< Chapter 75: Cause and Effect >
“You go ahead, I need to go back for a moment.” Zhu Xuanji turned back halfway.
Fei Si hurriedly said, “I’ll go too, I’ll go too!”
The ancestor of the Zhou family was naturally unwilling to lag behind and followed closely, “Detective Zhu, what did you discover?”
Zhu Xuanji only shook his head.
After a while, the three of them returned to the Flying Disk Workshop.
Several cultivators of the workshop were repairing the roof.
With a wave of Zhu Xuanji’s hand, the roof was opened again.
The three Golden Core cultivators slowly descended.
“Ah, my lords!” Ning Zhuo and Chen Cha bowed again.
Zhu Xuanji ignored them and went straight to Yuan Dasheng’s corpse, taking out a bottle of potion from his bosom.
The moment he opened the cork, the medicinal fragrance spread, shaking everyone’s hearts.
Fei Si exclaimed, “Supreme-grade elixir?”
Supreme-grade elixirs were extremely rare. Every pill that could be refined to this grade required the alignment of heaven, earth, and human factors. Even the creators couldn’t easily replicate such success.
Zhu Xuanji’s face was solemn. He didn’t hesitate to take out this precious treasure just to verify his thoughts.
All eyes were on him as he carefully dripped a drop of the potion.
The potion fell on Yuan Dasheng’s corpse and instantly seeped in.
Zhu Xuanji and the others waited for a while but saw no change.
Zhu Xuanji sighed, “This old ape’s mind hasn’t been influenced by any external force recently. This explosion in the Huoshi Forest was truly its mistake.”
Fei Si’s expression fell, as if saying, “That’s it?”
The ancestor of the Zhou family nodded lightly.
Without looking at the others, Zhu Xuanji turned and left, leaping into the air.
Fei Si and the ancestor of the Zhou family followed suit.
The three Golden Core cultivators left once again.
Ning Zhuo and Chen Cha continued handling Yuan Dasheng’s corpse.
Chen Cha noticed that Ning Zhuo’s movements were slow, his face pale, and his breath weak. He couldn’t help but show concern, “Little Zhuo, you’ve been working so hard these past few days. First, you rushed to make the Mechanical Monkeys, then you participated in the Huoshi Festival. Under Fei Si’s orders, you pressured Yuan Er to hand over Yuan Dasheng. Finally, you faced the overwhelming presence of the three Golden Core masters twice.”
“You’ve been through too much. Go home and rest well. I can handle things here.”
Ning Zhuo smiled bitterly and waved his hand, wiping the fine sweat from his forehead.
“Let me catch my breath first.” He stopped what he was doing, found a stool, and sat down to catch his breath.
A strong sense of lingering fear swept over him, causing cold sweat to bead on his forehead once more.
The recent situation had been extremely perilous!
“Just a little more, just a little more…”
He had just finished extracting the blood from Yuan Dasheng’s body when the three Golden Core cultivators arrived to investigate the corpse.
Afterwards, the three Golden Core cultivators left and then returned. If Ning Zhuo had truly used the Buddha Heart Demon Seal to influence Yuan Dasheng, things would have turned disastrous.
Let’s go back to a few days ago.
Ning Zhuo had been racking his brains, exhausted from trying to handle a life-and-death crisis.
Yuan Dasheng was very strong!
He also had the Monkey Head Gang protecting him.
Fighting head-on was definitely the worst strategy.
“To kill with a borrowed knife, I needed to expose Yuan Dasheng to other forces…”
Not to mention figuring out how to manipulate other forces to trouble the Monkey Head Gang. If others discovered Yuan Dasheng’s value, Ning Zhuo would be bringing disaster upon himself.
The greatest constraint was Zhu Xuanji.
Zhu Xuanji possessed the Trace Back Art!
If Ning Zhuo used the Buddha Heart Demon Seal to directly influence Yuan Dasheng, Zhu Xuanji could use the Trace Back Art on Yuan Dasheng’s corpse to find the closely linked individual—Ning Zhuo.
This would mean exposing himself proactively.
“How should I save myself?”
Ning Zhuo pondered bitterly, exhausting his thoughts!
He was trapped in an abyss of contemplation.
A strong sense of loneliness enveloped him, making him feel abandoned by the whole world.
No one knew his true situation. He couldn’t confide in anyone, nor could he rely on anyone.
Fate was cold and cruel, placing a formidable enemy like Yuan Dasheng in front of him, forcing him into a life-or-death struggle.
Surveying the entire situation, he realized he could only fight alone!
Whenever he thought of countermeasures, intense emotions surged within him.
Helplessness, powerlessness, disappointment, despair, a yearning to survive, anger, hatred, the unwillingness to betray his mother’s dying wish, and a rebellious desire to challenge…
Ning Zhuo had to constantly stay vigilant against these emotions, trying to eliminate their interference, and think calmly and objectively.
He needed to find possibilities within the impossible!
And he had to succeed in one go, with utmost thoroughness. Because if there was any flaw in his plan, it would inevitably backfire, leading him to his doom.
“I still have a lot of critical information that hasn’t been uncovered.”
“For example, how exactly did he acquire the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique? How many levels are there?”
“Wait a minute… Demonic Blood Tendon Technique!”
Ning Zhuo, deep in thought, was taken aback, then his eyes gleamed brightly.
Yes, the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique.
Once this demonic art was activated, it could draw blood energy and condense blood tendons.
When used on oneself, it could enhance mobility and provide a certain level of defense.
When used on others, it could corrode and pollute their blood energy with one’s own. If a large amount of blood tendons formed inside and outside their body, it could imprison or even control them.
At this moment, Ning Zhuo felt as if he had seen a glimmer of hope in the endless darkness.
“I can use blood energy to infiltrate and influence it.”
“Of course, not my own blood energy. If foreign blood energy clashed, Yuan Dasheng would definitely notice.”
“I can use his own blood energy!”
Ning Zhuo, of course, couldn’t draw blood directly from Yuan Dasheng. However, the latter had monkeys and offspring!
“Even if these monkeys and offspring have blood from different mother monkeys, as long as I collect enough, I can use alchemical methods to purify and extract the blood energy most similar to Yuan Dasheng’s own.”
At this point in his thoughts, Ning Zhuo faced another problem—would Yuan Dasheng be able to detect this same-origin blood energy?
“Could it detect it minutely?”
Ning Zhuo delved deeper into his thoughts, finding it unlikely.
“Yuan Dasheng cultivates two techniques.”
“One is the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique, with an unknown origin, at least at the third level of Qi Refining.”
“The other is the Five Elements Qi Regulation Art, acquired from the transmission bell, cultivated to the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, which allowed his soul to enter the Immortal Palace.”
“Apart from these, he couldn’t possibly cultivate other techniques!”
To enter the Immortal Palace during the Qi Refining stage, one must abandon other techniques unless they were the Mirror Platform Spirit Technique, the Five Elements Qi Regulation Art, or the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique.
The Five Elements Qi Regulation Art had to reach the peak of the third level of Qi Refining to trigger the soul’s entry into the Immortal Palace.
If Yuan Dasheng had any other techniques, it could only be the Mirror Platform Spirit Technique. If he had such cultivation in soul refinement, it would definitely show on the leaderboard.
But up until now, the soul refinement leaderboard only had Ning Zhuo’s pseudonym.
“Without a soul refinement technique, it’s impossible to detect it minutely with just Five Elements Mana and the Demonic Blood Tendon Technique.”
“According to the information, Yuan Dasheng isn’t adept at using magical instruments and prefers close combat, fully utilizing his physical prowess.”
“Betting on this gives me a considerable chance.”
Ning Zhuo had no other choice but to gamble that Yuan Dasheng didn’t have other methods and wouldn’t be able to detect it minutely.