Across the snow-covered plain outside the north gate of Frost-Pine Town. Five hundred hardened cutthroats of the Blood-Wolf Mercenary Corps sat glued to their saddles in sticky puddles of melted chainmail and black-licorice taffy. Holding empty wooden weapon handles and staring at the eight-year-old boy and six-year-old girl in brain-broken silence!
Not a single drop of blood had been spilled.
Not a single town guard on the wall had needed to draw a bowstring.
In less than ten breaths, Gu Changsheng’s two grade-school children had turned the most feared mercenary cavalry in three counties into five hundred giant lollipops stuck to their mounts!
“Big Brother Nian, look!” six-year-old Su Nuannuan giggled. Pointing her tiny finger at the front pile where thirty burly mercenaries were stuck chin-to-boot in a giant ball of black-licorice taffy while their trousers drooped around their knees without belt buckles.
“All their sharp axes turned into sticky candy!
Now nobody can poke holes in our schoolhouse tomorrow!”
“Good job, Nuannuan—that sneeze covered all five rows in one go,” eight-year-old Gu Nian nodded approvingly. Resting the butt of his [Fused Iron-Wood Broom] on the stone highway as he turned to look back at his father’s bamboo lounge chair. “Dad, we finished confiscating the sharp toys!”
However, right in the center of the paralyzed mercenary formation, forty-two-year-old Commander One-Ear Scar [Rank 2 Peak Martial. Half-Step Grandmaster] stared at the bare wooden pole of his ninety-pound battle-axe as his scarred face twisted from shock into cornered, murderous desperation!
For twenty years of raiding and pillaging across the northern frontier. One-Ear Scar had never suffered such a humiliating defeat—and he knew that if he was captured outside Frost-Pine Town today with all five hundred of his men glued to their saddles. The Prefecture garrison would hang him from the city gates by sunset!
“You think melting my axe can stop a Rank 2 Peak warlord?!”
Commander One-Ear Scar let out a ferocious, veins-bulging roar!
Channeling all five thousand pounds of his Rank 2 Peak explosive leg strength into his boots, the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound warlord ripped his feet straight out of the licorice-glued leather boots left stuck to his saddle!
Launching himself barefoot off his giant war-wolf’s back like a black-clad vulture. One-Ear Scar hurtled thirty feet through the air straight over the tangled pile of vanguard wolves—aiming his thick, iron-calloused right claw directly at six-year-old Su Nuannuan’s throat!
“As long as I grab this six-year-old poison brat by the neck. A human shield, Gu Changsheng will have to hand over the town vault and let me walk out of here alive!” One-Ear Scar snarled in midair.
His five crooked fingernails less than six feet from Nuannuan’s pink rabbit hood!
Up on the stone battlements, Town Magistrate Liu and thirty town mothers watching from the wall let out a collective scream of terror!
Down on the stone highway twenty yards behind the children, the warm, easygoing smile on twenty-eight-year-old Gu Changsheng’s face vanished in an instant.
You dare reach your filthy hands toward my six-year-old daughter to use her as a hostage?
BOOM—GOLD!
Before the teacup in Gu Changsheng’s hand even finished touching the arm of the bamboo lounge chair. The shared spiritual feedback of six thousand protected townsfolk—combined with the surging resonance of his newly Rank 2 son—blasted through the final barrier of Gu Changsheng’s meridians. Pushing his personal cultivation cleanly from Rank 2 Mid into Rank 2 Late Martial (Organ-Refining / Viscera-Tempering Stage — 7,500 lbs Base Force)!
And at the exact same millisecond, the system’s ultimate protective passive—[Father’s Authority]—ignited at 100% full output!
[ WARNING! HOSTILE LETHAL INTENT AIMED AT CHILD #2 (SU NUANNUAN)! ]
* Host Breakthrough: Rank 2 Mid -> Rank 2 Late Martial (7,500 lbs)!
* [FATHER’S AUTHORITY] ACTIVATED!
- Stacking Gu Nian (Rank 2 Early) + Su Nuannuan (Rank 1 Mid) +.
Grandpa Yao’s Vessel Aura onto Host!
- Temporary Combat Power: HALF-STEP RANK 3 GRANDMASTER (18,000.
lbs Force + 100% True Disciplinary Damage)!
* Weapon Drawn : [Rank 2 Perfection: The Seven-Wolves.
Disciplinary Belt]!
CRACK-SONIC!
Where Gu Changsheng’s boots pushed off the flagstones in front of his bamboo chair, two spiderweb footprints cracked half an inch deep into the solid granite!
Moving faster than Commander One-Ear Scar’s Rank 2 Peak eyes could even register a blur, Gu Changsheng appeared directly between his six-year-old daughter and the diving warlord in a single heartbeat!
While One-Ear Scar was still ten feet above the ground in mid-leap with a vicious grin frozen on his face, Gu Changsheng simply raised his left hand. Caught the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound warlord by the scruff of his bearskin collar like a man plucking a noisy rooster out of the air. Slammed him down across his bent left knee right in the center of the highway between both armies!
“W-what?! My Rank 2 Peak Iron-Skin Qi can’t move an inch?!” One-Ear Scar gasped as all the air whooshed out of his lungs against Gu Changsheng’s iron knee!
“Did nobody teach you as a child that reaching for a little girl’s neck gets you the belt?”
Gu Changsheng’s voice was as cold as ten-thousand-year northern ice as he drew the dark-gold [Rank 2 Perfection: Seven-Wolves Disciplinary Belt] with his right hand!
In front of five hundred wide-eyed Blood-Wolf Mercenaries on one side and three hundred cheering town guards and citizens on the battlements on the other. Twenty-eight-year-old Gu Changsheng raised the heavy leather belt and brought it whistling down twenty times in rapid succession across Commander One-Ear Scar’s licorice-stained backside!
*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!*
Because the [Seven-Wolves Disciplinary Belt] dealt 100% True Disciplinary Damage that bypassed all defensive martial arts and iron-skin qi to strike the target’s childhood fear-reflexes directly. Leaving zero fatal internal injuries, the feared forty-two-year-old scourge of the northern mountains didn’t last two lashes before his tough-guy mask shattered into smithereens!
With every crisp CRACK! of the dark-gold leather belt, a loud, ringing lecture echoed across the silent battlefield:.
CRACK! “That first lash is for burning the northern watchtower!”
CRACK! “That second lash is for letting Lin Fan feed poison pills to five hundred working animals!”
CRACK! “That third lash is for charging toward a street full of thirty helpless orphans!”
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
“And these seventeen lashes are for daring to reach your dirty hand toward my six-year-old daughter!”
“OWWW! AIEEE! MY BUTT!
STOP! MERCY!”
Pinned helplessly across Gu Changsheng’s knee in his bare feet, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound Commander One-Ear Scar kicked his hairy legs in the air, pounded the flagstones with both fists. Bawled at the top of his lungs with big, fat tears and snot streaming down his scarred cheeks:.
“WAHHHHH! MOMMY! PAPA!
I WON’T DO IT AGAIN! DON’T HIT MY BEHIND WITH THE BELT ANYMORE! I SWEAR I’LL BE A GOOD BOY!
WAHHHHH!”
Watching their invincible, bloodthirsty Rank 2 Peak Mercenary Commander bent over the Gu Clan Patriarch’s knee getting spanked with a leather belt. He kicked his legs and cried for his mommy in front of a thousand people, all five hundred Blood-Wolf Mercenaries went. Pale as ghosts and trembled so violently that their saddles creaked!
Even eight-year-old Gu Nian and six-year-old Su Nuannuan stood safely behind their father’s back nodding in solemn agreement:.
“Look, Nuannuan,” eight-year-old Gu Nian whispered, leaning on his iron-wood broom. Grandpa Yao applauded with both fuzzy green flippers from Nuannuan’s backpack, “when Second Elder Gu Ba tried to bully us in the Ancestral Hall, Dad gave him the belt too. Now Elder Gu Ba is the best pig-farmer in town!
Once this big hairy uncle finishes crying, he’ll probably be super polite!”
Up on the gatehouse watchtower, Town Magistrate Liu threw his crooked official hat into the air and cheered until his voice went hoarse:.
“Long live Patriarch Gu! Spank that bandit ten more times for burning our watchtower!”
However, just as Gu Changsheng tossed the sobbing, red-bottomed Commander One-Ear Scar onto the flagstones at eight-year-old Gu Nian’s feet. A chorus of agonizing, heart-rending whimpers suddenly echoed from the five hundred giant mountain war-wolves across the plain!
Whine... cough-splutter!
Because the forbidden [Berserk Blood-Boil Pills] that Lin Fan had force-fed all five hundred war-wolves were. Beginning to burn through their heart-meridians now that they could no longer run off the toxic heat. Dark-red blood began foaming from the nostrils and mouths of all five hundred giant wolves.
They collapsed onto their sides in the snow, whining pitifully in mortal pain!
“Old Gray! No, Old Gray, don’t die on me!” thirty-eight-year-old Mercenary Vice-Captain Bull wept aloud, still glued to his saddle as he hugged his convulsing war-wolf’s neck in despair.
Even Commander One-Ear Scar forgot his swollen backside.
Crawled on his knees toward his dying mount with tears in his eyes: “That bastard Lin Fan told us those red pills were harmless stamina boosters! Our wolves’ hearts are burning up!”
Across the entire snowfield, all five hundred burly, scarred mountain mercenaries—men who hadn’t shed a tear when arrows grazed their ribs in border skirmishes—were suddenly crying out in heartbreak and panic. The giant mountain war-wolves they had raised from pups whimpered, pawed weakly at the snow, and coughed up dark, scorching blood-foam!
For the riders of the Blood-Wolf Mercenary Corps. Those five hundred mountain war-wolves weren’t disposable beasts of burden—they were the loyal partners that had shared their dry rations and kept them warm through ten freezing northern winters!
“Lin Fan! You eyebrowless little rat! Where are you?!”
Commander One-Ear Scar roared through his tears, whipping his head around toward the rear of the formation with murder in his eyes.
“You swore to us at the river that those red pills were Rank 2 Spirit-Stamina Pills! You fed our wolves heart-bursting poison so they would rampage and die?!”
Back at the rear of the formation, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan saw all five hundred mercenaries glaring at him like men ready to eat his flesh raw—and. Saw Gu Changsheng standing in the highway holding the dark-gold leather belt that had just spanked a Rank 2 Peak warlord into crying for his mother!
Not daring to stay half a breath longer, Lin Fan kicked his borrowed donkey viciously in the flanks, abandoned the entire five-hundred-man army he had hired. Bolted straight toward the northern pine forest while screaming over his shoulder:.
“Who cares about a pack of mangy mountain mutts?! You useless trash couldn’t even beat two six-year-old brats—die here with your wolves while I go to Azure-Cloud Prefecture City!”
Seeing Lin Fan abandon them and flee into the trees after poisoning all five hundred of their beloved mounts, Commander One-Ear Scar and his five hundred mercenaries were plunged into utter despair.
“It’s over... Once Blood-Boil Poison reaches a war-wolf’s heart-meridian, even an alchemist with fifty cauldrons couldn’t brew five hundred bowls of antidote. Their hearts burst!”
Commander One-Ear Scar slumped onto his knees in the snow beside his whimpering mount.
Bowing his scarred forehead all the way to the icy flagstones in front of twenty-eight-year-old Gu Changsheng and six-year-old Su Nuannuan:.
“Patriarch Gu! Little Fairy! One-Ear Scar is a blind, greedy fool who listened to a viper’s lies and deserved a hundred lashes of your belt!
You can chop off my head or lock me in the iron mines for the rest of my life—just please, I beg you on my knees, save our wolves! They only ran here because we fed them that rat’s poison pills!”
“Please, Patriarch Gu! Save Old Gray and I’ll be an ox and a horse for the Gu Clan for ten lifetimes!” Mercenary Vice-Captain Bull and all five hundred glued riders kowtowed.
Best they could from their saddles, their rough voices choking with tears as their wolves’ breathing grew fainter by the second.
Sitting on the highway beside his bamboo chair, Gu Changsheng tucked the [Seven-Wolves Disciplinary Belt] back around his waist and looked gently down at his six-year-old daughter:.
“Nuannuan, what did Dad say earlier? The doggies underneath weren’t bad—they just ate bad medicine. Is your pink watering can full?”
Six-year-old Su Nuannuan’s big dark eyes shone with warm compassion as she looked at the five hundred whimpering giant wolves and nodded her pink rabbit hood vigorously:.
“It’s full to the top with warm honey-spring water, Dad! Big Brother Nian, help Nuannuan carry the extra water bucket—we’re going to give all five hundred big doggies a sweet bath right now!”
[ DING! WARLORD HUMBLED & 500 WAR-WOLVES AWAITING RESCUE! ]
* Host Realm : Gu Changsheng (Rank 2 Late Martial — 7,500 lbs!)
* One-Ear Scar : Spanked in midair! Begging to save his wolves!
* Daily Income : +60,000 DP/day -> +65,000 DP/day!