The Chu family, an extermination, a little girl, settling down in Songhai...
Excluding his father, who had no business being there, when all this information was put together, wasn't it the Chu family massacre? Could the young girl speaking in the dream be the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter?!
Sitting up with a turn, Zhang Yuanqing fell into confusion once again—not like an old ox stuck motionless in a bog, but like high-speed particles violently colliding in an accelerator.
Dreaming of the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter was a bit odd, but not incomprehensible. After all, they were good friends and old acquaintances.
Besides, the Palace Master was a sweet-voiced, soft-bodied beauty who often made flirtatious jokes with him. As a normal man, dreaming about her once in a while was entirely natural.
Yet why would his father appear?
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter and his late father were two people who had absolutely nothing in common—they couldn't be connected even by a ten-foot pole.
Zhang Yuanqing carefully recalled the scenes from the dream and found them exceptionally vivid. Even after waking, the images remained frozen in his mind as if he had personally experienced them.
Moreover, he had experienced it from a first-person perspective—from the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter's point of view.
It didn't feel like a dream at all. It felt much more like a fragment of memory.
Yes, a memory fragment!
As a Star Official who had devoured countless spiritual bodies, Zhang Yuanqing knew this feeling all too well.
So here came the question: why would a memory fragment belonging to the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter end up inside him?
Could it be... Zhang Yuanqing's heart suddenly trembled as a daring thought crossed his mind, causing the hair on his back and arms to stand on end.
"What's wrong?"
Guan Ya sat up with him, frowning with a mix of tension and concern.
Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath. "It's nothing... nothing."
He suppressed the thought in his mind and shook his head at Guan Ya, indicating that he was fine.
"Shall we get up and have breakfast now, then?" Guan Ya asked tentatively.
"No, you shouldn't ask like that. That doesn't fit your personality, Sister Guan Ya," Zhang Yuanqing said solemnly.
Guan Ya was taken aback. "What do you mean?"
Zhang Yuanqing immediately grinned lecherously. "You should ask: 'Hubby, do you want breakfast, or do you want abalone?'"
"Oh, so you want abalone. I'll go tell the bunny girl..." Sensing trouble, Guan Ya quickly tossed aside the covers to slip away.
Zhang Yuanqing fiercely pounced, pinning her down, and chuckled mischievously:
"This Heavenly Venerable not only wants to eat abalone, but also treat you to some sausage."
Guan Ya hurriedly assumed a defensive posture, curling up face-down on the bed with her back to him, guarding her chest as she giggled:
"Is it cured sausage from Du?"
Zhang Yuanqing fumed, "Pah! It's Qiudaolin smoked red sausage!"
***
By the small dining table in the living room, Xie Lingxi, wearing a pair of high-tech over-ear headphones, flushed red and spat:
"Disgusting couple!"
Gritting her teeth, she poked the bottom of her bowl several times with her porcelain spoon. "I'll chop up that red sausage and boil that abalone!"
Beside her, Queen, who was sipping millet porridge, raised her eyebrows sharply:
"Are the two of them doing shameless exercises in the bedroom again?"
*This won't do. I have to put an immediate stop to this moral degeneration.*
Little Green Tea wrinkled her nose. "That woman Guan Ya is truly formidable. She seduces Brother Yuanshi while keeping him on the hook without giving in. She's mastered the art of teasing and playing hard to get—utterly shameless! I'm simply no match for her."
If Brother Yuanshi ever climbed into her bed, she would probably whimper a bit and give in after half-hearted resistance.
Clearly, she still needed to cultivate her skills.
Hearing this, Queen breathed a sigh of relief. "Then that's fine. Only like this do we stand a chance."
Her greatest worry was Guan Ya shamelessly rolling around in the sheets with Yuanshi. If Yuanshi poured all his energy into Guan Ya time after time, he wouldn't have the drive to fool around with other women.
Then she wouldn't have a prayer.
Teasing was great! The better Guan Ya was at stringing him along, the more frustrated Yuanshi would be. When the time came, all it would take was a little flirting from her, and she could snatch her best friend's man away.
Xie Lingxi made a bitter face. "But every time I hear them making out, I feel like I'm wearing a giant green hat! Curse them!!"
On the other side of the dining table, Commandery Princess Yinyao sat gracefully, her eyes glued to a tablet that was playing a Qing dynasty palace drama.
Hearing Xie Lingxi's grumbling, Commandery Princess Yinyao drew a palm-sized megaphone from her pocket. The next second, a mature woman's voice came from the speaker:
"You can slip poison into her food, or leak her coordinates to demonic path cultivators during an operation, or hire assassins to eliminate her. There are plenty of ways.
"Get rid of her, and you can take her place as the principal wife."
The small megaphone was a magical item Xie Lingxi had gifted her. It could convert the user's thoughts into spoken audio—a minor tool of the Musician class.
It lacked offensive power and served a single function, making it ideal for the mute Commandery Princess Yinyao.
The dining area fell dead silent.
Li Chunfeng, who had been eating with his head down to avoid the women's infighting, raised his head in horror and stared at the noble princess.
"Princess, your train of thought is exceedingly dangerous!" Little Green Tea was thoroughly shaken.
"That is how my mother handled concubines back home," Commandery Princess Yinyao stated through the speaker serenely. "Father would occasionally get angry, but what could he do? Concubines are no different from household servants; their lives and deaths are decided entirely by the lady of the house."
Li Chunfeng couldn't help chiming in:
"Then have you considered that, in reality, perhaps... based on their current relationship, Xie Lingxi and Queen are the concubines?"
Silence descended upon the dining room once again.
Commandery Princess Yinyao's synthesized voice instantly turned pitiful: "You poor things."
Xie Lingxi, Queen: "..."
***
After breakfast, although Zhang Yuanqing hadn't eaten any abalone, he had suckled at the child's granary and held the child's bowls, leaving him thoroughly satisfied.
Returning to his room, he dialed the mobile number of Xie Lingxi's father. Once the call connected, he immediately entered Night Travel.
This would block the sound of the call and prevent that girl Xie Lingxi from eavesdropping.
"Nephew, is Lingxi behaving herself in Songhai?" Xie Su's rich, gentle laughter sounded through the speaker.
"Very well-behaved. She just rejected a suggestion to poison my girlfriend or hire assassins to kill her. I think Lingxi is a kind-hearted girl," Zhang Yuanqing replied with hearty laughter of his own.
Xie Su's laugh instantly turned awkward. "Sigh, that girl Lingxi was spoiled rotten by her mother growing up."
Then, Zhang Yuanqing heard a soft, seductive voice protesting in the background: "Master, don't talk nonsense! I teach Lingxi every day to be a proper, upright girl~"
*Is this Xie Lingxi's mother? Her voice is lovely, but it definitely reeks of green tea...* Zhang Yuanqing evaluated silently.
"Clan Leader Xie, there's something I'd like to ask you," Zhang Yuanqing cut to the chase.
"What is it?"
"I recall that Musicians govern conception and life, and high-level rule-based items like Mother Goddess's Womb can even bring the dead back to life. If... well, if someone's soul were shattered and dispersed, could you restore it?" Zhang Yuanqing held his breath as soon as he asked.
Xie Su fell silent for a moment before answering:
"Many conditions would need to be met. For example, I would need to be present on the spot. For another, not too much of the soul could be lost... If the conditions align and the environment allows, I could piece the soul back together. With specific items, I could repair it. Without those items..."
Xie Su pondered briefly, then continued, "Then I wouldn't be able to repair it. Even if I paid an immense price, I could only stitch it together."
*Stitch...* Sitting by the desk, Zhang Yuanqing slumped against the back of his chair, staring blankly.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he heard Xie Su tentatively ask, "Nephew?"
Zhang Yuanqing drew a deep breath, composed his emotions, and asked:
"What kind of immense price do you mean?"
"For example, falling in realm!" Xie Su said.
"..." Zhang Yuanqing raised a hand and pressed it to his forehead.
After several seconds of silence, he said in a low voice, "I understand. Thank you for clarifying, Uncle Xie."
Hanging up, he placed his phone on the desk and slumped back, remaining expressionless and silent for a long time.
After what felt like ages, he picked up the phone again and sent a message to the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter:
*Want to meet tonight?*
After sending it, he waited patiently. More than ten minutes later, her reply finally arrived:
*Alright! Midnight, the old place.*
Zhang Yuanqing put away his phone and got up to leave the room.
Today was the fifth day. He needed to take a trip to Du, the capital of Soup Province.
***
At noon, Zhang Yuanqing downed an entire pot of light, fresh chicken soup in Du, then left with deep satisfaction, rubbing his round, full belly.
He was exceptionally vigilant this time: he first checked his physiognomy with the Ghost Mirror, then checked into a hotel by the hour to divine today's itinerary using the Daluo Astrolabe. Only after receiving feedback that everything was calm and smooth did he hold his head high and take a taxi toward the House of Ten Thousand Treasures.
In a rundown alley with the feel of the last century, Zhang Yuanqing—having draped on the Flawless Human Skin to completely alter his appearance and karmic ties—dived straight through the locked iron-grille door into the cramped, cluttered convenience store.
Beside the shelves directly facing the doorway, Lian Sanyue was taking inventory.
She wore an open-collared brown leather jacket over a black tube top, paired with slim-fit cropped trousers. Her look was crisp and fashionable, exuding intense aggressiveness.
One glance was enough to tell she was an assertive, dominant woman—a true boss-level figure.
If she held a cigar between her fingers, she would look even more like a mafia queenpin.
Seeing a customer enter, Lian Sanyue glanced over and let out a chuckle:
"Right on time."
Zhang Yuanqing glanced around. Seeing no one else in the shop, he asked:
"Do you have an answer to my inquiry?"
Lian Sanyue pulled her gaze back and spoke while tidying the cluttered shelves:
"I made inquiries with an elder of the Zhu family. The previous owner of the Zoo was a Night Walker—or rather, belonged to the Night Walker class. He was at least at the Dominator stage. When that elder knew him, he was already a Dominator, though his exact level was unknown."
*That makes sense. If he wasn't a Dominator, how could he own the Zoo, and how could he form a connection with the Zoo's artifact spirit?* Zhang Yuanqing asked:
"Who was he?"
"A man named Zhang Tianshi."
*Zhang Tianshi... Surnamed Zhang...* Zhang Yuanqing furrowed his brows and fell into silent contemplation.
"Zhang Tianshi" was likely his father's Spirit Realm ID. After all, no Spirit Realm Walker would roam the pugilistic world under their real name. As for why the Zoo's artifact spirit knew his father's real name, that wasn't hard to understand.
To give a simple example, the Ghost Bride knew his real name and even his home address.
If the Red Dancing Shoes were slightly more intelligent, they would know too.
The same went for the Elvis Speaker.
A Spirit Realm Walker could hide their real identity from outsiders, but not from natal items they spent day and night with.
"What other information is there?" Zhang Yuanqing weighed his words, then asked, "For example, how did that Zhang Tianshi die, and when did he die?"
If his father was a Night Walker, he couldn't possibly have died in a car accident.
Lian Sanyue shook her head. "The exact time isn't clear; only a rough window can be determined: at the earliest twenty years ago, and at the latest fifteen years ago. Because fifteen years ago, I already knew that Elder Dog of the Songhai Branch possessed that rule-based item."
*That tells me basically nothing. I can tell you with absolute certainty that my dad died fifteen years ago...* Zhang Yuanqing remembered starting elementary school at age six, the very year his father died in a car crash.
He was twenty-one now—exactly fifteen years.
*Still, the timing is awfully close. Did Elder Dog obtain the Zoo right after my dad died? That doesn't make sense. The intervals between instances for Dominators are very long. There's no reason why the Zoo would return to the Spirit Realm, and Elder Dog would just happen to enter an instance right then—and the exact instance where the Zoo was located, no less...* Zhang Yuanqing mused inwardly.
"When did that Elder Dog become an elder in the Songhai Branch?" he asked.
If Lian Sanyue didn't know or wanted to charge for it, he could simply ask Fu Qingyang when he returned.
"Not sure, but it should be over fifteen years." Lian Sanyue picked up a tilted alarm clock, blew the dust off it, placed it upright, and said:
"Any other questions? If not, settle the remaining balance."
*Over fifteen years... That means before my dad died, Elder Dog was already in Songhai. It's entirely possible their paths crossed!* Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment and asked:
"You mentioned the Zhu family earlier? The Zhu family of the Three Families of Life? How did that elder come to know Zhang Tianshi?"
"No idea," Lian Sanyue shook her head at first, then said, "But when mentioning Zhang Tianshi, that elder recounted some old matters. He said Zhang Tianshi and Chu Shang of the Chu family were bosom friends, and both were once members of a formidable, renowned organization.
"The Zhu family and the Chu family are both Musician clans, so Chu Shang often visited the Zhu family as a guest, and sometimes Zhang Tianshi accompanied him. Back then, many young girls of the Zhu family secretly fancied the two of them.
"Oh right, Chu Shang later became the head of the Chu family, and was also the last head of the Chu family. About twenty-one years ago, the Chu family was exterminated."
*So that's how it is... So that's how it is...* Zhang Yuanqing repeated to himself over and over.
"You said earlier they were both members of an organization. What organization?" Zhang Yuanqing reeled in his straying thoughts.
"Xiaoyao!" she said. "If you want intelligence on the Xiaoyao organization, that will be another two hundred thousand."
"Not for now, thanks," Zhang Yuanqing politely declined.
He could easily look it up in the official database. As long as it was an organization of any renown, the official database would definitely have clearer and more detailed records. There was no need to throw away two hundred thousand.
Two hundred thousand could buy an electric car without brakes.
Without further ado, Zhang Yuanqing paid the remaining two hundred and fifty thousand and left the House of Ten Thousand Treasures.
***
By the time he took a flight back to Songhai, it was already three-thirty in the afternoon.
Inside the small villa, Li Chunfeng sat at the stone table in the courtyard, leisurely sipping coffee while reading a book.
A stack of books sat piled on the stone table.
"Reading, are you? Lend them to me when you're free. It's been a while since I had classes; I feel like I should take some time to swim in the ocean of knowledge." Zhang Yuanqing leaned in to take a closer look.
*Quantum Mechanics*, *Origin of the Universe*, *Atomic Physics*, *Chemistry*, *Pharmacology*, *Code World*...
"On second thought, I can skip this swim..." Zhang Yuanqing muttered, quietly brushing past him.
A few minutes later, he came out of the house and returned to the small courtyard, asking:
"Where are the others?"
"Guan Ya and the Commandery Princess went next door to spar in physical techniques. Xie Lingxi and Queen went along to cheer them on," Li Chunfeng said without taking his eyes off his book.
"Cheering for whom?"
Li Chunfeng turned to look at him. "What do you think?"
With a serious expression, Zhang Yuanqing said:
"Brother Li, you're a Scholar—erudite, well-read, knowledgeable, and wise from books. In your opinion, how should I manage the relationships among my team members?"
Li Chunfeng thought for a few seconds before answering:
"Competition is an animal's instinct, especially when it comes to competing for a mate. There is no relationship or sentiment in the world that can stop that kind of competition—not even kinship. To safeguard his mating rights, a male lion will drive his grown offspring out of the pride. Among humans, examples of brothers, sisters, or even fathers and sons competing for mates are hardly rare.
"If you want to solve this problem once and for all, it's actually very simple: as long as the party being fought over loses the thing the contenders desire, all conflicts will be resolved seamlessly."
Zhang Yuanqing listened, completely dumbfounded. "What do you mean?"
"In short, four words." Li Chunfeng sank his qi to his dantian and concentrated force on the tip of his tongue: "Castrate for lasting peace!"
"?"
***
Midnight.
Across from the Kangyang District Police Station, the lights in the coffee shop shone brightly, and the doors stood wide open.
A streak of dreamlike starlight rose from the shop entrance, condensing into a tall, handsome young man.
Zhang Yuanqing stepped into the shop and glanced around.
Behind the counter, a young woman in an exquisite red dress was intently brewing coffee.
She wore a silver mask that concealed half her face. When she settled her mind to work, she possessed a quiet, peaceful serenity, radiating a gentle elegance.
"Heh, by my calculations, it was about time you missed me," the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter said with a beaming smile. "Isn't that right, my little paramour?"
She seemed to be in a good mood, looking every bit like someone brewing coffee to entertain her lover.
Zhang Yuanqing walked over to the counter and stared at her in silence.
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter kept her head lowered, smiling enchantingly:
"I heard about your encounter last night from Xie Lingxi. Not bad—you're becoming more and more capable of holding your own. Once you advance to Dominator, this seat shall appoint you master of the harem to govern all my male paramours on my behalf."
Zhang Yuanqing looked at her in silence for a long while before speaking:
"Palace Master, did you know me a very long time ago?"
The Palace Master of Halting Slaughter froze.
Chapter 397