Three days after the fall of the Heavenly-Lock Array Sect, the morning sun rose over a Central Continent that had changed more in one month than it had in the previous one thousand years.
Far to the west, in the heart of the Red-Sand Wastes where Pei Xuan had started with thirty-five broken mud huts and a single dry pit, Dry-Well Origin City was now a lush, green oasis metropolis shaded by giant spirit-date trees.
At seven-thirty in the morning, Old Man Shi—one of the original one hundred starving villagers from Day One, now a ruddy-cheeked Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster who ran the village’s largest Deep-Fried Red Scorpion & Meat-Potato Snack Factory—walked into West-Desert Teleport Bus Terminal #1 carrying four large warm insulated boxes of freshly fried crispy scorpions and sweet desert dates.
“Morning, Little Chen!” Old Man Shi waved cheerfully to the young bus conductor at the gate and dropped three shiny copper coins into the brass Honest-Toad Fare Box.
RIBBIT—DING!
> “Ticket printed! Passenger: Old Man Shi. Route: West-Desert Terminal #1 -> Great Yan Capital Transfer -> Eastern Central Plains Hub! Total Distance: 1,800 Miles! Total Fare: 3 Copper Coins! Estimated Travel Time including Transfer: 24 Minutes!”
Old Man Shi stepped into the bright yellow-and-green cabin of the Continental Express Teleport Bus, sat down on a soft leather seat next to two spirit-silk weavers and a public school teacher, and took a sip of hot soy milk from his thermos.
