Out in the snowy lane behind the auction house, Lin Fan patted the black iron ring on his thumb with a feverish, greedy grin.
“You heard Master Yao yourself, Uncle’s silver wasn’t borrowed in vain!” Lin Fan whispered excitedly to himself, rubbing his frost-chilled hands together as he stared up at the high warehouse window. “A genuine Rank 3 Earth-Fire Pill Furnace and a drop of Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk sitting on a junk shelf!
Tomorrow morning, once I drink that Earth-Heart Milk in front of the whole town and break straight into Rank 2, I’ll crush Gu Changsheng and Qin Wan’er under my boot!”
Casting one last paranoid glance up and down the empty lane to make sure nobody had followed him. Lin Fan pulled up his coat collar and hurried back toward the Second Branch estate to guard his ten-thousand-silver bank draft.
Twenty feet away behind the stone horse-trough, eight-year-old Gu Nian pressed both small hands over his mouth so his giggles wouldn’t leak out into the night air.
“Dad,” Gu Nian whispered once Lin Fan’s footsteps faded around the corner, his black-gold eyes shining like crescent moons, “he smelled the fermented skunk-cabbage bucket through the window and called it a treasure!”
“That’s because Dad used genuine Earth-Fire rust shavings for the top coat,” Gu Changsheng said with a deadpan nod, adjusting the heavy canvas sack on his shoulder as he took his son’s hand. “Come on, Nian’er. Let’s head home and put the real treasures to work in our kitchen before midnight.”
By the time father and son walked back through the warm gate of the Third Branch courtyard and latched the door behind them, the town watchtower bell was just striking twelve o’clock midnight.
[ DING! DAILY MIDNIGHT DAD-POINT SETTLEMENT! ]
* Protected Household & 820+ Grateful Citizens Settled!
* Daily Income Received : +2,650 DP!
* Previous DP Balance : 2,110 DP.
* New Current Balance : 4,760 DP!
Four thousand seven hundred and sixty Dad Points!
Inside the brightly lit kitchen, Auntie Qin and Grandpa Fu were waiting beside the warm Dragon-Stove with a pot of hot wolfberry tea.
When Gu Changsheng untied the canvas sack and lifted out the two-foot-wide [Rusty Black-Iron Cauldron] and the [Cracked Green Foundation Brick] onto the scrubbed pine table. Grandpa Fu leaned in with his single eye squinting hard.
“Young Master, this really looks like an old iron pot someone left in the rain for fifty years,” Grandpa Fu said, tapping the flaky red rust on the cauldron’s rim with a fingernail. “Is this what Lin Fan mortgaged ten thousand silver of ancestral land to buy?”
“Watch closely, Grandpa Fu, Sister Wan’er,” Gu Changsheng said. Picking up his heavy iron kitchen cleaver and tapping the exact center of the hairline crack on the green foundation brick with a controlled burst of Rank 1 Peak Blood Qi.
Crack—clink!
The outer shell of dry green mortar split cleanly into two halves and fell away onto the table.
Hollowed out inside the center of the ancient stone was a thumb-sized cavity lined with natural white crystal—and floating inside that crystal hollow was a single. Fist-sized globule of thick, luminous, milky-golden liquid that smelled like ten thousand blooming spring orchids!
The instant the stone shell opened, a wave of dense, primordial earth-marrow vitality washed through the kitchen. Making the green onion sprouts sitting in a water bowl on the windowsill grow three inches taller in a single breath!
Auntie Qin’s hand flew to her mouth in a silent gasp.
As a Rank 2 Alchemist who had read every ancient herbal compendium left by her late father, her voice trembled with awe:.
“Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk! The legendary earth-vein essence that only forms one drop every thousand years at the core of a spiritual mountain! Just a single drop can wash a martial artist’s bone marrow from mortal lead into flawless jade!”
She turned her wide eyes toward the rusted two-foot black cauldron sitting beside the brick.
Using a wet kitchen rag dipped in vinegar, Gu Changsheng wiped away a three-inch patch of flaky red rust near the base of the cauldron. Revealing a shimmering dark-gold alloy etched with natural, flowing patterns of underground magma veins!
“And this isn’t scrap iron either,” Auntie Qin breathed, feeling the innate pill-fire in her dantian leap in reverence toward the dark-gold metal. “Those are natural Earth-Fire Dao Patterns! This is a genuine Rank 3 Earth-Fire Pill Furnace from an ancient sect!
Brother Gu, if a Rank 3 Alchemist saw this furnace, they would trade a whole city for it!”
“A pill furnace is nice,” Gu Changsheng said thoughtfully. Rubbing his chin as he looked from the ancient Rank 3 cauldron to his well-seasoned cast-iron kitchen wok hanging above the stove. “But in our house, three square meals a day are much more important than chewing dry pills.
If we leave it looking like an ancient cauldron, someone might recognize it—and besides, a round-bottomed cauldron is terrible for stir-frying pork belly.”
Auntie Qin blinked. “S-stir-frying pork belly?! Brother Gu, you want to use an ancient Rank 3 Earth-Fire Pill Furnace to stir-fry pork?!”
“Why not?” Gu Changsheng grinned, opening a porcelain jar on the counter and pouring half of the luminous [Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk] into a clean jade vial to save for later. Keeping the other half in the crystal hollow.
“A good dad upgrades his kitchenware first.”
He tapped open the three-slot interface of [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box] now in his mind.
Into Slot 1, he placed the ancient [Rank 3 Earth-Fire Pill Furnace].
Into Slot 2, he poured [Half of the Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk].
Into Slot 3, he placed his trusty [Seasoned Cast-Iron Household Kitchen Wok] and [A Heavy Iron Chef’s Spatula].
“System, execute a Rank 3 Divine Kitchenware Fusion!” Gu Changsheng commanded silently. “Cost: one thousand Dad Points!”
[ DAD’S CARE-PACKAGE UPGRADE BOX — RANK 3 ARTIFACT FUSION! ]
* Input 1 : [Ancient Rank 3 Earth-Fire Pill Furnace]
* Input 2 : [Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk (50% Portion)]
* Input 3 : [Seasoned Cast-Iron Kitchen Wok + Iron Chef Spatula]
* Cost : 1,000 DP (Remaining Balance: 3,760 DP)
[ DING! 100% FLAW-FREE DIVINE KITCHENWARE CREATED! ]
* Output : [Rank 3 Perfection: Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok]
(Includes matching [Rank 3 Earth-Fire Spatula]!)
* Properties :.
1. Culinary-Alchemy Unity: Automatically ignites nine-layered.
flaw-free Earth-Fire when cooking! Doubles (200%) the medicinal.
and spiritual potency of any ingredient placed inside!
2. 100% Digestible Absorption: Converts all spiritual energy in.
cooked dishes into gentle, zero-backlash culinary essence that.
even an 8-year-old child can absorb instantly!
3. Dad’s Self-Defense Mode: Can shrink to palm-size or expand to a.
six-foot indestructible Rank 3 dark-gold shield/meteor hammer.
at will! Unbreakable by any weapon below Rank 4!
HUMMMMM—CLANG!
A pillar of warm, nine-colored golden flame erupted silently inside the Upgrade Box, enveloping the rusted cauldron and the kitchen wok in a dazzling cocoon of light!
When the golden glow faded three breaths later, sitting squarely over the kitchen stove was a magnificent, eighteen-inch deep-bellied chef’s wok forged of matte black-gold meteorite iron.
Around its rim ran nine delicate, recessed rings of natural Earth-Fire runes that looked like decorative kitchen brasswork to an ordinary eye. Radiated a cozy, mouth-watering culinary warmth that made everyone in the room immediately feel hungry!
“Well now, that’s a proper wok,” Gu Changsheng said admiringly, hefting the balanced wooden handle and giving the matching dark-gold spatula a crisp spin. “You can’t break in a new wok without cooking a midnight snack. Nian’er, fetch the five-pound slab of snow-boar pork belly from the larder.
Tonight Dad is making Earth-Heart Braised Pork Belly!”
“Yay! Midnight braised pork!” Gu Nian cheered, his yellow bunny slippers squeaking happily as he ran to the pantry.
Gu Changsheng didn’t even need to light firewood under the stove.
With a single tap of his Blood Qi against the wooden handle. The nine recessed runes along the base of the [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] lit up with a gentle, smokeless amber Earth-Fire!
He diced five pounds of marbled snow-boar pork belly into two-inch cubes, seared them in the wok with rock sugar. They gleamed like red mahogany rubies, tossed in star anise, scallion knots, ginger. Three remaining drops of [Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk] clinging to the crystal stone, and covered the wok to simmer for ten minutes.
When Gu Changsheng lifted the lid at twelve-twenty, a rich, savory golden mist burst out of the wok!
Every cube of braised pork belly trembled like translucent red agate, completely infused with 200% amplified Thousand-Year Earth-Heart Milk essence and zero greasy fat!
“Three pieces each while it’s piping hot,” Gu Changsheng said, serving three big ruby-red cubes onto Gu Nian’s, Grandpa Fu’s, and Auntie Qin’s rice bowls before eating three himself.
Gu Nian blew on a piece of braised pork belly and popped it into his mouth.
The meat melted on his tongue like warm butter, and an ocean of pure, flaw-free Earth-Heart marrow essence flooded straight into his spine and limbs!
BOOM—POP!
In a single breath, eight-year-old Gu Nian’s cultivation surged from Rank 1 Mid past Rank 1 Late. Broke cleanly into the absolute pinnacle of Rank 1 Peak Martial—carrying a terrifying twelve hundred pounds of base martial strength plus three hundred pounds of innate Chaos-Bone force!
Right beside the boy, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu swallowed his third piece of pork belly—and his newly healed spine let out a resonant metallic chime as his bones refined into genuine Iron-Bone density. Pushing the loyal old butler straight from Rank 1 Mid into Rank 2 Early Martial (Iron-Bone Stage)!
“Heavens above! This old servant reached Rank 2 from eating three bites of midnight pork belly?!” Grandpa Fu stared at his iron-hard fists with tears of joy in his single eye.
Auntie Qin’s Rank 2 Early foundation solidified by half a realm on the spot!
Grandpa Fu walked over to the corner of the kitchen where a fifty-pound stone mortar sat on the floor. With one casual hand, the sixty-two-year-old butler lifted the heavy stone mortar up to eye level as if it were an empty teacup, then set it back down without making a sound!
“Young Master!” Grandpa Fu’s voice trembled with pride as he stood straight as a pine tree in his [Dragon-Turtle Meridian Back Brace]. “Across the entire Frost-Pine Gu Clan, not even Patriarch Gu Zhen or Second Elder Gu Ba has ever touched the threshold of Rank 2 Iron-Bone!
Yet in our Third Branch courtyard tonight, Miss Wan’er is Rank 2, this old servant is Rank 2.
You and Little Master Nian are both at the absolute peak of Rank 1 with strength that rivals Rank 2!”
Sitting at the table in his yellow bunny smock. Eight-year-old Gu Nian flexed his small right arm and looked down at his own porcelain bowl—which didn’t have a single drop of red braised gravy left in it.
“Dad,” Gu Nian said earnestly, licking a tiny dab of sweet soy glaze from the corner of his mouth, “this black-gold wok cooks pork ten times faster than our old clay pot. My bones feel super warm and heavy now! Tomorrow morning at the auction, if that bad guy Lin Fan tries to start a fight when his skunk-brick explodes, can I hit him with the wok?”
“A chef’s wok is a noble culinary tool, Nian’er—we don’t dirty it on a man covered in skunk-cabbage juice unless we have to,” Gu Changsheng said with a grin. Picking up a clean dishcloth to wipe the rim of the [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok].
With a single mental thought from Gu Changsheng, the eighteen-inch dark-gold wok shrank smoothly down to the size of a walnut and hopped right into his palm like a warm, obedient pet. Expanding back to its normal kitchen size over the stove!
Auntie Qin watched the size-changing Rank 3 treasure with her dark eyes wide with wonder.
“Even the Chief Alchemist of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City doesn’t own a size-changing Rank 3 artifact,” Auntie Qin murmured, shaking her head with a soft laugh as she helped Gu Nian wipe his hands. “And in our house, we use it to braise midnight pork belly. If the old grandmasters of the Alchemist Guild ever found out, they’d cough up blood on the spot!”
Just as Gu Changsheng hung the dark-gold spatula on the rack above the stove, however, [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] vibrated in his pocket with a sharp crimson flash:.
[ FOREKNOWLEDGE DECAY ALERT — HIGH-STAKES AUCTION ESCALATION! ]
* Update : Sensing a faint tremor in Frost-Pine Town’s night.
fortune, Lin Fan and Second Elder Gu Ba have just.
finalized a 10,000-Silver Blood-Interest Loan with.
Loan-Shark Boss Shark , at Rank 2 Early!
* Tomorrow 9 AM : Boss Shark will sit in the front row personally to.
collect either the Lot #88 treasure or the entire.
Gu Clan Second Branch Mansion!
* Gu Nian Stats : Darkening Meter 14% -> 13% (-1% DROP!)
* Daily Income : +2,650 DP/day -> +3,100 DP/day!