Chapter 482: Give the Treasure to Ning Zhuo
Ning Zhuo cultivated all three Dantians simultaneously, which meant that his cultivation time was at least three times that of an ordinary cultivator.
But in truth, it was far more than that.
Because the Three Sect Supreme Techniques were too exceptional—these top-tier techniques consumed far more time and effort than ordinary methods.
Ning Zhuo showed no pride in this.
“Although I saved nine years of grinding effort overnight, it means nothing.”
“Foundation Establishment Stage, sixth level: Field Opening without Obstruction, Treasure Nourishment and Growth, Dantian Radiance, Manifestation of Symbolic Phenomena, Golden Light Illumination Within, From Illusion to Reality... I’ve only just entered the stage.”
“There’s a long way to go.”
Ning Zhuo reflected on his cultivation condition.
“I cultivate the Three Sect Supreme Techniques.”
“Among them, the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique allows me to accelerate my progress by extracting blood from my clansmen and pairing with the Heavy Armor Blood Ape, Dasheng. I can also use the Innate Earth-Nurturing Fetal-Breath Great Method and the Fetal-Breath Spirit Vessel to strengthen my body. Though this is another path, they lead to the same goal.”
“As for the Five Elements Qi Regulation Art, I possess a profound Five Elemental realm and have improved it into the Divine Spirit Art of the Five Viscera Temple. I’ve already completed the Earth-Element Spleen Temple, which greatly improved my cultivation speed. But I still lack the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Essence, Wood Essence, Water Essence, and Metal Essence needed to refine the remaining four Viscera Temples.”
“Regarding the Mirror Platform Spirit Technique, though I haven’t found any shortcuts, I’ve always made steady progress in this area without hitting any bottlenecks. This proves that I am inherently kind and compassionate, good at calmly thinking through problems, which suits this Buddhist scripture well.”
“But compared to the National Strength Brick, all these pale in comparison!”
“At present, cultivating using National Strength Bricks is truly the way forward.”
“Using national power to grow one’s cultivation carries no risks or side effects.”
“No wonder, in the world of cultivation, a nation is the most superior form of power.”
After using up four National Strength Bricks, Ning Zhuo truly experienced how fragrant national power was!
A gleam of brilliance flickered deep within his eyes.
He had traveled the world and deeply felt the pain of lacking cultivation. Being weak made it difficult to do many things.
“If only I could obtain more National Strength Bricks…”
With that thought, his anticipation for the upcoming great war grew even stronger.
“If I can achieve merit in the war, I may gain more National Strength Bricks again.”
“I could even take advantage of the army of the Liangzhu Kingdom to find an opportunity to retrieve my mother’s relics.”
This could be said to serve both cultivation and the mission to rescue his mother.
Thus, he must not abandon the identity line of the Stone Dwelling Old Monster.
The previous ambush had fully proven the immense advantage of this identity. Ning Zhuo used to be the Strategist and Sacrificial Wine of the Three Generals Camp, and now he was Mu Lan’s husband, making many actions increasingly inconvenient. But once he assumed the role of the Stone Dwelling Old Monster, he could approach many thorny issues from another angle!
“Perhaps I can use the identity of the Stone Dwelling Old Monster to retrieve my mother’s relics from the Six Caves Sect ahead of time.”
Of course, Ning Zhuo knew that such an operation required utmost caution.
The Stone Dwelling Old Monster had nothing to do with the Ning family. Any sudden connection would arouse suspicion.
Especially since the Grand Cave Lord of the Six Caves Sect, Lu Hongtu, was highly strategic and sharp-eyed, and quite familiar with the Stone Dwelling Old Monster. If Ning Zhuo acted too hastily, it would likely draw his suspicion and investigation.
Perhaps one day, while playing the role of the Stone Dwelling Old Monster, Lu Hongtu would set up an ambush for him.
At the Treasure Nourishment and Growth stage, Ning Zhuo needed to constantly transport his essence, energy, and spirit to fuse them and form treasure medicines.
This was the core cultivation practice at this stage!
Ning Zhuo possessed an exceptional advantage in this—simultaneous cultivation of three Dantians.
This allowed each of his Dantians to be tempered and deeply rooted, enabling him to easily draw the cultivation from the other two Dantians and merge them together.
If one only cultivated a single Dantian while the other two were shallow, it would be difficult to draw their power. Even if one could, it would be minuscule, and the merged treasure medicines would be sparse and lacking.
Ning Zhuo paused his cultivation, slowly stood up, put away his meditation cushion and smokey clouds, lifted the tent flap, and walked outside.
At this moment, the sky was clear with not a cloud in sight.
Ning Zhuo squinted slightly, then slowly opened his eyes.
A gentle breeze brushed his face as he looked up at the sky.
In just one night, his cultivation had broken through Field Opening without Obstruction and entered Treasure Nourishment and Growth, skipping nine years of hard grinding.
Yet such a monumental breakthrough only made him feel insignificant.
The vast sky above and the silent earth below—he was like a mere speck of dust within.
Ning Zhuo was in the Three Generals Camp, and from around him came the sounds of military drills—at times, Guan Hong’s sharp barks, or Zhang Hei’s loud scolding.
To reach the Treasure Nourishment and Growth realm at sixteen was already quite rare. And Ning Zhuo cultivated all three Dantians simultaneously!
But compared to Liu, Guan, and Zhang—three Golden Core-level experts—even if he was rare, he was still just in the early Foundation Establishment stage.
Everyone believed that given time, he would surely achieve great things.
Yet the cruel contradiction of reality was that it did not treat you gently just because your future looked bright.
The world did not revolve for him—he had to adapt to the winds.
It was never the world that bent for the individual, but the individual who had to adjust to this cold and rigid world.
At present, Ning Zhuo had to adapt—endure the frailty of his cultivation while traveling the world, facing a realm of Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators.
“Fortunately, the cultivation arts have developed countless means to fight across realms!”
Cultivation was the pursuit, development, utilization, and innovation of heavenly principles.
The process of cultivation was the continuous excavation and refinement of a cultivator’s essence, energy, and spirit—and with it, their ability to wield power advanced in leaps and bounds. Initially, it was mere true qi, then it became liquid, then solidified into a Golden Core!
In the early days of the cultivation world, cultivators focused on digging deep within, exploring the limits and boundaries of every stage, resulting in qualitative leaps with each breakthrough.
As the inner potential approached depletion and room for improvement dwindled, cultivators had to turn their attention outward, prompting explosive progress in the Cultivation Arts—leading to today’s unprecedented prosperity.
Pills, magical tools, formations, talismans…
Cultivators had more and more ways to harness resources.
National Power was one such man-made resource, refining a nation's strength into a completely new cultivation method.
But National Power was hard to come by!
It was rare to find opportunities where a nation distributed National Strength Bricks.
Both sides of the Liangzhu Kingdom were powerful and constantly at war. Many armies had to be stationed and couldn't be moved.
Under such conditions, only by expanding and recruiting new troops could there be power to attack the Thousand Peaks Forest.
To entice more cultivators to serve, using National Strength Bricks as rewards was a highly appealing promotional tactic.
“My current cultivation needs National Strength Bricks to leap ahead. Before that, I can only rely on Cultivation Arts to shorten or even overcome the gap in combat power!”
“Among the Cultivation Arts, only Mechanical Arts disregard hierarchy and integrate all arts into one for grand achievement.”
Ning Zhuo had long understood his path forward with clarity.
He left behind a Flying Message to report his departure, then left the camp.
Next, he would repair the Wanli Dragon.
Ever since he suspected that Liu Er had planted surveillance techniques within the Three Generals Camp, Ning Zhuo had grown even more cautious.
Repairing the Wanli Dragon was no small matter—he had to be extremely careful.
Liu Er, though training the troops, had also been using his Innate Spirit Sound Probing Pulse to scan the entire camp—especially focused on Ning Zhuo’s tent.
The moment Ning Zhuo stepped out of his tent, Liu Er was secretly scanning.
He didn’t even need to wait for Ning Zhuo’s message to arrive in hand—he already knew Ning Zhuo had left camp.
“Second Brother, Third Brother, continue the drills. I have other matters to attend to.” With this, Liu Er ended the training.
Midway, he intercepted Ning Zhuo’s Flying Message and scanned it with his spiritual sense, finding nothing noteworthy—just a notification.
“The Strategist treats me with casualness now—not like before.”
Liu Er felt neglected again, and a fire flared in his chest.
But in the next moment, he suppressed the irritation, telling himself to be more generous.
“The Strategist has contributed greatly to the Three Generals Camp. Even if he’s rude, I should endure it.”
Liu Er tried to persuade himself.
“But what is the Strategist doing?”
“Could he be sneaking off to Red Flower Camp?”
“Logically, as the Military Advisor and Sacrificial Wine, he should inform me of his whereabouts when leaving camp.”
“Wait… Is he really sneaking off to Red Flower Camp, and thus hiding it from me?”
At the thought of Mu Lan secretly meeting with Ning Zhuo, Liu Er’s mood worsened, filled with irritation and dislike.
Even Liu Er himself didn’t understand why he felt such intense emotion.
He activated a concealment technique, left the camp in stealth, and secretly followed Ning Zhuo.
Ning Zhuo, however, did not head to Red Flower Camp, but instead slipped into the mountains and forest.
“Could he be taking a roundabout path to Red Flower Camp?”
“Strange!”
“Liu Er, you need to be more generous. Why do you care so much about Red Flower Camp?”
Liu Er’s Innate Spirit Sound Probing Pulse covered a vast area, allowing him to keep track from afar without losing sight.
Even Sun Lingtong, who was monitoring with the Wanli Dragon, didn’t detect Liu Er at all.
Deep in the forest, a Demon Cultivator Elder watched this scene and felt pleased.
“Little Six’s stealth and shapeshifting skills haven’t slackened. I did train him with great care.”
But the smile on the Demon Cultivator Elder’s lips quickly faded, replaced by a heavy seriousness.
He had already received the news.
And it had truly shocked him—Liu Er did not become Mu Lan’s husband; the one who won in the end was Ning Zhuo, Liu Er’s subordinate!
This completely contradicted the royal mandate reading he had done for Liu Er!
This was disastrous.
Failing to become the son-in-law of the Grand General’s Mansion left Liu Er’s half-human-half-demon identity in an extremely awkward position—how could he rise to the upper ranks now?
This step was incredibly critical.
Without it, a chain reaction would follow, potentially altering everything that had been foretold after.
“I must find out what really happened!”
With that thought, the Demon Cultivator Elder sent a telepathic message to Liu Er.
Liu Er was overjoyed and thought to himself:
“Master hasn’t left yet?”
He arrived at their meeting spot in the forest and bowed again to the elder.
The old man grunted softly, barely suppressing his irritation, and stroked his beard as he asked questions.
Though he had the news, he lacked the inside story and needed to ask Liu Er, someone directly involved, for more detail.
Liu Er did not hide anything from his mentor and, with a complicated expression, told him everything from beginning to end.
After hearing the full story, the Demon Cultivator Elder fell into a long silence.
In Liu Er’s memory, he had rarely seen his master like this. His heart grew more anxious and he asked cautiously, “Master, I messed this up, didn’t I?”
The elder came to his senses and looked at Liu Er, who was shrinking his shoulders like a boy caught misbehaving—timid on the outside, but inwardly watching his master to gauge the severity of punishment.
The Demon Cultivator Elder forced a faint smile.
“Little Six, you’re overthinking it.”
But Liu Er shook his head.
“Master, I really think I messed this up.”
“You gave me the Yin-Yang One-Energy Vessel clearly for me to use in pursuing Mu Lan.”
“Now, Mu Lan isn’t my wife. I’ve always had a good opinion of Ning Zhuo, but recently I keep feeling intense resentment toward him. I feel… like he took away the greatest treasure of my life.”
“Could that treasure be Mu Lan?”
Seeing that Liu Er had figured out the truth, the elder finally sighed and tapped his finger gently on Liu Er’s chest.
That small affirmation, once made, caused the elder’s body to suddenly weaken. He had to lean on a nearby tree trunk for support.
Seeing this, Liu Er’s heart sank. He knew his master well and recognized what this meant.
“Master, be careful!” Liu Er stepped forward quickly to support him.
He helped the elder sit on a nearby stone slab.
The elder took a few breaths and sighed deeply.
“Little Six, you’ve set your heart on building a human-demon kingdom. Even with a royal mandate, your path is full of peril. Your life… is bound to be one of hardship.”
“But all these hardships will ultimately refine you into someone stronger, until you realize your dream!”
“This situation has turned out this way, but it’s not a total failure yet.”
At this point, the elder once again felt weak and had to pause.
Liu Er’s eyes lit up.
“Master, there’s still hope?”
The elder nodded, caught his breath, and continued:
“Ning Zhuo will leave eventually. And he seeks to preserve his Yuan Yang, so he won’t engage in dual cultivation with Mu Lan. This point is especially crucial.”
“Dual cultivation… once it happens, both parties’ Fortune Energy will intertwine and undergo a kind of transformation.”
“This transformation could be good or bad… cough—”
Suddenly, the elder coughed up blood. His eyes rolled back, nearly fainting on the spot.
“Master! Master!” Liu Er panicked, quickly trying to treat him.
But the backlash from divination couldn’t be healed by ordinary methods. Only when the elder regained consciousness and used his own techniques did he feel a bit better.
With great effort, he raised his hand and said faintly,
“Go… go lend the Yin-Yang One-Energy Vessel to Ning Zhuo.”
“Do not, under any circumstances, let the two of them dual cultivate.”
“You must ensure that the one who benefits from Mu Lan’s virgin Yin is you. This is of utmost importance.”
After saying this, the elder suddenly collapsed entirely—his body crumbled into a multicolored mist, which then dispersed into the air.