“Lin Mo owns thirty-six scattered spirit-vein cores, so what? Without our Aristocratic Leyline Guild’s underground relay pipes, he can’t transmit a single wisp of Qi into the city!”
Late that evening, a bitter winter gale screamed across the stone battlements of the Central Heavenly Capital.
Inside the subterranean control bunker of the Grand Imperial Waterworks, Guild Master Qian Hai stood before the master sluice panel alongside his older brother Minister Qian Wansan ([Goodness: -32/100]) and Grand Preceptor Sima Quan ([Goodness: -38/100]). Qian Hai was a hulking man with bulging bloodshot eyes and heavy brass rings on every thick finger: [Guild Master Qian Hai | Goodness: -34/100].
Sima Quan sneered coldly at the iron pressure gauges. “Lin Mo spent five hundred million Jade buying the thirty-six spirit-vein cores at the auction today, thinking he won. Shut the municipal sluices right now and show those ungrateful commoners who actually controls the pipes!”
Behind Qian Hai stood forty armed water wardens in dark leather armor, holding heavy iron wrenches and bronze lever-bars.
On the table between them, the blood-red transmission talisman from Minister Qian dissolved into fine grey ash.
“The Minister has spoken,” Qian Hai barked, spitting on the damp stone floor. “Pull the master floodgates! Cut every transmission valve leading to the commoner quarters! Let the mud-legs freeze until they beg on their knees!”
