[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl":3,"chapter-the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-chapter-499":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Great Jin's Most Iron Rice Bowl",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1897273,2531,"Chapter 499: Mirage","the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-chapter-499",499,"\u003Cp>When placed in a new environment, the safest way to protect oneself is to quickly integrate into it—adapting to local customs and following established habits and rules.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi, currently within Ghost Realm Fortress, was undoubtedly an outlier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To hide herself to the greatest extent, her behavior and demeanor had to approximate those of the true Lady Chi Yan as closely as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who recognize the times are heroes; she was not ignorant of this principle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had this been any other situation, she would have unhesitatingly adapted to circumstances to preserve herself wisely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet at this moment, controlling low-ranking ghost races and turning them into 'food' to allow her attending ghosts to 'feast'...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This overt, matter-of-fact practice of stripping the weak of their lives to nourish the strong filled her with instinctive repulsion!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ringing the Nightmare Bell was, indeed, the safest and most secure choice for her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, she did not wish to, nor could she.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was not a true ghost; how could she endorse such a naked law of the jungle where the strong devour the weak?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was not the real Lady Chi Yan, incapable of slaughtering low-ranking ghosts to sustain the spirits serving beside her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was not because she was particularly noble, but rather because it touched upon her principles as a human and the bottom line of her conduct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Principles and bottom lines were actually vague concepts to Hua Changxi, yet at this moment, she was exceptionally clear-headed; some things simply could not be done!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not that she could not kill ghosts, but that she could not endorse this method of killing which involved 'plundering the weak to feed others'.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today, facing the ghost race, killing some low-ranking ghosts to sustain ghost servants in exchange for her own safety seemed unnecessary to elevate to the level of principles and bottom lines, and could even be called a 'clever' approach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, an action does not change its essence based on the identity of its target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Plunder is plunder!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slaughter is slaughter!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If one day the environment changed and, under similar predicaments, the targets she faced became humans?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Would she also slaughter and plunder the lives of others for the sake of her own safety?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once this precedent was set, today's ghosts would become tomorrow's humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If today, for self-preservation, she endorsed this ghostly law of 'the strong devouring the weak,' tomorrow she might truly become a ghost clad in human skin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as she had never forgotten that her previous life was that of a modern person, she had not, by throwing herself into ancient times, truly transformed herself into an ancient person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was human, not a ghost!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, Hua Changxi's thoughts were clearer than ever before; things that had been somewhat vague in her heart seemed to have solidified.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Jingle bell~\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Nightmare Bell rang, yet the sound did not spread beyond Lady Tower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ghost servants inside the tower heard the bell and first felt joy, but immediately afterward, the light of joy in their eyes suddenly turned empty and wooden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the next instant, all ghost servants within the tower collapsed, falling into the nightmare of a 'feast'.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lady Tower effectively blocked external scrutiny; Hua Changxi paid no further attention to the sleeping ghost servants and continued to examine everything inside the tower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lady Tower had five floors; the first floor was the residence of the ghost servants, nothing worth seeing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second floor resembled an office for handling affairs, storing numerous books recording the deeds of the Nine Netherworlds, as well as some common cultivation techniques of the Nine Netherworlds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The third floor was the treasury, holding many ghost artifacts, various exotic flowers and rare herbs of the Nine Netherworlds, and a large quantity of Nether Stones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nether Stones were the universal currency of the Nine Netherworlds, much like Spirit Stones in the mortal world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The difference between Spirit Stones and Nether Stones lay in this: Spirit Stones contained heavenly and earthly spiritual qi, whereas Nether Stones sealed impure, yin, and obscure heavenly and earthly turbid qi, namely Nether Qi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nether Qi was not a single type of gas but was woven together from multiple evil auras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It included yin qi that was bone-chillingly cold and eroded the divine soul; ghost qi that entangled one with resentment and triggered obsessions; as well as violent murderous qi, death qi that devoured yang energy, and filthy killing qi mixed within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These auras tangled together, proving extremely poisonous to living beings of the mortal world, yet for the various races of the Nine Netherworlds, they were indispensable energy for cultivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Hua Changxi's view, so-called Nether Qi was simply a mixture of various negative energies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Merely picking up a Nether Stone, Hua Changxi immediately felt the yin cold and violent auras surging within the rock; in an instant, her mood became restless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi quickly put down the Nether Stone and continued upstairs to investigate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fourth floor was where Lady Chi Yan cultivated; the furnishings were gloomy and bizarre, exuding an air of grimness and strangeness everywhere, with formations for condensing ghost qi and refining souls carved into the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Evil auras rushed toward her face; Hua Changxi did not linger at all and continued upward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fifth floor was where Lady Chi Yan lived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Lady Chi Yan's living quarters, Hua Changxi discovered two excellent items.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One was a white bone storage artifact shaped like a skull with an extremely large internal space; Hua Changxi used this white bone skull to sweep clean everything stored on the second and third floors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other item was a black bone flute one chi in length.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bone used to make this flute was no ordinary material; it was refined from the throat bone of a Ghost Chariot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ghost Chariot was a fierce bird of the Nine Netherworlds, brutal by nature, fond of devouring souls; its cry was mournful and bizarre, capable of easily shaking the listener's divine soul or even shattering it directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment Hua Changxi saw the bone flute, she recalled that among the Twelve Styles of Soul Control, there was a style called 'Soul-Seizing Melody'.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To cast this technique, one required a specific soul artifact musical instrument as a medium to transform soul power into invisible sonic blades.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This bone flute, refined from the throat bone of a Ghost Chariot, naturally possessed a fierce nature that intimidated the divine soul, making it undoubtedly an excellent vessel for playing the 'Soul-Seizing Melody'.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Caressing the cold bone flute, unable to bear putting it down, Hua Changxi immediately made a decision, forcing out a drop of essence blood to merge with the flute, completely refining it without delay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the bone flute, she, capable of playing the 'Soul-Seizing Melody', would have one more measure of self-protection while traveling through the Nine Netherworlds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having acquired treasures, Hua Changxi was in an excellent mood; she walked to the window and pushed open the carved lattice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the height of the fifth floor, it was not enough to overlook the magnificent panorama of the entire Ghost Realm Fortress, but most of the street scenery in the North Gate area could be taken in at a glance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the streets below, indistinct ghost shadows darted beneath dim green lantern light; low-rise buildings stood in dense rows, and occasionally sharp roars echoed, outlining the chaos and clamor of the lower regions of Ghost Realm Fortress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hua Changxi did not linger her gaze on the scenes below but instead looked up at those floating islands in the sky above, her eyes flashing continuously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through Lady Chi Yan's memories, she learned many things she had not known before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Four Spirit Realm, with the Nine Heavens above, the Nine Netherworlds below, and the mortal world in between, was a vast world possessing a complete operational order of the Three Realms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When heaven and earth first opened and the realms initially formed, the clear qi rose while the turbid qi sank, creating the Nine Heavens and the Nine Netherworlds respectively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Nine Heavens possess nine layers of heavenly palaces, just as the Nine Netherworlds possess nine layers of earthly abysses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the Nine Heavens symbolize order and light, resembling an upright nine-tiered pyramid climbing ever upward, then the Nine Netherworlds represent chaos and disorder, like an inverted nine-tiered pyramid plunging downward and overturning everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The location where she currently stood was the first layer of the Nine Netherworlds, also its vastest and most boundless territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As one of the largest dominant races in the Nine Netherworlds, the Ghost Race's central city—Ghost Realm Fortress—directly connected to all nine layers of the earthly abysses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, one could fall from the first layer of the Nine Netherworlds into the second, third, and deeper abysses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The islands she now saw floating high in the sky, though appearing to hover aloft, were in truth an inverted illusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those islands, much like mirages, were 'small ghost domains' (training grounds) established by powerful ghost clans within the second and third layers of the Nine Netherworlds' earthly abysses.\u003C\u002Fp>",1515,"2026-06-12T02:51:24.126Z",1,"Qwen3.5 397B","59d4347fc360c28a60e3d5f6d381e71cd50348fcdb36211168516b318609012f","the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-chapter-500","the-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-chapter-498",558,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-great-jin-s-most-iron-rice-bowl-cover.jpg"]