At 9:00 AM sharp, a cold draft smelling of wet lime, crushed iron filings, and peppermint disinfectant blew up from the underground stairwell of Coffin Alley.
Second Prince Qian Ye [Regressor Halo: 88%] stood at the top of the shattered stone steps, his fingers tightening around the velvet-lined Rank 4 Frost-Jade Organ Preservation Box inside his hands.
Where a three-inch-thick meteoric-iron door bolted with six steel bars should have stood, there was only a jagged, gaping hole in the granite masonry.
“Your Highness, be careful!” Palace Steward Liu gasped, signaling ten armored Eastern Palace Halberdiers to draw their blades and form a shield wall around the Prince. “Someone broke the outer seal!”
Qian Ye’s face was as cold and pale as carved marble. Pushing aside the halberdier in front of him, the Regressor Prince strode down the damp stone stairs into the underground ice-cellar.
“Chief Surgeon Mo!” Qian Ye’s voice echoed sharply off the vault walls. “Where is the specimen?!
Did you complete the extraction at eight o’clock last night as ordered?!”
No one answered from the operating table.
