Fifty million miles away from the Academy Star-Ring, inside the armored core of the Central Mega-Sun, Headmaster Hong floated high above a boiling ocean of nuclear magma. His white robes billowed in the solar updraft as he gazed up at the Continent-Sized Brass Golden-Finger Smelting Furnace roaring before him.
Inside the transparent crystal belly of the continent-sized furnace, ten thousand reserve Grade-8 Golden Luck Halos were melting down into a swirling, blood-red ocean of liquid script-code. That crimson tide poured steadily into a three-foot-wide pulsing sphere at the very center of the chamber: the Rank 9 Pseudo-Galactic Slaughter System Orb.
Above the furnace, the holographic progress bar ticked past seventy-eight point five percent.
“Hehehe... Gu Changsheng, I know exactly how your mind works!”
Headmaster Hong sneered coldly as he watched the live satellite feeds of the 1,000-Sun Star Field on his floating furnace console.
“Your entire strength—and that bizarre parental system of yours—depends on the warmth, faith, and survival of your one point six trillion Protected Citizens!” Headmaster Hong’s eyes gleamed with ruthless malice. “That is why I didn’t just dump my ten thousand reserve Halos into the furnace. I activated the Thousand-Sun Blood Siphon Array across the entire sector at the exact same time!”
