Chapter 19: The Nine Great Elders

  "Look, the clan leader and elders have arrived..."

  "That's seven elder, nine elder...... and eight elder......"

  "In the past few times when the first layer of the Illusory Realm was opened, only the Clan Leader and the Nine Elders appeared. This time, however, two more Elders have shown up, it seems they attach great importance to this occasion!"

  “……”

  The buzzing in the crowd suddenly grew louder.

  Nie Kong couldn't help but look around, and soon saw a dozen or so figures on the same path he had just come from. The one walking in front was an old man with a square face, about fifty years old, wearing a purple robe, with a long white beard that fluttered in the wind, giving off a somewhat immortal and elegant aura.

  This man had seen Nie Kong a few times from afar, and it was precisely Nie Qing Song, the current head of the Nie family.

  Nie Kong's gaze passed over Nie Qing Song and glanced behind him. Closely following Nie Qing Song were three old men, among whom the one on the far left had a doll-like face, precisely the Ninth Elder Nie Xing Dong. The old man on the right was short and stout, moving as if he were a meatball rolling on the ground. The person in the middle had white hair and a ruddy complexion, but had a long horse face. They were the Seventh Elder Nie Xing Hai and the Eighth Elder Nie Long Shan, who was from a collateral branch of the family.

  In total, Nie Kong had lived in the Nie residence for eighteen years, but he had only seen three elders with his own eyes: Nie Xinghai, Nie Longshan and Nie Xingdong.

  Among the nine great elders of the Nie family, the ninth elder Nie Xingdong is responsible for assisting the patriarch in handling family affairs and appears most frequently. The seventh elder Nie Xinghai oversees the management of the family's business shops and is also very active. The eighth elder Nie Longshan regularly guides the cultivation of the clan members. Of course, those who have the qualifications to receive his guidance are basically above the fusion boundary of spiritual masters, as for the cultivation of young people, having a transformation master is enough.

  The other six elders, the sixth elder Nie Xingqiu was a woman, the fifth elder Nie Xingyun managed the alchemy hall, the fourth and third elders were always outside, the second elder studied spiritual patterns in seclusion, all of them were people who only showed their heads but not their tails. Nie Kong had never seen them before, naturally, his previous incarnation also didn't pay attention to these matters.

  In the Nie family, the most mysterious one is the Great Elder. "Chang Tian Chang Xing, Qing Feng Xiū Líng", in this eight-character generation table, the Great Elder is a collateral relative of the Tian character generation, his true name seems to be called Nie Shen Gong, he has not shown his face for decades, hiding in a corner of Jicheng City closed off from the world, outsiders say that his cultivation has reached the Heavenly Spirit realm. As for whether this rumor is true or not, it's not something that someone like Nie Kong can know.

  What made Nie Kong admire was that Nie Shen Gong could become the eldest elder of the Nie family for 70 to 80 years with his collateral identity! He had secretly estimated that Nie Shen Gong was at least over 150 years old now. This age was unimaginable in Nie Kong's previous life, but it was very common on the Tianling Continent, where there were many old men over a hundred years old, just like the second and third elders of the Longevity Clan, who were all over a hundred years old.

  "Met with the clan leader and three elderly men."

  Just as Nie Kong was indulging in his wild thoughts, Nie Qing Song and the others had already walked to the front of the crowd. Hundreds of young men and women simultaneously bowed their heads in respect, making Nie Kong's straight-standing posture seem somewhat out of place; fortunately, he reacted quickly enough and hastily bent his waist slightly.

  Nie Qing Song waved his hand, making a silent gesture. In an instant, the outside of the Life and Death Hall fell silent, all the noisy sounds disappearing in the moment he waved his hand. The eyes of those young people, even including the members of the affiliated families, turned fervent as they looked at Nie Qing Song.

  Nie Kong's heart was secretly shocked, this Nie Qing looked like those Confucian scholars from ancient times, neither having a majestic physique nor revealing an air of superiority, but he didn't need any words, with just one gesture he could command the entire clan, showing his control over the Nie family.

  Nie Kong could even assert that as long as Nie Qingyun gave the word, the vast majority of the clan members here would be willing to die for the family without any hesitation.

  "Crack!"

  At this moment, the Ninth Elder Nie Xingdong took a few steps forward and slammed his palms onto the high gates of the palace. Two intense yellow-brown spiritual forces burst forth, and in an instant, the void seemed to violently ripple with waves, as if the elements of heaven and earth around the Mortal Pavilion began to churn and surge. The two tightly closed doors slowly opened a small gap under the gaze of tens of thousands of eyes.

  The intense friction sound shook everyone's eardrums, and the door gap grew larger. Hundreds of young people at the entrance of the hall, as well as tens of thousands of tribesmen hundreds of meters away, couldn't help but tiptoe and stretch their necks to look inside the Hall of Life and Death, but what entered their eyes was a vast expanse of dazzling white light.

  Nie Xingdong's hair stood on end, his doll-like face turned bright red, and he suddenly let out a loud roar. His palms' spiritual energy grew even more intense, and at the same time, a powerful aura burst forth from his body. For an instant, Nie Kong felt like he was about to suffocate, while the speed of the palace doors sliding apart accelerated further.

  The door gap only expanded about one meter, and Nie Xingdong flipped his sleeve, withdrawing his palms. The oppressive atmosphere finally dissipated, and Nie Kong took a deep breath. He vaguely saw that when Nie Xingdong withdrew his hand, he was slightly panting for a few moments, but quickly adjusted himself.

  It was unexpected that opening the door just a little would make Nie Xingdong, a ninth-grade imperial guard, somewhat laborious, and judging from his appearance, he seemed to have used all his strength. Nie Kong looked up at the two palace gates, which were about 15 meters high, over 10 meters wide, and 1.5 meters thick, with an astonishing expression in his heart.

  Nie Qing Song, the three elders and more than a dozen other members of the Nie family entered the Hall of Life and Death one after another, leaving only two people at the entrance to organize the young people entering the hall. Those two were extremely familiar to Nie Kong, they were originally the guards of the Spiritual Medicine Hall, Nie Qing Feng and Nie Qing Hong. They had been punished for their mistakes and had found the Ninth Elder several times before getting this task of patrolling the "Life and Death Arena", finally escaping their suffering.

  The young men entered the hall in rows, and when they crossed the threshold, Nie Kong looked at the dragon-scale pattern on the door, which was faintly visible, and suddenly realized that the material of this temple door was actually the hardest and heaviest dragon stone on the Tianling Continent. It was fortunate that the Nie family had found two such large pieces back then.

  Inside the hall, dozens of round stone pillars stand tall, with intricate patterns carved on their surfaces. In the center of the hall, there is a cone-shaped object that covers an area of tens of square meters, which seems to be neither stone nor jade, but crystal clear, with dense patterns carved on its surface, and millions of white rays emanating from the patterns, illuminating the long and wide hall of nearly 100 meters, making it as bright and airy as the outside daylight.

  All the Illusory Realms have a medium, and that stone-like thing is the medium of the Life and Death Illusory Realm. The first time he entered the mysterious forbidden land of the Nie family, Nie Kong was like Liu Xianglian entering the Grand View Garden, his eyes darting left and right, and in this grand hall, he felt extremely small.

  Around the fantasy realm, a large number of white jade-made meditation cushions were arranged in a circular shape. On each cushion was placed a small seven-colored stone, with bright colors and a smooth surface, only the size of a fist. They are the key items for the spiritual masters to enter the fantasy realm - the Fantasy Spirit Stones!

  Nie Qingfeng walked to the edge of the Phantom Realm and shouted loudly, "Registration, take your seats——" The loud echo shook everyone's ears, while the Seventh Elder Nie Xinghai and Eighth Elder Nie Longshan appeared at the entrance of the hall, simultaneously operating their spiritual power. After a few creaks, the two large doors slammed shut...

  ……