Dad, my brother's reading dirty...

Great Zhou, the Imperial Capital.

In a courtyard residence on a street corner in the eastern outskirts, clanging rang out early in the morning.

"Brother, get up! Today's the Black Robe Guard assessment!"

Song Qian's skin gleamed like snow, her face delicate and adorable. Her fitted martial attire, with a token hanging at her waist, outlined her slender, well-proportioned figure to perfection.

Yawning, she eagerly pushed open a bedroom door.

When she saw that the young man inside was already dressed and sitting at his desk reading, she greeted him with a hint of disappointment.

"Brother, reading the Spring and Autumn Annals again?"

"Mm! Reading history makes you wise. There's never any harm in reading more!"

Song Xuan discreetly slipped the book into a drawer, then pressed a hand against his sister's head and pushed her back out before she could barge in.

"You're not a little girl anymore. How can you just barge into a man's room?"

Song Qian snorted. Catching sight of the title The Plum in the Golden Vase in the desk drawer, her eyes filled with amusement, and she opened her mouth to shout.

"Dad, my brother's reading dirty... Mmph..."

Before she could finish, Song Xuan clapped one hand over her mouth and hooked the other around her neck. He glared at her and muttered, "One skewer of candied hawthorn!"

Song Qian held up two slender fingers and waved them from side to side. "Two!"

"Deal!"

Song Qian brightened. With a beaming smile, she glanced at the desk again and lowered her voice. "Brother, when are you going to let me read that Spring and Autumn Annals of yours?"

Song Xuan rolled his eyes at her. With his sister's devil-may-care temperament, if that "Spring and Autumn Annals" ever landed in her hands, their parents would discover it within three days.

He didn't care about his image in his sister's eyes, but he had no desire to die of embarrassment in front of their parents!

Their father, Song Yuanshan, was practicing his boxing in the courtyard. Hearing his daughter shout, he wiped away his sweat and strode inside.

"What mischief are you two up to now?"

"Nothing!"

Song Xuan walked out of his room as if nothing had happened and smiled. "The Black Robe Guard assessment is today, isn't it? I told Qianqian to stay beside me during the assessment and not recklessly try to prove herself, but the little brat won't listen!"

"You need to listen to your brother on this!"

Song Yuanshan stretched, his bones crackling, then turned a stern gaze on Song Qian.

"Sure, our Household has been in the Black Robe Guard system for generations, and your assessment is just a formality. But even so, you mustn't let your guard down or get careless!"

"Every year, more than half the people taking the Black Robe Guard assessment end up injured or dead. Qianqian, you've always been rash, not steady like your brother. Normally, we can let you have your way, but during the assessment, you must listen to him. Understand?"

Song Qian pursed her lips, unconvinced.

She shot a resentful glance at Song Xuan, who was as unruffled as an old dog. Unhappy though she was, she still didn't dare talk back to their father.

Their father had a fiery temper. If she really riled him up, he wouldn't care that she was his daughter-he would absolutely pull out the Seven Wolves and whip her backside!

Instinctively, Song Qian stole a glance at the Seven Wolves around their father's waist. Her brother had made that belt himself and given it to their father as a promotion gift.

He had even given it the bizarre name Seven Wolves. She had never seen any wolves, but her backside had taken seven beatings since childhood!

After breakfast at home, amid their parents' reminders, Song Xuan grabbed Song Qian by the back of her neck with one hand and hauled the greedy girl out the door, a steamed bun still clenched between her teeth.

Though dawn had only just broken, plenty of people were already coming and going along the street, some carrying breakfast, others eating at the stalls.

Holding her sword in one arm and gnawing on her bun, Song Qian still grumbled unhappily. "Brother, I took the blame for you again. You were the one reading smut, but I was the one Old Song scolded!"

Song Xuan glanced around, patted the sword at his waist, and said quietly, "Mind yourself when we're out. He's our father. Stop calling him Old Song all day!"

"You're the one who taught me!"

Song Qian licked her lips and giggled. "Brother, when are we going to lay our cards on the table with Dad?"

Song Xuan's heart tightened. "What cards?"

"What else could it be?" Song Qian looked faintly excited. "The fact that we're stronger than him, of course! Old Song's been determined to come out on top his whole life. What do you think his face would look like if he found out he wasn't even as strong as his children?"

At that, Song Xuan silently sighed in relief.

He had thought his sister had finally discovered that he was a transmigrator.

In his previous life, he had been a game designer at an online gaming company. He remembered testing a wuxia game called Martial Arts Grand World before he transmigrated.

Set on the Nine Provinces Continent, the game combined most of the fictional characters created by wuxia masters such as Jin, Gu, and Huang, offering tremendous scope for gameplay and exploration.

On a whim, he had decided to try the game's cultivation technique fusion feature.

He had fused the internal cultivation portions of a whole pile of supreme techniques, including the Nine Yin Manual, Nine Yang Divine Skill, Muscle-Tendon Transformation Classic, Primordial Skill, Longevity Formula, and Bridal Robe Divine Skill. Just as he eagerly awaited the peerless divine skill they would produce, his vision went black, and he transmigrated.

When he regained consciousness, a game panel had appeared in his mind, along with an internal cultivation technique called the "Pure Yang Limitless Virgin Skill."

He himself had become a child of three or four, with a little tagalong sister tugging at his arm and demanding candied hawthorn in her babyish voice...

"Brother, what are you thinking about?"

Song Qian's voice sounded beside his ear, pulling Song Xuan out of his thoughts.

"Nothing!" Song Xuan's voice was level. "All these years, I've guided your cultivation so you could protect yourself, not so you could show off in front of Old Song!"

"Oh, got it!" Seeing that her brother seemed a little displeased, Song Qian shrank back and instantly became the picture of obedience.

The Black Robe Guard Office stood outside the imperial palace compound in the Imperial Capital. It was a secret service agency directly subordinate to the emperor, beyond the authority of any court department. Its powers included investigation, court floggings, foreign intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, arrests, and interrogation, much like the Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Ming dynasty.

The Song Household was one of Great Zhou's one hundred and twenty hereditary Black Robe Guard Lineages. Thanks to their connections, Song Xuan and Song Qian had passed the Black Robe Guard Office's review before the New Year and become members of the Black Robe Guard-third-class guards, the very bottom of the hierarchy.

Third-class Black Robe Guard positions were also where most privileged young wastrels in the Imperial Capital coasted through life, a sort of hidden benefit the court provided to the nobility.

Important assignments never fell to them. Their usual duties consisted of patrolling the streets and intimidating gang members. With a monthly salary of ten taels, life was quite comfortable.

Anyone who refused to coast through life and wanted to climb higher and wield more power had to take the Black Robe Guard's rank assessment. Passing meant promotion from third class to second class.

Only second-class guards counted as true members of the Black Robe Guard.

In particular, members of hereditary Black Robe Guard Lineages like Song Xuan not only received an additional twenty taels in monthly pay upon reaching second class, but also one Great Rejuvenation Pill and two Lesser Rejuvenation Pills every three months.

One Great Rejuvenation Pill could add a year's worth of internal power; one Lesser Rejuvenation Pill could heal both internal and external injuries.

These two kinds of pills were personally refined and bestowed by the Great Zhou Founder. Only members of hereditary Black Robe Guard Lineages who had reached second class could obtain them. In the martial world, they were miraculous elixirs, and even a single pill was almost impossible to come by!

Even the emperor received only a small allotment of these two kinds of pills each year.

Song Xuan and Song Qian had signed up for the Black Robe Guard assessment precisely for those two kinds of pills.