: Clearing the Demonic Path

The final checkpoint of the Demonic Path.

Filling Ning Zhuo's vision was a vivid, bloody red.

In this last challenge, the space was far larger than he had imagined—the area was like a vast grassland!

Clearly, some kind of spatial array had been laid down during the construction of this checkpoint.

Within the checkpoint, blood energy was extremely dense, drifting between heaven and earth, forming large patches of blood mist.

The blood mist flowed continuously, stirred by a persistent wind that made it thicken and thin intermittently.

Ning Zhuo explored through the blood mist. After walking some distance, he noticed a faint glimmer of light within the mist.

He headed toward the light and arrived at the center of the room. There, he saw a lake of blood.

It was the surface of this blood lake that emitted the glowing light.

As soon as Ning Zhuo stepped to the edge of the lake, the light on its surface abruptly retracted.

His reflection appeared on the lake's surface.

The water quickly rippled, like boiling water, bubbling and gurgling.

A large amount of essence blood, as if alive, surged upward, erupting from the lake and charging toward Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo hastily dodged.

The essence blood landed on a rock near his feet, immediately enveloping it.

Soon, it formed large, pulsating blood vessels across the rock's surface.

These blood vessels were incredibly powerful, continuously molding the rock. With a series of cracking sounds, the rock was shaped into a puppet resembling Ning Zhuo.

Honestly, it looked quite similar.

Encased and controlled by the blood vessels, the rock puppet charged wordlessly toward the wooden puppet Ning Zhuo.

The two engaged in fierce combat by the blood lake.

Ning Zhuo quickly found himself at a disadvantage.

This was because the material of the rock puppet was far superior to his wooden body—it was Foundation Establishment-level material.

Moreover, the rock puppet's martial skills also surpassed Ning Zhuo's.

Ning Zhuo could only fight while retreating.

Just as he was testing his opponent's capabilities, the blood lake stirred again.

Essence blood from the lake surged ashore, attaching itself to soil and trees in succession.

After being molded by the blood vessels, earthen puppets and wooden puppets took shape.

In an instant, Ning Zhuo faced a one-against-three predicament!

After a round of exchanges, Ning Zhuo confirmed the result—each puppet's martial skills far exceeded his.

While this made Ning Zhuo envious, it also forced him to make a decision. He frantically activated his own blood energy.

The blood energy within him was incredibly abundant. The Blood Path Diagram Board carried in his wooden body was a Foundation Establishment-level version dismantled from Yuan Dasheng.

Ning Zhuo clapped his hands together, and blood energy poured out like a waterfall, directly submerging the three puppets.

One hour later...

The battlefield was littered with countless puppet remnants—shattered limbs, broken heads, and more.

Ning Zhuo could barely stand, extremely weak, but his heart was filled with relief and joy.

"I finally won!"

The battle, lasting a full hour, had been long and arduous.

Each of Ning Zhuo's puppet opponents was at the peak of the ninth layer, just like him.

"This time, my victory wasn't entirely fair."

Ning Zhuo knew he had won solely by relying on the overwhelming, brute-force eruption of blood energy to crush his opponents without finesse.

It was the perfect example of overwhelming force triumphing over skill.

He owed this capability to Yuan Dasheng.

Yuan Dasheng had created a Foundation Establishment-level Blood Path Diagram Board, capable of releasing far more blood energy in an instant than a Qi Refining-level version.

In the second-to-last checkpoint, the Blood Path Diagram Board had absorbed a vast amount of blood energy.

In this final checkpoint, Ning Zhuo recklessly expended blood energy without holding back. When his reserves ran low in the mid-to-late stages, he drained the Blood Path Diagram Board and used it to absorb his opponents' blood energy, sustaining the fight with their resources.

This way, Ning Zhuo practically had unlimited blood energy.

He used no技巧, simply overwhelming his opponents with ten times the blood energy right from the start.

As each puppet fell, more rose from the blood lake.

The puppets charged forward relentlessly, pushing Ning Zhuo into a hard-fought battle.

"But in the end, I am the victor!"

"When I have time to refine my martial skills in the future, I'll attempt this checkpoint again."

Ning Zhuo opened the final door of the Demonic Path and entered the ultimate reward room.

As soon as he stepped inside, he received the Foundation Establishment method for the Demonic Path.

Corresponding with the Buddhist Path, this Foundation Establishment method focused on the lower dantian's essence sea, with the other two dantians playing supporting roles.

Ning Zhuo didn't delve deeply into this method. Instead, he immediately looked at the numerous duty tokens hanging on the wall.

After carefully browsing through them multiple times, he selected the token for "Commander Platform Chief."

"Next is the Daoist Path."

Ning Zhuo's soul power was now robust. Even after clearing the Demonic Path's final checkpoint, he still had energy to spare.

He used the My Buddha, Heart Demon Seal to exit the challenge and return to the third transit hall.

Then, he pushed open the third door and began tackling the challenges with full strength.

Molten Rock Immortal Palace, Main Hall.

The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit gazed through the void, its expression complex as it watched Ning Zhuo's every move.

It had previously considered hiding information and delaying, but ultimately realized it couldn't stop Ning Zhuo from obtaining the three distinct Foundation Establishment methods.

Thus, it had proactively revealed the secret of the Foundation Establishment methods to gain Ning Zhuo's trust.

"My previous interactions should have been quite effective!"

"Especially the last time."

"Although the whip hurt me a lot, it was enough to earn Ning Zhuo's trust and gratitude."

"Hehe, everything will get better."

"I will definitely gain my freedom!"

While the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit was psyching itself up, Ning Zhuo had already begun a new challenge.

Just as the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had explained, the Daoist Path was designed to train disciples' spell-casting abilities.

Ning Zhuo had obtained the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk in a previous reward checkpoint. Now, this disk became his primary weapon.

Holding the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk, he continuously cast Five Elements spells, alternating between offense and defense.

At regular intervals, a Five Elements spell would assault him within this checkpoint.

Sometimes it was a metal-element blade, other times water-element tides, or fire-element flames.

Ning Zhuo's task was to resist spells with spells.

To conserve more spiritual power, he employed the principle of mutual restraint.

He used water-element spells to counter fire-element flames, wood-element spells to counter earth-element flying sand and rolling stones.

This approach was undoubtedly the most efficient in terms of conserving spiritual power and mental energy.

The Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk allowed the spiritual power within his body to transform into Five Elements-aligned法力.

Using this法力 to cast Five Elements spells was undoubtedly more effective.

But that wasn't all; the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk had another use.

It was essentially an array disk. Once Ning Zhuo activated it, it would project an invisible formation around him.

Within the formation's range, the ambient spiritual energy would be influenced by the array. With a single thought, Ning Zhuo could alter the elemental属性 of the spiritual energy within the formation.

In other words, the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk was a combat tool capable of changing or setting up the battlefield.

"When my mastery of the Five Elements Mutual Generation and Restraint Art improves in the future, I can obtain a higher-quality Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk."

The method of obtaining the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk was similar to that of the Blood Path Diagram Board, primarily based on proficiency in a specific spell or technique.

The reward checkpoint behind the second Daoist door offered the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Disk.

The reward checkpoint behind the third Demonic door offered the Blood Path Diagram Board.

Both of these reward items could be obtained repeatedly.

In fact, the first reward checkpoint behind the Buddhist door was the same. However, Ning Zhuo had used Yuan Dasheng's corpse to refine the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng, which possessed immortal资质.

Normally, the spirit-enhanced constructs rewarded from the first Buddhist door were far from having perfect spirit quality and were destined to deplete their spirit energy eventually. But Ning Zhuo, having obtained the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng, had used it up until now.

Under normal circumstances, disciples' spirit-enhanced constructs would be consumed after a period of use. The disciples would then re-challenge the Buddhist Path to obtain the next construct.

After arduously clearing the second-to-last checkpoint of the Daoist Path, Ning Zhuo found himself unable to continue.

His spiritual power had dropped below thirty percent.

"The difficulty of the second-to-last checkpoint is still very high for me."

"I expended too much time, mental energy, and spiritual power here."

Ning Zhuo wasn't very confident about the Daoist Path's final checkpoint.

After all, he had just cleared the Demonic Path and wasn't in peak condition.

But wanting to see it for himself, Ning Zhuo still pushed open the final door.

As expected, he failed.

His soul returned to his body, and Ning Zhuo was back in reality.

He was amidst floating clouds, his eyes closed for a long time.

He recalled his conversation with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit and thoroughly contemplated his current situation.

The exchange with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit had been immensely beneficial.

Ning Zhuo had verified the Foundation Establishment methods and reached a deeper level of cooperation with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit.

Most importantly, he had figured out the main mechanism of the Palace Examination.

"To participate in the Palace Examination as soon as possible, I don't actually need to accumulate enough merit contributions to meet the standard for a first-rank position."

"After all, my merit is negative. Accumulating enough to reach the first-rank standard would take too long."

The main issue was that he had previously blown up part of the Immortal Palace, resulting in a significant negative merit deficit. Digging himself out of that hole wouldn't be easy.

Ning Zhuo calculated internally.

Actually, he only needed the formal qualification to participate in the Palace Examination.

This meant he didn't need to strive for the top spot in merit contributions; he just needed his merit to rank within the top 33 among all Palace Examination candidates.

Molten Rock Immortal Palace, Infirmary.

Ning Xiaohui's heart stirred as she discovered a new repair task.

"It's that mechanical ape." Ning Xiaohui's eyes immediately lit up.

Ning Zhuo's consecutive challenges through the Demonic Path, followed by his attempt at the Daoist Path's final checkpoint, had caused injuries to Yuan Dasheng (the Golden Blood Battle Ape).

Without hesitation, Ning Zhuo immediately assigned the repair task for the Golden Blood Battle Ape to Ning Xiaohui.

Ning Xiaohui promptly accepted the task.

A teleportation circle glowed, placing the Golden Blood Battle Ape on the workbench.

After inspection, Ning Xiaohui was pleased to find that the Golden Blood Battle Ape's injuries were much lighter this time compared to last.

After all, the previous injuries were the result of accumulated damage over time.

While using the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng, Ning Zhuo had only performed patchwork repairs. Not fully understanding its mechanical structure, his fixes were merely makeshift.

Seeing the relatively minor damage, Ning Xiaohui couldn't help but smile slightly.

In her view, the lighter damage meant the Golden Blood Battle Ape had gained the upper hand in battle. The injuries it inflicted on its opponents must have been far more severe.

"You should show off your power more often!"

Ning Xiaohui grew fonder of the Golden Blood Battle Ape the more she looked at it, finding it increasingly imposing and majestic.

Previously, the Golden Blood Battle Ape had been the source of many nightmares and embarrassing experiences for her. But now, Ning Xiaohui had moved past that; her feelings were completely different.

"After fixing you, I'll go inquire around to see who else has suffered."

"Giving these trial disciples a hard time, making them endure some hardship, will aid their growth."

As she said this, Ning Xiaohui giggled aloud.

(End of )