Half an hour later, a gleaming Inter-Galactic Bullet Star-Train roared straight down a newly sliced wormhole tunnel and pulled up in front of the frost-covered Imperial Palace in the Nine-Suns Capital Galaxy.
Out of the train cars marched Hong Ling at the head of ten thousand Dry-Well accounting clerks, each carrying a golden abacus, a barcode scanner, and ten high-capacity spatial storage sacks. Behind them walked Pei Xuan, Old Wei, General Tie Zhan, and Abacus Su, while Grand Duke Zhao Yan—now wearing a bright yellow Debtor Vest over his velvet curtain-blanket—trotted ahead like an eager tour guide.
“Right this way, Lord Pei! Watch your step on the icy stairs, Miss Hong!” Grand Duke Zhao Yan said obsequiously, blowing on his frozen fingers as he pointed toward a colossal nine-layered bronze door built into the core of the Capital’s central star-platform. “This is our Nine-Suns Ancestral Treasury Vault! For one hundred thousand years, nobody outside the royal bloodline has ever been allowed within ten miles of this door!”
Hong Ling marched up to the nine-layered bronze door, inserted the nine golden keys she had taken from Emperor Zhao Wuji’s belt, and twisted them all at once.
CLANK—CLANK—RUMBLE!
The ten-thousand-ton bronze vault doors swung open, releasing a thick cloud of stale, hundred-thousand-year-old dust that made half the accounting clerks sneeze.
