The crimson barrier of the Heavenly Lock Array hummed with suffocating spiritual pressure.
Heavy chains of dark iron rattled across the clouds, sealing all four sky-bridges leading off the floating peak. In the streets below, hundreds of merchants slammed their wooden shop shutters closed, trembling in fear.
Inside the Celestial Feather Silk Boutique, Deacon Lei wiped dark blood from his bristling beard with the back of his gauntlet.
He leaned against a broken rosewood pillar, his face swollen into a hideous purple knot, but his bloodshot eyes flashed with manic triumph.
“Hahaha!” Deacon Lei coughed out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. “The Heavenly Lock Array is fully engaged! Cloud-Mist Market is the sovereign commercial territory of Mount Kunlun! You struck an ordained enforcement deacon! You assaulted the young master of the Situ Clan! You cannot leave this mountain alive!”
Situ Hao scrambled to his feet behind Deacon Lei, wiping dirty sludge from his chin with a triumphant sneer.
“You’re dead, Lin Mo!” Situ Hao howled, his voice cracking with venom. “My grandfather is Grand Elder Kunwu of Mount Kunlun! The Situ Clan holds the permanent 100-year tax deed over this entire market! Every single cobblestone, every shop, and every breathing soul here answers to us!”
