Year 01 of the New Eternal Night Calendar

If gods had a name, that name might well be the Heavenly Dao Cannon. Across this narrow strip of the Eternal Night Continent, eighty-one kilometers wide and twelve thousand kilometers long, nearly every single inch of land from west to south was packed solid with ghost creatures. Pseudo-human ghosts. Massive swarms of flesh worm ghosts, mantis ghosts, and bamboo pole ghosts. Layer piled upon layer. Like a colossal abomination, squirming across the long, narrow continent. Or like a gigantic maggot writhing frantically atop a bar of dark chocolate. When the five Heavenly Dao Cannons fired in unison, divine retribution descended upon the mortal realm. Five blazing beams of light capable of scorching the very soul erupted forth. Their width matched the Eternal Night Continent precisely. Grazing the borders like razor-sharp sheets of sheared white brilliance, they surged from the Western Desolate Isle, sweeping across the entire Eternal Night Continent at a speed nearly impossible for the naked eye to track. The Heavenly Dao Cannon. The ultimate city defense structure accessible to a Tier 1 continent. Under normal circumstances, it was an architectural privilege unlocked only after advancing to a Tier 2 continent. At this moment, it displayed its terrifying, absolute dominance. The Heavenly Dao Cannon possessed none of the individual attributes of the Four Divine Cannons. No absolute lock-on, no absolute death. Yet the singularly pure columns of light that burst forth effortlessly wiped away every ghost tide across the Eternal Night Continent. This was not a battle. This was an erasure. An erasure of beings that should never have existed on the Eternal Night Continent in the first place. Several breaths later. The scorching pillars of light gradually faded. It took dozens more breaths before everyone's eyes readjusted to the ambient brightness. A narrow continent twelve thousand kilometers long and eighty-one kilometers wide. A reborn realm bathed from end to end in gentle, pristine white luminescence. It stood unveiled before their eyes. Not a single trace of ghost creatures remained. Barely a speck of flesh or blood could be seen; the land had been cleansed with absolute purity. All that remained across the continent was a vast carpet of ghost stones and dropped strange treasures. The war was over. The ghost creatures had not wanted a war of attrition. Neither had the Fan Domain. The next instant, nearly a thousand flying boats soared into the skies above the Fan Domain Defense Line, forming a single straight line formation as they flew toward the continent's interior. The banners of the Fan Domain fluttered in the heavens, while the Gathering Sculptures mounted upon the decks vacuumed up dropped ghost stones and treasures by the bushel, channeling them straight into the Mustard Seed Chambers within the vessels. The Gathering Sculptures had no internal storage of their own. However, by linking to external storage compartments, they could automatically funnel gathered items directly into those reservoirs. Presently, all recovered spoils were stored within the Mustard Seed Chambers of the flying boats. Their capacity was limited. Before long, the vessels began streaming back, swiftly depositing the retrieved ghost stones and treasures into temporary warehouses constructed behind the defense line before setting sail once more for the mainland interior. Amidst the fleet, hundreds of vessels were led personally by the Commerce Pavilion. Max-level ghost fires were rapidly placed onto the ground, paving the way for the Sovereign Over the World blessing. This time, the Logistics Pavilion had not been sent ahead to mark coordinates. The present Eternal Night Continent was exceedingly uniform, rendering coordinate markers unnecessary and making it simple to blanket the entire landmass in ghost fires. Such was the terrifying logistical might of the Fan Domain. And it was only now that waves of cheers, mingled with sobs of relief, erupted across the Fan Domain Defense Line. "We won! We won! We won!" "We can go home!" "The Fan Domain won! The Eternal Night Continent won!" The cheers spread like wildfire, reaching the ears of the workers operating the high-speed rail across the Guanxi Plain, reaching those raising city after city across Jiangnan, reaching the logistics crews in Jiangbei, and traversing the undersea tunnel all the way to the people of the New Continent. Gradually, the cheers echoed through the entirety of the Eternal Night Continent, and even across the New Continent. No one had imagined the war would conclude so swiftly. Nor did anyone know the price the Eternal Night Continent had paid for this victory. Two Heavenly Daos had chosen to self-destruct. A Heavenly Dao held no emotion, but that did not mean it lacked sapience. No one knew how That Person had persuaded the Eternal Night Continent's Heavenly Dao to destroy itself, but the plan had succeeded. The Eternal Night Continent had been granted a reboot. As the old saying went: parting the clouds reveals the bright moon. From this day forth, the Eternal Night Continent was completely renewed. Chen Fan stood upon the defense line, gazing eastward. He stood there silently until dusk fell and the Eternal Night once again swept across the continent. He watched as ghost fires were ignited one after another, advancing relentlessly across the continental expanse. Those ghost fires, radiating warm yellow light, shone like the hearth fires of ten thousand homes, anchoring themselves upon the Eternal Night Continent. They told the departed that they could finally come home. No one knew how much time had passed, but before dawn broke, the final Tier 10 ghost fire was personally lit on the far side of the continent by Pavilion Master Wang Mazi of the Commerce Pavilion. The next instant, all 3,877 max-level ghost fires erupted simultaneously, as though answering a divine summons, blasting blinding golden pillars of light straight into the heavens. Nearly four thousand ghost fires enveloped the Eternal Night Continent. The entire landmass instantly became as bright as day. Immediately after, these soaring golden pillars merged, piercing straight toward the highest heavens. Wherever the light passed, the darkness was swiftly driven back. The speed of the light grew faster and faster. Faster and faster. Until... A faint pop echoed, like a sheet of cellophane being punctured. The veil of darkness that had shrouded the Eternal Night Continent for untold ages was shattered in an instant. A sky full of brilliant stars appeared above the Eternal Night Continent for the very first time. In Sunset City, Gongyang Yiyue sat on stone steps, gazing up at the sea of stars in a daze. He had seen countless poems praising the stars of antiquity, but this was his first time witnessing them with his own eyes. "How beautiful..." Beside him, Dayu, now in the form of a young child, stared blankly at the spectacle. He subconsciously raised lotus-root-like arms, as though wishing to pluck the stars from the sky. Every surviving soul across the Eternal Night Continent set down their work, standing frozen in place as they looked up at the sky. High above, the golden pillars reaching into the highest heavens suddenly shattered into fragments, and a torrential rain of gold cascaded down, washing over the entire Eternal Night Continent. Lakes filled once more with crystal-clear water. Barren plains sprouted fresh green grass. The Eternal Night Continent recovered at astonishing speed. Continental plates that had previously collapsed into the sea reversed their descent, swiftly restoring themselves as if someone had pressed a rewind button. Open-air ghost mines rapidly materialized. The entire continent had begun a swift revival. Chen Fan looked calmly at the panel floating in the depths of his soul. "You have illuminated all areas of a continent with ghost fires, earning the special reward: Sovereign Over the World!" "Over the next three years, this continent will continuously absorb Eternal Night energy to form ghost mines, its soil will turn fertile, and it will remain entirely immune to ghost creature invasion for the duration of these three years." After a long time, Chen Fan suddenly smiled. The war was over. Be it the Ghost Race or the Royal Clan, it had all ended. For three years, not a single ghost creature would disturb the Eternal Night Continent. The next moment, hundreds of fully equipped flying boats laden with ghost stones sped toward the edge of the continent. Their mission was to enter the Primitive Land, gauge the remaining ghost creature presence, and eradicate every last one left inside. With the main host wiped out, mopping up the few remaining stragglers would pose little difficulty. The Fan Domain did not lose itself in the euphoria of victory. Great numbers of Fan Domain personnel rode Skeleton Horses and flying boats out beyond the defense lines, beginning the vast laying of copper pipes. Chen Fan had not forgotten that although the Eternal Night Continent had been rebooted and reclaimed, it currently possessed no Heavenly Dao. He needed to raise the continent's prosperity as quickly as possible to reconverge the Heavenly Dao and bring That Person back into existence. The war was won. The rest could be left to the Fan Domain. As for him... His lips twitched slightly as he heard Wang Kui's urgent voice coming through the transmission talisman. "Domain Lord, we don't have enough copper pipes! Those lunatics in the Logistics Pavilion have practically cleared out the warehouses, and we're running out of key structures. Please come back quickly!" Right. He had to head back and craft more copper pipes. And then begin the steady development of his Eternal Night Continent. He would shape it into a domain that, should another crisis arise, would never again be caught on the back foot—one that could simply roll straight over whatever stood in its path. Early February, Year 01 of the New Eternal Night Calendar. A full month had passed since the reboot of the Eternal Night Continent. The Fan Domain had issued the new Eternal Night Calendar, and the continent's territory had been fully restored. Throngs of people had dispersed across the land, bustling with activity. By this point, the Fan Domain had achieved near-total unification of the continent, meeting all the prerequisites for advancement to a Tier 2 continent. All that remained was for the Heavenly Dao to reconverge and report the matter upward, allowing the Eternal Night Continent to officially complete its breakthrough. On the Black Tortoise Plain, hundreds of workers were rapidly erecting a massive city. At the edge of the plain, high-speed rail trains sped back and forth without pause, transporting immense quantities of supplies. Among these supplies were large numbers of giant bricks, which formed the foundation of the new city. The giant bricks were produced in the Jiangbei brick kilns. The Fan Domain had chosen not to build kilns in every separate region, as doing so would consume far too much of Chen Fan's time, and the Domain Lord was already swamped in Jiangbei. "The Black Tortoise Plain is back." Patriarch Tang, who had once conducted business with Chen Fan, paused in his labor, wiped the sweat from his brow, and looked up at the rising Black Tortoise City. He then glanced toward a section marked as the Black Tortoise City Ruins within the walls, sighing with emotion. The original ruins had long since been wiped from existence, leaving not even a crumb behind. They had reconstructed a replica of the Black Tortoise City Ruins inside the new city to commemorate how the former City Lord of Black Tortoise City had stood alone to the bitter end defending the city. People needed history. History might not always teach people lessons, but it reminded them of what their forebears had sacrificed, prompting them to cherish their current lives all the more. Tang Yue said nothing. Standing beside her father, she quietly handed him a cup of tea. In the past, she had been playful, loving nothing more than wandering about. Yet ever since enduring the ghost tide invasion, the exodus to the Western Desolate Isle, and witnessing countless lives perish defending the continent, she had grown far less frivolous. Her former carefree joy had faded. She seemed to have grown up. Whether such maturity was a blessing or a curse was hard to say. Silly girls flourished in peaceful times; troubled eras rarely tolerated foolishness. Carefree ignorance was a blessing—a rather luxurious one. At the site of the former Black Tortoise Defense Line No. 7 in the western Eternal Night Continent. "Captain Zhang, you're here!" A bare-chested, middle-aged man led a group of laborers over, his face beaming with smiles. "Take a look at our craftsmanship! How does it look?" Behind him stood a massive copper sculpture, 107 meters long and over a dozen meters tall. It was modeled after the frontline. Depicting the desperate moments right before the defense line fell, one could make out countless miniature copper figures shouting in various stances atop the ramparts, flanking artillery towers firing furiously. In front of the line, swarms of miniature copper ghost creatures blanketed the vanguard, with several prominent ghost emperors towering distinctly over the horde. Amidst the tide, two clearings were faintly visible. In one, a bare-chested elder roared as flames burned his entire frame fiery red. In the other, a young man expressionlessly swung his sword, no one knowing just how many strikes he had unleashed. This was the monument to all defenders who had perished at the Western Black Tortoise Defense Line No. 7. It was also the cenotaph of Qiu Yisi and Tianyi. "Well done," the middle-aged inspector said after examining the details closely, nodding with satisfaction. "I'll report this upward. Carry on with your work; I'm just here to inspect." "Understood, Captain Zhang! Go right ahead." The instant this gigantic copper sculpture was completed, a line of glowing text quietly manifested in the air above it, invisible to mortal eyes: "Remembering ancestors, passing down history: Continental Prosperity +1,000." The text swiftly faded into the world, vanishing without a trace. Nearby, a city was rising rapidly. Innumerable commoners bustled within its bounds, while giant ghosts steadily hauled and stacked giant bricks to construct the battlements. Scenes like this played out across countless corners of the Eternal Night Continent. Transportation was one of the foremost cornerstones of prosperity. Under the leadership of the Logistics Pavilion, copper pipes spread across the continent like blood vessels. With transit leading the way, both population migration and resource mobilization moved far faster than ever before. Had this transport network existed during the great retreat, so many lives would not have been overtaken by the ghost tide along the way. "You vanished without a trace, yet you couldn't even leave behind a rough figure. Luckily I have my own ways, or I'd really be fumbling in the dark." In the Jiangbei Plain, Chen Fan stood atop a Heaven-Reaching Pillar behind Nameless Mountain, overlooking the land below. The fissures that had previously scarred Jiangbei were entirely healed, and lush green meadows blanketed the plains, sweeping away all traces of past desolation. A month had passed since the war's conclusion. During their chat on the Jiangbei Defense Line that day, Chen Fan had asked a question: "What actions can increase the continent's prosperity?" The gentleman's answer had been succinct: "I do not know." Chen Fan had asked again, "Roughly how much prosperity is needed to reconverge the Heavenly Dao?" The gentleman had said, "When it is enough, it will be enough." Standing atop the Heaven-Reaching Pillar and gazing across several newly rising cities in Jiangbei, Chen Fan could clearly see textual notification boxes drifting above them: "City construction: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." "City construction: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." Deep within his soul, a new section appeared on the Eternal Night Lord Panel: "Eternal Night Continent Prosperity: 1,807,600." "Prosperity required to reconverge the Heavenly Dao: 3,000,000." Even a Heavenly Dao could not see those prosperity notification boxes. To Chen Fan, this world had always felt like an expansive open-world sandbox where many mechanics lacked prompts, forcing one to guess. Yet the framework of this world was remarkably explicit, quietly laid bare before him. How much prosperity building a city would yield. How much prosperity erecting a memorial monument would grant. How much prosperity creating a transit network would provide. It was simply that no one else, not even the Heavenly Dao, could perceive these values. Only he, possessing the Eternal Night Lord Panel, could see them clearly. Just then, Sick Monkey's voice called out from behind. Carrying a basket of books, he reached the top of the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. "Young Master, per your instructions, I've screened a group of literate scholars to compile the historical records. These are some of their prior works." "Mm." Chen Fan casually drew a book from the basket. Indeed, he planned to compile a historical chronicle, recording all history gathered regarding the Eternal Night Continent and continuing the documentation alongside the Fan Domain's future growth. This was one of the quests that had appeared on the Eternal Night Lord Panel after achieving preliminary unification: "Unified Script: Standardize the written language after unification (Completed)." "Unified Cart Axles: Build a transit network spanning the Eternal Night Continent after unification, achieving at least 80% coverage." "Compile the Chronicles: Compile a historical chronicle after unification." "Standardized Currency: Issue a unified currency after unification." These four quests belonged exclusively to his Eternal Night Lord Panel, separate from the hidden Tier 1 blessings the gentleman had described. Among them, "Unified Cart Axles" overlapped with the quest "Benefiting the Multitude," meaning a single effort would yield two rewards. Chen Fan did not know how to compile historical texts, but he could find people who did. He opened a work by an author styling himself "True Master Qi," which turned out to be a serialized popular story typically performed in teahouses, taverns, and brothels. The inside cover displayed a premise: "Upon waking, the minds of all people across the Eternal Night Continent were corrupted by darkness, leaving them entirely ignorant of how to bear children. Men and women could only fumble and bump into each other in confusion—some slapping faces, some arm wrestling, all attempting to produce an heir. "I, however, remained untouched by the darkness. "Moreover, as a seasoned frequenter of brothels, I was well-versed in seventy-one distinct postures. "When I easily impregnated a widow, the world was shaken. Countless maidens spared no expense, squandering their family fortunes just to seek me out, all for the sake of..." Chen Fan, who had been quietly savoring the grand vision of the Fan Domain's infrastructure boom, felt as though he had been struck over the head with a club. Dazed, he looked up at Sick Monkey, who still had no idea what was written inside. With a frown of annoyance, Chen Fan tossed the book back into the basket. "Who was in charge of screening these? Have them read through this rubbish properly! You expect people like this to write our history? Screen them again!" Sick Monkey caught the book, flipped it open, and skimmed a few lines. His face instantly contorted in horror. "Y-Yes, Young Master! I'll see to it right away!" Once Sick Monkey was dismissed, Chen Fan returned to his post atop the Heaven-Reaching Pillar, looking out over Jiangbei's sprawling construction. The region was utterly transformed from its past state. Without question, this place would become the core economic hub of the Eternal Night Continent. Cities were rising from the soil one after another. He checked the panel again. The reward for "Unified Script" had already been claimed: one billion ghost stones. It was not an overwhelming sum, but for a faction currently undergoing postwar reconstruction, ghost stones were never in surplus. At present, the Fan Domain held a total reserve of 793.8 billion ghost stones. Nearly sixty percent of this stash came from the resources swept up during the great evacuation to the Western Desolate Isle, with the remainder gathered while clearing the battlefield after the war. It seemed like a colossal fortune, yet it represented the pooled wealth of the entire Eternal Night Continent. Chen Fan pondered the quest "Standardized Currency." The Fan Domain currently possessed both the standing and strength to issue a unified currency, replacing ghost stones with its own tender. This would allow absolute centralization of resources under the Fan Domain's control. However, the price would be stifling grassroots innovation. For example, Array Pavilion Master Zhang Qianqiu had been a talent recruited from the common folk. He held immense passion and aptitude for formations, and his modified Forced Teleportation Array had trapped and killed the King of the Royal Clan. If ghost stones were drained from the civilian populace, many naturally gifted individuals would lack the materials necessary to experiment, burying their potential. Had there been no ghost stones among the people, even if Zhang Qianqiu had purchased a single ghost stone to awaken as an array master, he would never have developed his extraordinary talents without stones on hand to craft arrays. Such prodigies were vital to the Fan Domain. Thus, he was searching for a delicate balance. Just then, the gentle voice of his personal maid drifted from the transmission talisman in his robe. "Domain Lord, the dumplings you ordered from the kitchen are almost ready." "On my way." Chen Fan broke into a smile, setting his thoughts aside for the moment. He walked over to the hanging basket and rode it down to the base of the Heaven-Reaching Pillar. He would go enjoy a hot meal of dumplings first. It had been a while since he last had them, and he found himself craving a bite. "My name is Na Qianxi!" "My name is Na Qianxi!" "My father is Na Tian, a high-ranking member of the Ghost Race! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" In the Primitive Land, amid boundless darkness, hundreds of flying boats were mopping up the remaining ghost creatures. Very few ghosts remained here. When the Royal Clan launched their total assault, they had mobilized their entire force, including the defecting ghost creatures. Only a minuscule fraction had stayed behind, mostly newborns unfit for the front lines. The glow of the ghost fires mounted upon the flying boats cast a long-lost radiance over this dark-shrouded land. Below, across the barren earth, an adolescent ghost creature barely half a meter tall ran in blind terror, panic written all over its face as a flying boat bore down from behind. A middle-aged man in Fan Domain uniform stood on the deck, watching without an ounce of pity. He said coldly, "Save your breath. It doesn't matter who your father is." A God-Slaying Cannon mounted on the vessel fired, launching a crimson shell to finish the creature off without hesitation. Yet a white light barrier suddenly manifested around the scrawny creature, deflecting the blast. Immediately after, the phantom image of a ghost creature coalesced in the air. "My name is Na Tian." "Marching with the host this time, I harbor a premonition that the Royal Clan will fall, and that I shall perish upon the continent I once yearned to tread." "Before departing, I concealed my young son deep within our dwelling place." "Should the Fan Domain arrive here, I beg of you to spare his life." "I once made a pact with the Heavenly Dao known as That Person, who resided in Jiangbei. I pledged not to lead troops against Jiangbei, and in exchange, he agreed to spare my son once he freed himself." "If this barrier has manifested, he must have disobeyed my orders to flee our dwelling upon sensing outsiders, choosing instead to wait for me here." "The barrier will wipe his memories and place him in a three-day slumber. Upon awakening, he will retain no memory of the Fan Domain, no memory of the Eternal Night Continent, and no memory of me as his father. He will remember only his name: Na Qianxi." "Follow the markers ahead. There lies a rift in our dwelling leading toward an uncharted sea, where a Black Abyss once stood before it was stolen prior to the general offensive." "Cast him through the rift." "From then on, his fate belongs to heaven." "In his pocket rests a jade slip recording the names of all humans who leaked intelligence to the Ghost Race during the war. It may be of use to you." "This was a gentleman's agreement struck between That Person and myself, not with the Fan Domain." "Yet in consideration of how the Fan Domain rose through the peace afforded by this pact, I pray you grant my child a chance to live." The terrified little ghost then collapsed unconscious upon the ground. A crimson line gradually appeared across the earth, stretching into the dark to mark the path. The middle-aged Fan Domain officer furrowed his brows. This matter exceeded his authority. Without delay, he produced a transmission talisman to alert his superiors. The message was relayed across signal towers, reaching the heart of the Fan Domain at Nameless Mountain in the blink of an eye. Because the Primitive Land lay outside the Eternal Night Continent, signal towers could not transmit directly between the two landmasses. Someone near the passage had to cross into the Eternal Night Continent before relaying the message through a transmission talisman. Soon, the superior's orders returned: "Orders from the Domain Lord: Follow the guidance to locate the rift in the Primitive Land and mark it. Bring this ghost creature back to the Fan Domain under constant sedation. The jade slip must remain unread throughout transport. Return swiftly without delay." "Understood." Relieved, the officer ordered the vessel down. They cautiously approached the slumbering ghost, first trapping it with a net woven of earthgold before injecting a sedative. After searching the creature and finding the jade slip, they loaded it onto the ship and set off on their return journey. At Cave No. 1 in Nameless Mountain, Chen Fan sat eating dumplings, pondering the revelation. Had the Ghost Race truly struck a gentleman's agreement with That Person to spare Jiangbei and protect the child? He could not verify the truth, but bringing the creature back was the right call. Personally, he preferred cutting weeds at the roots. Yet if a gentleman's agreement had truly existed with the gentleman who was destined to become the Heavenly Dao of the Eternal Night Continent, and if the gentleman cared about it, Chen Fan had no objection to honoring the favor by sparing the young ghost. Setting down his chopsticks with satisfaction, he stretched, left the cave, and boarded a flying boat bound for Fan City. Fan City was undergoing another massive expansion, steadily positioning itself as the foremost metropolis of the continent. Several new districts had been partitioned, one of which was designated the Ghost Creature Museum. Currently, dozens of flying boats were landing and taking off. Inside the grand halls below, various ferocious ghost creatures bound in earthgold nets snarled furiously within cages. Constructing a sufficiently grand structure required giant bricks rather than wooden cabins. The Ghost Creature Museum was built with imposing grandeur, housing multiple vast halls. The ceiling of the largest hall reached a staggering thirty-seven meters above the floor, instilling a sense of insignificance in anyone who walked through, their words carrying clear echoes. Suspended from the ceiling on countless iron chains were iron cages hanging half a meter off the floor, swaying slightly under the violent thrashing of the captive creatures. "Not bad." Chen Fan stood before a hanging cage, chuckling as he regarded an old acquaintance inside. It was a bamboo pole ghost, thrusting its long, slender limbs through the bars in an attempt to attack him. Its eyes held no intelligence, filled only with savagery and malice. Beside the cage stood an informational plaque: "Entity Name: Bamboo Pole Ghost." "Entity Tier: Typically below Tier 4; Tier 5 Ghost Kings are exceptionally rare, almost nonexistent." "Behavioral Traits: Extremely long limbs; provides decent ghost crafting materials. Possesses strong siege capabilities against early-stage camps. When coordinated, works synergistically with flesh worm ghosts, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts." "Weaknesses: Head, heart." He had established this museum to catalog various types of ghost creatures. He had dispatched teams to capture a wide variety of specimens from the Primitive Continent—mostly low-intelligence, newly spawned creatures incapable of comprehending complex commands. Having missed the general offensive, they had survived the purge, making them perfect exhibits. Moreover, since the domain was bound to face further trials in the future, familiarizing Fan Domain personnel and civilians with the traits of ghost creatures would prove immensely advantageous. The three-year continental protection shielded the land from invasions, but specimens actively brought inside were naturally exempt. "Domain Lord!" A veteran Fan Domain member ran over panting, pushing open a door nearby. He had been appointed the curator in charge of the Ghost Creature Museum. Chen Fan nodded slightly, glancing at the small door behind the man, from which muffled roars and commotion echoed. "What lies beyond that door?" "The experimental grounds," the curator explained hurriedly. "There are certain ghost creatures we haven't studied in depth. We're testing their physical responses through controlled impacts to catalog their behaviors and traits. Additionally, species like flesh worm ghosts don't do well in iron cages, so we're working on more suitable containment methods." "Very good." Chen Fan smiled and waved his hand. "Keep up the good work. I'm just looking around; don't mind me." Most of the iron cages in the hall were currently empty. Only a month had elapsed since the war's conclusion, and the Eternal Night Continent was reviving rapidly. The stragglers in the Primitive Continent had been mostly cleared away. The gentleman had once told him that the continent occupied by the Ghost Race was a fragment of the Primitive Continent, holding immense value. If the Eternal Night Continent could assimilate a fragment of the Primitive Continent, it would prove tremendously beneficial in the future. Yet the gentleman had not explained how to assimilate such a fragment. Chen Fan glanced at the Eternal Night Lord Panel. Another 1.2 million prosperity was needed before the Eternal Night Continent could reconverge its Heavenly Dao. He only wondered how long the gentleman's remnant soul could linger between heaven and earth, and whether they could finish in time. Lost in thought, he stepped out of the Ghost Creature Museum. Outside, laborers were paving the city's thoroughfares with blue bricks, creating clean, orderly avenues. A sweeping gaze from Fan City to Jiangbei—and across the entire continent—revealed a land enveloped in the fervor of massive infrastructure development. The prosperity of the Eternal Night Continent was climbing rapidly with every passing moment. Returning to the top of the Heaven-Reaching Pillar, Chen Fan leaned against the railing to survey the panorama. Floating text prompts drifted continuously across Jiangbei, visible to his focused gaze even from afar: "City construction: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." "Transit construction: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." "Crop cultivation: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." "Trade and commerce: Prosperity +1, +1, +1..." "Exotic beast birth: Prosperity +50." "Oh?" Chen Fan blinked as an unusual prompt caught his eye deep within Nameless Mountain. A new exotic beast had been born—the first time he had seen such a notification. A single birth providing fifty points of prosperity was no small amount. In the depths of Nameless Mountain, a dedicated sanctuary had been allocated to house the exotic beasts that had fled during the great retreat. Their numbers were substantial, comprising virtually every beast from across the continent that had managed to escape to the Western Desolate Isle. All of them had been incorporated into the Beast Pavilion under Weiwei's management as Pavilion Master. Several beasts were formidable, beyond Weiwei's ability to handle alone. However, her parents possessed overwhelming strength, acting as dual guardian protectors who kept the unruly beasts thoroughly in line. Chen Fan had constructed dozens of Exotic Beast Breeding Houses in this area to ensure their comfort. These were max-level buildings of the Fan Domain, blessed by the Heavenly Dao with an effect that enhanced exotic beast reproduction rates. Standing beneath the branches near one of the breeding houses, Chen Fan spotted Weiwei lying excitedly on the ground outside the entrance, waiting with bated breath. Beside her lay a pink toy prepared especially for her little sister. Weiwei's parents had indeed conceived again, giving birth to a baby crocodile—a little sister. "Wonderful." Chen Fan was pleased by the sight. He smiled, choosing not to disturb them, arriving and departing in quiet silence. The Sky-Swallowing Crocodile was an exceptionally useful exotic beast whose sole drawback was a low reproduction rate; every new addition was a boon to the Fan Domain. Ever since this sector had been designated for exotic beasts, few humans ventured here. Most beasts preferred remaining in this sanctuary, drawn naturally by the breeding houses, for while they were friendly toward humans, living alongside them remained somewhat uncomfortable. Naturally, there were exceptions. For instance, amidst the massive construction ongoing in Jiangbei, an enormous toad sat beside a rising city wall, constantly flicking its tongue as it helped haul giant bricks, acting like an absolute showoff. It was none other than the Gold-Swallowing Toad from the Medicine King Valley. Jiangnan had never fallen, so the toad had simply come over to join the fun. With no one visiting the Medicine King Valley for sightseeing during these bustling times, the creature had grown restless and bored, unable to sit still.