The heavy bronze double doors of the underground vault swung outward with a deep, echoing groan.
Frank emerged into the afternoon sunlight of the Imperial Pill Plaza. He wiped a smear of fire soot from his eyebrow with the sleeve of his denim work shirt. Behind him walked Chief Magistrate Meng. He grabbed an armful of taken away metalworking ledgers. He was followed by Pill King Dan Kui in his yellow hard hat and a dozen grim-faced trial court guards.
Between the court guards stumbled Patriarch Shen Canghai, Elder Shen Kuo, and Grandmaster Ouyang. Their hands were locked in cold-forged iron crushing weight cuffs.
One hundred thousand spectators packed across the rising stone tiered arena fell deathly silent.
From the VIP royal pavilions to the outer merchant galleries, not a single breath was drawn. Everyone had felt the terrifying underground shudder thirty minutes prior. Rumors of an impending fiery blast had already caused three merchant guilds to pack their wagons.
Chief Magistrate Meng climbed the marble stairs of the High Court Rostrum, his scholar’s robes billowing in the cool autumn wind. He struck the bronze gavel against the court sound-block with a sharp, resounding crack.
CLANG.
“Hear the judgment of the Royal Trade Trial and High Criminal Court!” Meng’s voice boomed across the vast arena, amplified by royal sound-stones. “Following an immediate physical on-site careful check led by Master Teacher Lu Zhen and Chief Arbiter Dan Kui, the court delivers its total decree!”
Meng unrolled a heavy sheet of scarlet-bordered court parchment.
“First: Contract Number Four Hundred and Forty-One, carried out between the Potion-maker Guild and the Divine Sword Shen Clan, is hereby declared an act of fraudulent conspiracy and aggravated civil endangerment! The main load-bearing support columns of the Nine-Cauldron Crucible Tower were found to contain forty percent heavy-duty melted rock waste and dangerous lead contaminants, causing a coming soon collapse hazard!”
A collective gasp ripped through the one hundred thousand spectators like a hurricane wave.
“Second: All lawsuits, civil claims, property liens, and criminal accusations filed by the Divine Sword Shen Clan and Third Prince Jiang Feng against Master Lu Zhen, Shen Shitou, and Classroom 404 are dismissed with prejudice! Their actions were lawful exercises of physical self-defense and emergency civic code enforcement!”
“Third: For the crime of knowingly selling structurally defective melted rock waste iron to a royal civic project, a civil payback debt claim of twenty million spirit stones is hereby placed upon the Divine Sword Shen Clan! Their royal weapon-supply monopoly is suspended indefinitely, and Patriarch Shen Canghai is remanded to the Royal Dungeon pending treason proceedings!”
Patriarch Shen Canghai bowed his head in catatonic despair, his knees giving out as court guards dragged him off the court terrace.
“Fourth: Deacon Yan and Grandmaster Ouyang are stripped of all guild titles, licenses, and pensions for criminal fault and outside poisoning of the Northern Dragon Spring underground water bed! They shall serve twenty years of hard labor in the underground coal quarries!”
Deacon Yan collapsed into a wailing heap, clawing at the stone steps before court guards hauled him away.
Meng then turned his stern gaze toward Third Prince Jiang Feng, who was still dripping with sour gray silt from Niu Mang’s shovel compaction, his face purple with humiliation.
“Third Prince Jiang Feng,” Meng declared coldly. “Your abuse of court process and secret deployment of the Golden Dragon Guard shall be referred directly to the Emperor’s Privy Council. Return to your residence under guard. You’re barred from the royal court until His Majesty’s pleasure is known.”
Jiang Feng ground his teeth so hard a molar cracked, glaring at Ling’er with murderous, impotent hatred before guards escorted him from the plaza.
The arena erupted into ear-splitting, earth-shaking cheers!
Fighters and commoners alike roared in vindication. For decades, the corrupt monopolists of the Shen Clan and the Potion-maker Guild had crushed independent artisans under fraudulent contracts and inflated prices. Today, a wandering handyman in denim overalls had brought the entire rotten house crashing down with a brass hammer and a clipboard!
Chief Arbiter Pill King Dan Kui stepped to the center of the grand competition stage.
In Dan Kui’s hands rested an ornate, purple-velvet cushion carrying the supreme prize of the Tri-Kingdom Potion-maker Grand Prix. The 3-Star Grandmaster Potion-maker Crown, cast from sky violet gold and crowned with three radiant dragon-eye jade cabochons.
Beside the cushion lay a shimmering, five-band cosmic storage ring: the Ten-Million Spirit Stone Grand Champion Purse.
“Master Lu Zhen,” Dan Kui said. His voice shook with deep respect as he bowed forty-five degrees. “By unmasking corruption, safeguarding the lives of the capital’s people, and concocting thirty Flawless Grade-5 pills in a single turn using the lost Ancient Pan-Cosmic Vessel, you have showed a mastery of the Pill Dao that surpasses mortal understanding.”
Dan Kui lifted the golden crown high above his head.
“By unanimous decree of the Land-wide Craft Council, I confer upon you the title of 3-Star Grandmaster Potion-maker!”
The crowd rose to their feet, chanting in thunderous all at once: “Grandmaster Lu! Grandmaster Lu!”
Frank stepped onto the stage, wiped his greasy hands on his denim apron. Then he looked down at the violet-gold crown.
He picked it up, inspected the rim, and gave the metal a light flex with his thumbs.
[ITEM: 3-Star Potion-maker Crown | Material: 18k Violet Gold | Weight: 4.8 lbs | Impact Rating: 0 Blasts of heat].
“No mid-air webbing,” Frank muttered deadpan, shaking his head. “Pure soft gold. If a two-by-four drops on my head, this thing will fold like a tin can. Absolutely zero CIE-404 impact rating.”
Frank clicked the golden crown onto the metal carabiner of his tool belt. That let it dangle beside his twenty-five-foot tape measure and his grease rag.
Then, he tapped his yellow plastic hard hat with his knuckles.
“I’ll stick with the high-thickness polyethylene,” Frank said. “Rated for five thousand volts and seventy foot-pounds of falling debris. Much safer on a job site.”
Pill King Dan Kui and the surrounding elders stared at Frank’s tool belt in numbed, respectful awe.
He... He clipped the supreme crown of the potion-made realm to his tool belt like a canteen?!
Dan Kui wiped a tear from his eye, whispering to a nearby judge: “Look at his sky calm distance... To him, worldly glory, royal prestige, and sovereign titles are merely mundane trinkets to be hung alongside his divine measurement cords! A true immortal dwelling above the mortal dust!”
Frank turned his attention to the second item on the cushion: the five-band cosmic storage ring containing the ten million spirit stones.
Frank slipped the ring onto his pinky finger.
In Frank’s eyes, the Heavenly Bug Tracker screen flared with brilliant golden light, with a chorus of triumphant digital fanfares!
Frank smiled faintly, tapping the side of his nose.
“Ten million stones in clean cash,” Frank said to himself. “Finally, a working capital balance. We can buy the four-inch heavy-duty drainage pumps, thirty miles of braided copper lightning ground cable, and enough Portland high-pressure lime to pave every footpath on Ironwood Peak.”
Frank looked at Magistrate Meng and Dan Kui.
“What about the wholesale material exemptions, Judge?” Frank asked, pulling out his light metal clipboard. “The contract terms guaranteed sixty transport barges of building supplies exempt from royal transit tariffs.”
“Every warehouse in the capital is open to you, Grandmaster Lu!” Dan Kui declared instantly. “Load-bearing steel I-beams, cured cedar timber, heat-softened copper spools, high-pressure lime—name your supply order. The guild shall load the river barges before midnight!”
Shen Shitou stepped up beside Frank, his chest broad, his eyes shining with tears of quiet vindication.
“Master,” Shitou whispered, clutching his twenty-pound sledgehammer. “The Shen Clan... They can’t touch us anymore.”
“They couldn’t touch you before, Shitou,” Frank said, patting his student’s shoulder. “Their steel was full of zinc melted rock waste. Their foundation was rotten. You’re made of good stock. Now help Niu Mang load the cast-iron wok back onto the cart before someone scratches the seasoning.”
“Yes, Master!” Shitou grinned, turning to help Niu Mang strap the heavy sixteen-inch skillet into their wooden handcart.
Princess Jiang Ling’er stood watching them, her brass valve-wrench resting against her hip, a calm, peaceful smile softening her sharp features. For the first time since she fled the royal palace eleven years ago, the choking shadow of the royal family had vanished from her heart.
She was no longer an abandoned, sickly princess waiting to freeze in a cold pavilion.
She was Classroom 404’s Lead Clockwork Checker.
Frank capped his tea thermos, tucked it into his tool bag. Then he unclipped his tape measure to inspect the handcart’s axle clearance.
“Alright, crew,” Frank said, checking his watch. “Pack up the tools, tally the inventory, and let’s head down to the river docks to inspect those sixty barges of steel. If the harbor master tries to bill us for overnight docking fees, I’m citing his pier for dry rot.”
Just as Niu Mang lifted the cart handles, the sky above the royal avenue was suddenly pierced by the shrill, blood-curdling screech of a royal brass clarion!
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!
The northern gates of the Imperial Pill Plaza burst open as an armored spirit-steed galloped through the opening at suicidal speed!
The black warhorse was foaming at the mouth, its hooves throwing sparks against the flat stone slabs before collapsing into a violent, sliding skid ten paces from Frank’s cart!
Riding the steed was a courier dressed in the crimson-and-white funeral livery of the Royal Physician Hall.
The courier rolled off the dying horse. His face was pale as chalk, his chest soaked in blood where frost-burns had burst through his silk tabard.
In his trembling hands, the courier held high a royal dragon-scroll sealed with black ice and royal wax!
“Emergency Royal Clarion!” the courier screamed, his voice cracking into wild, desperate sobs. “By order of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Yan! The Dowager Empress has collapsed into end-post freezing convulsions!”
The entire plaza froze in stunned horror.
“The Thirty-Year Nine-Deep pit Nether Frost has broken through the soul barrier!” the courier cried, holding the frozen scroll toward Pill King Dan Kui and Frank. “Thirty royal physicians have failed! Her Majesty’s heartbeat is down to one pulse per minute! Her bedchamber is frozen in ten feet of black ice!”
The courier slammed his forehead against the stone floor, sobbing with frantic terror:
“The Emperor has drawn the Imperial Dragon Execution Saber! If Her Majesty expires before sundown, every physician, grandmaster, and high potion-maker within the city walls shall be beheaded and buried alongside her! Grandmaster Lu Zhen... In the name of the Sovereign of Great Da-Qi, you’re summoned to the Royal Physician Hall right away!”
The one hundred thousand fighters in the arena scrambled in blind panic. He knocked over stalls and shouted in terror.
Pill King Dan Kui turned white as a sheet, his knees knocking together: “The Nine-Deep pit Nether Frost... The ancient demonic poison that froze three heavenly dynasties! It’s incurable! It’s certain death!”
Frank looked at the wild courier, then glanced at his wrist watch.
It was 4:45 PM.
Frank took a slow breath, zipped his tool bag. Then he reached into the cart to grab a heavy-gauge extension cord, a pair of fine china heat sockets. A box of 250-watt quartz infrared heavy-duty lamps.
“A frozen radiator in the master bedroom fifteen minutes before closing time,” Frank muttered deadpan, tossing a pair of padded rubber gloves to Ling’er. “Typical residential emergency call. Grab the copper grounding rods, crew. Double overtime starts now.”