CHO-CHOO!
A ten-mile-long Spirit-Furnace Star-Train burst out of a shimmering golden wormhole gate, its massive brass smokestack puffing out clouds of sweet-smelling roasted sesame steam as its glowing sword-beam tracks extended straight into the dark void of System #31.
Inside the spacious front observation car, Pei Xuan sat at a polished red-sandwood table, blowing gently on a porcelain cup of hot Sweet-Spring green tea. Outside the wide crystal windows, the starry sky looked completely different from the warm, herb-scented Pill-Fire Sector they had just left behind.
Everywhere he looked, huge jagged asteroids made of dark gray iron, dull copper, and glittering silver drifted through space like floating mountains. In the distance, four heavy, rust-colored planets orbited a small, blindingly bright white star whose gravity pulled long ribbons of liquid metal through the void.
“Look at all that raw iron floating around with nobody picking it up!”
Hong Ling pressed her nose flat against the crystal window, her eyes shining like two copper coins as her fingers clicked rapidly on her golden abacus. Even though she was now a Rank 7 Peak Planetary Steward managing the treasury of thirty solar systems, she still wore two heavy kitchen cleavers tucked into her red silk belt.
