One hour earlier, inside the Golden-Crow Branch Fortress hovering near the blazing central sun of System #70, the mood had been lazy and luxurious.
The entire fortress was carved out of a hollowed-out volcanic planetoid and plated in millions of tons of stolen gold. Inside the grand Hall of Ten-Thousand Meters, rows of jade counting-boards floated in the air, chiming softly every second as Spirit Stones poured in through spatial teleportation arrays from eighty-five tax-enslaved planets.
At the top of the hall, lounging on a throne woven from fiery phoenix feathers, sat Third Young Master Jin Wuji (Rank 8 Late).
Jin Wuji wore a robe of spun sun-gold with three sleeves—a mark of his pure, mutated Three-Legged Golden-Crow Bloodline—and held a goblet of fermented fire-lotus wine in his hand. Two maidservants with ice-spirit roots stood behind him fanning his neck, though their hands were covered in red burn-blisters because Jin Wuji’s body naturally leaked 1,000-degree heat whenever he was in a good mood.
“How much did those underground dirt-moles in Systems 61 to 70 pay this morning, Envoy Jin Chi?” Jin Wuji asked lazily, tossing a roasted fire-grape into his mouth.
Below the throne stood Twelve Golden-Crow Fire Envoys (eight Rank 8 Mid and four Rank 8 Late). Their leader, a tall, hawk-nosed man with red eyebrows named Jin Chi (Rank 8 Late), bowed with a cruel grin.
