The Star-Lotus Floating Plaza—a massive neutral asteroid platform suspended between Dry-Well Territory and the Void-Lotus Star Sector—had never been this crowded in ten thousand years.
Over fifty thousand merchant starships, sect war-galleons, and news-broadcast vessels hovered in a wide ring around the white-stone arena. Across every inhabited planet in the Orion-Jade Spiral Arm, trillions of mortals and cultivators stopped working, crowded into public squares, and stared up at the giant sky-screens.
Today was the live Galactic Life-and-Death Pill Duel between the undisputed ruler of the Spiral Arm’s medicine trade—Half-Step Rank 9 Alchemy Sovereign Yao—and Dry-Well Territory’s soot-faced kitchen alchemist, Sun Baolu.
On the west side of the arena, the Light-Year Sword-Rail Express pulled up with a cheerful CHOO-CHOO!
Pei Xuan stepped off the train flanked by Old Wei, General Tie Zhan, Hong Ling, Abacus Su, and the fifty newly defected Rank 8 Grandmasters wearing crisp blue Dry-Well Worker Vests. Behind them, two thirty-foot Titan engineers carried Sun Baolu’s favorite portable three-legged black iron pot and set it down on the stone stage with a heavy THUD.
On the east side of the arena, twelve golden lotus ships descended in a cloud of thick white smoke.
Wait—as the smoke cleared, the millions of spectators leaning over the railings squinted in confusion.
