By five o’clock that afternoon, the terrifying forty-thousand-year headquarters of the Astral Wind Immortal Sect looked completely unrecognizable.
Down in the central locomotive yard right outside the mountain gate, Sect Master Feng Wanli (Rank 8 Peak), Grand Elder Feng Luan (Rank 8 Early), and fifty Nascent Soul Elders were standing in two neat rows beside the furnace air-intakes of twenty newly arrived cargo locomotives.
Every single one of them was wearing a crisp, neon-yellow [DRY-WELL MUNICIPAL RAILWAY — AUXILIARY WIND-BELLOWS CREW] vest, with a frosted two-liter bottle of [Dragon-Breath Fizzy Plum Soda] hanging from a belt clip at their waist!
“All together now, Junior Brothers! Inhale from the dantian—and blow steady at 45psi!”
Former Sect Master Feng Wanli—who still had a small bandage on top of his head from Pei Xuan’s flying brick—waved a small red conductor’s flag and exhaled a long, smooth stream of Rank 8 Peak Pure Astral Wind-Qi straight into the bronze turbo-intake pipe of Cargo Train #12!
WHOOOOOOOOOSH—HUMMMMMMMM!
Fed by the concentrated wind-Qi of an entire sect of high-rank wind immortals, the solar-and-coal boilers of the twenty freight trains burned at 300% efficiency without needing a single extra shovelful of coal!
“Look at the pressure gauge on Engine #12!” Old Wei laughed, tapping the brass dial in the yard tower. “When old Feng Wanli blows into the pipe, our freight trains don’t even burn half a copper coin of fuel! And look how happy he is!”
