Chapter 171: Ning Zhuo’s Enlightenment
City Lord’s Mansion.
Fire, frost, rolling logs, sharp blades of gold, and massive stones, each belonging to the Five Elements, continuously attacked Meng Chong.
Meng Chong’s eyes flickered with a sharp light as he used his immortal technique, Wild Sprint Thunderclap.
His body moved like lightning, unusually swift, weaving through the gaps between the spells.
It was only until the very last wave of spells that his shoulder was grazed by a gold blade.
His subordinates, responsible for sparring with him, immediately congratulated him.
Meng Chong had made great progress.
“Hahaha.” Meng Chong laughed. “Ten more sessions of special training like this, and when I charge through the next time, I won’t be afraid of those spell puppets’ attacks anymore.”
After resting for a while, the Meng family’s servants immediately offered carefully prepared refreshments, all of them being Spirit Food.
Meng Chong ate and drank a few bites, and then he heard the latest intelligence.
“What?” He raised his eyebrows slightly.
“Ning Xiaohui entered the Immortal Palace three times today, and each time she was intercepted by the mechanical apes, suffering defeat and losing badly, unable to even reach the preparation room.”
“How is she so unlucky?”
“Why is it that I hardly encounter that mechanical ape anymore?”
Meng Chong had been thinking about the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, for a long time.
After all, he had faced Yuan Dasheng many times and had always lost, holding a grudge and truly wanting to get his revenge.
However, under Ning Zhuo’s arrangement and command, Yuan Dasheng had rarely intercepted Meng Chong anymore.
On the rare occasions he did, it was when Meng Chong was in the heat of battle, where Yuan Dasheng would sneak in and ambush him during his fights, achieving frequent success.
This made Meng Chong even angrier. In the beginning, he had cursed out loud.
Later, perhaps realizing that the mechanical ape couldn’t understand human speech, he simply shut his mouth.
For Ning Xiaohui, Yuan Dasheng had become a nightmare.
But for Meng Chong, he was a coveted and unattainable opponent.
The Zheng Family.
Mechanical trap training room.
Zheng Jian walked across the wooden floor.
His gaze was calm, his body exuding a cold aura, and his steps were slow.
Every step he took, he lifted his legs high and slowly lowered them down.
During the descent, his innate “Heart-Piercing Perception” would frequently activate, alerting him to danger.
Zheng Jian walked from the beginning to the end without triggering a single trap beneath the floor.
This kind of special training had been conducted many times.
Zheng Jian had gained a deeper mastery of his innate talent, and his training results were significant.
However, what made Zheng Jian sigh was the talismans from the Ning family.
“This Ice Heart Talisman really suits me.”
“When I use this talisman, I can enter an absolutely calm state. My innate ‘Heart-Piercing Perception’ almost always activates!”
“It’s a pity that the Ice Heart Talisman can only be refined by cultivators who specialize in the Ice Heart Sutra.”
“And the Ice Heart Sutra is the core technique of the Ning family’s main lineage. This talisman involves the mysteries of the Ice Heart Sutra and is rarely circulated in the outer markets.”
“I only had the opportunity to enjoy this benefit thanks to the collaboration of the three families.”
“Sigh…”
The Zhou Family.
Underground martial arena.
Zhou Zhu and Zhou Zhenshen were preparing for a sparring match.
Both of them took out their medicine pouches, which contained a pile of silver-gray powder.
They tilted their heads back, opened their mouths wide, and directly poured the silver-gray powder into their mouths.
This was the Distraction Powder.
The effects of the powder quickly kicked in, causing subtle changes in the expressions of these two Qi Refining talents from the Zhou family.
“Let’s fight!” Zhou Zhenshen shouted in a low voice.
Zhou Zhu responded with a muffled grunt.
Zhou Zhenshen first activated his spell, launching a rapid attack.
Zhou Zhu defended himself and then took out a mechanical war hammer.
Mud Gate Ground-Shaking Hammer!
The war hammer was almost as tall as Zhou Zhu himself, and its weight was considerable.
Relying solely on Zhou Zhu’s physical strength to wield it was quite laborious.
Several round holes appeared on the surface of the hammer, from which violent gusts of air shot out.
The air currents propelled the hammer, assisting Zhou Zhu in attacking Zhou Zhenshen.
Zhou Zhenshen didn’t dare to face the hammer head-on, retreating continuously.
As he retreated, he opened his storage bag, from which a large number of mechanical bats flew out.
Mechanical—Night Sky Bats.
A large swarm of mechanical bats flew into the air, releasing thick black mist along their path.
The black mist swirled around the battlefield, obstructing Zhou Zhu’s visibility.
Zhou Zhu tried several methods, but when he found he couldn’t disperse the mist, he decisively patted his storage belt.
From the belt, a swarm of mechanical rats scurried out.
Mechanical—Earth-Burrowing Rats.
The mechanical rats landed on the ground and, under Zhou Zhu’s control, cast a spell—Muddy Ground Technique.
The solid ground quickly turned into a swampy mire.
Zhou Zhu swung his hammer forcefully, sending a shower of yellow mud flying.
The hammer’s head plunged deep into the swampy mud, and the numerous round holes on the hammer simultaneously spewed out bursts of air.
The hammer shook violently, sinking even deeper into the mud, pulling Zhou Zhu in as well.
A large number of Night Sky Bats lost their primary target, and under Zhou Zhenshen’s command, they swooped down into the swamp to capture the Earth-Burrowing Rats.
The Earth-Burrowing Rats used the swampy terrain to defend themselves.
Whenever a Night Sky Bat missed its mark, the rats’ spiral drill heads would pierce through the bats’ thin bodies.
However, once a bat caught a rat, its built-in spell would immediately seal the rat, severely restricting its spiritual energy.
Zhou Zhu and Zhou Zhenshen were locked in a stalemate, fighting until nearly all of their mechanical rats and bats were depleted, at which point they tacitly agreed to stop.
The black mist dissipated, and the two of them sat cross-legged, each taking out a Multi-Heart Pill.
They immediately consumed the Multi-Heart Pills to consolidate the results of their training.
After a long while, Zhou Zhenshen was the first to open his eyes.
Just a few breaths later, Zhou Zhu also opened his eyes.
With a hint of joy, Zhou Zhenshen sighed, “The combination of the Distraction Powder and Multi-Heart Pill is indeed effective. It allows us to master deeper levels of multitasking, controlling even more mechanical creatures.”
“If we continue training like this, we’ll be able to simultaneously control thirty mechanical bats and rats.”
Zhou Zhu, rarely speaking in long sentences, said, “Not enough mana. The longer the fight, the better the results in battle.”
Zhou Zhenshen sighed, “There’s no helping it. We haven’t found any follow-up cultivation techniques yet.
The good news is that we’re all at the third layer of Qi Refining, equally weak.”
Zhou Zhu asked, “Is there really follow-up cultivation in the Lava Immortal Palace?”
Zhou Zhenshen replied, “From the current trend, it seems more likely.
We just need to keep an eye on Meng Chong.
He’s the one with the highest progress.
If he breaks through to the fourth layer, it means there are follow-up techniques in the Lava Immortal Palace.”
By this time, the reconstruction teams of the four major factions had generally reached the peak of the third layer of Qi Refining.
Without follow-up techniques, they couldn’t advance further.
Only the geniuses of each family could still make progress through training their innate talents.
Everyone else had almost universally chosen to study and refine their mechanical skills to strengthen themselves from that path.
Progress was made, but not by much.
Even Meng Chong had entered a relatively stable bottleneck.
Wrapped in a cloud of floating mist, Ning Zhuo quietly breathed in and out, continuing to improve his cultivation.
The magical tool, the Tornado Windmill, clung to his chest, slowly rotating.
In Ning Zhuo’s middle dantian and sea of qi, a tornado was stirring.
Countless threads of mana were drawn into the tornado, grinding and diminishing each other.
This was a process of refinement.
Ning Zhuo’s mana was impure and mixed, as it had been rapidly elevated through the Ice Jade Wine shortcut in the Sea of Spirits realm.
But now, through this process, his mana’s quality was being significantly enhanced.
Purity of mana was incredibly important.
The purer the mana, the more positive its effects in all aspects, and the greater the cultivator’s personal advantages.
Those with innate talents like the Pure Yang Physique had mana naturally imbued with pure yang energy, free of impurities.
Among the Seven Flames, the Glazed Purifying Fire was highly sought after because it could burn away impurities, leaving a cultivator’s spiritual sense, mana, and blood essence as
pure as possible.
Cultivators universally pursued the purification of their mana with relentless dedication.
“The purification ability of the Tornado Windmill is only a secondary function. Its main role is to accelerate the refining of mana.”
“If I had a dedicated purification tool, it would be even better.”
After one round of purification, Ning Zhuo’s mana had been reduced from ten parts to less than six, a significant difference.
Ning Zhuo continued to breathe in spiritual energy, refining it into Five Elements Mana.
After two or three cycles, Ning Zhuo restored his purified mana back to ten parts.
He paused his dantian cultivation, intending to let the purified mana nourish his middle dantian and sea of qi.
He then began his essence cultivation.
The source of his essence refinement was his physical body.
And the condition of his body was primarily influenced by abundant Spirit Food and pills.
Ning Zhuo never skimped on his cultivation.
Not only that, but he also used one Washing Marrow Pill and one Detoxification Pill.
These two pills were gifts from the Ning family’s main branch.
Not long ago, after a thorough examination by Sun Lingtong, Ning Zhuo had meticulously tested them himself.
The Washing Marrow Pill could slightly improve his physique, while the Detoxification Pill primarily removed accumulated toxins from his body.
The effects were not particularly obvious.
On the one hand, Washing Marrow Pills needed to be taken over a long period and in large quantities to gradually show results.
Ning Zhuo had just begun taking them.
On the other hand, since Ning Zhuo relied mainly on Spirit Food, supplemented by pills, the toxins he had accumulated weren’t significant.
Before long, Ning Zhuo’s essence cultivation session for the day ended.
He then started practicing spells.
He took out the Five Elements Ruler, holding it in his hand, quietly urging his Five Elements Mana, and casting the Five Elements Mutual Generation and Restraint Technique.
The floating clouds roiled, barely concealing Ning Zhuo’s spell fluctuations.
The Five Elements Ruler allowed the Five Elements Mana to quickly separate, making it quite beneficial for Ning Zhuo’s spell practice.
“Complicated.”
“This spell is too complicated, the likes of which I’ve never encountered before!”
“Sigh, if only there were corresponding rewards on the leaderboard.”
“Maybe there will be in the later stages of the Immortal Palace?”
Ning Zhuo had just started practicing this spell, and the road ahead was long.
After practicing for a while, Ning Zhuo took out two comprehension paintings, the Frost-Lingering Painting and the Proud-Snow Painting.
Staring at them for a long time, Ning Zhuo rubbed his forehead, still at a loss.
“No rush.”
Ning Zhuo took out an Enlightenment Pill and immediately swallowed one.
He stared at the two comprehension paintings again, his eyes fixed on them.
His thoughts gradually drifted, and Ning Zhuo didn’t hold them back, letting them wander freely.
Ning Zhuo slowly began to feel a subtle sensation brought about by the comprehension paintings.
It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced before.
However, the comprehension paintings only gave him a faint impression.
Instead, the mechanical blueprints in his mind, and the mechanical classics left to him by his mother, became exceptionally vivid.
In addition, the various techniques and spells he had obtained in the Lava Immortal Palace also became clear.
“The Fire Burial Prajna Spirit-Resolving Sutra!”
In the end, the entire text of the Fire Burial Sutra clearly appeared in Ning Zhuo’s mind, word for word.
Ning Zhuo suddenly had a new understanding of this sutra.
He beamed with joy.
“So there’s a deeper interpretation of this scripture!”
“Wonderful!”
“I can now refine spiritual devices on my own.”
It was truly a case of “the flower you seek refuses to bloom, but the willow you plant by chance thrives.”
Ning Zhuo had never expected that by taking the Enlightenment Pill to comprehend the mysteries of the comprehension paintings, he would end up gaining new insights into the Fire Burial Sutra.