Advent of Immortal Truth Chapter 92: Investigating Ning Zhuo

The Ning family patriarch had always been quite curious about the sudden ergence of Ning Zhuo. After examining him thoroughly at this mont, he felt a bit relieved and said, "So it turns out that this child, Ning Zhuo, had already shown talent in chanisms a long ti ago."

The first piece of information revealed that Ning Zhuo's mother, ng Yaoyin, was herself a chanism cultivator. Although she passed away early, she left behind many chanism technique books for Ning Zhuo. Ning Zhuo treasured these books as ntos from his mother and would often hug them to sleep when he was a child.

As he grew older, he was gradually influenced by these books.

During his early childhood, Ning Zhuo began to show a strong interest in chanism techniques. He frequently visited the Ci You Garden to watch Li Leifeng’s puppet shows.

Ci You Garden was an orphanage in Huoshi Immortal City that housed holess children, jointly funded by the City Lord's Mansion and various wealthy families in the city.

This was a national policy of the Southern Dou Country.

Li Leifeng was the head of Ci You Garden. He possessed the Thunder Spiritual Root and was also a chanism cultivator. The chanism tower he constructed could absorb external lightning, converting it into power to maintain the operation of the chanism tower, without consuming any spiritual power.

When faced with enemies, the chanism tower would release stored electricity, emitting chains of lightning that bound and electrocuted the opponent continuously.

"Old Li's puppet shows are indeed a masterpiece!" Seeing this, the Ning family patriarch sighed sincerely.

He, too, had grown up watching Li Leifeng’s puppet shows.

Perhaps influenced by Li Leifeng, Ning Zhuo had loved puppets since childhood, especially enjoying such toys. The ones he often played with were nad Wheel, Erlang Leg, and Mao. After entering the family school, he showed the most interest in chanism techniques, studying diligently to the extent of neglecting everything else, causing his performance in other subjects to deteriorate.

It wasn’t until after he turned ten that his performance in various subjects gradually improved. Eventually, he ranked in the upper-middle tier in the school.

The Ning family valued talismans heavily, so Ning Zhuo's uncle and aunt naturally didn’t want him to tread the wrong path and ruin his future. They disciplined him strictly, smashing more than three large baskets of chanism puppets.

Although Ning Zhuo seed to be restrained on the surface, he continued to seize every opportunity to study chanism techniques in secret.

He even took the initiative to work as a child laborer in so chanism workshops, even without pay.

For him, simply being able to engage with chanism creations was a joyful thing.

Perhaps due to his persistence and passion, Ning Zhuo's skills in chanism techniques continued to improve.

At the age of fifteen, a chanism parrot created by Ning Zhuo surpassed the level of all his peers. It was seen by an elder in the school, who praised it on the spot.

However, Ning Zhuo, who was originally slightly expected by so elders, perford poorly in the family’s major exam.

"He was too nervous!" The Ning family patriarch looked at the jade slip and sighed.

The jade slip contained the detailed circumstances of Ning Zhuo's family exam that year.

"Indeed!" Ning Xiaoren echoed, "At that ti, the puppet string accidentally got tangled, and Ning Zhuo didn't notice it. When it ca ti to perform, the tangled string left Ning Zhuo with no room to showcase his skills."

"If I were the supervising elder, I would have allowed Ning Zhuo to retake the exam!"

The Ning family patriarch shook his head, "The supervising elder did not make any mistakes. According to the rules, examinees should conduct thorough checks before the exam. Since this happened, Ning Zhuo should take responsibility!"

As the father and son discussed, a servant ca to report: "Feng Jiqing has arrived!"

"Invite him in!" The Ning family patriarch nodded.

Feng Jiqing, a middle-aged man with squinting eyes and long cyan hair, tall and thin, entered with a knife wheel resembling a windmill strapped to his back.

Feng Jiqing possessed the Wind Spiritual Root and had so skills in chanisms. Although he wasn’t a formal chanism cultivator, the chanism wind falcon he created and controlled was as fast as lightning, striking with fierce winds, making it extrely sharp.

After failing to recruit the young puppet master, the Ning family hadn’t stopped trying to attract external talent.

Recently, the Ning family had significantly increased their efforts, finally managing to recruit Feng Jiqing, who was their most significant success in attracting external talent to date.

"Patriarch, Young Patriarch!" Feng Jiqing greeted with cupped hands, his posture upright. As a cultivator at the Foundation Establishnt stage peak, he was well aware of the temperant of chanism cultivators. Confident in his own worth, his attitude towards the two high-ranking mbers of the Ning family was rely cordial.

Young Patriarch Ning Xiaoren smiled, "Master Feng, we invited you today to have you evaluate these two chanism Explosive Monkeys and assess the skill level of their creator."

The Ning family patriarch and the young patriarch didn’t want to reveal too quickly that Ning Zhuo was the creator of the chanism Explosive Monkeys.

On one hand, Ning Xiaoren still wanted to pretend he was unaware, creating a false image to make Ning Zhuo feel his "sincere intentions."

On the other hand, the matter of the chanism Explosive Monkeys involved Fei Si.

If word got out, it would make things difficult for Fei Si.

The Ning family did not want to offend Fei Si because of this.

The latter, as the immortal official who actually handled most of the daily affairs of Huoshi Immortal City, wielded considerable power and was not soone to be trifled with.

Their concealnt inadvertently caused so misunderstanding for Feng Jiqing.

He couldn’t help but speculate, "Could it be that the Ning family intends to hire Chen Cha with a heavy price?"

Feng Jiqing naturally didn’t want this to happen, so he began to inspect the two chanism Explosive Monkeys without showing any expression.

One of these chanism Monkeys was finely crafted and made from solid materials—this was the earlier version.

The other one was crudely made and significantly damaged—this was the modified version that Ning Zhuo had deliberately made afterward.

After so inspection, Feng Jiqing said, "The primary material for the monkey’s skin is the hide of a Fire Fluff Mouse, woven with traditional spiritual power embroidery! Traditional craftsmanship, not worth ntioning."

"Using Celestial Gold for the skeleton is a must since setting up a storage formation requires it. Celestial Gold is typically the best option!"

"But if it were , I would take it a step further and choose the Air Lungs of a Cloud Whale! This would allow the formation to store living creatures.

"Currently, this design can only store non-living objects!"

"The chanism Explosive Monkey was designed to pick Huoshi Fruits! Although in so ways, the Huoshi Fruit can be considered a Fire Essence, it is fundantally a living thing—the fruit of the Huoshi tree. Placing them in a formation space that stores living creatures would be more suitable, ensuring they retain their best flavor!"

Feng Jiqing only ntioned the advantages of his own approach, without ever bringing up the rarity of Cloud Whale Air Lungs.

"The materials used for the chanism Explosive Monkey’s body are decent."

"One of its biggest highlights was overshadowed by Feng Jiqing’s remarks!"

"There are many formations in the palms, and their combinations are relatively innovative. Quite good!"

When Feng Jiqing had to praise, he would downplay his words as much as possible.

"The roaming pellets in the monkey’s brain are, in my opinion, the most brilliant part of this chanism design."

After quickly praising it, Feng Jiqing imdiately turned to criticism, "However, such material selection, although saving a lot of cost, cannot be used by anyone below the Foundation Establishnt stage, severely limiting the number of buyers."

"If not for this flaw, the sales of chanism Explosive Monkeys could have multiplied several tis, even by tenfold!"

"This design has its flaws."

Feng Jiqing concluded with a final remark.

The Ning family patriarch and Ning Xiaoren exchanged glances, the forr staying silent while the latter pressed, "With such skills in chanisms, is the designer considered strong?"

Among the myriad of cultivation arts, chanism techniques were ranked the lowest!

Neither father nor son had delved into this field. Besides, being at the top of the family hierarchy, they were either constantly entangled in heavy affairs or engaged in intrigue, making it hard to grasp the intricacies of the chanism Explosive Monkeys.

In fact, it wasn’t just chanism techniques; they couldn’t even evaluate the quality of a new pill formula.

They were neither alchemists nor specialized in chanisms.

In ancient tis, this was manageable; Foundation Establishnt cultivators were scarce, and families were generally weaker than sects.

Cultivation had not yet overdeveloped, and during the first half of history, most were fleeting.

But cultivation had evolved to the present day, where the arts had beco vast and profound. For most cultivators, switching fields was as daunting as crossing mountains.

Feng Jiqing pondered, "How many years has Chen Cha been running the Flying Disk Workshop, and only now managed to create such a chanism construct?"

"It’s quite remarkable."

"This chanism construct shows ingenuity, but not much. Even if it’s selling like hotcakes now, next year’s Huoshi picking business will surely slump; its uses are narrow."

"In summary, this chanism construct is about average

, slightly above."

"As for the chanism creator, I won’t comnt further."

The Ning family patriarch and Ning Xiaoren exchanged glances again, the forr thinking, "Feng Jiqing is a Foundation Establishnt cultivator, and rating it as average is a huge complint for Ning Zhuo, who is only at the Qi Refining stage."

The latter beca even more determined to win over Ning Zhuo.

anwhile, at Ci You Garden.

Zhu Xuanji concealed his presence as he entered the garden.

An old man was sunbathing in the garden when he suddenly frowned and looked in the direction of the hidden Zhu Xuanji. "Who’s there?"

Zhu Xuanji was startled but then revealed himself.

He ford a hand seal, his eyes gleaming with golden light, and activated a detection spell to observe his surroundings.

"So that's it! There's a hidden electric current here in this small courtyard, creating an invisible difference in electric potential. As soon as I stepped in, the difference triggered your senses."

As Zhu Xuanji praised, he stomped his foot.

A small explosion of thunder erupted beneath his foot, blasting away a layer of soil to reveal the bricks underneath.

The runes on the bricks were so intricate that one could easily beco dizzy just by glancing at them.

These bricks were laid underground at regular intervals, but not in a formation.

It was precisely because they didn’t form a complete formation that Zhu Xuanji found them hard to detect, unable to foresee their effects.

Since entering Huoshi Immortal City, this was the first ti soone had spotted him.

"So it’s Lord Zhu Xuanji. Please, have a seat!"

The old man remained lying in his chair, motionless.

Zhu Xuanji had already appeared publicly in Huoshi Immortal City, and this was widely known throughout the city.

What was strange was that the old man was only in the Foundation Establishnt stage, and at the early stage at that, yet he remained so casual in the presence of Zhu Xuanji, a Golden Core stage cultivator.

Zhu Xuanji didn’t feel offended in the slightest. He approached the old man with a smile, "Elder Li Leifeng, I’ve long heard of your great na and ca specifically to et you."

The old man, Li Leifeng, snorted coldly, "You’re too late to visit an old man like , Detective Zhu."

"You say you ca to visit, but in truth, you want to verify if I’m the shadow demon cultivator?"

Zhu Xuanji smiled awkwardly!

Li Leifeng sighed, "I’ve lived a long life and seen much. Lord Zhu, feel free to investigate."

Zhu Xuanji cupped his hands, "Forgive my offense."