Chapter Seventy-Five: Causes and Consequences

"Go on ahead. I am going back for a moment."

Zhu Xuanchi turned back halfway.

Fei Si hurriedly said, "Then I am coming with you!"

The Old Ancestor of the Zhou Clan was not about to lag behind either, and followed closely. "What did Divine Arrestor Zhu discover?"

Zhu Xuanchi merely shook his head.

Before long, the three of them returned once more to the Flying Disc Workshop.

Several cultivators from the workshop were repairing the roof.

With a sweep of Zhu Xuanchi's hand, the roof was once again torn open.

The three Core Formation cultivators descended slowly.

"Ah, three lords!" Ning Zhuo and Chen Cha bowed again.

Zhu Xuanchi paid them no mind. He strode straight to Yuan Dasheng's corpse and took a vial of medicine from his robe.

The moment he uncorked it, the fragrance of the elixir drifted out, sending a visible tremor through everyone present.

Fei Si cried out, "A supreme elixir?"

Supreme elixirs were extraordinarily rare. For every one that was successfully refined, heaven, earth, timing, and human harmony all had to align. Even the maker could not easily reproduce such success.

Zhu Xuanchi wore a grave expression. He had brought out this precious treasure at no small cost precisely to verify the suspicion in his heart.

Under the interlaced gazes of the onlookers, he carefully dripped a single drop.

The liquid fell onto Yuan Dasheng's corpse and sank in at once.

Zhu Xuanchi and the others waited for a long while, yet saw no change at all.

Zhu Xuanchi sighed. "This old ape was not recently influenced by any external force of mind or will. This time, the self-detonation in the Fire Persimmon Grove truly was its own mistake."

Fei Si's expression fell, as if to say, Is that all?

The Old Ancestor of the Zhou Clan gave a faint nod.

Zhu Xuanchi did not even look at the others. Turning around, he leapt into the air.

Fei Si and the Old Ancestor of the Zhou Clan followed.

The three Core Formation cultivators left once more.

Ning Zhuo and Chen Cha continued handling Yuan Dasheng's corpse.

Chen Cha noticed that Ning Zhuo's movements were slow, his face ashen, his breath weak, and could not help saying with concern, "Xiaozhuo, these past days you hastily crafted the mechanism monkeys, took part in the Fire Persimmon Festival, obeyed Fei Si's command to pressure Yuan Er into surrendering Yuan Dasheng, and in the end even faced the oppressive might of three Core Formation masters twice over.

"You've overworked yourself. Go home and rest well. I'll take care of things here."

Ning Zhuo gave a bitter smile and waved it away, wiping the fine beads of sweat from his forehead.

"Let me catch my breath first."

He set aside the work, found a stool, sat down, and drew a weary breath.

A fierce wave of lingering fear surged through him, making another layer of cold sweat bead on his brow.

The situation just now had been far too perilous!

"Only a hair's breadth, just a hair's breadth..."

He had only just finished extracting the blood from Yuan Dasheng's body when the three Core Formation cultivators arrived and began investigating the corpse.

After that, if the three cultivators had returned once more, and if Ning Zhuo had truly used the Seal of My Buddha's Inner Demon to influence Yuan Dasheng, then all would have been lost.

Rewinding the thread of time to several days earlier.

To confront the crisis of life and death, Ning Zhuo had exhausted himself in thought, racking his brains to the breaking point.

Yuan Dasheng was strong.

Around it still stood the protection of the Monkey Head Gang.

A direct clash was absolutely the worst course.

"And if I am to kill with borrowed hands, I must expose Yuan Dasheng to other powers..."

Setting aside how one might scheme against other forces to make trouble for the Monkey Head Gang, if anyone were to discover Yuan Dasheng's value, then Ning Zhuo would only be lifting a stone to smash his own foot.

The greatest restriction was Zhu Xuanchi.

Zhu Xuanchi possessed the Root-Tracing and Origin-Following Art.

If Ning Zhuo were to use the Seal of My Buddha's Inner Demon to directly influence Yuan Dasheng, Zhu Xuanchi would only need to examine Yuan Dasheng's corpse with Root-Tracing and Origin-Following, and he would find the closely linked object: Ning Zhuo.

That would be no different from actively exposing himself.

"How do I save myself?"

Ning Zhuo pondered bitterly, wracking his mind until it hurt.

He sank into the abyss of thought.

A powerful sense of loneliness enveloped him, making him feel as if the whole world had abandoned him.

No one knew his true situation. He could not confide in anyone, nor rely on anyone.

Fate was cold and merciless, placing a formidable foe like Yuan Dasheng before him and forcing him into a fight to the death.

With the bigger picture in view, he could only battle alone.

Whenever he searched for a plan, fierce emotions would inevitably rise of their own accord.

Helplessness, dejection, despair, the desperate craving to survive, rage, hatred, the unwillingness to fail the last wishes of his mother, even the contrarian urge to defy what stood before him...

Ning Zhuo had to remain vigilant against these emotions at all times, trying his best to strip away their interference and think with cold objectivity.

He had to seek possibility within impossibility.

And he had to succeed in one attempt, with utmost thoroughness. For if there were any flaw in his design, he would surely set the fire upon himself and court his own death.

"I still have many crucial details I have not yet clarified."

"For instance, how exactly did it obtain the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art? And how many layers does it have?"

"Wait... the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art!"

Ning Zhuo, deep in thought, suddenly went still, and then his eyes flashed with keen brilliance.

Yes, the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art.

Once this demonic art was activated, it could draw out blood qi and condense it into blood-vein membranes.

Used upon oneself, it could strengthen mobility and grant a measure of defense.

Used upon others, it could erode and corrupt another's blood qi with one's own. If enough blood-vein membranes were formed within and without the body, it could restrain, even control, the target.

At that moment, Ning Zhuo seemed to see a sliver of hope in an endless darkness.

"I can use blood qi to permeate and influence it."

"Of course, not my own blood qi. If blood qi of a different kind were to clash, Yuan Dasheng would definitely notice."

"I can use its own blood qi!"

Naturally, Ning Zhuo could not draw blood from Yuan Dasheng itself. However, the latter did have its monkey sons and grandchildren.

"Even if these monkeys carry the blood of their own mothers, as long as I collect enough, I can purify it through alchemical means and refine it into blood qi that is as close as possible to Yuan Dasheng's own."

Reaching this point in his reasoning, Ning Zhuo encountered yet another problem: could Yuan Dasheng detect this blood qi of the same source?

"Can it perceive the finest details?"

After thinking deeply, Ning Zhuo felt the likelihood was not great.

"Yuan Dasheng cultivates two techniques."

"One is the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art, of unknown origin, at least at the third level of refined essence."

"The other is the Five-Element Breath Rhythm Art, obtained from the Transmission Bell, cultivated to the peak of the third level of qi refinement, which is why its soul could enter the Immortal Palace."

"Beyond that, it is impossible for it to have cultivated any other technique."

To enter the Immortal Palace in the qi refinement stage, all other techniques must be discarded, unless they are the Mirror Platform Spiritual Communion Art, the Five-Element Breath Rhythm Art, or the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art.

Only when the Five-Element Breath Rhythm Art reaches the peak of the third level of qi refinement can the mechanism for the soul's entry into the Immortal Palace be triggered.

If Yuan Dasheng possessed any other technique, it could only be the Mirror Platform Spiritual Communion Art. If it had such a cultivation of the spirit, then it would certainly appear on the rankings.

Yet in the spirit-cultivation rankings, to this day there was still only Ning Zhuo's false name.

"Without a spirit-cultivation art, relying only on Five-Element spiritual power and the Demonic Corrupted Blood Tendon Art, it cannot achieve perception down to the finest detail."

"According to the intelligence, Yuan Dasheng itself is not skilled in using magical implements, and prefers close-quarters slaughter, fully bringing out the might of its fleshly body."

"Taking a gamble on this front, the odds are not small."

Ning Zhuo had no other way. He could only gamble that Yuan Dasheng had no further means and could not perceive matters with subtle precision.