While I was having an existential crisis about the weight of my bedding, the "Training From Hell" had officially begun for Qin Chenfeng. My siblings, ever the perfectionists, had realized they now had two different types of geniuses to "optimize."

  "We shall call this the Dual-Path Protocol," my 5th brother, Mingyuan, said, waving his scholarly fan. We were in the secret training grounds beneath the palace.

  Chenfeng was standing in the center of a Slaughter Formation. Around him, hundreds of phantom warriors were respawning. "This," Mingyuan explained, "is the Endless Enemy Loop. Chenfeng, you will fight until you die. Then you will be revived. Then you will fight again. It is the only way to satisfy your 'Battle Maniac' soul."

  "Yes! This is what I wanted!" Chenfeng roared, his wind-aura exploding as he charged into the fray.

  Then, Mingyuan turned to me. I was already lying on a very comfortable-looking lounge chair I’d brought from my room.

  "And for you, Xian-er," Mingyuan smiled, that fox-like glint returning to his eyes. "We have the Effort-Rejection Array. Since you hate moving, we’ve modified the palace’s Qi-gathering formation. From now on, the more you complain about training, the faster the Qi will be forced into your pores. If you try to actually practice, the formation will shut down. But if you take a nap... well, you’ll probably breakthrough to the next realm by lunch."

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  I stared at him. "You’re mocking me. You’re literally rewarding me for being a loafer."

  "It’s not a reward, Little Brother," 3rd sister Yueran said, appearing behind me with a bowl of Spirit-Refinement Porridge. "It’s efficiency. Why waste energy moving when the universe can move for you? Now, eat this while lying down. If you sit up, the nutrients won't absorb correctly."

  I lay back, sighing. I was being pampered into godhood. It was the most infuriatingly comfortable torture in history.

  As I drifted off into a "cultivation nap," I could hear the sounds of Chenfeng screaming in battle-lust and the clash of phantoms. He was evolving through blood and death, while I was evolving through carbs and REM sleep.

  In the distance, I felt a strange ripple in the air. My Space Root was becoming more sensitive the lazier I got. I could feel the entire Luòtiān Imperial City. But beyond that, I felt a gaze.

  It wasn't the warm, laughing gaze of my father. It was a cold, calculating gaze from the North. The Tian Empire was watching. The "Supreme Sovereigns" who birthed the first Primordial Immortal were looking at our little "training session."

  Go away, I thought, pulling my heavy blanket over my head. There’s nothing to see here but a sleepy child and a boy who likes to hit things.

  But the gaze didn't leave. It felt like a long game was beginning, one measured in millennia, and I had just been drafted as a pawn who didn't even want to be on the board.