The Eastern Wasteland Continent stretched boundlessly. If the Great Yu Dynasty was the center, the Imperial Capital was the bull's-eye.
The outline of the Nineteen Provinces resembled a teapot.
Its spout tilted upward, with Heaven's Gate Pass at the edge of its mouth. Beyond Heaven's Gate Pass lay the gray demonic lands beyond the border, where demons dwelled and entrenched themselves. Farther still lay the Great Wasteland Heaven Realm, marked in deep black on the map.
The Great Yu Ministry of War had four subordinate departments, overseeing military selection, maps, transport across the provinces, weapons, armor, and equipment.
The second, the Territorial Maps Department, managed maps of the entire realm, regularly drawing and updating them.
Over the Great Yu Dynasty's three-thousand-year history, countless generations of maps had replaced their predecessors, setting aside even the changes in terrain within the provinces.
The demons' territories beyond the border were designated gray regions, but over the years, their mountains, rivers, peaks, and other landforms had gradually been surveyed and named.
This greatly aided the Demon Suppression Division in tracking wanted demons beyond the border. Maps were their eyes, yet drawing those maps alone had cost the lives of many talented, ambitious souls.
However, no matter how the maps changed, beyond those demonic lands, farther and deeper still, the region the Late Emperor had named "Great Wasteland Heaven" during his expedition remained deep black.
There were no depictions or descriptions of its terrain.
Like a black abyss encircling the continent's edge, it was a perilous land forbidden to the human race, dangerous and mysterious.
Over thousands of years, talented individuals who rose through the Ministry of War had ventured into Great Wasteland Heaven to uncover its secrets. Countless lives were sacrificed, yet only scant information was brought back.
Those accounts, written in blood, were