Over the next two weeks, as the twelfth winter month gave way to the bright, festive lanterns of the New Year. The miraculous story of Frost-Pine Town spread like wildfire across every county, market town, and mountain village of Azure-Cloud Prefecture!
At first, merchants and farmers in neighboring counties thought the traveling carters were making up fairy tales over cheap wine:.
*“Have you heard about Frost-Pine Town under Patriarch Gu Changsheng? Every street in town is paved with flat heated bluestone that melts the winter snow! Every child in town goes to a ten-acre red-brick elementary school for free and eats hot spirit-ox marrow soup at lunch!
Doctor Qin Wan’er and a talking two-foot-tall green plush turtle Pill Sovereign sell flaw-free Rank 2 healing gummies at Peace Pharmacy for just ten copper coins! And best of all, the town is patrolled day and night by five hundred and eighty Rank 1. Rank 2 former outlaw uncles wearing bright pink bunny aprons—if a child drops a copper coin.
Five Rank 2 warriors help look for it. If an old grandma is carrying a heavy basket of cabbages, two six-hundred-pound mountain war-wolves pull her cart home for a pat on the head!”*
Within fourteen days, thousands of honest farming families, skilled blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers. Scholars from across three neighboring counties packed up their ox-carts and migrated in an endless stream to settle permanently in Frost-Pine Town!
Under sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu’s brilliant administrative planning and Town Magistrate Liu’s enthusiastic rubber-stamping. Commander One-Ear Scar’s five hundred pink-aproned masonry brothers and five hundred sled-wolves built three brand-new residential neighborhoods—complete with heated public bathhouses, clean drinking wells. Four branch clinics of the [Gu Family Peace Pharmacy]!
By the tenth day of the first spring month—the auspicious day when Gu Nian officially celebrated his ninth birthday. Little Su Nuannuan celebrated her seventh birthday over a giant three-tier Earth-Fire honey cake—the total number of permanent household members, staff. Protected citizens living in Frost-Pine Town with a Warmth Index above 65/100 crossed the monumental milestone of 12,000 people!
From early morning until dusk on that double-birthday festival, all twelve thousand citizens of Frost-Pine Town celebrated in the streets as if it were a second New Year:.
- At the East-Avenue Elementary School, six hundred schoolchildren sang a birthday song they had practiced all week with Teacher Li. Presented Class President Gu Nian and Flower-Monitor Su Nuannuan with a giant book of six hundred hand-drawn birthday cards;.
- Outside the Peace Pharmacy, Poison-Hand Wu and his eighty-one pink-aproned herb gardeners built a twenty-foot archway woven from fresh winter-blooming spirit-dandelions and sweet-dew grass;.
- Along the northern gate plaza, Commander One-Ear Scar. All five hundred pink-aproned security uncles lined up with their five hundred giant war-wolves—each wolf wearing a festive red silk bow around its neck—to perform a synchronized crosswalk-paddle salute;.
- And in the back courtyard of the Gu Mansion. Even Second Elder Gu Ba (whose Warmth Index had now reached a model 74/100 after two months of honest pig-farming!) proudly delivered two prize-winning, apple-fed spirit-piglets scrubbed cleaner than porcelain dolls.
His birthday tribute to his young nephew and niece!
And right at that birthday dinner table, as seven-year-old Su Nuannuan blew out her seven birthday candles and ate the sweet golden-lotus frosting off the top of her cake slice. A fragrant, warm pink-gold halo rippled smoothly through every meridian and bone of her three-and-a-half-foot frame!
HUMMM—CHIME!
Nourished by weeks of 99/100 Warmth, her collection of [Little Red Flower Stickers]. Her father’s daily Earth-Fire meals, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan stepped effortlessly from Rank 1 Peak into Rank 2 Early Martial (Sweet Honey-Bone & Meridian Stage — 2,500 lbs Force)!
Because both nine-year-old Gu Nian [Rank 2 Early, Darkening: 10%] and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan [Rank 2 Early. Darkening: 10%] were now full Rank 2 martial artists with their Darkening Meters locked below 20%, Nuannuan’s 10x Redeemed Kid Daily Bonus leaped from +100 DP/day to +1,000 DP/day—matching her big brother’s!
[ DING! STAGE 6 TOWN EXPANSION & CHILD #2 RANK 2 MILESTONE! ]
* Protected Town: 12,000 Loyal Citizens & Staff (Warmth: 65-100)!
* Child #1 : Gu Nian (Age 9 | Rank 2 Early | Darkening: 10% |.
10x Redeemed Bonus: +1,000 DP/day!)
* Child #2 : Su Nuannuan (Age 7 | Rank 2 Early | Darkening: 10%.
| 10x Redeemed Bonus: +1,000 DP/day!)
* Grandpa Yao : Rank 3 Peak Vessel Cap (+1,000 DP/day | Warmth: 99)
* Breakthrough Jackpot: +5,000 DP Instant Reward!
* Current DP Balance : 1,520,000+ DP Accumulated Reserve!
* New Total Daily Income: +88,000 -> +95,000 DP/day!
“Whoa! Big Brother Nian, look!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan cheered at the birthday table, easily lifting the heavy forty-pound stone soup tureen with one small hand to pour Grandpa Fu a second bowl.
Setting it gently back down without a sound.
“Nuannuan is Rank 2 just like Big Brother and Dad now! My arms feel as strong as a big bear, and my honey smell can reach all the way to the school gate!”
“Happy seventh birthday, Nuannuan,” nine-year-old Gu Nian smiled warmly. Pinning a freshly handmade wooden hairpin shaped like a little honeybee into his sister’s pink hair-bun while Grandpa Yao clapped his fuzzy green turtle flippers from beside his [Spice-Rack Spirit-Gourd]. “Tomorrow at morning martial practice, I’ll teach you the second stance of Dad’s broom-sweeping footwork!”
Just as twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng was slicing a piece of birthday cake for twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin—whose cheeks were rosy. She leaned close to hand him a clean plate—the crisp, urgent clatter of iron-shod warhorse hooves echoed down the heated bluestone avenue outside the Gu Mansion!
At the front gate, Captain Gu Tie and Commander One-Ear Scar (in his spotless pink bunny security apron) escorted in a tall. Gold-armored messenger herald from Azure-Cloud Prefecture City, who bowed respectfully with both hands and presented a gold-stamped silk decree from the Prefecture Lord’s Mansion:.
“Greetings to Patriarch Gu Changsheng of Frost-Pine Town! In five days, the triennial [Azure-Cloud Prefecture Junior Martial Tournament] (open to all martial artists under age eighteen across all twelve counties) will convene at the Grand Prefecture Arena! Because Frost-Pine Town’s Elementary Martial School has gained wide renown this winter.
The Prefecture Lord invites the Gu Clan to send two junior representatives—with the grand prize being a [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit] and tax-free pharmacy branch rights across all twelve counties!”
After accepting a slice of warm honey birthday cake and a cup of wolfberry tea from Grandpa Fu, the gold-armored herald lowered his voice respectfully and added a friendly warning:.
“Patriarch Gu, since Doctor Qin’s ten-copper healing gummies cured my own mother’s winter cough last week. Let me share a piece of quiet news from Prefecture City: most of the two hundred entrants in this Junior Tournament are seventeen-. Eighteen-year-old clan heirs from the twelve counties who have been training for ten years.
Rumor has it that Deputy Magistrate Zhou—who oversees the tournament brackets—has recently been dining in secret with a young man who wears a scarf around his jaw and has painted-on eyebrows! If your school’s children are still young, there is no shame in waiting three years for the next tournament!”
As Gu Changsheng accepted the gold-stamped silk invitation and thanked the herald, [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] automatically flipped open in his mind with a flashing blue-and-red warning:.
[ DAD’S PLOT-SPOILER NOTEBOOK — THE PREFECTURE TOURNAMENT TRAP! ]
* Plot Update : In the original novel, 18-year-old Lin Fan won.
this Junior Tournament by crippling three minor.
clan heirs to seize the [Hundred-Year Spirit-.
Marrow Fruit]!
* Foreknowledge Decay Mutation:.
- Now at [16% Luck Halo], a desperate Lin Fan has fled to Azure-.
Cloud Prefecture City, swallowed forbidden [Blood-Burst Pills]
to force his cultivation back to Rank 2, and bribed [Deputy.
Magistrate Zhou] to rig the tournament brackets and bury.
twelve [Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails] under the arena.
stage aimed at crippling Gu Nian’s dantian in public!
Reading the spoiler, Gu Changsheng closed the silk decree with a calm, knowing smile and looked at his nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter eating their birthday cake:.
“Kids, how would you like to take a family field trip to Prefecture City this week and bring home a hundred-year fruit for our soup pot?”
Sitting at the birthday table with a smudge of golden-lotus cake frosting on her cheek, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan blinked her big dark eyes and looked over at nine-year-old Gu Nian:.
“Big Brother Nian, what is a Junior Martial Tournament? Is it like our afternoon game of eagle-and-chicks on the school playground, or do we have to stand on a stage while big seventeen-year-old brothers shout at us?”
Nine-year-old Gu Nian wiped his mouth neatly with his cloth napkin, thought about it for three seconds with his serious little brow furrowed, and shook his head politely:.
“Dad, Grandpa Fu read us the chronicle of the last Prefecture Junior Tournament during history class yesterday. All the seventeen- and eighteen-year-old clan heirs from the twelve counties just stand on a stone platform bragging about their family names and swinging heavy broadswords to show off. Unless they are trying to step on our town’s sidewalk or bully Little Snowball.
Beating up noisy teenagers sounds kind of boring—and I still have three sections of Grandpa Yao’s Intermediate Herb & Mineral Compendium to finish reading this week.”
“Yeah!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan nodded her pink hair-buns in agreement, hugging her wooden toy rabbit with one arm. “If Nuannuan goes to Prefecture City for five days, who is going to water the winter spirit-dandelions with Uncle Wu and check if Uncle Scar’s crosswalk squad washed their pink aprons?”
Standing beside the table, the gold-armored messenger herald from Azure-Cloud Prefecture City nearly choked on his wolfberry tea!
Back in Prefecture City, every seventeen- and eighteen-year-old clan prodigy across all twelve counties had been training. Their palms bled for three years just for the honor of stepping onto the Grand Prefecture Arena stage—yet here in Frost-Pine Town. A nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who had just reached the Rank 2 Early Iron-Bone Stage over.
Birthday cake thought beating up eighteen-year-old prodigies was “too boring” compared to reading herb books and watering dandelions!
Even sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu couldn’t help chuckling behind his abacus as he poured the stunned herald another cup of hot wolfberry tea:.
“Sir Herald, please forgive our young master and young miss for speaking so plainly. Ever since Young Master Nian swept one hundred and fifty six-hundred-pound mountain war-wolves off their feet with a single swing of his broom. Little Miss Nuannuan melted five hundred steel battle-axes into black taffy with a single sneeze at the north gate two weeks ago.
Ordinary junior sparring matches simply don’t hold much excitement for them unless there are sweets or Little Red Flowers involved!”
“S-swept one hundred and fifty war-wolves with a broom and melted five hundred steel battle-axes with a sneeze?!” the gold-armored herald gasped, staring at the nine-year-old boy and seven-year-old girl in utter awe.
“Hahaha! Well said, Nian’er, Nuannuan!” three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao laughed from atop his velvet tea-cushion, adjusting his tiny gold spectacles with his fuzzy green turtle flipper.
“True martial and alchemical cultivation is for protecting the home and nourishing life, not performing monkey-tricks for noisy spectators!
However, Patriarch Gu, that [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit] in the Prefecture Lord’s treasury is a genuine half-step Rank 3 heaven-and-earth treasure! If we simmer that fruit inside your Earth-Fire Wok with ten-year mountain ginseng, a single pot of soup will push both Nian’er and Nuannuan straight to Rank 2 Peak before spring!”
Hearing that the fruit could be boiled into a pot of delicious soup for the children, twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin and sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu both looked expectantly at Gu Changsheng.
“Nian’er and Nuannuan have a fair point, though,” Gu Changsheng said with an amused twinkle in his eyes, leaning back in his chair and tapping his finger on the table. “Since going to Prefecture City means taking four days away from their school playground, a boring bronze medal from the Prefecture Lord isn’t colorful enough for a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old. Wait right here—Dad happens to have a special tournament trophy in the pantry cabinet for whoever wins First Place!”
With everyone watching, Gu Changsheng walked into the pantry for ten seconds—and gets ready to pull out a five-thousand-DP sugar-painting masterpiece that no seven-year-old or nine-year-old in the world could ever say no to!