Black Dragon Devours the Sun

No matter what anyone else was doing, Huo Hai was now considering how to obtain as many point cards as possible without exposing himself. Under normal circumstances, he would not have been so troubled.

His experience in handling matters was still lacking; otherwise, he would not have ended up in this situation. Looking at Ji Mu, who was following beside him with a smile on her face, Huo Hai felt waves of headache coming on. If Yun'er were beside him, it would be nothing. She was his younger sister, after all; she would not go around talking, and since they were family, it would not matter if she knew a little. But this person was different.

No matter how pure or innocent Ji Mu appeared, Huo Hai would not trust her easily. He had seen too much of this sort of thing on Earth, and there was no shortage of complicated human nature in novels either. How could he casually trust someone?

Besides, was he not a bad person? How could a bad person casually let others learn about his circumstances? Huo Hai said nothing along the way, merely controlling the Star Gu from afar to find cards for himself.

Thus, Huo Hai became even more mysterious in Ji Mu's eyes. He did not walk in a straight line at all, as though he knew where the cards were. After wandering around casually, he would find one or two cards in hidden corners. Sometimes, he could even find heaps of cards in tiny caves or other nest-like places.

Just now, Huo Hai had dug up more than fifty point cards from a cave. No matter how innocent Ji Mu was, she could tell that something was wrong. This guy definitely has a secret—and a huge one at that.

Ji Mu grew more and more interested in Huo Hai. Those caves were all places where spirit beasts lived. They were so well hidden—how had he found them, as though he had known from the beginning? And how did he know that the spirit beasts inside were not home?

One or two might have been absent, but so many of them? There was definitely a problem. Just now, Ji Mu had even discovered traces beside one cave that looked like they had been left behind by a battle. They absolutely belonged to the spirit beasts that had originally lived there. But where had their corpses gone? How had the battle been fought? Why had she heard no movement at all after arriving?

Could it be that Huo Hai also had a powerful team around him? But how did they communicate? Ji Mu even began to suspect that Huo Hai had raised some powerful pet and had it fight outside.

The ability to know every detail without making a sound was far too much like a pet bound by a Spirit Contract. Before reaching the Spirit Practitioner Realm, one could not choose the path of a Beast Spirit Master. Without being a Beast Spirit Master, one could only control spirit beasts through a Spirit Contract—and only one at that.

"Hmph, I'd like to see just how many secrets you still have." Ji Mu continued following Huo Hai without speaking to him, simply watching his every move. Even with a Spirit Contract, one could only contract one beast. Huo Hai's performance truly did not resemble someone who had only one spirit beast. As for what was really going on, how could Ji Mu know that a method like the Blood Contract existed in this world?

Huo Hai, meanwhile, remained cautious the entire time, terrified that Ji Mu would notice something. He could only helplessly give up on some cards. After more than half a day, the cards in his hand still totaled fewer than five hundred.

As time passed, collecting cards became increasingly troublesome. He did not know whether he could gather more than two thousand points in the end. Without him noticing, two thousand points had become both a goal and an obsession.

"I say, Miss Ji, just how long are you planning to follow me? If you keep this up, you won't earn many point cards. I heard that once we reach Imperial City Academy, these points will serve as the academy's internal currency. Without points, you'll find it impossible to take even a single step in the future."

Ji Mu smiled. "Hehe, I already told you, call me by my name, or call me Sister. Don't call me Miss Ji. As for the cards, it's fine. Not everyone in the academy is wealthy. Quite a few people have no money but do have points. They sell their points in exchange for Spirit Stones. Our Lineage specializes in this sort of business, so I don't lack points."

So there was such a thing. His father probably had not told him because he would not want Huo Hai doing this sort of business. Forget it; he would think of a way later. After all, something like the Bone Tempering Pill also required a massive amount of points to obtain.

Huo Hai was truly helpless when it came to Ji Mu. Just as he was about to say something, the sky suddenly darkened. "What's going on? Why has it become dark? No, what is that?" Huo Hai raised his head, his face filled with shock.

Ji Mu looked at Huo Hai with amusement. "Little brother, don't use such a clumsy trick to divert my attention. When this big sister was using tricks like this, you were still... Heavens, how could this be?" Ji Mu slowly raised her head and finally realized that something was wrong. Far to the north, from some unknown place, dense black smoke rose from the ground.

Even amid the mountains and forests, it could not be concealed. The black smoke rose into the heavens, covering nearly half the sky. Though it was so far away, its thick column could not be ignored. The black smoke churned endlessly, as if it had come alive.

From afar, it looked like a black dragon. No—it did not merely look like one. It had truly formed into a black dragon. Its illusory body seemed to possess four claws, special shapes formed from black smoke looming hazily around it.

The enormous black dragon soared into the sky and roamed the nine heavens, while its tail remained beneath the earth, its location impossible to see. It was truly a divine dragon whose head could be seen but whose tail could not. As the black dragon rose, it blotted out the sky and covered the sun. The clouds gradually turned black. Heaven and earth became pitch-dark as dense mist rolled forth. At that moment, not only they, but the entire Southern Cloud Kingdom could see it.

No, not only the Southern Cloud Kingdom—even the nations of the south clearly witnessed this strange sight. In the black sky, the black dragon, darker still than blackness itself, bared its fangs and brandished its claws, its head facing directly toward the sun.

Its gaping mouth seemed as though it intended to swallow the sun whole. The sunlight grew dimmer and dimmer, and the sky grew darker and darker. It was as if night had arrived ahead of time; even faintly visible stars could be seen.

Unfortunately, the clouds blocked most of them, leaving only a few stars visible. Huo Hai clearly knew that the sun could not possibly be swallowed by black smoke, but faced with such a lifelike sight, he could not help but worry. What if the sun were truly eaten? What would happen without the sun? The end of the world? Huo Hai remembered novels from his previous life on Earth that described worlds without a sun, and a chill ran through his heart.

In the capital of the Southern Cloud Kingdom, an old man walked out of a great hall. Looking at the sight in the sky, his expression was incomparably grave.

"National Teacher, what is going on? Why has such a phenomenon appeared? Black Dragon Devours the Sun—could it truly swallow the sun?" At some point, a dignified middle-aged man appeared beside the old man.

If anyone else had been present, they would have been shocked to discover that this man was the current ruler of the Southern Cloud Kingdom. Yet before this old man, the ruler was exceptionally respectful. National Teacher—what kind of person was he? Perhaps many people of the Southern Cloud Kingdom did not even know that such a person existed.

The old man shook his head and spoke as though talking to himself. "Black Dragon Devours the Sun. I never thought... I never thought that I would encounter it while I still lived. Is the Demon Burial Mound finally about to emerge? Living beings will be plunged into misery and suffering." The old man sighed, his face becoming increasingly grave, as though there were something he was unwilling to mention. What exactly was happening? Was even he, the ruler, not permitted to know?

After a long while, the old man turned around. "Your Majesty, have the entire kingdom begin preparing at once. The southern nations are about to fall into great chaos, and we may even face a calamity of destruction. This is not something we can handle."

"A destructive calamity? National Teacher, isn't that making a mountain out of a molehill? Must the entire kingdom truly be placed on the highest alert because of a mere phenomenon?" A nationwide alert did not come cheap, much less the highest alert. Although the National Teacher had not explained anything, that was clearly what he meant. In all these years of knowing him, this was the first time the ruler had seen such an expression on his face.

But he did not dare neglect the National Teacher. The National Teacher was at least a Spirit Marshal-level super expert. According to Southern Cloud Kingdom records, he was already more than five hundred years old and had made immense contributions to the kingdom. His prestige was even greater than that of the ruler himself.

"Hmph, making a mountain out of a molehill? What do you think this is? Black Dragon Devours the Sun. Forget a tiny Southern Cloud Kingdom—even if all the southern nations were added together, they might not escape this tribulation. Let us hope those above discover the changes here as soon as possible."

The Heavenly Spirit Continent was boundlessly vast, and the southern nations occupied only a tiny portion of it. The strange phenomenon caused by this black smoke could not be seen at all from places farther away. Hopefully, the southern nations would still exist by the time they discovered the changes here. Now, other than preparing well to meet the approaching disaster, what else could they do?

Watching the black dragon that was about to swallow even the sun, the National Teacher's expression turned bitter. This Demon Calamity would likely not be easy to survive. What the black dragon was swallowing was not the sun—it was practically his very soul.

"Alright, I'll go make preparations immediately. By the way, what should we do about Imperial City Academy's enrollment this year? Should we have them stop?"

Imperial City Academy recruited students every year, though the locations differed. On average, each place would only host recruitment once every ten years or so. If it were halted, it would be an enormous loss to the entire kingdom.

The old man shook his head. "No need. The Demon Calamity will not come so quickly. Besides, low-level Spirit Masters may not be of much use, but they can still help resist the Demon Calamity's erosion. From now on, eliminate every bastard fighting for power and profit. If you cannot do it, let me do it. Put all our strength into dealing with the Demon Calamity. Whether we can continue to exist will depend on how well we prepare."

The old man shook his head as he walked into the distance. There was an indescribable desolation and loneliness in his back.

"Five hundred years... I never thought that, in my lifetime, I would actually witness Black Dragon Devours the Sun. I wonder how those old fellows look now. Black Dragon Devours the Sun... I had thought I would never see it in this life..."