A few days later.
Ning Zhuo’s soul entered the Immortal Palace.
He quickly assembled his body and walked down from a small mountain made up of chanical components.
"Life Hanging by a Thread…" His steps were slow as he carefully felt the surroundings.
As the embryonic form of his divine ability grew stronger, his perception of the *Life Hanging by a Thread* over his head deepened.
"Every ti the *Life Hanging by a Thread* is transmitted, there is a loss. Now, by harnessing the power of the *Buddha Heart Demon Seal*, the loss along the thread will be much less than before!"
"Ning Zhuo has arrived."
"Look at his head, it really is big."
"Hmph, making us wait for him—he’s really making a big show of it."
The puppets gathered around the first gate, whispering as they watched Ning Zhuo approach.
Everyone else was already in position; Ning Zhuo was the last to arrive.
Ning Zhuo also looked at them.
The Zhou family had five people, the Zheng family had two, and the Ning family only had him—just one person.
"The three great families have started exerting their strength… In the future, more and more souls will enter the Immortal Palace," Ning Zhuo sighed inwardly.
Once the numbers reached a certain scale, the traps and chanisms he had set up would beco increasingly ineffective, ultimately unable to resist, and would be overwheld by sheer numbers.
Compared to the three great families, Ning Zhuo was at a significant disadvantage, being all alone.
Under the watchful eyes of the many puppets, Ning Zhuo walked to the door and touched the door, selecting the *Suspension Ring*.
"Next, we need to combine our efforts to break through the traps behind the door," Ning Zhuo said.
The Zheng family cultivators nodded, but the Zhou family mbers refused: "The five of us are enough; there's no need to combine forces."
"We’ll go through first, and you can follow us in."
"Haha, who told us that the Zhou family has the most people?"
Although Ning Zhuo was the nominal leader, the Zhou family cultivators paid him lip service, not following his orders.
Just as Ning Xiaoren had expected, the Zhou family cultivators were trying to diminish Ning Zhuo’s influence.
Yet, they acted as if they were sharing the burden for the group, eager to break through the challenge, leaving Ning Zhuo with no choice but to let it go.
However, Ning Zhuo had long been prepared for this.
With a thought, a teleportation circle suddenly appeared.
The circle fluctuated and dropped the *Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng*!
"What is that?" A Zheng family cultivator was the first to shout.
"Who are you!?" The Zhou family cultivators were all startled, so even trembling.
"An enemy! Quickly scatter and surround it!" Ning Zhuo shouted, full of valor.
"Wait, wait!" Seeing that Ning Zhuo was about to give the order to attack, the Zhou family cultivators quickly stopped him.
"Sothing’s off; don’t act rashly!"
"Calm down, calm down, everyone, please be patient and don’t be impulsive!"
The Zhou family cultivators had suffered heavy losses and were well aware of Dasheng's combat strength. They knew they were no match for it, and a confrontation would an certain doom.
The puppets from the three families were on high alert, all of them staring intently at Dasheng.
Dasheng, with its red body and golden bones, was covered with countless black stripes, exuding an aura of nace.
The injuries it had sustained during the previous challenge had been temporarily repaired by Ning Zhuo. Although its abilities had weakened significantly, it still looked just as formidable as before.
In any case, the puppets from the three families spread out, subtly encircling Dasheng, but no one dared to make a move.
Dasheng scanned the crowd, ignored them, and walked straight to the first door.
The next mont, it directly pushed the door open.
The spears on the walls shot out, but Dasheng easily deflected them.
A heavy hamr fell from above, but Dasheng lightly grabbed it and threw it aside.
Then, Dasheng lifted the heavy hamr and reset the chanism trap.
It continued to move forward, leaping between the walls and obstacles as if it were joyfully roaming in a mountain forest.
Through the crack in the door, everyone saw this scene and fell silent.
"What’s with this chanical ape?" Ning Zhuo looked at the Zhou family cultivators. "You seem to know sothing."
The Zhou family cultivators denied it vehently.
One of them said, "Didn’t you see? This chanical ape is obviously different from ours. We gained mobility through assembling components."
"But this chanical ape was directly teleported in."
Another Zhou family cultivator added, "Look at us—our bodies are all made of wood, but this ape looks like it’s on a whole different level."
"If we really attack it, we’re more likely to lose than to win."
A Zheng family cultivator stared at Dasheng in the second room, utterly perplexed. "But why did this chanical ape appear?"
"Perhaps…" Ning Zhuo pondered, "Perhaps it’s sothing set up by the elders of the three sects to teach us."
"Look at this chanical ape—it clearly has the ability to break through the second room, but it’s been hopping around between the traps as if it’s playing, or maybe even showing us how to get through?"
Hearing Ning Zhuo’s words, everyone felt enlightened.
A Zheng family cultivator slapped his thigh. "It really seems that way!"
The Zhou family cultivators remained silent.
Since Dasheng had wiped them out once, they had been actively researching and speculating after returning to the family.
Their first guess was that Dasheng was a *Fire Fusion Demon Ape* within Huoshi, which, after hearing the transmission bell, successfully cultivated, entered the Immortal Palace, and assembled a monkey puppet to compete for the inheritance of the Lava Immortal Palace.
But this guess had an obvious flaw: the chanism components in the first room were all made of uniform wood. Dasheng’s body materials were clearly different.
They then speculated that it might be a chanism set up by the Lava Immortal Palace.
When the challengers reached a certain standard, such as a certain number? The Lava Immortal Palace would activate this chanical ape to hinder them.
They also considered whether it was still a competitor, a demon cultivator, who was allowed to replace their puppet body at a later stage in the Lava Immortal Palace.
Apart from this, there were various other speculations.
Dasheng’s appearance was similar to its form when it was alive, but it was difficult for others to make the connection. To many, all monkeys looked the sa. In fact, when people saw those from different races, they often couldn’t distinguish between them.
After today’s incident, everyone saw with their own eyes that Dasheng had been teleported in, not a soul entering the Immortal Palace.
This highlighted a part of the Zhou family’s previous speculations.
Main Hall.
The *Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit* kept moving its jaw from side to side, grinding its teeth.
It snorted, frustrated and furious, occasionally clenching its fists and pounding on the armrests of the throne.
It was the one who knew the truth best.
Watching Ning Zhuo openly use Dasheng while keeping everyone else in the dark, even having so of the inford Zhou family cultivators cover for him, was infuriating!
Fools.
A bunch of fools.
Not a single smart one among them!
The more the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit watched, the angrier it beca, but it couldn’t say anything.
It was so furious that the entire Lava Immortal Palace began to tremble.
At the top of Mount Huoshi.
Amidst the heavy clouds and smoke, City Lord ng Kui suddenly opened his eyes. Seeing that the Lava Immortal Palace was about to erupt again, he sighed helplessly, his expression growing serious as he prepared to activate the grand formation to suppress the upheaval.
Ning Zhuo observed Dasheng through the crack in the door.
After gaining full intelligence, Dasheng’s reactions beca more acute. When facing complex obstacles and traps, its choices beca more varied, no longer as monotonous as before.
It was as if it had truly co to life!
However, in Ning Zhuo’s perception, his control over Dasheng still felt like it was shrouded in a thick layer of dust, making it quite unsatisfactory.
"This chanical ape has been staying in the second room, neither advancing nor retreating, seemingly playing with the traps."
"Let’s move on; don’t worry about it for now!" Ning Zhuo said.
The Zhou family cultivators hesitated, "The traps at the entrance have been reset; we’ll need to combine forces to deal with them."
"If we enter the second room and the ape attacks, what should we do?"
Ning Zhuo shrugged, "We can’t just try nothing this ti, right? Staying here until our soul power is exhausted is worse than taking a gamble."
These words garnered strong support from the two Zheng family cultivators.
The Zhou family cultivators exchanged glances and finally nodded, "The five of us will combine, and you follow behind."
"If the chanical ape attacks us, you three must hold it off to give us ti to disassemble."
Combining into a giant chanical puppet would greatly reduce combat power.
Ning Zhuo agreed to the Zhou family’s plan.
The Zhou family’s large puppet squeezed through the door, taking the wall spears head-on, deflecting the heavy hamr, and clearing the net trap on the ground, sweeping away the entrance traps
.
Seeing that Dasheng didn’t attack, the Zhou family cultivators breathed a sigh of relief, "Co on in."
So, Ning Zhuo and the other two pushed the door open and entered with ease.
At this mont, Dasheng let out a low growl, suddenly turned around, and charged at everyone.
The Zhou family cultivators were terrified—so wanted to fight back, others wanted to flee, and so decided to stand their ground, causing the Zhou family’s combined puppet to spin in place.
Dasheng, like a teor falling to the ground, directly shattered them.
"It seems we do have to fight!" Ning Zhuo growled, leaping forward, displaying great bravery.
Dasheng reached out and easily plucked off Ning Zhuo’s puppet head, tossing it directly into the nearest trap.
Everyone saw this scene clearly.
Bang, bang, bang…
Dasheng’s punches were incredibly heavy, and it systematically destroyed each puppet.
The cultivators could only have their souls return to their flesh bodies.
Dasheng then jumped into the trap, retrieved Ning Zhuo’s head, and reattached it to his puppet body.
"Let’s go." Ning Zhuo stomped his foot, shook his hand, and began to move with Dasheng.
Zheng Family.
"Why did it end so quickly?" soone asked.
The Zheng family cultivator’s face was solemn, and he eagerly said, "Though we lost this ti, we gained a lot! We discovered the Lava Immortal Palace’s chanism guardian."
Zhou Family.
New information led to new conclusions.
"So it seems that the chanical monkey is a special obstacle set by the Lava Immortal Palace when there are too many people in the group, to maintain the challenge’s difficulty."
"Yes, that’s very likely!"
Ning Family.
"Why hasn’t Ning Zhuo returned yet?" Ning Xiaoren wondered.
"That’s right." He looked at the information passed on by the other two families and understood.
"Ning Zhuo is out of luck—his puppet head was plucked off and thrown into a trap. He’ll have to wait until his soul power is exhausted before he can return." Ning Xiaoren sighed.
anwhile.
Outside Mount Huoshi.
Two black-clad demon cultivators stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up at Huoshi Immortal City on the mountainside.
"The call for help ca from here."
"Heh, who would have thought that a genius like Han Ming would fall here."
"She usually looks down on us. After we rescue her this ti, I’d like to see if she’s still so arrogant."
"If it weren’t for the orders from above, I really wouldn’t want to save her! Never mind, let’s enter the city and find Han Ming as quickly as possible."
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