At one-fifteen in the afternoon—fifteen minutes before the bronze gong was scheduled to ring for the Prefecture Junior Tournament. Semifinals—the four remaining undefeated contestants gathered around the newly replaced referee table at the base of Arena Stage #1.
To the surprise of nobody in the twenty-thousand-seat amphitheater, three of the four semifinalists were nine-year-old Gu Nian, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan. A polite sixteen-year-old spearman from East-River County (who had just eaten two bowls of Gu Changsheng’s sesame noodles at lunch. Happily announced that he would forfeit calmly to Little Sister Nuannuan rather than get put to sleep sucking his thumb on stage!).
And the fourth semifinalist—matched directly against nine-year-old Gu Nian on Arena Stage #1 by rat-mustached Deputy Magistrate Zhou—was eighteen-year-old Lin Fan!
Standing at the base of the eastern stage stairs in a blood-red martial robe with a black silk scarf hiding his bruised jaw. Two thick charcoal eyebrows drawn high on his forehead. Lin Fan radiated a feverish, unstable Rank 2 Peak Martial aura from the forbidden [Blood-Swallowing Devil Pill] burning inside his stomach!
Even more sinisterly, during the ninety-minute noon intermission. Everyone was eating noodles on the outer plaza. Deputy Magistrate Zhou had ordered two trusted dark-array henchmen to crawl beneath Arena Stage #1.
Re-wire the twelve underground [Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails]—linking them directly to a fifty-pound [Blood-Magnet Master Stone] hidden inside the hollow wooden pedestal of Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s own elevated VIP referee chair!
This morning that nine-year-old brat got lucky because his yellow slippers had thick soles, Deputy Magistrate Zhou sneered inwardly as he sat high on his cushioned referee chair beside the stage. Resting his foot on the new iron pedal that would multiply the underground array’s suction power by tenfold! *Once I step on this pedal at the start of the semifinal match.
The twelve Dark-Iron Nails will pierce straight up through the stone tiles to nail Gu Nian’s feet to the stage while Lin Fan cripples him for life!*
Down at the ringside family bench, however, three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao poked his chubby green plush turtle head out of seven-year-old Su Nuannuan’s arms, sniffed the air around Arena Stage #1 twice. Pushed his tiny gold-rimmed spectacles up his nose with a cold snort:.
“Hmph! Patriarch Gu, look under the center flagstones of Stage One and beneath that rat-mustached Deputy Magistrate’s chair!” Grandpa Yao whispered via spiritual sound-transmission to Gu Changsheng and nine-year-old Gu Nian.
“While we were serving sesame noodles at lunch, that corrupt official re-wired the twelve [Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails] under the western tiles to a fifty-pound [Blood-Magnet Master Stone] hidden under his own seat!
The moment he steps on his iron pedal, all twelve poisoned nails are rigged to shoot up through the floor toward Nian’er’s arches and dantian!”
Hearing that Deputy Magistrate Zhou and Lin Fan had rigged twelve poisoned iron nails to shoot up through the floorboards into his nine-year-old son’s feet. Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng didn’t go complain to the tournament clerks.
Instead, a dangerously warm smile curved across Gu Changsheng’s lips as he bent down on one knee in front of nine-year-old Gu Nian. Pretending to brush a speck of noodle flour off the boy’s yellow bunny slippers:.
“Nian’er, hold your left foot still for two seconds while Dad checks your slipper sole.”
“Did I step on a sesame seed at the noodle stand, Dad?” nine-year-old Gu Nian asked. Resting one small hand on his father’s shoulder for balance while seven-year-old Su Nuannuan leaned over curiously with her pink hair-buns bobbing.
“Not a sesame seed,” Gu Changsheng chuckled quietly so only his family could hear. “A pair of uninvited groundhogs buried twelve iron toothpicks under Stage One during lunch and wired them to a big magnet under Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s chair. Since they went to all that trouble to prepare a present for us, it would be rude not to send all twelve toothpicks back to their owners with five times the interest.”
“Ooh! Like when Big Brother Nian bounces a rubber ball against the school wall and it hits the person who threw it!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan whispered excitedly.
Covering her mouth with both small hands so she wouldn’t giggle aloud.
“Grandpa Yao, can the magnet send half the nails into that grumpy referee uncle’s chair too?”
“Hehe, with Patriarch Gu’s upgrade array, those twelve dark-iron nails won’t miss by half an inch!” three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao snickered from inside his green plush turtle shell. Adjusting his tiny gold spectacles with a gleeful wave of his flipper.
“That idiot Zhou Wen put a fifty-pound Blood-Magnet Master Stone right under his own silk cushion!
In array mechanics, that’s what we call painting a bullseye on your own behind!”
Beside the bench, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu calmly opened his leather ledger book, dipped his brush in red ink, and pre-wrote a new line item while his single eye gleamed:.
“Young Master, I will go ahead and enter a two-hundred-silver deduction on the Prefecture Court’s furniture account for one ruined referee chair and one pair of perforated official trousers.”
Behind the family bench, Captain One-Ear Scar and Vice-Captain Bull leaned in with their pink bunny aprons rustling, their scarred faces beaming with admiration:.
“Principal Gu, should we have the brothers hold up our yellow crosswalk paddles around the base of. Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s platform so when he flies off his chair, he doesn’t land on any innocent spectators?”
“Good thinking, Captain Scar,” Gu Changsheng nodded approvingly. “Safety around the stage is always our number-one priority.”
Keeping his hand screened by his blue cotton apron. Gu Changsheng spent 2,000 Dad Points inside [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box] to fuse [A High-Density Reverse-Polarity Magnet Brick] directly into the heel of Gu Nian’s left [Iron-Defense Yellow Bunny Slipper]!
[ DING! 2,000 DAD POINTS DEDUCTED — SLIPPER COUNTER-TRAP FUSION! ]
* Output Upgrade: [Rank 2 Perfection: Reverse-Polarity Array-.
Bouncing Bunny Heel]!
* Upgrade Effect:.
1. When Gu Nian stamps his left heel once on any underground.
magnetic or blood-nail trap, the slipper instantly reverses.
the array’s magnetic polarity by 180 degrees and amplifies.
the spring-force by 500%!
2. Every buried nail will automatically lock onto the array’s.
[Blood-Magnet Master Stone] and whoever has [Blood-Burst Pill]
iron-qi in their boots—shooting up beneath the trappers’ own.
feet and backsides instead!
“All set, Nian’er,” Gu Changsheng whispered with a wink, patting his nine-year-old son’s shoulder as the semifinal gong echoed across the stadium. “When you walk onto the western mark and see Deputy Magistrate Zhou step on his pedal under the table, give the floor one polite little stomp with your left bunny slipper!”
“Understood, Dad! One polite stomp with my left heel!” nine-year-old Gu Nian nodded with a bright, earnest salute, turning to walk briskly up the four wooden stairs onto Arena Stage #1!
Over on Arena Stage #2 fifty yards away, the sixteen-year-old spearman from East-River County bowed politely to seven-year-old Su Nuannuan. Soon as the gong rang, accepted a complimentary strawberry milk drop from her candy pouch. Raised his hand to the Stage #2 referee:.
“Referee Uncle! After eating Principal Gu’s chilled sesame noodles at lunch, this junior realizes that Little Sister Nuannuan is a true fairy of martial virtue! I respectfully forfeit Semifinal Match Two so I can sit in the front row and cheer for Little Sister Nuannuan and Little Brother Nian!”
With seven-year-old Su Nuannuan advancing straight to the Grand Finals in three seconds flat, all twenty thousand pairs of eyes in the Grand Prefecture Arena turned simultaneously toward Arena Stage #1!
Across the forty-foot stage, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan glared at the nine-year-old boy in the yellow bunny apron with eyes so bloodshot they looked like two bleeding cherries:.
“Gu Nian! Your father stole my Golden Core master, stole my forty-two boxes of herbs, and ruined my army! Today on this semifinal stage, not even your father can jump in before I—”
“Big Brother with the charcoal eyebrows,” nine-year-old Gu Nian interrupted politely. Tilting his head as he looked at the black silk scarf wrapped around Lin Fan’s bruised jaw, “Dad says talking with your mouth full of bitter pills gives you bad breath. Also, your boots look very heavy—are you sure you want to stand on that spot when the bell rings?”
“Stand on this spot?! You’re the one standing on a death-trap, you little brat!” Lin Fan snarled under his breath.
Channeling the violent iron-blood qi of his [Blood-Swallowing Devil Pill] down into his legs as he prepared to spring across the ring the instant Gu Nian’s feet were skewered!
Up on his high mahogany referee chair beside Stage #1, Deputy Magistrate Zhou wiped the sweat from his rat mustache. Glanced left and right to make sure Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng up in the VIP pavilion wasn’t looking at his boots. Raised his brass gong-hammer high in the air.
CLANG!
“Semifinal Match One—BEGIN!” Deputy Magistrate Zhou shouted from his elevated referee chair, slamming his right boot down with all his weight onto the hidden iron pedal beneath his table!
CLICK-HUMMMMMM!
Beneath the bluestone tiles of Stage #1, the fifty-pound [Blood-Magnet Master Stone] under Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s chair roared to life. Triggering the spring-mechanisms of all twelve six-inch [Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails] under nine-year-old Gu Nian’s starting mark!
Right on cue, nine-year-old Gu Nian raised his left yellow bunny slipper three inches off the stone tile and gave a single crisp, polite stomp of his heel:.
TAP—BZZZZT-REVERSE!
Beneath the floorboards, a blinding golden pulse of [Reverse-Polarity Magnetic Force] shot out of Gu Nian’s left bunny slipper and flipped the underground array’s magnetic field completely upside down!
Instead of shooting up under Gu Nian’s insulated bunny slippers, all twelve six-inch [Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails] whipped around beneath the floorboards like twelve heat-seeking iron vipers:.
- Six of the dark-iron nails locked directly onto the iron-rich [Blood-Swallowing Devil Pill] qi circulating in eighteen-year-old Lin Fan’s boots on the eastern mark;.
- And the other six dark-iron nails locked directly onto the fifty-pound [Blood-Magnet Master Stone] sitting right under Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s cushioned seat!
SHING-CRACK-STAB!
“AAAAAAAGH! MY FEET!”
“OOOOOWWWWW! MY REAR END!”
Before a single punch had even been thrown in the semifinal match, twenty thousand spectators gasped in shock. Six dark-iron nails burst straight up through the eastern flagstones to pin Lin Fan’s boot-soles to the stage. The other six nails blasted straight up through the bottom of Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s mahogany chair—skewering the corrupt official’s backside like a pincushion.
He launched six feet into the air clutching his bleeding trousers!
“Look at Deputy Magistrate Zhou’s chair!” eighteen-year-old Young Master Tie Ba shouted from the front row of the stands. Pointing an accusing finger at the six black iron spikes sticking out of the referee seat.
“Those are six-inch Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails!
And another six nails just shot out from under the stage floor around that red-robed guy’s boots! Deputy Magistrate Zhou buried dark-iron nails under Stage One!”
“What?! Meridian-Draining Nails buried under the junior tournament stage?!”
“No wonder Deputy Magistrate Zhou insisted on putting Frost-Pine Town’s nine-year-old child on Stage One in every single round! He rigged the floorboards with a underground blood-magnet array!”
Up in the VIP pavilion, fifty-two-year-old Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng stood up so fast his heavy brocade chair toppled backward, his Rank 3 Mid Grandmaster aura flaring like a thunderstorm over the stadium:.
“Zhou Wen! What are twelve Dark-Iron Meridian-Draining Nails doing under the floorboards of my Prefecture Arena?!”
And down on Stage #1, nine-year-old Gu Nian blinked innocently in his yellow bunny slippers, looked across the ring at the pinned, howling Lin Fan, and called out politely:.
“Referee Uncle, Big Brother Lin’s boots seem to be nailed to the floor—does the match still count if he can’t walk?”
[ DING! UNDERGROUND NAIL TRAP 100% REVERSED IN PUBLIC! ]
* Trap Backfire : 6 Dark-Iron Nails pin Lin Fan’s boots & drain.
his Blood-Pill Qi; 6 Nails skewer Deputy.
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Magistrate Zhou’s referee chair!
* Crowd Reaction: 20,000 Spectators witness the rigged array!
* Daily Income : +145,000 DP/day -> +155,000 DP/day!