Since the Demon Calamity began, the God–Demon Well had been sealed. Both Great Yi and Eternal Night had temporarily shifted most of their attention away from the Well — yet neither side relaxed its vigilance; both had stationed heavy forces to guard it.
Now, one by one, figures stepped into the God–Demon Well.
Looking closely, these were the top-tier champions of Great Yi — the sort who could hold a region by themselves: Kongxu Gongzi, Yiye Zhiqiu, Yan Chixia, Bu Jingyun, Nie Feng, Fu Hongxue, Dugu Qiubai… Each of them emanated an aura that proclaimed one fact clearly: they had reached the Zhengdao Realm. Their combat power at that tier was absolute.
Each of them had been born with exceptional talent, and under Great Yi's nurture — with destiny, resources, techniques and comrades in abundance — they had shot forward in the ten thousand years of seclusion. Their breakthroughs to the Zhengdao level fully demonstrated their natural gifts. Any one of them stepping out of Great Yi would be a peerlessly dominant power.
"Fellow Daoists," Kongxu Gongzi said with a pale smile, his habitual languor intact. "Great Yi raised us for so many years. Now it's time to give back. Having trained our soldiers for a thousand days, we use them for a moment. I hope we all return victorious."
"Don't worry. With this sword in my hand, Eternal Night won't be able to stop us," Dugu Qiubai said calmly — his sword a living testament.
"Our mission isn't wanton destruction," Yan Chixia added. "We move by plan."
The Tongtian Pavilion's contingent included hundreds of consecrated warriors; they dispersed among several God–Demon Wells and advanced. They came with a mission.
Though Eternal Night had set up formidable sealing arrays at the other end of the Well, Great Yi had ways to evade those bans. Great Yi's ten thousand years were not wasted: the Heavenly Craft Pavilion had produced a great many curious devices.
One such device was the Interstice Jade. When worn, it could temporarily place the user into an interstice space — invisible and undetectable — allowing them to traverse any region without obstruction. Even through sealing arrays, one could pass. But the Interstice Jade consumed the wearer's own primordial essence while in use; once depleted it shattered. Each Jade could sustain its special effect for only one month.
That interstice property had been charged inside Xuanhuang Immortal City — it was the city's own interstice energy infused into the Jades. Because of that, they could slip past Eternal Night's defenses and enter the Eternal Night domain silently. Still, the users had to strictly control usage time — overrun it, and the consequences would be catastrophic.
On the other side of the Well, Eternal Night had, as always, posted massive forces: legions, top-level guardians, proving dao-tier demonic gods in no small number. Any disturbance would trigger an immediate response. They had never once relaxed their vigilance.
Yet, despite all that, the infiltrators passed without being detected. Not even when they strode past demonic gods of the proving dao tier did those sentries sense anything amiss.
"Indeed — once the Interstice Jade is on, we can move through the God–Demon Well without hindrance. These Eternal Night fiends can keep eating dust," Yan Chixia said, making a grotesque face at their rear, then tore through the void toward Eternal Night's interior.
Eternal Night's domain was composed of countless star-worlds. At the center hung the Eternal Night Continent, spattered with thirteen blood moons — an unmistakable sight anywhere in Eternal Night. No matter where you stood, you could always see it.
"Eternal Night Continent… heh. I didn't think I'd ever see it with my own eyes. But I'm not here for the continent," Yan Chixia chuckled darkly and drew near an unremarkable star-world.
Up close, it was a star-world comparable to a Lesser-Thousand world — in the high ranks of that class, almost on the cusp of a Mid-Thousand. It was a human world — the Eternal Night branch of humanity. Their most obvious trait was their skin: deep, pitch-black; at night without light they'd be hard to spot. Their bodies were robust and battle-hardened; their fertility rates were frighteningly high. On this star-world alone there were no fewer than twenty trillion Eternal Night humans.
Their way of living was brutal: hunting demonic beasts, displaying strength, sometimes even cannibalistic rites. Among them, the elite units formed disciplined armies and complete hierarchies. Nothing surviving in Eternal Night was simple; the Eternal Night humans ranked among the top one hundred species there — far from weak. That came from both sheer numbers and raw combat power.
"A bunch of black devils — so dark I can barely see them. Not our kind; their hearts are different," Yan Chixia snorted contemptuously.
A flash of light in his hand.
A pitch-black pouch appeared.
"By decree!" he intoned, releasing a spell.
Instantly the pouch rose and began to expand wildly with visible speed. In a blink it merged with the surrounding void like a patch of sky, continuing to inflate. From outside, there was nothing to see; the pouch spread like a giant canopy and swallowed the entire star-world, covering it completely. Then it dropped, shrank at impossible speed, and in the next moment the whole star-world had vanished — crammed into the pouch. The enormous canopy collapsed into a dingy gray sack no bigger than a common pouch; Yan Chixia cinched it tight and hung it at his waist.
Where the star had been, there now was nothing.
The sight was so bizarre that no one would have believed it without witnessing it themselves.
"The Star-Devouring Pouch really is miraculous," Yan Chixia said, patting the pouch and grinning. He immediately sped off to the next star.
Their aim on this raid wasn't merely slaughter. Slaughter wouldn't cause Eternal Night significant damage — Eternal Night was too vast and these invaders too few to sheer-kill their way to victory. Instead, the Star-Devouring Pouches were the tool of choice. With them, whole star-worlds could be swallowed and boxed up, then carried away.
Every one of Great Yi's raiders carried ten Star-Devouring Pouches. They also brought the World-Ending Calamity Orbs. Their mission: to pack as many Eternal Night star-worlds into pouches as possible; if they encountered a star rivaling a Great-Thousand world that couldn't be bagged, they would slip a World-Ending Calamity Orb in and leave it there to rot — each raider carried no fewer than a hundred such orbs.
So they descended, and where they found small- or mid-thousand-class star-worlds they used the pouches without hesitation. For the top-tier stars, they hid a World-Ending Orb inside a meteor and delivered it silently. After taking one star, they moved on to another, avoiding concentrating too many disappearances in one region so as not to arouse suspicion.
Their speed was astonishing. In the space of less than a month, with the aid of the Interstice Jade, they slipped quietly back through the God–Demon Well.
…
Out in Eternal Night's starry skies, a vast black demonic dragon carved through the firmament. A huge city sat like a fortress on its back — bustling, merchants from every Eternal Night race trading ceaselessly. This was one of the starry-space merchants: a star-ship-and-beast trader who roamed from star to star, bartering goods. Such a merchant himself had to be a top-tier powerhouse; only the strong could ply trade in the starry void, else their cargos would be stolen and their pants taken as well.
This particular star-trader was called Kui Mu. Experienced, with a complete star-map in hand, he knew trade routes intimately.
"Hmm? Where's the Tyre Star? Why is it gone?" Kui Mu suddenly appeared atop the demonic dragon's head and looked around, his expression changing. He took out his star-map and examined it carefully. The Tyre Star — an Eternal Night human world he'd visited dozens of times for trade — should have been where he expected it. Routes didn't get forgotten. But now, the Tyre Star had simply vanished.