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Zhu Xuanji walked out of the warehouse, lost in thought the entire way.

He had never expected that the clue regarding the shadow demonic cultivator would suddenly be delivered to him in this manner.

“Could it be the City Lord’s Mansion playing their old tricks again?”

“Using this method to put on a self-directed performance, diverting my attention and scattering my energy so I can’t go all out in the competition for the Molten Immortal Palace?”

If this were the case, Zhu Xuanji had to admit, the scheme was exceedingly malicious!

The other party must have accurately pinpointed his character and seized it firmly – his strong desire to protect the vast number of city dwellers.

With the monstrous beasts besieging the city, the City Lord’s Mansion’s forces were stretched thin. Feisi couldn’t possibly thoroughly investigate the entire immortal city; he could only eliminate the possibility of hidden fire persimmons in critical areas.

And even if such a large number of fire persimmons weren’t buried in vital positions along the front lines, detonating them in the city center would still cause a massive number of casualties.

Excessive casualties in the city, falling into chaos, would subsequently affect the front lines.

Zhu Xuanji trusted his own abilities and was inclined to believe that Feisi hadn’t lied, but what about Meng Kui?

Although the Meng family was known for their frank and direct nature, Meng Kui was the only strategist among the four generals.

Even if Zhu Xuanji confronted Meng Kui, he had little confidence in his lie-detecting methods working against a Nascent Soul level cultivator.

Zhu Xuanji walked along the street, his eyes unfocused, various thoughts surging in his mind.

“But what if it’s not?”

“What if the City Lord’s Mansion is simply a victim? What if Meng Kui and Feisi haven’t made any secret arrangements?”

“Then, is this shadow demonic cultivator from the same faction as the one who bombarded Fire Persimmon Mountain?”

Innumerable possibilities flashed through Zhu Xuanji’s mind.

He felt as though he were in a fog, not knowing which path led to the truth.

“Lord Zhu! I’ve finally found you!” A voice interrupted Zhu Xuanji’s thoughts.

Zhu Xuanji focused his eyes and saw a Foundation Establishment cultivator, dressed as a servant.

Zhu Xuanji then asked about his purpose.

The cultivator servant bowed deeply: “This old servant is a subordinate of Lord Zhu Hou. Lord Zhu Hou has been selected this time to serve as the new head of the Orphanage in Fire Persimmon Immortal City. He has already arrived here for two days and is fully prepared for the handover.”

“Tomorrow, there will be a handover ceremony.”

“Lord Zhu Hou heard that you have appeared in the immortal city and wishes to invite you to attend the handover ceremony.”

“After all, the position of Orphanage head was advocated by you.”

Zhu Xuanji’s spirit lifted, and he smiled: “This is the only good news I’ve heard today! You are right, the matter of the Orphanage was reported by me to the King, with special instructions to select talented individuals specifically from my Zhu royal family.”

“I didn’t expect it to be Uncle Zhu Hou who took on this task.”

“With him there, I am at ease.”

“Unfortunately, I have important matters to attend to and no time to attend the ceremony.”

At this point, Zhu Xuanji’s eyes flickered slightly, revealing a hint of hesitation.

He understood Zhu Hou’s meaning. If he, the Divine Constable, were to attend the ceremony tomorrow, it would be equivalent to endorsing Zhu Hou, which would greatly improve Zhu Hou’s future situation and facilitate the running of the Orphanage.

“Since I have already agreed to Li Leifeng, why not see this through completely?”

After a moment of consideration, Zhu Xuanji decided to compromise: “I will go see Uncle now. Let’s go.”

Saying this, he grabbed the old servant’s collar and flew into the air with him, flying towards the Orphanage with great pomp and show.

Zhu Xuanji’s actions quickly attracted countless gazes.

Just as before, he had openly gone to find Ning Zhuo, implementing the tactic of flushing out the snake by hitting the grass.

From this moment on, he had already begun to support and endorse Zhu Hou.

Zhu Xuanji landed in the Orphanage with the servant cultivator and met Zhu Hou.

Zhu Hou had only a Foundation Establishment cultivation base, was stout and portly, and possessed a gentle and generous nature.

Zhu Xuanji immediately cupped his hands and bowed to Zhu Hou.

In his youth, Zhu Xuanji had received much kindness and guidance from Zhu Hou.

Therefore, even after becoming a Golden Core cultivator, he had always been respectful to Zhu Hou and never slighted him.

Zhu Xuanji then apologized to Zhu Hou, stating that he would be unable to attend the handover ceremony tomorrow.

Zhu Hou smiled slightly and motioned for him to sit down first.

Zhu Hou also sat down: “Seeing you fly over with such fanfare, Xiao Ji, I understood your intention.”

“I am already quite happy that you could spare the time to come.”

“From now on, the Orphanage will be under my care, so you can rest assured.”

“I’ve watched you grow up, how could I not know your aspirations? Your goals and mine are consistent.”

“I will do my best to unearth talent from within and deliver it to the royal family.”

“Accumulating soil to form a mountain, gathering fur from armpits to make a coat – by constantly accumulating in this way, we will surely be able to help the royal family resist the power of the many important ministers.”

At this point, Zhu Hou sighed deeply.

“In the Southern Bean Kingdom now, the Meng family, the Su family, and others have become too powerful to control.”

“The Retired Emperor suffered deeply from emotional trauma in his later years and did not handle all this well, leaving such a large mess for his descendants.”

Zhu Xuanji remained silent; he did not wish to speak ill of his ancestor.

Regardless, the founding emperor of the Southern Bean Kingdom, who was able to establish such a foundation, certainly had merits far outweighing his faults.

Seeing Zhu Xuanji’s melancholic expression, Zhu Hou took the initiative to change the subject: “Oh right, Xiao Ji, when I was organizing Li Leifeng’s things, I found a good item!”

“Come and see.”

Zhu Hou revealed a mysterious expression and took out a jade slip, handing it to Zhu Xuanji.

The surface of this jade slip was smooth, the kind that comes from being frequently used and handled. Clearly, Li Leifeng had used it often during his lifetime.

Zhu Xuanji took the jade slip and scanned its contents with his divine sense.

He immediately discovered that it was Li Leifeng’s diary from his lifetime.

This diary mainly recorded some outstanding orphans in the Orphanage.

Li Leifeng was very good at discovering the strengths in these children and then judging whether they were excellent cultivation seeds.

Li Leifeng had even made a detailed list. In the list, he made detailed records according to name and time.

After carefully examining the list, Zhu Xuanji discovered that Li Leifeng not only took care of the orphans in the Orphanage, but sometimes he also provided assistance to some poor children outside the orphanage.

Although the Orphanage received support from various parties, overall, resources were still limited.

From this list, one could see Li Leifeng’s philosophy of running the Orphanage.

He wasn’t providing a ‘big pot of rice’; he didn’t divide resources equally, but rather allocated more or less, focusing on investing in orphans with greater potential.

On the one hand, he hoped to have successors. So, he had always actively cultivated successors.

On the other hand, he also hoped that these resources could be used in more valuable places and could receive as much positive feedback as possible.

He greatly hoped to cultivate some successful cultivators. After these cultivators had some surplus power, they could continue to provide more resources to the Orphanage, thus forming a positive cycle. Zhu Xuanji sighed: “As expected of Li Leifeng, his benevolent and caring heart radiates from this jade slip.”

Holding this old jade slip in his hand, he felt its weight.

Li Leifeng managed the Orphanage with extreme care. This kind of sentiment, in Zhu Xuanji’s perception, was even more valuable than a magic treasure!

Zhu Hou saw the change in Zhu Xuanji’s expression and smiled: “Are you a bit happier now?”

He continued to comfort Zhu Xuanji: “Xiao Ji, you are under too much pressure.”

“You must know that you are not the only one working hard; everyone is moving forward together.”

“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself or too strict with yourself.”

“You’ve already done a great job.”

“Perhaps, sometimes you will also make mistakes, but who can be without fault?”

“As long as they are cultivators, they are human, and as long as they are human, they will make mistakes.”

“Now our royal family is lacking in talent; you are the only true cultivation seed.”

“Don’t bear too much on your shoulders. Likewise, don’t ever think that you are fighting alone.”

“People like your uncle, although our cultivation is insufficient and our aptitude is lacking, we can still contribute a portion of our strength to the royal family. With accumulation of small amounts, this strength is not to be underestimated.”

Zhu Xuanji said solemnly: “Thank you for your concern, Uncle.”

After this consideration from Zhu Hou, his mood had indeed improved significantly.

However, just as Zhu Xuanji was about to return the jade slip to Zhu Hou, his expression suddenly changed drastically.

This was because his divine sense had scanned the end of the list and had unexpectedly discovered a familiar name.

Ning Zhuo!!!

“How could he be on this list?!”

Zhu Xuanji quickly examined it carefully.

In the jade slip, Li Leifeng had made detailed records in the entry related to Ning Zhuo.

Over ten years ago, while performing a puppet show in the Orphanage, Li Leifeng unexpectedly discovered a child, huddled in a corner and peeking.

The child wasn’t just peeking, he was also secretly taking some leftover pastries to eat when the guests had dispersed.

Afterwards, Li Leifeng saw him twice more.

On the third time, feeling pity for the child, he took him backstage and offered him some new pastries to eat.

As a result, the child came more and more frequently.

The child often huddled in the corner watching the puppet show, and each time he watched with rapt attention.

This was very different from other children.

Generally speaking, children’s minds are not settled, and their attention is easily distracted. The first few times they see a new, unfamiliar puppet show, they can concentrate for most of the performance.

When watching old, familiar puppet shows, they often run around in the audience area, unable to sit in their seats for a long time.

But Li Leifeng found that each time, this child was fully focused.

This aroused Li Leifeng’s interest.

He secretly paid attention and was astonished to discover that this child was imitating his technique for manipulating the automaton puppets!

Others simply watched the show, but this child was constantly learning, continuously imitating his various techniques for manipulating the puppets during Li Leifeng’s performance, watching and practicing simultaneously.

The child huddled in the shadows, secretly learning, his small hands clasped in his sleeves, constantly waving.

After observing secretly for a period, Li Leifeng was incredibly surprised.

He found that some simple operational techniques, the child only needed to watch two or three times to be able to learn them quite proficiently.

Upon discovering this, Li Leifeng found it very interesting. Whenever the child came to peek, he would temporarily add a scene, often adding plays with more complex and difficult operations.

As a result, these puppet shows would only challenge the child for two or three performances, at most four or five. Then, he would have learned them almost completely.

Finally, when it came to the play “Fang Qin Clears His Name,” because there were many characters in several scenes and the operations were extremely intricate, it finally troubled the child for more than ten performances.

But after more than ten performances, the child had already mastered it to about seventy or eighty percent proficiency.

“He has a strong talent for automata!” Li Leifeng had the thought of taking him as a disciple. After a secret investigation, he discovered that his surname was Ning and his given name was Zhuo, and he was a branch disciple of the Ning family.

Before Ning Zhuo was even born, his father had already died. When he was two years old, his mother also lost her life.

Although he had a paternal uncle, for some unknown reason, he still lived alone, and his life was extremely difficult.

Upon discovering this, Li Leifeng consciously left more pastries, inviting him to eat whenever Ning Zhuo came to watch the show.

Ning Zhuo was quite fond of snacks but was very polite. Each time, he was very respectful to Li Leifeng and quite knowledgeable in etiquette.

Each time he saw his small figure bowing respectfully to him, Li Leifeng would involuntarily reach out and pat his little head.

Li Leifeng wrote in his diary: “Ning Zhuo, this child, has a rather large head, and you can tell at a glance he’s very bright.”

He also commented on the Ning family: “The Ning family is a large cultivation clan, but it’s nothing special. Just looking at Ning Zhuo, you can see how difficult it is for the branch disciples.”

After inviting Ning Zhuo to eat multiple times, Li Leifeng felt the time was right.

One time, when no one was around, Li Leifeng specifically asked Ning Zhuo if he would like to acknowledge him as his master, and he would specifically teach Ning Zhuo more wondrous methods of manipulating puppets.

However, Ning Zhuo’s answer surprised Li Leifeng.

He said that he didn’t understand any manipulation techniques at all, and that he simply liked watching puppet shows.

Li Leifeng knew this was a lie. He had seen too many people, and from the look in Ning Zhuo’s eyes every time he watched the puppet show, he was absolutely certain that the latter was extremely fond of puppets!

Li Leifeng thought, haste makes waste; it’s better to go slow and invite him again later.

However, after the first failed invitation, Ning Zhuo rarely came to the Orphanage to watch the show.

On the rare occasion he did come, Li Leifeng would specially add a performance of “Fang Qin Clears His Name” for him. This was the most complex puppet show to manipulate, and even for Li Leifeng, he would be physically and mentally exhausted after each performance.

Li Leifeng knew that only such a puppet show could entice Ning Zhuo to watch and come more often.

When Ning Zhuo was four years old, he was already able to move his fingers while watching “Fang Qin Clears His Name,” and the manipulation techniques he had developed had reached five-tenths of Li Leifeng’s level.

Such talent made Li Leifeng conclude that this child would surely achieve great things in the future!

“A cone in a sack, even if covered, is only temporary. From the age of six onwards, he will surely stand out!” This was Li Leifeng’s personal judgment written in his diary.

Seeing this, Zhu Xuanji was greatly shocked and immediately stood up with a jolt.

He widened his eyes, staring intently at the jade slip in his hand!

He continued to read on.

However, he found that there were very few subsequent entries by Li Leifeng.

This was because the frequency of Ning Zhuo’s visits to the Orphanage sharply decreased! When he was five years old, he only came two or three times a year. By the time he was six, he simply stopped coming.

“Ning Zhuo, Ning Zhuo!” Zhu Xuanji muttered for a moment, his eyes flashing with golden light, his expression truly terrifying.

He had not expected to obtain such a crucial clue from Li Leifeng’s belongings.

This allowed him to understand Ning Zhuo’s true nature!

(End of Chapter)