BOOOOOOM!
A deafening detonation shook the earth for fifty leagues in every direction.
High above the northern mountain ranges, an immense mushroom cloud of purple magma fire, black sulfur smoke, and shattered basalt blasted into the stratosphere. The top third of Mount Raging-Flame’s main weapon peak was blown completely off its foundation, tumbling into the abyss below.
Down in the farming valleys at the base of the mountain, ten thousand mortal villagers dropped their hoes in sheer terror. Fiery rocks rained from the sky, setting brushfires across the foothills.
“The mountain has erupted!” a village elder screamed, gathering crying children into wooden carts. “Flee south to Azure-Mist City! Flee to Chairman Lin’s sanctuary! The city gates are open!”
Forty-eight hours after the four hundred blacksmith apprentices had walked away, the subterranean magma chambers had finally reached catastrophic critical mass.
Down on the ninth subterranean level of the sect, fifty pampered inner-sect sword prodigies had spent two days standing in the sweltering heat, trying to operate the ancient forge furnaces. None of them had ever read Master Ou Yezi’s runic pressure gauges, and none of them understood thermal expansion.
When the bronze needles began vibrating violently in the red danger zone, Yan Huo had panicked. Believing that tightening the valves would force the hot steam back into the earth, he had ordered his disciples to haul on the giant brass pressure wheels with heavy steel crowbars.
