At ten o’clock that night, inside the quiet study of the Gu Family’s Prefecture Residence, a warm pine fire crackled in the hearth. Thirty pink-aproned Lava-Golem Tractors stood neatly on standby in the outer courtyard, keeping the night air cozy and frost-free.
After checking nine-year-old Gu Nian’s arithmetic homework and listening to seven-year-old Su Nuannuan read two pages of her herb picture-book. Bedtime, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng sat down at his mahogany desk with three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao perched beside the inkstone in his [Jade-Turtle Plush Doll] body.
On the velvet cloth in the center of the desk lay two extraordinary items from Flame-Scar Canyon:.
1. Wife Luo Qingxue’s [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] (temporarily borrowed from Gu Nian for a midnight upgrade so the boy could wear it safely in public without triggering any more Upper-Realm sensors).
2. The remaining golden celestial clockwork fragments of the shattered [Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye].
“Patriarch Gu,” Grandpa Yao whispered, adjusting his tiny gold spectacles with his fuzzy green flipper as he inspected the jade hairpin, “even though we smashed that automated Script Surveillance Eye yesterday. It could send a message to the Upper Realm, Madam Gu’s [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] is a genuine Rank 8 Star-Realm life-bound artifact. If Nian’er carries it into larger cities like the Great Qian Royal Capital, higher-ranked enforcers or royal astrologers might still sense its Star-Realm aura—and worse.
This old man can feel a faint secondary soul-thread inside the phoenix beak that is trying to point toward a second message left by Madam Gu, but it lacks a compass dial!”
“I was thinking the exact same thing, Grandpa Yao,” Gu Changsheng smiled, opening [Dad’s Care-Package Upgrade Box] on the desk and placing both items—plus a polished bronze astrolabe disk—into the three golden fusion slots:.
1. [Empress Luo Qingxue’s Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin].
2. [Shattered Golden Clockwork & Cloaking Core of the Heavenly Script Surveillance Eye].
3. [A Polished Bronze Star-Astrolabe Disk].
“System! Spend 10,000 Dad Points! Use the Script Surveillance Eye’s own Upper-Realm cloaking law to permanently mask the Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin from all enemy detection, and unlock its hidden Soul-Resonance Compass!”
HUMMMMMM—CHIME!
[ DING! 10,000 DAD POINTS DEDUCTED — HAIRPIN COMPASS UPGRADED! ]
* Output Item : [Rank 8 Masked Artifact: The Frost-Phoenix Jade.
Hairpin & Soul-Resonance Compass]!
* New Upgrades :.
1. 100% Upper-Realm Script Cloaking: Using the Enforcers’ own.
celestial camouflage law, the hairpin now appears as an.
ordinary mortal jade ornament to all hostile scans!
2. Passive Protection: Automatically shields the wearer (Gu Nian)
and siblings within 30 feet with a passive Rank 3 Peak Frost-.
Phoenix Barrier!
3. [Soul-Resonance Compass Unlocked]: A miniature starlight.
compass needle inside the phoenix’s tail now points directly.
toward the next nearest remnant of Luo Qingxue’s soul-aura!
As the golden-blue fusion light faded, Gu Changsheng and Grandpa Yao leaned forward over the desk.
Inside the translucent tail-feathers of the jade phoenix, a tiny. Hair-thin needle of silver starlight spun twice and then locked with unwavering precision toward the northeast—pointing eight hundred miles straight toward the [Great Qian Royal Capital (Sky-Crown City)]!
At the same time, a line of glowing silver annotation appeared inside [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook]:.
[Compass Target Locked: Great Qian Royal Capital — The Imperial Astral Tower! Eight years ago. Ascending to the canyon trap, Luo Qingxue sealed a second.
Interactive talking wisp of her soul inside a piece of Royal-Grade Astral Jade currently held in the Royal Capital—alongside the Rank 4 Qi-Gathering materials needed to unseal the hairpin’s second layer!]
“The Great Qian Royal Capital!” Grandpa Yao’s eyes lit up behind his gold spectacles. “So Madam Gu left a talking wisp of her soul inside the Imperial Astral Tower in Sky-Crown City!
Once we finish settling the affairs of Azure-Cloud Prefecture, a trip to the Royal Capital will let Nian’er speak directly with his mother’s soul-wisp!”
“First we clean up the last rat in Azure-Cloud Prefecture,” Gu Changsheng smiled calmly. Tucking the newly masked [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] into a velvet box to return to Gu Nian at breakfast, “and then we take the whole family to the Royal Capital.”
Right as Gu Changsheng closed the velvet box, there was a soft, polite tap at the study door. Nine-year-old Gu Nian poked his head in wearing his yellow cotton pajamas and yellow bunny slippers, carrying a steaming porcelain mug of warm honey-milk on a wooden tray:.
“Dad, Auntie Qin and I made you and Grandpa Yao a cup of warm honey-milk before bed. Did Mom’s hairpin upgrade go okay?”
“Come see for yourself, Nian’er,” Gu Changsheng beckoned warmly. Setting his nine-year-old son on his knee by the desk. Opening the velvet box so the boy could see the tiny silver starlight compass needle glowing inside the translucent tail-feathers of the [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin].
“Not only did Dad wrap your mother’s hairpin in a cloaking shield so no Upper-Realm sensor can ever spot it,” Gu Changsheng explained gently. Placing the warm jade phoenix back into his son’s hand, “look at this little silver needle inside the tail—it’s a [Soul-Resonance Compass]. It’s pointing straight northeast toward the Imperial Astral Tower in the Great Qian Royal Capital!
Eight years ago, your mother sealed a second. Interactive talking wisp of her soul inside a piece of Royal Astral Jade there so that when you reached Rank 3, you could talk with her face-to-face!”
Nine-year-old Gu Nian’s black-gold eyes lit up like twin morning stars as he looked at the tiny compass needle pointing steadily toward the northeast:.
“A talking wisp of Mom’s soul—that means she won’t just be a pre-recorded message, she’ll actually be able to hear me and Nuannuan talk back to her?!”
“She’ll be able to see how tall you’ve grown, hear Nuannuan call her Mommy. Check every single Gold Star Sticker on your schoolbag in real time,” Gu Changsheng smiled, ruffling his son’s hair and taking a sip of the warm honey-milk. “So get a good night’s sleep tonight—once we finish wrapping up Lin Fan’s final little tantrum in Prefecture City tomorrow.
We’ll pack up the kitchen wok and take a family road trip to the Royal Capital!”
“Yes, Dad! I’ll sleep right away so I grow an extra inch. We meet Mom’s soul-wisp!”
nine-year-old Gu Nian beamed, carefully tucking the [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin & Soul-Resonance Compass] into his pajama pocket over his heart before trotting happily back to bed!
*
At that exact midnight hour, in a foul-smelling, pitch-black stone sewer tunnel beneath the eastern slums of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan was experiencing the full. Horrifying might of [5% Luck Halo — Extreme Karmic Bad-Luck Rebound]!
According to the laws of the world recorded in [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook]. A plunder-type “Chosen One” like Lin Fan didn’t generate his own good fortune—his [Protagonist Luck Halo] worked by forcibly stealing luck from honest people around him.
Once Gu Changsheng stripped Lin Fan’s Luck Halo down to the critical 5% mark, however, the stolen karma snapped back like a giant rubber band!
Shivering in the ankle-deep sewer sludge with his bruised face swollen from mosquito bites and six cracked ribs throbbing in his chest. Lin Fan crawled beneath an iron storm-grate opening onto a quiet alley above and gasped:.
“Thank heavens I lost Gu Changsheng’s golems... Once I catch my breath under this grate, I’ll—GULP?!”
Just as Lin Fan opened his mouth to take a deep breath beneath the iron storm-grate. A stray alley cat three stories up on the roof of a closed tile-shop stretched its paws in its sleep. Nudged a single loose clay roof tile that had been sitting untouched on the eaves for forty years!
Whistle—CLACK-SMACK!
Falling sixty feet straight down through the night air. That heavy clay roof tile slipped sideways through a two-inch gap between the iron bars of the sewer grate—a one-in-ten-thousand angle!—and smashed squarely into eighteen-year-old Lin Fan’s open mouth!
“MMMMMPH—OWWWWWWW!”
Spitting out a mouthful of blood and his last intact upper front tooth into the sewer water, Lin Fan clutched his bleeding mouth and sobbed in utter, brain-broken despair:.
“I’m hiding fifteen feet underground in a covered stone sewer at midnight—HOW DID A ROOF TILE FALL THROUGH AN IRON GRATE AND KNOCK OUT MY FRONT TOOTH?!”
Squeak-CHOMP!
Before he could even pick his front tooth out of the mud, a two-pound sewer rat startled by the falling tile leaped off a brick ledge. Bit Lin Fan squarely on the tip of his swollen nose, and kicked mud into his only open eye!
And when Lin Fan stumbled backward swinging his fist at the rat, his heel slipped on a patch of green sewer moss. Slamming the back of his head into a low brick pipe. A bucket of cold, greasy dishwater poured down the street drain above and drenched him from head to toe in rotten cabbage leaves!
Rolling around in the freezing sewer water with a rat-bitten nose, a missing front tooth, cabbage leaves hanging off his ears. Mosquito welts covering his head, eighteen-year-old Lin Fan was driven to the absolute brink of demonic insanity!
With trembling, mud-caked hands, Lin Fan tore open the secret inner lining of his blood-stained vest and pulled out a forbidden, black-sealed parchment scroll given to him. A final trump card by the rogue Black-Blood Hall of the Azure-Cloud Martial Sect:.
The [Thousand-Soul Blood-Sacrifice Array Scroll]!
Staring at the twelve blood-colored array stones wrapped inside the scroll with his single bloodshot eye, Lin Fan let out a crazed, toothless hiss in the dark sewer:.
*“My Luck Halo is broken... If I don’t drain thirty thousand people’s blood to force my way into Rank 3 tomorrow morning, I’ll die in a ditch! Tonight I’ll crawl through the drainage pipes under the Azure-Cloud Prefecture High Court Plaza and bury these twelve Blood-Sacrifice Array Stones beneath the flagstones!
And at dawn tomorrow, I’ll beat the Grievance Drum at the High Court to lure thirty thousand citizens AND Gu Changsheng’s family onto the plaza—and sacrifice the entire city at once!”*
Yet as the toothless, cabbage-draped Lin Fan crawled down the narrow sewer pipe toward the High Court Plaza with his twelve forbidden blood-stones. He had no idea that back in the warm, lantern-lit study of the Gu Residence, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng had just opened [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] on his desk!
Across the glowing golden pages of the notebook. A live three-dimensional blueprint of the entire Azure-Cloud Prefecture High Court underground drainage grid lit up with twelve blinking red arrows marking every single manhole cover and flagstone vent. Lin Fan was about to plant his stones!
Sipping the last drop of his warm honey-milk, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng closed the notebook with a gentle chuckle and glanced toward the courtyard. Golem Unit #01 and three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao were standing night watch:.
“Burying twelve Blood-Sacrifice Array Stones under the High Court Plaza before dawn? That sounds like an awful lot of free spiritual fertilizer for Grandpa Yao’s morning tea-herbs—let’s make sure we don’t leave a single stone behind.”
Outside the study window, three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao popped his tiny plush green head out of the [Rank 3 Spice-Rack Spirit-Gourd], adjusted his miniature gold spectacles, and rubbed his fabric flippers together with glee:.
“Hehehe! Patriarch Gu, say no more! While that unfilial brat was hiding inside his ring for three months in Frost-Pine Town.
This old man secretly recorded all of his private midnight monologues inside a [Spiritual Memory Recording Crystal]—and tomorrow morning at the High Court. I’ll project every last word in fifty-foot high-definition color across the clouds. Golem Units #01 through #30 swap his twelve blood-stones for [Fused Lightning-Rod & Croton-Gas Bricks]!”
“Save a front-row seat on the judge’s gavel block for yourself, Grandpa Yao,” Gu Changsheng smiled, blowing out the study candle so the household could rest peacefully until sunrise. “Tomorrow morning after breakfast, our whole family is going to court—and we’ll let our thirty thousand neighbors in. Azure-Cloud Prefecture see what happens when a ‘Chosen One’ tries to use a public square as his personal cauldron.”
[ DING! HAIRPIN COMPASS READY & LIN FAN’S FINAL DESPERATE PLOT! ]
* Next Destination Clued: Great Qian Royal Capital (Sky-Crown City)
to claim Mom’s 2nd Soul-Wisp!
* Lin Fan State : 5% Luck Halo (Roof Tile knocks out front.
tooth in sewer; plotting High Court.
Blood-Sacrifice Array for tomorrow dawn!)
* Daily Income : +272,000 DP/day -> +280,000 DP/day!