SQUEAK-RATTLE-SQUEAK-RATTLE!
The wheels of the four heavy iron shopping carts rolled down the wide marble corridor of the Central Continental Utility Hall, pushed by General Tie Zhan and three burly Rank 5 tank commanders.
Tie Zhan was chewing on an oversized steamed pork bun with one hand while steering two shopping carts at once with the other. Every time a cart wheel hit a floor tile seam, Ancestor Gold-Bone and Ancestor Heaven-Lock bounced two inches into the air inside their cages.
“Slow down, you brute! Watch the bumps!” Ancestor Gold-Bone yelled, clutching his bruised tailbone as he glared back at Tie Zhan. “I am a six-hundred-year-old Rank 6 Golden Core Sovereign! My bones are refined from sacred Geng-Gold! If you chip my hip socket on a doorway, how am I supposed to work off forty-five billion Spirit Stones?!”
“Quit whining, Grandpa #004,” Tie Zhan mumbled around a mouthful of juicy pork filling. “When Lord Pei bought me out of a rusty slave wagon for two bags of salt back in the desert, my leg meridians were snapped in three places and I didn’t complain half as much as you. Besides, once you get inside the dynamo room, you won’t be sitting in a bumpy cart anymore. Lord Pei designed four custom thrones just for you four old guys.”
