Chapter 13: Taking Action Without Hesitation

The cultivators of the Ning clan began to grow restless and uncertain.
“Everyone, be silent!” Ning Zhanji barked decisively. “If Zheng Shuangou truly meant us harm, there’s no way we would have escaped this place.”
“But the chance of that is so slim. If they really intended to strike, what purpose would it serve to harm us? Would it not only alert their prey?”
“We are hardly their primary target!”
As Ning Zhanji calmed his clan’s nerves, he spotted a figure wielding twin hooks, tearing through a swarm of monstrous beasts, charging into one of the passageways.
“It’s Zheng Shuangou!”
“I saw his signature Sun and Moon Hooks.”
“Thank heavens, he’s not here to deal with us!”
Just as the Ning cultivators let out a breath of relief, their anxiety returned with renewed force.
The assault of the beasts intensified, and the pressure on their defensive formation grew overwhelming. Ning Zhanji was forced to order his subordinates to form small squads and strike out from the formation to ease the burden.
The formation itself had been hastily erected, lacking in strength.
The beasts were relentless and fierce.
Despite the Ning clan’s desperate resistance, their first wall of ice was swiftly shattered.
The second shield lasted only a short while longer.
Fortunately, during the chaos, they managed to erect a fourth array.
Cowering within beams of light, the clan struggled to hold their ground.
Ning Yong’s face was ashen, his body trembling. “Are we… are we doomed to die here today?”
Even Ning Chen was no longer calm, his expression panicked and lost.
Ning Zhuo showed much the same outward fear, yet a strange gleam flickered in his eyes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three thunderous explosions shook the earth and sky.
The beasts scattered in terror as a black figure crashed through the walls, bursting into the subterranean plaza.
Hot on his heels, Zheng Shuangou, the Jin Dan cultivator of the Zheng clan, pursued him.
“Scoundrel! How dare you covet the Immortal Palace—prepare to die!” Zheng Shuangou roared.
He swept his hooks with full force, releasing a blade aura five meters long.
The black figure, his voice ancient and hoarse, cackled, “The treasures of the cultivation world belong to those destined for them! You clans of Fire Persimmon Immortal City wish to monopolize the Lava Immortal Palace? Dream on!”
With that, the black shadow met Zheng’s attack head-on, dissipating the blade aura, and used the momentum to fly back toward the Ning clan cultivators.
Alarm bells rang in Ning Zhanji’s mind. He retreated to the heart of the formation, calling out, “I’ll take command of the array!”
The defensive formation blazed with unprecedented brilliance.
The black figure approached, waving his hand lightly, shattering the array instantly.
Another casual gesture sent a wave of cultivators collapsing to the ground—their bodies untouched, yet their lives extinguished.

“Damn you, demon cultivator!” Zheng Shuangou bellowed, charging forward.
The black-clad demon turned and engaged Zheng Shuangou in fierce combat.
“Master Ning Zhanji!” the Ning clan cried out.
But Ning Zhanji lay lifeless, his eyes wide open, dead and unavenged.
With the formation destroyed and their leader fallen, the beasts resumed their slaughter. The Ning cultivators could only flee in all directions.
Casualties mounted quickly.
In the midst of crisis, Ning Zhuo suddenly shouted, “Go through the passage where the Jin Dan cultivator charged—it must have the fewest beasts!”
His words snapped the panicked clan out of their stupor.
“That’s right!”
“Both Jin Dan fought through that passage—the beasts there must be fewer.”
“We’ll go that way!”
Once again, the Ning clan banded together, fighting their way toward the passage.
“Ning Yong, Ning Chen, stay close to me!” Ning Zhuo opened his arms, producing frost talismans and scattering them about. These were his accumulated creations from the school, kept for just such a moment.
Ning Yong and Ning Chen, their eyes bloodshot and terrified, instinctively followed behind Ning Zhuo, fighting with all their might for a chance to survive.
The three supported each other, narrowly keeping pace with the main group as they reached the passage entrance.
Looking back, the two Jin Dans battled fiercely, sending the beasts fleeing in all directions.
Many beasts and Ning clan members fled in the same direction, rushing from behind.
The passage ahead was strewn with beast corpses—few survived, but more beasts continued to pour in from behind.
Under such pressure, the Ning clan could only grit their teeth and run desperately onward.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Along the way, any beasts blocking their path were crushed by the frenzied, fleeing Ning cultivators.
“What is that?!”
“The Lava Immortal Palace!”
“Who would have thought this passage leads right to the Lava Immortal Palace!”
The Ning clan spotted a lake of magma, the palace buildings just visible above its surface.
“The Lava Immortal Palace…” Ning Zhuo whispered, his expression perfectly natural. As an ordinary youth seeing an immortal palace for the first time, his heart was inevitably captured by its awe. Yet no one noticed the sudden spark of cunning in his eyes.
In truth, he had anticipated this outcome.
Beside him, Ning Chen, panting heavily, realized, “It wasn’t hard to guess!
Earlier, as the two Jin Dan fought, their words already revealed the answer.”
“Most likely, the demon cultivator in the shadows tried to sneak in, only to be intercepted by Zheng Shuangou!”
The Ning clan’s situation was now precarious.

Ahead lay the magma lake, the palace just visible; behind, beasts continued to surge forward.
With no other choice, the battered Ning survivors formed another defensive array.
They set two formations, one inside the other, interlocked. The beasts here attacked less fiercely than in the underground plaza.
“We can hold them back!”
The Ning cultivators had barely begun to rejoice when a violent explosion echoed around them.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” Zheng Shuangou’s furious roar drew ever nearer.
The Ning clan felt their hearts freeze. Judging by the noise, the demon cultivator had come back once more!
“It seems today, we are doomed!” Ning Yong’s face was pale as death.
Ning Chen simply closed his eyes in utter despair.
Just as hope for survival began to flicker, it was mercilessly crushed again. The rapid swings of fate left the two young cultivators utterly defeated in spirit.
“If I must die, so be it! What does it matter?” Ning Zhuo suddenly shouted, “To fall in battle is better than dying in cowardice!”
His outburst stirred Ning Yong, who found courage amidst the hopelessness and stood up, gritting his teeth.
Ning Chen opened his eyes to look at Ning Zhuo, quietly admiring his companion’s bravery in the face of death.
He too found renewed resolve. “Well said, Zhuo! To die at the hands of Jin Dan, in front of the Lava Immortal Palace—at least it’s a worthy death.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than thick, billowing smoke rushed toward them.
The smoke was pitch black, brimming with turbulent dark energy, capable of blocking spiritual sense.
In moments, shadows within the smoke coalesced into countless serpents, smashing toward the palace in the magma lake.
But halfway through their assault, the fearsome serpents dissolved, powerless.
Zheng Shuangou’s roar echoed, “Attack the palace? Never!”
Yet soon, new serpents formed, this time attacking the surrounding passages instead of the palace.
The tunnel walls cracked under the onslaught, nearly collapsing.
“Madman!” Zheng Shuangou shuddered at the sight.
He had no choice but to switch to defense, unleashing his full power to shield the passages with a torrent of magic.
From the black smoke, a shadow serpent suddenly crashed into the Ning clan’s formation.
Unsurprisingly, an attack of Jin Dan caliber was far beyond the formation’s ability to withstand—it shattered in an instant!
The smoke engulfed everything, blotting out all vision for the surviving Ning clan.
“Come then!” Ning Yong shouted, summoning every ounce of courage, determined to die fighting.
The black smoke rolled in, thick enough to obscure even the closest hand.
Ning Zhuo felt, for a moment, utterly alone.
He drew out a token, transforming it into an iron armor.
The armor enveloped him, instantly granting him the strength of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.