The clouds hung low, and Ning Zhuo silently practiced his cultivation.
Sometimes, five-colored auras swirled around him, his breath oscillating, sometimes his Essence Blood surged, and Demonic Qi thickened, and sometimes he looked solemn, his face glowing with Buddha's light.
After experimenting with the three cultivation techniques, he gained a more intuitive and profound understanding of the subsequent seventh to ninth layers.
"These three techniques retain the greatest advantage they once had—fast cultivation speed."
"But if I were to cultivate strictly according to the original methods, the cultivation time would be at least three times longer than before!"
This was because the seventh to ninth-layer techniques introduced a new advantage: richness.
Whether it was Divine Sense, Mana, or Essence Blood, they were much thicker than those cultivated from typical techniques.
Although the speed advantage was retained, the standard total amount had tripled, so the cultivation time also increased threefold.
What made Ning Zhuo frown even more was another point.
"From the seventh layer onwards, these three techniques start responding to each other."
"Minor stages aside, the major stages must progress uniformly, which is really troublesome."
In other words, the three techniques must simultaneously reach the seventh, eighth, and ninth layers. But one could be in the early seventh layer, another in the mid-seventh layer, and the third in the peak of the seventh layer.
Previously, Ning Zhuo had Divine Sea cultivation up to the sixth layer, while the other two techniques were at the fifth layer.
This situation was absolutely unacceptable for the subsequent seventh to ninth-layer techniques.
According to the cultivation techniques, if this happened, it would greatly impact the success probability of the Foundation Establishment.
Ning Zhuo understood the reason.
"Because this involves the integration of the Three Elixir Fields!"
It had been mentioned before that after the Qi Refinement Realm comes the Foundation Establishment Stage. The Qi Refinement Realm has three main training paths, namely the Upper Dantian Divine Sea, the Middle Dantian Qi Sea, and the Lower Dantian Essence Sea.
For most techniques, they specialize in one Dantian. So there were no such concerns.
But for excellent or top-tier techniques, they specialized in more than one Dantian, often involving two Dantian.
Whichever two Dantian they involved, they all required unification. For example, unity of spirit and breath, unity of spirit, or harmony of essence and breath.
In the case of the Three Ancestral Masters, what he needed to achieve was even more—unification of the three treasures: essence, breath, and spirit!
This unification was not about merging the three Dantian into one but about making their breath unified, as if one, truly opening the path to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Without this unification, Ning Zhuo's cultivation of these three techniques would be like randomly cultivating three entirely incompatible techniques.
When it came to impacting the Foundation Establishment Stage, failure would be inevitable.
All three Dantian had cultivation, and just a slight disharmony, failing to prioritize, would lead to severe conflict, resulting in a failed attempt at Foundation Establishment and damage from the three Dantian clashing against each other. In the worst cases, it could affect the foundational practice, turning a genius into a wastrel, or even threaten life.
This was the main reason why cultivating the three Dantian together remained exceptionally rare in today's highly advanced cultivation world.
Ning Zhuo summarized: The three cultivation techniques maintained their speed advantage in the late Qi Refinement Realm; however, the time was extended threefold, and the three techniques must advance in unison.
He immediately thought of the difficulties therein.
"This way, my Divine Sea cultivation cannot advance too quickly."
"I must also consider the progress of the other two Dantian."
"Fortunately, minor stages do not need to be consistent; I can still use Ice Jade Wine to elevate my Qi Sea cultivation."
"But what about the cultivation of the Essence Sea?"
Ning Zhuo's cultivation in the Essence Sea had always been the slowest.
It wasn't that he had no talent in this area, nor was it really slow, but compared to the exceptionally fast progress of the Divine Sea and the elevated Qi Sea, the Essence Sea had always been the last.
Previously, this was not an issue.
But now, according to the later stages of the three techniques, this was the biggest shortcoming in Ning Zhuo's cultivation.
"I've obtained the subsequent techniques, but new problems have emerged simultaneously."
Ning Zhuo only skimmed through the content of the later stages of the Mirror Stand Spirit Communication Technique, and he could feel his Divine Sea cultivation surging with the tendency to break through to the seventh layer, frightening him into quickly dispelling all related thoughts from his Divine Sea.
His Qi Sea cultivation had reached the peak of the sixth layer as well.
Only his Essence Sea cultivation lagged behind.
"I must fully improve my Essence Sea cultivation!"
Most of the research on the Essence Sea was primarily in the realm of Demon Sect techniques.
Ning Zhuo had very little exposure in this area.
His knowledge mainly came from the Ning Family's public library, and his proficiency in Mechanical Techniques largely originated from the relics left by his mother.
Although he had been gathering intelligence in the black market for years and paid attention to collecting classical texts,
the quality of cultivation techniques and spells in this tier of the market was generally low (after all, Fire Persimmon Immortal City was a new city). Unless he got lucky or attended some auctions, it was challenging to acquire high-quality techniques.
Officially suppressed and banned, Demon Sect techniques were also hard to procure from conventional markets.
Until he was sixteen, Ning Zhuo firmly believed in the development path of the Righteous Path, having little desire for demonic arts.
He never expected that the Magma Fairy Palace's techniques required cultivating all three paths.
This left his preparation and actual need for demonic arts highly misaligned.
Fortunately, he had an elder brother from a major Evil Sect.
Ning Zhuo sought Sun Lingtong's advice on this matter.
Sun Lingtong directly provided an answer: "This is very simple."
"Increasing Essence Blood cultivation is actually the easiest."
"But Little Zhuo, you certainly won't be able to do it."
"Elder Brother, go ahead and tell me," Ning Zhuo persisted.
Sun Lingtong's answer made Ning Zhuo's face change slightly, and he immediately shook his head: "Impossible, impossible!"
Sun Lingtong's method was straightforward, relying on kin with the same bloodline.
Grim demon cultivators slaughtered their kin for personal gain, achieving rapid advancement in cultivation.
The key was that, as long as demon cultivators focused on refining and purifying, this method truly had no side effects!
Ning Zhuo was unwilling to give up: "Elder Sun, is there any other way?"
Sun Lingtong did offer several methods, but all had exceedingly high thresholds or were too slow to solve immediate concerns.
What to do now?
Ning Zhuo had no choice but to focus on cultivating his Essence Sea while keeping an eye out for relevant intelligence, hoping for some fortuitous opportunity.
Sun Lingtong consoled him: "You aren't really at a bottleneck; you're still progressing steadily. This is a normal cultivation speed, but you aren't satisfied."
Ning Zhuo sighed and shared his worries with Sun Lingtong.
Fire Persimmon Immortal City was becoming increasingly crowded, as external cultivators were attracted by the Recruitment Decree, coming here to explore the Immortal Palace.
Ning Zhuo felt his pressure growing by the day.
He had to give his all, racing against time, to maximize his chances of seizing the Immortal Palace.
He would not forgive himself for even a moment of slack.
"Ah, Little Zhuo is stretching himself too thin," Sun Lingtong sighed internally but didn't try to advise him.
Because he understood very well the significance of the Magma Fairy Palace in Ning Zhuo's life.
He also knew that any persuasion was meaningless. Offering all his support to Ning Zhuo was the most meaningful help he could provide.
This was why Sun Lingtong stayed in Fire Persimmon Immortal City despite being wanted.
He always hid in the underground base, moving every so often. Given his personality, this kind of life was more torturous than prison.
But Sun Lingtong endured, wanting to stay close to Ning Zhuo and find ways to help his little brother.
Little did he know, his situation was even more dangerous than Ning Zhuo's — he had already been targeted by Luo Shang of the Soul Devouring Sect and Yang Chanyu of the Bukong Sect, both Golden Core True Transmission cultivators.
When he rotated back to the previous underground base, he'd walk right into their trap.
Ning Zhuo's small courtyard.
"Good, this Mechanical Explosive Flame Monkey is of excellent quality; I'll buy it." Ning Zhuo paid for a mechanical monkey.
Recently, he had been making this purchase action more frequently.
"Hmm, did you improve and create this jet spray mechanism according to the Magma Fairy Palace's mechanism diagram?"
After receiving an affirmative answer, Ning Zhuo also bought the spray mechanism to encourage them.
Since Ning Xiaohui withdrew from the Renovation Team, the remaining main-line family members were scarce, and without a central figure, there was nothing to be concerned about.
Ning Zhuo had complete control over the Ning Family's Renovation Team.
Ning Zhuo proactively arranged for the Renovation Team members to go to various Mechanical Workshops to accumulate mechanical technique proficiency.
After some time, the visible results were outstanding!
This made Ning Zhuo suspect whether the Ning Family was originally a family specializing in Mechanical Techniques and whether their main focus on ice and snow techniques had deviated from their path.
A former deacon of the Foundation Establishment Stage clarified things for him.
This former deacon had participated in selecting personnel for the higher-ups before.
Ning Zhuo then understood that the Renovation Team's personnel had not been randomly chosen but meticulously selected by the Ning Family's high-ranking members from a vast base, tailored for Mechanical Techniques.
"The more people a family has, the more talent there will be for different cultivation techniques."
"From the family's perspective, more people are definitely better, immensely beneficial."
The Ning Family's carefully selected personnel now fell into Ning Zhuo's hands and were at his disposal.
The black market previously run by Sun Lingtong was also under Ning Zhuo's control, with profits skyrocketing.
Everything has its pros and cons. While many outsiders brought immense competitive pressure by flooding into the Immortal City, they also brought more trades and income.
Ning Zhuo's funds rapidly increased, accumulating at an unprecedented rate, even though he constantly spent money.
When donating to the Ciyou Garden, he contributed a more abundant amount of Spirit Stones than he'd initially planned.
The salary for Ning Family's Foundation Establishment subordinates occupied a lesser portion of the total revenue.
Ning Zhuo even invested heavily in covert intelligence collection.
Much intelligence on accelerating cultivation with demonic arts was collected, but most were unreliable.
With his decade-long intelligence sensitivity, Ning Zhuo could often estimate the rumor content of information at a glance.
Though he gathered a lot of intelligence and leads, most were merely unfounded rumors of little value.
The vast majority of solutions were the ones Sun Lingtong mentioned — targeting one's kin.
"Since it involves Demon Sect techniques and the Magma Fairy Palace, I can't go through official channels or seek help from the Three Families."
"For now, the situation is manageable, but if my Essence Sea cultivation ascends to the seventh layer and the time triples, I won't be able to endure it!"
After days of intense contemplation, Ning Zhuo suddenly had a wonderful idea and achieved a delightful breakthrough—
"Wait, I can have a Mechanical Puppet cultivate in my stead!"