HONK! HONK! RUMBLE-CLANG!
Three massive, twelve-wheeled iron vehicles came roaring up the middle lanes of the newly paved highway, blowing thick rings of black-and-gold alchemy smoke out of their tall brass smokestacks.
Standing on the roof of the first truck was Boom-Pot Sun.
The former disgraced alchemist—now the proud Minister of Artillery and Industrial Smelting for the Dry-Well Civic Empire—had black soot smeared across both cheeks, a pair of cracked magnifying goggles strapped to his forehead, and a huge, gap-toothed grin on his face. In his right hand, he swung a heavy iron wrench like a conductor’s baton.
“Clear the middle two lanes! Back it up, boys, back it up!” Boom-Pot Sun hollered at the top of his lungs as the three giant trucks screeched to a halt directly underneath the hovering Rank 6-Grade Sky-Crane Electromagnet.
Up on the cliffs of Mount Azure, Sect Master Ling Xiao was still hugging a stone pillar with both legs while his eight Sword Elders crawled out of the pine bushes, holding up their beltless trousers with one hand and shading their eyes with the other.
“What... what are those three iron monsters with the giant funnels on their backs?!” Second Elder Gu stammered, his voice trembling.
