The lead locomotive of the Light-Speed Express Star-Train burst out of the newly paved Black-Gold Asphalt highway of System #60 and rolled smoothly into the starry borders of System #61, the entrance to the Blazing-Feather Sector.
On the open observation deck at the front of the train, Pei Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, enjoying the warm solar breeze. Inside his dantian, six miniature golden suns spun steadily around his central Rank 8 Late furnace, humming with the combined power of sixty tamed solar systems. Beside him, Old Yellow the Golden Dragon-Camel was lazily chewing on a mouthful of leftover dark-matter asphalt like bubble gum, while Hong Ling stood on a wooden stool polishing her twin kitchen cleavers with an oiled cloth.
In front of Pei Xuan’s eyes, the translucent blue screen of his RTS System updated as the train’s radar swept across the next ten star systems.
“Five hundred degrees?” Pei Xuan frowned, shading his eyes as he looked down at the first inhabited planet of System #61.
Instead of green fields, blue rivers, or busy towns, the entire surface of the planet below looked like the bottom of a burnt clay oven. The dirt was baked into cracked red brick. The riverbeds were dry trenches filled with white salt-ash, and not a single blade of grass or tree grew under the blinding, angry orange sun hanging in the sky.
