That evening, as strings of red celebration lanterns lit up the twelve avenues of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City. The aroma of free mutton soup and roasted barley bread drifted from the five [Frost-Pine Loving-Heart Canteens]. The inner courtyard of the Gu Family Residence on East-Prosperity Avenue was filled with a cozy, golden warmth.
In the center of the open-air courtyard kitchen, the [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok] purred with nine concentric rings of gentle golden-blue earth-fire.
Standing behind the wok in a clean white chef’s apron, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Mid Martial Grandmaster. Held his newly acquired eighteen-inch [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] in his right hand.
For tonight’s victory family feast, Gu Changsheng had spent two hours preparing a supreme medicinal-culinary dish worthy of celebrating Lin Fan’s defeat and his wife Luo Qingxue’s first clue:.
[Rank 3 Peak Eight-Treasure Frost-Lotus & Phoenix-Marrow Spirit Rice]!
Into sixty pounds of crystal-clear [Pearl-Dragon Spirit Rice] soaked in snow-melt spring water, Gu Changsheng had folded diced prime cured ham from Gu Ba’s prize ecological hogs. Petals of the [500-Year Snow-Heart Lotus] harvested from the Sealed Flame-Ice Cave, golden pine nuts, diced winter bamboo shoots, sweet red dates. A rich, simmering bone-marrow stock infused with the last drop of [Hundred-Year Spirit-Marrow Fruit] essence!
CLANG—SHHHHHH!
With a single effortless flick of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline], the +300% Nutrient & Qi Locking passive effect of the divine kitchen weapon ignited!
All sixty pounds of glistening, jewel-like rice leaped three feet into the air inside a shimmering golden dome of spatula-light—locking one hundred percent of the 500-Year Snow-Heart Lotus Yin essence. The golden marrow Yang essence inside every single plump grain without losing a single wisp of steam!
When Gu Changsheng scooped the steaming golden-jade rice into five large porcelain bowls (plus a special deep saucer for three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao’s plush turtle body. Thirty giant iron basins of spirit-rice crust for the thirty pink-aproned Lava Golems outside). The courtyard filled with a fragrance so rich and comforting that even the stars overhead seemed to lean closer to sniff!
“Whoa! Dad’s new golden spatula makes the rice shine like little golden stars!” seven-year-old Su Nuannuan , at Rank 2 Peak, cheered from her seat at the round courtyard table.
Holding her silver spoon with both hands while wearing a clean pink napkin tucked under her chin.
Sitting beside his little sister in his yellow bunny apron, nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 2 Peak, bowed his head politely over his bowl:.
“Thank you for cooking for us, Dad. Let’s eat!”
The instant twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng, nine-year-old Gu Nian, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan, twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin, and sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu took their first warm mouthful of the [Eight-Treasure Frost-Lotus & Phoenix-Marrow Spirit Rice] together—.
HUMMMMMM—SHING!
Above the round courtyard dining table, the newly unlocked [All-Family Shared Cultivation Link] lit up like a five-pointed golden constellation!
Because [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] amplified the medicinal potency of the 500-Year Snow-Heart Lotus and marrow rice by 300%. The [All-Family Shared Cultivation Link] pooled and multiplied 20% of every family member’s refinement speed across the entire table, a gentle. Surging river of pure golden-silver Yin-Yang origin qi coursed simultaneously through all five of their dantians!
Inside nine-year-old Gu Nian’s chest, his [Innate Chaos Demon Bone]—warmed by his mother’s [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin]—drank in the snow-lotus marrow essence. Began condensing his Rank 2 Peak blood-essence into the first golden mist of true Internal Qi!
Inside seven-year-old Su Nuannuan’s dantian, her [Innate Ten-Thousand-Poison Body (Medicinal-Aroma Stage)] compressed the snow-lotus and eight-treasure essence into a spinning emerald-gold core pearl!
BOOM! BOOM!
Within ten minutes of finishing their second bowls of golden spirit rice. Both nine-year-old Gu Nian and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan broke smoothly through the final mortal barrier into [Half-Step. Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster]—just half a step away from becoming nine-year-old and seven-year-old full Rank 3 Martial Grandmasters!
And as the 20% shared cultivation feedback from Gu Nian, Su Nuannuan, Rank 3 Early Auntie Qin. Rank 2 Peak Grandpa Fu surged back along the golden kinship threads into twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng’s dantian—.
KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!
Inside Gu Changsheng’s abdomen, his golden solar and frost-phoenix internal-qi sun expanded from fifty feet to a hundred feet of compressed density, shattering the boundary between Mid and Late Grandmaster in a single breath!
[ DING! ALL-FAMILY CULTIVATION LINK — COLLECTIVE BREAKTHROUGH! ]
* Gu Nian (9) : Advances to [Half-Step Rank 3 Grandmaster]!
* Su Nuannuan (7) : Advances to [Half-Step Rank 3 Grandmaster]!
* Auntie Qin (24) : Stabilizes Peak of [Rank 3 Early Grandmaster]!
* Gu Changsheng : Advances from Rank 3 Mid -> [RANK 3 LATE.
MARTIAL GRANDMASTER (65,000 lbs Base Force +.
80-Foot Condensed Golden Internal-Qi Domain)]!
* Daily Income : +385,000 DP/day -> +390,000 DP/day!
Exhaling a warm golden breath as he set down his empty porcelain bowl. Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng felt the surging Rank 3 Late Martial Grandmaster power coursing through his limbs—two full sub-realms. Achieved in a single day just from defending his kids in court and eating dinner together as a family!
Across the round wooden table, twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster, set down her porcelain spoon with a soft. Marveling sigh as the emerald medicinal halo around her wrists deepened by another thirty percent:.
“If the imperial court alchemists in the Royal Capital ever learned that Master Changsheng pushed our entire household up half a realm in ten minutes with a single wok of eight-treasure ham. Snow-lotus rice—without a single trace of pill-poison or meridian strain—they would probably smash their own pill cauldrons in despair.”
“Let them smash their cauldrons—they don’t have Patriarch Gu’s [Father’s Golden Spatula] or this old Sovereign’s fire-control commentary!” three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao [Warmth: 92/100] chirped proudly from his miniature teacup seat. Patting his green plush turtle belly after polishing off a full saucer of crispy golden rice crust.
“Look at Young Master Nian and Little Miss Nuannuan—a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old standing at [Half-Step Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster] with foundations purer than top-grade spirit jade!
The moment they encounter a single real combat catalyst tomorrow, both children will step straight into true Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster!”
“And out in the side courtyard, Golem Units #01 through #30 just finished their thirty iron basins of golden rice-crust broth,” sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu. At Rank 2 Peak, reported with a happy click of his abacus. “Their volcanic stone armor has polished itself to a mirror shine.
Captain One-Ear Scar and the five hundred [Pink-Apron Security Uncles] have already stocked fifty thousand [Fused Soapy-Mud. & Croton-Stink Balloons] on the rooftops along Central Avenue just in case uninvited guests drop by tomorrow!”
*
An hour after dinner, inside the warm, lantern-lit children’s bedroom of the Gu Residence. Nine-year-old Gu Nian stood on a small cedar footstool in his clean pajamas and yellow bunny slippers in front of the [Good-Kid Conduct Chart] hanging on the wall beside his bed.
Drawn in neat ten-by-ten squares on the chart were ninety-nine shiny crimson [Little Red Flower Stickers] and twelve [Gold Star Stickers]—recording every day of honest study. Every bowl of soup shared with his little sister, every patient helped at the clinic. Every promise kept since the cold winter morning five months ago when his father had untied him from the woodshed pillar in Frost-Pine Town.
Holding the One Hundredth [Little Red Flower Sticker] that his father had just awarded him after dinner. Nine-year-old Gu Nian carefully pressed the crimson silk flower into the hundredth square at the bottom-right corner of the chart!
SHING!
As the hundredth Little Red Flower clicked into place, the entire chart gave off a warm, gentle golden glow that sank into Gu Nian’s chest [Darkening Index: Locked at 10% Safe Protective Mode].
Hopping down from the footstool while seven-year-old Su Nuannuan [Darkening Index: 8%] sleepily hugged her pink bunny pillow in the cozy bed next to his. Nine-year-old Gu Nian turned and hugged his father around the waist:.
“Dad, I collected all one hundred Little Red Flowers! When we go to the Great Qian Royal Capital to find Mom’s second soul-wisp, can we start a brand-new conduct chart from one hundred and one to two hundred?”
“I already asked Grandpa Fu to rule a two-hundred-square chart on gold-flecked Xuan paper for our road trip,” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled softly. Ruffling his son’s hair and tucking both Gu Nian and Su Nuannuan under their warm winter quilts. “Sleep tight, Nian’er, Nuannuan.
Whatever comes from the Royal Capital tomorrow, Dad’s got the kitchen spatula ready.”
*
Fifteen minutes later, when twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng stepped into his quiet study across the courtyard and closed the cedar door behind him, the warm paternal smile on his face cooled into razor-sharp focus.
On top of his mahogany desk, [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] was vibrating so hard against the wood that thin curls of black smoke were rising from its cover!
Opening the notebook with a calm flick of his wrist, Gu Changsheng watched the pages flip to a burning crimson warning entry triggered by the shattering of Lin Fan’s [Blood-Dragon Sub-Token]:.
[ DING! EMERGENCY FOREKNOWLEDGE ALERT — ROYAL CAPITAL STRIKE! ]
* Trigger Cause : Second Prince Qian Ye (100-Year Regressor)
detected the shattering of Pawn Lin Fan’s life-.
token in Azure-Cloud Prefecture!
* Incoming Enemy : Imperial Envoy Zhao Kun ([HALF-STEP RANK 4.
SPIRIT-CORE REALM] / Peak Rank 3 Grandmaster.
armed with a Quasi-Rank 4 Flying Bronze Disk!)
+ [3,000 Elite Black-Armor Capital Guards]!
* Arrival Time : Tomorrow at Noon above Azure-Cloud Prefecture!
* Enemy Orders : Slay Gu Changsheng, raze the Gu Residence, and.
seize 9-year-old Gu Nian, 7-year-old Su Nuannuan,.
and the [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin] for the.
Second Prince’s Blood-Refining Altar!
Staring at the burning crimson words on the page, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Late Martial Grandmaster, didn’t flinch by a single hair.
Instead, he rested his palm lightly on the warm solar-brass blade of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] on his desk, his eyes glinting like cold stars in the lantern light:.
“A Half-Step Rank 4 Imperial Envoy riding a flying bronze disk with three thousand Black-Armor Capital Guards arriving tomorrow at noon to snatch my kids? Good—we needed three thousand extra pairs of hands to harvest the early spring cabbages, and someone to pull our luggage cart to the Royal Capital!”
Closing [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] with a soft tap of his fingers, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng walked over to the study window and looked out across the peaceful, lantern-lit courtyard of the Gu Residence.
In the side herb-garden, thirty twelve-foot Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock Golems in their neatly folded pink floral aprons. Were sitting in two quiet rows sipping warm geothermal mineral water from iron buckets after finishing the evening dishwashing.
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Across the courtyard, Grandpa Fu clicked his abacus beads once and noted the smooth progress in his household ledger.
In the east wing dispensary, twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster. Sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu , at Rank 2 Peak, were packing fifty thousand [Fused Soapy-Mud & Croton-Stink Balloons] into wooden crates with Guard Captain One-Ear Scar , at Rank 1 Peak. Three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao [Warmth: 92/100] sat on the spice rack grinding a special saucer of [Heavenly Truth-Tickle Powder] inside his [Rank 3 Nine-Grid Spice-Rack Spirit-Gourd].
And in the cozy children’s bedroom across the courtyard, beneath the wall chart gleaming with one hundred crimson [Little Red Flower Stickers]. Nine-year-old Gu Nian and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan—both now standing at [Half-Step Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster]—were sleeping soundly under their warm winter quilts. Breathing in unison with the gentle golden pulse of the [All-Family Shared Cultivation Link].
“Sleep well tonight, everyone,” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng murmured with a warm, unshakeable paternal smile as he hooked [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] onto his belt beside his [Seven-Wolves Leather Belt]. “Tomorrow at noon, after the kids finish their morning lessons and their afternoon nap. Dad is going to teach the Great Qian Royal Capital’s special envoy the very first house rule of the Gu Family!”