Outside the sealed ten-ton Meteoric Dragon-Gate of Flame-Scar Canyon, the midday sun beat down on the barren volcanic rocks like a scorching anvil.
Perched on a jagged black boulder with his splinted ribs throbbing under sweat-soaked bandages, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan [Luck Halo: 10%] slapped furiously at his own cheek with a loud SMACK!
Three thumb-sized, yellow-striped canyon blood-gnats dodged his clumsy palm and sank their barbed stingers straight into his unbandaged left ear and the tip of his nose!
“Damn venomous bugs!” Lin Fan hissed in agony as two more red welts the size of pigeon eggs puffed up on his nose and earlobe. Making his already bruised, eyebrowless face look like a lumpy purple gourd.
“Why are all the mosquitoes in this three-mile gorge biting ONLY me while ignoring the five of you?!”
Squatting in the narrow strip of shade behind the boulder, the five Black-Blood Hall dark-array masters—who hadn’t been bitten once all morning—exchanged awkward glances as they sipped warm ditch-water from their canteens.
“Ahem... Master Lin, perhaps the blood-pills you took yesterday give off a sweet iron scent that canyon gnats enjoy,” the lead array-master coughed dryly, pointing toward the sealed ten-ton black iron gate below. “More importantly, Master Lin, it has now been a full hour and a half since we dropped the Dragon-Gate and triggered the thirty Lava-Rock Golems!
Inside that sealed magma chamber, the temperature has surely passed a thousand degrees! Even if Gu Changsheng had iron skin and bronze bones, he and his entire family must be reduced to crispy charcoal by now!”
Hearing that, Lin Fan forgot all about the itching welts covering his face and let out a hoarse, wheezing cackle of pure spite:.
“Hahaha! Crispy charcoal! Let them bake for one more hour until the afternoon sun starts to dip!
I want to make sure that nine-year-old brat Gu Nian and his cast-iron pencil box are melted into a puddle of slag before we winch the gate open!”
*
At that exact same moment, twenty yards on the other side of the ten-ton meteoric iron gate, the temperature inside the Grand Magma Hall was a breezy, delightful seventy-two degrees!
Flanked by Golem Unit #01 and Golem Unit #02 waving giant palm-leaf fans in their spotless bright pink bunny aprons. The Gu Family sat around a wide bamboo picnic mat spread beside a natural, fist-wide fissure in the center of the cavern floor: a pure [Thousand-Year Underground Earth-Core Magma Vent]!
Right over that glowing golden-orange earth-core fissure sat twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng’s two-foot-wide [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok].
Because the [Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] had been fused from an ancient Earth-Fire alchemy cauldron. Placing it directly over a natural Thousand-Year Earth-Core Magma Vent activated the wok’s hidden 100% Culinary & Alchemical Harmonization Array!
Inside the divided two-flavor iron pot:.
- On the left side bubbled a crystal-clear, milky-white broth simmered from fifty-year snow-lotus root, glacial ice-fish bones, and twelve kinds of cloud-cliff Frost-Vein Truffles;.
- And on the right side rolled a fragrant, ruby-red spicy broth infused with Earth-Fire chili oil, mountain star-anise, and ten-year blood-ginseng!
As the underground magma fire and the cool glacial draft from the inner ice doors met inside the bubbling hot-pot. A visible yin-yang swirl of golden-white and crimson steam rose above the picnic mat. Carrying a mouthwatering aroma of simmered marrow, toasted sesame.
Sweet mushrooms that completely erased every trace of canyon sulfur!
“Alright, everyone, chopsticks ready!” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled, lifting a wooden platter stacked high with paper-thin, marbled slices of Rank 2 Spirit-Ox Sirloin and crisp winter watercress. “Nuannuan, dip your beef slices in the white mushroom-and-snow-lotus broth for three counts so it stays tender.
Nian’er, Uncle Fu, Auntie Qin—try the red magma-marrow broth with the handmade sesame-leek dipping sauce!”
“One... two... three!”
seven-year-old Su Nuannuan counted aloud on her knees, her yellow straw sun-hat hanging down her back as she lifted a tender.
Curling slice of spirit-beef from the milky broth, dipped it into her little bowl of sweet sesame paste, and popped it into her mouth.
Her big dark eyes instantly curved into two happy crescent moons:.
“Mmmmmm! Dad, this mountain fire-pot is even yummier than birthday cake! The beef melts right on Nuannuan’s tongue like warm butter, and my whole tummy feels cozy and bubbly!”
Sitting cross-legged on his father’s right with textbook posture, nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 2 Peak. Picked up a plump Frost-Vein Truffle and two slices of spicy magma-simmered beef, chewed thoughtfully, and blinked in surprise:.
“Dad, every time I swallow a bite of mushroom and beef, the hot earth-fire energy and the cool snow-lotus energy spin together inside my chest! It’s polishing my Rank 2 Peak meridians until they shine like smooth jade!”
“And look at the soup essence!” three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao gasped from beside his miniature porcelain saucer on the picnic mat, dipping his fuzzy green plush turtle snout into a spoonful of the golden-white broth. “Patriarch Gu!
By using a Thousand-Year Earth-Core Magma Vent to simmer snow-lotus truffles inside your Rank 3 Chef Wok, you’ve accidentally brewed a flaw-free pot of [Rank 3 Perfection: Yin-Yang Organ-Refining & Grandmaster-Opening Broth]!
In the Royal Capital, a single teacup of this soup would start a war between three Rank 3 Grandmaster clans—and we’re using it to dip sliced beef and bean-curd skin!”
Right as Grandpa Yao spoke, twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin—who had been sitting at the edge of the picnic mat. Quietly ladling hot mushroom soup into the children’s bowls first—took a gentle sip from her own porcelain spoon.
The instant that flaw-free [Rank 3 Yin-Yang Organ-Refining Broth] slid down her throat, her slender shoulders trembled!
HUMMMMMM—CHIME!
Three months ago in Frost-Pine Town, Gu Changsheng’s honey-ginger soup had cured Auntie Qin’s three-year Cold-Furnace Backlash and unlocked her Rank 2 Iron-Bone Alchemist cultivation. And for the past eight weeks, cooking and compounding ten-copper healing gummies alongside Grandpa Yao had steadily pushed her foundation to the very brink of Rank 2 Peak.
Now, catalyzed by the pure underground Earth-Core fire and snow-lotus essence of Gu Changsheng’s magma hot-pot, the final bottleneck inside twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin’s dantian dissolved like spring frost under the morning sun!
A radiant, three-foot-wide halo of emerald-green and golden Rank 3 Internal Qi blossomed smoothly around her robes. Carrying the sweet, life-giving fragrance of a hundred blooming medicinal orchids as she broke cleanly through into Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster (Alchemical & Medicinal Internal-Qi Stage)!
“I... Brother Changsheng, Grandpa Yao, I just condensed genuine Rank 3 Grandmaster Internal Qi?!” twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin stared down at her pale, glowing fingertips in stunned disbelief, her cheeks flushing a lovely rose pink.
“In the Prefecture Alchemy Guild, even the seventy-year-old Guild President is still stuck at Rank 2 Peak—and I broke through to Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster.
Eating sliced beef and bean-curd on a picnic blanket?!”
“Congratulations on reaching the Grandmaster Realm, Wan’er,” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled warmly, placing two more pieces of snow-lotus root and a tender chicken drumstick into her bowl. “You’ve been working from dawn till dusk making healing gummies for twenty thousand citizens—your foundation was already ninety-nine percent full. All my hot-pot did was give the door a polite little push.”
CRACK-POP—BOOM!
Before Auntie Qin could even finish thanking him, a second resonant rumble echoed from the opposite corner of the picnic mat!
Sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu—who had just slurped down a brimming bowl of the spicy red magma-marrow broth topped with three braised tea eggs. Wearing his [Dragon-Turtle Meridian Back Brace]—felt a roaring wave of warm iron-blood vitality surge up his spine!
Every old battlefield scar and stiff joint in the sixty-two-year-old butler’s body flushed clean of age-stasis as his cultivation surged straight past Rank 2 Mid and Rank 2 Late. Locking solidly into Rank 2 Peak Martial [Half-Step Martial Grandmaster — 10,000 lbs Force]!
Setting his porcelain bowl down on the mat with hands that no longer had a single wrinkle of old age. Sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu bowed his head deeply toward Gu Changsheng, his single eye glistening with grateful tears:.
“Young Master... six months ago, this old servant was a crippled Rank 1 gatekeeper with a cracked spine who could barely sweep the snow off the porch. Today, after one bowl of your Earth-Core hot-pot, my bones are at Rank 2 Peak—stronger than when I rode in the frontier cavalry at age twenty-five!”
“Save your energy for the abacus, Uncle Fu,” Gu Changsheng chuckled. Refilling the old butler’s cup with iced plum juice before nodding toward twelve-foot-tall Golem Unit #03 standing politely beside a barrel of hot spring water. “Unit #03, we’re finished with the hot-pot!
Wash the dishes and wipe down the wok with your soft cloth so we don’t leave a single crumb in the hall!”
“COMMAND... RECEIVED! COMMENCING...
FIVE-STAR... DISHWASHING!”
While Golem Unit #03 and Golem Unit #04 carefully washed every porcelain bowl, bamboo chopstick. Soup ladle in warm spring water with lemon soap—drying them with clean white cotton towels tucked into their pink bunny. Aprons—twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin tested her newly awakened Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster internal qi with a gentle flick of her wrist.
A soft, fragrant breeze of emerald-green medicinal internal qi rippled across the picnic mat, instantly refreshing everyone’s clothes so not even a trace of hot-pot steam clung to their sleeves!
“Whoa! Auntie Qin’s green wind smells like sweet winter orchids!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan clapped her small hands happily, twirling her pink rabbit skirt.
“And look at Uncle Fu—he just picked up all three iron water-barrels at once with one hand!”
“Hehe, with Auntie Qin at Rank 3 Early Grandmaster and Steward Fu at Rank 2 Peak. Even the housekeeping staff of our Gu Mansion could sweep half the martial sects in Azure-Cloud Prefecture!” three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao chuckled from his plush turtle shell.
Wiping his mouth with a tiny silk handkerchief after drinking two saucers of snow-lotus truffle broth.
“Even better, Patriarch Gu, because this meal was simmered over a natural Thousand-Year Earth-Core Magma Vent. Thirty percent of the unabsorbed medicinal fire-and-ice essence is still stored inside Nian’er’s and Nuannuan’s meridians—the next time those two kids face a real battle. That stored hot-pot essence will help push them straight toward Rank 3 too!”
Out on the scorching canyon ridge on the other side of the ten-ton iron gate, meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan sneezed three times in a row. A stray wisp of fragrant sesame-beef aroma drifted up through a tiny hairline crack in the cliff rock two hundred feet above!
“Sniff... sniff... why does the mountain wind smell like spicy beef hot-pot and snow-lotus soup?!”
Lin Fan muttered, scratching his swollen, mosquito-bitten ear with his trembling hand.
“Could I be hallucinating from hunger because I haven’t eaten a hot meal since yesterday morning?! Hmph—just one more hour and Gu Changsheng’s bones will be ashes!”
Down inside the cool, spotless underground hall, nine-year-old Gu Nian stood up from the picnic mat, wiped his mouth neatly, and walked ten paces toward the rear of the cavern.
All thirty twelve-foot pink-aproned Lava Golems automatically parted into two silent, respectful rows on either side of the aisle. Bowing their massive obsidian heads as the nine-year-old boy walked between them in his yellow bunny slippers.
Stopping in front of the thirty-foot-tall frosted blue ice-stone double doors—which were covered in thousands of razor-sharp. Starlight-infused sword marks—nine-year-old Gu Nian looked back over his shoulder at his father with a quiet, vulnerable hope shining in his black-gold eyes:.
“Dad... we finished eating our hot-pot. Is Mom’s [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] really right behind this blue door?”
Stepping up right behind his nine-year-old son and resting a warm, steady hand on the boy’s shoulder, Gu Changsheng nodded gently:.
“It’s right inside, Nian’er. Let’s open the door together.”
[ DING! EARTH-CORE HOT-POT FEAST — DOUBLE HOUSEHOLD BREAKTHROUGH! ]
* Auntie Qin : Advanced to Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster!
* Grandpa Fu : Advanced to Rank 2 Peak Martial (10,000 lbs)!
* Next Chamber : The Rank 8 Sword Empress’s Inner Ice Sanctum!
* Daily Income : +210,000 DP/day -> +225,000 DP/day!