Two mornings later, under a crisp, sunny early-spring sky, a lively ten-wagon caravan from Frost-Pine Town rolled through the towering sixty-foot granite gates of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City!
Riding in the lead four-horse carriage were twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng, twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu, nine-year-old Gu Nian, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan, Little Snowball. Three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao (tucked inside Nuannuan’s arms in his chubby green [Jade-Turtle Plush Doll] body with his [Spice-Rack Spirit-Gourd] clipped to his shell).
And marching in neat, disciplined columns behind the family carriage—pulling nine supply wagons loaded with Gu Changsheng’s [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok], fifty barrels of cold spring water. A hundred crates of Auntie Qin’s ten-copper healing gummies and chilled sesame noodles—were Captain One-Ear Scar , at Rank 2 Peak, Vice-Captain Bull, Poison-Hand Wu. Fifty elite guards of the [Gu Family Pink-Apron Security Brigade]!
When the caravan had departed Frost-Pine Town’s southern gate at dawn two days ago. All twelve thousand residents of the town had lined both sides of the heated bluestone highway for two miles to see them off. Elderly grandmothers had passed warm wicker baskets of dried persimmons and roasted chestnuts through the carriage windows.
Six hundred schoolchildren from the Frost-Pine Elementary School had waved homemade paper flags and shouted in unison:.
“Good luck at the Prefecture Arena, Class President Nian! Bring home the big fruit for soup, Flower-Monitor Nuannuan!”
Inside the warm carriage cabin, nine-year-old Gu Nian sat upright on the cushioned bench with his arithmetic slate balanced on his knees. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan carefully brushed Little Snowball’s fluffy white ears with a wooden comb.
“Big Brother Nian,” Nuannuan asked curiously, holding up a tiny pink ribbon to tie onto Little Snowball’s collar, “Teacher Fu said Azure-Cloud Prefecture City has walls ten times taller than our school roof! Do you think the eighteen-year-old big brothers in the city eat three bowls of meat porridge every morning like we do?”
“Grandpa Yao says most clan heirs in the city take bitter alchemy pills instead of eating proper Earth-Fire meals,” Gu Nian replied seriously, checking his multiplication column with his charcoal pencil. “That’s why their foundations have fire-poison and their tempers are so loud. Dad said if they shout at us at the registration desk, we shouldn’t get mad—we should just check if their shoes are tied and knock them out of the ring politely.”
“Hmph! Little Nian’er has the right of it!” Grandpa Yao chuckled from inside his green plush turtle shell, adjusting his tiny gold-rimmed spectacles with one fuzzy flipper.
“Those provincial clans think stuffing seventeen-year-olds with crudely refined marrow pills makes them prodigies!
Wait until they see what two grade-schoolers raised on Rank 3 Earth-Fire cooking and daily Little Red Flowers look like on stage!”
Even inside bustling Azure-Cloud Prefecture City—a grand walled metropolis of two hundred thousand residents. Armored carriages and sect disciples passed through the streets every hour—the arrival of the Frost-Pine Town caravan caused an immediate sensation along the main thoroughfare!
Shopkeepers, tea-house patrons, and city guards stopped dead in their tracks to stare at the fifty six-foot-tall. Heavily muscled Rank 2 veterans marching in perfect lockstep behind the lead carriage: every single one of those scarred warriors wore a spotless. Starched bright pink cotton apron embroidered with a smiling white bunny or a yellow honeybee, carried a bright yellow “SLOW: PRECIOUS CHILDREN CROSSING” paddle over his shoulder.
Smiled politely at every elderly pedestrian they passed!
“Wait a second! Isn’t that tall, one-eared giant at the head of the wagon column Commander One-Ear Scar of the Blood-Wolf Mercenary Corps. Who had a three-thousand-silver bounty on his head last autumn?!”
a Prefecture City merchant gasped.
Pointing his folding fan out the second-floor window of a silk shop. “And isn’t the man beside him Poison-Hand Wu of the Five-Venom Scorpion Gang?! Why on earth are the two fiercest outlaws of the northern frontier wearing pink bunny aprons, pushing a kitchen stove-cart, and blowing a brass whistle to help a blind old beggar cross the street?!”
“Haven’t you heard the news from the northern counties, Brother Chen?” the tea-house owner beside him laughed, leaning over the railing with deep respect. “Last month Patriarch Gu Changsheng of Frost-Pine Town reformed both of their gangs with a single spanking belt and a bowl of spirit-meat stew!
Now they’re the official Crosswalk Security & Gardening Brigades of the Frost-Pine Elementary School!”
Throughout the two-day carriage journey along the official highway. The continuous +102,000 DP/day warmth and gratitude of Frost-Pine Town’s twelve thousand citizens nourished Gu Changsheng’s dantian around the clock, every internal organ, bone. Meridian inside his twenty-nine-year-old frame had reached absolute saturation!
Just as the carriage wheels crossed the white-marble bridge leading to the Grand Prefecture Martial Arena in the center of the city, a silent, majestic golden tremor rippled through Gu Changsheng’s blood:.
HUMMM—BOOM!
Without leaking a single wisp of external pressure to startle the horses, Gu Changsheng stepped cleanly from Rank 2 Late into Rank 2 Peak Martial [Half-Step Martial Grandmaster. 12,000 lbs Base Force]—standing just half a hair’s breadth below the legendary Rank 3 Internal-Qi Grandmaster Realm!
Twelve thousand pounds of pure mortal leverage, Gu Changsheng thought with a satisfied smile, flexing his fingers lightly inside his sleeve. And when Father’s Authority stacks Nian’er and Nuannuan’s Rank 2 cultivation on top of mine, even a Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster won’t be able to take one swing of my wok spatula!
Inside the carriage cabin, three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao pushed up his tiny gold spectacles with his fuzzy green turtle flipper and whispered in quiet astonishment:.
“Patriarch Gu, your Rank 2 Peak foundation is denser and purer than any mortal martial artist this old man has ever seen in three hundred years! Every bone, tendon, and organ in your body has been tempered by Earth-Fire and household warmth until there isn’t a single flaw in your dantian! Once you find a wisp of Star-Realm or Upper-Realm spiritual catalyst to ignite your inner sea, your breakthrough into the Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster Realm will shake the sky!”
At ten o’clock in the morning, the vast stone plaza in front of the Grand Prefecture Martial Arena was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with over ten thousand spectators and the delegations of all twelve counties.
Around the mahogany Official Tournament Registration Pavilion stood two hundred burly, six-foot-tall seventeen- and eighteen-year-old clan prodigies—all flexing their oiled biceps in sleeveless martial robes. Clanking sixty-pound steel broadswords against the flagstones, and glaring at one another like young bull-calves!
Sitting behind the central mahogany registration desk in an embroidered official robe was forty-eight-year-old Deputy Magistrate Zhou. At Rank 2 Mid,—a thin, rat-mustached official whose sleeves were currently heavy with a forged alchemy pledge given to him the night. By a hooded, eyebrowless youth standing quietly in the dark shadow of the pavilion pillar: eighteen-year-old Lin Fan [Rank 2 Peak via forbidden Blood-Burst Pills | Luck Halo: 16%]!
“Next delegation!” Deputy Magistrate Zhou barked impatiently, tapping his brass registration seal on the desk. “Is the Frost-Pine Town delegation even showing up, or were those country bumpkins too scared to enter the city gates?!”
“Frost-Pine Town Elementary Martial School is right here, Deputy Magistrate Zhou,” a warm, unhurried voice answered.
As the crowd of six-foot-tall teenage martial artists parted in front of the pavilion steps. Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng walked calmly up to the mahogany registration desk—holding nine-year-old Gu Nian by his left hand and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan by his right!
Behind them marched Captain One-Ear Scar and Vice-Captain Bull in their starched pink bunny aprons, carrying the children’s schoolbags and a porcelain thermos of warm honey-milk.
Because Gu Nian barely came up to the waist of the eighteen-year-old contestants around him—and was wearing. His clean yellow cotton bunny apron over his blue school uniform and yellow bunny slippers on his feet—and. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan was even tinier at three-and-a-half feet tall.
Wearing a fluffy pink rabbit dress while hugging a two-foot-tall green stuffed turtle with gold reading glasses, the entire registration plaza went dead silent for three breaths!
Deputy Magistrate Zhou blinked his beady eyes, leaned over the high mahogany desk to look down at the two small children, and then looked back up at Gu Changsheng:.
“Gu Changsheng, stop wasting this official’s time! Where are your clan’s seventeen- and eighteen-year-old junior fighters?! Why did you bring two primary-school toddlers carrying a stuffed turtle up to the registration desk—did you lose your way to the candy stall?!”
“These are Frost-Pine Town’s two official tournament fighters,” Gu Changsheng smiled, setting the gold-stamped Prefecture Lord’s invitation decree on the desk and writing two names neatly on the registration scroll:.
- Contestant #199: Gu Nian — Age 9, First Grade Class President.
- Contestant #200: Gu Nuannuan (Su Nuannuan) — Age 7, First Grade Flower-Monitor.
“Wait—let me check the tournament rulebook,” sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu stepped forward politely, opening a copy of the Prefecture Statutes while clicking his black-iron abacus. “Article Four of the Azure-Cloud Prefecture Junior Martial Tournament states that any citizen under the bone-age of eighteen may register. It specifies a maximum age of eighteen, Deputy Magistrate Zhou, not a minimum height!
Our Young Master Nian is nine and our Little Miss Nuannuan is seven—both are 100% legal entrants!”
“Pffft—BWAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The instant Deputy Magistrate Zhou read their ages aloud, all two hundred muscle-bound seventeen- and eighteen-year-old clan prodigies around the plaza erupted into thunderous, knee-slapping laughter!
“Look at Contestant #199! He’s wearing yellow bunny slippers and a cast-iron pencil box on his belt!”
“And Contestant #200 brought a green stuffed turtle with glasses! Hey, little girl, is your plush turtle going to bite our ankles on stage?!”
Stepping out from the front of the crowd, a hulking, six-foot-two, two-hundred-pound eighteen-year-old youth wearing spiked iron shoulder-guards—Young Master Tie Ba (Age 18. Rank 2 Early Martial) of the Prefecture’s notorious Iron-Fist Clan—slammed his five-foot steel broadsword onto the flagstones and pointed a mocking finger right at nine-year-old Gu Nian’s nose:.
“Hahaha! An eight- or nine-year-old baby in yellow bunny slippers and a seven-year-old toddler hugging a plush doll?! Hey, country bumpkin Gu!
The Prefecture Junior Tournament has no age handicap! If your baby son gets matched against me in Round One and starts crying for his milk bottle on stage. I won’t just break his wooden broom—I’ll make him crawl on all fours between my legs in front of twenty thousand people!”
Behind the registration pillar, the hooded, eyebrowless Lin Fan’s bloodshot eyes gleamed with vicious glee as he tugged secretly on Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s back sleeve and whispered:.
“Lord Zhou! Draw the bamboo lots right now and put Gu Nian on Stage One against Tie Ba in Match One—right on top of the twelve Meridian-Draining Nails we buried under the floorboards last night!”
Deputy Magistrate Zhou hid a malicious grin beneath his rat mustache, Palming a marked bamboo tally stick from under the desk, he slammed his brass seal onto the bracket sheet:.
“By official lottery draw, Round One, Bout One on Arena Stage One: Young Master Tie Ba of the Iron-Fist Clan versus nine-year-old Gu Nian of Frost-Pine Town! Once both fighters step onto the stage in thirty minutes, neither side may forfeit until the gong sounds!”
Up at the desk, nine-year-old Gu Nian didn’t flinch an inch at eighteen-year-old Tie Ba’s roaring threat or Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s rigged draw.
Instead, the nine-year-old boy looked calmly down at Tie Ba’s heavy leather combat boots, tilted his head, and said in a polite, crystal-clear child’s voice:.
“Big Brother with the loud voice, before you talk about making people crawl, Dad says you should look down at your left foot—your bootlace is untied. If you step on it on the stairs, you’re going to fall flat on your face.”
Right beside her big brother, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan held up her chubby green plush turtle and added in a sweet, helpful tone:.
“And Grandpa Yao says that when an eighteen-year-old brother shouts that loudly with dark circles under his eyes, it means his liver-fire is too dry from eating too much roasted lamb! After Big Brother Nian knocks you off the stage in Round One, you can come to Auntie Qin’s noodle tent at lunch for a ten-copper gummy so you don’t cry for YOUR mommy!”
Hearing a nine-year-old boy tell him to tie his shoelaces and a seven-year-old girl offer him a gummy so he wouldn’t cry for his mommy. Eighteen-year-old Young Master Tie Ba’s face turned purple from chin to hairline. The entire crowd around the registration desk gasped and roared with laughter!
Gu Changsheng glanced past the purple-faced Tie Ba toward the shadowed pillar where the hooded Lin Fan was hiding. Meeting Lin Fan’s bloodshot eyes across the plaza, Gu Changsheng rested one hand lightly on his [Seven-Wolves Disciplinary Belt] and smiled:.
“Come along, kids. Let’s go take our seats by Stage One so Nian’er can finish his morning warm-up.”
[ DING! REGISTRATION COMPLETE — ROUND ONE BRACKET RIGGED! ]
* Host Breakthrough: Gu Changsheng -> Rank 2 Peak (12,000 lbs)!
* Round 1 Match #1 : Gu Nian (Age 9, Rank 2 Early) vs. Young Master.
Tie Ba (Age 18, Rank 2 Early) on Stage #1!
* Daily Income : +102,000 DP/day -> +110,000 DP/day!