Ten thousand leagues above in the Celestial Citadel, the sky didn’t burn. It screamed.
Within the command sanctum of the Central Array Bastion, the sacred Jade Basin of All-Seeing Order shattered into three jagged pieces. A geyser of blinding violet flame erupted from the central channel. It filled the vaulted marble hall with the screech of screaming metal and the acrid stench of scorched Precursor wiring.
Every golden monitor tablet mounted along the jade walls flashed with jagged, blood-red warning runes:
High Archon Xuan Ji stumbled backward from the shattered basin, his seven-dragon jade crown knocked askew, his amazing vermilion robes stained with black soot.
“A crack in the mirror?” Xuan Ji’s voice climbed into a shrill, frantic shriek that echoed off the marble pillars. “How can there be a fracture inside the Mirror of Penance? It’s an eternal domain! No mortal vessel can alter the sacred decrees!”
A trembling junior judge crawled forward across the soot-strewn floor, holding up a cracked jade test slate. “Archon! The seals have turned against us! The prisoner has seized the inkstone of heaven! The seventh penance vault is altering the master decree!”
Xuan Ji’s blood turned to ice water in his veins.
Within the Grand Sanction Hall of the Celestial Citadel, chaos reigned supreme.
