High above the north pole of Old Mother Ember #3 in the center of System #75, Pei Xuan stepped out of the Star-Train and sat cross-legged in open space, right atop the thousand-mile Brass Safety Whistle Valve.
All around him, warm golden-pink Starlight Mineral Steam billowed softly into the void, while sixty million miles below his boots, the stabilized core of the ancient Red Giant Star beat like a colossal drum of liquid gold.
Unlike normal young stars that burned with sharp, restless surface flames, the five Red Giant Stars of Systems 71 to 80 had been simmering in the cosmos for billions of years. Their cores held Condensed Ancient Star-Core Fire—the heaviest, richest, and most enduring form of solar energy in the star-field.
Previously, that ancient core-heat had been choked with iron ash and poisoned by Elder Jin Bao’s Blood Nails, pushing the five stars toward a violent death.
Now, thanks to Pei Xuan’s Five-Star Supernova Pressure-Cooker Array and Elder Jin Bao’s fanatical 24-hour valve-tuning down in the control tower, all five Red Giant Stars were linked into a single, massive stellar circulation engine!
“Young Master is starting his breakthrough!”
A hundred miles away, Old Wei, Ye Guhan, General Tie Zhan, and the ten-thousand-mile golden dragon Ao Ming stood guard at the four corners of the sky, while Elder Jin Bao poked his head out of the boiler tower window in his pink ducky bathrobe, watching with wide, reverent eyes.
