The Central Inner-Fortress Mess Hall of Ring #8 stretched across a hollowed-out underground glacier like a coliseum of black iron and blue ice.
At the far end of the ten-mile hall stood the heavily armored 9th Ring Vault Elevator, the sole vertical shaft leading down into the Abyssal Frost Core where Empress Luo Qingxue was chained.
Between the [Trojan Nine-Grid Hotpot Cart] and that elevator sat 50,000 Elite Inner Fortress Guards at ten thousand long steel tables. Every guard wore Rank 6 or Rank 7 dark-iron armor, carried a frost-forged halberd across his knees, and wore a glowing blue Soul-Link Life Jade around his neck.
Inside the cart’s hidden living room, thirteen-year-old Ye Xiao zoomed in on the life jades through the crystal periscope and whispered urgently:
“Dad, look at the array lines on their collars! All fifty thousand life jades are wired in a parallel circuit to Warden Tianfa’s central throne room! If even one guard suffers physical injury, has his dantian sealed by force, or drops below fifty percent consciousness from a poison attack, the life jade will shatter and sound a sector-wide alarm!”
Twelve-year-old Gu Nian frowned, resting his hand on his [Giant Silicone Spatula]. “Fifty thousand guards in one hall, and we can’t knock them out with force or poison? How do we wheel a thirty-foot brass hotpot cart past ten thousand tables to reach that elevator?”
