Two leagues north of the mortal trenches, Central Dragon Pylon 00 rose into the night sky like a frozen mountain of dead jade.
This was the master nexus of the Nine-Dragon Barrier. The giant stone-built keystone where the nine dragon threads came together into a single physical spreading pipe hub. The pylon was five hundred arm-lengths in height, carved from a single block of white sky green jade and heavy with massive upright ribs of forged Precursor star-iron.
Now, Pylon 00 was fully, utterly dead.
The brilliant golden runes that had coiled around its outside for thirty thousand years had faded to a dull, matte gray, like charcoal sketches on weathered limestone. A web of millions of tiny stress fractures covered the jade surface, produced by the sudden, violent freezing of its calculating cycles.
Lin Tao and Tie Shan walked up the grand marble approach raised stone road, their boots echoing in the oppressive silence.
Behind them, five thousand veterans of the liberated vanguard marched in disciplined columns. Their weapons were held ready. Their eyes scanning the was dark, abandoned castle walls of the Outer Imperial City that loomed behind the dead pylon.
Lin Tao stopped at the base of Pylon 00, laying his palm against the cold green jade.
