: Hand It Over!

2024-09-14 Author: Gu Zhenren

: Hand It Over!

The Fire-Fleeing Snake, severely wounded, began to think of retreat.

It flapped its wings and instantly plunged into the thick magma, leaving a trail of fiery snake paths along the way.

"What a pity, I didn't calculate its time of death." Meng Kui's pupils returned to normal. He coughed a few times, his face pale.

Using his killer move just now had also drained a great deal of his vitality.

With the Fire-Fleeing Snake's retreat, the Scarlet Flame demon beasts fell into disarray, their morale plummeting. Many demon beasts turned and fled directly back, following the Nascent Soul-level Fire-Fleeing Snake's example by diving into the magma.

In contrast, the human cultivators cheered in unison, sweeping away the gloom.

They pressed their advantage, launching various magical instruments, treasures, and spells. The infiltrating Fire-Fleeing Snakes, lacking后续支援, gradually found it hard to hold on.

Soon, they all lay fallen on the battlefield.

Ning Zhuo stood on high ground, scanning the area.

Seeing the devastation of the battlefield, his mood grew heavy.

Once the final accounting was done, how would his merit change?

He focused his mind and checked his current merit—positive three hundred twenty-seven.

Thanks to the collective efforts of the three modification teams, Ning Zhuo's merit was finally no longer negative. After turning positive, it had surged rapidly to over three hundred.

"But if we settle accounts now, the merit I've accumulated is likely a drop in the bucket."

"Without sufficient merit, I won't rank high enough. How can I squeeze into the Palace Exam?"

Ning Zhuo felt deeply worried.

"No, I must find a way!"

"Befriend people from the City Lord's Mansion? Rely on their power?"

No.

The three positions Ning Zhuo held, corresponding to the three mechanical structures, had their subordinate positions almost fully occupied.

Beyond that, for other mechanical structures, Ning Zhuo couldn't enjoy any merit sharing.

"Enter the Immortal Palace with my soul and take up other positions there?"

Ning Zhuo found this path also blocked.

On one hand, the tripartite agreement included him, prohibiting him from entering the Immortal Palace with his soul during this period.

On the other hand, the trial stages set by Patriarch San Zong didn't allow a winner-takes-all approach; they considered everyone, even giving opportunities to demon beasts like Yuan Dasheng.

Ning Zhuo had learned that even if he passed the trials again and took a position, any previous authority gained through the same path would be considered automatically abandoned.

In other words, through the trial stages, a disciple could hold at most three positions.

Patriarch San Zong encouraged fairer competition, wanting to leave opportunities for those who came later.

Ning Zhuo pondered hard and finally decided to focus on his mechanical arts, making an impact regarding the demon beast tide.

He assessed the situation and predicted that the Nascent Soul-level Fire-Fleeing Snake would likely attack again.

If he could find a more efficient way to eliminate the Scarlet Flame demon beasts and protect the Molten Rock Immortal Palace, it would yield a considerable amount of merit.

With his profound mechanical expertise, Ning Zhuo quickly found a direction: modify the Blast Monkeys to enable them to steal the core from within the Fire-Fleeing Snakes.

The core was the lifeline of the Fire-Fleeing Snake. If stolen, its combat power would plummet by ninety-nine percent.

The key inspiration for this came from Yuan Dasheng's "Turn Back and Grab" and "Shatter Yang Hand."

As Ning Zhuo predicted.

In the following days, the Nascent Soul-level Fire-Fleeing Snake repeatedly attacked.

Swarms of Fire-Fleeing Snakes continuously infiltrated.

Clearing out the Fire-Fleeing Snakes became a task that the cultivators in the Immortal Palace were hard-pressed to handle.

Ning Zhuo's plan to modify the Blast Monkeys progressed slowly.

In actual research and development, he found too many problems needed solving, with many steps requiring experiments and trials of new composite materials, etc.

He was confident he could succeed, but the key issue was time!

His time was too tight.

However, during this arduous process, he did have some gains.

He managed to obtain Zheng Jian's belongings from before his death.

His subordinates in the black market proved their worth.

But he acquired very few of Ning Xiaohui's relics. Rumor had it that Ning Xiaohui's grandmother was deeply affected, seemingly driven mad, spending days and nights huddled in Ning Xiaohui's room, pathologically gathering all things related to Ning Xiaohui close to her.

She would look at the objects and think of the person, sometimes weeping bitterly, sometimes screaming wildly. Both her cries and shouts were unsettling to hear.

Ning Zhuo cremated the relics of both individuals in the critical treatment room.

He successfully replenished Zheng Jian's spirituality to one hundred percent.

With Ning Xiaohui's few relics, he only managed to raise the spirituality of the Floating Ice White Jade Hand mechanism to sixty percent.

Sixty percent spirituality... although it was enough to use the Ice Fat Jade Hand once, according to Ning Zhuo's estimation, after using the innate talent, the Floating Ice White Jade Hand's spirituality would be severely damaged, nearly rendered useless.

Aside from this, other gains involved Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu.

Under Ning Zhuo's care, the merit of Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu soared rapidly.

The spots for the Palace Exam were limited. If Ning Zhuo could help them secure a place on the Palace Exam list, it would also be of great help to Ning Zhuo himself.

"The key problem now is still my merit!"

The Nascent Soul-level Fire-Fleeing Snake attacked once more.

Meng Kui repelled it.

Initially, everyone thought this was another routine victory.

But with the collapse of a core building, the Long Yuan Fire Spirit in the main hall suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"Hahaha, success, I've finally succeeded!"

The golden light shield surrounding the Molten Rock Immortal Palace suddenly developed multiple holes.

No matter how much magical power was poured in, these holes refused to close.

Once the holes appeared, a flood of Scarlet Flame demon beasts poured in like a great tide.

The cultivators, caught off guard and vastly outnumbered, could only watch as numerous buildings crumbled under the demon beast tide.

Some were even smashed to pieces, with stones, broken wood, and debris flying everywhere.

Building after building turned into ruins, raging fires quickly spreading, seeming to devour everything within the Immortal Palace!

Zhu Xuanji pondered deeply, then shouted, stepping forward at the critical moment to take command of the battlefield.

Under his direction, the cultivators barely managed to form a defensive line, slightly curbing the onslaught of the Scarlet Flame demon beasts.

However, looking down at the Molten Rock Immortal Palace, most of its outer ring had been lost, becoming a playground for countless rampaging demon beasts.

The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse!

Main Hall of the Molten Rock Immortal Palace.

The Long Yuan Fire Spirit danced with joy: "As expected, as expected, the Palace Exam has also been moved up!"

There was a precedent for this.

In past years, whenever the Molten Rock Immortal Palace was damaged to a certain extent, it would automatically lower the selection standard for cultivators by one level.

Lowering step by step from the top: Nascent Soul, Golden Core, Foundation Establishment, Qi Refinement... up until now. The Palace Exam, which was still some time away, had also been significantly moved up due to the perilous state of the Immortal Palace.

"Ning Zhuo, just wait to be eliminated!"

"Once the Palace Exam is announced, everyone's merit will be settled early. You have no hope at all!"

"Hahaha, you used Blast Monkeys to blow up the Immortal Palace, and then you used the Five Elements Artillery Towers to bomb it..."

"Hahaha!"

"You fell for it! No matter how cunning and sinister you are, you've been tricked by me, the Long Yuan Fire Spirit!"

At the same time.

Ning Zhuo felt a tightness in his left index finger.

Zheng Jian's innate talent, Heart-Piercing Insight, suddenly activated.

Ning Zhuo, already worried about his merit, was startled upon its activation.

"This is bad!"

"The Molten Rock Immortal Palace is in grave danger. I'm afraid the Palace Exam will be moved up."

"I have a very bad feeling. With insufficient merit this time, I'm probably going to be pushed off the Palace Exam list."

"What should I do?"

Ning Zhuo gritted his teeth fiercely: "It seems there's only one last path to take."

"I must offer up my Buddha Heart Demon Seal!!!"

A teleportation circle appeared. Ning Zhuo resolutely took out the precious seal.

Instantly, his mother's words echoed in his ears: "My son, Ning Zhuo, I have embedded Feiyun Kingdom techniques into this seal, making it most attuned to you. Keep it safe. Its grade is quite high; it will be a great aid in your future cultivation."

"No, no, no!" The Long Yuan Fire Spirit panicked at this moment.

Although it had long known that Ning Zhuo possessed the Buddha Heart Demon Seal, it never imagined that, without any prompting, Ning Zhuo would offer up the seal ahead of time!

The Long Yuan Fire Spirit resisted fiercely, wishing it could shout in Ning Zhuo's ear: "What are you handing it over for? This seal is so good, and you're just going to discard it? Are you worthy of your mother?!"

Ning Zhuo's eyes shone with a look of absolute resolve.

"If I can even stake my life as a wager, why would I cling to a mere magical treasure?"

"Hand it over, hand it over, hand it over!"

The Buddha Heart Demon Seal was thrown into the teleportation circle and quickly vanished from Ning Zhuo's sight.

For a moment, Ning Zhuo's heart felt empty.

He clenched his teeth, fists tight, silently enduring the violent turmoil within.

A short while later.

A message was directly transmitted into everyone's minds—

The Molten Rock Immortal Palace Palace Exam begins now!

Merit settlement: the top thirty-three by ranking will be selected.

The list is as follows:

Zhu Xuanji.

Shu Zhongjun.

Yang Chanyu.

Ning Zhuo.

Meng Chong

Zhou Zeshen

Zhou Zhu

Entry standard.

(End of )