The wind howling through the open marble arches of the signal dome had grown bitterly cold.
Lin Tao stood beside the Primary Waveguide Junction, his right hand resting on the heavy star-iron turnbuckle. His canvas coat was stiff with dried sweat, high-pressure oil, and crushed stone dust. The man-made white jade shard sat firmly seated in the high-voltage input socket. It hummed with a deep, blazing bright cerulean light that painted the entire domed vault in shades of deep twilight.
Below the tower, across the six leagues of the Middle Imperial Ring, the crimson sky had begun to pulse with an unnatural, violent arrhythmia.
Every five seconds, an azure ripple washed through the clouds from east to west, fighting the curdled copper glare. The eighty-eight regional relay towers scattered across the continent were broadcasting the poisoned payload in perfect all at once. From the high peaks of the Taiyi range to the coastal deltas of the Azure Basin, millions of mortal souls were being soaked by the counter-ringing hum of the forged installer.
Lin Tao raised his left hand, checking the test tracking data in his visual cortex.
Five minutes leftover.
Old Chen knelt on the marble flags beside Tie Shan. He used a sharp linen strip to bind the giant’s out-of-joint left shoulder to his broad torso. Doctor Su’s willow-bark syrup had taken the edge off the searing musculoskeletal trauma. But Tie Shan’s breath still came in short, tight grunts as the old quarry master pulled the knot tight…
