Chapter 293: Undercurrent (Requesting Monthly Tickets)
The trouble in the black market was one of the scenarios that Ning Zhuo had long anticipated.
He wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“If it doesn’t work, just abandon the black market entirely and retreat.”
Compared to the Lava Immortal Palace, the black market was just a minor issue. If Ning Zhuo got distracted and invested his time and energy into it, it would mean that the enemy’s schemes had succeeded.
Of course, a full retreat was only the last resort. At this stage, it wasn’t necessary.
Ning Zhuo immediately sent a reply, instructing the black market to seek help from Ning Youfu and Ning Houjun, two former family elders.
Ning Zhuo had long-term strategies and had anticipated many difficulties he might face during the imperial exams. In advance, he made arrangements, one of which was persuading Ning Youfu and Ning Houjun, the former family elders.
These two played a crucial role in Ning Zhuo’s overthrow of Ning Xiaoren.
Both of them, being members of the family’s branch lineage, were optimistic about Ning Zhuo and willing to support him.
Only such influential figures could stabilize the situation, giving the leaderless black market an authoritative upper echelon, preventing chaos.
In his letter, he also instructed the black market to draw some personnel and station them in the Lava Immortal Palace.
This group would be led by Ning Xiangguo and Ning Xiangqian, two former stewards, along with a large number of Ning family cultivators. They also forcibly summoned members from the Monkey Head Gang, Turtle Breathing Gang, and Crane Beak Gang, making the total number exceed one hundred.
“Power is something to be used by me, not something I should overly invest in.”
Ning Zhuo understood this deeply.
The power he had carefully cultivated—if not used now, when else would it be?
The second round of the imperial exam.
The eleventh test.
Sun Lingtong’s flawless victories made others gnash their teeth in anger, yet they were helpless.
Ning Zhuo won more than he lost. Though he tried to keep a low profile, he could no longer remain unnoticed.
Whether on the arena or standing in the plaza, the way other cultivators looked at him had changed. Even Golden Core stage cultivators now treated him as a serious adversary.
“Who would’ve thought a mere Qi Refining junior would emerge like this?”
“Ning Zhuo really has some skills.”
“Every time Ning Zhuo faces Zhu Xuanji or Ning Jiufan, he voluntarily concedes. If he had really fought, who knows how much higher his achievements would be!”
While many praised him openly, their eyes exchanged furtive glances, realizing that they couldn’t let Ning Zhuo keep winning like this.
However, Ning Zhuo was extremely cautious, spending his days holed up in his residence, with Ning Jiufan, the Golden Core ancestor of the Ning family, residing next door.
This left many feeling powerless, sighing in frustration.
Late at night, the Lava Immortal Palace was ablaze with light, as bright as day.
Since the volcanic eruption and the surge of beasts, the skies above the Lava Immortal Palace had been shrouded in clouds and smoke, obscuring the sun.
Ning Xiaoren, having fought for several days, could no longer distinguish between day and night.
He had been fighting for over ten hours straight. His face was haggard, his eyes bloodshot. The continuous high-intensity battle made him long to collapse and sleep deeply.
But he couldn’t, forcing himself to endure the exhaustion and fatigue.
“They’re here! A wave of beasts is approaching from the southeast!” Suddenly, a cultivator shouted.
A few breaths later, the same scouting cultivator spoke again: “Be careful! This group of beasts is entirely composed of Flame-Treading Lizards. We must strike preemptively; we can’t let them break through our defenses.”
Ning Xiaoren and others formed a team of cultivators stationed at a street corner, where they had set up a formation and were holding a defensive position.
Most of the cultivators were from the Ning family’s main lineage.
Although Ning Xiaoren had been expelled from the family, this collaboration didn’t violate any family rules.
Upon hearing the warning, Ning Xiaoren gritted his teeth, urging the last remnants of his depleted mana to manipulate the formation.
Casting through the formation was much quicker than individual spells, and the power was greater.
Giant, tree-sized ice spears formed instantly and shot out in succession.
The ice spears killed several Flame-Treading Lizards, but the remaining half were enraged.
The Flame-Treading Lizards roared and charged towards Ning Xiaoren’s position.
From within the formation, some cultivators immediately controlled the mechanism to deploy a large number of mechanical constructs.
These constructs, primarily battering rams, charged forward. Though they were shattered by the Flame-Treading Lizards, they succeeded in slowing the beasts’ charge significantly.
Ning Xiaoren panted heavily, feeling waves of nausea. His mana was exhausted, forcing him to temporarily retreat.
Immediately, a backup cultivator replaced him, taking over the central position in the formation and controlling the formation.
After a fierce barrage of spells, one Flame-Treading Lizard still managed to break through and approach.
“Damn it! We don’t have any body cultivators!” The cultivators’ faces turned pale.
At this moment, a frenzied voice rang out: “Afraid? Who dares scare my little Xiaohui? Watch this, Xiaohui, don’t be scared of grandma!”
With that, Ning Xiaohui’s grandmother dashed out of the formation, charging directly at the Flame-Treading Lizard.
She collided head-on with the lizard, was flung back, crashed through two buildings, and finally fell to the ground, motionless.
Her entire body was almost completely broken, coughing up blood incessantly, and her protective magical weapon shattered completely.
“This lunatic!” Ning Xiaoren’s pupils contracted at the sight.
The Ning family’s main branch cultivators also had various expressions.
Thanks to Ning Xiaohui’s grandmother’s desperate intervention, they managed to seize the last moment to cast another round of spells, finally killing the last Flame-Treading Lizard.
The formation was safe again, but Ning Xiaoren’s heart grew heavy.
“These beasts are thick-skinned and tough, and these are just Foundation Establishment-level Red Flame Beasts.”
“If it were a Golden Core-level, could I retreat safely?”
Ning Xiaoren had no confidence.
He glanced at Ning Xiaohui’s grandmother again. By now, Ning family cultivators had run out of the formation to her side, beginning treatment.
“She’s already gone mad.”
“Ning Xiaohui’s death hit her too hard.”
“And I’m sharing the same formation with this lunatic, living side by side?”
Ning Xiaoren felt a deep sense of dread.
“It’s all that damned Ning Zhuo’s fault!”
“If it weren’t for him, would I be a prisoner? If it weren’t for him, would I be here risking my life under the stigma of being expelled from the family?”
“Ning Zhuo deserves to die, he deserves to die!”
“The heavens are blind to let that cunning, insidious villain thrive more and more. He even ranked at the top of the second round of the imperial exam! What are those Golden Core cultivators and geniuses doing?”
“Can’t they even deal with Ning Zhuo?!”
Ning Xiaoren’s situation was just a microcosm of the events in the Lava Immortal Palace.
The destruction of the Lava Immortal Palace had both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was that Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators, even those without any knowledge of mechanisms, could now enter.
Under the leadership of Meng Kui and Zhu Xuanji, a large number of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators from Huoshi Immortal City were transferred into the Lava Immortal Palace.
These cultivators, numbering in the thousands, were like timely rain, filling in all the front lines.
With their participation, the inner defensive line of the Lava Immortal Palace was reinforced and became very solid, firmly blocking the advancing beast tide.
After all, there weren’t many Golden Core-level beasts among the Red Flame Beasts. Once they appeared, they would be targeted and killed, with very few surviving.
As for the real threat to the Lava Immortal Palace, the two Nascent Soul-level beasts were held off by Meng Kui.
However, judging by the battle situation, Meng Kui, fighting one against two, was often at a disadvantage.
The Nascent Soul-level beasts frequently inflicted damage, breaking pieces of the Lava Immortal Palace’s outer walls.
The more the Lava Immortal Palace was damaged, the weaker the restrictions became.
Now, even Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators could sneak into the palace. At this rate, Golden Core and Nascent Soul stage cultivators would soon be able to enter as well.
“Ning Xiaoren, you’re too tired. Go back and rest. Once you’ve recovered, come back to fight!” The Ning family’s main branch cultivators still showed some care for Ning Xiaoren.
Ning Xiaoren nodded, and after recovering a bit of mana, he eagerly withdrew from the front line.
On his way back, he saw a large crowd gathered.
Curious, he approached to inquire and found that there had been a murder. A Foundation Establishment cultivator had been ambushed and killed, with his heart pierced and his soul missing.
“The No-Void Sect struck again! The deceased had just participated in the imperial exam during the day and lost his life at night. Sigh…”
“These demonic cultivators will stop at nothing to obtain the Lava Immortal Palace!”
Ning Xiaoren clenched his teeth as he
learned the details: “Why couldn’t they assassinate Ning Zhuo? The good die young, but the wicked live for a thousand years. What a rotten world!”
This was already the third murder targeting imperial exam participants recently.
Two succeeded in killing their targets, and one left the victim severely injured.
Strictly speaking, even severe injury was a success, as the injured cultivator was in such poor condition that he lost every subsequent match.
Participants in the imperial exam couldn’t attack each other directly, but they could certainly hire others to carry out ambushes and suppression.
The competition for the Lava Immortal Palace wasn’t limited to the daytime imperial exams but also involved nighttime assassinations.
It was foreseeable that solitary cultivators without deep roots or backing would be eliminated one after another, losing their lives.
Ning Xiaoren returned to his residence and collapsed onto his bed.
The next moment, he was jolted awake by the cold sensation of a dagger pressed to his neck.
“Who’s there?!” Ning Xiaoren was terrified.
The masked assassin held the dagger, constantly threatening Ning Xiaoren’s life: “Tell me about Ning Zhuo.”
“You... you’re going after him?” Ning Xiaoren realized, his expression stunned. “No, I won’t betray my family.”
The intruder sneered: “Don’t pretend. Who doesn’t know about your grudge against him?”
“Besides, you’ve already been expelled from the family, thanks to Ning Zhuo! He’s no longer your kin, former young master of the Ning family.”
Ning Xiaoren’s face quickly darkened, a flash of hatred appearing in his eyes: “What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” the masked person said calmly.
Ning Xiaoren said, “How do I know that if I tell you, you’ll let me go?”
The masked person shook his head: “You don’t know, and I can’t guarantee it. You just need to know that you have to make me satisfied. If I’m not satisfied, I’ll cut off your head right now.”
Ning Xiaoren quickly responded, “Okay, okay, I’ll talk, I’ll talk.”
He spoke in great detail.
The masked assassin was unsatisfied: “I already know all of that.”
He pried open Ning Xiaoren’s mouth with the tip of his dagger, sending a parasitic worm down his throat.
The worm crawled down and burrowed into Ning Xiaoren’s heart.
The assassin gently activated it, and Ning Xiaoren immediately clutched his chest in agony, writhing and convulsing on the bed like a worm electrocuted.
The assassin tortured him for a while before stopping: “Your answer doesn’t satisfy me.”
“I’ll give you a task now: do everything you can to obstruct Ning Zhuo and interfere with him.”
“Otherwise, I’ll make sure you die a horrible death from this heart-wrenching pain.”
Ning Xiaoren quickly raised his hand and begged for mercy: “Sir, sir, please don’t act rashly. I’ll do it, I’ll definitely do it.”
“Ning Zhuo is my sworn enemy! We’re on the same side. We’re allies!”
The masked assassin sneered: “It’s good that you have this understanding. You have three days to show results, or you’ll die.”
After saying that, the assassin disappeared from Ning Xiaoren’s sight.
Without a trace, coming and going like a ghost.
Left alone, Ning Xiaoren bit his lip and slammed his fist on the side of the bed: “Ning Zhuo! Ning Zhuo!! I almost died because of you, you damn thing!”
“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”
However, after venting for a while, Ning Xiaoren gradually regained his composure.
“That damn Ning Zhuo has committed so many shameless deeds. Since the imperial exam began, he’s been hiding next to Ning Jiufan.”
“With a Golden Core cultivator protecting him, how am I supposed to kill him?”
“That scoundrel is just too cunning, too cunning!”
(End of the Chapter)