A brief night passed in a flash.
But even the distinction between day and night was merely a method of keeping time in the Present Realm. The closer one drew to the front lines, the more blurred and ambiguous the difference between day and night became.
After leaving behind the light of the Present Realm, everything gradually faded into an ignorant twilight.
There was no crisp morning breeze, only eternal scorching heat and pungent odors lingering at the tip of the nose.
At the highest point of the Solar Ship, Huai Shi lazily stretched, yawned, took a deep breath of the scorching wind laden with Hell Sediment, and contentedly expelled the stale air from his lungs.
What a pleasure.
Like a farmer surveying his fields.
Before the Solar Ship lay a bottomless cliff, a colossal rift valley stretching for who knew how many kilometers, spanning left and right as though it reached the end of the world before vanishing into the distance.
"What fine land."
He looked down at the faint metallic gleam rising from the rift, his gaze full of anticipation. "Scatter a few seeds wherever you like, and they grow this vigorously... We could set up some plantations here."
Now, at the deepest reaches of the rift valley, across the bottom where lava flows faintly showed through, and even beneath the steep rock walls, layer upon layer of metal vegetation had already spread.
Metal Plants like vines rooted themselves in lava and ore, flourishing as they unfurled their branches and leaves. Hellfire reflected from their smooth, mirrorlike surfaces.
Earth and stone cracked open beneath iron roots boring through them. The endless sounds of splitting rock overlapped with the sounds of Iron Crystal Proliferation, echoing ceaselessly from the deep rift and forming the melody of growth.
So prolonged.
Simply