Chapter 103: The Clash of Fates

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Within the small cultivation chamber, layers of drifting clouds overlapped.
“Meng Chong, Meng Chong, incredible, truly incredible!” Ning Zhuo’s face was etched with solemnity.
“Truly worthy of possessing celestial talent.”
Though Meng Chong had been defeated again in this confrontation, Ning Zhuo could clearly feel the powerful impact of his force!
“Every time I push him back, he returns swiftly, his strength advancing by leaps and bounds.”
“I am like a whetstone, continuously sharpening him to greater keenness.”
If this continued, perhaps one day he would break through the barriers I set, soaring uncontrollably beyond reach.
The first battle between the Golden Blood Battle Ape, Yuan Dasheng, and Meng Chong ended in Yuan’s victory because Meng Chong had overused his celestial talent, exhausting his reserves and causing his lines to collapse.
But by the second encounter, the young challenger had mastered a deeper use of celestial talent, greatly reducing loss and accelerating parts of his body, enabling him to trade blows evenly with Yuan Dasheng.
He even began to gradually suppress Yuan Dasheng.
“This victory this time relied on magic!”
“Now that this trump card is revealed, Meng Chong will surely address it. The question is, how long will it take?”
Ning Zhuo had a premonition about this.
In truth, it was not difficult to resolve.
Meng Chong only needed to grasp some spells and counter magic with magic.
He had been fixated solely on breaking through, relying on celestial talent without mastering or connecting with the magic rewards from the checkpoints.
Ning Zhuo reviewed the results.
Yuan Dasheng bore many wounds, far more severe than in the first fight.
Since Ning Zhuo could not conveniently bring Yuan Dasheng back, he commanded him to push open the door and head to the repair chamber.
Upon arrival, Ning Zhuo had him pay with spirit stones and select various mechanical tools, repairing himself.
Yuan Dasheng sat cross-legged on the ground, holding fire-element wood in one hand and performing a grafting technique with the other.
The wood flowed like water, winding and extending, probing into each wound to fill it completely.
Ning Zhuo then aided Yuan Dasheng in casting the Fire Bath Technique, burning the wood into ashes to fill the cracks and fissures of the wounds.
This method of repair was imperfect.
Though Ning Zhuo’s previous repair methods were quite good, now, though Yuan Dasheng’s wounds were treated, black ashes marked each injury.
These charcoal-black scars were scattered across his body, adding a fierce, menacing aura.
There was no alternative.
Under the watchful eyes of the four Ning family guards, Ning Zhuo could not openly use various tools, smelt fire rocks, or create filling materials.
“Hm? The spirituality seems diminished.”
Ning Zhuo noticed an unpleasant phenomenon during the repairs.
Yuan Dasheng’s spirituality had decreased—from a solid 80% to about 79%.
A heaviness settled in Ning Zhuo’s heart: “If I rely on Yuan Dasheng to stop Meng Chong, I must find a way to replenish his spirituality.”
“Spirituality.”
Ning Zhuo knew little about this.
Although he had memorized and mastered all the knowledge in the Ning family’s library, these were all common texts, not advanced.
Spirituality involved spiritual treasures, a high-level force in the cultivation world, recorded only in secret manuals!
Pressure in Ning Zhuo’s heart mounted day by day.
He had planned for fourteen years, but now, engaging in the contest for the Lava Immortal Palace, unexpected events kept occurring, forcing him to alter plans repeatedly, step by step arriving at this predicament.
“Meng Chong is Meng Kui’s direct grandson; he must possess life-saving talismans bestowed by Nascent Soul cultivators.”
“I can’t scheme against Meng Chong as I did against Yuan Dasheng.”
“Compared to the City Lord’s Mansion, the entire Ning family is nothing; the Sou branch is just a sub-branch. If I face the City Lord’s Mansion openly, how could the Ning family support me?”
Thus, no matter how many times Meng Chong failed, he could always come back.
Meanwhile, Ning Zhuo’s energy, combat capacity, and time were heavily constrained by him, making it difficult to focus fully on exploring the Immortal Palace.
“Take this battle alone—I gained no spoils, but instead had to spend resources repairing Yuan Dasheng!”
“The only possible gain was that in a trance state, I could fully sense Yuan Dasheng’s fighting condition, deeply empathizing with the martial arts, which gave me immense inspiration.”

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“This can’t continue!”
“I will only get weaker with each fight.”
Ning Zhuo, maintaining a grand strategic view, was not deceived by the immediate victory.
With deeper reflection, his worries grew heavier.
The City Lord’s Mansion!
Meng Chong slowly opened his eyes.
His facial muscles twitched painfully—phantom pain.
In the Lava Immortal Palace, he had been burned alive; the sensation was vivid and deeply imprinted.
Meng Chong did not rise at once, his gaze somewhat vacant.
After mastering the Thunder Shadow, his consumption of the three treasures—essence, energy, and spirit—had greatly decreased.
He should have been able to sit up and move freely, yet he did not.
A wave of discouragement and disheartenment welled in his heart.
From childhood, Meng Chong had been identified with celestial talent and had always enjoyed smooth progress, never encountering such great obstacles.
Not only were they immense, but repeated.
Despite his naturally bold and spirited nature, at this moment, he could not help but feel depressed.
“The difficulty of exploring the Lava Immortal Palace is simply too great.”
He recalled the fiery, blazing mechanical monkeys and was at a loss for what to do.
Helpless and confused.
Every move he made was watched by attendants and servants.
Seeing Meng Chong’s altered state after his near demise—silent, distant—servants hurriedly reported it upward.
Meng Chong’s condition was the highest priority.
Soon, Meng Kui received the news.
His true form stood atop Fire Persimmon Mountain, eyes radiating divine light, piercing through the sky, penetrating obstacles along the way, until he saw his beloved grandson lying silent and unfocused in the room.
“Something’s wrong, let me calculate!”
Meng Kui tried divination but failed.
He immediately took out an abacus treasure, his fingers flying, consuming great magical power and spiritual insight as he flicked the beads.
The beads settled, and Meng Kui calculated Meng Chong’s fate.
“How could it be so low?”
The Nascent Soul cultivator was shocked inwardly.
To his knowledge, Meng Chong was celestial talent, with naturally abundant fate; such a low state was extremely rare.
Unlike his ancestors of the Meng family, Meng Kui’s talent was of a higher grade called “Mountainous Vision.”
This talent allowed him to stand as steadfast as a mountain. If he remained still, his own fate would stabilize, giving him a commanding vantage to observe the surroundings and the whole panorama.
Hence, he was nicknamed “Prime Minister of the Mountain Peak.”
In contests, he remained as immovable as a mountain, observing the layout and luring the enemy to attack.
His fate was steady, rarely shaken, suffering less attrition than his opponents.
This often caused enemies to exhaust themselves in prolonged assaults, revealing vulnerabilities.
Meng Kui remained motionless until the weaknesses accumulated sufficiently, then struck with full force, frequently killing the enemy in one blow and securing victory.
He had also mastered the art of calculation—a rarity.
In the cultivation world, to grasp the art of deduction requires rare spiritual roots or innate talent.
“Mountainous Vision” was such a talent; when developed to a certain degree, it allowed “observation” of glimpses of the future.
Meng Chong’s condition reminded Meng Kui of chaos in the world, a struggle among heroes.
Often, the initially most prominent dragon was not the true chosen one.
In early and mid-stage conflicts, too much firepower was drawn, dragons fought each other fiercely, and their fate was severely consumed.
The true seed of kings then seized the opportunity to grow strong, eventually consolidating power, establishing a cultivation nation.
“According to Zhu Xuanji, the Lava Immortal Palace was not yet ready to emerge.”

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“Therefore, our forcefully seizing the Immortal Palace contradicts its own fate!”
“Chong’er is currently leading, at the forefront, which causes excessive fate depletion.”
“If only we could obtain the palace’s talisman of fortune or fate, we could minimize the conflict of fate.”
With this thought, Meng Kui transmitted his voice from afar, simultaneously employing the abacus treasure to temporarily boost Meng Chong’s fate.
“Foolish boy, still not waking?”
“Ah, Grandfather.” Meng Chong’s spirit trembled, his fate restored, no longer dazed.
His gaze sharpened, a sudden inspiration flashing in his mind: “Got it.”
“I’ve thought of a way.”
“If the enemy uses magic, then I can use magic too!”
“The checkpoint rewards include the Ice Embrace Technique; I will undergo special training to master this spell and counter the monkey’s flames.”
“Hahaha.”
Meng Chong laughed heartily, suddenly rising and jumping to the ground.
He strode forward and pushed open the door: “Someone, bring me food.”
“I want to eat, eat, eat!”
“After eating, I will train, train, train.”
The servants breathed a sigh of relief.
This was the Meng Chong they remembered.
From afar, Meng Kui nodded slightly upon seeing this.
He then turned his gaze toward the clan lands of the Zhou, Zheng, and Ning families, his expression darkening.
“Chong’er’s fate is clashing and consuming with that of the Lava Immortal Palace, like two titans battling.”
“Now that the three families have allied, although fate does not simply add up, it is still easier for them to seize opportunities.”
“This must be restrained.”
The Zhou family!
Ning Zhuo was led into the treasure library.
“This is ‘The Theory of Spirituality.’ Ning Zhuo, please read it here!” a Zhou family cultivator instructed.
Ning Zhuo nodded and accepted the jade slip.
After examination, he placed the jade slip on his forehead, pouring in his divine sense to read it.
‘The Theory of Spirituality’ was not a cultivation technique nor secret art, but an encyclopedia of knowledge about spirituality.
After reading, Ning Zhuo’s eyes gleamed brightly for a long while.
His horizons broadened dramatically, a complete transformation yielding great gains.
“So much subtlety in spirituality!”
The text divided spirituality into five grades. The lowest was Non-Spiritual!
Next was Dead Spiritual.
Then came Living Spiritual.
Higher still was Intelligent Spiritual.
The highest was Divine Spiritual.
The so-called stubbornly non-spiritual was the Non-Spiritual phase, lacking any spiritual traits.
The Dead Spiritual phase was subdivided from front to back into: spiritual resonance, spiritual pattern, spiritual root, spiritual shadow, and spiritual image.
The Living Spiritual phase ranked from low to high as: spiritual star, spiritual activity, spiritual leader, spiritual motion, and spiritual sensitivity.
According to the book, Yuan Dasheng’s spirituality was at the Living Spiritual phase’s Spiritual Leader stage.
End of chapter.