: Pulling the Strings of Three Families

2024-07-31 Author: Gu Zhenren

: Pulling the Strings of Three Families

Underground secret base.

A massive Blood Transformation Pool, shaped like a coffin, hung from the ceiling beams of the room.

A thick metal pipe extended from the Blood Transformation Pool.

The pipe connected to a huge Blood Oil Bottle, filled with murky essential blood, presenting a dark red color.

From the bottom of the Blood Oil Bottle, five or six more pipes extended.

These pipes were ultimately inserted into the back of a mechanical ape.

Inside the mechanical ape, Yuan Dasheng's spirit was exerting its full power, unleashing the ninth layer of the Demonic Blood Tendon Art!

Essential blood poured down from the Blood Oil Bottle, continuously infusing into Yuan Dasheng's mechanical body. Then, under the influence of the Demonic Blood Tendon Art, it transformed into Demonic Blood.

Ning Zhuo sat cross-legged opposite Yuan Dasheng.

Between him and Yuan Dasheng, and surrounding them, was a simple and somewhat hastily drawn array.

The array emitted a faint red glow and a slight bloody odor.

The ninth-layer Demonic Blood refined by Yuan Dasheng was purified through this array before finally entering Ning Zhuo's body.

Ning Zhuo then used the seventh layer of the Demonic Blood Tendon Art to continuously convert it, removing the blood essence unsuitable for himself during the process and constantly accumulating his sea of essence cultivation.

Often, out of ten portions of Demonic Blood, only two to three portions could ultimately be used by Ning Zhuo.

But by doing this, Ning Zhuo completely avoided the need for self-cultivation, saving him a great deal of time.

Moreover, as long as the scale was large enough, theoretically, the speed of his sea of essence cultivation would be incredibly fast!

"Having clan members is really good."

"How can I increase the number of clan members to obtain more flesh and blood?"

Ning Zhuo had been pondering this question.

After tasting such great benefits, he found it somewhat hard to stop.

But he hadn't lost his rationality.

He was well aware that his large-scale public purchase of clan members' flesh and blood had already placed him in a rather gray area. Just one step further, and he would be suspected of practicing demonic arts.

He had been too conspicuous lately, contrary to his principle of hiding his abilities.

Now, many people were watching him, waiting for him to make a mistake.

Previously, his large-scale procurement of clan members' flesh and blood was like snatching chestnuts from the fire—extremely risky. Even though he had publicly declared it was for "puppet mechanism research."

Ning Houjun and Ning Youfu, former elders from the branch families, upon hearing of Ning Zhuo's actions, had either sent people or letters to remind Ning Zhuo to be extremely mindful of his reputation!

The scale could not be expanded further.

Any further expansion would make it easy for others to falsely accuse him, seize his weaknesses, and ruin his reputation.

And reputation was extremely important for righteous cultivators!

Crack.

Suddenly, the left arm of the mechanical ape made a dull sound, then broke off completely at the shoulder.

Subsequently, as if triggering a chain reaction, the mechanical ape's shoulders, chest, abdomen, and other parts began to crack, shedding mechanical fragments.

A large amount of essential blood gushed out.

Amid the rushing blood flow, the mechanical ape, unable to bear the strain, shattered into debris.

Ning Zhuo frowned.

He wasn't surprised, nor did he feel heartache, since the mechanical ape was notoriously crudely made.

However, this was already the 132nd one.

The broken fragments had piled up into a small hill.

Ning Zhuo looked up at the ceiling beam.

The giant Blood Transformation Pool and Blood Oil Bottle hanging there also showed fine cracks, showing signs of disintegration.

"It's time to properly build a mechanical ape," Ning Zhuo thought to himself.

Previously, he and Sun Lingtong had hastily built them mainly to break through to the seventh layer as soon as possible.

After reaching the seventh layer, Ning Zhuo's cultivation of essence, energy, and spirit broke through its constraints and could continue to rise.

Now that Ning Zhuo had reached the seventh layer, he needed to plan for the future.

On one hand, he needed a Golden Core-level mechanical ape to fully utilize the value of Yuan Dasheng's spirit. On the other hand, he also needed a mechanical ape that could produce higher-quality essential blood.

Combining these two needs, Ning Zhuo decided to immediately start refining a new mechanical body for Yuan Dasheng.

He took the initiative to approach Zheng Jian and invited him to jointly refine the mechanical ape.

Zheng Jian was pleasantly surprised.

Last time, he had cooperated with Ning Zhuo and learned a lot about mechanisms, greatly admiring Ning Zhuo's expertise in the field.

"I wonder what ingenious ideas Brother Ning has this time?" Zheng Jian asked Ning Zhuo for advice.

But Ning Zhuo shook his head: "I'm afraid I'll disappoint you, Brother Zheng. This time, refining the mechanism is different from last time..."

After he explained, Zheng Jian indeed looked disappointed.

It turned out that Ning Zhuo did not intend to disclose the mechanism design blueprints. He only needed to refine high-quality materials and required the Zheng family's and Zheng Jian's help for the refinement process.

Zheng Jian hesitated for a moment but ultimately nodded, feeling that given his friendship with Ning Zhuo, he could help refine the materials once.

Ning Zhuo took out Crimson Sun Copper.

Zheng Jian was astonished.

"This Golden Core-level copper material requires extremely high temperatures to melt."

"No wonder Brother Ning came to me."

"But I'm only at the Qi Refining stage. Brother Ning might be overestimating me."

Ning Zhuo suggested that they could ask other cultivators from the Zheng family to do the work.

Zheng Jian then nodded: "As long as Brother Ning can afford the price, given our friendship, I can definitely help you invite skilled experts from our clan!"

"Price is not an issue," Ning Zhuo said straightforwardly.

The skilled expert from the Zheng family quoted a high price.

Ning Zhuo smiled and bargained: "What if I need more than just Crimson Sun Copper refined?"

He took out a second material.

However, the Zheng family expert frowned upon seeing it: "Forging this Ten Thousand Strikes Mysterious Iron requires tedious effort—at least ten thousand strikes."

"Although it's a Golden Core-level material, the labor required is too much."

"I don't have much time to take on private jobs. There are many important tasks in the clan weighing on my shoulders."

Ning Zhuo took out a third material.

This time, the Zheng family refining expert directly shook his head, saying it was impossible.

"Unless you're at the Golden Core stage, you can directly refine it."

"I'm only at the Foundation Establishment stage. I would need to use the Heaven-grade refining room to have any hope of melting it."

"But currently, the Heaven-grade refining room is occupied."

Ning Zhuo then asked how long it would be occupied.

"It's hard to say. I advise you not to get your hopes up too much," the Zheng family expert said frankly.

After leaving the Zheng family, Ning Zhuo soon contacted Zhou Zeshen.

Zhou Zeshen praised: "Brother Ning truly has bold vision, daring to touch Golden Core-level mechanism creations at the Qi Refining stage! Such grand ambition! Impressive, impressive!"

"I am willing to assist you with all my strength!"

However, when Ning Zhuo mentioned the specific requirements, Zhou Zeshen expressed considerable difficulty.

"Brother Ning, you want to set up arrays on these Golden Core-level materials, and such large, complex arrays at that? I, Zhou Zeshen, cannot do that."

"The Foundation Establishment cultivators in my family might barely manage it, but it would require a large number of people working together."

"Otherwise, the construction period would be very long."

Ning Zhuo calculated: the Zhou family's unit price was already high, and with more people, the reward would put considerable strain on Ning Zhuo.

On the other hand, when Ning Zhuo gathered his former stewards and assigned them the task of talisman-making, he received positive feedback.

These elite Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Ning family all expressed willingness to refine various martial arts talismans for Ning Zhuo free of charge.

But how could Ning Zhuo agree?

Saving spirit stones wasn't important.

Ning Zhuo didn't want to be the first to break his own rules or undermine the team atmosphere he had worked hard to build.

Paying his subordinates was far more valuable than paying the Zheng or Zhou families!

After calculating comprehensively, Ning Zhuo found that if he paid with spirit stones, he couldn't even cover one-third of the project's workload.

"This isn't because the Zhou and Zheng families are deliberately raising prices; in fact, their prices are quite fair compared to the market."

When materials reached the Golden Core level, the funds Ning Zhuo had accumulated immediately seemed very insufficient!

His idea of leveraging various forces to jointly refine the mechanism was good in theory, but when implemented in reality, many difficulties arose.

After some thought, Ning Zhuo came up with a solution.

"It's time to reveal some information about Meng Chong!"

Through the Tortoise Breath Gang, Ning Zhuo secretly "leaked" the information that Meng Chong had successfully broken through the barriers and obtained the fourth to sixth layers of the cultivation technique to the three great families.

Zhou Zeshen exclaimed: "Meng Chong is indeed formidable! The City Lord's Manor is far ahead!"

Zheng Jian clenched his fists: "I must obtain the subsequent techniques. Being stuck at the third layer is too frustrating."

The Ning family head and several elders discussed: "The Five Elements Rhythm Art was left by the Three Sects' experts and has great potential. Its subsequent techniques are a major matter for our clan."

The elders discussed animatedly: "Who can take on this responsibility?"

"Ning Xiaohui has already left the modification team."

After only a brief discussion, the name that appeared in the minds of the Ning family elders was Ning Zhuo.

For the Ning family to obtain the subsequent techniques themselves, it seemed, perhaps, probably... they had to rely on Ning Zhuo!

The elders continued discussing: "Although I personally dislike him greatly, I have to admit that Ning Zhuo is capable."

"The key is, with Ning Zhuo's temperament, even if he obtained the subsequent techniques, would he hand them over to the family?"

When the discussion reached this point, the elders looked at each other and fell into silence.

After a long while, someone broke the silence and looked at the Ning family head: "Ning Zhuo loves money. Please, Family Head, communicate more with him."

The Ning family head nodded with a grim expression. Just thinking about Ning Zhuo gave him a headache.

There were two routes to explore the Lava Fairy Palace. Entering the palace physically allowed one to exchange merits for various cultivation resources. Entering with one's soul involved passing numerous tests but allowed one to obtain the subsequent techniques of the Five Elements Rhythm Art.

This latter reward was something those who entered physically could not obtain.

In the arrangements of the Three Sects' experts, physical entry was for outsiders and guest cultivators, while soul entry was for training their own people—they would not disclose true inheritance techniques to outsiders.

For the three families, having deeply studied the Five Elements Rhythm Art, even with only three layers, they recognized the technique's excellence. Their desire for the subsequent techniques had always existed, accumulating silently.

And this desire was precisely the "puppet strings" that Ning Zhuo had discovered and learned to pull.

Without Ning Zhuo having to seek them out, Zhou Zeshen and Zheng Jian proactively came to him.

They didn't know how many barriers needed to be broken to obtain the technique rewards.

But they knew that Ning Zhuo was very strong and had major conflicts with the Ning family main branch.

If they could invite Ning Zhuo to assist, it would be very beneficial for their exploration of the fairy palace. Moreover, strengthening ties with Ning Zhuo and supporting him would facilitate a second civil war within the Ning family.

This killing multiple birds with one stone made the scheming Zhou and Zheng families enthusiastic, proactively offering Ning Zhuo discounted prices!

The problem troubling Ning Zhuo was thus easily resolved.

When the Ning family main branch learned of Ning Zhuo's cooperation with the Zhou and Zheng families, they were furious.

Many people wanted to use this to attack him, accusing him of colluding with outsiders, disregarding the family's interests, and severely damaging Ning Zhuo's reputation within the family.

But they were dissuaded.

The Ning family head, holding his nose, once again proactively summoned Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo gladly went.

After returning, the sound of objects being smashed again came from the Ning family head's study.

(End of )