I Build a Shelter in the Eternal Night

"Slaughter every living being in Jiangbei."

"Seize the Celestial Dao Blessing."

"Next, we will do two things."

"First—"

"Find a way to send a message to the Mortal Realm. Tell them that an Undersea Ghost Tide will make landfall in a few years. Fabricate some pages from fake Ancient Texts and send them over, just like before. Once the Mortal Realm gets the news, they should retreat on their own."

"It would be best to resolve this without resorting to war. There’s something about the Mortal Realm I can’t quite figure out."

"If they don’t intend to retreat and plan to defend Jiangbei to the death..."

"Then we cannot give them too much time to develop. This faction is rising far too quickly."

"When the next rainy season arrives."

"We will use our full strength to annihilate the Mortal Realm."

"The three of you Ghost Kings will mobilize together. No..."

"I will mobilize with you."

"No matter the cost, we must uproot the Mortal Realm. If we could travel to Jiangbei outside of the rainy season, I would rush there right now and strangle them in their cradle."

"However, they will probably retreat."

The shadow on the throne chuckled. "According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, the Mortal Realm has already retreated once at the beginning of the rainy season. If they can retreat once, they can retreat a second time."

"As long as we obtain the Celestial Dao Blessing four years from now, we’ll barely qualify to join the main battlefield."

"Growth is faster there."

...

’This is bad.’

Eternal Night Continent.

In a forgotten corner, shrouded in darkness, a middle-aged man sitting cross-legged slowly opened his eyes. He gazed toward Jiangbei in a daze and murmured to himself, vaguely sensing that his aura was on the verge of dissipating.

’Four more years, at most.’

’Jiangbei will be left completely defenseless.’

He had been trapped here for thirty-seven years. There was no way he could make it back in four.

Jiangbei was the largest defensive line behind the front on the Eternal Night Continent, stretching 170 kilometers. The coast had no natural barriers. Once it fell, the Ghost Tide would surge from Jiangbei into Jiangnan, ravaging the wide-open Guanxi Plain.

But...

He fell silent for a long time.

Just then—

"Boss."

A crocodile lying to the left of his feet suddenly spoke in human tongue. "If we can’t get back, is Xiaohua doomed?"

"He should run."

The man shook his head. "The Celestial Prison Grand Array I established before I left should have a mature Snow Lotus by now. After he consumes it, his celestial affliction will be cured. With the power of an adult Heaven-Swallowing Crocodile, he can escape at any time. As long as he doesn’t stubbornly stay put, he won’t die."

The other crocodile, lying by his feet, also spoke, its voice tinged with complaint. "I told you it wasn’t a good time to have a kid. But you just had to."

"What are you talking about?" the left crocodile said, displeased. "It was so boring back then! When you’re bored stiff, how can you not fool around a bit?"

"The Boss didn’t go find a woman to fool around with the whole time."

"He just used his own hand. I saw it."

BANG!

The man who had been sitting cross-legged suddenly shot up and slammed the loud-mouthed crocodile’s head into the ground. Countless cracks spread across the floor as he spoke in a cold, expressionless voice.

"I’m starting to regret giving you the ability to speak. How about I just rip your tongue out? What do you say?"

At that exact moment—

"You there."

A lazy, casual voice echoed from the darkness. "Still not willing to talk? I only need one answer from you, and I can let you go immediately. Why bother with this? Even if we win, we can’t kill a figure like you."

"What does the death of a few ants have to do with you?"

"You won’t die, either way."

"..."

The man slowly lifted his foot, looking up into the darkness above. After a long pause, he suddenly laughed. "Maintaining this Grand Array must be quite draining, isn’t it? It’s been up for thirty-seven years. I wonder how many more you can keep it going?"

"I’ve memorized your voice."

"Once I break this array and get out, will you be ready for me to pay you a visit?"

Silence descended in the darkness for a long while before the voice spoke again, its confidence clearly diminished. "I haven’t sent anyone to Jiangbei. Even if you get out, you can only kill me, not my son. I haven’t used Jiangbei to threaten you."

"You know it’s not easy for us Ghost Objects to have a child. This is our deal. Otherwise, Jiangbei never would have lasted until the Undersea Ghost Tide’s landing."

"Of course. I’ve always remembered this deal."

At some point in the past,

some Ghost Objects awakened to intelligence. From that moment on, they refused to be lumped in with the mindless, bloodthirsty Ghost Objects. They began to emulate human culture, human naming conventions, and human traditions of legacy, calling themselves the "Ghost Race."

They considered themselves the favored children of heaven and earth.

But intelligent Ghost Objects had extreme difficulty reproducing.

To sire an heir was, for an intelligent Ghost Object, to pass on their life’s legacy. Just like humans, they deeply admired human culture. The only thing was... they didn’t want to be active only at night. They wanted to live on the land during the day, just like humans.

To truly become one of the Races of the Eternal Night Continent.

One prerequisite for achieving this was to eliminate all humans on the Eternal Night Continent.

Only when the human Race on this continent was completely wiped out would they receive the Celestial Dao’s recognition and become the official Ghost Race. This had been the dream of countless members of the Ghost Race for years.

"Let me tell you something."

The voice from the darkness spoke again. "These past few years, the breakthroughs on the front lines have been going very smoothly. You won’t be able to hold us back for much longer. I may not live to see the day the Ghost Race officially makes its landing, but my child will."

"He will inherit my glory."

"Tsk."

The man sneered but said nothing more.