Up on the roof of the lead Star-Train locomotive, Ye Guhan sat cross-legged in his snow-white robes, carefully wiping his long sword with a silk cloth. Ever since slicing ten light-speed highways through the Dark Rift in the last sector, Ye Guhan felt that his comprehension of the “Way of the Sword” had reached a mysterious new level.
Pei Xuan climbed the iron ladder onto the locomotive roof, shook his head with a deep, dramatic sigh, and looked up at the three glaring Orbital Night-Light Mirrors floating fifty thousand miles above Planet #61-A.
“What a pity,” Pei Xuan murmured, loud enough for Ye Guhan’s ears to twitch.
Ye Guhan immediately stood up, clasping his hands respectfully. “My Lord, why do you sigh? Are those Golden-Crow tax collectors troubling your mind?”
“Not the tax collectors,” Pei Xuan said with a solemn expression. “Little Ye, look at this star map. Across Systems 61 to 70, the Golden-Crow Sun Clan has hung 850,000 brass Sunlight Meters in the clouds and 300 giant Orbital Magnifying Mirrors in outer space. Every meter is forged from three-inch-thick Star-Brass, and every mirror is coated in dazzling fire-glaze.”
Pei Xuan sighed again and patted the train railing. “I once read in an ancient, lost sword scroll that if a swordsman can cut 850,000 brass cylinders into uniform two-foot-long water pipe sections within three hours—without letting the blinding glare of 300 sun-mirrors make him blink even once—he will master the legendary Unblinking Eye of the Sword-Sun. Alas, cutting them…
