ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!
Forty-five thousand citizens across the rooftops, balconies, and sidewalks of Azure-Cloud Prefecture City erupted into an earth-shaking roar of cheers and laughter. In the middle of Central Avenue, the two black-trousered legs of forty-five-year-old Imperial Envoy Zhao Kun , at Half-Step Rank 4, gave one last pathetic twitch inside the four-foot hole.
Ten yards behind that hole, the three thousand [Elite Black-Armor Capital Guards] sat shoulder-to-shoulder in six inches of rainbow dish-soap foam and fermented croton-bean stink. They stared at the upside-down legs of their commanding envoy. Then looked up at twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng , at Rank 3 Peak Martial Grandmaster.
Who had just strolled down out of the sky on solid golden stairs with an eighteen-inch golden cooking spatula tucked into his belt!
Up on the elementary school veranda to their left stood a nine-year-old boy in yellow bunny slippers and a seven-year-old girl holding a pink watering can. Both radiating genuine Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster auras. On the pharmacy balcony to their right stood twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Mid Martial Grandmaster.
Thirty twelve-foot Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock Golems in pink floral aprons blocked the street in front of them!
Thirty-eight-year-old Battalion Commander Chen , at Rank 2 Peak, was a grizzled veteran soldier from a farming county outside the capital who had hated Envoy Zhao Kun’s arrogant cruelty during the entire two-thousand-mile march. He swallowed hard as his stomach let out a loud, rumbling growl at the rich aroma of braised pork ribs and mutton broth drifting from the thirty Golem soup-carts behind the shield-wall.
Without a half-second of hesitation—.
CLANG!
Battalion Commander Chen tossed his black-iron lance onto the soapy flagstones, unbuckled his red-plumed helmet with both hands, and dropped squarely onto both armored knees in the rainbow soap-bubbles facing Gu Changsheng!
“Honored Protector Gu! The Three Thousand Black-Armor Guards of the Third Capital Garrison Battalion formally surrender!” Commander Chen shouted at the top of his lungs, bowing his forehead toward the flagstones.
“None of us wanted to raise a lance against an elementary school!
We are drafted soldiers with old mothers and young children back home. We beg Protector Gu for mercy, and we are willing to work off whatever damages Envoy Zhao caused to your noble city!”
CLANG-CLATTER-CLANK-THUD!
Behind Battalion Commander Chen, all three thousand Black-Armor Capital Guards tossed their lances into neat piles along the curb and dropped to their knees in unison across the half-mile avenue:.
“THE THIRD CAPITAL GARRISON BATTALION SURRENDERS TO PROTECTOR GU!”
Looking at the three thousand kneeling, soap-covered soldiers—whose Warmth ratings were already ticking upward from 20 toward 55/100 out of sheer. Relief that Gu Changsheng wasn’t going to slap them into the pavement—twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled warmly and glanced over his shoulder:.
“Grandpa Fu, bring out the abacus and read Commander Chen the itemized municipal repair bill.”
“Right away, Master!”
Stepping down the pharmacy veranda steps with his polished black-iron abacus clicking like a machine gun in his hands, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu , at Rank 2 Peak, stopped beside the hole. Envoy Zhao Kun’s bare foot was sticking into the air and adjusted his monocle:.
“Itemized Civil Damages Assessment against the Second Prince’s Envoys! Item One: Flying an unlicensed bronze dinner plate over an elementary school during nap time and shattering twelve glass wind-chimes—fifty thousand silver taels! Item Two: Discharging an illegal Rank 4 lightning spear in a school zone—two hundred thousand silver taels!
Item Three: Diving headfirst into Central Avenue without an excavation permit and cracking four granite flagstones—one hundred thousand silver taels! Item Four: Fifty thousand soap-and-croton balloons plus street-scrubbing fees—one hundred and fifty thousand silver taels! Grand Total: Five Hundred Thousand Silver Taels!”
Hearing the figure Five Hundred Thousand Silver Taels, thirty-eight-year-old Commander Chen gulped:.
“Honored Butler Fu... Envoy Zhao carries the treasury pouch, and we ordinary soldiers only earn three silver taels a month! How can we help pay off the street repairs?”
“Our Gu Household never takes silver from honest working soldiers,” sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu smiled benevolently. He gestured toward Golem Units #04 and #05, who had just carried out six giant cedar chests filled with freshly ironed. Bright-pink floral cotton aprons and rolled up thirty steaming cauldrons of [Gu Family Braised Pork-Rib & Hand-Pulled Wheat Noodles]!
“Instead, every soldier who washes his hands, puts on an official [I Love Chores & Road-Paving] pink floral apron. Spends three days helping our Golem Tractor Brigade pave the seventy-mile eastern highway out of Azure-Cloud Prefecture. Will have his fine completely waived—AND receive three free giant bowls of braised pork-rib noodles every day!”
WHAT?! Put on a pink apron and pave a road for three days, and not only does the terrifying Rank 3 Peak Grandmaster spare our lives, he feeds us unlimited braised pork-rib noodles?!
“LONG LIVE PROTECTOR GU! LONG LIVE BUTLER FU! HAND ME A PINK APRON AND A SHOVEL RIGHT NOW!”
Within five minutes, all three thousand burly six-foot Black-Armor Capital Guards had happily tied bright-pink floral chore aprons over their black scale armor and washed their faces in clean well-water. They lined up in polite, grinning rows with porcelain bowls in hand as the thirty twelve-foot Pink-Apron Lava Golems ladled out steaming mountains of fragrant braised pork-rib noodles!
Meanwhile, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng walked over to the four-foot hole in the center of the street. He reached down with two fingers to grab forty-five-year-old Envoy Zhao Kun , at Half-Step Rank 4. By his bare ankle and plucked him out of the granite pavement with a loud POP!—like pulling an oversized black radish out of a turnip patch!
Tossing the groaning, toothless, swollen-faced Envoy Zhao Kun onto a wooden wheelbarrow so Golem Unit #01 could wheel him into the Gu Residence courtyard for questioning. Gu Changsheng casually unhooked the purple-gold [Rank 4 Imperial Spatial Bag] from Envoy Zhao’s belt and erased its spiritual lock with a flick of his thumb.
Inside the thirty-cubic-yard spatial bag, alongside fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones, three hundred plates of Rank 3 Peak meteoric star-iron. Two boxes of palace herbs, Gu Changsheng’s fingers closed around a heavy, ice-cold black scroll carved from [Ancient Blood-Dragon Bone] and sealed with the personal purple-gold crest of Second Prince Qian Ye!
Unrolling the black dragon-bone scroll as he walked back into his study with Auntie Qin, Grandpa Fu, Grandpa Yao, Gu Nian. Su Nuannuan, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng read the four crimson directives inscribed in the Second Prince’s own handwriting:.
[ SECRET DECREE OF SECOND PRINCE QIAN YE — ASTRAL ALTAR REGISTRY ]
* Directive #1 : Exterminate Gu Changsheng in Frost-Pine Town and.
recover the Upper-Realm [Frost-Phoenix Hairpin].
* Directive #2 : Capture Child #1 [Gu Nian, Age 9 — Future Chaos.
Demon Sovereign] & extract his Chaos Demon Bone!
* Directive #3 : Capture Child #2 [Su Nuannuan, Age 7 — Future.
Ten-Thousand-Poison Empress] & refine her core!
* Directive #4 : Lock Child #3 [Ye Xiao, Age 10 — Future Blood-.
Shadow Sword Fiend / Innate Sword Heart] inside.
the Royal Capital Nine-Yin Ice Dungeon for live.
Sword-Heart & Astral-Eye extraction!
* Cipher Stamp : [REBIRTH YEAR 1 — 100 YEARS PRIOR TO GREAT CALAMITY]
Staring at the fourth directive on the black dragon-bone scroll—Child #3: Ten-Year-Old Street Orphan Ye Xiao. Locked inside the Royal Capital Nine-Yin Ice Dungeon for live Sword-Heart & Astral-Eye extraction—twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed to cold golden slits. He looked over at Envoy Zhao Kun waking up tied to an iron chair in the corner of the study.
Outside in the sunlit avenue in front of the [Gu Family Peace Pharmacy], the atmosphere had already transformed from a battlefield into a lively, steaming noodle festival!
Wearing his new bright-pink [I Love Chores & Road-Paving] floral apron over his black scale armor, thirty-eight-year-old Battalion Commander Chen , at Rank 2 Peak. Held a two-quart porcelain bowl brimming with hand-pulled wheat noodles, three fist-sized chunks of tender braised spirit-pork ribs, a golden marinated egg, and fresh chopped scallions.
When Commander Chen took his first mouthful of the rich, savory bone-broth simmered in Gu Changsheng’s [Rank 3 Nine-Flavor Earth-Fire Chef Wok], he froze in place. A wave of warm, pure five-grain vitality washed away every ache from his two-thousand-mile forced march and even loosened the long-standing bottleneck in his Rank 2 Peak meridians!
“By the God of War... what kind of divine broth is this?!” Commander Chen wept openly into his noodle bowl.
All three thousand pink-aproned Capital Guards around him slurped their noodles with tears of bliss streaming down their weathered cheeks.
“Back in the Great Qian Royal Capital, Second Prince Qian Ye treated us like disposable pack-animals and fed us moldy millet hardtack while hoarding all the spirit pills in his palace! Yet here in Azure-Cloud Prefecture, Protector Gu spared our lives, gave us clean pink work-aprons, and fed all three thousand of us genuine spirit-pork noodles that nourish our martial qi!”
Right beside the soup cauldrons, nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 3 Early Grandmaster. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan , at Rank 3 Early Grandmaster, walked down the neat rows of sitting soldiers carrying a bamboo basket of freshly cut [Little Red Flower Conduct Stickers].
Whenever a burly Black-Armor Capital Guard finished every drop of broth and carried his empty porcelain bowl to the wash-tubs without spilling. Seven-year-old Su Nuannuan stood on her tiptoes and stuck a bright red paper flower right onto the chest of his pink floral apron:.
“Good job eating all your scallions and washing your bowl, Capital Soldier Uncle! Here is your first [Little Red Flower Sticker]! Once you collect ten red flowers while paving the eastern highway, Dad will give you a jar of sweet honey-cured pork jerky to mail home to your kids!”
“Waaaah! Thank you, Little Miss Nuannuan! Thank you, Class Monitor Gu Nian!”
a six-foot-tall bearded sergeant sniffled, guarding the tiny red paper flower on his pink apron as if it were an imperial medal of honor.
“My little daughter back in Sky-Crown City is seven years old just like you, Little Miss! Wait until I write home and tell her that I’m building highways for the kindest family in the empire!”
“And make sure you don’t cut corners on the gravel foundation. Brother Capital Soldiers!” fifty-two-year-old Reformed Second Elder Gu Ba [Warmth: 74/100] marched past in his [CHIEF PIGSTY & SANITATION SUPERVISOR] sash with Prize Piglet Little Flower trotting proudly at his heels.
“In our Gu Household, a clean pink apron is a badge of honor!
Look at me—five months ago I was a greedy old fool with four missing molars, and now I oversee twelve model ecological pig-farms and earn three bowls of braised pork ribs every day!”
Raising his porcelain bowl toward the sky, Commander Chen roared to his three thousand men:.
“Brothers of the Third Battalion! Finish every drop of soup, and then grab the gravel-carts and iron tampers! Before we ever think of returning to the capital, we’re going to pave every inch of Azure-Cloud Prefecture’s seventy-mile eastern highway until it’s smoother than the Emperor’s jade courtyard!”
“PAVE THE HIGHWAY FOR PROTECTOR GU! EARN OUR LITTLE RED FLOWER STICKERS!” all three thousand pink-aproned soldiers cheered in thunderous unison [Collective Warmth: 55 -> 76/100]!
Listening to the three thousand reformed soldiers cheering outside the window. Sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu recorded their highway work-shifts in his ledger, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng turned his gaze back to the trembling forty-five-year-old Envoy Zhao Kun in the iron chair:.
“Grandpa Yao—bring out your [Heavenly Truth-Tickle Powder]. It’s time our guest Envoy Zhao told us every single detail about Second Prince Qian Ye and that ten-year-old boy Ye Xiao in the Royal Capital!”
[ DING! 3,000 CAPITAL GUARDS REFORMED & DRAGON-BONE DECREE FOUND! ]
* Workforce Up : 3,000 Black-Armor Capital Guards don Pink Chore.
Aprons to pave the 70-mile eastern highway!
* Major Loot : Envoy Zhao’s [Rank 4 Spatial Bag] (50,000 Spirit.
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Stones + 300 Meteoric Iron Plates) + Second Prince.
Qian Ye’s [100-Year Regressor Dragon-Bone Decree]!
* Daily Income : +475,000 DP/day -> +485,000 DP/day!