A bitter gale of black ink-vapor blew across the threshold of Floor Two, carrying the cold, metallic tang of ten billion tragedy scripts.
Gu Changsheng stood just inside the ruined bronze doorway with his battered [Frost-Pine Town Iron Wok Spatula] resting against his forearm. Beside him, Empress Luo Qingxue, the five kids Grandpa Fu, Auntie Qin. Grandpa Yao stared out across the vast, hollow interior that spanned both the second and third tales of the Heavenly Script Pavilion.
There was no ceiling separating Floor Two from Floor Three. Instead, the two levels formed a single, continent-sized vault known as the Ink-Sea Library.
Far below the narrow black-stone walkways rolled a bottomless ocean of thick, bubbling black ink. Rising out of that ink ocean were ten million monolithic bookshelves carved from dark ironwood, each reaching fifty thousand feet toward the vaulted roof. Between the shelves drifted an endless galaxy of ten trillion glowing jade destiny books.
Every single book was flipped open to a fresh page. Beside each book floated an automated, red-bristled Auto-Quill Brush, its tip flashing like a sewing needle at a hundred times normal speed as it carved blood-red characters into the living jade.
Gu Changsheng pulled [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] from his blue apron pocket and flipped it open.
