Chapter 333: Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon Leaves Immortal Homeland!
Zhu Xuanji said, "The specific content is: cancel the wanted notices for Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu, and give Sun Lingtong one opportunity to choose an item from the royal treasury as a reward."
Ning Zhuo couldn't help but slightly open his mouth, his face filled with disappointment. "This, this, this..."
He had been full of expectations earlier but did not expect the Southern Dou royal family to be so shrewd. Whether it was the official explanation or the hidden reward, everything was just right, yet they intentionally skipped over him, Ning Zhuo.
After delivering the message, Zhu Xuanji immediately stood up. "Lastly, let me tell you one thing, don't casually leak out that sutra capable of extracting spirituality. Although it's a Buddhist scripture, it's too eye-catching. It clearly has the mark of the Burial Spirit Sect."
Ning Zhuo hurriedly interrupted, "Master Zhu, are you leaving just like that? Please, no, I’ve especially prepared a small banquet for you..."
Zhu Xuanji ignored him and left straight away.
Ning Zhuo chased after him, pulling out a treasure and stuffing it into Zhu Xuanji’s hand. "Just a small token of appreciation. Hehe."
Zhu Xuanji glanced down and saw it was the Jade Dragon Mirror, a set paired with the Golden Phoenix Mirror he had taken earlier.
A part of the agreement between the three families was to split the floating treasures from the main hall, and what Ning Zhuo got was the Jade Dragon Mirror.
Zhu Xuanji quickly withdrew his arm, his face turning furious. "You actually dare to bribe me? I am the divine detective Zhu Xuanji! How dare you think you can bribe me? Insolent brat, how dare you insult me?!"
"Hmph, you’re just like Sun Lingtong, birds of a feather."
Ning Zhuo wasn’t scared, still grinning cheekily. "Master Zhu, don’t be so tense. Only you, I, heaven, and earth know about this..."
Zhu Xuanji directly soared into the sky, transformed into a rainbow, and left swiftly.
Watching his disappearing light, Ning Zhuo sighed. "Why did he leave so fast? I still wanted to negotiate with him for a mechanical demon general."
Afterwards, Ning Zhuo, Zhu Xuanji, and Meng Kui divided up the bodies of the three Golden Core-level puppets: the Buddhist Doctor, the Demon General, and the Daoist Master.
Ning Zhuo blinked in confusion, thinking, "Why do I feel like Zhu Xuanji is avoiding me? There’s a sense of panic to it."
He shook his head, thinking it was just his imagination.
"If we really fought, I wouldn’t stand a chance against Zhu Xuanji."
"All my trump cards have been exposed. Although my mother’s spirituality has been greatly replenished, every time I use a divine ability or the Great Serpent Scythe, it consumes a lot of spirituality."
Ning Zhuo’s strongest puppet was undoubtedly the Buddhist Doctor, but he would never use it casually!
The more abundant the spirituality, the longer his mother could survive. As long as even a trace of spirituality remained, there was hope.
Flying through the air, Zhu Xuanji’s gaze was heavy.
Ning Zhuo's feelings were not wrong; Zhu Xuanji indeed did not want to have more contact with Ning Zhuo.
It wasn’t that he feared Ning Zhuo or the Great Serpent Scythe, but rather the Buddha Heart Demon Seal!
The late emperor’s will clearly stated that the Buddha Heart Demon Seal was related to the struggle between the Buddhist and Demonic realms, with immense karmic consequences.
Zhu Xuanji certainly didn’t want to get involved and could only choose to keep his distance.
The reason he didn’t give Ning Zhuo any rewards or official positions was also based on this consideration. If Ning Zhuo truly became an official of Southern Dou, the royal family might collapse under the weight of the karmic consequences tied to the Buddhist-Demonic dispute!
In conclusion, maintaining distance from Ning Zhuo and observing from afar was the most prudent course of action.
It would be good for Zhu Xuanji and good for the entire Southern Dou kingdom!
Shortly after Zhu Xuanji left, Ning Jiufan quietly arrived.
"Ancestor, I’ve been waiting day and night, finally, I get to see you." Ning Zhuo's face was full of sincere emotion.
He thanked Ning Jiufan greatly for backing him up, removing Ning Qingqiao from his position as elder, and clearing the obstacles within the family for the successful division of assets.
Ning Jiufan snorted coldly. "What else could I do? Let the main bloodline continue to target and suppress you, handing you legitimate reasons to wipe out the entire main line?"
Ning Zhuo’s expression immediately changed, and he swore never to be so heartless. Though the main bloodline had treated him coldly, he still owed his growth to them and would not use such extreme methods against them. After all, they shared the same bloodline.
"No matter what, they are still my family." Ning Zhuo sighed.
Ning Jiufan snorted coldly. "Aren’t Ning Xiaohui and Ning Xiaoren also your family? I may be old, but I’m not senile. I heard you have a pair of mechanical arms?"
Ning Zhuo coughed quickly. "Ancestor, I have to congratulate you! With the royal family’s support and your ability to command the Demon Ape, we are now a major force with Nascent Soul-level strength!"
"Sigh, I just had a private conversation with Master Zhu Xuanji, but I learned the royal family gave me no rewards, not even a small official position."
Ning Zhuo spread his hands wide, exuding an intense air of grievance and loss from head to toe.
Ning Jiufan coughed a few times, knowing this was Ning Zhuo’s bargaining chip in their discussion.
Ning Jiufan sighed deeply, looking at Ning Zhuo. "The past is a tangled mess. Dwelling on it too much will bring no benefit now."
Ning Zhuo strongly agreed.
Thus, Ning Jiufan quietly brushed off Ning Zhuo’s crimes against Ning Xiaohui and the others.
Ning Jiufan asked, "According to your previous messages, you want to leave Huoshi Immortal City?"
Ning Zhuo clasped his hands. "Ancestor, I’ve been confined to Huoshi Immortal City for over a decade. I long to travel the world. As they say, 'To read ten thousand books, one must travel ten thousand miles.' The world is vast, and I can barely contain my excitement."
Ning Jiufan stroked his beard, deep in thought. "You’ve indeed become too prominent. Letting Meng Kui take the palace master position likely put you on his radar. Lying low for a while might be good."
Ning Jiufan wasn’t worried about Ning Zhuo’s personal safety.
On one hand, Ning Zhuo’s combat power was even stronger than his own. It was absurd! If someone with Golden Core-level strength couldn’t travel the world, then the world was too dangerous.
On the other hand, Ning Jiufan had great confidence in Ning Zhuo’s tactics and cunning. He himself had been deceived thoroughly by this young man, practically a monster in human skin. What was there to worry about?
"When are you leaving?" Ning Jiufan asked.
Ning Zhuo responded, "It’ll take some time, at least half a month."
He explained that he needed to stabilize his cultivation and also maintain stability during the family division.
"Before you leave, remember to leave behind a puppet to look after the family." Ning Jiufan reminded him. "I think that mechanical ape would do just fine."
In order to gain Ning Jiufan’s support, Ning Zhuo had revealed much to him.
In fact, the three-way cooperation had to be known to Ning Jiufan. If Ning Zhuo didn’t say anything, Zhu Xuanji would.
Ning Zhuo began keeping a low profile.
The Feiyun Caravan had left, but Song Fuli returned secretly with two Golden Core cultivators, hiding in the nearby mountains.
Luo Shang spread ghost soldiers and ghost generals all around, along with Han Ming, also waiting.
Yang Chanyu kept pressuring Sun Lingtong every day to say goodbye to Ning Zhuo and quickly return to Bukong Gate.
She had gained greatly this time as well.
Ning Zhuo had reached an agreement with Meng Kui and Zhu Xuanji, obtaining many treasures from the Immortal Palace and receiving a large inheritance from the Zheng family. The family division was also accompanied by many gifts.
Among these gifts, Ning Zhuo added a Golden Core-level Seven-Colored Auspicious Cloud and gave it to Yang Chanyu.
Yang Chanyu was quite satisfied with this, but she was anxious about the return journey.
Even though she couldn’t detect Song Fuli, Luo Shang, and the others, she knew that both Bukong Gate and these two forces had forged deadly enmities. The road back would surely be full of lethal danger, far from peaceful!
Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong met secretly in an underground base.
Sun Lingtong glanced around and chuckled, then sighed, "In a few more years, all these secret bases will be gone."
The city protection array of Huoshi Immortal City had many flaws. This was because they had to account for the Lava Immortal Palace, avoiding disturbing it while protecting Huoshi Mountain, so the protective array was conservatively arranged.
Now that Meng Kui
had become the palace master, he could include the entire palace into the city protection array, making it the core.
From then on, the protective array would certainly be rebuilt and thoroughly patched up. Finding flaws would become as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Ning Zhuo wasn’t interested in the underground base and urged Sun Lingtong, "Let's go, boss."
The two concealed their forms, passed through the underground base, and eventually entered deep into Huoshi Mountain.
In a tunnel, Ning Zhuo stopped.
"This is the place." He controlled the Fire Burst Monkey, which began digging at the ground.
Soon, the Fire Burst Monkey unearthed a small and exquisite mechanical dragon.
The mechanical dragon was no longer than Ning Zhuo's palm, its entire body gray and unremarkable.
But Ning Zhuo knew that this was a Nascent Soul-level puppet — the Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon!
After scanning with his spiritual sense, Ning Zhuo's face lit up with joy. "Excellent, just as I expected, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit is inside!"
Upon hearing this, Sun Lingtong was overjoyed. "This palace spirit’s attempt at suicide was incredibly strange. Did it really think we were all fools? Haha, good thing you found it, Little Zhuo!"
"But how did it escape right under our noses and hide in this mechanical dragon?"
Ning Zhuo said, "Spirituality has no fatal weakness. It likely used the palace’s punishment method to split itself into two parts. The main part stayed in the main hall to deceive us, pretending to seek death. When the main part died, the split-off portion became the only one left and slowly recovered its consciousness from its comatose state."
Ning Zhuo saw the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit within the mechanical dragon, but it was severely injured, completely motionless, and was slowly recovering.
After a few attempts, Ning and Sun successfully activated the mechanical dragon.
The Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon's size did not change, but its dragon eyes shot out two beams of light, sweeping over Ning and Sun, instantly pulling them into its body.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Sun Lingtong exclaimed with joy, dancing with excitement as he gradually learned how to control the Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon.
"With this, we can leave Huoshi Immortal City right away."
"Let Meng Kui temporarily hold the palace master position and repair the Immortal Palace for us, hahaha!"
Ning Zhuo smiled and nodded.
The reason he was able to find the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit was that when he first saw it in the main hall, he had planted the Divine Ability—Life Hanging by a Thread on it.
As a result, when the main body of the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit was destroyed in the flames, Ning Zhuo immediately felt the Life Hanging by a Thread transfer outside the hall and rapidly move away.
At that time, Zhu Zhen was still chasing after the Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon.
"The Immortal Palace is divided into three powers. Now I control the Buddha Heart Demon Seal and the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit."
The Zhu family’s support for Ning Jiufan was actually something Ning Zhuo had anticipated.
"The Zhu family wants to use my Ning family, but isn’t my Ning family also using them to help me reclaim the palace master position one day?"
Ning Zhuo chuckled and looked at Sun Lingtong. "But, boss, are you sure leaving with me won’t cause any issues later?"
Sun Lingtong burst into laughter. "Your boss is such a clever person. Back then, I made a deal with that silly woman Yang Chanyu. Once the Lava Immortal Palace matter was over, I would return to Bukong Gate with her. But is it over?"
Sun Lingtong spread out his hands. "It’s not over!"
"Good." Ning Zhuo nodded, feeling reassured. He instinctively looked up in the direction of Huoshi Immortal City.
To Ning Zhuo, this was where he was born and raised. This was his homeland!
"Farewell for now, my homeland." He whispered softly in his heart and then controlled the Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon.
The puppet fully activated, no longer concealing its Nascent Soul-level aura. The powerful energy rapidly spread, immediately attracting several gazes.
In the next moment.
A dragon’s roar echoed, and the Ten Thousand Mile Wandering Dragon swayed its body, leaving a shadow behind as it disappeared without a trace.
"That brat, tricking even his ancestor!" Ning Jiufan cursed but couldn't help but smile.
Ning Zhuo had told him it would take at least half a month before he left.
But just a few days later, he was gone.
In the next moment, Ning Jiufan's smile suddenly froze as he remembered something. "Wait! My Ice Heart Jade Flask is still with him, and he hasn't returned it!"
(End of Chapter)