Zhuoya Island lay toward the far end of the shipping route between Jibei Province and Haidong Province. Roughly shaped like an irregular oval, it was somewhat out of the way, but it was the largest island along this stretch.
A gently sloping mountain stood at the island's center. With its broad, open terrain, the island had been chosen as a relay station for domain field information.
Shortly before noon, a black speck appeared overhead.
Silver-white streams of light flickered around Zhao Zhenye as he hovered above the island, surveying it. This was the nearest relay station he had encountered on his journey.
He looked at the domain field organisms spreading their branches atop the mountain and extended a finger. A flickering light immediately kindled at its tip.
Destroying this place would take little power. Just a touch would suffice. A moment later, a spark of spiritual fire dropped straight down. Upon falling among the domain field organisms, it erupted in a tremendous blaze of light with a boom, followed by a sea of roaring flames.
The nearby workers noticed and immediately tried to put out the fire. But the blaze was enormous, and a force drove it to spread across the entire site in an instant. Their efforts were futile.
Zhao Zhenye ignored them. The instant the spiritual fire burst among the organisms, it had destroyed all their capacity to transmit domain fields. Even without the flames, they were already useless.
Still, he knew that destroying this place did not mean the node had been rendered entirely inoperative. There should be backups nearby.
He closed his eyes and sensed the surrounding domain fields. After a long while, he glanced in a certain direction, then stepped against the air. The air exploded beneath his foot, and he shot toward that location.