“Exquisite treasure, exquisite treasure!” Zheng Danchen laughed heartily. Although he had tried his best to overestimate its power beforehand, in actual combat, he found that he had still greatly underestimated the combat prowess of the Mechanical Black Serpent.

“Return,” Zheng Danchen commanded inwardly.

But the next moment, his expression shifted slightly.

The Mechanical Black Serpent did not respond instantly. It hesitated for a full three breaths before Zheng Danchen managed to steer it back.

The other Golden Core cultivators did not pursue for the moment – they were all intimidated by the might of the Mechanical Black Serpent.

The true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace clutched his severed arm, still shaken: “This is definitely no ordinary Night Rain demonic weapon!”

The true disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion also stared intently at the Mechanical Black Serpent, his heart filled with awe: “To think that in Fire Persimmon Immortal City, a small Zheng family actually controls such a sharp mechanical weapon.”

“Hahaha, I’m back!” Zheng Shuanggou returned to the clan’s territory.

The clan’s territory had long been shrouded in a massive defensive array, its power fully activated.

Zheng Shuanggou, fighting within the array, would undoubtedly possess a tremendous home-field advantage.

“Uh!” Zheng Shuanggou’s laughter abruptly ceased.

His eyes bulged as he looked at his hands.

The demonic sect’s true scripture that he held in his arms rapidly disintegrated, like ashes scattering after a sheet of paper is burned.

Soon, Zheng Shuanggou’s hands were empty.

“Wh-what’s going on?!” Zheng Shuanggou was dumbfounded.

“Hand over the scripture!” Luo Shang, who had not witnessed this scene, once again directed his ghost generals to attack.

Zheng Shuanggou hurriedly shouted: “Wait, there’s something wrong with this scripture!”

“What nonsense! A true scripture is a true scripture!” The true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace sneered.

He had personally felt the profound secrets of the scripture enter his mind, and therefore was certain that this was the true scripture.

Even though Zheng Shuanggou had retreated into his family’s grand array, the disciples of the Supreme Purity Palace were frantically attacking the array’s light barrier, seeking to reclaim the demonic scripture.

“These heretical fiends dare to continue attacking my clan’s grand array!” Seeing his own clan’s territory being affected, Zheng Danchen snorted coldly, arriving at full speed.

The Mechanical Black Serpent stayed close to him, closely following.

Zheng Danchen soon faced the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace.

He beckoned, and the Mechanical Black Serpent swooped forward, transforming in mid-air. By the time it landed in Zheng Danchen’s hand, it had become a long-handled scythe.

The scythe was entirely jet-black, without a trace of any other color. Its aura was extremely restrained, so restrained that it seemed almost like the most ordinary of objects.

Zheng Danchen, wielding the scythe, slashed fiercely at the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace.

The true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace stood motionless.

In that instant, he seemed to be immersed in the Night Rain, utterly desolate, sorrowful, painful, and hopeless!

His eyes glazed over.

He was sliced into countless pieces, blood, magical power, and everything else gushing out.

This was merely a single strike of the scythe.

All of the Golden Cores present, including those of the three-family alliance, gasped, truly feeling that the scythe was unbelievably powerful!

Zheng Danchen himself was also stunned.

The next moment, his grip loosened, and the scythe in his hand transformed once again, turning back into the Mechanical Black Serpent.

The Black Serpent swiftly slithered, directly crushing the countless pieces of flesh of the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace. Then, it opened its jaws, swallowing the Golden Core of the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace directly into its belly.

Zheng Danchen felt an immense chill in his heart!

All because this series of actions by the Mechanical Black Serpent was not controlled by him, but rather the Mechanical Black Serpent acting on its own.

“This… this demonic weapon is still untamed, bloodthirsty by nature. Our previous forging plan… has failed!”

Everyone was shocked.

The battlefield abruptly fell into silence.

All along, although the Golden Cores had been fighting, they had been relatively restrained, not recklessly slaughtering civilians or destroying the city.

All because they knew that City Lord Meng Kui, a Nascent Soul level cultivator, was on the mountain peak in the clouds.

No one had expected that the Black Scythe would directly kill a Golden Core.

And so cleanly!

All of the Golden Core cultivators present, including Zhu Xuanji and Zheng Danchen, felt a chill run down their spines.

They put themselves in the shoes of the Black Shadow Demon Cultivator, the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace, and wondered if they could withstand the might of this demonic scythe.

No one had such confidence.

The items of the Night Rain Dynasty were vastly different from the cultivation principles of today, making them difficult to defend against.

Looking at Zheng Danchen wielding the Black Scythe, everyone’s flames of battle were extinguished, as if they had encountered extremely cold ice and snow.

The first to leave was the Black Shadow Demon Cultivator, the true disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion.

As for Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu, they had already left the field in the middle of the melee.

“Do not use this demonic weapon again,” Zhu Xuanji said, leaving behind a sentence, and chased after the Black Shadow Demon Cultivator, the true disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion.

Zheng Danchen reacted, wielding the long-handled Black Scythe, and shouted: “I killed a Black Shadow Demon Cultivator! Someone, collect his corpse, this is my, my Zheng family’s contribution to Fire Persimmon Immortal City!”

However, the next moment, a ghost general appeared beside the corpse of the Black Shadow Demon Cultivator, the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace.

The ghost general clapped his hands with a playful smile and shouted: “Oh no, oh no, this person is a true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace!”

“You’re talking nonsense!” The expressions of the two Golden Cores of the Zheng family instantly changed drastically.

The other Golden Cores also changed their expressions, all looking towards the corpse.

Zheng Shuanggou realized that something was wrong and hurriedly ran to the corpse, wanting to collect it.

But at this time, another ghost general appeared, blocking Zheng Shuanggou.

Just as the two sides were about to start fighting, Zheng Danchen shook the Black Long Scythe in his hand. In just an instant, a Golden Core level and a Foundation Establishment level ghost general were both sliced into countless pieces.

But it was already too late.

Luo Shang’s voice came again: “Fire Persimmon City Zheng family, have you thought about how to give an explanation to the Supreme Purity Palace? Hahaha.”

His laughter was filled with schadenfreude.

On the other side.

“Zhu Xuanji, you can’t catch up to me, give up on that idea.” The true disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion finally unleashed his full strength after leaving the Immortal City.

His body was like purple lightning, his speed skyrocketing to the limit, quickly disappearing into the horizon.

“Purple Firmament Pavilion!” Zhu Xuanji recognized his origins and also discovered that the other party indeed had a very strong speed advantage. After thinking about it, he turned around and returned to the city.

There, there were more important things to deal with.

Not long after.

In the Zheng family’s council hall.

Zhu Xuanji and the Golden Cores of the three families all had solemn expressions, and the atmosphere in the hall was very oppressive.

Regarding the Black Long Scythe and the particularly unlucky true disciple Golden Core of the Supreme Purity Palace, everyone discussed for a while, but there were no reliable solutions.

And the demonic scripture that they had placed their hopes on, Zheng Shuanggou had only comprehended to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

After the meeting was dismissed, Zhu Xuanji concealed his true appearance and aura, walking alone in the streets.

“Things have escalated,” he frowned, sighing deeply.

The killing of the true disciple of the Supreme Purity Palace in the melee had put the Zheng family in a catastrophic situation.

Whether to protect the Zheng family?

Could it be protected?

These were all things that Zhu Xuanji had to consider, to carefully deliberate.

If he didn’t protect them, the three-family alliance that he had painstakingly built up would immediately fall apart.

But if he did protect them, he would have to face accountability, face the Supreme Purity Palace, a super sect. That was terrifying.

This put Zhu Xuanji in a dilemma!

“How did things develop into this?”

“This Night Rain demonic weapon is much more evil than I imagined.”

“How did the Zheng family get it?”

Zhu Xuanji knew that the Zheng family had obtained this opportunity from the Lava Immortal Palace. But he had never delved into the specifics.

Today’s battle had made Zhu Xuanji deeply understand how fierce this demonic weapon was!

This undoubtedly disrupted Zhu Xuanji’s original plan.

“The good news is that the Black Shadow Demon Cultivator appeared.”

“The bad news is that there was more than one Black Shadow Demon Cultivator, and I didn’t catch a single one.”

“Strange…”

A strange feeling always lingered in Zhu Xuanji’s heart.

But he thought about it again and again, and couldn’t figure out where the strangeness was.

When he came back to his senses, returning to reality, Zhu Xuanji unexpectedly found that he had once again arrived in front of Ning Zhuo’s house.

“In any case, now that the demonic scripture has fallen into Zheng Shuanggou’s hands, the danger to Ning Zhuo has decreased significantly…”

“…” Zhu Xuanji suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

He stood outside the courtyard gate, staring quietly at the house in front of him for a long while.

He came into the house, meeting Ning Zhuo once again.

Zhu Xuanji wore a smile on his face, his eyes hiding a glimmer of gold: “Ning Zhuo, I previously used you as bait, making you bear a lot of risks.”

“This time, I will reward you with a cultivation technique, thank you for your cooperation.”

Ning Zhuo pretended to be overjoyed, his eyes shining, and hurriedly asked: “Lord Zhu, what technique is it?”

Zhu Xuanji smiled slightly: “Demonic Contamination Blood Tendon Art.”

“Demonic Contamination Blood Tendon Art?” Ning Zhuo chewed on the words, as if he had heard it for the first time.

Zhu Xuanji didn’t see anything amiss, and continued: “Before you cultivate it, let me test your foundation first, to see if you are suitable for this technique.”

“Come, put your hand over here, I will check your three dantians, and finally comprehensively assess your aptitude.”

Ning Zhuo’s heart skipped a beat, and he had to brace himself and say: “Thank you, Lord Zhu!”