The lower staging yard of the safe hall’s artisan district was usually filled with waterwheels, grinding stones, and the rhythmic clang of forge hammers. But today, standing proudly upon the wide cobblestone terrace, was a clockwork creation that made even Sword Saint Gu Qingfeng stop mid-stride and lower his wine gourd in utter confusion.
It was neither an ordinary royal horse carriage nor a clumsy siege cart.
Measuring forty-five feet in length and sixteen feet across, the vehicle looked like the bold offspring of a luxurious southern river barge and a heavy mountain castle on wheels. Its towering hull was crafted from thick, heat-treated iron-oak planks, carefully seasoned over cold spirit springs and joined with linked wood slot-and-wooden peg joints that needed not a single iron nail. The outside timber was lacquered with six coats of shiny silver-stone varnish, formulated by safe hall alchemists to deflect the blistering bright purple heat wave of the twin suns.
Instead of narrow, spoked carriage wheels that would instantly sink into loose sand or shatter against dry canyon boulders, the vehicle rested upon four massive, barrel-shaped wooden roller-wheels. Each wheel was four feet wide, fitted with angled paddle-treads of forged red bronze that could bite into loose silt, crunched river gravel, or slick mud with equal ease.
