The carrot-shaped clock hands on Headmaster Hong’s forehead clicked forward by one second.
TICK.
A tiny golden mechanical bunny popped out of a miniature trapdoor right above the bridge of Headmaster Hong’s nose. It bowed twice toward Gu Changsheng on the courtyard ship, held up a little pink sign reading 10:00 MINUTES REMAINING, and ducked back inside.
Headmaster Hong stood frozen on the floating slab of scrap brass. Dead silence stretched across the three-thousand-mile underground cavern for five full heartbeats.
Then, Headmaster Hong’s wrinkled face turned the exact shade of an overripe purple plum.
“A joke...” Headmaster Hong whispered, his left eyelid twitching so hard it nearly spasmed shut. “A cheap vocal illusion! A backwater ventriloquism trick forged from household vinegar and a village doctor’s nagging!”
He raised his right arm into the air. His torn white sleeve billowed with terrifying Rank 8 Peak Star-Realm pressure. The hot air around the slag platform distorted, twisting into black vortexes of script-killing intent that cracked the cooled magma crust beneath his boots.
“I am the Grand Overseer of Sector 7!” Headmaster Hong roared, pointing a trembling, claw-like finger directly at Gu Changsheng’s nose. “I bound the core of a Rank 9 Slaughter Engine!
