The Taichu Golden Sky-Cruiser tore through the upper sea of clouds with a deep roar of its hundred and eight dragon-engines. Behind the flagship, the repossessed Imperial Battleship and ten Nascent-Soul Armored Cruisers glided into the blinding sunlight of the Nine-Province Immortal World.
Dead ahead rose the South Heaven Imperial Gate. Two vermilion pillars taller than mountain peaks held up a roof of glazed golden tiles, blocking the only sky-channel into the Central Heavenly Capital.
“Halt that provincial barge!” a lazy, nasal voice echoed from an amplification array across the cloud-stone pier. “Drop your anchors and pay five hundred thousand Immortal Jade in mud-disinfection tolls!”
Right in the center of the main archway sat a nine-dragon jade carriage pulled by six winged flood-beasts. Silk curtains hung open around a heated brass brazier.
Gate Commander Sima Ao lounged across a pile of snow-fox furs inside the carriage, picking his teeth with a sliver of spirit-bone. Above his oiled topknot floated a murky crimson halo that only Lin Mo could see.
[Target: Sima Ao | Role: South Heaven Gate Commander, Young Master of Sima House | Goodness Score: -19/100 (Corrupt Toll Extortionist & Famine Embezzler)]
Minus nineteen, Lin Mo thought, resting his elbows on the flagship’s forward railing. Not quite as rotten as his uncle in the cage, but he’s clearly studying for the family exam.
