In Golden Light City, steel floated in the air. Flying Shuttles and imposing suits of Battle Armor patrolled automatically around the immense city, which resembled a War Fortress.
At the center of the city stood an enormous tower with ring-shaped cloud bridges, pointing skyward like a longsword.
High within the tower, in a spacious hall, Great Elder Shen sat before a large desk carved from immortal jade and placed a white stone on the board.
Seated opposite him was an elderly man with an immortal's bearing and the bones of a sage. This was He Changnian, a Puppet Master Grandmaster of Golden Light City, an accomplished senior of the Puppet Master Order who had risen in rank around the same time as Great Elder Shen.
As the two played, purple smoke curled from a bronze crane-shaped incense burner beside them. A boy and a girl stood in attendance, holding fly-whisks. A closer look revealed that they were carved from gold and jade, their bodies gleaming with spiritual light almost imperceptible to the naked eye, illuminating the hall. Yet outwardly, nothing seemed unusual about them; they truly resembled two adorable children sculpted from jade and dusted with powder.
He Changnian placed a black stone, chuckled as he removed a nearby white one, and asked, "Great Elder Shen, oh, Great Elder Shen, we do this at every Grand Artisan assessment. Is it really right?"
Great Elder Shen studied the state of the board gravely, but asked casually, "What are you referring to?"
He Changnian said, "If those prospective Grand Artisans knew that everything they were doing now had no bearing on the final result, wouldn't they boil over into an uproar?"
"The actual list of Grand Artisans has already been gradually settled through the earlier stages, and the Grandmaster Artisans have reached