Gaining a tiny bit of weight every day, my weight is a billion tons.

In the misty, bamboo-covered marshes of Jiangnan, a place of clouds and lakes.

The public terminal outside the courtyard wall had just finished broadcasting the wartime announcement, and only the sounds of autumn insects and the crisp sound of an iron spoon scraping the bottom of a pot remained in the blue-tiled courtyard.

Under the old locust tree in the center of the courtyard stood an earthen stove, the firewood inside burning red-hot.

"Sizzle!"

The egg mixture coats the rice grains, and as soon as the chopped green onions are sprinkled into the pan, the aroma of lard fills the courtyard.

A burly young man stood in front of the stove, a white towel draped around his neck and a faded coarse cloth apron tied around his waist.

He gripped the pot handle with his left hand and exerted force, while his right hand scraped the bottom of the pot with a large iron ladle, producing a crisp clanging sound.

Golden grains of rice traced a beautiful arc in mid-air.

Each grain is distinct and bursting with wok hei (the smoky aroma imparted by a hot wok).

A moment later, a plate of golden fried rice was served on the old stone table under the locust tree.

A young girl wearing a white fox fur coat sat beside the stone table.

Autumn had just begun to bring a chill, but she had already wrapped herself up tightly, and the fingertips that were exposed outside her sleeves were almost bloodless.

Hearing footsteps, she clasped her hands together and put the two cracked tortoise-shell coins into her sleeve pocket.

The girl picked up a blue-and-white porcelain spoon and took a small bite of fried rice.

Those deep eyes held the secrets of a sky full of stars.

A satisfied smile curved his lips.

"Brother, your fried rice is getting better and better!"

"That's right, look who flipped the ladle! Cooking is all about controlling the heat."

Jiang Hao pulled off a towel to wipe his sweat, hooked his long legs over a small stool, and sat down opposite her with an air of authority.

"Fighting and killing are so boring; nothing beats the satisfaction of tossing and frying rice!"

"I've seen through it all. No matter what kind of end times it is or aliens are coming, a craftsman will never starve! As long as I have this iron pot and big ladle, I can get a hot meal anywhere."

He pushed the plate towards his sister.

"Eat more if you like it. You've lost so much weight lately that your chin is so sharp."

Under the eaves, Granny Hua, with her full head of silver hair, brought over a pot of hot tea and poured a cup for each of the brother and sister with a smile.

"Grandma Hua, don't bother with your work, come sit down and eat with us!"

Jiang Hao quickly pushed over a low wooden stool.

Grandma Hua didn't stand on ceremony and sat down beside her, picking up her small bowl and jokingly making fun of her.

"Good, good, good, this old woman loves Young Master Jiang's cooking the most."

Looking at the brother and sister in front of him, enjoying each other's company,

The old woman's eyes, lined with wrinkles resembling walnuts, blossomed into a smile.

There was not a trace of the restraint between master and servant in those slightly cloudy eyes.

It was filled with the same love one would show to their own grandchildren.

She is now the only remaining elder of the Jiang family.

He was also the only elder brother the siblings had in the world.

Jiang Hao slurped down the last two mouthfuls of rice and put down his chopsticks with satisfaction.

He got up, took off the coarse cloth apron from his waist, and casually draped it over the pile of firewood beside him.

His back, which had been hunched over to accommodate the stove, gradually straightened.

The rough, street-smart vibe he once exuded vanished at that moment.

"Buzz!"

A low humming sound echoed in the courtyard.

A locust leaf fell and froze in mid-air, while the flames in the stove were pushed down into thin lines.

The aura of a ninth-tier ancient martial arts master spread out from Jiang Hao's body, only to be quickly withdrawn back into it.

His simple smile faded, and he took out a communication jade talisman from his pocket, glanced at it, and then looked at his sister's brow.

The crimson mark of destiny was half a shade deeper than yesterday.

Jiang Hao wiped the oil from between his fingers with a towel, a deep sorrow and heartache rising in the depths of his eyes.

"Wan'er, before you sent that message to the Star Lord of the Unique Mirror in the Southern Region yesterday, did you use your pupil technique again?"

His voice was very low.

"Tomorrow, in the Abyss of Hell, demons will run rampant. All the forces will be intertwined. Your divination of the heavens will surely be fraught with danger!"

The Federation's ancient martial arts circle still lists the Jiang family among the seven great families, but no one knows that the sickly girl sitting by the stone table is actually...

The true contemporary head of the Jiang family lineage.

Even less known was that the Jiang family, renowned throughout the Federation for its ancient martial arts, had long since ceased to exist in name only.

Three years ago, sixteen-year-old Jiang Wan'er took over the family headship;

Three years later, the Jiang family was reduced to just this courtyard, the two siblings, and Granny Hua.

The root of all this lies in Jiang Wan'er's family bloodline, which is revered as the supreme myth in the ancient martial arts world... the Heavenly Pivot Star-Evolving Eye!

This pupil in the left eye can calculate the celestial orbits and deduce the general trend of heaven and earth and the rise and fall of fortune.

The right eye can identify one's original bloodline and see through all higher-dimensional disguises and the essence of life.

The cost is also written in the Jiang family genealogy: every time the eyes are opened and calculations are performed, lifespan and the source of life are reduced by one point.

Jiang Hao hated that ancestral genealogy the most.

Throughout the Jiang family's three-thousand-year history, all ancestors who awakened the Heavenly Pivot Star-Evolving Eye...

Without exception, they all suffered from five deficiencies and three lacks, and died young and tragically.

No one lives past twenty-two.

Three years ago, Jiang Wan'er, who was only sixteen years old, took over as the head of the family.

The first thing she did upon taking office was to use the death order of the family head to forcibly dismiss all collateral branches and most of the direct line.

They sealed away ancient martial arts techniques and forced their clansmen to change their names and move to the base city.

It is strictly forbidden for three generations to set foot in the ancient martial arts world again.

The once-grand Jiang family home was completely wiped out overnight.

In the end, only her older brother Jiang Hao and Granny Hua, who had watched her grow up, remained.

Jiang Hao still remembers that stormy night.

The younger sister leaned against the offering table in the ancestral hall, the blood she coughed up staining her white dress red.

She looked toward the Southern Region with her left eye, which was bleeding and filled with tears, her fingers gripping his sleeve tightly.

"Brother... there are unusual celestial phenomena in the far south."

"The source star's energy is exhausted, which should have been a dead end, but I feel that a star from outside the destiny chart has just landed in Jiangcheng."

"The celestial phenomena possess both the power of an imperial star and the aura of calamity; perhaps they can sever the celestial lock within our bloodline!"

In order not to alert the Tongyuan Association and other forces that were eyeing the Jiang family.

The brother and sister went into hiding in Jiangcheng under assumed names.

To outsiders, Jiang Wan'er is known as Lin Wan'er, a student who has awakened an S-level luck-based talent; Jiang Hao, on the other hand, is the fast-moving older brother who loves to flip woks at the night market.

They had been setting up their stall for three years, and finally, Su Ming sat down at that greasy little table and ordered a plate of golden fried rice.

That meeting was no coincidence.

That bowl of fried rice, with extra portions but no extra price, was the Jiang family's first confirmation of the imperial star outside their destiny chart.

Jiang Hao looked at the communication jade talisman in his hand.

Back then, that young man from the Black Iron Realm who would meticulously calculate even the addition of a single ham was...

In less than a month, the words "Star Lord, Marshal of the Southern Region" have appeared before his name!

"bite."

The blue-and-white porcelain spoon fell back into the empty bowl, its crisp sound breaking the silence of the courtyard and pulling Jiang Hao back from his memories.

Jiang Wan'er looked up at him.

"Brother, are you really coming with me to the Abyss of Hell tomorrow?"

"Go, why don't you go?"

Jiang Hao slapped his thigh and deliberately raised his voice.

"I have prepared the Frosty Jade Ice Box, and I have also prepared the eighth-order spirit bird eggs and the thousand-year-old snow mountain spirit rice."

"Let's head over there now, and tomorrow at noon we'll borrow a stove in the Southern Region, and I'll cook him the best fried rice on the entire Origin Star!"

As he said this, he patted his chest.

"Back then at the Jiangcheng night market, I personally promised to treat him to dinner when we got to the capital. Now that he's a star lord, I haven't even delivered that meal yet, so I can't renege on my promise."

Seeing her brother's confident expression, Jiang Wan'er gently shook her head.

She reached out her cold hand and gently placed it on the back of Jiang Hao's calloused hand.

"Brother, I'm already very happy to be able to eat your cooking every day, and to spend time with you and Grandma Hua in the yard, basking in the sun and listening to the wind."

Jiang Wan'er tilted her head slightly, and the autumn sunlight shone through the gaps in the locust tree leaves onto her face, revealing a serene composure as if she had seen through life and death.

"The backlash from Heaven's secrets is a fundamental rule governing the operation of Heaven. This kind of fate may truly be an unbreakable shackle. Don't force it tomorrow, and don't risk your life to make a deal with that jinx in order to extend my life."

"By my generation, thousands of members of the Jiang family have already escaped and moved to the city. Even if I don't live to be twenty, I won't drag thousands of people down with me. Don't trade your life for my remaining days. I have no regrets. Really."

Jiang Hao's nostrils twitched twice, his fingers gripped his sister's hand tightly, and his eyes were red-rimmed.

"What nonsense are you spouting!"

"I don't care if he's a savior or a jinx!"

Jiang Hao gritted his teeth, staring intently at the direction of the Southern Region, his words dripping with blood.

"Since Su Ming has eaten my fried rice, he's my customer for life!"

"If his power can pull you back from the brink of death, what's wrong with me selling my life to him on the spot when we're in the abyss of hell tomorrow!"

Feeling the scorching heat from her brother's palm, Jiang Wan'er's long eyelashes trembled, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.

She didn't try to persuade her further, but slowly withdrew her hand, took out the two tortoise-shell coins from her sleeve, and placed them flat on the stone table.

Jiang Hao immediately grabbed her wrist.

"Don't open your eyes!"

"Not open."

Jiang Wan'er's left eye remained closed.

"This is the result left inside the tortoise shell last night; I'm only showing it to you."

She touched the copper coin with her fingertip.

"Buzz..."

The cracks on the two copper coins lit up at the same time, and a pale purple mist spread along the table, with tiny ripples spreading across the teacups.

Thousands of points of light rose from the cracks, forming a star-shaped chessboard above the stone table.

In the far north of the chessboard, above the Yanshan Mountains, a mass of dark red blood energy coiled, within which lay a vaguely visible, purplish-black, sun-devouring ferocious beast.

To the south of the chessboard, a cluster of incredibly dense neutrons pressed down on the sky.

The surrounding star trails were all drawn by it, and two slender, sharp rays, one gold and one white, circled around the sides of the orb.

"Greedy Wolf devours the sun, Seven Killings has entered the Southern Dipper."

Jiang Wan'er pointed to the bloody aura in the north.

"Tomorrow at noon, this raging fire will enter the Abyss of Hell, and there will surely be bloodshed at the venue."

Her fingertips moved south.

"But every time it changes its trajectory, it gets pulled back by this imperial star. The center of the game isn't the seven ancient martial arts families, but Su Ming."

"In the ancient, sealed abyss of ley lines, a new order clashes and shifts. The victor will define the future of Origin Star!"

Jiang Wan'er withdrew her finger.

The Starlight Chessboard collapsed instantly.

Two tortoise-shell copper coins then fell back down.

She stood up, using the edge of the table for support, and pulled her white fox fur coat tighter around her.

"Brother, if you're going, don't just bring a box of food."

"Take the things left by the Jiang family with us. Let's meet Su Ming before everyone else and give him a big gift!"

Jiang Hao stared at his sister for two seconds but didn't ask any further questions.

He turned around and put the family heirloom black iron pot and the cold jade ice box filled with ingredients into his space, while his left arm steadily supported Jiang Wan'er.

Granny Hua, who was standing to the side, also put down her teacup and slowly stood up.

A glint of light flashed in the cloudy eyes of this old woman who usually walked with a faltering gait.

A thick, long-lasting layer of silvery-white energy rippled around his body.

"boom!"

A surge of violent, dark golden blood energy, belonging to a ninth-tier martial artist, suddenly spread out from beneath Jiang Hao's feet, instantly flattening the fallen leaves in the corner of the courtyard with an invisible wave of energy.

The next second, two dazzling streams of light, one dark gold and one silver-white, shot into the sky!

The energy source tore through the vast mist of Yunmeng Marsh, pierced the sky, and headed straight for the Abyss of the Southern Prison.

The courtyard has returned to tranquility.

The leaves of the old locust tree swirled and slowly drifted down.

On the stone table, three empty blue-and-white porcelain bowls still retained a faint warmth.

……