Ning Zhuo cherished every exploration of the Immortal Palace, as the environment he found himself in made free exploration increasingly difficult.

Mainly, more and more people were reaching the peak of the third layer of Qi Refining, and Ning Zhuo had to conceal himself among them to avoid standing out too much.

In Room One, he assembled his body and met with the Zhou and Zheng families, making his prized possession, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, make a public appearance.

In Room Two, Ning Zhuo ordered Yuan Da Sheng to defeat all companions and be thrown into a trap in full view of everyone.

In this way, without him having to explain, the Zhou and Zheng families would naturally inform the Ning family why he, Ning Zhuo, had returned to his physical body so late.

Ning Zhuo first reset the mechanisms, then, together with Yuan Da Sheng, cleared the battlefield, digging out all the spirit stones from the puppets and taking them away.

When opening the second portal, Ning Zhuo selected a mechanism component.

He did not use the Buddha-Devil Heart Imprint to retreat.

The reason was that he had already claimed all the reward spells for passing Room Two.

The spirit stones were a mere two pieces. Ning Zhuo abandoned the spirit stones, preferring to conserve his soul power as much as possible.

Drawing upon a trace of the Buddha-Devil Heart Imprint’s power consumed soul power.

The further one went into the levels, the more soul power was consumed when retreating.

Room Three was Meng Chong’s record limit.

Here, there were numerous mechanism automatons.

Upon seeing Ning Zhuo appear, they immediately pounced on him.

Yuan Da Sheng let out a low roar, standing in the forefront.

Ning Zhuo unleashed a series of spells in quick succession, freezing all the Kung Fu automatons.

By now, he had received many leaderboard rewards, gaining a tremendous amount of spellcasting experience, allowing him to execute these spells with skillful ease in actual combat.

Passing through the third level, Ning Zhuo arrived at the maintenance room.

Beneath the leaderboard, he claimed his reward for being first on all five lists.

The number of spirit stones soared by several hundred.

Looking at this alone, the spirit stone rewards from the previous portals were pitiful in comparison.

It’s worth mentioning that the insights gained from receiving spells now had a very weak impact on Ning Zhuo’s improvement, far less than in the beginning.

“Now that I possess a nascent supernatural power, can I use the Buddha-Devil Heart Imprint to remove my name from the leaderboard directly?”

“Or simply hide the leaderboard pillar altogether?”

Ning Zhuo tried, but to no avail.

Passing through the maintenance room, he entered Room Four.

Ning Zhuo cast spells in turn, obtaining over a dozen mechanism components, such as the Flying Travel Hand and the Qi Release Ring.

He immediately armed himself fully.

Room Five, Room Six, maintenance room.

Room Seven, Room Eight, Room Nine.

Ning Zhuo and Yuan Da Sheng worked together, their overall combat power undergoing a qualitative change, making it much easier to clear the levels than alone.

Yuan Da Sheng itself did not particularly enjoy using spells.

It would stand in the front, attracting and distracting the enemy, while Ning Zhuo, positioned at the rear, would seize the opportunity to strike, unleashing all kinds of spells.

After passing through the maintenance room for the third time, Ning Zhuo entered the central hall, once again seeing the three gates of Buddhism, Demonism, and Taoism.

His highest record was relying solely on Yuan Da Sheng stubbornly pushing forward, disregarding damage, to clear three levels of the Buddhist Gate, re-entering the central hall and seeing the new three gates.

By touching the portals, Ning Zhuo obtained the fourth to sixth layers of the Mirror Platform Spiritual Art, Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art, and Demon-Infected Blood Tendon Technique.

Currently, his Qi Refining cultivation had reached the late fourth layer, Essence Refining was at the peak of the fourth layer, and Spirit Refining was unique, reaching the early sixth layer.

This cultivation situation meant that Ning Zhuo’s best choice was to take the Buddhist Gate as his primary path.

Ning Zhuo first pushed open the Demon Gate, gaining blood essence as a portal gift.

With the blood essence boost, Yuan Da Sheng’s strength greatly increased.

After the Demon Gate, Yuan Da Sheng did its best to absorb the blood essence of the Kung Fu automatons, accumulating it to its limit.

Like the Buddhist Gate, the second level had no rewards. After reaching the third level, a large amount of reward information was presented.

One mechanism component that caught Ning Zhuo’s attention was the Blood Oil Bottle.

Using this mechanism component, one could collect various types of blood essence, mix them together, refine them, and ultimately form an oil-like substance with the properties of blood.

Blood oil was not as good as pure blood essence, but to some extent, it could serve as a substitute.

“The Blood Transformation Pool can consume life with blood and decompose it into countless blood droplets.”

“The Blood Transformation Pool and Blood Oil Bottle, when paired together, can allow mechanism puppets to sustain themselves in battle, greatly extending their duration in fierce combat.”

Ning Zhuo chose the Blood Oil Bottle, obtaining one component.

He pushed open the door and returned to the central hall, seeing the second set of three gates.

These three gates required at least a peak sixth layer cultivation to push open.

Therefore, Ning Zhuo looked at his own side and found the first Buddhist and Taoist Gates.

He went to the Taoist Gate and tried to push it, but it didn’t budge.

The Buddha-Devil Heart Imprint.

Ning Zhuo opened the door and walked in.

The mechanism automatons in the third level of the Taoist Gate turned their heads upon hearing the sound and, upon seeing Ning Zhuo, pounced on him.

Ning Zhuo pointed, and Yuan Da Sheng roared out, standing in the strongest position.

The mechanism puppets in the three levels of the Taoist Gate each had five types of Qi surrounding them, using a never-ending stream of spells.

Yuan Da Sheng immediately fell into a disadvantage under the barrage of spells.

This was the advantage of spell cultivators—strong attack power in a short time, with enough burst damage.

Ning Zhuo immediately took action, following up with all kinds of spells.

He had an abundance of spirit stones, quickly helping Yuan Da Sheng stabilize the situation.

Once they stalemated, Yuan Da Sheng could rely on its excellent one-on-one combat ability to smash the spell puppets one by one.

When the number of spell puppets decreased to a certain extent, Ning Zhuo ordered Yuan Da Sheng to slow down its attacks, and he himself cast spells to freeze these spell puppets.

“I can move them to Room Three and let Meng Chong have a taste!”

Then he thought, “Or move them to Room Six!”

Meng Chong had not entered the Immortal Palace since being defeated by Yuan Da Sheng.

On the other hand, the city lord’s repair team had been recorded by Ning Zhuo’s hidden surveillance mechanism.

They had explored multiple times.

Ning Zhuo had a strong premonition—when Meng Chong reappeared, he would definitely have a brand new look, and his combat power would increase by at least one level.

Under these circumstances, more spell puppets would not be of much use.

Only a being like the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Da Sheng, could deal with Meng Chong.

Even Ning Zhuo himself, with his full equipment, would find it difficult to contend with Meng Chong using Raging Thunder Rush.
Ning Zhuo departed from the third trial, retrogressing through the second and first trials of the Daoist Sect, finally arriving at the No. 1 Transfer Hall.

This was the first time he had cleared all three trials of both the Demonic and Daoist Sects.

Overall, the trial designs of the two sects were largely similar to those of the Buddhist Sect.

Neither sect offered any rewards in the second trial.

All rewards were concentrated in the third trial.

From the Daoist Sect’s rewards, Ning Zhuo chose the Five Elements Disruption Art.

This technique targeted the five elements of mana, directly disrupting and scattering the orderly arrangement of the five elemental forces within mana. This caused internal chaos, contradictions, and conflicts, resulting in the malfunction and immobility of mechanical creations.

“The Demonic Bloodline Infusion Art’s bloodline, and the five elements of mana, both enhance control over mechanical creations!”

“By focusing on these two aspects, if Yuan Dasheng ever loses control again in the future, I will have a means of restraint!”

“Perhaps this is the original intention of the three sect elders. They created spiritual automatons and designed three corresponding cultivation arts to be used in conjunction with them!”

Ning Zhuo pushed open the Buddhist Sect’s door and re-entered the coffin chamber.

He received no notification. After attempting, he found that he could no longer select a coffin to create a second-trial mechanical creation.

Ning Zhuo regretfully shook his head and continued onward.

Seeing him shake his head, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit gnashed its teeth in anger!

Blazing a trail to the final gateway, Ning Zhuo unhesitatingly chose the Illusory Truth Lotus Seed when claiming his reward.

Seeing this, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit relaxed and rejoiced.

Ning Zhuo pushed the door open and exited.

*My Buddha’s Heart Demon Seal!*

He opened the door and returned!

Reward: Illusory Truth Lotus Seed.

The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit roared with laughter.

Ning Zhuo pushed the door open and exited.

*My Buddha’s Heart Demon Seal!*

He opened the door and returned, rewarded with the Illusory Truth Lotus Seed.

The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit lay on its throne, kicking its dragon legs in glee.

Ning Zhuo repeatedly entered and exited, always choosing the Illusory Truth Lotus Seed.

The playful and mocking expression on the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s face gradually vanished, replaced by astonishment and suspicion.

It felt extremely strange.

Each time Ning Zhuo retreated from a trial, he needed to expend soul force to activate *My Buddha’s Heart Demon Seal*.

But the number of times he had advanced and retreated was far too many!

This was completely at odds with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s expectations.

What was going on?

Ning Zhuo’s own cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, allowing him to wield more of the magic treasure’s power.

More importantly, as the nascent divine ability continued to strengthen, the power loss during the *Thread of Life* transfer was drastically reduced.

Therefore, Ning Zhuo’s performance in advancing and retreating from the trials was far stronger than before.

The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s eyes widened, and an ominous feeling grew stronger and stronger within its heart.

It even felt a pang of fear.

A terrifying conjecture surfaced in its mind.

It wondered if Ning Zhuo had already mastered the *Thread of Life* divine ability.

But it ultimately had no evidence.

It could only use the divine ability *Thread of Life* with the aid of the Lava Immortal Palace.

It did not possess this ability on its own, nor could it see the *Thread of Life*.

After a long period of persistence, Ning Zhuo finally stopped advancing and retreating.

He had reached his limit!

His soul force was about to plummet to its lowest point. He particularly missed Han Ming at this moment: “After this period, Han Ming should have recovered for the most part!”

“If my soul force continues to grow, I will surely be able to enter and exit more times, and quickly take away all of the Illusory Truth Lotus Seeds.”

At this time, Ning Zhuo still had a final reserve of soul force.

He could have continued to claim another Illusory Truth Lotus Seed, but he did not do so.

He wanted to conduct a crucial experiment.

Ning Zhuo retreated from the trial, all the way back to the No. 1 Transfer Hall.

He once again faced the three doors of the Buddhist, Daoist, and Demonic Sects.

“The Buddhist and Demonic Sects are both my flaws.”

“The Demonic Sect has the Demonic Bloodline Infusion Art. Yuan Dasheng once wanted to use it openly, and Zhu Xuanji caught a trace of it!”

“If the Demonic Bloodline Infusion Art becomes known to others in the future, and it reaches Zhu Xuanji’s ears, he will inevitably re-examine everything that happened during the Persimmon Festival. And I, who ultimately obtained Yuan Dasheng’s corpse, will inevitably be the prime suspect!”

“The flaw in the Buddhist Sect lies in the first trial.”

“If others in the future obtain the Immortal Palace’s specially-made mechanical creation in this trial.”

“Then they will discover that they can freely bring this mechanical creation into and out of the Lava Immortal Palace.”

“Yuan Dasheng’s positioning will be suspected again by them!”

“If I could hide the Demonic and Buddhist Sects, that would be great!”

This had been Ning Zhuo’s idea all along.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried before, but previous attempts had failed.

This time, he still wanted to try again.

“Because, I have become stronger.”

“I have mastered the *Thread of Life* divine ability.”

“My own cultivation has also improved greatly.”

*My Buddha’s Heart Demon Seal!*

Ning Zhuo activated it with all his might, and his soul force plummeted at this moment.

In exchange, the stone wall slowly rose, eventually completely concealing the Buddhist Sect.

End of Chapter