The summit of Mount Kunlun pierced through the cloud sea like an obsidian blade.
At thirty thousand feet above sea level, the air was thin, freezing, and silent. Yet the ancient Imperial Star-Port carved into the mountain’s flattened crest was as vast as a provincial capital. A three-mile circular plaza of polished black star-stone was etched with docking runes that had guided interstellar merchant fleets in the forgotten ages of the realm.
For ten thousand years, this plateau had sat empty under the snow. The great docking pylons stood like silent petrified giants, while the ancient approach beacons were buried beneath glaciers.
Today, the landing lights burned with brilliant gold.
The Taichu Golden Sky-Cruiser touched down smoothly on the eastern docking platform.
Behind it, ten armored cruisers hovered in an unbroken defensive circle, their golden hull-plates reflecting the harsh mountain sunlight. Tie Niu led four thousand Righteous Iron Guards down the ramp, their heavy tower shields locking together along the perimeter with rhythmic, clanking precision.
On the western edge of the plateau, the half-mile-long black landing shuttle of the Blood-Tax Star Chamber descended.
Its landing thrusters hissed with violet plasma, melting the ancient snowbanks into plumes of superheated steam. The shuttle’s massive hydraulic ramp lowered with a mechanical groan, thudding against the obsidian flagstones with enough force to send tremors through the mountain peak.
