Deep within the jagged, fractured geomorphology of the Central Region lay a chasm that the sun had long since forsaken.
This was the Dark Valley, an abyssal tear in the earth where the atmospheric pressure alone was enough to crush the lungs of an ordinary mortal.
Hidden within this perpetual twilight was a massive metropolis forged from black iron and obsidian—the absolute sovereign territory of the Shadow Hall.
This city completely eclipses several planets alone, and did not operate under the laws of the Tian Yuan Empire; it was a law unto itself, anchored to reality by the terrifying presence of an old monster who sat in the shadows of the world: a First Stage Heavenly Saint Realm ancestor.
In the highest tier of the central black ziggurat, inside a grand audience chamber lit only by the flickering, violet flames of soul-burning torches, sat Hei Xi, the current Grand Master of the Shadow Hall, and the 1st Stage Heavenly Saint guardian of the Hall.
