Down in the warm lakeside mud-bank on World 26, General Frost-Beard’s face was pressed flat against a patch of wet clover.
He was a mighty Rank 7 Peak warlord, a terror of the Dark-Ice Sector who had ruled four frozen worlds with an iron fist for five hundred years. Yet right now, no matter how hard he pushed with his arms or kicked with his boots, he couldn’t lift his chest a single inch off the ground!
Sitting cross-legged on the middle of Frost-Beard’s armored spine was General Tie Zhan.
Thanks to the Furnace-Blood Scripture that Pei Xuan had upgraded for his core generals, Tie Zhan’s physical body weighed as much as a solid iron mountain when he circulated his blood-Qi. Even better, Tie Zhan was completely relaxed, holding a plate of six freshly steamed pork buns in his left hand and dipping one into a little saucer of chili-vinegar with his right.
“Mmm, Old Guo really outdid himself with this batch of pork-and-cabbage buns,” Tie Zhan said happily, taking a huge bite while bouncing slightly on Frost-Beard’s back as if testing a new sofa cushion. “My Lord, this warlord’s back armor has a nice curve to it! If you put a wool cushion over his shoulder blades, he’d make a first-class footstool!”
