Chapter 513 - 481

Chuzhou, the Zhang Family ancestral home.

Guarding the ancestral hall was a Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivator from a direct lineage of the Zhang Family.

Though he was of a direct line, he was from a marginalized branch—one that possessed the bloodline but lacked distinction, leading to his exclusion. Otherwise, he never would have been assigned to guard the ancestral hall.

Spending all day in the ancestral hall, unable to achieve anything of note or build connections—how was this any different from being exiled?

Since it was essentially an exile, it was no surprise that this Zhang Family disciple guarding the hall was inattentive.

As dusk approached, the Little Cultivator guarding the hall was half-dozing. When a faint, ghostly breeze blew through, the rows of candles in the ancestral hall suddenly flickered in unison.

Zhang Si was startled awake and immediately turned to look at the tall tower of stacked Life Plates in the depths of the hall.

These Life Plates all belonged to members of the Zhang Family who were at the Golden Core Stage or above, in the Divinity Transformation Stage, or had reached the Innate Third Transformation or higher.

As long as a Life Plate was intact, it meant its owner was safe. If a Life Plate shattered, it signified that the person who left it behind was no longer in this world.

When that happened, experts from the family’s Law Enforcement Hall would take the Life Plate and use the information it contained to find the killer and avenge their fellow clansman.

Such methods were only available to established families with sufficient resources and heritage.

It also served as a way for these great families to intimidate outsiders.

Unfortunately, any method, no matter how powerful, still relied on people for its execution.

Startled awake, Zhang Si peered through the candlelight and scanned the Life Plate tower from top to bottom. The tower was arranged in neat layers, and every Life Plate on it appeared to be intact. None had fallen, and none showed any obvious signs of shattering.

Zhang Si let out a soft sigh and muttered to himself, "It’s nothing. Scared me to death. That sudden gust of wind made me think something terrible had happened!"

After his quiet complaint, Zhang Si patted his chest. Still feeling uneasy, he squinted and scanned the tower again from top to bottom.

After confirming once more that no Life Plates had shattered, he relaxed and leaned back against a pillar by the door, quickly falling back into a doze with a soft snore.

’Is there anything in this world better than sleeping?’

’Nope.’

’So sleep when you can. To be able to sleep is a blessing. To be able to sleep... is bliss!’

As he drifted off again, Zhang Si failed to notice that the very moment he fell back asleep, a faint CRACK echoed from a Life Plate in the upper section of the tower—

The sound was so incredibly faint that "faint" wasn’t even a strong enough word. To be precise, the cracking of the Life Plate was as quiet as a speck of dust settling on the floor.

The sound was faint, and the crack on the Life Plate was equally minuscule.

It was so small—just a short, hairline fracture that had appeared on the underside of the Life Plate’s base.

With a crack this tiny, even if Zhang Si hadn’t fallen back asleep—even if he were wide awake—he would never have noticed it unless he took that specific Life Plate down and examined its base with meticulous care.

And so, the change in the Life Plate went unnoticed.

The fact that Zhang Ping was dead would not be discovered, at least not for a while.

Chuzhou and the Giant Spirit Realm were separated by the vast Great World of the Nine Provinces. Furthermore, the Giant Spirit Realm was a closed world. That Zhang Ping’s Life Plate could still develop even a faint crack after her death, despite such a barrier, was a testament to the immense power of the Zhang Family’s Life Plate connection.

Otherwise, with an entire world in between, Zhang Ping’s Life Plate should have shown no reaction at all.

The ghostly breeze in the ancestral hall drifted in, and then drifted away.

Zhang Si continued his nap, sleeping soundly and sweetly.

Meanwhile, in a mine in the Giant Spirit Realm, Song Ciwan had already learned a great deal from her conversation with Yun Yue.

For example, she learned about Yun Yue’s first encounter with Zhang Ping.

It turned out that Yun Yue and Zhang Ping had first met by trading interesting trinkets from the Mortal World.

Initially, Zhang Ping, while severely injured, had accidentally stumbled into the Giant Spirit Realm.

At first, Zhang Ping, an outsider, nearly came to blows with the men and women of the Spirit Star Race. The fight was averted only because Zhang Ping took a pile of beautiful and delicate trinkets from her Storage Talisman.

The people of the Spirit Star Race had little resistance to beautiful things. Using the trinkets she carried, Zhang Ping gradually began to interact more frequently with them.

The two sides stopped their talk of fighting and killing. After consulting with the Spirit Star Race, Zhang Ping even chose their Petal Square as her base of operations. She summoned a group of subordinates and established a special "Flower Market."

The Flower Market didn’t sell flowers, but rather all sorts of exquisite objects crafted by skilled artisans from the Mortal World.

There were cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, and all kinds of cute and beautiful little toys. In short, as long as something was pretty, the Spirit Star Race loved it, regardless of whether it possessed any Magical Power or Vitality.

It was under these circumstances that the young Spirit Star Race maiden, Yun Yue, met Zhang Ping. Yun Yue became one of Zhang Ping’s best customers, buying many things from her over time.

Then one day, Zhang Ping told Yun Yue she had an extremely rare and beautiful treasure and invited her to a secluded place to admire it.

The naive Yun Yue believed her, followed Zhang Ping down from the sky, and landed at the base of a giant flower stalk.

Zhang Ping offered her some fruit wine from the Mortal World. Seeing Zhang Ping drink a cup first, Yun Yue let down her guard and drank the other cup. The result was that Yun Yue was poisoned and collapsed!

Zhang Ping took Yun Yue away and trapped her in the mine, using her as a tool to aid in the mining. This continued until Song Ciwan killed Zhang Ping and revived Yun Yue.

The whole process was deceptively simple.

The simpler it was, the more deadly.

Yun Yue finished recounting her experience with a stutter, then cursed Zhang Ping resentfully.

Song Ciwan agreed with her curses and even taught her some newer, more potent insults.

In return, Yun Yue taught Song Ciwan some of her Spirit Star Race language. Before Song Ciwan could even ask, she also divulged some of her race’s secrets.

For example, regarding the Five Elements Crystal Pearl Ore, Yun Yue said, "Even though mining is... easier for us than the... Human Race, it still... requires an expenditure of Divine Power. You have to... infuse the Star Positioning Hoe with Divine Power to mine. Otherwise, you can’t... dig at all."

So, it wasn’t as Zhang Ping had thought—the Spirit Star Race couldn’t just mine the Five Elements Crystal Pearl Ore easily and without limit.

However, as long as they had sufficient Divine Power, the Spirit Star Race could indeed mine very quickly. This was why they were able to directly trade Five Elements Crystal Pearls for the Zhang Family’s exquisite trinkets at the Flower Market.

The reason dipping tools in Spirit Star Race blood could aid in mining was also because their blood contained Divine Power.

Yun Yue then gave a general overview of the Giant Spirit Realm.

The Giant Spirit Realm wasn’t actually that large; its total area was roughly equivalent to three cities of the Human Race.

The "three cities" mentioned here referred to three county seats, not major metropolises like a State City.

The small Spirit Star Race occupied a small territory within the giant world. Besides their specialty product, the Five Elements Crystal Pearl Ore, the Spirit Star Race were also skilled at raising insects!