Sabotage

Ning Zhuo slowly opened his eyes and found that his field of vision had changed drastically. He had returned to his Underground Workshop.

A powerful sense of weakness welled up from the depths of his heart.

Ning Zhuo rose to his feet and examined himself.

"My physical body is fine, but my soul has been weakened far too severely."

In Room Two, he had endured far too many collisions with enormous logs.

"Although this was only my first exploration of the Magma Immortal Palace, and I never entered Room Three, I gained tremendously!"

"Especially the spell reward from Room Two—I luckily brought it back."

Ning Zhuo did not rush to study the spell he had obtained. He first drank water and ate.

With his soul drawn away, his physical body had remained unconscious. Its heartbeat and breathing had continued, but remaining motionless for so long was still highly improper.

After all, Ning Zhuo was only a Qi Refining Stage cultivator, and he had never specifically cultivated any body-tempering technique. His physical body was not strong.

While eating and drinking to replenish his body's nutrients, Ning Zhuo calculated the time before and after.

"My first exploration of the Magma Immortal Palace took roughly three shichen."

"For Qi Refining Stage cultivators who practice the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art, the method of entering the Magma Immortal Palace differs from before. Previously, the true body entered the palace; now, the soul is drawn in... This means that even if the City Lord guards the summit of Fire Persimmon Mountain, it no longer has much meaning."

"No, the City Lord will probably continue the blockade."

"On one hand, he needs to stop cultivators above the Qi Refining Stage from entering the palace with their True Bodies. After all, the Magma Immortal Palace has now emerged."

"On the other hand, doing so also benefits his own faction. His biological grandson, Meng Chong, is still in the Qi Refining Stage and began preparing to seize the Magma Immortal Palace long ago. In this regard, the City Lord's side still holds the greatest advantage."

"Meng Chong possesses Superior Grade Immortal Aptitude—Raging Bolt! He is simply not someone I can compare with."

"Alas, I wonder which stage he has passed by now? Room Two definitely cannot stump him."

Only mortals with spirit roots possessed the basic qualifications for cultivation.

Beyond spirit roots, there were countless kinds of Cultivation Aptitude.

Superior Grade talent was called Immortal Aptitude. It was no trifling matter; defeating enemies across realms was commonplace.

Although Ning Zhuo had not even entered Room Three during his first exploration, his gains had been immense.

The Magma Immortal Palace treated "outsiders" and "its own cultivators" in entirely different ways.

This was extremely advantageous to Ning Zhuo.

Under the previous method, Ning Zhuo would have needed to face competitors in the Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, and even the Nascent Soul Realm.

But under this method of testing, his opponents were temporarily only Qi Refining Stage cultivators.

Ning Zhuo recalled the intelligence he had gathered.

"Among the City Lord's Qi Refining cultivators, Meng Chong is undoubtedly the leader."

"The Zhou Lineage has Qi Refining Stage cultivators Zhou Ze Shen and Zhou Zhu. The two specifically joined the Mudflow Sect, and their attainments in Mechanism Art are impossible to gauge."

"Zheng Jian of the Zheng Lineage is the leading figure among their Qi Refining Stage cultivators. He possesses excellent aptitude like Heart-Piercing Insight, and he is also extraordinarily capable."

"As for the Ning Lineage, among Qi Refining cultivators of the same level, Ning Xiaohui is the best. However, she is unwilling to switch to the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art."

"Alas, all of them are cultivation geniuses."

"Compared to them, I only have inferior Early Wisdom Immortal Aptitude. I am utterly ordinary."

"The key is that they have deep foundations and can receive the Lineage's powerful support, even assistance from Nascent Soul Level cultivators. I cannot. I am too ordinary and can only fight alone. In this regard, I can only look up at them."

As Ning Zhuo pondered the situation, his headache became unbearable.

He found a bottle of soul-restoring pills, poured out several, and swallowed them in one gulp with water.

Then he hurriedly threw himself onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

While he rested, a conflict was unfolding in the Zhou Lineage.

"Why can't I use the Gathering and Dispersing Wishful Spirit Tide Array here?" a Qi Refining Stage cultivator shouted, his expression arrogant.

"Because I am here." Zhou Ze Shen walked out with a gloomy face.

The Zhou Lineage Qi Refining cultivator curled his lips, about to mock him, when he saw Zhou Ze Shen take out a small flag.

He aimed it at the Zhou Lineage Qi Refining cultivator who had come looking for trouble and merely gave it a shake. The earth beneath the man's feet immediately churned and transformed into a swamp, rapidly swallowing him.

"Zhou Ze Shen, you are too arrogant! You actually dare to fight within the clan grounds! Aah—"

He could no longer speak.

His entire body was nearly swallowed by the muddy swamp. His chin and mouth had sunk into the soil, but his nostrils remained above it, giving him a chance to breathe.

He struggled desperately, yet could not move at all. He was so furious that he seemed ready to explode, his face crimson, his eyes bulging with rage.

Zhou Ze Shen sneered, then swept his gaze around and said to the onlookers, "I know that some people in the Lineage are dissatisfied with Zhou Zhu and me."

"But using such petty tricks to disgust us truly underestimates me."

Just then, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded from underground.

Zhou Ze Shen's expression changed drastically. He hastily turned and rushed into the basement.

The Gathering and Dispersing Wishful Spirit Tide Array had already slowly stopped. Zhou Zhu lay on the ground with his eyes shut, blood seeping from every pore of his body.

"Da Zhu!" Zhou Ze Shen shouted and rushed into the array, checking Zhou Zhu's condition and urgently treating his injuries.

Not long afterward, a Zhou Lineage elder arrived with an ashen face. "Investigate! We must find the culprit and punish them without mercy!"

Zheng Lineage.

The weapon-refining chamber was blazing with activity.

A furnace over a zhang tall gaped wide, its flames illuminating Zheng Jian's face red.

At this moment, his upper body was bare, his muscles bulging and sweat pouring down as he refined a weapon with all his strength.

He gripped iron tongs in one hand and raised a hammer high in the other, continuously striking the weapon blank.

The weapon blank was quite small, only as large as a baby's palm.

Suddenly, the weapon blank burst forth with radiance.

A sharp gleam flashed in Zheng Jian's eyes. He hurriedly set down the hammer, scooped up a ladle of water, and splashed it directly down.

As the clear water fell onto the weapon blank, it let out sizzling sounds and steamed up a huge mass of white vapor.

Zheng Jian immediately sensed a trace of danger and hurriedly retreated.

But he had already inhaled a little of the white vapor. Unable to resist, he coughed twice and directly coughed up blood.

"Damn it, the water was poisoned!"

Zheng Jian's face turned pale as he shot out of the weapon-refining chamber.

City Lord's Mansion.

A black-clad assassin vaulted over the courtyard wall, stepped across the rooftops, and silently took out a blowdart-shaped magical artifact.

He secretly used a spell to melt a tiny hole through the roof, then slowly extended the blowdart downward.

But in the next instant, he heard a low roar. "Thief, die!"

The blowdart was shoved violently upward, carrying terrifying lightning. It pierced straight through the black-clad assassin's mouth and shot out from the back of his head, then vanished into the high sky at incredible speed.

Within the blinding lightning, the assassin convulsed violently several times.

The next moment, he became charcoal and toppled over. He rolled all the way down the roof until he crashed onto the ground.

"Hmph!" Inside the room, Meng Chong slowly closed his eyes and continued his Power Dispersion.

Ning Lineage.

Ning Xiaohui stood before the Clan Head. At her side were her grandmother and the Talisman Hall Elder.

"It is not impossible for me to switch to the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art. But I have some demands!" Ning Xiaohui changed her stance.

It turned out that the Ning Lineage's main branch had consistently failed to put forward anyone worthwhile, leaving them no choice but to nominate Ning Xiaohui.

Ning Xiaohui's grandmother, along with the Talisman Hall Elder who supported her, had gradually become unable to withstand the combined pressure of the others and could only choose to compromise.