At eight o’clock the next morning, a magnificent procession rolled up to the base of Heavenly-Lock Mountain.
In the front marched General Tie Zhan’s five hundred Armored Spirit-Tanks, their polished iron hulls gleaming in the morning sunlight. Behind the tanks glided Ye Guhan and five thousand Flying-Shovel Engineers, ready to pave a smooth asphalt boulevard all the way to the summit.
And right behind the shovel corps came the true secret weapon of the Dry-Well expeditionary force: Old Guo and Boom-Pot Sun’s fifty Mobile Roast-Duck & Mutton-Soup Kitchen Wagons, puffing out thick, mouth-watering clouds of honey-glazed roast duck aroma that drifted straight up the mountain stairs!
Up at the First Mountain Gate of Heavenly-Lock Sect, two thousand outer and inner disciples stood behind the heavy bronze gate doors holding their array flags. Every single one of them had dark circles under their eyes from staying up until three in the morning under their blankets watching Old Guo’s Cooking Show and The Heartbroken Sword Fairy on their smuggled two-copper slates.
“Sniff... sniff...”
At the front of the gate guard, sixteen-year-old Inner Disciple Lin Fan and his bunkmate Zhou Hu sniffed the morning breeze, their knees trembling as the real-life smell of crispy roast duck skin, sweet bean sauce, and hot scallion pancakes hit their noses.
