**: Investigating Ning Zhuo**

The Ning Family Head was already quite curious about the suddenly emerging Ning Zhuo. After reviewing the information, he felt somewhat relieved and said, "So, this child Ning Zhuo showed his talent for contraptions long ago."

The first piece of intelligence stated: Ning Zhuo's mother, Meng Yaoyin, was herself a contraption cultivator. Although she passed away very early, she left Ning Zhuo many texts on contraption arts. Ning Zhuo treasured these texts as his mother's relics, cherishing them deeply. As a child, he often fell asleep holding these books. Growing up, he was gradually influenced by them.

During his early childhood, Ning Zhuo began showing a strong interest in contraption arts. He frequently visited the Compassionate Orchard to watch Li Leifeng's puppet shows.

The Compassionate Orchard was an orphanage in Fire Persimmon Immortal City that sheltered homeless children, funded jointly by the City Lord's Manor and various wealthy families in the city.

This was a national policy of the Southern Bean Kingdom.

Li Leifeng was the director of the Compassionate Orchard. He possessed a Thunder Spiritual Root and was also a contraption cultivator. The contraption tower he built could absorb external lightning, converting it into power to sustain the tower's operation without consuming any spiritual energy. When facing enemies, the stored electricity within the tower would erupt in streaks of lightning, like whips and chains, binding foes and continuously electrocuting and scorching them.

"Old Li's puppet shows are truly unique," the Family Head sighed sincerely upon reading this.

He had watched several of Li Leifeng's puppet shows and found them breathtaking!

Perhaps influenced by Li Leifeng, Ning Zhuo had loved puppets and similar toys since childhood. The dolls he often played with were named Yilun, Crossed Legs, and Sanmao.

When he entered the family school, his greatest interest lay in contraption arts. He was diligent and inquisitive, but this focus left him overwhelmed, causing his performance in other subjects to deteriorate.

It wasn't until after he turned ten that his performance in all subjects gradually improved, eventually placing him in the upper-middle range within the school.

The Ning Family prioritized talisman arts. Naturally, Ning Zhuo's uncle and aunt were unwilling to let him stray onto a misguided path and ruin his future, so they imposed strict discipline. The number of contraption dolls they smashed alone filled three large baskets.

Although superficially restrained, Ning Zhuo still seized every opportunity in secret to study contraption arts. He would even voluntarily work as a child laborer in contraption workshops, even without pay. For him, being able to接触 contraption creations was a joy in itself.

Perhaps due to persistence and passion, Ning Zhuo's contraption skills continuously grew.

By age fifteen, a mechanical parrot created by Ning Zhuo had surpassed the水准 of all his classmates. It was accidentally seen by a Family Elder at the school, who praised it on the spot.

However, Ning Zhuo, who had begun to garner some slight expectation from certain Elders, underperformed in the family's major examination.

"He was too nervous!" the Family Head sighed deeply after reading the jade slip.

The jade slip contained the specific details of Ning Zhuo's cohort during the family examination.

"Indeed," Ning Xiaoren agreed. "At that time, the control strings unexpectedly got tangled, and Ning Zhuo偏偏 didn't notice. When it was time to perform, the entangled strings left him no room to maneuver."

"If I were the proctoring Elder, I would certainly have made an exception and allowed Ning Zhuo a retest."

The Family Head shook his head. "The proctoring Elder made no error. According to the rules, examinees should double-check everything before the exam. Ning Zhuo bears responsibility for this incident."

As father and son discussed, an attendant announced: Feng Jiqing has arrived.

"Invite him in," the Family Head nodded.

Feng Jiqing was a middle-aged man with narrow eyes, cyan long hair, a tall, thin build, and a windmill-like blade wheel strapped to his back.

Feng Jiqing possessed a Wind Spiritual Root and had some skill in contraptions. Although not a正统 contraption cultivator, the mechanical falcons he made and controlled were swift as lightning, attacking like a gale, extremely sharp.

After failing to recruit Tiaotiao Ke, the Ning Family had never stopped recruiting external talent.

Recently, after continuously increasing their offers, the Ning Family finally succeeded in recruiting Feng Jiqing. He was their most significant achievement in recruiting external talent to date.

"Family Head, Young Master," Feng Jiqing greeted with a cupped-fist salute, his back ramrod straight. As a Foundation Establishment Peak cultivator himself, well aware of the market for contraption cultivators and confident in his own value, his attitude towards the two Ning Family leaders was merely polite.

Young Master Ning Xiaoren smiled. "Master Feng, we invited you here to ask you to examine these two Mechanical Blaze Monkeys and evaluate the contraption prowess of their creator."

The father and son, the Family Head and Young Master, did not wish to reveal too quickly that Ning Zhuo was the inventor of the Mechanical Blaze Monkey.

On one hand, Ning Xiaoren still wanted to pretend ignorance and fabricate his own image, aiming to make Ning Zhuo feel his "sincere goodwill."

On the other hand, the matter of the Mechanical Blaze Monkey involved Fei Si. Leaking it would cause difficulties for Fei Si. The Ning Family did not wish to offend Fei Si over this.

The latter, being the Immortal Official who practically handled the most daily affairs in Fire Persimmon Immortal City, held significant power and was not someone to provoke.

Their concealment inadvertently created some misunderstanding for Feng Jiqing, who couldn't help but speculate: "Does the Ning Family want to heavily recruit Chen Cha?"

Feng Jiqing certainly did not want this to happen. Maintaining a calm demeanor, he began inspecting the two Mechanical Blaze Monkeys.

One monkey was exquisitely crafted with solid materials, an earlier version. The other was crudely made and already somewhat damaged, a version Ning Zhuo had特意 modified later.

After his inspection, Feng Jiqing said, "The main material for the monkey skin is fire-fur rat hide, woven using traditional spiritual energy embroidery. Traditional craftsmanship, not worth mentioning."

"Using Heavenly Gold for the skeleton is necessary because storage arrays need to be arranged; Heavenly Gold is usually the best option."

"But if it were me, I'd go a step further and choose the empty lung of a Cloud Whale. The array布置 this way could store living creatures; the current one can only store inanimate objects."

"The Mechanical Blaze Monkey is designed for picking fire persimmons. Although fire persimmons can be seen as fire essences to some extent, they are essentially living things, the fruit of the fire persimmon tree. Placing them in a living creature storage array space is more suitable, allowing them to maintain better flavor."

Feng Jiqing only mentioned the advantages of his proposed method, completely omitting the rarity of Cloud Whale empty lungs.

"The materials used for the monkey's musculature are decent." One of the biggest highlights was mentioned only in passing.

"There are many arrays in the palms; the combination method is relatively novel, quite good." When praise was unavoidable, Feng Jiqing used the mildest terms possible.

"The meandering pellet in the monkey's brain is, in my opinion, the most outstanding part of this contraption's design."

Feng Jiqing quickly offered a compliment, then immediately shifted.

"However, while this material choice saves significant cost, it cannot be used by anyone below Foundation Establishment, greatly limiting the potential buyer pool."

"Without this drawback, the sales of the Mechanical Blaze Monkey could multiply several times, even over tenfold."

"This design has flaws," Feng Jiqing concluded.

The Family Head and Ning Xiaoren exchanged a glance. The former remained silent, while the latter pressed, "How would you rate the contraption prowess of the designer?"

Among the hundred arts of cultivation, contraptions ranked near the bottom.

The father and son were not involved in this field. As high-ranking family members, constantly bogged down by heavy responsibilities or political maneuvering, they found it difficult to assess the Mechanical Blaze Monkey.

In fact, not just contraption arts; even a new alchemy formula would be hard for them to evaluate properly.

They were neither alchemists nor contraption specialists.

In ancient times, it might have been easier; there weren't even many Foundation Establishment cultivators. Families were generally weaker than sects, and cultivation nations were extremely rare, mostly fleeting phenomena in the early parts of history.

But cultivation has developed to this day, and the hundred arts have become vast and profound. For most cultivators, different specializations are like mountains apart.

Feng Jiqing pondered and said, "Chen Cha has been operating the Flying Disc Workshop for many years, only managing to produce this one contraption with great difficulty."

"It's rather commendable."

"This contraption has clever ideas, but not many. Even if it's selling well now, next year's fire persimmon picking business will surely be bleak, and its uses are narrow."

"Overall, this contraption can be considered average, slightly above average perhaps."

"As for the person who made it, I won't comment further."

The Family Head and Ning Xiaoren exchanged another glance.

The former thought: "Feng Jiqing is a Foundation Establishment cultivator. A 'medium' rating is actually high praise for a Qi Refining stage cultivator like Ning Zhuo."

The latter felt even more determined to recruit Ning Zhuo.

Meanwhile.

At the Compassionate Orchard.

Zhu Xuanji, concealing his presence, entered the orchard.

An old man was sunbathing in the yard when he suddenly frowned and looked towards the invisible Zhu Xuanji. "Who's there?!"

Zhu Xuanji was startled, then revealed his form.

He formed a hand seal, his eyes glowing with golden light, activating a certain detection spell to observe his surroundings.

"I see. There's an electric potential flowing in this small courtyard, an invisible difference in lightning potential. Simply by stepping inside, I create a potential difference before and after, which allows you to sense me."

Zhu Xuanji praised while stomping his foot.

A small explosion erupted under his foot, blasting away a layer of soil to reveal bricks underneath. The runes on the bricks were dizzying to look at.

These bricks were laid underground at regular short intervals, not forming any coherent array.

Precisely because they didn't form an array, Zhu Xuanji found them hard to grasp and failed to be wary. Since entering Fire Persimmon Immortal City, this was the first time his tracks had been discovered.

"It's Lord Zhu Xuanji. Please, have a seat." The old man remained lying in his chair, not moving at all.

Zhu Xuanji had already shown himself publicly in Fire Persimmon Immortal City, news which had spread throughout the city.

Strangely, the old man was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and only the early stage at that, yet his attitude towards a Golden Core cultivator like Zhu Xuanji was quite casual.

Zhu Xuanji did not feel offended in the slightest. He approached the old man with a smile. "Senior Li Leifeng, I have long heard of your reputation and特意 came to see you."

The old man, Li Leifeng, snorted coldly. "To see this old man? Divine Constable Zhu, you're rather late."

"You say 'see,' but you actually want to verify whether I am that shadowy demonic cultivator, don't you?"

Zhu Xuanji gave an awkward smile.

Li Leifeng sighed. "I've lived a long life and seen many things. Lord Zhu, investigate as you please."

Zhu Xuanji cupped his fists. "I apologize for the offense."

(End of )