Chapter 114: A Resounding Victory, Lightly Plucking Ning Zhuo's Head

Several days later.

Ning Zhuo’s soul entered the Immortal Palace.

He quickly assembled his body and stepped down from the mound of mechanism parts.

"The Thread of Human Life..." He walked slowly, sensing it carefully.

As the prototype of his divine ability grew stronger, his perception of the Thread of Human Life hovering above his head became much more profound.

"Every time I transmit energy through the Thread of Human Life, there is a loss. Now, as I channel the power of my Buddha-Heart Demon Seal, the loss along the thread will be significantly less than before."

"Ning Zhuo is here."

"Look at his head; it really is huge!"

"Hmph, making us all wait for him—he’s really putting on airs!"

The puppets gathered around the first portal, whispering to each other as they watched Ning Zhuo approach.

The others were already in position; Ning Zhuo was the last to arrive.

Ning Zhuo looked at them as well.

There were five from the Zhou clan, two from the Zheng clan, and for the Ning clan, there was only himself—one person.

"The three major families are starting to exert their influence. Soon, more and more people will be sending their souls into the Immortal Palace."

Ning Zhuo sighed inwardly.

Once the number of people reached a certain scale, the mechanical traps he had set up would become increasingly ineffective, eventually failing to withstand the sheer numbers and being overwhelmed by human wave tactics.

Compared to the three major families, Ning Zhuo was isolated and at a significant disadvantage.

Under the gaze of many puppets, Ning Zhuo walked to the door, touched the frame, and selected the hanging ring.

"Next, we need to combine our efforts to get past the traps guarding the door," Ning Zhuo said.

The Zheng clan cultivators nodded, but the Zhou clan members refused: "The five of us are enough; there is no need to combine with you!"

"We will go through first; you just follow behind!"

"Haha, after all, our Zhou clan has the most people!"

Although Ning Zhuo was the nominal leader, the Zhou clan cultivators were compliant only in appearance, disobeying his orders in secret.

Just as Ning Xiaoren had anticipated, the Zhou clan cultivators were attempting to diminish Ning Zhuo's influence.

Yet, they acted as if they were taking the burden for the group and racing to clear the way, making it difficult for Ning Zhuo to say anything openly.

However, Ning Zhuo had been prepared for this long ago.

With a thought, a teleportation portal appeared out of thin air.

The portal shimmered, and the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, descended.

"What is that?"

The Zheng clan cultivators were the first to cry out.

"Who are you?" All the Zhou clan cultivators were terrified; some even had trembling voices.

"Everyone, disperse quickly and surround it!" Ning Zhuo shouted, acting with great valor.

"Wait, wait!"

Seeing that Ning Zhuo was about to order an attack, the Zhou clan cultivators hurriedly stopped him.

"There’s something strange about this; don't move!"

"Calm down, calm down! Everyone, please, stay calm."

The Zhou clan cultivators had suffered a bitter defeat before and knew exactly how powerful Yuan Da Sheng was.

They were not in the same league as it; once a fight broke out, they would be finished.

The puppets of the three families stood on guard, staring fixedly at Yuan Da Sheng.

Yuan Da Sheng had golden bones and skin, with countless pitch-black stripes covering its body, giving it a menacing aura.

The injuries it sustained during its previous run had been temporarily repaired by Ning Zhuo.

Although its associated abilities were greatly diminished, it looked exactly as it had before.

In the end, the three families' puppets scattered, vaguely surrounding Yuan Da Sheng, but no one dared to strike.

Yuan Da Sheng scanned the crowd, ignored them, and walked straight toward the first door.

The next moment, it pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Long spears shot out from the walls simultaneously, but Yuan Da Sheng easily deflected them.

A heavy hammer swung down from above, but Yuan Da Sheng caught it with a light touch and tossed it into the corner.

Then, Yuan Da Sheng lifted the heavy hammer and reset the mechanical trap.

It continued forward, leaping between walls and obstacles as if it were wandering happily through a mountain forest.

Everyone watching through the cracks in the door fell silent.

"What is going on with this mechanical ape?"

Ning Zhuo looked at the Zhou clan cultivators, "You seem to know something."

The Zhou clan cultivators flatly denied it.

One said: "Don't you see? This ape mechanism is clearly different from us. We gained the ability to act by assembling parts."

"But this mechanical ape was teleported directly inside."

Another Zhou clan cultivator added: "Look at us; we all have wooden bodies, but look at it—it is clearly a level above us."

"If we really try to surround and attack it, we will surely lose more than we win."

The Zheng clan cultivators stared at Yuan Da Sheng in the second room, deeply puzzled: "But why did this mechanical ape appear?"

"Perhaps..." Ning Zhuo mused, "Perhaps the Three Sects' masters set it up specifically to teach us."

"Look at this mechanical ape; it clearly has the strength to pass through the second room, yet it keeps jumping between the traps, as if it is playing, or perhaps teaching us how to clear the obstacles?"

Hearing Ning Zhuo's words, everyone's eyes lit up.

A Zheng clan cultivator slapped his thigh: "That seems to be it."

The Zhou clan cultivators remained silent. Since the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, had wiped them out once, they had been actively researching and theorizing upon returning to their family.

Their first guess was that Yuan Da Sheng was a Fire-Melting Demon Ape from Mount Huoshi that had successfully cultivated after hearing the Law-Transmission Bell, sent its soul into the Immortal Palace, and assembled an ape body to compete for the inheritance of the Lava Immortal Palace.

But the flaw in this guess was obvious: the mechanism parts in the first room were all made of the same wood.

The materials used for the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, were clearly different.

Later, they theorized whether this was a feature of the Lava Immortal Palace itself.

When the challengers reached a certain standard—such as a certain number of people—would the Lava Immortal Palace deploy such a mechanical ape to intercept them?

They had also considered whether it was still a competitor, an妖 cultivator, who had been allowed to change their puppet body in the later stages of the Lava Immortal Palace.

Beyond that, there were all sorts of other guesses!

The appearance of the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, was similar to how it looked in life, but it was hard for others to make the connection.

Because in the eyes of many, monkeys basically all looked the same.

They were even face-blind when it came to people of different races.

After today, everyone had seen with their own eyes that Yuan Da Sheng was teleported in, not that its soul had entered the Immortal Palace.

This caused some of the Zhou clan's original theories to stand out.

In the Main Hall.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit kept moving its chin, grinding its teeth.

It snorted through its nostrils, anxious and angry, occasionally clenching its fist and smashing it against the armrest of the throne.

It knew the truth better than anyone.

Watching Ning Zhuo use Yuan Da Sheng in public while keeping everyone in the dark—even having some of the informed Zhou clan cultivators cover for him—was infuriating.

Idiots!

A bunch of idiots!

Not a single clever one among them.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit grew angrier the more it watched.

Yet, it couldn't say a word.

So angry was it that the entire Lava Immortal Palace began to tremble.

At the summit of Mount Huoshi.

Amidst the swirling clouds and mist.

City Lord Meng Kui opened his eyes immediately. Seeing the Lava Immortal Palace about to erupt again, he sighed helplessly, his expression turning serious, ready to activate the grand array to suppress the turmoil at any moment.

Ning Zhuo watched Yuan Da Sheng through the crack in the door.

After Yuan Da Sheng's consciousness became self-sufficient, its reactions were much sharper than before.

Facing complex obstacles and traps, the solutions it chose had also become more varied.

It was no longer as monotonous as before.

It was as if it had truly come alive.

However, in Ning Zhuo's perception, his control over Yuan Da Sheng still felt like there was a thick layer of grey cloth between them, very sluggish.

"This mechanical ape keeps staying in the second room, neither moving forward nor backward, as if it's playing with these traps."

"Let's continue; ignore it for now," Ning Zhuo said.

The Zhou clan cultivators hesitated, "The traps at the entrance have reset; we need to combine to withstand them."

"If we enter the second room and are attacked by the ape, what should we do?"

Ning Zhuo shrugged: "We can't just try nothing this time, can we? Staying here until our soul power is exhausted is worse than taking a gamble!"

This statement met with strong agreement from the two Zheng clan cultivators.

The Zhou clan cultivators looked at each other and finally nodded: "The five of us will form a combination; you follow behind."

"If the mechanical ape comes to attack us, please be sure to hold it off so that we can try to split back into individuals."

Combining into a huge mechanical puppet significantly reduced their combat effectiveness.

Ning Zhuo agreed to the Zhou clan's plan.

The large Zhou clan puppet squeezed through the entrance, endured the wall spears, deflected the heavy hammer, and cleared away the ground nets, clearing the traps at the door.

Seeing that Yuan Da Sheng did not attack, the Zhou clan cultivators breathed a sigh of relief: "Come in."

Thus, Ning Zhuo and the other two pushed the door open and entered with great ease.

Just then, Yuan Da Sheng let out a low roar and suddenly turned, killing its way toward the group.

The Zhou clan cultivators were terrified; some wanted to fight back, some wanted to turn and run, and some decided to hold their ground, which caused the Zhou clan's combined puppet to spin in circles.

Yuan Da Sheng crashed into them like a falling meteor, smashing them apart.

"It really is going to attack!"

Ning Zhuo let out a low shout and lunged forward, acting with great bravery.

Yuan Da Sheng reached out, plucked off Ning Zhuo's puppet head, and threw it directly into the nearest mechanical trap.

This scene was seen clearly by everyone.

Bang, bang, bang...

Yuan Da Sheng's punches were incredibly heavy, knocking out all the puppets one by one and defeating them completely.

The cultivators had no choice but to let their souls return to their physical bodies.

Yuan Da Sheng jumped down into the trap, retrieved Ning Zhuo's head, and reattached it to the puppet body.

"Let's go!" Ning Zhuo stomped his feet, shook his hands, and began to act along with Yuan Da Sheng.

Zheng Clan.

"Why did it end so quickly?" someone asked.

The Zheng clan cultivator was serious and said impatiently: "Although we failed this time, the harvest was great. We discovered the mechanical guardian of the Lava Immortal Palace."

Zhou Clan!

New intelligence led to new perspectives.

"In that case, the mechanical monkey must be an obstacle specifically deployed by the Lava Immortal Palace when there are too many people traveling together, in order to maintain the difficulty of clearing the level."

"Yes, that is very likely."

Ning Clan.

"Why hasn't Ning Zhuo returned yet?" Ning Xiaoren wondered!

"So that's it!"

He read the reports from the other two families and understood.

"Ning Zhuo is unlucky; his puppet head was ripped off and thrown into a trap. He'll have to wait until his soul power is exhausted before he can return."

Ning Xiaoren sighed.

Meanwhile, outside Mount Huoshi.

Two black-clad demon cultivators stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at the Fire Persimmon Immortal City on the mountainside.

"The distress signal was sent from here."

"Heh, I didn't expect a genius like Han Ming to actually fall here."

"She usually didn't look at us with any respect. Once we rescue her this time, I'll see if she can still be so arrogant!"

End of chapter.