One hundred and twenty feet above Central Avenue, the spring wind fell dead silent. Twenty-nine-year-aged Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Peak Martial Grandmaster, stood on his floating golden internal-qi stair ten feet in front of forty-five-year-aged Imperial Envoy Zhao Kun , at Half-Step Rank 4.
Looking into Gu Changsheng’s calm, blazing golden eyes—and seeing the eighteen-inch solar-brass blade of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True. Discipline] raised at shoulder height—Envoy Zhao Kun felt every hair on his neck stand straight up in mortal terror!
“PROTECT ME—TRIPLE RANK 4 IMPERIAL JADE-LIGHT SHIELDS!”
Not daring to hold back a single trump card, Envoy Zhao Kun slapped both hands against the three hexagonal star-jade life-pendants hanging from his royal envoy belt and crushed all three pendants at once!
CRACK-HUMMMMMMM!
Three concentric, six-inch-thick domes of glowing emerald-gold [Rank 4 Jade-Light Spirit Barriers] erupted around Envoy Zhao Kun and his eight-foot [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk]! Each pendant had been personally inscribed by the Imperial Astral Tower’s Formation Grandmasters in the Great Qian Royal Capital to withstand the full-force siege of an army.
Safe inside three overlapping layers of Rank 4 spirit shields, Envoy Zhao Kun finally let out a trembling breath. His pale face twisted back into a hysterical, gloating sneer:.
“HAHAHAHA! You scared me for a second, Gu Changsheng! Even if you reached Rank 3 Peak Martial Grandmaster and can stand on the air for a few breaths, you are still a mortal without true Rank 4 Spirit Qi!
These three overlapping [Rank 4 Jade-Light Spirit Shields] can block ten thousand siege crossbows for three days and three nights! Swing that ridiculous kitchen spatula of yours until your wrist breaks—you won’t even scratch the outer layer before I fly back to the Royal Capital and bring His Highness’s army to—”
Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng didn’t wait for Envoy Zhao Kun to finish his sentence.
He didn’t chant a martial art name, nor did he use a fancy sword posture.
Ten seconds earlier, a twenty-foot crimson lightning spear had hurtled toward nine-year-old Gu Nian, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan, and six hundred young schoolchildren on the balcony. Remembering that sight, Gu Changsheng stepped forward half a pace in midair, rotated his waist. Swung the flat of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] in a clean horizontal backhand sweep—like a father swatting a venomous hornet out of his children’s bedroom!
“I told you,” Gu Changsheng said calmly as the eighteen-inch solar-brass spatula swept across the sky, “in my house, nobody points sharp things at the kids.”
[ DING! FATHER’S GOLDEN SPATULA + FATHER’S AUTHORITY ACTIVATED! ]
* Strike Force : Rank 3 Peak Base (100,000 lbs) + 4-Grandmaster.
Family Resonance + Sibling Protection Multiplier!
* Weapon Law : [100% True Disciplinary Damage — Absolute Shield.
Bypass]! All defensive barriers between Dad’s.
Spatula and a child-threatening culprit are.
treated as 0-Defense Soap Bubbles!
SWISH—TINK!
When the flat golden blade of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] touched the outermost of Envoy Zhao Kun’s three [Rank 4 Jade-Light Spirit Shields]—.
There was no stalemate. There wasn’t even a half-second pause.
Under the 100% True Disciplinary Damage law of [Father’s Golden Spatula], the first six-inch-thick Rank 4 spirit barrier shattered on contact like a hollow sugar-glass bubble poked by a hot iron skillet!
CRACK—SHATTER—POP!
In less than one-hundredth of a second, the golden spatula blade sliced straight through the first shield, pulverized the second shield into drifting green sparks. Popped the third innermost shield into thin air right in front of Envoy Zhao Kun’s nose!
“WHAT?! ALL THREE RANK 4 SHIELDS—”
Envoy Zhao Kun’s syllable “SHIELDS” was still half-formed on his lips when the eight-inch-wide solar-brass flat of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] filled his entire field of vision!
CLANG—SMAAAAAAACK!
A crisp, resonant metallic CLANG-SMACK!—like a master chef slapping a giant iron wok-spatula squarely across the side of a ripe winter melon—boomed across all twelve avenues of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City!
The flat golden face of [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] connected dead-center with forty-five-year-old Envoy Zhao Kun’s left cheek and arrogant mouth!
CRACK-POP-SPUTTER!
Under the unstoppable paternal slap of Gu Changsheng’s Rank 3 Peak wrist, Envoy Zhao Kun’s left cheekbone caved in and his lower jaw dislocated with a loud click. Eight royal-porcelain-capped molars plus two front teeth shot out of his mouth in a forty-foot crimson-and-white parabola across the blue sky!
Worse still, the downward shockwave of that single golden spatula slap traveled through Envoy Zhao Kun’s boots into the eight-foot [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk] beneath his feet.
KRA-SNAP—BOOM!
The hundred-thousand-gold-tael [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk]—which Envoy Zhao Kun had just bragged about five seconds ago—bent upward like a folded pancake and snapped cleanly in half down the middle!
“GGGGGGGGGH—!”
Spinning like a swatted horsefly with his black dragon robe flapping over his head and both halves of his broken bronze saucer tumbling behind him. Forty-five-year-aged Imperial Envoy Zhao Kun , at Half-Step Rank 4, was slapped straight down out of the hundred-and-twenty-foot sky at terminal velocity!
WHOOOOOOOOOSH—KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Falling a hundred and twenty feet in a single second, Envoy Zhao Kun slammed headfirst into the granite flagstones at the center of the Central Avenue intersection. He landed right in the middle of the six-inch-deep rainbow dish-soap foam in front of the three thousand Black-Armor Capital Guards!
Granite paving stones and pink soap-bubbles sprayed thirty feet into the air as Envoy Zhao Kun’s head and shoulders punched a four-foot-deep vertical hole straight into the roadbed!
When the cloud of granite dust and rainbow soap-suds settled three seconds later. All forty thousand citizens on the rooftops and all three thousand Black-Armor Capital Guards on the street stared at the intersection in dead, pin-drop silence.
Sticking straight up out of the four-foot hole in the middle of Central Avenue were two scrawny legs clad in torn black silk trousers. One gold-embroidered boot had flown off during the dive, leaving four bare toes in a white silk sock twitching rhythmically toward the clouds like an upside-down black turnip planted in a garden bed!
Right beside the upside-down envoy’s twitching toes landed the two bent, smoking halves of his [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk] with a dual CLANG-CLATTER!
One hundred and twenty feet above the street, twenty-nine-year-aged Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Peak Martial Grandmaster. Calmly wiped a speck of dust off [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] with the white dish-towel on his shoulder. He slipped the golden spatula back into his belt loop and walked leisurely down his floating golden internal-qi stairs to the pharmacy veranda without wrinkling the hem of his dark-blue robe.
For three full seconds, the entire city was so quiet that everyone could hear the rainbow soap-bubbles popping around Envoy Zhao Kun’s upside-down knees.
Then, up on the second-floor wooden veranda of the [Frost-Pine Loving-Heart Elementary School], seven-year-old Su Nuannuan. At Rank 3 Early Grandmaster, leaned over the railing beside nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 3 Early Grandmaster. She pointed her small finger at the two twitching legs sticking out of the pavement and giggled in a voice that carried across the entire avenue:.
“Dad! Big Brother Nian! Look—Dad slapped that noisy flying uncle right off his dinner plate, and now he planted himself upside down in the street like a giant black radish!”
Behind her in the classroom doorway, eight-year-old Little Fatty Wang and six hundred young schoolchildren burst out laughing and clapping until their small palms turned red:.
“Class Monitor Nian! Earlier that mean envoy said his green shields could block ten thousand crossbows for three days, and your dad popped all three of them like soap bubbles with one swing of his cooking spatula!”
“My dad says Protector Gu’s golden spatula is stronger than the Emperor’s dragon sword! Tomorrow I’m going to ask my mom to buy a brass wok-spatula so I can practice [Gu Household Rule #1] too!”
Nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 3 Early Grandmaster, grinned proudly from ear to ear, patting his little sister’s yellow straw sun-hat while looking down at their father on the pharmacy steps:.
“Only Dad can wield [Father’s Golden Spatula of True Discipline] like that, Fatty Wang! Because Dad never uses his strength to bully ordinary people—he only swings that spatula when someone tries to hurt our family or our school!”
Across the rooftops and sidewalks of Central Avenue, forty-five thousand citizens erupted into an earth-shaking wave of cheers and laughter:.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“ONE SPATULA! PROTECTOR GU WALKED UP INTO THE SKY AND SLAPPED A HALF-STEP RANK 4 CAPITAL ENVOY UPSIDE DOWN INTO THE PAVEMENT WITH ONE SWING OF HIS KITCHEN SPATULA!”
Up on the high balcony of the Prefecture Yamen, fifty-two-year-old Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng , at Rank 3 Mid, gripped the marble balustrade with both hands. His eyes were wide with sheer, unbridled veneration as he watched the twelve golden internal-qi stairs slowly dissolve into sparkling motes of sunlight behind Gu Changsheng’s boots:.
“Three overlapping [Rank 4 Jade-Light Spirit Shields] from the Imperial Astral Tower... and a [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk]... shattered like paper and snapped in half by a single backhand swing of a kitchen spatula!
Even a genuine Rank 4 Early Spirit-Core grandmaster from the Royal Capital couldn’t have broken three Rank 4 shields that cleanly! Our Azure-Cloud Prefecture isn’t just guarded by a Martial Grandmaster—Patriarch Gu Changsheng is a walking deity in a chef’s apron!”
On the wooden railing of the [Gu Family Peace Pharmacy]. Three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao [Warmth: 92/100] adjusted his miniature gold spectacles on his plush green turtle snout and waggled a fuzzy flipper toward the upside-down legs in the street:.
“Did you see that, Niece Wan’er, Butler Fu? Those three [Rank 4 Jade-Light Spirit Shields] were woven from refined Star-Jade Qi that normally reflects ninety percent of physical force! Yet Patriarch Gu’s [Father’s Golden Spatula] carries a supreme conceptual law of Paternal Discipline!
Against any scoundrel who dares aim a weapon at his children, defensive arrays don’t even exist—it bypassed all three Rank 4 shields. If they were morning fog and transferred one hundred percent of the slap straight into Zhao Kun’s jawbone!”
Twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Mid Martial Grandmaster, smiled warmly. She poured a cup of warm honey-chrysanthemum tea and handed it to Gu Changsheng the moment his cloth slippers touched the top veranda step:.
“Welcome back down, Master Changsheng. The tea is still hot, and you didn’t even spill a drop of internal qi.”
“Thank you, Wan’er,” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled, taking a sip of the fragrant tea while glancing out at the twitching legs in the intersection. “I promised the kids we’d have sweet mung-bean soup at twelve-thirty, so I couldn’t let him waste any more of our lunch break.”
Down in the crosswalk in front of the elementary school, thirty-five-year-aged Guard Captain One-Ear Scar , at Rank 1 Peak. Lowered his brass traffic whistle and stared at the two halves of the broken bronze flying disk lying beside Envoy Zhao Kun’s upside-down legs:.
“Brothers of the Pink-Apron Security Brigade... remember when we thought Patriarch Gu’s [Seven-Wolves Leather Belt] was scary? That [Father’s Golden Spatula] just slapped a flying Capital Envoy through three immortal shields and planted him four feet deep into solid granite!
From today on, if anyone in my squad forgets to wash his hands before lunch, don’t blame me for reporting you straight to Butler Fu!”
All five hundred burly [Pink-Apron Security Uncles] shuddered in unison and stood up even straighter behind their bamboo scrub-brooms. The thirty twelve-foot Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock Golems beat their iron plow-shields in a joyous victory rhythm:.
“PATRIARCH... GU’S... GOLDEN...
SPATULA... IS... SUPREME!
BROKEN... BRONZE... SAUCER...
RECYCLED... FOR... CARRIAGE...
HUBCAPS!”
And on the pharmacy veranda, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu , at Rank 2 Peak. Happily picked up the two bent halves of the [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk] after Golem Unit #01 tossed them over. He examined the thirty-six intact wind-levitation runes with a connoisseur’s gleam in his eye:.
“Master, Young Master Nian, Little Miss Nuannuan! Although the center hinge of Envoy Zhao’s bronze disk snapped under Master’s spatula, all thirty-six wind-levitation arrays along the outer rim are completely intact! If we weld these two bronze semi-circles under the front and rear axles of our Spirit-Ox carriage, our wagon won’t even feel a bump when crossing mountain gorges at two hundred miles a day!”
[ DING! ENVOY ZHAO SLAPPED OUT OF THE SKY — TOTAL VICTORY! ]
* Combat Result : 1 Swing of [Father’s Golden Spatula] shatters 3x.
Rank 4 Jade-Light Shields, snaps the Flying.
Bronze Disk in half, knocks out 10 teeth, and.
plants Envoy Zhao headfirst into Central Avenue!
* Public Morale : 45,000+ Citizens cheering across Azure-Cloud!
* Daily Income : +465,000 DP/day -> +475,000 DP/day!