Envoy Yan was not an engineer. But he understood when a balance sheet was irrevocably ruined.
The emerald light pouring from the Ascension Gateway was not royal revenue.
It was an unmetered, public broadcast of high-tier Upper Realm spatial map points.
To the Celestial Registrar, an open gateway was not enlightenment. It was total, total financial insolvency.
“Traitor!” Yan screamed, his high-born face mottled with purple rage, sprinting toward the gateway’s lower stone stand where a bronze lever sat sealed in royal wax.
“If the Court can’t tax this realm, then no mortal shall ever see the sky! Warden Chi! Trip the manual breaker! Sever the portal’s hinge!”
Warden Chi didn’t move.
The huge general sat slumped against a shattered boulder, his cracked visor resting on his chest. It stared at his empty gauntlets in silence.
