A Family of Hopeless Romantics, Except for the Evil Little Junior Brother

Hmm?

The group was drawn by the sound and turned their heads simultaneously toward the outside.

Lu Ziyin snapped his fingers lightly.

The curtains covering the windows automatically parted to both sides.

Instantly, colorful fireworks bloomed in the sky—red like fire, pink like rosy clouds, purple like dreams...

They intertwined and collided in the air, their dazzling radiance resembling beams of hopeful light.

Piercing through the darkness, they illuminated the entire Mount Shushan.

Lu Ziyin smiled faintly.

Li Xuanxiao: .........

Idiot Ziyin!

What are you doing!?

Is this our last New Year together?

My heart was already in turmoil, making it hard to sleep or eat.

Now you pull this stunt—how am I supposed to sleep tonight?

Don't jinx us like this!

Li Xuanxiao felt an eerie sense of calm before the storm.

It was like those anime scenes where righteous comrades laugh heartily on their final night together.

None of them could have guessed it would be their last gathering.

The corner of Li Xuanxiao's mouth twitched violently—he had the overwhelming urge to slap Lu Ziyin across the face.

"Let's eat dumplings together," Lu Ziyin suggested again.

Li Xuanxiao swore this was the most uncomfortable dumpling meal of his life.

"Oh, Xuanxiao, later you should deliver some dumplings to Old Seven confined at Seclusion Cliff," Lu Ziyin added.

Having recently taken over as Silver Sword Peak's master, Lu Ziyin naturally wanted to show goodwill toward his disciples.

Li Xuanxiao nodded in agreement.

At the long dining table:

Sixth Senior Sister Yunran held a child in her arms.

Lin Wanqing and Feng Liuli crowded around the child, their eyes filled with maternal affection.

Second Senior Brother Pei Qi volunteered to accompany Li Xuanxiao to visit Old Seven.

The two left Silver Sword Peak together.

Snow was falling on Mount Shushan.

Mount Shushan maintained four distinct seasons.

Once, a former peak master had proposed keeping Mount Shushan eternally springlike—something easily achievable for the mountain.

But cultivators shouldn't feel themselves above nature's cycles.

Thus, Mount Shushan preserved its seasons.

Wind carried the snowflakes.

Pei Qi sighed, "Who knows what Old Seven was thinking? For a woman, he's still got two centuries of confinement left."

Li Xuanxiao nodded in agreement.

Pei Qi continued, "Junior Brother, don't follow your Seventh Senior Brother's example."

"Don't worry, Second Senior Brother."

"Sigh... With First Senior Brother and Fifth Junior Brother gone, Silver Sword Peak isn't as lively as before."

Pei Qi suddenly grew melancholic.

"Junior Brother, there's something I want to tell you—"

"Second Senior Brother, please don't say it!" Li Xuanxiao hastily interrupted his senior's emotional outpouring.

Because he could almost see a giant character materializing above Pei Qi's head:

"DANGER!!!"

This was definitely not a good omen.

So Li Xuanxiao redirected the conversation: "Second Senior Brother, didn't you once say you had unfinished vengeance?"

Hearing this, Pei Qi's eyes immediately brightened as he clenched his fists.

"Exactly!!"

Li Xuanxiao nodded.

The pair arrived at the prison holding Seventh Senior Brother.

Tao Jinci, seventh disciple of Silver Sword Peak, was meditating in his cell.

Hearing movement, he opened his eyes to see Second Senior Brother and his junior disciple.

Tao Jinci's white robes remained spotless.

Though confined, he was only restricted from free movement—cultivation wasn't forbidden.

He even received his full monthly cultivation resources.

"Seventh Senior Brother, dumplings—it's New Year's," Li Xuanxiao offered.

Tao Jinci glanced sideways and asked solemnly:

"Did Hongdou eat any?"

Hongdou was the woman Tao Jinci had secretly married—to this day, Mount Shushan still didn't know who she really was or her background.

Actually, Mount Shushan permitted disciples to marry.

Even non-disciples could be brought back after thorough investigation to ensure no issues.

Thus, outside cultivators considered marrying Mount Shushan disciples an honor.

Yet Pei Qi had returned without explaining anything.

Hence his sentence.

Li Xuanxiao frowned.

How should I know if Hongdou ate any!?

Second Senior Brother Pei Qi produced a jug of wine and shared a drink with Tao Jinci while persuading:

"Old Seven, what's so hard to explain? Unless your wife is—"

Tao Jinci just shook his head repeatedly, seeming to have unspeakable difficulties.

This made Li Xuanxiao and Pei Qi even more curious—what was Seventh Senior Brother's wife's true identity?

Returning to Silver Sword Peak with the empty dumpling box, Li Xuanxiao heard laughter inside.

He stood outside, thinking if only he could protect this peace without all these complications.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

During this time, bizarre phenomena appeared throughout Zhongzhou, keeping Mount Shushan frantically busy.

First came the blood moon in northern Zhongzhou—the sky stained crimson.

Even the rain turned scarlet, each drop reeking of nauseating blood.

All vegetation withered across a thousand-mile radius, leaving utter desolation.

Northern sects, led by Mount Shushan, launched rescue efforts.

"Damn it all!"

A disciple threw his sword aside.

"Damn Mount Shushan! I'm a Nascent Soul cultivator, yet they have me doing relief work here!

What's the point of saving these people? Waste of time!"

A companion quickly cautioned:

"Quiet! Don't let Mount Shushan disciples hear you."

"So what if they do? They're the ones virtue-signaling, not me."

"Shh shh shh!!"

The Nascent Soul cultivator gnashed his teeth: "If only Mount Shushan would collapse. I hear in other realms, Nascent Souls do whatever they want—kill whoever they please.

Not like here in Zhongzhou, where we must tread carefully even to kill someone."

"Enough, stop talking."

"........"

Two months later, southern Zhongzhou's boiling earth fire erupted, flames roaring skyward.

Everything in their path became scorched earth, all life instantly incinerated.

Meanwhile, western Zhongzhou saw the emergence of underworld rivers that shouldn't exist in this realm.

Long-dead spirits seemed awakened by this backward flow, beginning massacres that filled the land with wails.

These six months of celestial anomalies were beyond excessive.

Mount Shushan disciples rushed about busily—such phenomena hadn't occurred for countless years.