As the five-foot-thick bolt of golden-purple [Script-Erasure Lightning] plunged down from the mechanical [Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye] in the cavern ceiling, the air inside the hundred-foot glacial dome seemed to freeze solid!
Standing directly in front of nine-year-old Gu Nian on the top step of the ice-lotus altar, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng didn’t retreat half an inch.
And at that exact same split second, two earth-shaking things happened at once!
First, right behind Gu Changsheng’s shoulder, the [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] floating above the ice-lotus altar sensed the hateful aura of the Heavenly Script Pavilion aiming lightning at her husband and son!
CHIRRRRRRRP—SHIIIIIING!
With a clear, ringing phoenix cry that shook the entire volcanic gorge of Flame-Scar Canyon. The single drop of crimson-and-silver life-essence sealed inside the jade hairpin eight years ago by Upper-Realm Rank 8 Star-Realm Sword Empress Luo Qingxue erupted!
A breathtaking, hundred-foot phantom of an azure-and-silver Ice Phoenix—condensed from pure, protective Rank 8 Star-Realm Maternal Sword Intent!—soared upward from the hairpin and slashed its wings across the sky in a single crescent sword-wave:.
[Star-Realm Sword Art: Nine-Glacier Phoenix Severing Slash]!
KRA-SHINGGGGGGG!
Fifty feet in the air above the altar. Empress Luo Qingxue’s phantom Ice-Phoenix Sword Slash collided head-on with the descending bolt of golden Script-Erasure Lightning. Sliced straight through the center of the beam—annihilating a full ninety percent of the Upper-Realm erasure lightning into harmless golden sparks!
“Mom’s hairpin cut the lightning in half!” nine-year-old Gu Nian gasped, his eyes shining with tears of awe as the azure phoenix feathers sheltered him and his father!
And second, before the remaining ten percent of the weakened lightning could even flicker, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng roared:.
“My wife cut the beam—now it’s Dad’s turn to smash the camera!”
BOOM—WHOOOOOOSH!
Igniting [Father’s Authority] at 100% full output—stacking his own 12,000-pound Rank 2 Peak frame with nine-year-old Gu Nian’s 10,000-pound Rank 2 Peak Chaos-Bone strength. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan’s Rank 2 Peak Honey-Empress power for a combined 30,000+ pounds of True Disciplinary Force!—Gu Changsheng kicked off the top of the ice altar like a rising golden dragon!
Soaring eighty feet straight up to the apex of the glacial dome in a single heartbeat. Gu Changsheng gripped his two-foot-wide [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] in his left hand and his heavy cast-iron [Wok Spatula] in his right!
Inside the ceiling rift, the three-foot-wide mechanical [Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye] spun its brass-and-gold clockwork gears in frantic alarm as its crimson scanning lens flashed:.
[WARNING! RANK 8 SWORD EMPRESS INTERFERENCE + UNIDENTIFIED TRUE DISCIPLINARY DAMAGE DETECTED! INITIATING EMERGENCY SPATIAL RETREAT—]
“Retreat?! You broke into my wife’s sanctum and aimed lightning at my nine-year-old son—nobody leaves without eating my wok!”
Swinging his heavy [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] like a celestial meteor hammer followed by a full-power overhead follow-through of his cast-iron [Wok Spatula]. Gu Changsheng smashed both kitchen weapons squarely into the center of the mechanical golden eyeball!
“HOUSE RULE NUMBER TWO: NO PEEPING TOM CAMERAS ALLOWED NEAR MY KIDS!”
CLANG—KRA-SMAAAAASH!
Bypassing the Upper-Realm machine’s spatial shield completely with 100% True Disciplinary Damage. The seasoned black-iron bottom of the [Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] caved the three-foot brass eyeball inward like a cheap tin kettle. The follow-up smack of the iron spatula shattered its crimson scanning lens into a thousand pieces!
BZZZZT—CRUNCH—BOOM!
[FATAL SYSTEM ERROR... LENS SHATTERED BY UNREGISTERED KITCHENWARE... CONNECTION TO HEAVENLY SCRIPT PAVILION TERMINATED PRIOR TO UPLOAD...]
Before the destroyed mechanical eyeball could transmit a single coordinate back to the Upper Realm, its internal clockwork core imploded in a shower of pure, unowned golden celestial fragments!
Catching the falling golden clockwork core fragments in the hollow basin of his Earth-Fire Wok so they wouldn’t go to waste. Gu Changsheng flipped smoothly in midair and landed back on the crystal steps of the ice-lotus altar without a sound!
Down at the base of the stairs, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan jumped up and down waving her pink watering can. Three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao stared up at the ceiling from his plush turtle shell with his jaw on the floor:.
“Y-you and Madam Gu’s hairpin just teamed up across eight years of time and space to slice an Upper-Realm erasure bolt in half. Smash a Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye into scrap metal with a frying pan?!”
Even newly promoted Rank 3 Early Grandmaster Auntie Qin and Rank 2 Peak Grandpa Fu let out long breaths of awe and relief:.
“With Madam Gu’s sword-intent protecting from above and Young Master’s wok smashing from below, not even a machine from the heavens stood a chance!”
Right as the last golden spark settled in the quiet dome, the seven-inch [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] drifted gently down from the air and landed warmly in the center of nine-year-old Gu Nian’s open palms.
The moment the nine-year-old boy’s fingers closed around his mother’s jade hairpin, a soft. Warm halo of silver-blue starlight blossomed above the altar—and a recorded spiritual projection from eight years ago slowly took shape right in front of Gu Changsheng and Gu Nian!
Standing in the gentle starlight was a breathtakingly beautiful young woman in a plain. Snow-white cotton dress—the exact dress Gu Changsheng had bought for her at the Frost-Pine Town market nine years ago—with long ink-black hair brushed by silver frost. A pair of starlight-filled eyes that were red-rimmed with tears.
She looked lovingly at her husband and child.
“Changsheng... my dear husband,” Luo Qingxue’s recorded voice whispered across the quiet ice chamber, so warm and tender that it made the eight years of distance melt away in an instant. “If this message in my Frost-Phoenix Hairpin has awakened, it means you survived the winter cold and brought our little Nian’er safely to Flame-Scar Canyon.”
Turning her tear-bright eyes downward, the illusion of Empress Luo Qingxue knelt on one knee so her gaze was level with a nine-year-old child’s height. Reaching out a translucent, glowing hand as if to gently stroke Gu Nian’s cheek:.
*“Nian’er... Mommy’s sweet, brave little boy. Look how tall and strong you’ve grown!
When Mommy had to leave our courtyard eight years ago, you were only ten months old and had just learned how to grab Daddy’s finger in your cradle. Please don’t ever think Mommy left because she didn’t love you.”*
Standing on the crystal altar steps holding the warm jade hairpin against his yellow bunny apron, nine-year-old Gu Nian’s small shoulders trembled. Big, silent tears rolled down his cheeks—not tears of bitterness or loneliness. Tears of overwhelming warmth and relief after eight years of wondering.
“Eight years ago,” Luo Qingxue’s gentle voice continued, *“the Enforcers of the Heavenly Script Pavilion discovered that our little Nian’er was born with the Innate Chaos Sovereign Bone. They wanted to turn our family’s life into a cruel tragedy. So Mommy lured their squad here to Flame-Scar Canyon, hid my hairpin for you.
Voluntarily let myself be locked inside Sector 6 of the Frozen Astral Prison in the Upper Realm—because as long. Mommy stays inside Sector 6 as their prisoner, their grand array is satisfied and won’t look down at Frost-Pine Town.”*
Smiling through her tears, Luo Qingxue looked up at twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng with deep, unwavering devotion:.
*“Changsheng, hug our little Nian’er every single day for me. Make sure he eats his vegetables and wears his warm socks in the winter. It’s a little chilly here in Sector 6 of the Frozen Astral Prison, and they locked my Star-Sword behind nine astral seals—but my heart is always in our small courtyard with you and Nian’er.
Don’t do anything reckless until you’re strong enough... Mommy will wait for you both, even if it takes a hundred years.”*
And then, leaning close to nine-year-old Gu Nian’s ear, the glowing figure of his mother began to hum a soft. Sweet northern cradle lullaby—the very lullaby she used to hum beside his wooden crib on snowy nights in Frost-Pine Town:.
*“Sleep, little rabbit, under the pine... The snow cannot touch you, the moon is your twine... Daddy will hold you, and Mommy is near...
Even across stars, you have nothing to fear...”*
As the gentle northern cradle song echoed across the hundred-foot blue glacier dome, every single person in the sanctum stood in hushed, tearful silence.
At the base of the crystal steps, twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin pressed her linen handkerchief to her eyes as a warm tear slipped down her cheek:.
“Even when Madam Gu was surrounded by Upper-Realm Script Enforcers and about to be locked inside a frozen astral prison for eight years. The only thing on her mind was whether her baby boy would have warm socks in the winter and whether he would hear his bedtime lullaby...”
Beside her, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu took off his straw hat, held it over his [Dragon-Turtle Meridian Back Brace], and bowed his grizzled head toward the glowing projection on the altar:.
“Madam Gu... this old servant Fu Shan swears on my life that for the past two months. Young Master Changsheng has kept the courtyard kang bed warm every single night, cooked Young Master Nian three hot spirit-meat meals a day.
Pinned five Little Red Flowers and a Gold Star on his schoolbag! When you come home from Sector 6, you won’t recognize how happy and lively our frost-pine courtyard has become!”
Even three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao—who had lived for nearly four centuries as a proud Golden Core Pill Sovereign—quietly wiped the lenses of his tiny gold spectacles with his fuzzy green turtle flipper and sniffled:.
“Hmph... this old turtle only got cave-frost in my eyes! What ‘Heavenly Script Pavilion’?!
Any cosmic sect that tears a mother away from her ten-month-old baby just to manufacture a tragedy for some fake Chosen One deserves to have its alchemy furnaces blown up! Patriarch Gu, when our family marches up to Sector 6 of the Frozen Astral Prison, count this old man’s spirit-fire in for the vanguard!”
Up on the seventh crystal step of the altar, nine-year-old Gu Nian listened to every single note of his mother’s lullaby with his eyes wide open. Memorizing the warm curve of her smile, the gentle silver-black shine of her hair. The tender sound of her voice calling him “Mommy’s sweet, brave little boy.”
“Mom...” nine-year-old Gu Nian whispered back to the glowing starlight projection. Holding up the front flap of his blue schoolbag with his left hand so his mother’s illusion could see the gleaming [Gold Star Honor Sticker].
Five [Little Red Flower Stickers] pinned neatly to the cloth.
“Mom, look! Dad didn’t let the cold get into my chest! I’m nine years old now, I eat all my vegetables and braised pork every day, and I have a little sister named Nuannuan and a puppy named Little Snowball!
Wait for Dad and me in Sector 6—we’re going to come get you real soon!”
As if hearing her nine-year-old son’s earnest promise across the boundless starry sky, the recorded starlight projection of Empress Luo Qingxue seemed to shine twice as warmly for one final, miraculous heartbeat!
As the final warm note of the eight-year-old lullaby echoed softly across the blue glacier dome. The projection of Luo Qingxue smiled one last time, kissed the top of nine-year-old Gu Nian’s forehead in a shower of warm silver starlight. Gently faded back into the glowing [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] in the boy’s hands.
And right where her starlight kiss touched nine-year-old Gu Nian’s forehead, a tiny. Invisible frost-phoenix blessing-mark sank into his meridians—permanently harmonizing his [Innate Chaos Sovereign Bone] with his mother’s [Star-Realm. Ice-Phoenix Bloodline] so that never again could any world-will or script enforcer corrupt his heart with darkness!
[ DING! SCRIPT SURVEILLANCE EYE SMASHED & MOM’S MESSAGE RECEIVED! ]
* Battle Result : [Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye] Destroyed by.
Mom’s Hairpin Slash + Dad’s Wok & Spatula Smash!
* Key Lore : Wife Luo Qingxue is alive in [Sector 6 of the.
Frozen Astral Prison] waiting for family rescue!
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
* Loot Gained : [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] + [Shattered Golden.
Script-Law Core Fragments]!
* Daily Income : +235,000 DP/day -> +245,000 DP/day!