CLACK-CLACK-CLACK—THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
As Boom-Pot Sun yanked the red brass firing lever on the High-Pressure Steam-Alchemy Reactor & Rotary Gatling-Pill Cauldron, the six gleaming brass barrels on the front of the machine spun into a dazzling golden blur!
Compressed spirit-steam hissed through the breach mechanism like a dragon sneezing. Every single second, twenty round, golden- glazed Rank 4 Nine-Herb Mutton Pill-Balls popped out of the six rotating muzzles with a rhythmic, musical POP-POP-POP-POP!
In less than ten seconds, a golden rainbow of steaming, fragrant pill-balls arched five hundred feet into the clear morning sky, sailing right over the thirty silent bronze furnaces on the battlements of Tiger-Jaw Pass and raining down across the crowded inner courtyard!
Inside the pass, General Meng Hu and the one hundred thousand pale, empty-bellied Royal Guards looked up as the sky suddenly turned golden.
Before the pills even landed, a heavenly wave of aroma rolled over the entire fortress.
On the outside of each fist-sized pill was a thin, bouncy, crystal-clear gummy glaze made from refined spirit-honey, red-date nectar, and mountain tree-sap that kept the pill clean and sealed in every drop of medicinal Qi. And inside that chewy golden shell was pure, steam-compressed Nine-Herb Blood-Ginseng & Spiced Lamb Marrow Essence!
