After the Zhou family’s two geniuses recovered from their injuries, they eagerly formed a joint team with the other two families to explore the Molten Lava Immortal Palace.

The three families clearly hadn’t gleaned the true situation of the City Lord’s Estate. Before setting off, they were still fantasizing about joining forces to deal with Yuan Dasheng, the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, should they encounter him again!

As a result, the joint team came on strong but only repeated the City Lord’s Estate’s failure. Over twenty Qi Refining cultivators were devoured, allowing Ning Zhuo to absorb their souls to his heart’s content!

Ning Zhuo arrived at the third trial of the Buddhist Sect, repeatedly entering and exiting with an unrestrained and arrogant attitude, infuriating the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit to the point where his fists clenched, repeatedly smashing them onto the throne.

The Illusionary Truth Lotus Seed was his only choice.

The embryonic form of his Fate-Hanging Threads divine ability surged once more. The lotus leaf, once the size of a palm, expanded fiercely, becoming the size of a washbasin, as verdant as jade.

At Sun Lingtong’s request, Ning Zhuo planted Fate-Hanging Threads on the Nether Envoy, Qi Bai, as well.

This way, even if Sun Lingtong’s soul returned to his physical body and was no longer within the trials of the Molten Lava Immortal Palace, he could leave Qi Bai behind for Ning Zhuo to control.

“Qi Bai’s spirituality has been depleted by eighteen percent.”

Ning Zhuo felt regret.

The Nether Envoy, Qi Bai, suffered the loss of spirituality as the greatest cost for participating in combat and devouring other souls.

Before reaching ten-tenths, spirituality could not sustain itself, which meant it could not be recovered.

However, Ning Zhuo had tried many methods but had not yet figured out a way to increase it.

“Look on the bright side, my friend!”

Sun Lingtong was rather unconcerned about this.

“I think this deal is well worth it!”

“A little loss of spirituality in exchange for you absorbing the Illusionary Truth Lotus Seed faster and more abundantly, elevating your Fate-Hanging Threads divine ability!”

“That’s a great profit!”

“So, even if all the spirituality is consumed, it’s still worth doing!”

Ning Zhuo sighed, knowing that Sun Lingtong’s words made sense.

But he had always loved automatons and didn’t want to see the death of the automaton Qi Bai from the bottom of his heart.

For the next ten days or so, Ning Zhuo finally had a period of peaceful cultivation.

Meng Kui was still stationed at the summit, sealing off the surroundings, but he couldn’t stop Zhu Xuanji from leading the three families’ Golden Core cultivators.

Zhu Xuanji knew what was important. Since he discovered the weakness of the Molten Lava Immortal Palace, he put the investigation aside.

He frequently entered the Immortal Palace, both exploring and increasing his contribution points.

After the City Lord’s Estate recovered, they charged twice under Meng Chong’s leadership.

The three families’ modification teams regrouped, but after a complete failure in the second all-out assault under the joint attacks of the Nether Envoy Qi Bai and the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape Dasheng, they decisively abandoned the idea of a full-scale assault.

According to their speculation, the Molten Lava Immortal Palace had a mechanism to adjust the difficulty of the trials based on the specific strength of the challengers.

Therefore, as long as they acted alone, or in teams of two or three, they wouldn’t encounter the freakishly strong automatons Yuan Dasheng and Qi Bai.

Ning Zhuo did as they expected, greatly reducing the appearances of Yuan Dasheng and Qi Bai.

On the one hand, Qi Bai’s spirituality had dropped to below ten percent after these rounds of large-scale soul devouring.

Although Sun Lingtong didn’t care, Ning Zhuo decided to preserve the spark of spirituality.

As for the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape Dasheng, he wasn’t without battle damage.

Currently, Ning Zhuo’s skill in automatons wasn’t enough to truly repair him.

At best, he could patch him up, but the overall combat power of the automaton was constantly declining.

On the other hand, Ning Zhuo didn’t want to completely demoralize the three families or the City Lord’s Estate.

He needed to give these people some hope, motivating them to continue forward and to continuously increase their investment of resources.

Ning Zhuo’s own cultivation had improved so much, and the various cultivation resources provided by the three families had greatly helped him.

With the soul essence returned by Qi Bai, Ning Zhuo’s soul foundation had increased massively once again.

Compared to before he encountered Han Ming, it had increased by more than one hundred and fifty times.

This allowed Ning Zhuo’s soul power to stand head and shoulders above the other Qi Refining cultivators, and it also allowed him to repeatedly use the power of my Buddha’s Inner Demon Seal more times in succession, helping him to frantically choose rewards.

The Illusionary Truth Lotus Seeds had all been chosen!

The embryonic form of the Fate-Hanging Threads divine ability had also changed its appearance.

In Ning Zhuo’s Divine Sea Dantian, on top of its jade-like lotus leaf, rested a pinkish-white lotus bud.

The bud was full and gave the feeling of being about to bloom.

“It’s only a little bit away from perfection!”

“No, it’s still a long way off!”

The embryonic form of the divine ability gave Ning Zhuo a contradictory understanding.

Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong discussed it, and after a lot of guessing, they felt that the embryonic form of the divine ability was very close to perfection. But this last step, although seemingly small, was extremely crucial. It was very difficult to cross, and if it couldn’t be crossed, it couldn’t be qualitatively changed to reach a state of ten-tenths perfection.

It was just like the ten-tenths of spirituality before.

Therefore, it was only a little bit away from the perfection of the divine ability, but it was also a long way off.

“Why isn’t there just a little more Illusionary Truth Lotus Seed?”

Sun Lingtong felt regret.

Ning Zhuo shook his head, “I think the last step must be crossed by the cultivator alone!”

He wasn’t just guessing randomly, but had a basis.

Ning Zhuo said, “The last dozen or so Illusionary Truth Lotus Seeds that were absorbed had very little help for the embryonic form of the divine ability. The increase in the embryonic form of the divine ability wasn’t very large at all. The benefits from the Illusionary Truth Lotus Seeds were really getting less and less.”

Sun Lingtong pondered for a moment, nodded, and agreed with Ning Zhuo’s guess.

But what to do next?

How could he perfect the divine ability?

Sun and Ning discussed it for a long time, but didn’t have a reliable guess.

On the summit of the volcano, deep in the clouds and smoke.

Meng Kui invited Zhu Xuanji to meet.

“Master Zhu, rumors are rising, and the news is not stopping!”

“Although I sit here all day long, I can’t stop the news from spreading further and further!”

“Recently, more and more foreign cultivators have entered Fire Persimmon Immortal City, and there are even rumors that the Soul Devouring Sect and the Unempty Sect have sent True Inheritor disciples!”

“The Taiqing Palace and the Violet Firmament Pavilion have also sent invitations, using the excuse of attacking the Demonic Path, wanting to send True Inheritor disciples into Fire Persimmon Immortal City.”

“Under such circumstances, it will be difficult to be comprehensive if I sit here alone. I hope that Master Zhu and I will jointly submit a memorial to the court, asking the imperial court to send reinforcements!”

Zhu Xuanji looked at Meng Kui deeply.

He had also seen the evolution of the situation during this time.

He nodded slightly, “Okay, I will submit a memorial with you.”

“Qi Refining Sixth Layer Early Stage!”

“Spirit Refining Sixth Layer Middle Stage!”

“Divine Sea Sixth Layer Peak!”

Ning Zhuo finished a day of hard cultivation and exhaled a turbid breath.

In a dozen days, his cultivation had made great progress again.

Generally speaking, the speed of cultivation slows down a lot in the middle stage of Qi Refining compared to the early stage.

But the three cultivation methods arranged by the three sects’ masters all have advantages in terms of cultivation speed.

As long as there are enough resources.

And Ning Zhuo’s source of resources is really abundant in all aspects.

His strongest is still his Divine Sea cultivation, which has been rising all the way, and its progress has never slowed down, reaching the peak of the Sixth Layer.

At this point, Ning Zhuo can finally move forward again.

“It’s time to show off the talent of our people in automatons again!”

With this in mind, Ning Zhuo summoned Ning Chen and Ning Yong.

End of this chapter.