The "Great Draw of Luòtiān" was the talk of the capital, but in the private gardens of the Jade Phoenix Palace, I was currently dealing with a nightmare.

  "I'm not leaving," Qin Chenfeng said, crossing his arms and sitting firmly on my favorite silk rug.

  I stared at him, my juice box halfway to my mouth. "What do you mean you're not leaving? Your brother is literally packing the carriage right now. The Qin Empire needs its little terror back."

  "I told Zhanlong to go back without me," the 8-year-old wind-maniac declared. "I’ve officially requested to stay as an 'Exchange Disciple' in the Lu Empire. My father already agreed via jade transmission. He thinks it’ll 'build character.' But I know the truth, Lu Xian."

  I took a long, nervous sip of my juice. "The truth that I like ducks?"

  "The truth that you’re a monster!" Chenfeng stood up, pointing a finger at me. "I saw it. At the end of the fight. My Storm-God’s Judgment is enough to kill a Spirit Beast, but when it hit you, it felt like I was hitting a mountain made of diamond. You didn't 'draw' with me. You let me draw."

  Internal screaming. "That’s crazy talk," I said, waving a hand dismissively. "I just got lucky. It was the 'Basic Breathing.' It makes your skin very... bouncy."

  "I don't care about your excuses!" Chenfeng’s eyes were burning with a terrifying zeal. "From now on, I am your shadow. I will train how you train. I will eat what you eat. I will figure out how a five-year-old got that strong, and then I will beat you for real!"

  Suddenly, the garden gate opened, and my siblings filed in like a parade of smiling demons.

  "Oh, Chenfeng! I heard the news!" Lu Lingshu said, her eyes practically turning into gold coins. "An exchange student! How wonderful. I’ve already prepared a special training courtyard for you and Xian-er. It’s equipped with gravity formations and high-intensity Qi-leakage vents."

  "And I’ve prepared a diet plan!" Lu Yueran added, pulling out a needle that looked like it was designed to lobotomize a dragon. "To help you 'keep up' with our Xian-er, you’ll need these bi-weekly spirit-marrow injections."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Wait, no!" I yelled. "He doesn't need to keep up! He’s already fast! Let him go home!"

  "Nonsense, Little Brother," Lu Tianhao said, ruffling my hair with enough force to nearly give me whiplash. "We were so worried you’d be lonely with only us to play with. Now you have a friend! A training partner! Someone to push you to the Foundation Establishment Realm by your sixth birthday!"

  I looked at Chenfeng. He was looking at my siblings with a growing sense of dread. For the last two days, he had thought the Lu family were just "peaceful scholars." But as he felt the sheer, oppressive auras of my six siblings—all of them secretly leaking their Supreme and Peak grade bodies—his face went pale.

  "You guys..." Chenfeng whispered, his voice trembling. "You’re all... monsters."

  "We prefer the term 'doting family,'" Lu Chenyi said, tossing a training weight that weighed five tons into the air like it was a grape.

  Chenfeng looked at me, then back at my siblings. He realized the truth that I had known since birth: the Lu Empire wasn't Rank 3 because it was weak. It was Rank 3 because everyone here was too lazy to conquer the world, preferring to spend their time "optimizing" their youngest brother.

  "I see," Chenfeng said, his fear slowly turning into a warped kind of respect. "So this is the secret. You’re raised by a den of ancient dragons. Fine! If this is what it takes to be strong, I’ll survive it!"

  "No, you won't!" I cried out. "Run, Chenfeng! Save yourself! They’ll turn you into a workaholic!"

  But it was too late. My siblings had already dragged Chenfeng toward the gravity courtyard.

  "Don't worry, Xian-er!" Lingshu called back. "We’ve set up a betting pool on who collapses first! I put ten thousand spirit stones on the Qin kid, so make sure you stay standing for at least an hour!"

  I sat alone in the garden, staring at my empty juice box.

  My plan for a draw had failed. Instead of getting rid of a rival, I had gained a permanent stalker who was now being "upgraded" by my siblings to be an even bigger threat to my leisure time.

  Somewhere in the palace, I could hear my father laughing. It was a loud, boisterous sound that echoed through the jade halls. He knew. He had seen the whole thing, and he was probably already writing the "Throne-Trap Trial" rules to include a "Team Battle" section.

  "I just wanted a nap," I whispered to a passing butterfly.

  The butterfly didn't answer. It just flew away, probably afraid that if it stayed too long, my siblings would try to train it into a Phoenix.

  I stood up, my small feet heavy on the grass. If Chenfeng was staying, I had to find a new way to be "dull." Maybe I could pretend to have a sudden obsession with stamp collecting? Or rock painting?

  But as I looked at the gravity courtyard, where a massive pillar of light was already shooting into the sky, I knew my life as a "Shark" was over. In this world, the only way to be lazy was to be so powerful that nobody dared to give you a job.

  Fine, I thought, my eyes narrowing. If I have to be strong to be lazy, then I'll become the strongest loafer this continent has ever seen. But I'm still keeping the rubber duck.