Dawn broke over Mount Taiyi with breathtaking, unrushed splendor.
From the high eastern horizon beyond the Great Ocean, the first rim of the sun crested the mountains. It sent a wave of warm golden light surging across the three hundred leagues of the Sovereign Basin. The light lit up the green wheat fields, sparkled upon the rushing waters of the Azure River. Then it touched the roofs of forty thousand mortal towns.
Lin Tao stood alone on the highest granite pinnacle of Mount Taiyi, four thousand paces above the valley floor.
The morning wind was brisk and clean, carrying the scent of wild mint, pine resin, and damp stone. His canvas land-mapper coat, patched at the elbows and faded by twenty seasons of sun and rain, billowed gently around his lean frame.
He stood with his boots planted firmly upon the native granite, his left eye scanning the endless horizon:
There was no error log. There was no warning banner. There was no pending security interrupt waiting in the queue.
For one point four billion years, Container World 07 had been an experimental test model. A closed lab created by ancient Precursors, seized by corrupt daemons. Then he exploited by thirty thousand years of sky dynasties. Millions of fighters had sought immortality by consuming their brothers, believing that the Dao was an exclusive ladder to godhood.
