Chapter 430 - 179: "Call for Aid, Call for Aid!

Chapter 430: Chapter 179: "Call for Aid, Call for Aid!

"What about Nameless Mountain?"

Chen Fan looked toward Nameless Mountain. Nameless Mountain wasn’t a mountain range, but a solitary mountain standing in the Jiangbei Wilderness. It wasn’t even that tall, only a few hundred meters high.

"That’s not it." The man shook his head. "Nameless Mountain is just a single mountain, nothing more."

"The manifestation of an Array Pattern is definitely a mountain range, not a solitary peak."

"The Eternal Night Continent is huge."

"I don’t know exactly how big, because I’ve never traveled the entire Eternal Night Continent. I’m only in charge of communications and some trivial matters for Western Sector One."

The man pulled a Ghost Map from his robes and spread it on the tabletop. "This area you’re in—the Four Areas Jiangbei and the Two Areas of Guanxi—is collectively known as West Desolate Island."

"This is the Yellow Springs Entrance Canyon. See these continuous mountain ranges on both sides of the canyon? Those ranges are the manifested Array Patterns. The canyon in the middle is the gap where a Node shattered, and the Eternal Night Hall has established a defense line there."

"Originally..."

The man hesitated slightly. "Originally, the purpose of this Yellow Springs Entrance Defense Line was to stop the Undersea Ghost Tide from entering the Eternal Night Interior through the Yellow Springs Entrance Canyon after abandoning West Desolate Island."

"The closest Eternal Night Frontline to us is about 2,700 kilometers from the Yellow Springs Entrance. It’s been named the Western Eternal Night Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline."

"This defense line is 108 kilometers long."

"It’s also one of the frontlines that the main force of the Ghost Tide is attacking."

Although he knew the Eternal Night Hall’s decision was unavoidable, he still found it difficult to say out loud that they planned to abandon West Desolate Island.

...

"..."

Chen Fan looked at the Ghost Map the man had taken out. Its scope was larger than any map currently in the Mortal Realm. He quickly compared it to the rough overview on his Celestial Pillar’s "launch panel."

He quickly found the location of the "Western Eternal Night Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline."

Coastal.

It was within the bombardment range of a Max Level Celestial Pillar, but beyond the range of a Level 6 Celestial Pillar.

"But—"

He looked at the mountain ranges on the man’s Ghost Map, his brow furrowing slightly. "You just said that these continuous mountain ranges are basically manifested Array Patterns. But why do I see them on your map not just in the coastal regions, but in the interior as well?" ℯ𝐥.𝒄ℴ𝓶

"Yes."

The bare-chested man sighed heavily. "In the Grand Array’s most perfect state, there isn’t just a ring of continuous mountain ranges along the coast; every region is also separated by them. That way, even if one region falls, it won’t threaten the others."

"But now."

"The Array Patterns in many regions have also shattered." ℴℴ𝗺

"This means that if the Western Eternal Night Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline were to fall, we would have to establish a total of 237 kilometers of defense lines at the shattered Nodes in the three regions behind it just to stop the Ghost Tide landing from the sea."

"The reason the Eternal Night Hall gave up on West Desolate Island..."

"...is largely because..."

"...the area between the Western Eternal Night Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline and West Desolate Island—the Western Plains—has completely fallen. It’s now territory occupied by Ghost Objects. To transport supplies, you have to take a long detour."

"A detour through the Qiuming Basin."

"But the Qiuming Basin is a coastal region. Every time we prepare to transport a large shipment of supplies, traitors always leak the information to the Ghost Race. The Ghost Tide outside the Qiuming Basin then attacks the defense line at all costs to intercept those resources."

"Therefore—"

"West Desolate Island... is actually somewhat isolated and helpless. It’s very difficult for the Eternal Night Hall to transport resources here."

"..."

Staring at the map, Chen Fan began to understand. The shortest straight-line distance from the Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline to West Desolate Island was definitely through the Western Plains, which was also the largest area. But since the Western Plains had already fallen, the only alternative was to go through the Qiuming Basin.

But the Qiuming Basin wasn’t safe either.

That meant they had to take a detour deep through the interior, but that route was far too long—it would quadruple or quintuple the travel distance.

"What methods does the Eternal Night Hall use to transport supplies?"

"Skeleton Horses, Flying Ships, and so on. But Flying Ships are difficult to build and expensive to fly, making them unsuitable for large-scale transport. They work well for small shipments, though."

"Large-scale transport relies almost entirely on Skeleton Horses."

"Are there no Teleportation Arrays or anything like that?"

The man was a bit dumbfounded.

"You know, the kind of Teleportation Array that could instantly transport you from the Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline to West Desolate Island."

"Does the Mortal Realm have those?"

"No, I just figured that since the Eternal Night Hall is so powerful, they might have something like that."

"If we had that kind of technology, the Eternal Night Continent would have launched a counterattack long ago." The man gave Chen Fan a strange look. ’He sure has a wild imagination. Teleportation Arrays... What’s next, a one-button-explosion to wipe out the Ghost Race?’

"Whew..."

Chen Fan’s brow furrowed in thought. ’This is going to be tricky,’ he thought. ’To establish a transportation hub with the Xuanwu No. 1 Frontline, the Western Plains are definitely out. It’s already a Ghost Object-occupied zone.’

’The Qiuming Basin doesn’t seem very safe either.’

’Transport by sea...’

’Yeah, what a terrible idea that is.’

"By the way—"

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

"You said earlier that when the Ghost Race learns that a large shipment of supplies is passing through the Qiuming Basin, they’ll break through the Qiuming Basin Defense Line at all costs. Is that defense line so easy to break?"

"If they’ve broken through so many times, how has the Qiuming Basin not fallen yet?"

"Mm."

The man nodded. "The Array Patterns in the interior of the Qiuming Basin are all intact. So even if Ghost Objects occupy the basin, it holds little strategic value for them. They can’t spread out from there."