Deep inside the underground vault of the Star-Belt Merchant Bank Headquarters on World 21, Master Gold-Tooth was sitting on a pile of uncut Spirit Stones, sipping a cup of expensive snow-lotus tea and waiting for news of Pei Xuan’s ruin.
“Look at the clock, Elder Ink-Claw,” Master Gold-Tooth chuckled, tapping his gold fingernails against his jade armrest as his thirty-two gold teeth gleamed in the lantern light. “It has been thirty minutes since Scar-Nose Biao and his five hundred men walked into West Harbor with our fifty million counterfeit 10-Jin Notes! By now, they should be loading the first hundred million Jin of Spirit-Rice onto our wagons!”
“Master is truly a strategic god!” Elder Ink-Claw bowed low, rubbing his ink-stained hands together. “Wait... Master, do you hear something rumbling upstairs in the main lobby?”
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-PATTER-PATTER-OINK-WOOF!
The stone ceiling of the basement suddenly began shaking, dropping showers of dust into Master Gold-Tooth’s teacup.
Before Elder Ink-Claw could walk over to the basement spy-mirror, the heavy side door at the top of the stairs burst open!
“MASTER GOLD-TOOTH! SAVE US! TURN OFF THE MIRAGE ARRAY!”
Scar-Nose Biao and his five hundred thugs tumbled headfirst down the stone stairs in a tangled, screaming heap! Half of their trousers were chewed to ribbons, and every single man had at least twenty red Origami Paper Pigs clamped onto his nose, ears, and backside!
