CHAPTER 350: CHAPTER 323: THE MILITARY GOVERNOR OF DIANCHUAN! GAO TIANXIONG!

In the Great Xuan Calendar year 1757, at the beginning of spring.

In a mere forty-five days, driven by the fifteen Spirits of Night Travel, nearly the entirety of Dianchuan Province had fallen into an Eternal Night. Under this blanket of night, all living beings entered an endless slumber. Silent and still, a hush fell over everything.

Under the encroachment of this force from Outside the Domain, the major Sect Aristocracies of the Human Race could only retreat further and further, abandoning the territories swallowed by the Eternal Night.

With no resistance from Human Cultivators, Demonic Evil Cultivators instantly began to advance and expand frenetically. The power of the Eternal Night, which could silence and lull all living beings to sleep, was seemingly ineffective against them.

The explanation given for this was that the Demonic Evil Cultivators had all cultivated secret techniques passed down from their ancestors. This laughable excuse, however, left the Human Race without a point of rebuttal.

In just two days, only the last of Dianchuan Province’s sixteen prefectures remained. The other fifteen had all fallen into the hands of Demonic Evil Cultivators.

「...」

Hongya Mansion. As the only remaining prefectural city in Dianchuan Province, it now gathered nearly all the principal figures, Sect Leaders, and clan heads of the major Sect Aristocracies from across the province.

Demonic Evil Cultivators occupied nine-tenths of Dianchuan Province. Subjectively speaking, the Human Race had already suffered a crushing defeat in this war.

They were merely waiting for the Demonic Evil Cultivators to consolidate their control over the occupied territories before devouring this last prefectural city. Once that happened, the entirety of Dianchuan Province would be completely overrun.

Time continued to march on, day after day. The major Sect Aristocracies lingering in Hongya Mansion gradually left. Dianchuan Province was finished. For the sake of their future development, they now had to begin searching for new lands to settle. Life, after all, had to go on.

「Three months later.」

Eighty percent of the pressured Sect Aristocracies had departed. Aside from the top ten Sect Aristocracies, only some smaller and weaker Sect Aristocracies remained, lacking the resources to move to other provinces and thus forced to continue holding out in Hongya Mansion.

「Half a year later.」

Hongya Mansion was nearly deserted. Aside from occasionally sighting members of the top ten Sect Aristocracies, practically no one else was to be seen. The entire Dianchuan Province had essentially become an empty shell.

The Sect Aristocracies still garrisoned in Hongya Mansion were reduced to one in a hundred. Of these, only a very small fraction truly had nowhere else to go. The majority, however, were a group of high-stakes gamblers!

Their bet was on the top ten Sect Aristocracies, who had shown no signs of leaving and continued to staunchly defend Hongya Mansion. In their view, there had to be some reason why the top ten Sect Aristocracies had not evacuated.

Perhaps Dianchuan Province, already plunged into an abyss, still held some unknown glimmer of hope.

Their own Sect Aristocracies were extremely weak. If they migrated to other provinces, they would most likely be ostracized and expelled until they eventually dissipated. Rather than face such an end, they preferred to risk it all! After all, for them, the outcome could hardly be any worse.

「At the rear of Hongya Mansion.」

Atop a rugged, precipitous mountain resembling a clenched five-fingered hand, loomed Five Fingers Peak.

Dachan Temple, Shenxiao Sect, Star Mansion Sea Cliff, Lotus Covenant, Yellow Sand Inn, Iron Bone Sword Sect, the Wang Family, the Xu Family, the Li Family, and the Tan Family—the ten major Sect Aristocracies of Dianchuan Province—were all gathered here. Additionally, Nature Banner, Great Righteousness Academy, and Ingenious Mechanism Sect, three prominent reclusive sects, were also present.

Such a lavish gathering had never been so complete, not even on the coronation day of the current Great Xuan Holy Lord.

On the spacious mountaintop plateau, thirteen chairs were neatly arranged. Seven were placed side-by-side at the uppermost level, with the remaining six divided into two rows of three each below.

The seven chairs at the very top were occupied by the seven Primordial Spirit Bosses of Dianchuan Province: Zhao Gengyun, Nature Banner’s Leader; Li Chanchan, Head of Ingenious Mechanism Sect; Zhang Ping, Head of Great Righteousness Academy; Master Liansheng of Dachan Temple; Patriarch Dongfang Qing of Shenxiao Sect; Yu Xiu, Cliff Master of Xingxiu Sea; and Patriarch Xu Zhishi of the Xu Family.

The six chairs below held the leaders of the remaining six major Sect Aristocracies: Ran Hongdou, Lotus Covenant’s Leader; Bai Nan, Store Manager of Yellow Sand Inn; Xing Fei, Sect Master of Iron Bone Sword Sect; Wang Yi, Patriarch of the Wang Family; Li Dehai, Patriarch of the Li Family; and Tan Anning, Patriarch of the Tan Family.

It could be said that at this moment, Five Fingers Peak hosted the absolute crème de la crème of Dianchuan Province’s power.

Sitting in the leftmost chair, Yu Xiu gazed at the six individuals beside him with a complicated expression. He had previously asked Elder Wu of the Wu Family to invite the six Primordial Spirit Bosses to meet for discussions at the White Jade High Tower. However, without exception, all six had failed to appear; not a single one attended.

Their sudden indifference had made him vaguely uneasy. This unease intensified upon arriving at Five Fingers Peak. Although he voiced nothing, his keen senses as a Primordial Spirit Boss allowed him to detect a subtle rejection from the six.

Something must have happened to cause such a drastic change in their attitude.

But what could it be?

Before the thirteen leaders of Dianchuan’s greatest powers, a constantly shifting sand-table meticulously and accurately displayed the geographical divisions of the entire Dianchuan Province.

Upon it, a massive dark undercurrent surged from the fifteen already fallen prefectures towards Hongya Mansion. The sand-table depicted the current situation in Dianchuan Province, and that undercurrent signified that the Demonic Evil Cultivators were massing their forces, heading towards Hongya Mansion—the last sanctuary in Dianchuan Province.

Once Hongya Mansion fell, the whole of Dianchuan Province would be considered completely lost.

Staring at the sand-table before them, the Sect Masters and Patriarchs of the six major Sect Aristocracies positioned below looked thoughtfully towards the seven seated above. All of them, after all, belonged to the top ten Sect Aristocracies of Dianchuan Province.