Decisive Action

The Ning cultivators began to panic.

"Shut up!" Ning Zhanji shouted decisively. "If Zheng Shuang Gou truly meant us harm, there's no way we could escape this place."

"But that possibility is far too small. If they really wanted to act, why target people like us? To startle the grass and scare the snake?"

"We won't be their primary targets!"

Ning Zhanji had only just steadied everyone's emotions when he saw a figure wielding twin hooks charge straight through countless demon beasts, slaughtering his way into one of the passages.

"It's Zheng Shuang Gou!"

"I saw his signature weapon—the Sun Moon Hooks."

"Whew, he isn't here for us!"

The Ning cultivators had barely lowered their guard when their hearts leaped into their throats again.

The demon beasts' assault abruptly intensified, and the pressure on the formation's defenses soared. Ning Zhanji had no choice but to order his subordinates into small teams and send them out beyond the formation to relieve its burden.

After all, the formation had been hastily laid down and was far from sturdy.

The demon beasts were ferocious!

Even though the Ning cultivators fought with their lives on the line, the first Ice Wall was quickly breached.

The second spherical barrier did not last long either.

Fortunately, the Ning cultivators used the opportunity to set up a fourth formation.

Everyone huddled within the pillar of light, struggling to hold their ground.

Ning Yong's face was deathly pale, his body trembling. "A-Are we going to die here today?"

Ning Chen was no longer composed either. His face was full of panic, utterly at a loss.

Ning Zhuo looked much the same, though faint glimmers of dark light rippled in his eyes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three tremendous explosions suddenly rang out, shaking the earth and mountains.

The demon beasts fled wildly as a black figure smashed directly through the wall and rushed into the underground plaza.

Soon afterward, Zheng Shuang Gou, the Zheng clan's Golden Core Cultivator, gave chase.

"Rats, you dare covet the Immortal Palace? Leave your lives behind!" Zheng Shuang Gou roared.

Zheng Shuang Gou swept out with all his strength, unleashing a five-meter blade aura.

The black figure had an aged voice and cackled sinisterly. "The treasures of the cultivation world belong to those with fate. You great clans of Fire Persimmon Immortal City want to swallow the Magma Immortal Palace all for yourselves? Dream on!"

As he spoke, the black figure forcefully exchanged a blow, scattering the blade aura before borrowing the force to fly backward toward the Ning cultivators.

In an instant, alarm bells rang madly in Ning Zhanji's heart. He ducked into the center of the formation while shouting, "I'll preside over the grand formation!"

The defensive formation erupted with unprecedented brilliance.

The black figure arrived before the formation and gave a casual wave, instantly shattering it.

With another wave, a large number of cultivators collapsed. Their Physical Bodies were completely uninjured, yet their lives had already vanished.

"Demonic cultivator, you still dare run wild!" Zheng Shuang Gou bellowed furiously as he charged in.

The Black Shadow Demonic Cultivator turned and battled Zheng Shuang Gou.

"Lord Ning Zhanji!" the Ning cultivators cried out.

But Ning Zhanji's eyes were wide open as he lay on the ground, dead with his eyes unclosed.

With the formation's protection gone and their leader dead, the demon beasts that followed continued to pounce. The Ning cultivators could only scatter and flee!

The casualties quickly mounted.

At the critical moment, Ning Zhuo suddenly shouted, "Take the passage the Golden Core Cultivators charged through! There must be the fewest demon beasts there!!"

With that reminder, the utterly lost Ning cultivators all jolted awake.

"That's right!"

"That passage was torn through by two Golden Core Cultivators one after another. There must be the fewest demon beasts there."

"That's the way!!"

Thus, the Ning clan members twisted themselves into a single rope once more and charged toward the passage entrance.

"Ning Yong, Ning Chen, stay close to me!" Ning Zhuo threw open his chest pouch and scattered Frost Talismans in every direction. He had accumulated all of them through his usual talisman crafting at the academy, so their origins were accounted for.

Ning Yong and Ning Chen both had bloodshot eyes. In their panic, they instinctively followed behind Ning Zhuo, fighting with all their strength to win themselves a chance at survival.

Supporting one another, the three of them "narrowly escaped death" and caught up with the main Ning clan force, entering the passage.

Looking back, the two Golden Core Cultivators were fighting with earthshaking momentum, sending the demon beasts fleeing in all directions.

Quite a few demon beasts fled for their lives in the same direction as the Ning clan members, pouncing after them from behind.

The passage ahead was littered with demon beast corpses, and very few remained alive. Yet demon beasts continued to pour in from behind.

Under such pressure, the Ning cultivators could only grit their teeth and sprint desperately forward through the passage.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

Along the way, they encountered demon beasts blocking their path, but the Ning cultivators, crazed with the need to escape, blasted them apart with all their strength.

"What is that?!"

"The Magma Immortal Palace!"

"I never thought this passage could lead to the Magma Immortal Palace too."

The Ning cultivators discovered a lake of lava, with one corner of the Immortal Palace's structure peeking out from the lake.

"The Magma Immortal Palace..." Ning Zhuo murmured, his expression perfectly natural. As an ordinary youth seeing an Immortal Palace for the first time, it was only natural that his mind would be seized by the sight. Yet no one noticed the flash of sharp light in his eyes!

In truth, he had long anticipated this outcome.

Beside him, Ning Chen panted heavily before realizing something and crying out, "This actually wasn't hard to guess!"

"When the two Golden Core Cultivators fought earlier, hadn't their words already revealed the answer?"

"The Black Shadow Demonic Cultivator most likely wanted to sneak in, only to be intercepted by Zheng Shuang Gou!"

The Ning cultivators were in an awkward predicament.

Before them lay the lava lake, with a corner of the Immortal Palace exposed above it. Behind them, demon beasts continued to surge closer.

Left with no choice, the remaining Ning clan members could only form formations again and defend themselves.

They formed two formations, one outside and one within, nested together. The demon beasts' attacks were much weaker than they had been in the underground plaza.

"We can hold them off!!" The Ning cultivators had only just begun to rejoice when violent roars and explosions followed.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Zheng Shuang Gou's furious roar came closer and closer.

The Ning cultivators immediately felt as though they had fallen into an ice cellar. From the sounds of it, the Black Shadow Demonic Cultivator had clearly returned!

"Looks like we're doomed today!" Ning Yong's face was utterly pale.

Ning Chen simply closed his eyes, completely despairing.

They had only just kindled hope for survival, only for it to be ruthlessly crushed again. After such wild rises and plunges, the two novice cultivators had lost all fighting spirit.

"If we die, we die! So what?" Ning Zhuo suddenly shouted. "Dying in battle like this is better than dying a coward's death!"

Stirred by his words, Ning Yong's expression changed. Courage rose within him amid the desperate situation, and he gritted his teeth as he stood up.

Ning Chen opened his eyes and looked at Ning Zhuo, secretly admiring his fellow student's courage in the face of death.

His courage was stirred as well. "A Zhuo, well said! To die at the hands of a Golden Core Cultivator, before the Magma Immortal Palace, would at least mean dying where we should."

The moment his words fell, vast clouds of dense smoke came surging over. The smoke was incomparably black and contained raging dark energy, capable of blocking spiritual sense.

In the blink of an eye, shadows stirred within the black smoke, gathering together to form countless shadow serpents and pythons that crashed toward the Magma Immortal Palace in the lava lake.

Yet halfway through their charge, the terrifying giant serpents and pythons all dispersed powerlessly.

Zheng Shuang Gou's roar rang out. "Attacking the Immortal Palace? Don't even think about it!!"

But immediately afterward, the serpents and pythons formed again. This time, instead of attacking the Immortal Palace, they directly attacked the surrounding passages.

Under their frenzied assault, cracks instantly spread across the passage walls, which looked ready to collapse at any moment.

"Madman!" Even Zheng Shuang Gou felt a chill in his heart at the sight.

He had no choice but to switch from offense to defense, pouring out all his magic power to cover and protect the passages.

Within the black smoke, a long shadow serpent suddenly slammed into the Ning clan's formation.

There was no surprise at all. A Golden Core Level attack was not something the Ning clan's formation could withstand; it instantly fell apart and crumbled away!

The black smoke surged over like a canopy covering heaven and earth, completely obscuring the remaining Ning clan members' vision.

"Come on!" Ning Yong shouted, unleashing every ounce of his courage as he resolved to fight to the death.

The rolling black smoke was so thick one could not see their hand before their face.

In that instant, Ning Zhuo seemed to have become completely alone.

He took out a command token and transformed into the Azure Iron Han Armor. The iron armor enveloped his body, immediately granting him Foundation Establishment battle strength!