Inside the cozy pantry of the Gu Mansion. Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng closed the wooden door behind him and opened [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] to inspect the full details of the upcoming [Azure-Cloud Prefecture Junior Martial Tournament].
In the original tragic fated script, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan had arrived at the Grand Prefecture Arena as a rising Rank 2 Peak prodigy backed by Master Yao Chen’s pills. He had brutally shattered the knee-bones of three seventeen-year-old minor clan heirs on stage to win the Prefecture Lord’s grand prize: the [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit].
Now, however, because Gu Changsheng had poached Master Yao Chen into a two-foot-tall plush green turtle, emptied Lin Fan’s spatial ring down to a single dirty sock. Converted all five hundred of One-Ear Scar’s Blood-Wolf Mercenaries into pink-aproned crosswalk guards, the world-will’s Foreknowledge Decay had mutated the tournament plot into a vicious, underhanded ambush!
[ DAD’S PLOT-SPOILER NOTEBOOK — TOURNAMENT TRAP BREAKDOWN ]
* Protagonist : Lin Fan (Age 18 | Luck Halo: 16% — Desperate!)
* Current State : Swallowed three forbidden [Blood-Burst Pills] to.
force his broken cultivation back up to a fake,.
unstable Rank 2 Peak!
* Accomplice : Deputy Magistrate Zhou (Chief Tournament Referee.
of Azure-Cloud Prefecture — Bribed by Lin Fan’s.
promise of a fake Golden Core pill formula!)
* The Two-Stage Trap:.
1. Round One Rigging: Deputy Magistrate Zhou will match 9-year-.
old Gu Nian in the very first bout against 18-year-old [Tie Ba]
(Young Master of the Iron-Fist Clan, Rank 2 Early, famous for.
breaking opponents’ arms) while activating twelve hidden.
[Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails] buried beneath the center.
flagstones of Arena Stage #1!
2. Semifinal Ambush: If Gu Nian survives Round One, Lin Fan will.
personally use the [Blood-Swallowing Devil Claws] on stage to.
blind Gu Nian in front of the crowd and claim it was an.
“accidental tournament injury”!
Reading those lines, Gu Changsheng chuckled coldly under his breath and shook his head:.
“Burying meridian-draining nails under a junior tournament stage and hiring an eighteen-year-old bully to break my nine-year-old son’s arms in Round One? Lin Fan, at sixteen percent Luck Halo, your brain really is rotting faster than your teeth.”
Of course, before he could take nine-year-old Gu Nian and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan to Azure-Cloud Prefecture City to dismantle Lin Fan’s trap and bring home the [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit]. He first had to solve a much more important household problem:.
Both of his grade-school kids currently thought the Prefecture Junior Tournament sounded way too boring compared to reading herb books and watering winter dandelions!
Grinning warmly, Gu Changsheng opened [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box] right there on the pantry counter and placed three items into the glowing golden slot:.
1. [Ten Pounds of Golden Maltose Syrup & Wildflower Honey].
2. [A Carved Nephrite-Jade Trophy Base].
3. [A Brass Sugar-Painting Ladle & Rainbow Fruit-Juice Drops].
“System, spend 5,000 Dad Points! Fuse the ultimate child-motivating First-Place Tournament Trophy!”
HUMMM—FLASH!
[ DING! 5,000 DAD POINTS DEDUCTED — GRAND TROPHY FUSION! ]
* Output Item : [Rank 3 Perfection: The Ever-Refilling Golden-.
Dragon & Rainbow-Bunny Sugar-Painting Trophy]!
* Appearance : A magnificent, three-foot-tall crystalline sculpture.
spun from glowing golden maltose candy, depicting.
a smiling Golden Dragon and a Pink Honey-Bunny.
holding up a crown of seven-colored fruit stars!
* Item Effect :.
1. Never melts in heat or gathers dust!
2. Every morning at dawn, the trophy automatically grows 24.
detachable, flaw-free [Rank 2 Spirit-Fruit Sugar Paintings]
(shaped like little bunnies, turtles, puppies, and swords)
that nourish meridians, clean teeth instead of causing.
cavities, and taste like heaven!
Lifting the three-foot-tall, shimmering [Golden-Dragon & Rainbow-Bunny Sugar-Painting Trophy] out of the pantry with both hands. Gu Changsheng carried it back into the dining room and set it right in the center of the birthday table!
SHINE—SPARKLE!
As the lantern light caught the translucent, seven-colored maltose sugar dragon and the smiling pink candy bunny—and as a mouthwatering fragrance of warm caramel, wild strawberries, sweet oranges. Roasted pine nuts drifted across the table—every single person in the dining room froze!
Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan’s jaw dropped open, her big dark eyes reflecting the sparkling rainbow candy stars as she stood up on her stool:.
“Whaaaa! A giant rainbow bunny and a golden dragon made of real sugar-painting candy?! And look, Big Brother Nian—there are twenty-four little candy turtles and candy puppies hanging around the bottom!”
Even nine-year-old Gu Nian—who three minutes ago had been calmly lecturing the Prefecture Herald about how tournaments were boring—put down his teacup, stood up straight in his yellow bunny apron. Stared at the three-foot-tall glowing sugar sculpture with his nine-year-old eyes shining like twin lanterns!
And right beside the teapot, three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao leaned so far forward in his chubby green plush turtle body that his tiny gold spectacles nearly slid off his nose:.
“By the Ancestors! That maltose sugar-crystallization lattice is Rank 3 Perfection grade—and look at the little green candy turtle on the left rim, it’s even wearing gold reading glasses just like this old man!”
“Ahem,” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng cleared his throat with a solemn face, resting one hand on top of the three-foot-tall rainbow sugar trophy. “I forgot to mention earlier that in addition to the Prefecture Lord’s [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit]. Our Gu Family Elementary School is sponsoring this special [Golden-Dragon & Rainbow-Bunny Sugar-Painting Trophy]—plus two official [Gold.
Star Honor Stickers]—exclusively for whichever junior fighters win First and Second Place at the Azure-Cloud Prefecture Tournament! Even better, this trophy automatically grows twenty-four brand-new spirit-fruit sugar paintings every single morning so you can share them with Little Snowball, Grandpa Yao, and all your classmates at school!”
“Wait, Dad!” nine-year-old Gu Nian raised his hand earnestly, his eyes locked onto the embossed golden star badges in his father’s palm. “Earlier at the school assembly, you said that one [Gold Star Honor Sticker] is equal to FIVE [Little Red Flower Stickers] on the household merit chart.
Unlocks the right to request any custom weekend picnic dish from the Earth-Fire Wok!
Does winning the Prefecture Tournament really earn a Gold Star Sticker too?!”
“Not just one Gold Star Sticker,” Gu Changsheng nodded seriously. “If our Frost-Pine Elementary School sweeps both First and Second Place at the Prefecture Arena without breaking our family politeness rules. Both First Place and Second Place get a Gold Star Honor Sticker AND we’ll set up our [Gu Family.
Peace Pharmacy & Cold-Noodle Pavilion] right outside the stadium so Auntie Qin can open our first Prefecture City clinic!”
Gu Changsheng reached down and gently snapped a glowing, translucent sugar cloud off the bottom rim of the trophy. He broke the warm maltose piece cleanly in half and popped one crispy golden piece into Gu Nian’s mouth and the other into Su Nuannuan’s mouth.
Crunch! Crunch!
The instant the warm, honeyed maltose melted across their tongues, both children closed their eyes and let out simultaneous sighs of pure, heavenly bliss. Even more amazingly, right before the eyes of everyone at the birthday table, a brand-new golden sugar cloud sprouted smoothly from the nephrite-jade base within ten breaths, sparkling as brightly as morning sunlight!
“Whoa! It really grew back all by itself!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan gasped, pressing both tiny hands to her rosy cheeks.
“And my head feels super clear after eating just one bite!
Big Brother Nian, I suddenly remember all the herb names Grandpa Yao wrote on the blackboard this morning!”
“That’s because the Earth-Fire maltose lattice carries a natural spirit-soothing blessing,” Grandpa Yao chuckled proudly, stroking his plush green chin with his flipper as he eyed the little candy turtle on the rim. “Every bite clears away mental fatigue and boosts reading and martial comprehension by fifty percent for three hours—without ever hurting a child’s baby teeth! Even a Golden Core Pill Sovereign’s grand-disciple in the Upper-Tier Sects has never eaten candy this refined!”
” Dad, if I eat a sugar dragon claw. Doing my arithmetic workbook, I can finish thirty fraction problems in ten minutes!” nine-year-old Gu Nian murmured, his dark eyes shining with scholarly ambition.
He calculated the daily sugar yield on his fingers.
“Twenty-four spirit-fruit sugar paintings every morning means eight thousand seven hundred and sixty sugar paintings a year. That’s enough for Nuannuan, me, Grandpa Yao, Auntie Qin, Grandpa Fu, Little Snowball, and every top student in our first-grade class!”
Twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin’s gentle eyes lit up with joy at those words:.
“Brother Changsheng, ever since Grandpa Yao gave us those ten Rank 2 Perfection charity formulas. Poor patients from all over the prefecture have been traveling days through the snow just to buy our ten-copper healing gummies! If we win the Prefecture Lord’s tax-exempt branch decree at the tournament, we can open a Peace Pharmacy branch in every single county seat!”
“And think of the accounting ledgers!” sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu chimed in with his single eye gleaming like a polished gold ingot as his fingers danced across his black-iron abacus. “Twelve county branches selling ten-copper gummies and five-copper sesame noodles to twenty thousand prefecture citizens!
Young Master, this old servant’s abacus is already warming up just thinking about the receipts!”
Sitting across the table in his brand-new magistrate’s robe, sixty-year-old Town Magistrate Liu clapped his hands together with tears of civic pride in his eyes:.
“Patriarch Gu! For the past thirty years, Frost-Pine Town has finished dead last among the twelve counties in the Prefecture Junior Tournament because our town was poor and cold! If Class President Nian and Flower-Monitor Nuannuan bring the Championship Banner home to Frost-Pine Town.
This magistrate will personally ride in the second carriage and beat the brass cheering gong at the edge of the ring!”
Down under the table, even six-month-old Little Snowball sat up on his fluffy white hind legs and let out an excited “Arf! Arf!” while staring at the sugar-painting puppy hanging from the rim of the trophy!
“Well,” Gu Changsheng sighed with mock regret, pretending to reach out to pick the three-foot-tall rainbow sugar trophy back up off the table. “If you two still think going to Prefecture City is too boring, though. I suppose I’ll just have to keep this trophy locked in the pantry and eat the sugar dragon with my afternoon tea—”
TAP-SALUTE!
Before Gu Changsheng could even finish his sentence, nine-year-old Gu Nian and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan hopped off their stools, snapped their heels together on the floorboards. Saluted with their small right hands at their eyebrows in perfect unison:.
“Reporting to Principal Dad! Class President Gu Nian and Flower-Monitor Su Nuannuan volunteer to represent Frost-Pine Elementary School at the Prefecture Tournament!”
“Nuannuan will pack my pink watering can and my sour-plum lollipops tonight so we don’t miss the morning carriage!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan cheered. Her two pink hair-buns bobbing up and down like excited little rabbits.
“And Uncle Wu and Uncle Scar can take turns watering Nuannuan’s dandelions while we’re gone!”
“And I’ll bring my herb book to read on the carriage ride so I don’t fall behind on Grandpa Yao’s homework. We win the sugar trophy,” nine-year-old Gu Nian added seriously, already checking his [Fused Iron-Defense Yellow Bunny Slippers] and his [Fused Cast-Iron Pencil Case]! “Also, Dad—can we bring spare shoelaces and extra ten-copper gummies in our schoolbags?
If the eighteen-year-old big brothers in Prefecture City trip over their own boots on stage, we should be polite and patch them up during lunch!”
Gu Changsheng laughed aloud and ruffled both of his children’s heads with his warm palms.
“Pack as many spare shoelaces and healing gummies as you like,” Gu Changsheng smiled, his eyes glinting with quiet anticipation. He thought of Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s rigged brackets and Lin Fan’s buried nails waiting in Azure-Cloud Prefecture City. “After all, a true primary-school field trip is all about teaching the big kids good manners.”
Out in the courtyard, forty-two-year-old Captain One-Ear Scar , at Rank 2 Peak. Rank 2 Mid Poison-Hand Wu—who had been listening eagerly by the open dining-room door in their spotless pink bunny and honeybee aprons—thumped their chests in unison:.
“Principal Gu! Let us lead fifty brothers of the Pink-Apron Crosswalk Security Brigade to pull the supply wagons and carry the noodle pots to Azure-Cloud Prefecture City! Anyone who dares look crookedly at our Little President Nian and Little Monitor Nuannuan on the road will have to get past fifty yellow crosswalk paddles first!”
Watching the two grade-schoolers—whom five hundred berserk mountain war-wolves couldn’t scare—instantly mobilize for war over a three-foot-tall sugar-painting trophy and a Gold Star Sticker. Two former outlaw bosses in pink aprons fought over who got to carry the noodle pots, the gold-armored Prefecture Herald wiped the sweat off his brow and bowed deeply to Gu Changsheng:.
“Patriarch Gu... this humble herald will ride back to Azure-Cloud Prefecture City tonight and tell the groundskeeper to reinforce the arena floorboards!”
[ DING! TOURNAMENT EXPEDITION ACCEPTED BY BOTH KIDS! ]
* Active Quest : Win the Prefecture Junior Tournament, Collect.
the [100-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit], & Crush Lin.
Fan’s Stage Trap!
* Nuannuan Darkening Drop: 10% -> 9% (Birthday Sugar-Trophy Joy!)
* Daily Income : +95,000 DP/day -> +102,000 DP/day!