Dark purple thunderclouds rolled across the sky toward Dry-Well Capital City like an ink spill spreading over white paper.
Inside that roaring storm cloud, the four Rank 6 Golden Core Ancestors were flying at top speed, their faces still twitching from the humiliation at the Mount Azure Toll Booth.
“Fifty miles left!” Ancestor Heaven-Lock screamed over the howling wind, clutching his cracked tortoise-shell compass. “Right ahead is the border junction where that mortal king built his new Eastern Capital! All four of the continent’s freed Spirit Veins are pouring straight under his palace courtyard!”
“Good! Very good!” Ancestor Blood-Sword bared his blood-stained teeth, his bald head shining with vicious red light. “Look down at that city—there must be five million mortals packed inside those red-brick walls! Once we smash their palace roof and kill that King Pei Xuan, I am going to seal all four city gates and turn this entire city into a five-million-man Blood Refining Cauldron!”
“Wait a second!” Ancestor Pill-Fire sniffed the air sharply, his long white eyebrows jumping as his big red nose twitched. “Do you three smell that?”
“Smell what? Gunpowder?” Ancestor Gold-Bone asked, rubbing the dent on his golden chin where the Honest-Toad’s copper token had hit him.
