The working plan for the salvation of the mortal sphere was drafted upon a blank sheet of royal drafting linen, weighed down at the four corners by spent bronze shell casings.
Lin Tao stood over the table, a stick of spirit-chalk in his right hand, sketching the stonework of the Middle Imperial Ring’s broadcast network.
“Here is Beacon Seven,” Lin Tao said. He drew a sharp, six-sided spire on the southern edge of the map. “And here, forming an equilateral ring around the inner palace, are Beacons One through Six. But they’re merely satellite repeaters. They don’t generate the signal. They receive it from the main hub.”
He drew a thick, double circle at the center of the ring. There, the royal sovereign gardens once stood.
“The Grand Sovereign Relay Tower,” Lin Tao said, his chalk tapping the central node. “A twelve-hundred-foot spire of star-white-gold and black green jade. It houses the main spreading spindle. When the sky core beams down the finalized update package, it routes directly into that central spire. From there, the spindle broadcasts the wave to all eighty-eight regional repeaters across the empire.”
Tie Shan leaned over the map, his massive shoulders blocking out the dim lantern light.
