this, every general had an opportunity. "Agreed, let's proceed with that." "The general offensive begins in seven days." From the shadows, a ghost creature was the first to voice support, and more and more voices chimed in to echo the call.