A howling arctic gale swept across the jagged iron peaks of Branch System #36 (Iron-Root Star), driving black sleet sideways into the mud of the mining valley below.
Two miles above the storm clouds, the ten-mile-wide [Galactic Flying Courtyard (Flying Courtyard Star-Cruiser)] hung completely invisible behind a warm curtain of domestic kitchen steam.
Gu Changsheng stood at the white wooden picket fence of the front porch with [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] open in his left hand.
On the yellowed parchment pages, lines of black ink were sizzling and shifting as Foreknowledge Decay updated the enemy’s live counter-moves across the outer rim of the Inner Spiral Galaxy.
“Look at the date stamp on this entry, Qingxue,” Gu Changsheng said quietly, tapping the glowing margin with his fingernail.
Empress Luo Qingxue stepped closer to his side, her silver hair stirring against the collar of her white robe as she read over his shoulder.
“In the original trajectory, Golden Heir Gu Wuji left these thirty-six outer branch star systems untouched for another ten years,” Luo Qingxue said, her ice-blue eyes narrowing into sharp frost. “He waited until his Rank 9 Mid bottleneck before refining all thirty-six planets into a single furnace pill.”
“Because we turned his twelve golden war-chariots into laying coops and hung up on his hologram, the boy threw a tantrum,” Gu Changsheng said, his voice calm but cold as winter iron.
