Trouble at the Black Market was one of the eventualities Ning Zhuo had anticipated.
He was not surprised in the least.
"If it really comes down to it, just abandon the Black Market completely and bunker down."
Compared to the Lava Immortal Palace, the Black Market was just a minor detail. If Ning Zhuo were to be distracted by this and to invest his energy and time here, it would mean that the enemy's conspiracy had succeeded.
Of course, a full retreat was only a last resort. At this stage, it was not yet necessary.
Ning Zhuo immediately replied, instructing the Black Market to seek help from Ning Youfu and Ning Houjun, the two former Family Elders.
Ning Zhuo's strategies were far-seeing; he had anticipated many difficulties during the palace examinations and had made arrangements in advance, including convincing Ning Youfu and Ning Houjun.
These two had played significant roles in helping Ning Zhuo overthrow Ning Xiaoren.
Both being part of a family sideline, they were optimistic about, and willing to support, Ning Zhuo.
Only such influential figures could stabilize morale, giving the headless Black Market high-level authority to avoid panic.
In the letter, he also instructed the Black Market to deploy a batch of forces to settle in the Lava Immortal Palace.
This group, led by former executors Ning Xiangguo and Ning Xiangqian, consisted of numerous Ning Family cultivators, and forcibly recruited members from the Monkey Head Gang, Turtle Breath Gang, and Crane Beak Gang, totaling over one hundred people.
"Power is meant to serve me, not for me to overly invest myself in it."
Ning Zhuo understood this deeply.
The power he had carefully cultivated, if not used now, when else?
The second round of palace examinations.
The eleventh question.
Sun Lingtong was triumphant, causing others to grit their teeth in annoyance, yet there was nothing they could do.
Ning Zhuo won more than he lost, and though he tried to remain low-key, he could not maintain it anymore.
Whether it was on the stage or standing in the plaza, the way cultivators looked at him had changed. Even Golden Core Level cultivators began to treat him as a formidable opponent.
"Who would have thought that a mere Qi Refinement junior could rise above the rest?"
"Ning Zhuo indeed has some tricks up his sleeve."
"Every time, when facing Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, Ning Zhuo would concede defeat proactively. If it had come to real combat, his record might have been even higher!"
Many praised him outwardly, while exchanging meaningful looks in secret, realizing that they could not let Ning Zhuo continue to win this way.
However, Ning Zhuo was extremely cautious, holing up in his residence all day, next door to Ning Family Ancestor Ning Jiufan.
This left many frustrated and continuously sighing in despair.
In the depths of night, the Lava Immortal Palace was aflame, brightly lit as if it were day.
Since the volcanic eruption and the Demon Beast Tide, clouds and smoke had perpetually shrouded the sky above the Lava Immortal Palace, obscuring the sun.
Ning Xiaoren had been battling here for some time, no longer able to distinguish between day and night.
He had been fighting continuously for over twenty hours. His face was haggard, his eyes bloodshot, and the relentless combat made him wish he could collapse and sleep deeply.
But he could not. He had to endure the exhaustion and drowsiness.
"Over there, a wave of demon beasts at the southeast corner!" suddenly, a cultivator shouted.
A few breaths later, this scout spoke again: "Be careful, these are all Flame Stepping Lizards. We must strike early. We cannot let them reach our formation."
Ning Xiaoren and others formed a small team of cultivators stationed at a street corner, setting up an array and defending the position.
They were mainly cultivators from the main branch of the Ning Family.
Although Ning Xiaoren had been expelled from the family, cooperating with them at this time did not violate any family rules.
Upon hearing the warning, Ning Xiaoren clenched his teeth, pushing his nearly depleted Mana to manage the array.
The array was much quicker and more powerful than individual casting.
Giant ice spears formed in an instant, continuously fired off.
The ice spears killed many Flame Stepping Lizards but also enraged the remaining ones.
With a scream, the Flame Stepping Lizards charged toward Ning Xiaoren's position.
Immediately, cultivators within the array controlled it, launching a large amount of mechanical artifacts.
These contraptions mainly consisted of battering rams, charging forward; though they were smashed to pieces by the Flame Stepping Lizards, they successfully halted their charge and greatly reduced their speed.
Ning Xiaoren, gasping for breath and feeling nauseous, had exhausted his Mana and had to temporarily withdraw.
Immediately, reserve cultivators took his place at the Array Eye, manipulating the array.
After a powerful bombardment of spells, there was still one Flame Stepping Lizard that managed to get close.
"This is bad, we haven't enlisted any Body Cultivators!" the cultivators turned pale.
Just then, a hysterical voice shouted, "Who dared to scare my little Xiaohui? Watch out, Grandma's here; don't be scared, my Xiaohui!"
Saying so, Ning Xiaohui's grandmother charged out of the array straight toward the Flame Stepping Lizard.
She collided with the Flame Stepping Lizard and was flung backward, breaking through two buildings before crashing to the ground motionless.
She was nearly broken in every bone, constantly coughing up blood, her Protective Magical Instruments completely shattered.
"This madwoman!" Ning Xiaoren was shocked by the scene.
The cultivators from the main branch of the Ning Family also showed various expressions.
Thanks to the desperate resistance of Ning Xiaohui's grandmother, they managed to seize the last opportunity, covering the area with a round of spells, annihilating the last Flame Stepping Lizard.
The array turned from danger to safety, but Ning Xiaoren felt heavy-hearted.
"Demon beasts are tough, and these were just Foundation Establishment Level Flame Demon Beasts."
"If they were Golden Core Level, could I have safely retreated?"
Ning Xiaoren had no certainty.
He looked again at Ning Xiaohui's grandmother. By now, Ning Family cultivators had run from the array to her side, starting her treatment.
"She has gone mad."
"The death of Ning Xiaohui hit her too hard."
"I'm actually living alongside such a madwoman within the same array?"
Ning Xiaoren felt a wave of lingering fear.
"It's all that damned Ning Zhuo's fault!"
"If it weren't for him, would I have become a prisoner? Would I be risking my life here, trying to earn merits while bearing the dishonor of being expelled from the family?"
"Ning Zhuo deserves to die, deserves to die!"
"Heaven is blind, letting this cunning and insidious villain thrive more and more. He even ranked among the best in the second round of the palace exams! What are those Golden Core Cultivators and geniuses up to?"
"Can't they even deal with Ning Zhuo?!"
The situation of Ning Xiaoren was just a snapshot of what was happening in the Lava Fairy Palace.
The destruction of the Lava Fairy Palace had its pros and cons.
The advantage was that Qi Refinement Realm and Foundation Establishment Cultivators, even without any knowledge of mechanical artifacts, could now enter it.
Under the leadership of Meng Kui and Zhu Xuanji, Fire Persimmon Immortal City had deployed a large number of Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment Cultivators to station in the Lava Fairy Palace.
This large number of cultivators was like a timely rain, filling up all the lines of defense.
With their involvement, the inner defensive lines of the Lava Fairy Palace were well fortified, staunchly holding back the tide of Demon Beasts.
After all, among the Flame Demon Beasts, those of the Golden Core Level were few. Whenever they appeared, they were targeted and rarely survived.
As for the true threats to the Lava Fairy Palace, those two Nascent Soul Level Demon Beasts were also resisted and distracted by Meng Kui.
However, from the look of the battles, Meng Kui, fighting two alone, often fell into a disadvantage.
Nascent Soul Level Demon Beasts often achieved victories, shattering the exterior of the Lava Fairy Palace bit by bit.
The more the Lava Fairy Palace fractured and lost, the weaker its prohibitions became.
Now, Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment Cultivators were finding loopholes to sneak into the palace directly. According to this trend, soon it will be the turn of Golden Core and Nascent Soul Cultivators.
"Ning Xiaoren, you are too exhausted. Go back and rest. Once you've recuperated, come back to fight!" The main line cultivators of the Ning Family still took good care of Ning Xiaoren.
Ning Xiaoren nodded, and after recovering some Mana, he hurriedly retired from the front line.
On his way back, he saw a large group of people gathered together.
Driven by curiosity, he approached and inquired, only to discover it was a brutal murder. A Foundation Establishment Cultivator had been assassinated; his heart was pierced, and his soul had fled.
"Bukong Sect has made their move again! The victim just participated in the palace exam during the day, and lost his life by night, sigh..."
"These Demon Cultivators will stop at nothing to seize the Lava Fairy Palace!"
Ning Xiaoren learned the details and gritted his teeth in anger: "Why don't they assassinate Ning Zhuo instead? Good people don't last long, while scoundrels live for ages. Such a damned world!"
This was already the third murder targeting members of the palace exams recently.
Two had successfully killed their targets, and one had inflicted serious injuries.
Strictly speaking, the serious injury was also a success as the injured cultivator's condition was terrible, and he lost every match in the arena.
Members of the palace exam weren't allowed to attack each other, but they could completely take advantage of others to carry out assassinations and suppressions.
The competition for the Lava Fairy Palace wasn't just during the day's exams but also included assassination attempts at night.
It was foreseeable that solitary cultivators without strong backing were going to be eliminated one by one.
Back in his room, Ning Xiaoren fell into bed to sleep.
The next moment, he was jolted awake by the chilling sensation of a dagger against his neck.
"Who is it?!" Ning Xiaoren exclaimed in shock.
The masked assassin, holding the dagger at Ning Xiaoren's throat, threatened his life: "Tell me about Ning Zhuo."
"You, you want to go against him?" Ning Xiaoren, coming to his senses, looked stunned, "No, I will not betray my kinsman."
The assassin sneered: "Stop pretending. Who doesn't know about the grudge between you two?"
"Besides, you've been expelled from the family, all thanks to Ning Zhuo! He's no longer your kinsman, former young clan leader of the Ning Family."
Ning Xiaoren's face quickly darkened, a venomous light flashing in his eyes: "What do you want to know?"
"Everything," the assassin replied calmly.
Ning Xiaoren: "How do I know if I tell everything, you will let me go?"
The masked person shook their head: "You don't know, and I can't guarantee it. You just need to know that you have to satisfy me. If I'm not, I'll just cut off your head."
Ning Xiaoren hurriedly said: "Okay, okay, I'll tell, I'll tell."
He spoke in great detail.
Yet the masked assassin wasn't satisfied: "I already know all this."
He used the dagger to pry open Ning Xiaoren's teeth and inserted a Gu Insect into his mouth.
The Gu Insect burrowed all the way down into Ning Xiaoren's heart.
The masked assassin gently activated it, Ning Xiaoren immediately clutched his chest in pain, writhing and rolling on the bed like a shocked maggot.
The masked assassin mercilessly tortured him for a while before stopping: "I'm very dissatisfied with your answer."
"I now assign you a task, do everything to obstruct Ning Zhuo, disrupt him completely."
"Otherwise, I'll let you die under this heart-devouring pain."
Ning Xiaoren hastily waved his hands, desperately pleading: "My lord, sir, don't be rash, I'll do it, I definitely will."
"Ning Zhuo is already my enemy, we're on the same side, we're our own people!"
The assassin sneered: "It's good that you realize this. You have three days to show results, otherwise, you're dead."
Saying this, the masked assassin disappeared from Ning Xiaoren's view.
Come without a shadow, go without a trace.
Leaving Ning Xiaoren biting his lips, furiously pounding his fist on the bedside: "Ning Zhuo! Ning Zhuo!! I almost died because of you, you damned creature!"
"I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you!"
However, after venting for a while, Ning Xiaoren gradually regained his composure.
"That damn Ning Quo, he's always been up to no good. Ever since the palace exam started, he just hides next door to Ning Jiufan."
"Under the protection of a Golden Core Cultivator, what could I use to kill him?"
"That damn dog, too damn cunning!"