Chapter 390 - 172: "He... Why Didn’t He Run?

Chapter 390: Chapter 172: "He... Why Didn’t He Run?

Exuberant cheers erupted from the City Wall. The news gradually spread throughout Jiangbei City, and soon, excited screams broke out from within the city as well.

They finally no longer had to worry about Ghost Objects breaching the city during the rainy season.

This rainy season would be the most soundly they had ever slept—even more so than on an ordinary day.

With the Jiangbei Defense Line protecting them, it was nearly impossible for Jiangbei City to fall.

"Thanks."

Hearing the cheers from within the city, Patriarch Li gazed toward the Mortal Realm, cupped his hands around his mouth, and bellowed.

Although he knew Domain Lord Chen certainly couldn’t hear him.

Even if he did, he probably wouldn’t care. The Mortal Realm was developing so rapidly that he had likely long forgotten the man he once called Xiaoli.

But that didn’t matter.

...

The first night of the rainy season was over. As the darkness faded, the sun slowly began to rise.

「Guanxi Plain.」

The Slaughter Immortal Holy Land Saint Master, who hadn’t slept a wink, sat before a tea table, staring blankly at the letter in his hand. He had been in this position all night.

"Saint Master."

The Grand Elder pushed the door open and entered. Seeing the Saint Master still sitting there, he couldn’t help but frown. "Saint Master, you didn’t stay up all night, did you? You are the Saint Master of the Slaughter Immortal Holy Land, and with the rainy season being such a critical time, many matters require your decision. You must rest well."

"Where did you run off to last night?"

"I went to sleep."

The Slaughter Immortal Holy Land Saint Master turned his head to look at the Grand Elder, his face expressionless. "Did you sleep your brains out? During the rainy season, we don’t sleep at night. We sleep during the day."

"You sleep at night during the rainy season?"

"Do you think Ghost Objects sleep at night?"

"..."

The Grand Elder froze in place, his old face flushing red. To be honest, it was probably his age; he had forgotten about that. "Er... Saint Master..."

"Don’t ’Saint Master’ me."

The Saint Master tossed the letter to the Grand Elder, his voice hoarse with exhaustion. "Take a look at this."

He then took a sip of tea to soothe his throat.

This letter had been delivered to him just as the rainy season was about to begin.

The Grand Elder looked down at the letter in his hands. The further he read, the more tightly his brow furrowed.

-

The Jiangbei Zhenhai Node has been shattered for a long time. In the past, a certain great one suppressed the Sea Prison with their life-force aura.

That great one has departed, and their lingering grace is fading.

In approximately two years, the aura will fully dissipate. The Sea Prison will collapse, and a myriad of Ghost Objects will be unleashed.

The dark tide will surge back through the river mouth, devouring the fertile lands and breaching Jiangbei. Innumerable lives will likely be wiped from existence.

-

"This... this..."

A flash of horror crossed the Grand Elder’s eyes. "Is this information reliable?" he asked, terrified. "How could Jiangbei’s Node have already been shattered? For so many years, Jiangbei has been without a single defense line!"

"If the Jiangbei Node was shattered, Jiangbei would have been submerged by the Ghost Tide long ago."

There is a Grand Array beneath the Eternal Night Continent.

The Undersea Ghost Tide can only make landfall where a Node of the Grand Array has shattered, like in the region of the Guandong Plain. In areas with intact Nodes, the Undersea Ghost Tide cannot come ashore.

He had always believed Jiangbei’s Node was intact.

"It’s true."

The Slaughter Immortal Holy Land Saint Master leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples wearily. "I received this information from a special channel."

"What channel? How come I don’t know about it?"

"If I let you know everything, then why don’t you be the Saint Master?"

"I was just asking..."

"Only after receiving this news did I understand why that great one remained on Nameless Mountain for so many years. They were using their own aura to suppress the Undersea Ghost Tide at the Jiangbei Sea Bottom. Though they departed over a century ago, their aura remained."

"Now, that aura is about to dissipate."

"In two years, the Undersea Ghost Tide will make landfall at Jiangbei."

"Do you know?"

"When I received this news, my first thought was of the Jiangbei Defense Line. Before the rainy season, the Jiangbei Mortal Realm built a 170-kilometer-long Jiangbei Defense Line in Jiangbei."

"It’s made entirely of Level 5 City Walls."

"Armed with countless Godslaying Cannons."

"It caused a sensation across the entire Jiangxi Plain. At the time, countless people didn’t understand why the Jiangbei Mortal Realm would do such a thing. With Jiangbei’s Node intact, why invest so many resources to build a Jiangbei Defense Line that would be completely useless?"

"I didn’t understand either."

"But I had a feeling Chen Fan wouldn’t do something without reason. So I started investigating the status of the Jiangbei Node. After half a year, I finally received this letter yesterday."

"The Jiangbei Node shattered long ago. It was that great one’s aura that has been guarding Jiangbei all this time. Otherwise, not a single soul would be left alive in Jiangbei, and our Guanxi Plain would not have been spared either."

"What shocked me the most was..."

"The Jiangbei Mortal Realm had obviously known this all along."

"If I were in Chen Fan’s position, with the Slaughter Immortal Holy Land located in Jiangbei, my first reaction upon learning this news would be to flee—as far as possible. But Chen Fan..."

"He didn’t run."

"Instead, he poured everything he had into building a 170-kilometer-long Jiangbei Defense Line."

The Saint Master leaned back in his chair, gazing blankly at the ceiling as he murmured, "What incredible resolve... When did he find out?"

"He..."

"Why didn’t he run?"

"..."

The Grand Elder also stood there in silence, his expression complicated. If the Slaughter Immortal Holy Land had been in that position, even if the Saint Master didn’t run, he himself would have.

It was a certain-death scenario.

Even if the Saint Master had the resolve, he lacked the resources.

Even if the Slaughter Immortal Holy Land poured out all its wealth, it couldn’t possibly build such a defense line. Building a defense line isn’t a problem for a single faction to consider—that’s a task for the Eternal Night Hall.

No matter how powerful a faction was, it would be impossible for them to produce enough Ghost Stones to build an entire defense line.

He didn’t know the extent of the resources held by the factions in the Eternal Night Interior, but he felt that even for them, producing so many Ghost Stones at once would be exceptionally difficult.