Chapter 221: I Was Whipped for Ning Zhuo
"Hey, Ning Zhuo, what are you guys doing?"
"It's already so late, and you're still exploring the Immortal Palace!"
"Do you even understand the urgency?"
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had been closely watching Ning Zhuo's every move, pacing anxiously in the main hall.
"Hurry up, deal with Ning Xiaohui quickly!"
"Dragging it out like this, if you delay any longer, she will discover our secret."
"I'm so anxious, I'm practically burning up!"
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit growled, and indeed, a flame appeared on its head.
When it became agitated or angry to a certain degree, flames would erupt from parts of its body.
If the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit were in Ning Zhuo's place, it would immediately use "Life Hanging by a Thread" to deal with Ning Xiaohui! But now, Ning Zhuo acted as if nothing was wrong, leisurely exploring the Lava Immortal Palace!
This made the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit incredibly anxious. It wanted to grab Ning Zhuo by the ear and shout—"Are you stalling because you want to die?!"
However, it ultimately didn't dare to do so.
In fact, it even lacked the courage to speak to Ning Zhuo again.
It was extremely worried that if it slipped up and let something slip, Ning Zhuo would see through it!
While the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit was restless and indecisive, Ning Zhuo had already reached out and touched the door to the next room.
There were no clearance rewards or blood energy on the door.
This was somewhat unexpected for Ning Zhuo: "No blood energy, how do I use the Blood Path Diagram?"
In the next moment, he and Yuan Dasheng stepped into the second-to-last stage of the Demon Path.
Thousands of eyes, glowing with a blood-red light, all focused on them!
Ning Zhuo was astonished. He had never seen so many combat puppets.
Hundreds and thousands of puppets stood in an orderly arrangement, all attracted by the commotion at the door.
It was an army of mechanical puppets!
Each puppet's eyes glowed red, and their bodies were either surrounded by a layer of blood energy or radiating the aura of Qi Refining Stage, from one layer to nine layers.
Ning Zhuo's eyes lit up as well: "So the blood energy in this stage comes not from the door, but from these puppets."
Upon seeing Ning Zhuo and the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, the mechanical puppets all activated, rushing toward them.
Hundreds of puppets moved together, surging like a tide, bringing a strong sense of pressure to Ning Zhuo.
"Master, step back, I will protect you," Yuan Dasheng stepped forward, like a gate blocking Ning Zhuo.
His body was sturdy, and after being refined through the Buddhist Path, it was far superior to before.
Most importantly, Ning Xiaohui had painstakingly repaired him. His red body, with exposed golden bones, looked especially mighty and reliable.
The puppets that approached were all knocked away by Yuan Dasheng one by one.
Yuan Dasheng's martial arts were outstanding, using both fists and feet, and he alone fought like an army, unbeatable.
Bang, bang, bang.
Many puppets were sent flying by him, some thrown far away, some disassembled on the spot, and others knocked into their allies.
However, the number of puppets was simply overwhelming.
Yuan Dasheng only had spiritual power, no blood energy, and was not in his best condition.
Concerned about Ning Zhuo's safety behind him, he could only slowly retreat under the onslaught of the puppets.
Seeing this, Ning Zhuo immediately cast spells.
Flames and frost descended, and stone slabs and rolling logs covered the area, but they triggered the blood energy defenses of the puppets instead.
Each puppet donned a blood tendon armor, greatly reducing the impact of the spells.
"Not good." Ning Zhuo's heart sank as he realized his spells had backfired, stimulating the puppets' stronger abilities.
"Yuan Dasheng had been using only physical combat to defeat many puppets, preventing them from activating their blood energy."
"This stage probably discourages the use of spells. Physical combat is likely the key to passing this stage."
Many thoughts suddenly filled Ning Zhuo's mind.
However, hand-to-hand combat was Ning Zhuo's weak point.
Back when he first reached the third stage, a single combat puppet had given him a thorough beating. In the end, it was only by using the Ice Embracing Technique that he was able to break free and pass the stage.
Ning Zhuo had always wanted to improve his hand-to-hand combat skills, but unfortunately, he had been too busy to find the time.
As Ning Zhuo stopped using spells, the magic puppets also ceased to use their blood energy.
Yuan Dasheng was only one person, and a large number of puppets surrounded them from all sides.
Ning Zhuo had no choice but to join the battle.
Although his fundamentals in close combat were solid, allowing him to handle two or three puppets at a time, this time, over a dozen puppets attacked him from every direction.
Forced to move constantly, Ning Zhuo could only rely on mobile warfare to buy time.
As more and more blood puppets closed in, the formation of enemies grew thicker, and the space available for Ning Zhuo to maneuver became smaller and smaller, filling him with an increasing sense of dread.
"Will I fail this stage?"
Ning Zhuo felt the impending defeat, but at the same time, he was puzzled.
He had passed the Buddhist Path and cleared all its stages.
"Compared to the second stage of the Buddhist Path, the difficulty of this Demon Path stage is at least a hundred times higher!"
"Something about this is clearly unreasonable."
At this moment, a large group of mechanical puppets piled onto Yuan Dasheng.
The puppets, each radiating blood energy, formed blood tendons that reinforced their bodies and gave them greater strength.
They stacked themselves like human pyramids, pressing down on Yuan Dasheng.
Then, the blood tendon armors on their bodies fused into one, forming an overwhelming force of blood energy that merged together, sealing Yuan Dasheng completely in enormous blood tendon chains.
"Not good!" Ning Zhuo silently cursed and was about to cast a spell to break the siege.
Just then, something unexpected happened.
The blood tendon chains binding Yuan Dasheng lasted only for an instant before being absorbed by a mysterious force into Yuan Dasheng's body.
More precisely, they were absorbed into the Blood Path Diagram within Yuan Dasheng.
In that moment, Ning Zhuo understood!
"I get it, this is the proper way to pass the stage!"
"The Blood Path Diagram is used like this!"
When the Blood Path Diagram has blood energy, it can allow mechanical constructs to use corresponding levels of the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique.
When the Blood Path Diagram has no blood energy, it can absorb any external Demonic Blood Tendon energy it encounters directly!
These magic blood puppets intended to restrain Yuan Dasheng, but instead, they handed him a great gift.
Yuan Dasheng had been struggling without blood energy, but now, with such a generous offering, his power surged immediately.
He roared, his arms trembling, as blood energy swelled around him, forming a blood-colored sphere that expanded rapidly in all directions.
The layers of mechanical puppets piled on top of him were all thrown off, knocked away, and crashed to the ground.
Many puppets couldn't withstand the violent surge of blood energy and disintegrated in mid-air.
Yuan Dasheng roared again, his fists clenched like two massive war hammers, swinging through the air like the wind. He charged through the battlefield, unstoppable. With the help of the blood energy, no puppet could stand against him.
Many magic blood puppets shattered and broke under his fists and feet.
However, the advantage was short-lived as Yuan Dasheng's power began to wane.
There were simply too many enemies.
Yuan Dasheng's attacks rapidly depleted his blood energy. Without enough blood energy, his combat strength was greatly diminished!
Enemies swarmed from all sides, endlessly pouring in.
Ning Zhuo called out a reminder, telling Yuan Dasheng to keep absorbing blood energy.
Yuan Dasheng followed the order, reaching out and grabbing a puppet's head.
He activated the Blood Path Diagram, and the diagram exerted a strong suction force, causing the puppet in his grasp to shudder violently.
A stream of blood energy was extracted from the puppet, flowing through its head, down Yuan Dasheng's hand and arm, and finally into his Blood Path Diagram.
Without the support of blood energy, the puppet immediately weakened, becoming feeble.
Bang.
Yuan Dasheng squeezed with both hands, crushing the puppet's head.
Much of Yuan Dasheng's combat power came from his powerful hands!
He continued to grab and crush, absorbing the blood energy from the puppets one by one, then smashing their heads.
Although the magic blood puppets were numerous, they lacked intelligence and had no effective countermeasures against Yuan Dasheng's tactics.
Yuan Dasheng, on the other hand, had reached the stage of intelligence. At this moment, he learned from the battle, focusing on storing blood energy.
He willingly took hits to drain every bit of blood energy from the magic blood puppets, absorbing all of it into his Blood Path Diagram.
The more blood energy Yuan Dasheng absorbed, the stronger he became. The stronger he became, the more blood energy he could absorb...
In this positive cycle, Yuan Dasheng gradually stabilized his position and became unstoppable.
Ning Zhuo watched this scene with satisfaction, but he was also somewhat puzzled.
"Now that I've found the correct way to clear this stage, it's actually quite simple. The real difficulty is far lower than the Buddhist Path
."
"This also doesn't seem right."
Ning Zhuo fell into thought.
Soon, a flash of insight came to him, and he considered a possibility.
He personally experimented in battle, deliberately choosing certain magic blood puppets as opponents. After several tests, his understanding of the stage's mechanism deepened.
It turned out that the Blood Path Diagram's absorption ability had its limits.
Ning Zhuo's Blood Path Diagram was only engraved with the Eight-Layer Demonic Blood Tendon Technique, so it could absorb blood energy only up to the eighth layer of the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique.
It was powerless against the ninth layer of blood tendons.
In fact, absorbing the eighth layer of blood tendons was already very difficult.
"The Three Sect Lords designed this stage to focus on the use of the Blood Path Diagram."
"In the early stage, you extend the battle by moving around, dragging out the fight, and choosing puppets of lower cultivation to absorb their blood energy."
"In the mid-stage, you use the blood energy you've absorbed to strengthen your combat power, killing puppets while growing stronger in the process."
"In the final stage, you face the toughest opponents, engage in intense combat, and carve a path out of blood to clear the stage!"
You couldn't rely on spells.
Using spells would provoke the combat puppets into activating their blood tendons, making them much stronger.
This would not only increase the pressure on the cultivator but also drastically reduce the amount of blood energy they could obtain.
"So, the difficulty of this stage is tied to the Blood Path Diagram."
"A Blood Path Diagram with the ninth-layer Demonic Blood Tendon Technique has the least difficulty. At eight layers, seven layers, the lower the cultivation, the greater the difficulty!"
"However..."
"I have Yuan Dasheng, who was refined using the original scripture of the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique. As a result, it created a Foundation Establishment-level Blood Path Diagram in the previous stage."
"This diagram is the ultimate weapon for defeating all the magic blood puppets in this second stage!"
This was the main reason why Ning Zhuo found the difficulty to be laughably low.
In short, he had cheated again.
The trial set by the Three Sect Lords was meant for Qi Refining Stage cultivators.
A normal Qi Refining Stage cultivator would only receive a Qi Refining-level Demonic Blood Tendon Technique and wouldn't have the ability to create a Foundation Establishment-level Blood Path Diagram.
Yuan Dasheng's existence had exceeded the upper limit of the stage's design.
With Yuan Dasheng's power, Ning Zhuo easily cleared the second stage.
Seeing that Ning Zhuo clearly intended to bring Yuan Dasheng into the final stage, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit grew increasingly worried.
"Oh no, oh no!"
"You can't do that, you can't take the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, into the final stage. It's very likely to get trapped in there, and you won't be able to get it back."
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit knew the mechanism of the final stage well and was extremely concerned for Ning Zhuo.
If Ning Zhuo insisted on bringing Yuan Dasheng inside, the loss would be enormous, and it would be difficult to rescue him in a short amount of time.
Normally, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit would have been more than happy for Ning Zhuo to make such a mistake.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit really wanted to see Ning Zhuo suffer a major setback. But now, if something happened to Ning Zhuo and his strength was diminished, who would it rely on to deal with Ning Xiaohui?
Ning Xiaohui only had a Qi Refining stage cultivation, and the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, was more than enough to eliminate her.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit knew that the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, was very useful and didn't want this valuable tool to be lost.
At the same time, it was extremely worried that Ning Zhuo would act recklessly. If Yuan Dasheng were trapped in the final stage, Ning Zhuo would waste too much time and energy trying to clear the final stage and rescue Yuan Dasheng!
"Young Master, Master." Seeing that Ning Zhuo was about to push the door open, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had no choice but to contact him again.
"Stop, please stop, do not rush to enter the door," the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit urgently reminded.
Then, in the next moment, a long flame whip condensed above its head.
Snap.
With a crisp sound, the whip lashed across the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit's body.
Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit: ...
It had never expected that one day, it would break the rules just to warn Ning Zhuo!
It never thought it would be whipped for Ning Zhuo's sake!
How was this even fair?
(End of Chapter)