At the Mile 10 Service Plaza along the Great Central Canal, the midday sun shone down on a lively outdoor celebration.
Because the three thousand Azure-Sword Debtors and five thousand Highway Engineers had finished digging the three-hundred-mile canal two days ahead of schedule, Pei Xuan had declared Friday a full-paid holiday and ordered Old Guo and Hong Ling to throw a Grand Canal Completion Banquet right beside the sparkling blue water!
Two hundred long wooden banquet tables were set up under shady canvas awnings along the smooth spirit-asphalt highway.
On every table sat steaming mountains of Honey-Glazed Spirit-Pork Knuckles, platters of crispy Dragon-Fire Roasted Duck, big bowls of spicy beef noodles, and barrels of ice-cold Sweet-Spring plum soda.
Right in the middle of Table #12 sat Young Master Zhao Feng (Debtor #1001).
Although he was still wearing his bright yellow Debtor Vest over his robe, his face was rosy and sun-tanned, his shoulders were noticeably broader than they had been a week ago, and the aura pulsing from his dantian had just crossed from Rank 4 Peak into Half-Step Foundation Establishment that very morning!
In his left hand, Zhao Feng clutched a huge, glistening honey-braised pork knuckle; with his right arm, he was hugging his fifty-pound Fused Gravity-Iron Debtor Shovel tightly against his knee so nobody could accidentally swap it with a lighter one.
