The floor was humming with twelve different frequencies at once.
Inside the containerized sandbox of Lin Ke’s Niwan Palace, Ghost Sovereign Gu was thrashing against the invisible permission barriers, his Late Golden Core soul-force churning like a trapped typhoon.
Every failed crash against the virtual boundary sent a dull, throbbing ache streaming through Lin Ke’s temples. But the POSIX memory solitude held total.
“You think you have caged me, ant?!” Gu’s muffled roar shook through the marrow of Lin Ke’s jawbone like an iron bell buried in wet mud.
“I was the Grand Array Master builder of the Western Marches when your ancestors were herding pigs in the river marshes! I don’t need to write to your pitiful mortal thoughts! I’m woven into the very bone of this machine! I have inhabited this iron for three hundred years!”
Suddenly, the crystal-clear racks lining the chamber flared with an unnatural, violent crimson light.
It wasn’t the self-running defense turrets dropping from the ceiling.
It was the work-yard’s Cached Transit Buffer.
