The dimensional membrane at the crest of the Ascension Star-Bridge split with a sound like tearing iron silk.
The flagship Sovereign Aurora surged through the final golden cloud-layer from Galactic Wall Street into the First Supreme Heaven, riding high atop the continent-sized diamond-gold shell of Old Master Xuan.
Beneath the ancient star-tortoise’s flippers, gray Primordial Chaos storms boiled like an ocean of liquid blades.
Right across that churning abyss stretched the Mortal-Protection Bridge of the 33 Supreme Heavens. It was a massive stone causeway meant to guide ascending lower-realm worlds safely to the outer celestial gates.
Today, the causeway looked more like a prison yard.
A spiked iron barricade blocked the central span. Dozens of battered wooden mortal arks were jammed against the rails, their hulls groaning as freezing gray wind tore at their sails.
Up on the elevated tax platform, a burly official in gold-embroidered robes raised a whip woven from purple chaos-lightning.
“Ten thousand Chaos Origin Units!” Toll-Gate Overseer Lord Wuji barked, his voice amplified by a brass array horn. “That is the new Lower-Realm Filth Tax for every mud-born boat that wants to cross this bridge! Pay up in ten breaths, or we dump your arks straight into the storm!”
