"Look, the Clan Head and the Elders are here..." "That's the Seventh Elder, the Ninth Elder... and the Eighth Elder..." "In the previous openings of the first layer of the Illusionary Realm, only the Clan Head and the Ninth Elder appeared. This time, two more Elders have shown up—they must be taking this extremely seriously!" "..."

Not long after, the murmurs within the crowd abruptly swelled in volume.

Nie Kong couldn't help but look around. Following the path of bluestone from which they had just come, he soon spotted more than ten figures approaching. Leading them was an old man of about fifty, with a square, resolute face, clad in a purple robe. His long beard flowed down, lending him an air of transcendental wisdom and austere refinement.

Nie Kong had caught sight of this man from a distance several times before; this was the current head of the Nie Clan, Nie Qingsong.

Nie Kong's gaze swept past Nie Qingsong to glance behind him. Following closely behind Nie Qingsong were three other old men. The one on the far left had a youthful, almost childlike face—that was the Ninth Elder, Nie Xingdong. The elder on the right was short and stout, rolling along like a ball of flesh as he moved. The man in the center had hair and beard as white as frost, his complexion ruddy, yet he possessed a long, horse-like face. These were the Seventh Elder, Nie Xinghai, and the Eighth Elder, Nie Longshan, who hailed from a collateral branch.

In the eighteen years Nie Kong had lived within the Nie Clan, he had personally only encountered Nie Xinghai, Nie Longshan, and Nie Xingdong among the Elders.

Of the nine Elders of the Nie Clan, the Ninth Elder, Nie Xingdong, frequently appeared as he assisted the Clan Head in managing family affairs. The Seventh Elder, Nie Xinghai, was also very active, overseeing the clan's managed commercial enterprises and shops. The Eighth Elder, Nie Longshan, regularly instructed clan members in their cultivation. Of course, those qualified to receive his guidance were basically all Spirit Masters above the Spirit Fusion realm; for the cultivation of the younger generation, those at the Spirit Transformation realm were sufficient.

The other six Elders were more elusive: the Sixth Elder, Nie Xingqiu, was female; the Fifth Elder, Nie Xingyun, managed the Alchemy Hall; the Fourth and Third Elders were perpetually away; and the Second Elder was deeply immersed in researching Spirit Patterns. All were figures rarely seen by anyone, and Nie Kong, like his predecessor, had never paid much attention to them.

The most mysterious figure in the Nie Clan was undoubtedly the Great Elder. "Chang Tian Chang Xing, Qing Feng Xiu Ling"—within this generation rubric, the Great Elder was a member of the collateral 'Tian' generation, his true name seemingly Nie Shengong. He had not shown himself for decades, reportedly in secluded cultivation somewhere in Jiyang City. External rumors claimed his cultivation had reached the Heavenly Spirit realm. Whether this rumor was true was not something a mere minnow like Nie Kong could ascertain.

What Nie Kong deeply admired was that Nie Shengong had managed to serve as the Great Elder of the Nie Clan for seventy or eighty years despite belonging to a collateral line. He had secretly estimated that Nie Shengong must be at least one hundred and fifty years old. This age would have been unbelievable in Nie Kong's previous life, but here on the Heavenly Spirit Continent, it was commonplace; old men over a hundred were ubiquitous, much like the 'Chang' generation Elders—the Second and Third Elders—both well over a century old.

"Greetings to the Clan Head and the three Elders."

Just as Nie Kong was lost in thought, Nie Qingsong and the others had reached the assembled crowd. Hundreds of young men and women bowed in unison. Nie Kong, standing straight, suddenly felt conspicuous, but he reacted quickly, bending his waist slightly as well.

Nie Qingsong waved his hand, signaling for silence. Instantly, the area outside the Hall of Life and Death fell utterly silent. All the previous clamor vanished the moment his hand moved. The gazes of the youths, even those from the vassal families, fixed upon Nie Qingsong with fervent anticipation.

Nie Kong was secretly startled. Nie Qingsong looked like the Confucian scholars of ancient times from his former life; he possessed neither a robust physique nor did he exude lofty authority. Yet, without uttering a single word, a mere gesture from him could command the entire clan, revealing the extent of his control over the Nie family.

Nie Kong could even assert with certainty that if Nie Qingsong spoke, the vast majority of the clan members present would unhesitatingly lay down their lives for the family.

"Creak!"

At this moment, the Ninth Elder, Nie Xingdong, strode forward several paces and slammed both palms fiercely against the towering hall doors. Two dense bursts of ochre-brown spirit energy exploded outward, causing the void itself to ripple like disturbed water. The spiritual energy elements from the surroundings of the Hall of Life and Death began to churn and surge. Under the watch of tens of thousands of eyes, the two tightly shut doors slowly parted, revealing a narrow sliver of space.

A harsh grinding sound vibrated against everyone's eardrums, and the gap widened further. The hundreds of youths at the entrance, and the tens of thousands of clan members a hundred meters away, could not help but stand on their tiptoes and crane their necks to peer into the Hall of Life and Death, but all that met their eyes was a blinding expanse of white light.

Nie Xingdong's hair and beard bristled, his doll-like face flushed crimson. He let out a sudden shout, his palm energy intensifying, accompanied by a powerful aura radiating from within him. For a moment, Nie Kong felt an almost suffocating pressure, while the speed at which the doors slid aside quickened.

The gap expanded by only about a meter before Nie Xingdong flipped his wide sleeve, drawing his palms back. The oppressive aura finally dissipated. Nie Kong drew a long breath, faintly noticing that Nie Xingdong was panting slightly as he withdrew his hands, though he quickly regained his composure.

To think that opening the door even slightly required such effort from Nie Xingdong, a Ninth Grade Spirit Controller, and by his expression, he seemed to have used his full strength. Nie Kong looked up at the hall doors, which stood about fifteen meters high, over ten meters wide, and a full meter and a half thick, feeling utterly astonished.

Nie Qingsong, the three Elders, and the other dozen or so Nie Clan members entered the Hall of Life and Death in sequence, leaving only two figures at the entrance to organize the youths' entry. Nie Kong was very familiar with these two: Nie Qingfeng and Nie Qinghong, the former guards of the Spirit Herb Hall. They had originally been punished for misconduct by being assigned gate duty, and it had taken pleading with the Ninth Elder several times to secure this task of patrolling the "Illusionary Realm of Life and Death," finally allowing them to escape their ordeal.

The youths entered the hall row by row. As Nie Kong stepped over the threshold, his eyes caught the faint, scaly patterns on the door, and he suddenly realized that the material of the door was Dragon Stone, the hardest and heaviest substance on the Heavenly Spirit Continent. It was a miracle the Nie family had managed to procure two such massive slabs.

Inside the hall, dozens of smooth, round stone pillars towered upwards, their surfaces carved with intricate spirit patterns. In the center of the hall rested a conical structure occupying several square meters—neither quite stone nor quite jade, yet crystalline and transparent. Its surface was also covered in dense markings, from which emanated billions of white rays of light, illuminating the hall, nearly a hundred meters long and wide, as brightly as the daylight outside.

Every Illusionary Realm required a physical vessel; that stone-like object was the vessel for the Illusionary Realm of Life and Death. Stepping into the Nie Clan's mysterious forbidden ground for the first time, Nie Kong felt like a country bumpkin entering a grand estate, his eyes darting left and right. Within this vast hall, he felt profoundly small.

Surrounding the Illusionary Realm vessel, numerous white jade cushions were arranged in a ring. On each cushion rested a small, multi-colored stone, vibrant in hue, perfectly smooth and round, only about the size of a fist. These were the key items for Spirit Masters to enter the Illusionary Realm—the Spirit Illusion Stones!

Nie Qingfeng walked to the edge of the vessel and shouted with booming authority, "Report! Take your seats—" The loud echo made everyone's ears ring. Meanwhile, the Seventh Elder Nie Xinghai and the Eighth Elder Nie Longshan had appeared at the entrance, simultaneously channeling their spirit energy. With a few distinct creaks and groans, the two massive doors slammed shut...