Where the Eclipse Falls

Three thousand years ago, a war beyond mortal comprehension tore through the Vast World. It was a conflict between the God Race, arbiters of heaven, and the enigmatic Nei Race, beings whose origins were never recorded in any divine scripture. Their battle left no victor. Instead, it shattered the order of existence itself. On the final day of the war, a rain of golden light descended upon every corner of the world—silent, gentle, and terrifying. Mountains, seas, and kingdoms alike were bathed in its glow. And when the golden rain faded, both the God Race and the Nei Race vanished from the stage of history, leaving behind no corpses, no remnants, and no explanation. To the myriad races, it was as though they had been erased by the heavens, their fate forever unknown. Then came the Eclipse. A sunless shadow swallowed the sky and remained unbroken for twenty-one days. No prophecy had foretold it. No divine will answered the prayers that rose from below. The countless races of the world watched in fear and ignorance, unaware that this darkness was not a mere phenomenon— but a verdict. When the eclipse finally lifted, the world did not return to normal. A creeping plague of vitality spread across the land. The spiritual aurora that once nourished cultivation grew turbid and corrosive, turning sacred paths into lethal trials. Cultivation, once the ladder to transcendence, became a gamble with death. Those capable of cultivating dwindled with each generation, as if the Dao itself were rejecting mortals. At first, no change was noticed. But slowly—cruelly—the truth emerged. Lifespans shortened. Where mortal humans once lived eighty to a hundred years, they now withered by forty or fifty. Bloodlines weakened. Souls thinned. Even newborns carried an unseen decay, as though the world no longer wished to sustain life. In desperation, mortals prayed. They prayed to gods who had already fallen— They begged heavens that no longer listened. And in the silence that followed, a terrifying question lingered: Was the eclipse the cause of the world’s decay… or merely the sign that the world had already been abandoned?