Inside the warm, sunlit kitchen of the Gu Mansion at half past ten in the morning, the rich. Savory aroma of simmering bone marrow and mountain herbs filled every corner of the room. The distant rumble of five hundred approaching war-wolves echoed across the northern valley.
Standing on an overturned spice crate beside the [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok]. Three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao—in his chubby two-foot-tall emerald-green plush turtle body—adjusted his tiny gold-rimmed spectacles with one fuzzy flipper and held up a freshly written Golden Core seasoning chart with the other:.
“Patriarch Gu, watch the bubble size at the center of the wok! Because little Nian’er’s Innate Chaos Demon Bone is fifty times denser than an ordinary mortal martial artist’s skeleton, if we use standard iron-bone herbs, the medicinal qi will bounce right off his spine! Add three slices of [50-Year Purple-Gold Blood Ginseng] from that ring we emptied three nights ago, two spoons of [Nine-Yang Pine-Marrow Honey], and six pounds of [Iron-Horn Spirit-Ox Ribs]!”
“Already measured to the dram, Grandpa Yao—and now let’s give it the Gu Family’s special house upgrade,” Gu Changsheng smiled, dropping the spirit-ox ribs, fifty-year blood ginseng. Pine-marrow honey into [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box] before sliding them into the boiling Earth-Fire Wok!
“System, spend 3,000 Dad Points! Fuse [6 Pounds of Iron-Horn Spirit-Ox Ribs] + [50-Year Purple-Gold Blood Ginseng] + [Grandpa Yao’s Golden Core Bone-Tempering Seasoning Chart] into a pot of flaw-free Rank 2 breakthrough soup for Nian’er!”
HUMMM—GURGLE-GLOW!
[ DING! 3,000 DAD POINTS DEDUCTED — CULINARY BREAKTHROUGH FUSION! ]
* Remaining DP : 192,190 DP.
* Output Dish : [Rank 2 Perfection: Golden-Marrow Dragon-Rib Soup.
(100% Flaw-Free Chaos-Bone Nourishing Broth)]!
* Dish Effect :.
1. Infuses the diner’s skeleton with pure, warm Golden-Dragon.
Marrow Qi — temperings every bone in the body to Rank 2.
Iron-Bone perfection in ten breaths with zero pain!
2. Permanently purifies the Innate Chaos Demon Bone’s aura from.
“World-Destroying Black Mist” into “Family-Protecting Golden.
Dragon Light”!
3. Side Dish Bonus: One small bowl also strengthens Su Nuannuan’s.
and Little Snowball’s bones by +30%!
When Gu Changsheng lifted the heavy bronze lid off the [Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok], a blinding, warm golden steam rose toward the kitchen rafters. Forming the faint, auspicious silhouette of a smiling golden dragon coiled around a soup ladle!
Inside the wok, the milky-gold marrow broth bubbled like liquid amber. The tender spirit-ox rib meat practically fell off the bone at the touch of a chopstick, smelling so divinely rich of roasted marrow, sweet red dates. Fifty-year ginseng that Town Magistrate Liu—standing by the kitchen doorway with his crooked official hat—swallowed his own saliva three times in a row!
“Great heavens...” Magistrate Liu whispered, wiping his chin with his sleeve as just inhaling a single breath of the golden steam made his sixty-year-old lower back stop aching on the spot. “Patriarch Gu, is that a bowl of rib soup or a liquid Rank 2 Foundation Elixir from the Prefecture Lord’s private treasury?!
Even a grain of that broth would sell for a hundred taels of silver in Azure-Cloud City!”
“In our house, Magistrate Liu, the best soup always goes into the kids’ bowls first—though there’s plenty left in the pot for you, Auntie Qin. Grandpa Fu after Nian’er finishes,” Gu Changsheng chuckled, ladling two big. Steaming porcelain bowls of the [Rank 2 Golden-Marrow Dragon-Rib Soup] for eight-year-old Gu Nian, a medium bunny-painted bowl for six-year-old Su Nuannuan.
A shallow earthenware saucer of cooled marrow broth and rib cartilage for Little Snowball sitting under the table.
Sitting upright on his dining stool with his clean yellow cotton bunny apron tied neatly over his winter tunic—so not a single drop of soup would splash onto his study clothes. Tomorrow’s math test—eight-year-old Gu Nian bowed his head politely to his father and to Grandpa Yao:.
“Thank you for the soup, Dad! Thank you for the seasoning chart, Grandpa Yao!”
Picking up his porcelain spoon with his right hand, eight-year-old Gu Nian blew gently on the golden broth and took a big, hearty sip, followed by a bite of the melt-in-your-mouth dragon-marrow rib meat.
Gulp—HUMMMMM!
The instant that first mouthful of flaw-free [Rank 2 Golden-Marrow Dragon-Rib Soup] slid down Gu Nian’s throat, a warm. Surging tide of liquid golden sunlight erupted from his stomach and flowed straight into every bone of his eight-year-old body—from his skull. Spine all the way down to his ten tiny toes inside his yellow bunny slippers!
In the original tragic novel script, when the unloved. Starving Gu Nian had awakened his Innate Chaos Demon Bone at age twelve after years of beatings and betrayal, his bone marrow had boiled with pitch-black. Soul-corroding demonic resentment that caused him excruciating bone-cracking agony every rainy night and drove him to slaughter entire cities just to quiet the screaming voices in his blood.
Yet today, sitting at his father’s warm dining table in a yellow bunny apron with his little sister Nuannuan giggling beside him. Little Snowball munching rib cartilage at his feet, Auntie Qin smiling by the teapot. Grandpa Yao cheering from inside a plush green turtle, there was not a single speck of darkness, resentment, or pain anywhere in eight-year-old Gu Nian’s heart!
Instead, nourished by six weeks of 100/100 Warmth, five glowing [Little Red Flower Merit Stickers] [+25% Cultivation Speed]. His father’s flaw-free Earth-Fire cooking, the terrifying Innate Chaos Demon Bone inside Gu Nian’s chest let out a joyful, resonant dragon-hum!
CRACK-CHIME! CRACK-CHIME!
All two hundred and six bones in the eight-year-old boy’s body turned a translucent, indestructible dark-gold beneath his skin!
Without a single drop of sweat or a single frown on his rosy face, eight-year-old Gu Nian finished his first bowl of soup. Held out his bowl for a second helping, drank the second bowl down to the last drop. Wiped his mouth neatly with a clean cloth napkin—stepping cleanly from Rank 1 Peak into Rank 2 Early Martial (Iron-Bone Stage — Chaos Golden-Bone Perfection)!
While an ordinary adult Rank 2 Early martial artist like Captain Gu Tie possessed 1,500 pounds of base force and Gu Changsheng at Rank 2 Early had possessed 2,500 pounds. Eight-year-old Gu Nian’s newly tempered Rank 2 Early Innate Chaos Golden Bone gave his small, four-foot-tall frame a staggering 3,500 pounds of pure physical strength!
Right beside him at the dining table, six-year-old Su Nuannuan finished her bunny-painted bowl of golden dragon-marrow rib soup with a contented “Ahhhh!”, her rosy cheeks glowing like ripe winter peaches. The warm marrow essence pushed her own cultivation from the middle of Rank 1 Mid all the way to the threshold of Rank 1 Late!
And down beneath the table, six-month-old Little Snowball crunched happily through three tender pieces of spirit-ox rib cartilage, his fluffy white fur puffing out. He looked like a round snow-cannonball as his puppy bones grew as sturdy as tempered iron!
Sitting on the corner of the table in his chubby two-foot-right tall emerald-green plush turtle body. Three-hundred-alongside-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao pushed up his tiny gold spectacles with his flipper and stared at eight-year-old Gu Nian in scholarly awe:.
“By the Nine Cauldrons of the Central Plains! Even in the sacred martial academies of the Upper Sect Lands. A prodigy with a Sovereign-grade bloodline takes at least forty-nine days of bitter seclusion in an ice-fire pool to temper all two hundred.
Six bones into the Iron-Bone Stage—and his skin always peels three layers from the bone-heat! Yet little Nian’er just drank two bowls of Patriarch Gu’s Earth-Fire rib soup in his yellow bunny apron. Tempered a flawless Golden Chaos Skeleton in ten breaths without spilling a drop on his bib.
Is already asking if he can sweep the street before lunch!”
“Grandpa Yao, Dad always says that if your cultivation makes your skin peel or gives you a stomachache. It means the chef didn’t skim the foam off the broth properly,” eight-year-old Gu Nian explained seriously. Flexing his small right hand—where a faint, warm golden dragon-pattern shimmered beneath his smooth skin before vanishing completely.
“Look! Now when I hold my iron-wood broom, it feels as light as a bamboo chopstick, and I won’t even get blisters on my thumbs if I sweep all the way to the river!”
“And Nuannuan’s tummy is super warm too!” six-year-old Su Nuannuan chimed in, hopping off her stool to pat her round little belly under her pink rabbit dress. “Dad, if Nuannuan sneezes now, I think my black-licorice mist can reach all the way across the big square outside the north gate!”
Twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin smiled warmly as she stacked the empty porcelain soup bowls into the washbasin. Ladled out three smaller bowls of the remaining golden marrow broth for Grandpa Fu, Town Magistrate Liu, and herself:.
“Magistrate Liu, drink this bowl while it’s hot so your knees don’t shake when you climb back up the north gate watchtower. With Brother Changsheng, Nian’er, Nuannuan, and Grandpa Yao going out to meet those five hundred mercenaries, the only thing you’ll need to worry about at noon is. We’re going to house five hundred new street-sweepers!”
Even better, the moment Gu Nian’s cultivation crossed the Rank 2 threshold with his Darkening Meter locked safely at 10% (well below the <20% Redemption line). The system’s golden jackpot bell rang like a festive temple chime inside Gu Changsheng’s head!
[ DING! CHILD #1 (GU NIAN) BROKE THROUGH TO RANK 2 EARLY MARTIAL! ]
* Child Name : Gu Nian (Age 8 | Warmth: 100/100 | Darkening: 10%)
* New Realm : Rank 2 Early Martial (Chaos Golden-Bone Stage!)
* Base Strength : 3,500 lbs per fist! (Impervious to Rank 2 blades!)
* Merit Stickers : 5x Little Red Flowers (+25% Cultivation Speed!)
[ 10X REDEEMED KID DAILY BONUS UPGRADED (RANK 1 -> RANK 2)! ]
* Standard Rank 2 Ally Bonus : +100 DP/day.
* Gu Nian 10x Redeemed Bonus : +100 DP/day -> +1,000 DP/day!
* Breakthrough Jackpot Award : +5,000 DP Instant Reward!
* Current DP Balance : 192,190 + 5,000 = 197,190 DP!
* Nuannuan Darkening Drop : 12% -> 11% (Warm Family Meal!)
* New Total Daily DP Income : +48,000 -> +52,000 DP/day!
Standing by the doorway, Town Magistrate Liu’s jaw dropped so low it nearly hit his chest. He felt the unmistakable, mountain-like Rank 2 Iron-Bone martial pressure radiating briefly from the eight-year-old boy in the yellow bunny apron before Gu Nian neatly tucked his aura back inside his skin!
“R-Rank 2 Iron-Bone Stage... at EIGHT YEARS OLD?!” Magistrate Liu stammered, pointing a trembling finger at Gu Nian as his knees wobbled.
“Even the Prefecture Lord’s eldest grandson in Azure-Cloud City didn’t reach the Iron-Bone Stage until he was nineteen—and Young Master Nian just broke through over two bowls of rib soup before lunch?!”
“Grandpa Yao’s seasoning chart and Dad’s soup made my bones feel super warm, Magistrate Uncle,” eight-year-old Gu Nian said politely. Hopping down from his stool and picking up his four-foot [Fused Iron-Wood Broom] from the corner of the kitchen. Six-year-old Su Nuannuan hopped down beside him holding her [Rank 2 Little Fairy Pink Watering Can] and a small pouch of Grandpa Yao’s [Tickle-Pepper].
Turning his head toward the north window—where a massive yellow dust cloud kicked up by five hundred charging Berserk War-Wolves was now. Less than half a mile from Frost-Pine Town’s north gate—eight-year-old Gu Nian looked up at his father with a deadpan, earnest expression:.
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Across the courtyard, Grandpa Fu clicked his abacus beads once and noted the smooth progress in his household ledger.
“Dad, if Nuannuan and I help you sweep five hundred dirty dogs off the street before lunch so they don’t track mud onto our school road, do I get two Little Red Flowers today?”
“Two Little Red Flowers each—and glazed candied hawthorns for dessert,” Gu Changsheng grinned. Picking up a folding bamboo lounge chair under his left arm and a large clay thermos of hot wolfberry tea in his right hand. “Come on, kids.
Let’s go sit by the town gate and teach Commander One-Ear Scar our family’s street-cleaning rules!”