With a single kick of his legs, Pei Xuan shot across the rooftops of Dry-Well Town like a golden meteor!
Now that he had reached Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster and cultivated the [Dragon-Blood Anvil Scripture], every step he took released a cushion of golden Internal Qi beneath his boots, letting him leap a hundred feet through the snowy night air without making a sound.
Right behind him bounded General Tie Zhan and Chief Hulun, the two burly Rank 3 Grandmasters grinning like excited schoolboys as they raced toward the glowing crystal domes of the East Greenhouse Sector.
Inside Greenhouse Dome #3, ten night-watch farmers were holding wooden watering ladles and staring in terror at the center aisle between the snow-sweet radish beds and the emerald cabbage patches.
RUMBLE-CRACK-HISSSSS!
The warm black soil in the center aisle—right where a thick four-foot-wide Main Red-Copper Dragon-Heating Trunk Pipe ran ten feet underground—was bulging upward like a giant molehill!
“Everybody out of Dome #3!”
Pei Xuan flashed through the glass double doors, grabbed two frozen-stiff night farmers under each arm, and vaulted back out to the stone walkway just as General Tie Zhan and Chief Hulun cleared the other eight farmers out the side doors.
“Wait—don’t let it bite the cabbages!” Old Guo came running up the street waving two heavy iron meat-cleavers, his fat face pale with horror. “Those emerald cabbages are for tomorrow’s noon hot-pot! And those red Dragon-Tongue Chilies in Row Four are already promised to the VIP downstairs!”
Before Old Guo even finished shouting, the center aisle of Greenhouse #3 split open into a twenty-foot-wide trench!
ROOOOOOOAR-SCREEEEECH!
Up from the deep permafrost burst a colossal, hundred-foot-long cylinder of translucent blue-white diamond ice!
It was a Rank 3 Peak Frost-Crystal Sandworm—an ancient desert subterranean monster as thick around as a village windmill, covered in interlocking rings of razor-sharp blue ice-crystal armor that could grind through solid granite like soft tofu!
At the front of its round head gaped a circular mouth lined with three hundred spinning teeth of blue frost-crystal.
Drawn up from five hundred feet underground by the cozy warmth of the copper heating pipes and the sweet, spirit-rich fragrance of the fused greenhouse radishes, the hundred-foot ice worm opened its spinning crystal jaws wide—aiming to swallow the main four-foot copper heating pipe AND half an acre of Snow-Sweet Radishes in a single bite!
“Touch one single radish in my greenhouse, and you’re paying for it with ten years of tunnel digging!”
Pei Xuan didn’t draw a sword—he didn’t need one!
Before the giant worm’s crystal teeth could close on the first white radish, Pei Xuan leaped straight from the stone walkway into the twenty-foot trench!
In midair, his right fist glowed like a miniature golden sun as his [Dragon-Blood Anvil Internal Qi] and ten-thousand-pound bone strength condensed onto his knuckles.
“Dragon-Anvil Fist—Hammer the Iron!”
BOOOOOOOOM!
Pei Xuan’s bare golden fist slammed straight into the right side of the hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm’s armored jaw!
A shockwave of golden air blasted outward, blowing all the loose dirt cleanly back into the trench without cracking a single pane of the Tempered Spirit-Glass roof above!
CRACK-SHATTER!
The Frost-Crystal Sandworm—which had spent three hundred years chewing through deep iron-rock without ever chipping a scale—let out a high-pitched, pig-like squeal (“WEEEEEEEK!”) as three of its thick blue ice-crystal armor plates cracked under Pei Xuan’s single bare-knuckle punch!
Its massive twenty-ton head was slammed sideways by six feet, missing the radish row completely and biting a mouthful of empty air!
“Hahaha! My turn! Don’t hog the sandbag, My Lord!”
General Tie Zhan jumped into the left side of the trench, his bronze muscles swelling as he swung both Rank 3 Grandmaster fists like twin siege rams into the worm’s left rib-ring!
“And take a punch from the Frost-Mane Tribe for trying to steal our hot-pot vegetables!”
Chief Hulun roared from the center, spitting on his giant seven-foot-two palms and delivering a double-handed Frost-Wolf Overhead Smash right on top of the giant worm’s nose!
BAM! POW! CRASH! THUD! BOOM!
Inside the twenty-foot trench in the middle of Greenhouse #3, a scene unfolded that made Old Wei, Hong Ling, and the night farmers outside rub their eyes in sheer disbelief.
A terrifying Rank 3 Peak Frost-Crystal Sandworm—a desert boss monster that could easily swallow a whole caravan of fifty horses and wipe out a walled border fort—didn’t even get a chance to spit a single frost-beam!
Pei Xuan on the right, General Tie Zhan on the left, and Chief Hulun in the front surrounded the hundred-foot worm’s head like three bouncers in a back alley!
Every time the worm tried to twist its body to crush the cabbages, Pei Xuan grabbed one of its crystal horn-feelers with one hand—using his ten-thousand-pound grip to yank the hundred-foot monster straight back into the center of the trench—and punched it square in the eye with his other fist!
Every time it tried to open its mouth to spit freezing mist, Chief Hulun and General Tie Zhan punched its upper and lower jaws shut with a loud CLACK that made the worm bite its own tongue!
Outside the glass door, Abacus Su stood with his brass abacus and a notebook, clicking the beads furiously while shouting into the trench:
“Careful on the left, General Tie! Don’t let its tail crush the Dragon-Tongue Chili bushes! Wait—let me calculate this monster’s illegal entry fine: digging an unlicensed twenty-foot hole under Municipal Greenhouse #3 (5,000 silver), scuffing three inches of insulation off Main Copper Heating Pipe #4 (15,000 silver), and scaring ten night-watch farmers (10,000 silver)! This worm already owes Dry-Well Town thirty thousand silver taels!”
Down in the trench, beaten black and blue by sixty consecutive Rank 3 Grandmaster punches in thirty seconds, the hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm was dizzy, cross-eyed, and crying thick blue ice-tears.
Where did these three human monsters come from?! the poor Sandworm King wailed inside its simple beast brain. Especially that young one in the red coat—why do his fists hit harder than an iron mountain AND smell like a terrifying ancient dragon?! Forget the radishes! I’m going back down into the permafrost!
Desperate to escape, the bruised Sandworm King slammed its tail down and tried to burrow backward down its hole—accidentally scraping its nose right against the Four-Foot Main Red-Copper Inspection Valve connected to the bottom of the Sweet-Spring Well!
SCRAPE-CLANG!
Down in the twelve-hundred-foot well cavern, Ao Ming was right in the middle of a wonderful dream about swimming in an ocean of spicy Snow-Sheep hot-pot when the loud CLANG vibrated straight down the copper heating pipe and woke him up!
“Huh?! Who is banging on my heating pipe while this Sovereign is digesting his midnight lamb?!”
Ao Ming opened one giant golden eye and peered up the four-foot-wide main maintenance pipe with his divine sense.
Seeing a fat, hundred-foot blue ice-worm trying to chew near the greenhouse roots that grew his beloved Dragon-Tongue Fire Chilies, Ao Ming got mad!
If this stupid worm ruins the chili greenhouse, what am I going to put in my soup tomorrow?!
Without even getting off his copper bed, Ao Ming reached the tip of one silver claw up to the bottom mouth of the four-foot maintenance pipe, aimed a tiny thread of compressed Rank 7 Ancient Flood-Dragon Aura mixed with a spark of golden Yang-fire up the tube, and flicked his claw!
PING—THWACK!
Up in the greenhouse trench, the four-foot brass inspection cap popped open like a cuckoo clock, and a golden dragon-claw phantom the size of a cartwheel shot out of the pipe and flicked the Frost-Crystal Sandworm right on the tip of its nose!
At the same time, Ao Ming’s booming voice echoed out of the brass pipe like thunder from the nine abysses:
“Stupid little mud-crawler! If you dare bruise a single chili pepper in this garden, this Dragon Sovereign will pull you down into the well and roast you on a spit with cumin!”
SQUEEEEEEEAK!
Feeling the unmistakable, soul-crushing bloodline pressure of a True Ancient Flood Dragon right on its nose, the hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm nearly fainted from pure terror!
It stopped trying to dig away, curled its entire hundred-foot crystal body into a tight, trembling cinnamon-roll shape at the bottom of the trench, and opened its mouth—
PTUI!
Out popped a glowing, fist-sized orb of pure ice-blue light—its Rank 3 Peak Frost-Core Beast Pearl—which it pushed eagerly across the dirt toward Pei Xuan’s boots with its bruised nose while whimpering like a beaten puppy!
Pei Xuan picked up the fist-sized [Frost-Core Beast Pearl], looked at the hundred-foot ice worm trembling in a coil and begging to eat leftover radish peels, and burst out laughing.
“You hear that, Abacus Su?” Pei Xuan called up to the walkway. “It says it can eat solid rock and bore tunnels at fifty miles a day—and all it wants for wages is leftover radish peels and cabbage stems!”
Abacus Su’s eyes lit up behind his spectacles like two silver coins. “Fifty miles of stone tunnel a day for vegetable scraps?! My Lord, if we put a yellow Debtor Collar on this worm and have it dig underground pedestrian tunnels between the Main Town, the North Barbarian Suburb, the Green-Willow South Suburb, and the Salt Mine, our citizens won’t even have to step out into the blizzard to go to work!”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Pei Xuan grinned.
Instead of taking the worm’s core pearl permanently (which would weaken its digging speed), Pei Xuan opened his 3-Slot Fusion Cube and tossed in:
1. [The Worm's Frost-Core Pearl (Temporary Linked Stamp)]
2. [1x Yellow Debtor Collar + Royal Bug-Boss Chalk]
3. [An Iron Tunnel-Shaping Ring & Brick-Lining Blueprint]
Spend 3,000 LP. Fuse!
A ring of warm golden-blue light snapped around the hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm’s neck, forming a neat [Municipal Subway-Boring Collar (Debtor Unit #001)] while healing all the cracks on its crystal shell!
Whenever the Sandworm King chewed through underground rock and permafrost now, its spinning crystal teeth would grind the stone into smooth paste, and the fused iron shaping-ring around its tail would automatically compress and bake the tunnel walls into a fifteen-foot-wide, rock-solid Glazed Stone Subway Tunnel!
“Here is your signing bonus,” Pei Xuan tossed a fifty-pound basket of warm greenhouse cabbage outer leaves and radish tops straight into the Sandworm’s mouth.
CHOMP-CHOMP-PURRRRR!
The hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm munched the sweet, dragon-watered radish tops in pure bliss, its Loyalty bar shooting straight up to 85/100 as it rubbed its giant crystal nose gratefully against Pei Xuan’s boot!
“Wait a minute!” Old Guo leaned over the edge of the trench, looking thoughtfully at the piles of crushed blue ice-crystal scales and frost-powder that Pei Xuan, General Tie, and Chief Hulun had punched off the worm’s shell during the thirty-second beatdown. “Young Master, why isn’t this blue ice-powder melting inside our eighty-degree greenhouse?”
Pei Xuan picked up a fist-sized piece of cracked blue shell from the ground and scanned it with his RTS Tooltip:
“Good catch, Old Guo!” Pei Xuan’s eyes lit up as he tossed the four hundred pounds of shed crystal shards into his Fusion Cube along with [Twenty Insulated Stone Pantries] and [Fifty Wooden Ice-Chests], spending 1,000 LP on the spot!
FLASH!
Behind the ten Hot-Pot Halls on Hot-Pot Street, twenty [Rank 3 Perpetual Frost-Crystal Cold-Storage Freezers] and fifty [Hand-Cranked Shaved-Ice & Frozen Milk Machines] materialized!
“Now we don’t even have to wait for winter to keep our Snow-Sheep meat fresh!” Old Guo clapped his fat hands in delight. “And with those shaved-ice machines, we can mix sweet Snow-Sheep milk, greenhouse watermelon juice, and crushed ice to serve Chilled Watermelon Snow-Milk Ice right alongside the spicy red chili hot-pot! Eating fiery hot-pot while drinking sweet shaved ice—even the Emperor in the capital has never tasted that!”
Down in the trench, seeing that even its shed scale-chips had been turned into treasure—and smelling a fresh bucket of sweet watermelon rinds that Old Guo poured into its mouth as a thank-you gift—the hundred-foot Frost-Crystal Sandworm wagged its crystal tail so hard it automatically smoothed out the floor of Greenhouse #3!
By the time they led the newly recruited Subway Worm out to start boring Line #1 under the main avenue, Batu rode in from the North Gate with good news: another 1,000 snow-trapped desert refugees had followed the Frost-Mane Tribe’s tracks to the town gate, bringing Dry-Well Town’s population up to 22,500!
Looking down into the glowing, warm stone tunnel that the giant Sandworm was already chewing smoothly beneath the frozen street at a walking pace, Pei Xuan smiled.
“Let the Hundred-Year Black Frost blow as hard as it wants outside,” Pei Xuan said, dusting off his hands. “Starting tomorrow, Dry-Well Town goes underground with a heated subway!”