BOOM—CRACKLE!
Before Sect Master Xuanji could even haul the soot-blackened steward out of the mud, a deep, muffled explosion shook the eastern ridge of Mount Qingcheng.
A thick column of acrid purple-black smoke billowed up from the tiled roof of the Inner Pill Hall, followed two seconds later by the distant, horrified shrieks of dozens of pampered inner-sect disciples.
“My eyebrows! Furnace Number Four just blew its bronze lid through the ceiling!”
“Where is the fire-controlling crew?! Why isn’t anyone venting the earth-fire flues?!”
“Forget the Pill Hall! The central sewer drainage array behind the Elder Council Hall just ruptured! Golden-carp pond water and three days of night-soil are flooding the white-jade courtyard!”
Standing in the entrance of the back-mountain punishment yard, Sect Master Xuanji (Goodness: 11/100) froze as the foul stench of scorched sulfur, burned spirit-rice, and backed-up sewage drifted down the mountain wind.
“What do you mean nobody is venting the earth-fire flues?!” Sect Master Xuanji grabbed the fat steward by his singed collar and shook him frantically. “We have two thousand inner and core disciples on the main peak! Tell them to pick up the water buckets, close the furnace valves, and clear the drainage ditches right now!”
