High up in the purple clouds above Jade-Plow Planet, five giant iron sluice-gates locked onto the main Spirit Vein of the star cluster slammed shut with an earth-shaking CLANG!
On the marble balcony of the Floating Purple-Gold Outpost stood Elder Bai He (Rank 8 Early Star Realm), the Chief Vein Controller of the White-Crown Celestial Clan. He stroked his long white beard and sneered down at the fifty mining planets below as his twenty array-masters turned a giant bronze wheel.
“Lock all fifty planetary Spirit Veins to zero output!” Elder Bai He commanded coldly. “Turn on the Heaven-Sucking Vacuum Pumps! Pull every last wisp of free Spirit Qi out of the lower atmosphere and pump it up into our Five Clans’ floating gardens!”
WHOOOOSH—!
Across all fifty planets in the outer Crown-Star Sector, the warm, refreshing breeze suddenly died away.
Down in the valleys and towns, the air grew thin and dry as the Five Celestial Clans’ massive vacuum arrays sucked the natural planetary Qi upward into the clouds. Within ten minutes, the floating palaces of the noble clans were practically dripping with thick, misty purple Spirit Liquors, while down on the ground below, there wasn’t enough ambient Qi left in the air to light a basic fireball talisman!
