Inside the damp, bat-infested cavern five miles south of Moonlight Gorge, the clock on Envoy Xue Sha’s skull-framed system screen clicked to 11:48 PM on Night 2.
Outside in the night sky, hiding silently behind a stalactite near the cave ceiling, Gu Changsheng’s [Rank 6 Night-Vision 4K Broadcast Camera Owl] adjusted its crystal zoom lens with a faint, imperceptible whir.
Back inside the four Pocket-Dimension Hotpot Shelters and along the picnic tables of Moonlight Gorge, two million two hundred thousand Demon Continent citizens gathered eagerly around the giant sky-screens. Beside them sat the fifty thousand newly hired road-crew workers wearing clean shirts, picking their teeth after three helpings of roast lamb and sharing bowls of caramelized popcorn and iced plum juice.
“Look, everyone! The midnight show is starting early tonight!” Wolf-Chief Cang Ya called out, waving his mug toward the screen.
“Last night Uncle Mosquito-Slapper clapped his own ears in the swamp!
Let’s see what genius plan he came up with for Night Two!”
On the giant 4K screen, Envoy Xue Sha stood in the center of his cave altar, his hair still puffed out in yesterday’s frizzy charcoal afro and his cheeks covered in pink mosquito bites.
Holding the forbidden [Rank 6 Blood-Shadow Clone Scroll] in both trembling hands, Xue Sha laughed with the wild, feverish triumph of a gambler who thought he had discovered how to print counterfeit money!
