“Wait, did I hear that correctly?”
“Three Golden Cores battling Zheng Danlian, including Golden Cores from major sects like the Complete Tome Tower and Violet Heavens Pavilion, and they lost?”
“Perhaps, there was internal strife between the three?”
“The Night Rain Demonic Soldier! That’s the only explanation.”
The cultivators still in the Transference Secret Chamber were all astonished upon hearing this announcement.
Zheng Shuangou and the others quickly pulled themselves out of the shock of the news.
They encountered each other in a secret chamber.
The clockwork frogs in the secret chamber were patrolling the central area. A treasure chest rested on the head of a giant frog leader.
But neither side had the leisure to bother with these clockwork frogs.
This was because the Lava Immortal Palace had been damaged, greatly weakening the restrictions in the Transference Secret Chamber, allowing the cultivators’ strength to recover to the Foundation Establishment stage.
This led to a drastic reduction in the difficulty of the clockwork traps and other arrangements in the secret chamber.
And because the cultivators could use their own items, the value of the various clockwork items in the secret chamber also decreased significantly.
Both sides’ gazes bypassed the clockwork frog swarm and penetrated to the other side.
Zheng Shuangou showed a hint of joy: “I didn’t expect to directly encounter the two from the Meng family. Meng Chong is only in the middle layer of Qi Refinement, so we have the advantage.”
Ning Jiufan, however, frowned and shook his head: “War is a dangerous business.”
“Meng Chong has immortal aptitude, and in the early stages of cultivation, fighting above his level is commonplace.”
“Zhou Nongying was eliminated by him; this young man is not to be underestimated!”
“Let’s retreat.”
Ning Jiufan was very cautious.
To him, although their cultivation on paper was stronger, it was difficult to say how a real battle would turn out.
It was better to retreat, unite with other cultivators, and then fight – that was the best course of action.
After all, as could be seen from the list, only two members of the Meng family made it to the third round of the palace examination.
On the other hand, even though Zhou Nongying had been eliminated from Zhu Xuanji’s side, the Zheng family still had the dual cultivators, and the Ning family also had Ning Jiufan and Ning Zhuo. Coupled with Zhu Xuanji, their numbers and lineup were the largest.
“Now we can use our own items. Meng Chong’s grandfather is a Nascent Soul cultivator, so he must have given him many protective treasures.”
“There’s no need to take unnecessary risks. We’ll find others and unite.”
“At that time, turning back to deal with them will be like a mountain pressing down on an egg, a lightning strike clearing a cave – unstoppable!”
Ning Jiufan sent a sound transmission to Zheng Shuangou, reminding him not to forget about the Empty Gate. This force was skilled in conspiracies and ambushes and should not be underestimated.
Compared to them, the two members of the Meng family could be considered potential allies.
Zheng Shuangou nodded: “You have a point. Alas, I saw this junior Meng Chong and didn’t change my mindset for a moment. Let’s go.”
“Where do you think you’re going!” The Meng family’s Golden Core cultivator shouted and rushed over.
Sizzle.
A faint electric afterimage lingered where Meng Chong had stood, then slowly dissipated.
In an instant, Meng Chong had already crossed the central area of the clockwork frog swarm and lunged directly at Ning Jiufan and Zheng Shuangou.
Meng Chong shot into the air and swooped down.
He slammed heavily onto the ground, shattering the floor tiles into countless pieces that flew everywhere.
Zheng Shuangou and Ning Jiufan, however, had retreated in time, flanking Meng Chong on either side.
With electric currents swirling around his body, Meng Chong stood up, his fighting spirit soaring, and revealed a smile: “You are all my prey, none of you will escape!”
Zheng Shuangou let out a cold snort and lunged directly: “Junior, quite the big talk!”
The two exchanged blows, their fists and feet meeting with resounding thuds. After a few rounds, Meng Chong shot away like lightning, creating distance.
Ning Jiufan secretly thought, ‘Trouble.’ Meng Chong was incredibly fast; even if he wanted to retreat, he would easily be caught up by Meng Chong.
Ning Jiufan had no choice but to attack. Whether it was to fight or retreat, he had to first heavily injure Meng Chong!
The old ancestor of the Ning family cast ice and frost spells, forming ice cones that shot out.
Meng Chong suddenly changed direction, tracing a lightning path in mid-air, dodging all the ice cones.
Zheng Shuangou followed by throwing flying darts, but they also failed to catch even a corner of Meng Chong’s clothes.
“Your opponent also includes me!” In the midst of the entanglement, the Meng family’s Golden Core cultivator also fought through the clockwork frogs and arrived.
Zheng Shuangou engaged in battle with the Meng family’s Golden Core cultivator and was steadily pushed back.
The Golden Core cultivator was a body cultivator, and Zheng Shuangou suffered greatly in a head-on confrontation.
At the critical moment, the storage bracelet on his wrist burst forth with brilliant light, releasing a pair of artifact-grade broadswords.
Zheng Shuangou held the dual blades and danced out streaks of blade light.
The blade light struck the Meng family Golden Core’s body and was completely blocked by the qi armor.
The Meng family Golden Core charged back and forth, his fist shadows flying like rain. Zheng Shuangou was struck until his blood and qi churned, retreating again and again, only able to parry with his dual blades, without any power to counterattack.
Several hanging loops flew around Ning Jiufan, continuously shooting out threads.
The threads were aimed at Meng Chong with fierce momentum, but all missed.
“Slow, slow, slow!” Meng Chong shouted, his fighting spirit growing more and more intense.
He burst into laughter, clearly thoroughly enjoying the taste of such a battle.
He suddenly cast a spell, air currents burst forth, and fire raged, destroying all the threads and hanging loops.
“The old ancestor of the Ning family is nothing more than this!” Meng Chong slammed fiercely into Ning Jiufan.
Ning Jiufan watched Meng Chong charge towards him, as if seeing a lightning-fast thunder dragon. His heart was like ice jade, fearless in the face of danger. He slightly retreated a step, pressed his palm downwards, and slammed it down.
Immediately, a strong surge of spiritual energy radiated in all directions, forming an ice wall in the blink of an eye.
This ice wall was circular, protecting Ning Jiufan in the center of the circle.
Ning Jiufan did not stop. Layer after layer of ice walls formed around him, extending outwards like waves.
The ice walls continuously thickened and quickly solidified together, forming a small valley constructed of ice crystals in an instant.
Ning Jiufan took a deep breath and cast another spell.
Thus, strong north winds howled out from the valley, quickly filling the entire secret chamber.
The air temperature plummeted, and frost flowers rapidly spread across the walls, ceiling, and floor of the secret chamber.
A bone-chilling cold enveloped Meng Chong.
Meng Chong roared and cast the Bathing Fire spell.
The next moment, he was covered in flames, isolating himself from the external cold, and charged towards Ning Jiufan again.
Ning Jiufan raised his right hand, projecting a large number of ice sculptures from his storage bracelet.
These ice sculptures landed in the ice crystal valley, enlarged, and restored to various birds and beasts, attempting to intercept Meng Chong.
Meng Chong’s speed was much faster than theirs.
But Ning Jiufan controlled the ice sculptures and cast spells one after another, causing Meng Chong’s speed to drop sharply. He decisively gave up charging directly at Ning Jiufan and temporarily set his target on these annoying ice sculptures.
Bang bang bang.
Each of the ice sculptures was basically at the Foundation Establishment level. In front of the rapidly charging Meng Chong, they had almost no power to resist.
Soon, many of them were shattered.
For a time, electric light was like a dragon, and wherever it went, ice sculptures exploded, and brilliant thunder fire and ice crystal fragments intertwined.
However, the ice sculptures were not without effect. By consuming them one by one, Meng Chong’s momentum was gradually offset by more than half.
When Meng Chong reached the ice valley, he was once again forced back by the blowing cold wind.
Zheng Shuangou fell like a cannonball, slamming directly onto the ice valley.
He coughed up a small mouthful of blood, his chest caved in, the concave shape clearly a fist mark.
The artifact spear in Zheng Shuangou’s hand had been broken into two sections. He simply discarded it and took out his signature weapon from his storage bracelet – the Sun and Moon Hooks.
The Meng family’s body cultivator attacked again, and Zheng Shuangou fought him with his back against the ice valley.
Relying on the artifact-grade material of the Sun and Moon Hooks, Zheng Shuangou finally managed to block the Meng family’s body cultivator, but it was a stalemate.
Ning Jiufan inside the ice valley keenly sensed this scene.
He quickly analyzed the situation in his mind: “As expected of the Meng family’s body cultivator, his strength is formidable!”
“Zheng Shuangou is at a disadvantage relying on the Sun and Moon Hooks. This is artifact grade, and the consumption of spiritual power is severe. He won’t be able to last long.”
“It seems I have to rely on myself.”
Thinking of this, Ning Jiufan took out the artifact Ice Heart Jade Pot.
With a thought, a stream of ice jade wine flew out from the spout.
Ning Jiufan opened his mouth and quickly swallowed the ball of ice jade wine.
The next moment, he silently activated a spell.
Meng Chong charged again, relentlessly, and his momentum was even more ferocious.
It was hard to imagine that he was only in the middle layer of Qi Refinement cultivation!
Ice bricks shot out from the ice valley.
Meng Chong dodged most of them, enduring the ice bricks, diving from high altitude, and continuing to charge towards Ning Jiufan.
As a result, the next moment, these ice bricks suddenly disintegrated, turning into clusters of hail and snowflakes.
For a time, snow and ice drifted and swirled in the secret chamber.
The north wind came from the ice valley.
The north wind howled, rolling up ice shards and white snow.
Wind and snow obscured the view, condensing together to form long, white snow pythons, besieging Meng Chong.
Meng Chong constantly dodged, and amidst lightning and thunder, he used his fists to blast open the long, white snow pythons one by one.
He became more and more excited as he fought, feeling as if his entire body’s blood was boiling. This wonderful feeling of hitting flesh with every punch was something he hadn’t experienced for a long time.
The puppet body when he entered the Immortal Palace really affected the发挥 of his true strength.
The snow pythons were blasted apart in the wind and snow, but soon re-formed.
Meng Chong attacked points to break the surface, originally having the advantage. But after fighting for a while, he was heavily surrounded, gradually becoming exhausted and unable to break out.
Seeing Meng Chong in trouble, the Meng family’s Golden Core body cultivator disregarded himself and heavily struck Zheng Shuangou.
Zheng Shuangou’s hook cut through the body cultivator’s skin, but he himself was sent flying like a cannonball, directly crashing through the ice valley and falling to the ground.
Ning Jiufan, beside him, had no time to bother with him, concentrating fully on controlling the spells to tightly surround Meng Chong.
According to common sense, Ning Jiufan’s large-area spellcasting would consume a lot of spiritual power. Meng Chong’s fighting style of attacking points to break the surface happened to counter this.
However, in actual combat, the scales of victory gradually tilted towards Ning Jiufan.
Meng Chong gradually became too exhausted to parry.
Zheng Shuangou sat cross-legged on the ground, swallowing pills while praising: “Brother Ning, your techniques of Stacking Spells, Splitting Spells, and Transforming Spells can be said to be at their peak! If you could integrate them, you would be a genuine Grandmaster-level existence!”
What he said were techniques of spellcasting.
Stacking Spells is the continuous superposition of the same spell, where quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Just now, Ning Jiufan continuously cast ten ice walls, and the ice walls merged to form an ice mountain surrounding him, which was Stacking Spells.
Splitting Spells and Transforming Spells were the subsequent flying ice bricks from the ice valley, where part was decomposed from one spell and then transformed into another spell.
And the later raging wind and snow, condensing into snow pythons, was the integrated application of Stacking Spells, Splitting Spells, and Transforming Spells.
Zheng Shuangou praised: “Brother Ning, we indeed didn’t misjudge you. You are a genuine battle mage.”
Ning Jiufan was about to speak, to politely respond with a few words.
Suddenly, he was startled and suffered a heavy blow!
He looked down and saw a dao hook piercing his lower abdomen. The familiar shape was precisely the Moon Hook from Zheng Shuangou’s signature weapon, the Sun and Moon Hooks.
The next moment, the Moon Hook burst forth with radiance, and the sharp soldier’s qi quickly corroded Ning Jiufan’s internal organs.
Ning Jiufan’s body shook violently, and he stared fiercely at Zheng Shuangou: “You!!”