Chapter 142: Yuan Dasheng vs. Meng Chong (Trilogy Bout)

Lava Immortal Palace.

This was Meng Chong's first time entering the preparation room.

The five-sided stone pillar leaderboard was very conspicuous, especially since it was constantly and slowly revolving.

Meng Chong spotted the stone pillar at a glance.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit had been keeping a close eye on him. Seeing Meng Chong enter the preparation room, its half-closed eyelids widened slightly out of excitement.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was in very poor condition.

Previously, the Lava Immortal Palace had resisted a swarm attack by the Crimson Flame demonic beasts, and its situation had once been quite perilous!

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit had personally taken action, burrowing into the Daoist's puppet to control and pilot it.

After a bitter battle, it managed to turn the tide and ultimately slew that Golden Core-tier Flame-Melt Demonic Ape.

Its spiritual energy was heavily depleted, mainly because it and the Daoist's puppet creation were completely incompatible.

Even now, quite a few Crimson Flame demonic beasts were still besieging the Lava Immortal Palace. On one hand, the Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit had to organize the puppet creations to build defenses; on the other hand, it had to arrange various repairs.

Furthermore, it also had to juggle the trials for the Qi Condensation stage disciples.

Such a complex and massive workload was a long-term, continuous drain on its spiritual essence.

Even so, seeing Meng Chong walk toward the leaderboard, its mood inevitably stirred with excitement, and it transmitted a crucial message.

In an instant, a whip of flame condensed and lashed out at it.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit pulled its head and dragon claws into its tortoise shell, enduring the pain in silence.

Prompted by this, Meng Chong's spirits lifted, and he realized this was the preparation room with no great danger.

He slightly lowered his guard and walked up to the five-sided stone pillar leaderboard.

Following the hints of the Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit, Meng Chong first touched the stone pillar to acquire the trial disciple imprint.

Then, he raised his head to observe the leaderboard.

The Qi Condensation List, the Essence Condensation List, the Spirit Condensation List, the Progress List, and the Speedrun List.

Among the five leaderboards, he ranked second on the Qi Condensation List, the Progress List, and the Speedrun List.

Meng Chong's name was nowhere to be found on the Essence Condensation List and the Spirit Condensation List.

Indignation welled up in Meng Chong's heart. Ever since he was a child, he had always seized first place.

He possessed immortal talent, being a genius among geniuses; he was naturally meant to surpass others and occupy the very peak.

How could he settle for second?

However, when Meng Chong saw the title occupying first place, his irritation dissipated.

In the first-place position across all five lists, the moniker was identical: —— "Entry Standard."

"Is only by surpassing this standard that one can be accepted into the sect by the Lava Immortal Palace?"

"As expected of Supreme Master Three Sects, a Void-Fusion level mighty figure! Every trial stage has an extremely high difficulty, and the entry standard is equally lofty."

"Very well!"

"This gives me even more desire for a challenge!"

"Besides, having a ranking on the leaderboard comes with rewards. Truly wonderful!"

"Hahaha..."

Meng Chong's fighting spirit soared. After studying the preparation room for a while, he pushed open the door and entered the fourth room.

Inside the main hall of the Lava Immortal Palace.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was inside its tortoise shell, twitching from the lashes of the fire whip, while simultaneously rolling its eyes in exasperation at Meng Chong.

Clearly, it had already given him a hint, specially telling Meng Chong that he was 'second place,' but Meng Chong hadn't thought much of it and was still laughing heartily.

This gave the Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit the sensation of wanting to vomit blood.

It had done the absolute limit of what it could do, but Meng Chong simply couldn't perceive the subtleties within at all.

Fine!

It had endured this beating of fire whips for nothing.

The Second Stage.

As soon as Meng Chong left, Ning Zhuo swiftly crawled out of the puppet trap.

He first went to the first door, used the My Buddha's Heart Demon Seal to push open a crack, and peeked into the first room.

Confirming that no one was coming, he closed the door and then summoned Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, inward.

Things were different from before.

Because there were more and more participants, it was very inconvenient for Ning Zhuo himself to enter and exit the Lava Immortal Palace, let alone summon Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape.

The trend was quite clear.

In the future, the risk of Ning Zhuo summoning Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, inside would only grow greater.

The teleportation halo materialized, bringing Yuan Dasheng to the side of puppet Ning Zhuo.

"Your subordinate pays respects to the lord."

Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, dropped to one knee before Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo was very interested in Yuan Dasheng's performance during the Intellect-Soul stage.

However, the present moment was not a good time for detailed research.

"The puppet body of the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape is far inferior to the Arbor-Martial Ape."

"Yet it is the only object recognized by the Lava Immortal Palace that can freely enter and exit the immortal palace."

"Based solely on this point, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape holds extremely high value and is irreplaceable."

Ning Zhuo led Yuan Dasheng through the second stage and arrived before the second door.

To prevent Meng Chong from still being in the third room, puppet Ning Zhuo stayed put and let Yuan Dasheng push open the door to scout the situation first.

As it turned out, the third room was a complete mess; the combat puppets had all been reduced to piles of broken junk scattered across the floor.

"As expected!"

After pushing the door open and entering, Ning Zhuo felt no surprise upon seeing this scene.

He had already anticipated it beforehand.

Every time Meng Chong was rebuffed and thwarted, upon his return, his strength would invariably make a huge leap forward.

This was immortal talent, and also destiny.

Ning Zhuo sighed softly, led Yuan Dasheng through the third room, and arrived before the third door.

It was still Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, who pushed the door open and entered.

Meng Chong was not found.

Instead of rushing in, Ning Zhuo had Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, retrieve the mechanical components used for surveillance from the corner.

After examining them, Ning Zhuo obtained crucial intelligence through Yuan Dasheng.

The entire process of Meng Chong's activities here was known to him.

First, the leaderboard stone pillar, then contact with various puppet pedestals and puppet-making tools, and finally Meng Chong's departure into the next stage.

"Meng Chong has obtained the trial disciple imprint... Strange, he seemed to already know the detailed steps here, without any trial-and-error actions—he just went straight to it!"

Ning Zhuo passed by the stone pillar leaderboard.

On the current leaderboard, two names appeared once again.

The previous time, it was still Yuan Dasheng on the board.

However, as Yuan Dasheng was plotted against and framed by Ning Zhuo, eventually becoming his puppet creation, the leaderboard had temporarily featured only Ning Zhuo's name.

As for what name to change it to, Ning Zhuo had also given it deep thought.

First, it could not be changed to the name of anyone else in the immortal city.

Once the City Lord's Mansion and other four major forces mobilized their full efforts, it would be very easy to arrest that person.

After cross-checking, the truth of whether it was real or fake could be established.

Furthermore, it would deduce the fact that the names on the leaderboard could be altered or that someone was cheating, which would be extremely detrimental to Ning Zhuo.

Second, it could not be changed to the name of a dead person.

Because Yuan Dasheng had fallen off the board.

This proved that deceased competitors would be weeded out.

If Ning Zhuo's name remained on it permanently, the flaw would be absurdly glaring.

"Neither living nor dead names will do; I can only play some tricks."

That was what Ning Zhuo had thought at the time.

In the end, he changed the name to "Entry Standard."

Doing this had many benefits.

The first was concealing his identity as a competitor.

The second was mutually corresponding and 'corroborating' with the trial disciple imprints.

In Ning Zhuo's personal judgment, since he was able to figure out the trial disciple imprints, others would most likely figure them out as well.

By then, each trial disciple imprint would be the best trust endorsement for Ning Zhuo.

The third benefit was being able to account for any future shifts in his own ranking.

Once the "Entry Standard" was surpassed by someone else in the future, that person would think: — "I have reached the standard, I have met the criteria to be promoted as an introductory disciple!"

And once the "Entry Standard" surpassed someone else in turn, what others would think was: — Oh, so the entry standard is flexible and variable.

Much like many family assessments that only reward the top ten.

The entry standard of the Lava Immortal Palace would also fluctuate based on the circumstances of the trial disciples.

Ning Zhuo brushed past the stone pillar leaderboard.

It was still Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, pushing the door open to enter the fourth room first.

Through the surveillance mechanical components, Ning Zhuo discovered that after entering the room, Meng Chong's footsteps paused slightly, and then he successively executed spellcasting to collect the mechanical components that corresponded one-to-one with the spells.

Ning Zhuo: "Strange, Meng Chong also seemed to be well-informed here, without any process of groping around, and directly found the answer."

Ning Zhuo sped up his advance with Yuan Dasheng.

There was no sign of Meng Chong inside the fifth door either.

The surveillance mechanical components displayed Meng Chong's graceful posture when clearing the stage.

Ning Zhuo inspected closely, reconfirming that Meng Chong had made massive progress; he was now able to imbue his immortal talent into his spells.

This made Ning Zhuo grow even more solemn.

The sixth room.

Meng Chong laughed out loud: "This is more like it! Rampaging Thunder Bolt!"

He shouted, his figure flashing like lightning as he dodged the overlapping strikes of several spells.

He used his immortal talent again, this time imbuing it into the Ice-Embracing Art and a single breath.

The Ice-Embracing Art and the single breath merged together, forming a straight blast of freezing Qi that, amidst flashing lightning, rapidly struck a spell puppet.

The spell puppet was instantly frozen solid.

Meng Chong created a gap and seized the opportunity to burst out of the spell puppets' encirclement.

However, just as he was about to feel proud, Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, suddenly appeared.

"Ah, it's you!"

Meng Chong was wild with joy upon seeing fresh prey.

Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, charged forward ablaze with the desire for fire, seeking close combat with Meng Chong.

Meng Chong felt no fear whatsoever, and was even excited: "Last time, I was burned to death by fire, but not this time. I have spell protection!"

Meng Chong executed the Ice-Embracing Art and the single breath, pairing them with the Qi-Releasing Ring to shroud his entire body in dense freezing Qi.

With the freezing Qi neutralizing the flames, Meng Chong was no longer afraid of being burned to death.

Yet the next moment, the palm of Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, imprinted itself onto Meng Chong's chest.

Spell—Five Elements Chaotic Qi Art.

This was the reward after clearing the three Daoist gates; it was used in actual combat against Meng Chong for the very first time after Ning Zhuo claimed it.

As for the effect... quacking wonderful.

In just an instant, the spiritual Qi within Meng Chong's body became completely chaotic, transforming from its previous orderly state into a tangled mess of hemp.

"I..."

Meng Chong's body was unable to move, and at the same time, he had to suffer the backlash generated by the interruption of spells like the Ice-Embracing Art.

Great Victory, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, then struck, gently plucking off Meng Chong's puppet head.

Then, with a fierce exertion of its palm, it instantly crushed the puppet head to pieces.

With intense unwillingness, Meng Chong's soul was expelled outside the palace, returning to his own physical body.

Inside the City Lord's Mansion.

He snapped his eyes open, still finding it hard to believe: "What kind of spell is this? It seems to counter the Five Elements Qi Regulation Art quite severely?"

"I lost again!"

"It doesn't matter! This time I've gained massive harvests!"

Meng Chong held intense anticipation for his next entry into the palace, his fighting spirit soaring high.

"Right, send a copy of the latest intelligence to Fei Si and Grandfather so they can help me brainstorm if there's any faster way to clear the stages!"