Inside Golden-Crow Capital, the cobblestone streets were warm under everyone’s shoes.
Above the rooftops, the Golden Civic Protection Dome glowed like a soft morning sun, completely blocking out the ugly red Blood-Soul Array overhead. Every breath of air tasted like sweet spring water and cool mint.
In the middle of the East Bell-Tower Square, more than thirty thousand citizens and two thousand local city gate soldiers were standing around in a daze, touching their own chests and looking up at the golden sky.
“The blood curse really stopped!” Captain Zhao of the East Gate Guard dropped his heavy iron spear with a loud clatter and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “Just a minute ago, the Emperor’s voice up on the palace tower said he was going to melt all five hundred thousand of us—including us city guards!—into a single drop of blood pill for that Chief Immortal Advisor!”
“Wait! Listen!” a young baker next to him pointed up at the four Golden Boundary Pillars at the corners of the city.
On top of each golden pillar, twelve giant brass horn-speakers rotated slowly, crackling to life as Madame Red-Silk—wearing her bright yellow Debtor Vest and holding a crystal microphone back on the railway flatcar—cleared her throat and spoke in her sweetest, clearest announcer voice.
