A few days later.
Ning Zhuo's soul entered the Immortal Palace.
He quickly assembled his body, walking down from a small mountain of mechanical parts.
"Life hanging on a thread..." His steps were slow, carefully feeling everything.
As the embryonic form of his divine skills grew stronger, his perception of the mortal thread above his head deepened.
"With each transfer along the life thread, there is always loss. Now, I will use the power of my Buddha Heart Demon Seal, and the loss on the life thread will be much less than before!"
"Ning Zhuo is here."
"Look at his head, it really is big."
"Hmph, making us all wait for him, he's got quite an entourage."
The puppets gathered around the first portal, murmuring as they watched Ning Zhuo approach.
The others were already in place, and Ning Zhuo was the last to arrive.
Ning Zhuo also looked at them.
Five from the Zhou Family, two from the Zheng Family, and just himself from the Ning Family.
"The three families have started to exert pressure... More and more people will enter the Immortal Palace in the future." Ning Zhuo sighed inwardly.
Once the number of people formed a scale, the traps he had set up would become increasingly powerless, ultimately unable to withstand the human wave tactic and being overwhelmed.
Compared to the three families, Ning Zhuo was alone and at a significant disadvantage.
Under the gazes of many puppets, Ning Zhuo walked to the door, touched it, and chose the hangman's noose.
"Next, we need to work together to get through the traps at the door," Ning Zhuo said.
The Zheng Family cultivators nodded, but the Zhou Family members refused: "Just the five of us are enough, no need to team up."
"We'll go through first, and you can follow us in."
"Haha, who said our Zhou Family had the most people?"
Although Ning Zhuo was the nominal leader, the Zhou Family cultivators were disobedient, not following Ning Zhuo's orders.
Just as Ning Xiaoren expected, the Zhou Family cultivators tried to undermine Ning Zhuo's influence.
Yet, they posed as if they were sharing the burden for the group, rushing to break through, leaving Ning Zhuo in a difficult position to openly rebuke them.
However, Ning Zhuo had already prepared for this.
With a thought, a teleportation circle appeared out of thin air.
Light flickered, and the Golden Blooded War Ape - Dasheng landed!
"What is that?" The Zheng Family cultivators were the first to shout.
"Who are you!?" All the Zhou Family cultivators were horrified, some even trembling.
"There's an enemy, disperse and surround him!" Ning Zhuo shouted heroically.
"Wait, wait!" As Ning Zhuo was about to give the order to attack, the Zhou Family cultivators hastily stopped him.
"Something's wrong, don't act rashly!"
"Calm down, everyone, calm down!"
The Zhou Family cultivators had suffered bloody losses and were well aware of Yuan Dasheng's combat prowess. They knew they were not in the same league; any confrontation would mean total defeat.
All three families' puppets were on high alert, keeping their eyes fixed on Yuan Dasheng.
Yuan Dasheng's red body with golden bones was covered with countless black stripes, radiating an aura of menace.
When it had broken through previously, the injuries it had caused were temporarily repaired by Ning Zhuo. Although its abilities were greatly reduced, it still looked indistinguishable from before.
In short, the three families' puppets dispersed, loosely surrounding Yuan Dasheng, but no one made a move.
Yuan Dasheng scanned the crowd, ignored them, and walked straight toward the first door.
The next moment, it pushed the door open and entered.
Long spears on the wall thrust forward in unison, but Yuan Dasheng easily blocked them.
Heavy hammers fell from above, but Yuan Dasheng casually swept them aside.
Then, Yuan Dasheng lifted the heavy hammers high, resetting the mechanical traps.
It continued moving forward, leaping between walls and obstacles as if it were joyfully wandering through a mountain forest.
Everyone watching through the door cracks saw this scene and fell silent.
"What's with this mechanical monkey?" Ning Zhuo looked at the Zhou Family cultivators, "You seem to know something."
The Zhou Family cultivators denied it.
Someone said: "Can't you see? This mechanical monkey is obviously different from us. We gain mobility by assembling parts."
"But this mechanical monkey was directly teleported in."
Another Zhou Family cultivator added: "Look at us, all wooden bodies, but it is clearly a class above us."
"If we really attacked it, we'd surely lose more than we'd win."
The Zheng Family cultivators stared at Yuan Dasheng in the second room, puzzled: "But why did this mechanical monkey appear?"
"Perhaps..." Ning Zhuo speculated, "Perhaps it's a setup by the Three Ancestral Masters to teach us."
"Look at this mechanical monkey. It clearly has the strength to pass through the second room, but it keeps jumping between traps as if it's playing or teaching us how to get through?"
Upon hearing Ning Zhuo's words, everyone felt enlightened.
A Zheng Family cultivator slapped his thigh: "It seems like that's the case!"
The Zhou Family cultivators remained silent.
Since Yuan Dasheng had utterly defeated them once, they returned to the family, actively researching and speculating.
Their first guess was that Yuan Dasheng was a Magma Demon Ape from within Fire Persimmon, having heard the Dharma Transmission Bell, successfully cultivated, and entered the Immortal Palace, assembling the monkey puppet to compete for the inheritance of the Magma Fairy Palace.
But this guess had obvious flaws: The components in the first room were all uniform wooden materials. The materials on Yuan Dasheng's body were clearly different.
Then, they guessed it might be a setup within the Magma Fairy Palace.
When the number of challengers reached a certain threshold, like a specific number, the Magma Fairy Palace would activate such mechanical monkeys to intercept.
They also wondered if it was still a competitor demon cultivator. In the final levels of the Magma Fairy Palace, allow the challengers to switch their puppet bodies.
Besides, there were various other guesses.
The appearance of Yuan Dasheng was similar to when it was alive, but for others, it was hard to connect the dots. To many, monkeys mostly looked the same. Even for different human races, they often had facial blindness.
After witnessing the teleportation of Yuan Dasheng, some of the Zhou Family's guesses stood out.
Main Palace.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit constantly moved its jaw, grinding its teeth.
It snorted impatiently and angrily, occasionally pounding its fists on the throne's armrests.
It knew the truth best.
Watching Ning Zhuo use Yuan Dasheng in public yet fooling everyone, even some Zhou Family cultivators who knew the truth were covering for him!
Stupid.
A bunch of idiots.
Not a single smart one!
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit grew angrier as it watched, but there was nothing it could say.
The whole Magma Fairy Palace began to tremble with rage.
At the peak of Persimmon Mountain.
Amidst a heavy fog, City Lord Meng Kui opened his eyes, seeing the Magma Fairy Palace about to riot again. He sighed helplessly, his expression becoming serious, always ready to activate the grand formation to suppress the riot.
Ning Zhuo observed Yuan Dasheng through the door crack.
Since Yuan Dasheng had regained its spiritual nature, its reactions were sharper, choosing more varied solutions to the complex obstacles and traps than before, no longer as monotonous.
It was as if it had really come to life!
However, in Ning Zhuo's perception, his control over Yuan Dasheng still felt like there was a thick layer of ash, very unsmooth.
"This mechanical monkey stays in the second room, not advancing or retreating, seemingly playing with these traps."
"Let's continue, don't pay attention to it for now!" Ning Zhuo said.
The Zhou Family cultivators were hesitant: "The traps at the door have been reset, we'll need to team up again to overcome them."
"What if we get attacked by the monkey once we're in the second room?"
Ning Zhuo shrugged: "We can't just try nothing, can we? Staying here, waiting for our soul power to deplete, it's better to take a gamble."
This remark resonated strongly with the two Zheng Family cultivators.
The Zhou Family cultivators exchanged glances, finally nodding: "Five of us will form a group, and you can follow."
"If the mechanical monkey attacks, make sure you three hold it off so we can split into individuals as much as possible."
A massive mechanical puppet's combat ability would significantly decrease.
Ning Zhuo agreed to the Zhou Family cultivators' plan.
The large puppet of the Zhou Family squeezed through the doorway, endured the wall guns, deflected the heavy hammers, avoided the net traps on the floor, and cleared the traps at the door.
Seeing that Yuan Dasheng hadn't attacked, the Zhou Family cultivators sighed in relief: "Come on in."
Then, Ning Zhuo and the others pushed the door open and entered effortlessly.
At this moment, Yuan Dasheng let out a low growl, suddenly turned, and charged at them.
The Zhou Family cultivators were terrified, some wanted to counterattack, some wanted to flee, and some decided to hold their ground, causing their combined puppet to spin in circles.
Yuan Dasheng smashed into them like a meteor, shattering them directly.
"So it really does plan to fight!" Ning Zhuo shouted, bravely leaping forward.
Yuan Dasheng easily plucked Ning Zhuo's puppet head off and threw it into the nearest trap.
Everyone saw this clearly.
Bam, bam, bam...
Yuan Dasheng's heavy fists struck every puppet, completely defeating them.
The cultivators could only return their souls to their bodies.
Yuan Dasheng then jumped into the trap, retrieved Ning Zhuo's head, and reattached it to the puppet body.
"Let's go." Ning Zhuo stomped, shook his hands, and began moving with Yuan Dasheng.
Zheng Family.
"Why did it end so quickly?" someone asked.
The Zheng Family cultivators, looking serious and impatient, said: "Although we lost this time, we gained a lot! We discovered the Magma Fairy Palace's mechanical guardian."
Zhou Family.
New intelligence summarized new views.
"So, it seems that mechanical monkeys are obstacles specially set up by the Magma Fairy Palace when there are too many people together to maintain the challenge difficulty."
"Yes, that seems very likely!"
Ning Family.
"Why hasn't Ning Zhuo come back yet?" Ning Xiaoren wondered.
"Is that so?" He looked at the intel from the other two families and understood.
"Ning Zhuo is unlucky. His puppet head was taken off and thrown into a trap. He can only return when his soul power is exhausted." Ning Xiaoren sighed deeply.
At the same time.
Outside Fire Persimmon Mountain.
Two black-clothed demon cultivators stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at the Fire Persimmon Immortal City halfway up the mountain.
"The distress signal came from here."
"Heh, who would've thought that a genius like Han Ming would fall here."
"She usually doesn't pay us any attention. Once we rescue her, let's see if she still acts so proud."
"If it weren't for orders from above, I really wouldn't want to save her! Anyway, let's enter the city and find Han Ming quickly."