CLANG—KRA-CHUNK!
Nine hundred-foot doors forged from star-gold and sun-jade swung wide open inside the hollowed-out core of Treasury Moon #1, orbiting right beside the Central Alchemy Sun of System #30.
Wearing a freshly issued white cotton chef’s hat over his white hair and a clean “Dry-Well Kitchen Intern #001” apron tied around his waist, Grandmaster Dan Yang (Rank 8 Mid Peak) bowed ninety degrees and gestured proudly into the glowing cavern with his newly healed left arm.
“Lord Mayor, Master Sun, please look!” Grandmaster Dan Yang announced eagerly, trying his best to earn brownie points before his first dishwashing lesson. “This is the Ten-Thousand-Year Star-Herb Treasury of our former Nine-Sun Alchemy Alliance! For the last three millennia, ninety percent of the high-grade sun-herbs harvested by the three hundred billion farmers of Systems 21 through 30 were locked inside this vault!”
Pei Xuan, Boom-Pot Sun, Old Guo, Hong Ling, Abacus Su, and Old Wei walked through the massive golden doors—and even Hong Ling, who had counted trillions of Grain-Notes over the past few months, gasped so hard she nearly dropped her abacus!
The interior of the hollowed-out moon had been expanded by a high-grade spatial array into a glowing continent of floating jade shelves, preserved in timeless solar amber.
