High in the watching tower of the Great Golden Bastion, Archon Zhao Xuan had lost his mind to fury.
The High Director of the Imperial Firewall Consistory stood before the shattered leftovers of the grand scrying pool, his silk robes drenched in liquid silver and soot. Around him, dozens of royal formation masters lay groaning on the floor, their spirit veins burst by the total back-emf that had surged through their spirit-linked math basins.
Through the grand crystal viewport, Zhao Xuan saw the unimaginable. Mortal men in muddy boots walking along the outer edge of the sacred Nine-Dragon Barrier, touching the golden curtain with bare iron tools.
“Insects! Filthy southern worms!” Zhao Xuan shrieked, his voice cracking into a dry, ragged cough. “How dare you defile heaven’s sacred threshold with your unwashed feet!”
He snatched the Grand Seal of Celestial Extermination from its smoking velvet cushion.
This ancient object was not a defensive controller. It was the Emperor’s ultimate nearby purge key. A direct channel to the nine dragon hearts that could trigger a five-hundred-li wave of divine solar fire. It burned to ash every living organism south of the mountains. Zhao Xuan bit his tongue, spitting mouthfuls of sacred golden blood across the runes of the seal, activating its emergency override set.
