BZZZZZZT—FLASH! A pink chore apron fits a Half-Step Rank 4 envoy much better than gold armor, Gu Changsheng thought with a quiet chuckle.
Across the open pages of [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] on the mahogany desk, jagged crimson warning characters sizzled like molten iron as the system’s [Foreknowledge Decay & Timeline Pushback Monitor] updated in real time!
Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng had completely demolished the original script of the northern border. He had stripped Pawn #09 Lin Fan to 0.0% Luck Halo, raised nine-year-old Gu Nian [10% Darkening] and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan [8% Darkening] into Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmasters. Slapped Half-Step Rank 4 Envoy Zhao Kun out of the sky in a single move.
Now, that butterfly hurricane had reached two thousand miles east to the Great Qian Royal Capital (Sky-Crown City)!
[ DING! EMERGENCY RED ALERT — FOREKNOWLEDGE DECAY PUSHBACK! ]
* Capital Reaction: In the Great Qian Royal Capital, 100-Year.
Regressor Second Prince Qian Ye just sensed.
Envoy Zhao Kun’s defeat and realized the.
northern timeline is completely out of his.
past-life control!
* Timeline Shift : Panicked that another hidden power will snatch.
his prize, Second Prince Qian Ye has moved up.
the live surgical extraction of Child #3.
[Ye Xiao, Age 10 — Innate Void-Cleaving Sword.
Heart & Star-Gazing Sword Pupils] by 20 days!
* Emergency Timer : [10 DAYS, 00 HOURS] UNTIL LIVE SURGERY ON THE.
NINE-YIN ICE-ALTAR IN SKY-CROWN CITY!
* Urgent Mission : Reach the Great Qian Royal Capital (2,000 miles.
east) within 10 Days, rescue 10-year-old Ye.
Xiao before his Darkening hits 100%, adopt him.
as Child #3, and claim Mom’s 2nd Soul-Wisp!
Ten days to cross two thousand miles to the Great Qian Royal Capital. Rescue a ten-year-old boy from a live organ-harvesting altar, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng’s (Rank 3 Peak Martial Grandmaster) eyes gleamed with cold. Unshakeable resolve as he read the glowing red countdown timer.
Just as the notebook’s warning flashed inside his mind, the cedar door of the study opened gently.
Nine-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster, and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan , at Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster, stepped into the room hand in hand.
In nine-year-old Gu Nian’s right hand, his mother’s seven-inch [Frost-Phoenix Jade Hairpin & Soul-Resonance Compass] was humming with a clear, urgent silver-blue chime, its golden compass needle pointing unwaveringly toward the eastern window!
Looking up at his father with clear, solemn black-gold eyes, nine-year-old Gu Nian spoke in a steady voice far more mature than his nine years:.
“Dad... Nuannuan and I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Ever since we broke through to Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster on the school balcony.
Our hearing can reach across the whole courtyard—and Mom’s jade hairpin started singing toward the east the exact second Envoy Zhao mentioned the Imperial Astral Tower.”
Stepping up beside Gu Changsheng’s desk while seven-year-old Su Nuannuan held his other hand, nine-year-old Gu Nian looked straight into his father’s eyes:.
“Dad, that ten-year-old boy Ye Xiao locked in the ice cage in the Royal Capital... he’s just like I was when I was tied up in the cold woodshed five months ago, and just like Nuannuan was when she was locked in the dark cellar cage, isn’t he? Only he’s ten years old and has nobody in that giant city to bring him a bowl of hot soup or tell him he isn’t a monster.”
Nine-year-old Gu Nian’s small hand clenched firmly around his mother’s glowing jade hairpin as his Rank 3 Early Grandmaster aura pulsed with warm, protective golden light [Darkening Index: 10% — Righteous Big-Brother Resolve]:.
“Dad, we have ten days to reach the Royal Capital, right? Please take Nuannuan and me with you! When you rescued me from the woodshed and when we rescued Nuannuan from the slave cellar, you promised our family would always stay together.
Now that Nuannuan and I are both Rank 3 Martial Grandmasters, we want to help you rescue our ten-year-old Big Brother Ye Xiao and bring Mom’s second soul-wisp home!”
Right beside him, seven-year-old Su Nuannuan [Rank 3 Early Martial Grandmaster, Darkening Index: 8%] held up her little pink watering can—already brimming with warm. Glowing [Rank 3 Ten-Thousand-Herb Healing Dew]—and nodded so hard her yellow straw sun-hat bobbed up and down:.
“Yes, Dad! That bad prince in the capital wants to hurt Big Brother Ye Xiao’s eyes and heart on a cold ice bed! Nuannuan already brewed a whole watering can of warm honey-lotus dew to warm up Big Brother Ye Xiao’s hands as soon as we open his cage.
Nuannuan packed her softest bunny pillow for him! We can’t leave Big Brother Ye Xiao in the cold dark for one extra minute!”
Reaching into the small canvas schoolbag slung across his yellow bunny apron, nine-year-old Gu Nian also pulled out a neatly folded. Fleece-lined blue winter scarf, a wooden practice sword he had whittled himself during craft class. A thick sheet of rice paper covered in careful brush strokes:.
“Look, Dad! Nuannuan and I already put together a [Gu Family Welcome Care-Package] for Big Brother Ye Xiao! I packed my spare lambswool scarf so his neck won’t be cold when he comes off the ice altar.
Plus a jar of Grandpa Yao’s honey-plum candies and a welcome card signed by both of us! And I even left a whole empty column next to mine. Nuannuan’s names on our [Good-Kid Conduct Chart] so Big Brother Ye Xiao can earn [Little Red Flower Stickers] with us as soon as he wakes up!”
Looking down at his nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng felt a wave of paternal pride warmer than ten thousand suns fill his chest. The cruel “fate” of this world had tried to twist these two kids into apocalyptic monsters. Here they stood as two Rank 3 Martial Grandmasters overflowing with empathy, courage, and eagerness to save another hurting child.
Crouching down on one knee in front of Gu Nian and Su Nuannuan, Gu Changsheng wrapped one strong arm around each child’s shoulders and pulled them into a warm hug.
“Who said anything about leaving you two behind?” Gu Changsheng smiled warmly, tapping the tip of Nuannuan’s nose and ruffling Gu Nian’s hair. “Our [All-Family Shared Cultivation Link] only works at full power when we eat three hot meals a day at the same table.
When we smash open that Nine-Yin Ice Dungeon in the Royal Capital to bring ten-year-old Ye Xiao into our family.
The first thing he needs to see isn’t just a dad with a golden spatula. A nine-year-old brother and a seven-year-old sister holding out a warm blanket and a bowl of braised pork ribs!”
“YES, DAD!” both children cheered in unison, their eyes shining like stars!
Up on the mahogany desk, three-hundred-and-eighty-year-old Grandpa Yao [Warmth: 92/100] adjusted his miniature gold spectacles on his plush green turtle snout and calculated urgently on his fuzzy flippers:.
“Patriarch Gu, the spirit-horse post road from Azure-Cloud Prefecture to the Great Qian Royal Capital (Sky-Crown City) is a full two thousand miles across three mountain ranges and two river plains! An ordinary horse carriage takes thirty days, and even a Rank 2 warhorse galloping day and night takes fifteen days! How can our whole family—plus your kitchen stove, herbs, and beds—cross two thousand miles in under ten days without exhausting the children?!”
Standing beside the desk, twenty-four-year-aged Auntie Qin , at Rank 3 Mid Martial Grandmaster, and sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu , at Rank 2 Peak, also looked at Gu Changsheng with expectant eyes.
“Master Changsheng,” twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin said earnestly, holding up three sealed jade medicine boxes she had already packed in her travel satchel. “Since ten-year-old Ye Xiao has been locked on that freezing [Nine-Yin Ice-Altar] for three days, his [Innate Void-Cleaving Sword Heart] and eye-meridians must be suffering from severe Nine-Yin frostbite! I have already packed fifty pounds of our [500-Year Snow-Heart Lotus] petals.
Three hundred [Rank 3 Bone-Warming Spirit Plasters] so we can treat his frostbite the moment we open his cage—and whatever vehicle we take. I am coming with you and the children to the Royal Capital!”
“And this old butler has already prepared the handover ledgers for Azure-Cloud Prefecture!” sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu declared, tapping his black-iron abacus with fierce loyalty. “Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng , at Rank 3 Mid, Chief Pigsty Supervisor Gu Ba [Warmth: 74/100], Guard Captain One-Ear Scar [Warmth: 85/100], twenty-eight Rank 2 Peak Pink-Apron Lava Golems.
Three thousand newly reformed Capital Guards are standing by right outside!
They will keep watch over our five [Frost-Pine Loving-Heart Canteens] and the [Peace Pharmacy] so our northern home base runs like clockwork while our core household marches east to Sky-Crown City!”
Just then, fifty-two-year-old Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng, fifty-two-year-old Reformed Second Elder Gu Ba, and thirty-five-year-old Captain One-Ear Scar knocked briskly at the open study doorway and bowed with solemn respect:.
“Patriarch Gu! We heard from Butler Fu that a ten-year-old orphan child is in danger in the Royal Capital! Leave all twelve counties of Azure-Cloud Prefecture to us!
Every morning at six o’clock sharp, our canteens will boil fresh mutton soup, our pharmacies will dispense ten-copper healing gummies. Not a single citizen’s Warmth will drop by a single point while you are gone!”
“That’s right, Nephew Changsheng!” fifty-two-year-old Reformed Second Elder Gu Ba [Warmth: 74/100] patted his chest in his spotless pink [CHIEF PIGSTY & SANITATION SUPERVISOR] apron. Prize Piglet Little Flower let out two spirited oinks at his boots.
“Back when I was an ignorant old fool, I didn’t understand why you cared so much about every hungry child in Frost-Pine Town.
Now every farmer and merchant in our twelve counties knows that protecting children is the foundation of our Gu Clan’s prosperity! While you and the kids travel east to bring ten-year-old Young Master Ye Xiao home. Our twelve model pig-farms will cure five thousand pounds of sweet smoked spirit-bacon to welcome him at his adoption banquet!”
“And our five hundred [Pink-Apron Security Uncles] have already teamed up with Commander Chen’s three thousand reformed Capital Guards to patrol every schoolhouse. Granary from dawn till midnight!” thirty-five-year-old Captain One-Ear Scar [Warmth: 85/100] saluted crisply.
His brass crosswalk whistle gleaming on his chest.
“Not a single bandit or corrupt tax-collector will dare step within a hundred miles of Azure-Cloud Prefecture!”
Even forty-five-year-old Imperial Envoy Zhao Kun , at Half-Step Rank 4, still tied to the iron chair in the corner of the study with his swollen cheek and wooden jaw-splint. Raised one trembling hand as his survival instincts kicked into overdrive:.
“P-Patriarch Gu! If you spare this humble Zhao Kun’s life, I know all three secret military shortcuts through Black-Wind Gorge to Sky-Crown City. I know the exact guard-change passwords for the outer gates of the Second Prince’s Imperial Astral Tower!
I’m even willing to pull your luggage cart on foot like a pack-mule the entire two thousand miles!”
Rising to his full height with a confident, mysterious grin. Twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng tossed Envoy Zhao Kun’s looted [Rank 4 Imperial Spatial Bag] (containing fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones. Three hundred plates of Rank 3 Peak meteoric star-iron) plus the two broken halves of Envoy Zhao’s [Quasi-Rank 4 Wind-Step Flying Bronze Disk] onto the table.
Then he glanced out the window toward the spacious rear courtyard, where their heavy iron-wood Spirit-Ox wagon and two volunteer Rank 2 Peak Lava-Rock Golem geothermal cores were parked.
“Who said we’re riding an ordinary horse carriage?” twenty-nine-year-old Gu Changsheng chuckled, his 107,000 DP balance gleaming inside his system panel.
“Grandpa Fu, hand over temporary management of the Azure-Cloud Peace Pharmacy, the five Loving-Heart Canteens, the twenty-eight Lava Golem farm-tractors. The three thousand road-paving Capital Guards to Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng, Second Elder Gu Ba, and Captain One-Ear Scar—and fit Envoy Zhao for an extra-sturdy pink luggage-cart apron. Everyone else—step out into the back courtyard.
Dad is about to spend 100,000 Dad Points to fuse our family an [Armored Spirit-Ox Family RV] that can cruise two hundred and fifty miles a day while we cook hot-pot inside!”
[ DING! CAPITAL RESCUE EXPEDITION MOBILIZED — 10-DAY COUNTDOWN! ]
* Mission Goal : Cross 2,000 miles to Great Qian Royal Capital in.
<10 Days to rescue Child #3 (Ye Xiao, Age 10) &.
claim Empress Luo Qingxue’s 2nd Soul-Wisp!
* Base Defense : Prefecture Lord Qin Zheng, Gu Ba, One-Ear Scar,.
28 Lava Golems, & 3,000 Pink-Apron Guards keep.
Azure-Cloud Prefecture running at full Warmth!
* Daily Income : +492,000 DP/day -> +496,000 DP/day!