At the sa ti, deep within the Velentina Clan’s ancestral hall.
The hall itself was enormous, far larger than any ordinary building should have been.
A single white pathway stretched endlessly into the distance like an endless corridor buried beneath history itself.
No one within the clan truly knew where the hall ended. Even the elders who had entered it countless tis throughout their lives had never seen its final point.
There was nothing luxurious within the ancestral hall. The surroundings were almost painfully simple.
The walls were smooth and pale white, untouched by decoration, while rows of hanging chandeliers illuminated the endless passage with dim golden light.
The deeper one looked into the hall, the more suffocating the atmosphere beca.
Countless soul tablets rested along both sides of the pathway in perfect order.
They were small rectangular plates roughly the size of an adult man’s hand, each crafted from pale spiritual jade that emitted faint traces of spiritual energy.
Every single tablet carried a na, and a life or death mark. On one of the tablets, elegant letters were engraved neatly across the surface.
7th Generation, 5th Child, Zen Velentina
Age 20 [Dead]
These were soul tablets, treasures connected directly to fragnts of the owner’s soul.
As long as the owner remained alive, the tablet would continue to exist. In so cases, the clan could even use them to determine the owner’s location or condition through secret spells.
And on certain occasions... they served another purpose.
Confirming death.
*****
The quiet sound of footsteps slowly echoed throughout the endless hall as two figures entered from the distant entrance.
The Third Elder and the Fifth Elder.
Both n wore solemn expressions while moving deeper into the ancestral hall, their robes brushing softly against the smooth white floor.
The atmosphere around them felt very heavy, as though even speaking loudly in this place would disturb the countless dead watching silently from both sides.
"I suspect this is the Fifth Young Master’s doing," the Third Elder suddenly said with a cold snort, his voice carrying obvious dissatisfaction. "Who else would benefit the most from the Second Young Master’s death?"
The Fifth Elder heard the accusation clearly, though his expression barely changed.
"The Fifth Young Master must have realized he could never compete fairly," the Third Elder continued with narrowed eyes.
"So he chose the coward’s path instead. Tsk... the Second Young Master was by far the most qualified candidate to inherit the patriarch’s seat."
The Fifth Elder nearly rolled his eyes hearing those words. Qualified? That lust-filled animal becoming patriarch?
Disgust flashed through his mind almost instantly.
The Second Young Master’s reputation within the clan was already infamous. Servants, disciples, married won, unmarried won... it did not matter to him.
As long as they were beautiful, his eyes would eventually wander toward them.
Even blood relations were not excluded from his thoughts.
The Fifth Elder still rembered the way the man’s gaze lingered on his own daughter during the previous clan banquet.
Worse still, his granddaughter had not escaped that disgusting attention either.
His own sister and his own sister’s daughter.
And that beast still dared to look at them with desire hidden in his eyes. Every ti the mory resurfaced, rage twisted violently inside the Fifth Elder’s chest.
Yet the Third Elder still spoke of him as though he were so worthy successor.
The Fifth Elder felt nothing but disgust.
If that creature truly beca patriarch, then no woman within the clan would remain safe for long.
His fingers unconsciously tightened behind his back while murderous thoughts surfaced one after another within his mind.
If circumstances allowed it, he truly wished he could cut off the Second Young Master’s manhood and force it down his throat before throwing the corpse into the clan’s beast pit.....and not any ordinary beasts either, beast that were filled with lust and would definitely make his life hell.....those kinds, he wanted the 2nd’s death to be as brutal as reality allowed it.
That hatred was not random. To the Fifth Elder, it was fully justified.
"Akk-thu!"
Unable to suppress his revulsion any longer, the Fifth Elder spat onto the floor to the side, his face darkening with loathing.
"I only hope that bastard died miserably," he muttered coldly. "The more painful the death, the better."
"Did you say sothing, Fifth Elder?"
The Third Elder’s curious voice suddenly echoed through the ancestral hall, pulling the Fifth Elder out of his thoughts.
The Fifth Elder’s expression stiffened for the briefest mont before he calmly shook his head.
"Ah... nothing," he replied while adjusting his sleeves leisurely. "I was rely thinking about who the killer could be." A faint smile appeared on his face, though the smile carried no warmth whatsoever. "Personally, I hope it was the Hayes Clan. If that turns out to be true, we might finally have an excuse to tear a few territories away from them."
"Hkakakaka!"
The Third Elder imdiately burst into laughter, the sound echoing strangely within the endless white hall.
"I was thinking the sa thing," he said with amusent. "Still, it won’t take long before we learn the truth."
As he spoke, the Third Elder slowly approached one of the enormous shelves lining the ancestral hall.
The shelves themselves stretched endlessly into the distance, each section containing soul tablets arranged according to generation and bloodline.
Pale golden light from the chandeliers flickered softly across the countless nas of the dead.
The Third Elder’s hand moved calmly across the tablets of the Thirty-Fifth Generation.
For a brief mont, his fingers paused near one particular soul tablet.
35th Generation — Rosalina Velentina
But he rely glanced at it before continuing onward without interest.
Soon, his hand stopped before another tablet.
35th Generation — Rizen Velentina
2nd Child [Dead]
The atmosphere around the two elders subtly changed.
The Third Elder slowly grabbed the soul tablet and turned toward the Fifth Elder, his old eyes narrowing slightly with anticipation.
The Fifth Elder imdiately concealed the disgust lingering within his expression before reaching into the inner layer of his robes.
From within, he carefully pulled out a small black wooden box engraved with ancient runes.
The mont the box appeared, the surrounding mana shifted faintly.
"Let us see who the culprit truly is," the Third Elder said quietly while staring at the soul tablet within his hands.
The Fifth Elder nodded silently before opening the box. Inside rested a gray ash-like substance that emitted faint traces of cold spiritual energy.
"Soul Ash," the Fifth Elder spoke solemnly.
The substance itself was ford from the remnants of shattered souls and could temporarily stimulate the lingering resentnt hidden within a soul tablet.
If the deceased carried overwhelming hatred toward their killer before death, traces of that resentnt could occasionally reveal the culprit.
Of course, the technique was unreliable.
But sotis hatred itself beca stronger than reason.
The Fifth Elder carefully grabbed a handful of the ash before raising it toward the soul tablet.
"Identify the target of this soul’s resentnt," he said coldly.
The instant the Soul Ash scattered across the tablet, the entire soul plate suddenly trembled.
An ash-brown light exploded from its surface.
Both elders narrowed their eyes imdiately.
The light grew brighter and brighter as spiritual fluctuations spread throughout the hall like invisible waves.
The surrounding soul tablets vibrated faintly in response, causing soft humming noises to echo throughout the endless corridor.
And then.....the ash-colored glow slowly began gathering above the soul tablet itself.
A distorted image started forming in midair.
The Third Elder’s eyes brightened almost instantly.
’I hope it’s the Fifth Young Master...’
If the Fifth Young Master truly killed Rizen, then the succession struggle would imdiately change.
In that case, he could abandon his previous support and shift everything toward the Sixth Young Master instead.
The Third Elder could already feel calculations rapidly moving through his mind.
The Fifth Elder, anwhile, held entirely different thoughts.
At this mont, he honestly wished to thank whoever had killed that disgusting beast. If possible, he would personally send gifts to the murderer afterward....after all the killer had done sothing generous for humanity.
"That image... it’s forming," the Third Elder suddenly muttered while staring at the growing projection....as the image started to form.
"Mm."
The Fifth Elder nodded slowly as the ash-brown light intensified violently.
The projection trembled repeatedly, as though struggling to stabilize itself. Fragnts of blurry shadows flashed one after another.
The ash-brown light flickered violently several tis before finally settling down.
Both elders instinctively leaned forward.
Their eyes remained fixed on the projection without blinking, unwilling to miss even the slightest detail.
And then ....the blurry face within the projection finally beca clear.
The mont both elders saw it, their bodies froze completely.
Their eyes widened so much it almost looked as though their eyeballs would pop out of their sockets.
Because the face appearing above the soul tablet was sothing neither of them could have imagined even in their wildest thoughts.
"...Crypian Thorne?!"
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