"Come in, why aren’t you coming in yet?" Silk Lady hiding within the Cave Mansion grew somewhat impatient.
Ning Zhuo watched the crowd squeeze into the cave, yet he remained unhurried.
His fingers subconsciously rubbed the Mechanical Ring, which remained motionless.
Ning Zhuo was reminiscing.
The intelligence he previously acquired, of a very high level and at considerable cost, naturally involved Che Zhuzi.
Ning Zhuo himself had some vaguely blurry memories, but upon trying to recall, he found them unclear.
Such minor details were impossible for him to remember with complete clarity.
"Perhaps, when I return, I should focus on studying this information?"
It was like a child picking up a long wooden stick, poking or sweeping it at everything he saw.
Ning Zhuo’s learning ability had skyrocketed; whenever he saw something, he wanted to try it, study it.
He directly took out the Intelligence Jade Scroll, held it in his hand, and with a probe of his Divine Sense, read through it and quickly confirmed the relevant content.
"It’s Che Zhuzi."
"’Everything Can Be’ Che Zhuzi..."
This referred to Che Zhuzi’s nickname.
In his early years, Che Zhuzi, having just taken form and originally being a Demon Insect, was not very intelligent and was often deceived.
Che Zhuzi’s body-secreted, produced Void Spider Silk, was a very practical and precious Treasure.
As a result, any cultivator could exchange some junk with Che Zhuzi for it.
For Che Zhuzi at that time, having no knowledge at all, if something caught his eye, or he believed their grand claims, he would barter his precious Void Spider Silk away.
This was okay, that was also okay... So, he earned himself the nickname ’Everything Can Be.’
Of course, today, Che Zhuzi had grown into a Golden Core Demon Cultivator, greatly expanding his horizons, and his intelligence had increased with his cultivation level.
Ning Zhuo pondered, "Void Spider Silk is indeed very practical."
"If I am to use only Mana Suspended Threads, the range would be far inferior compared to using it with Void Spider Silk."
"Life Hanging Thread, while powerful, is also limited as a Divine Skill—it can only communicate with things possessing Spiritual Nature."
Although Ning Zhuo could temporarily endow inanimate objects with spiritual nature, it wouldn’t last long. Using it once consumes a significant amount of it, making it a trump card he couldn’t use casually.
"If I use Life Hanging Thread, I cannot manipulate the newly refined Vowel Bamboo Puppet."
"But with Void Spider Silk, I can. This Treasure is extremely practical!"
With this thought, Ning Zhuo made up his mind and slowly walked into the Cave Mansion’s entrance.
"He’s in, he finally came in!" Silk Lady, seeing this scene, trembled with excitement, her cheeks blushing slightly.
This was clearly an Array Space.
Square gray stone bricks paved a vast plaza.
Overhead, the "sky" resembled an overturned lead cap, with grayish clouds like dirty cotton clusters, hanging low, threatening to fall.
The ground seemed to extend infinitely in all directions. The gray bricks blurred at the edge of the sight, eventually merging into the lead clouds, indistinguishable from where the horizon was, as if heaven and earth were one.
Che Zhuzi did not show himself, but his voice spread around, announcing the rules.
"Fellow Taoists, welcome to join the Xingyun Trial I have organized."
"This trial has only three stages. The first stage—’Wind Hitting Star.’"
"You just need to activate your threads or suspended threads to light up the star points to win and advance to the next stage."
"It begins now."
As soon as Che Zhuzi finished speaking, faint star traces appeared in the distant sky.
These starlights, like fireflies, were very sparse and kept moving, leaving short deep blue lines in midair.
Ning Zhuo focused his gaze and suddenly noticed that observational spells couldn’t be used, obviously suppressed by the Great Array.
He could only observe with his naked eyes.
"The speed of these starlights is fast and slow, and they move without any pattern," Ning Zhuo squinted, observed for a while, and recognized the difficulty.
While he was observing, some cultivators had already started to act.
Threads condensed from Mana shot out like electricity, slicing through the air.
Suddenly, a strong wind arose out of thin air.
The wind, evidently peculiar, directly dispersed the Mana, causing these Mana Suspended Threads to fail halfway.
Ning Zhuo understood at heart, "The first stage is named Wind Hitting Star; it turns out to be like this."
A fair-skinned cultivator snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve, and threw out a green thin vine.
The thin vine, being tangible, infused with Mana and controlled by Divine Sense, flew through the air, quite capable of resisting the strong wind’s gusts.
Everyone’s eyes focused on the thin vine.
As the wind grew stronger, the vine remained vigorous, extending in midair, only swaying slightly.
But the fair-skinned cultivator’s expression became increasingly gloomy.
Suddenly, the thin vine ceased to extend, halting in mid-air.
The cultivators quickly cast questioning glances toward the fair-skinned cultivator.
The fair-skinned cultivator’s face twitched, and with some resentment, he forced an explanation: "I didn’t expect this distance to be so far!"
The length of his thin vine, being substantial, was limited.
Ning Zhuo leveraged this attempt and discovered the third difficulty of the first stage: "This Array Space prohibits spell observation, relying solely on the naked eye, easily leads to misjudgment."
"These star points are indeed far away. To use tangible threads or suspended threads, their length must be assured!"
Ning Zhuo thought of the information he just read, and suddenly, a thought struck him, forming a guess: "No, perhaps this distance can be both long and short. This Great Array is under Che Zhuzi’s control. He might be manipulating behind the scenes, creating scenarios most favorable to him."