Chapter 279 - The Mysteries in the Palm
Lava Immortal Palace.
Ning Zhuo was shrouded in floating clouds, sitting in meditation, breathing in and out.
Under the concealing cloud, despite having cultivation at the ninth layer of the Qi Sea stage, he only displayed that of the fourth layer.
Recently, he had encountered too many situations that consumed his mana.
Even though he had the mana of the ninth layer, he still felt it wasn’t enough.
If he felt this way, then the members of the three modified teams felt it even more.
They had to use mana while actively completing tasks to earn merits and still find time to cultivate diligently to advance their cultivation.
It was simply unbearable.
However, the three families also took out their foundational resources, providing a large amount of pills to supply the modified team members, fully compensating for their weaknesses and trying their best to clear their cultivation obstacles.
Even Zhu Xuanji and Zhu Zhen, the two Golden Core cultivators, paid out of their own pockets to give them many subsidies.
Because of this, Ning Zhuo obtained a lot of good things, most of which he stored away. He had traveled too far to need them at the moment.
Suddenly.
In his spiritual sea, Ning Zhuo's "Buddha Heart Demon Seal" burst into radiant Buddha light.
The Buddha light enveloped Ning Zhuo's entire body.
"Who is probing my fate again?" Ning Zhuo quickly stopped his breathing technique and channeled all his mana into the cloud concealment under his tongue.
With both working together, his fate was perfectly hidden.
Boom!
A loud noise rang out, and Ning Zhuo felt his bed tremble.
"What’s going on?! What’s happening outside?" Ning Zhuo opened his eyes within the floating clouds.
At this moment, the Buddha light disappeared.
Clearly, the one probing him had stopped.
Ning Zhuo quickly put away the floating cloud, jumped down, and opened the door, stepping into the courtyard.
Ning Jiufan was already standing there, looking at the sky from afar.
Just as Ning Zhuo was about to greet him, his eyes were firmly drawn to a scene in the sky!
A massive fire python, nearly a hundred zhang long and as thick as an ancient tree, raised its head high and slammed its snakehead like a battering ram into the spherical light shield of the Lava Immortal Palace.
Boom!
The familiar sound echoed in Ning Zhuo's ears.
The Lava Immortal Palace beneath his feet trembled once again.
"So it was this thing causing the commotion!" Ning Zhuo instantly understood and couldn’t help but gasp, "Ancestor, is this a Nascent Soul-level demon beast king?"
Ning Zhuo had seen Fire Serpents and Fire Dragons of the Golden Core stage from afar.
Such a massive body and such a powerful attack were far beyond what the Golden Core stage could possess.
Ning Jiufan nodded gravely, "That’s right!"
Ning Zhuo’s heart trembled as he thought, "So this Red Flame Beast Tide actually has a Nascent Soul-level being involved!"
Crack, crack.
Large cracks rapidly spread across the translucent golden spherical light shield.
The crisp cracking sound was so distinct that it sent chills down people’s spines.
Almost all the cultivators in the Lava Immortal Palace were awakened, looking up at this scene with extreme concern.
Their cultivation levels were at most Golden Core stage, and they were severely outmatched against a Nascent Soul-level enemy. Even though the Lava Immortal Palace had suppression capabilities, it would still be a bitter fight.
"Why hasn’t City Lord Meng Kui made a move yet?" Ning Zhuo asked anxiously.
He had more worries than others.
That was his merit!
The Red Flame Beast Tide was triggered by the cooperation between Ning Zhuo and the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit. If the Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent broke through the shield and caused massive destruction to the Lava Immortal Palace, it would be a huge negative impact on Ning Zhuo’s merit calculations.
Just as Ning Zhuo finished speaking, he saw Meng Kui make his move.
Behind the Fire Serpent, clouds and mist stirred, and suddenly a massive human hand appeared in the sky.
Spell technique — Mysteries in the Palm!
The giant hand seemed slow but was incredibly fast, reaching the Fire Serpent’s back in the blink of an eye.
Just as it was about to grab the Fire Serpent, the creature suddenly hissed, and fiery wings rapidly expanded from the sides of its flame-condensed body.
Boom.
With a violent flap of its wings, the Fire Serpent left a trail of sparks in place as it shot forward.
The giant hand grabbed empty air.
Meng Kui was surprised. Although the Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent lacked the qualifications to assume a dragon form, it had mastered fire-type spells.
Meng Kui took a deep breath and fully activated the city-protection formation to suppress the boiling Red Flame Beast Tide, which was about to launch a fierce attack.
The Fire Serpent, temporarily unthreatened, flew directly above the Lava Immortal Palace and opened its mouth to spew scorching flames.
The flames were incredibly hot, quickly dimming the golden light shield. Inside the Lava Immortal Palace, the temperature soared rapidly, causing many cultivators to show signs of discomfort, their faces flushed.
Meng Kui shouted and cast a spell, summoning wind and rain.
However, the mundane wind and rain barely managed to slow down the fire, unable to extinguish it.
"Doomed! Maintaining the shield consumes an enormous amount of mana. A portion of this debt will be counted on my head." Ning Zhuo inwardly cried out in alarm.
Meng Kui cast more spells and even used treasures to attack the Fire Serpent.
The Fire Serpent roared, flapping its fiery wings and diving down.
It forcefully shattered the spell, sent the treasure flying, and then, like a meteor crashing into the ground, slammed into the spherical light shield for the third time.
Boom!
This time, massive cracks spread quickly, almost splitting the entire shield in two.
Flames surged from the Fire Serpent’s body, seeping through the cracks.
They passed through the shield and officially reached the skies above the Lava Immortal Palace, where they condensed into eight Golden Core-level Fire Serpent Dragons, dozens of Foundation Establishment-level ones, and hundreds at the Qi Refining stage!
This move wasn’t a spell.
Each Fire Serpent Dragon was an independent life.
As it turned out, the life force of a Fire Serpent was rather unique. Its body was entirely composed of flames, without flesh or bones. Within a single clan, Fire Serpents could intertwine with one another and temporarily merge.
The Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent was essentially an amalgamation of countless Fire Serpents!
The Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent coiled atop the light shield, continuing to send more of its kind inside. Meng Kui’s Mysteries in the Palm reached out once more.
The Fire Serpent raised its head and coiled its body, displaying an astonishing agility as it dodged the grab.
But this time, Meng Kui learned from his previous mistake, hiding a second spell hand, which grabbed in quick succession.
This time, the Fire Serpent couldn’t dodge. Its head was firmly caught by the massive hand.
It let out an unwilling hiss but couldn’t resist the strength of the hand and was thrown away.
Bang!
It slammed directly into the vertical walls of the volcano’s mouth, creating a violent crash.
The Fire Serpent screeched in pain, its tail dipping into the magma, stirring the molten rock with a sudden flick.
A powerful column of magma shot skyward, fiercely striking the spell hand that had grabbed it.
The spell hand was immediately melted, becoming tattered and broken.
The Fire Serpent twisted its body excitedly, attempting to escape, but Meng Kui’s other spell hand descended and suppressed it again.
Thus, the two sides fell into a stalemate.
Inside the Lava Immortal Palace, the cultivators had already clashed with the Fire Serpent group.
The two sides engaged in fierce battles in the air and on the ground.
Soldiers fought soldiers, and generals faced generals.
Led by Zhu Xuanji and Zhu Zhen, the Golden Core cultivators moved back and forth in the sky, fiercely attacking the Golden Core-level Fire Serpent Dragons, trying their best to prevent them from landing.
There were also Golden Core-level Fire Serpents that couldn’t fly, crashing to the ground, where Golden Core cultivators intercepted them, engaging in intense battles among the palace buildings.
"My merit!" Ning Zhuo’s face was as heavy as his mood.
The only thing he could do was gather the modified team members from the Ning Family and charge into the battlefield, doing everything he could to make up for his merit!
"Destroy, destroy!" In the main hall of the Lava Immortal Palace, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit roared excitedly.
It was doing its utmost to manipulate the shield’s mana flow, making it intermittent, and causing the main defensive mechanisms to constantly avoid the stronger Fire Serpents and instead focus on the weaker ones.
To the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, the Lava Immortal Palace was both its temporary body and a massive cage.
The more the Lava Immortal Palace was damaged, the deeper it would be wounded, but the larger the breaches in the cage would become.
"There will come a moment when the gap will be large enough for me to break free!"
"All for freedom, everything for freedom."
"Hold on, show the backbone of the Fire Serpent clan! Hmm... even though we don’t have any bones." The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit watched the Nascent Soul battle closely, even cheering for the Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent.
...
Ning Zhuo took a deep breath and slapped his storage belt, releasing ten Explosive Monkeys.
The Explosive Monkeys pounced on
a group of Qi Refining-level Fire Serpents.
After just a few rounds of combat, they exploded one after another.
The Fire Serpents’ bodies were blasted apart, but within a few breaths, they all reformed.
Ning Zhuo frowned deeply. Self-destruction was the strongest method for the Explosive Monkeys, but the Fire Serpents didn’t have flesh and blood, so the self-destruction yielded very little effect.
The Fire Serpent group rushed toward Ning Zhuo, hissing and intertwining with each other. By the time they reached him, the merged Fire Serpent’s life force had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Ning Zhuo patted his belt again, releasing the Fire Bamboo Snake.
The Fire Bamboo Snake tangled with the Foundation Establishment Fire Serpent, and the two were locked in a fierce struggle.
Taking the opportunity, Ning Zhuo cast a spell, sending out ten mechanical flying hands, each firing off spells.
A large wave of ice spells rained down, breaking apart the Foundation Establishment Fire Serpent, turning it back into dozens of small Qi Refining-level serpents, which were then wiped out by the spells.
The Fire Bamboo Snake was badly wounded, taking heavy damage.
Fortunately, Ning Zhuo had more than just this one Fire Bamboo Snake in reserve.
He continued fighting fiercely.
Boom, boom, boom!
Thunderous explosions continued to echo overhead.
Each explosion represented a fierce clash between Meng Kui and the Nascent Soul-level Fire Serpent.
"The key to this defensive battle lies in the Nascent Soul-level confrontation!" This was something everyone understood.
Finally.
As Meng Kui built up enough power, one hand blocked the Fire Serpent, while the other flew back, creating distance.
The massive spell hand stood in the air and began performing calculations.
Meng Kui’s eyes rolled back, and he coldly shouted, "Fire Serpent, I’ve calculated… your defeat and escape!"
In the next moment, the massive spell hand performing calculations disintegrated, like mist, quickly dissipating.
At the same time, the Nascent Soul Fire Serpent’s body erupted with explosions, crippling it instantly.
At first, the Fire Serpent didn’t care, but soon, it let out a horrified hiss.
Because it was shocked to find that its injuries couldn’t heal. In this moment, its advantage of not having a flesh-and-blood body seemed to have vanished!
(End of this chapter)