News traveled fast along the Light-Speed Star-Train network—and even faster across the crystal broadcast channels that Supreme Elder Jin Bao had accidentally left turned on during his failed supernova ambush.
Within forty-eight hours, every merchant caravan, wandering sword sect, and independent star-port within two hundred light-years had seen the miracle of the Red-Ember Belt.
At first, people in the outer sectors thought the broadcast was a stage play.
“Did you hear? Five dying Red Giant Stars in Systems 71 to 80 were poisoned with Rank 8 Blood Nails and about to blow up eighty planets, and Lord Pei Xuan stopped all five supernovas by clamping brass pressure-cooker lids on their north poles!”
“That’s only half the story! My cousin took the morning train from System #62 to Planet #75 yesterday! He said the vented supernova steam was turned into eighty thousand white-marble hot springs, and the five Rank 8 Blood Nails were recycled into ten million infra-red foot-massage tubs! An All-Day Resort Pass—including the Dragon-Whisker Back-Scrubber, a thirty-minute Blood-Nail Foot Soak, two Starlight Boiled Eggs, and a plate of Meat-Potato Pies—costs only 5 paper Grain-Notes!”
“Five Grain-Notes?! In the Nine-Sun Alchemy Alliance’s old days, just sniffing a Rank 7 healing pill cost five thousand Spirit Stones! Can a 5-Note bath ticket really cure hidden cultivation injuries and add five hundred years to a person’s lifespan?!”
