The final trial on the Demon Sect path.
What filled Ning Zhuo's vision was a bright red color.
In the final trial, the space was unexpectedly vast—like an expansive prairie!
Obviously, some kind of spatial array had been laid down during the construction of this trial.
Inside the trial, the blood mist was extremely thick, dispersing between heaven and earth, forming large patches of blood fog.
The blood fog kept swirling, driven by a constant wind, making the fog sometimes dense and sometimes thin.
As Ning Zhuo explored the blood fog, he discovered a faint light after walking some distance.
He walked towards the light and arrived at the center of the room. There, he saw a blood lake.
The light emanated from the surface of the blood lake.
As he stepped to the edge of the blood lake, the lake's surface light suddenly diminished.
His reflection appeared on the water's surface.
The lake water started to ripple rapidly, bubbling like boiling water.
A large volume of essence blood surged upwards, bursting out of the lake and rushing toward Ning Zhuo.
He hurriedly dodged.
The essence blood landed on a nearby rock, immediately wrapping around it.
Soon, it formed large patches of blood veins on the rock's surface.
The blood veins were extremely powerful, continuously molding the rock. A series of cracking sounds followed, transforming the rock into a puppet resembling Ning Zhuo.
Impressively, it looked quite alike.
The stone puppet, wrapped and controlled by blood veins, silently charged towards wooden Ning Zhuo.
A fierce battle unfolded beside the blood lake.
Ning Zhuo soon fell into a disadvantage.
It was because the stone puppet's material was much better than his wooden body, made from foundation-level materials.
Furthermore, the stone puppet's martial arts were also superior to Ning Zhuo's.
He could only fight while retreating.
As he probed his opponent's capabilities, the blood lake stirred again.
The essence blood from the lake surged ashore, attaching itself to the soil and trees successively.
After a moment of molding by the blood veins, they formed soil and tree puppets.
In an instant, Ning Zhuo faced the dilemma of fighting three opponents at once!
After a round of exchanges, Ning Zhuo realized that each puppet surpassed him significantly in martial arts.
While this made him envious, he resolutely decided to fervently activate his own blood qi.
His blood qi was exceedingly abundant, and the blood path diagram plate in his wooden body was a foundation version taken from Yuan Dasheng.
Ning Zhuo clapped his palms together, and blood qi poured out like a waterfall, directly submerging the three puppets.
An hour later...
The battlefield was covered with countless puppet remains, broken limbs, and severed heads.
Ning Zhuo could barely stand, utterly exhausted, but filled with relief and joy.
"Finally, I have won!"
After a full hour of battle, it was long and arduous.
Each puppet opponent he faced was at the same peak level as him, the ninth tier.
"This time, my victory was unfair."
Ning Zhuo knew that his victory was entirely due to the overwhelming outpour of blood qi, crushing his opponents without rationale.
This was the best demonstration of brute force overcoming skill.
He managed to do this thanks to Yuan Dasheng.
Yuan Dasheng had created a foundation-level blood path diagram plate, which had a far greater scale of blood qi outburst than a qi refining level plate.
In the penultimate trial, the blood path diagram plate absorbed a substantial amount of blood qi.
In the final trial, Ning Zhuo lavishly spent the blood qi, unreservedly. When blood qi ran low mid and late stage, he drained the blood path diagram plate and used it to fervently absorb his opponents' blood qi, fighting to sustain himself.
In this way, Ning Zhuo essentially had endless blood qi.
He used no technique, just overwhelmed his opponents with more than tenfold blood qi.
As each puppet fell, more puppets would rise from the blood lake.
The puppets kept coming, pushing Ning Zhuo into a prolonged struggle.
"But in the end, I am still the victor!"
"When I have time to refine my martial arts in the future, I will attempt this trial again."
Ning Zhuo opened the last gate of the Demon Sect path and entered the final reward room.
As soon as he stepped in, he received the foundation establishment method of the Demon Sect path.
Corresponding with the Buddhist Sect, the foundation establishment method here focused primarily on the essence sea of the lower elixir field, with the other two elixir fields as supplementary.
Ning Zhuo didn't delve into this foundation establishment method, instead immediately looking at the various job plaques hanging on the wall.
After careful consideration and browsing multiple times, he chose the Command Platform Chief.
"Next, it's the Dao Sect path."
With his substantial soul power, after passing the final trial of the Demon Sect, Ning Zhuo still had reserve force.
He used the Buddha Heart Devil Seal to exit the trial and returned to the third transfer hall.
Then, he opened the third Dao Sect door and ventured forth with all his might.
Magma Fairy Palace, main hall.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit's gaze pierced through the void, with a complicated expression, watching Ning Zhuo's every move.
Previously considering deception and delay, it ultimately found that it couldn't stop Ning Zhuo from obtaining the three different foundation establishment methods.
So, it preemptively revealed the secrets of the foundation methods, seeking Ning Zhuo's trust.
"The previous interactions, I think I did well!"
"Especially the last time."
"Although the whip hurt, it earned Ning Zhuo's trust and gratitude."
"Heh heh, everything will be alright."
"I will surely gain freedom!"
While the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit boosted its morale, Ning Zhuo started a new trial.
As the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had introduced, the purpose of the Dao Sect path was to cultivate the spell-casting abilities of trial disciples.
In the previous reward room, Ning Zhuo had acquired the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk. At this moment, it became his primary weapon.
Wielding the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk, he continuously cast Five Elements spells, sometimes attacking, sometimes defending.
Every so often in this trial, a Five Elements spell would come at him.
Sometimes it was a metallic blade, sometimes a water wave, and sometimes a fiery blaze.
Ning Zhuo had to use spells to counter spells.
To save more spiritual energy, he followed the rule of opposition.
He used water spells to counter fire, and wood spells to counter earth's flying sands.
This approach was undoubtedly the most energy and spirit conserving.
The Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk enabled him to transform the spiritual energy in his body into the Five Elements magic.
Using this magic to perform Five Elements spells was undoubtedly more efficient.
This wasn't the extent of its capabilities, as the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk also had other uses.
Essentially, it was an array plate, and once used, it extended an invisible array.
Within the array's coverage, the spiritual energy in the air altered under its influence, and Ning Zhuo could change the spiritual energy's nature within the array with a single thought.
In other words, the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk was a combat tool capable of altering or setting up the battleground.
"As my mastery of Five Elements' mutual generation and restraint improves, the quality of Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disks I can obtain will also be higher."
The way to obtain the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk was much like the blood path diagram plate, mainly referencing a certain spell or cultivation technique.
The second Dao Sect reward trial was the Five Elements Spiritual Conversion Disk.
The third Demon Sect reward trial was the blood path diagram plate.
These reward items could be obtained repeatedly.
In fact, the first Buddhist Sect reward trial was the same. However, Ning Zhuo harnessed Yuan Dasheng's corpse to refine the Golden Blooded War Ape - Dasheng, which possessed immortal aptitude.
The reward of the first Buddhist Sect was meant to be a spiritual mechanism, far from possessing complete spiritual nature, and destined to exhaust it eventually. Yet, Ning Zhuo had utilized Golden Blooded War Ape - Dasheng all along.
Under normal circumstances, trial disciples' spiritual mechanisms would get consumed after a period. They would then challenge the Buddhist Sect path anew to receive another mechanism.
After arduously passing the penultimate trial of the Dao Sect path, Ning Zhuo found it difficult to continue.
His spiritual energy was less than thirty percent.
"The penultimate trial's difficulty is still too significant for me."
"I spent too much time, spirit, and spiritual energy here."
Ning Zhuo wasn't confident enough for the final trial of the Dao Sect path.
After all, he had just passed the final trial of the Demon Sect, and his state wasn't at its best.
But, still curious, he opted to open the final gate.
As expected, he failed.
Returning to his body, Ning Zhuo re-entered reality.
Floating amidst the clouds, his eyes remained tightly shut for a long while.
He recollected his conversation with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit and thoroughly pondered his current situation.
The exchange with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had greatly benefited him.
He verified the foundation establishment method and deepened his collaboration with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit.
Most crucially, he understood the main mechanisms of the Imperial Court examination.
"To participate in the Imperial Court examination quickly, I don't need to accumulate enough merits for the highest rank position."
"After all, my merits are in the negative, and accumulating enough for the highest rank is way too lengthy."
His prior destruction of the Immortal Palace had caused his merits to go deep into the negative, creating a sizable pit that was hard to fill.
Ning Zhuo calculated internally.
Actually, he only needed the qualification to participate in the Imperial Court examination.
This meant he didn't need to secure first place in merits; being in the top thirty-two would suffice.
Magma Fairy Palace, Infirmary.
Ning Xiaohui's heart skipped a beat as she discovered a new repair task.
"It's that mechanical monkey!" Ning Xiaohui's eyes immediately lit up.
Having continuously challenged the Demon Sect path and nearly reached the final door of the Dao Sect path, Yuan Dasheng had gotten injured.
Without hesitation, Ning Zhuo handed the task of repairing the Golden Blooded War Ape to Ning Xiaohui.
Ning Xiaohui accepted the repair task right away.
The teleportation circle transmitted the Golden Blooded War Ape onto her workbench.
Upon inspection, Ning Xiaohui joyfully discovered that this time, the Golden Blooded War Ape's injuries were much lighter than before.
After all, its previous injuries were accumulated over a long time by Ning Zhuo.
While using the Golden Blooded War Ape, Ning Zhuo had merely patched it up without fully understanding its mechanical structure, only managing provisional fixes.
Observing the Golden Blooded War Ape's injuries, Ning Xiaohui couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile.
For her, the lighter injuries indicated that it had an upper hand in battle, inflicting far more severe hurts on its opponents than it received.
"You should unleash your full power more often!"
Increasingly fond of the Golden Blooded War Ape, Ning Xiaohui eyed it with admiration, finding it exuding an aura of dominance.
Previously, the ape had given her countless nightmares and embarrassing moments, but now she had come to terms with it, and her feelings had entirely changed.
"Once I fix you up, I'll find out who's suffering out there."
"I'll make these trial disciples endure some hardships, for it's good for their growth."
At this thought, Ning Xiaohui couldn't help but chuckle to herself.