Outside the newly scrubbed marble steps of the Gu Family Peace Pharmacy & Orphanage on Willow-Breeze Lane. A procession of twelve gilded sedan chairs and four scarlet-bannered wagons rolled to a pompous halt at 9:30 AM.
At the head of the column stood Master Dan-Chen, the fifty-two-year-old Chief Pill Alchemist of the Great Qian Royal Court and Vice-President of the Royal Alchemist Guild.
Dressed in a flowing purple brocade robe embroidered with four golden cauldrons—the unmistakable insignia of a Rank 4 Early (Qi Gathering) Immortal Alchemist—Master Dan-Chen held a jadestone fly-whisk in one hand. Two senior royal apprentices behind him carried a three-legged Royal Gold-Inlaid Pill Tripod and a crimson lacquered board inscribed with six large characters in gold leaf:.
[FRAUDULENT MORTAL CLINIC — SEALED BY ROYAL EDICT]
Behind Master Dan-Chen’s retinue trotted Herb-Tycoon Boss Sun, who had changed out of his pond-scum-soaked sable coat into a dry silk vest and was pointing an accusing. Ring-covered finger at the open archway of Willow-Breeze Courtyard.
“There it is, Master Dan-Chen!” Boss Sun cried out in a shrill, aggrieved voice. “That is the back-alley soup kitchen that stole my two prize Rank 2 Cloud-Treading Spirit Horses this morning!
And worse—when the golden smoke rose from their chimney at seven o’clock.
