Halfway up Myriad-Pill Mountain, at the wide cliff platform where Step #5,000 used to be, stood the Middle-Peak Pill Plaza.
Dominating the plaza were nine gigantic bronze dragon heads carved straight out of the mountain wall. Each dragon jaw was connected by underground copper pipes to the mountain’s trapped Wood-Fire Spirit Vein. Right now, all nine bronze jaws were wide open, spewing a hundred-foot-tall curtain of purple-gold flame that sealed off the entire mountain road: the Rank 5 Nine-Dragon Pill-Fire Barrier!
Behind the shimmering wall of purple-gold fire stood Pavilion Master Yao, his twelve Rank 5 Foundation Establishment Grand Elders, and three thousand Inner Sect Alchemist-Guards holding bronze fire-gourds.
Looking down at the steaming black four-lane asphalt highway that had buried the lower five thousand White Jade Steps, Pavilion Master Yao was shaking so hard with rage that his golden hair-crown sat crooked on his head.
“They paved tar over the Ancestral Steps!” First Grand Elder Mo screamed, pointing a green-nailed finger at the yellow road sign reading [SLOW TRUCKS KEEP RIGHT]. “Pavilion Master! Even the stone monument where the First Emperor of Great Chu knelt for seven days has been ground into road gravel!”
“Calm down!” Pavilion Master Yao barked, though a vein on his forehead was throbbing like an earthworm. “His clumsy iron carts can crush mortal stone, but they can never pass our Nine-Dragon Pill-Fire Barrier! This purple-gold Pill-Fire burns at five thousand degrees using pure alkaline Earth-Fire essence! Any iron machine that touches this barrier will…
