Chapter 124: Safe and Sound

"Brother Ning!" Upon arriving at the Zheng family's main gate, Zheng Jian personally came out to welcome Ning Zhuo.

This was Ning Zhuo's first formal visit to the Zheng family.

The Zheng family's protocol was very grand, with the main gate standing wide open. Just this alone was no small feat, as Ning Zhuo was, after all, merely a Qi Refining cultivator.

Not only that, but the Zheng family had also ordered Zheng Jian to come forward and receive him.

"Brother Zheng, to trouble you to come and receive me personally." Ning Zhuo stepped down from the carriage, and upon seeing Zheng Jian, his expression showed surprise, followed immediately by a deep sense of gratitude, as if moved by such great respect.

Zheng Jian's injuries had not yet healed, and he was almost entirely wrapped in bandages.

He laughed heartily: "Don't look at me like this; in truth, my injuries have already stabilized. How could a son of the Zheng family neglect a friend because of mere minor wounds?"

"Come, I will take you to the artifact refining room."

After the cooperation between the three families deepened, they opened up some of their respective family facilities. For instance, the Ning family's talisman-making room, the Zhou family's several magic arrays, and the Zheng family's artifact refining room.

The most popular one, of course, was the Zhou family's Gathering and Scattering Wishful Spirit Tide Array. Everyone who used it praised it; it was currently overcrowded, and a queue had been established for every cultivator applying to use it.

Next was the Zheng family's artifact refining room.

Many of the Zheng and Zhou families' facilities were even better than those of the City Lord's Mansion.

Back when Fire Persimmon Xiancheng was being built, the Nandou Kingdom provided the majority of the funding, while the Zhou and Zheng families also made enormous contributions.

Therefore, once the city was completed, the two families were allocated two of the best plots of land, were placed in charge of the two main pillars of the grand array, and obtained the most superior conditions in certain aspects.

The Zhou family possessed the most spacious room for array deployment, allowing for more freedom of play. The Zheng family, meanwhile, had the most abundant high-quality earth flames, facilitating their artifact refining.

Viewed from the big picture, this was a game of chess between local forces and the imperial court's central authority.

……

On the street, the flow of people was endless.

Yuan Yuan Dasheng walked with difficulty, head bowed.

Even as it bumped into pedestrians along the way, it remained unmoved.

Some people were knocked to the ground by it, but unwilling to stir up trouble, they would at most mutter a few words before leaving in frustration.

After all, after Yuan Yuan Dasheng donned the Cang Tie Han Jia, it was tall and sturdy, and radiated the aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Furthermore, looking at its expressionless face, which exuded a strong aura of despair, it was clearly not someone to be trifled with!

……

Under Zheng Jian's guidance, Ning Zhuo arrived at an artifact refining room.

Ning Zhuo looked around and praised it repeatedly.

The facilities in the refining room were excellent and complete, with many tools that Ning Zhuo was seeing with his own eyes for the first time, having only read about them in books before.

As the hundred arts of cultivation developed to this day, every trade had become quite professional; how could one trade not be as different as mountains from another? Unlike in ancient times, when the threshold for the hundred arts was low, and a single cultivator could use one furnace to both refine elixirs and artifacts, modern furnaces were subdivided by purpose, specialized for elixir refining, artifact refining, and so on.

Zheng Jian handed over a jade slip: "Our Zheng family has stocked many materials. To say we have everything would be an exaggeration, but we are certainly far beyond what is available on the market."

"As long as it is in this jade slip, Brother Ning, feel free to take what you need."

"According to our three-party contract, the materials consumed will be calculated at market price and finally tallied into the consumption share of each party."

Speaking of this, Zheng Jian took out another jade slip: "The materials here are my private quota from the family. Brother Ning may also take from these."

This was a clear gesture of goodwill.

Ning Zhuo smiled and generously accepted it: "Many thanks, Brother Zheng."

"If Brother Zheng is not busy, why not stay? I am taking advantage of your family's refining room to refine some mechanical parts," Ning Zhuo said.

"These are the mechanical blueprints I designed; I ask Brother Zheng to offer your corrections." Ning Zhuo took the initiative to hand over a jade slip.

Zheng Jian was pleasantly surprised; knowing that Ning Zhuo had accepted his family's goodwill, he immediately returned the favor.

"Brother Ning, you were able to design the Mechanical Fire-Exploding Monkey; it would be better for me not to show off my meager mechanical attainments. Brother Ning, your magnanimity allows me to properly appreciate your new work." Zheng Jian immediately took the jade slip.

He himself didn't have much interest in mechanical arts, but since it concerned the struggle for the Lava Xian Gong, and Ning Zhuo had previously displayed astonishing mechanical talent, Zheng Jian felt he had to look at these new mechanical blueprints.

He unfolded them and saw it was a mechanical monkey.

Looking closer, he realized this mechanical monkey was no longer for picking fire persimmons, but was clearly designed for combat.

The more Zheng Jian looked, the more his eyes shone; for a time, he was immersed in the blueprints, unable to utter a word.

Ning Zhuo ignored him, walking straight to the corner, picking up tools, and beginning to stoke the fire and blow the bellows, igniting the furnace.

……

Yuan Yuan Dasheng had just passed through the west gate of Fire Persimmon Xiancheng and was walking toward the wilderness.

The pedestrians around it rapidly decreased.

It stepped, one by one, into the wild outskirts and forests west of Fire Persimmon Mountain; its back, though sturdy, gave people a strong sense of loneliness and desolation.

Finally, it stopped in a desolate wilderness, sitting on an inconspicuous hill, staring blankly at everything around it, watching the sky, watching the clouds.

……

Ning Zhuo exhaled a breath of turbid air, carefully turning his wrist, and poured the molten liquid silver into the mold.

Zheng Jian immediately took action, using a spell to guide the liquid silver to spread out rapidly, filling every corner of the mold.

Ning Zhuo pressed his palm against the wall and activated the magic array.

Instantly, a cold current surged down from the roof, causing the high-heat mold to cool down in an instant, freezing into a block of ice.

Zheng Jian waved his hand, dispelling the chill, and then took out a strangely shaped mechanical part.

This was the final piece.

With the help of the Zheng family's refining room and the assistance of Zheng Jian, a genius cultivator proficient in artifact refining, Ning Zhuo completed the forging of all the mechanical parts. The time taken was far shorter than Ning Zhuo had planned.

Next was to assemble and combine them.

There were no surprises; after smooth assembly, an eight-foot-tall monkey skeleton appeared before the two.

Zheng Jian clicked his tongue in wonder: "Just looking at this skeleton, there are over a hundred moving joints. The finished mechanical monkey will surely be very agile, but this also tests the cultivator's control ability. I fear many would be unable to unleash the full power of this machine."

Ning Zhuo said: "I designed this for myself. I intentionally made it this way so that I could have plenty of room to improve my skills in controlling mechanical creations."

"Alright, next we need to deploy the array."

"Then, install the array disk and so on."

"Filling in the body and such will come later."

Zheng Jian nodded, his face showing joy: "Follow your plan, Brother Ning; I will specifically act as your assistant."

Despite his injuries, he wanted to participate throughout the whole process. On one hand, he could most intuitively observe Ning Zhuo's mechanical attainments; on the other hand, this also brought him quite good training, improving his own mechanical skills.

After two days and one night, the great task was completed.

"Why not stay at my home to rest for the night? It won't be too late to leave tomorrow morning," Zheng Jian urged him to stay.

He had participated throughout and gained a lot, experiencing the brilliance and fun of mechanical arts, and said directly: "Brother Ning, I wish I could talk with you by candlelight all night!"

Ning Zhuo gave a bitter smile and pointed to the bandages all over Zheng Jian's body.

The previously snow-white bandages were already stained with blood in many places and covered in a large amount of black ash.

"Brother Zheng, you should properly nurse your wounds."

"For your assistance throughout this time, I am deeply grateful. If I stay any longer, your family will have opinions."

"There will surely be opportunities in the future for us to chat to our hearts' content!"

Zheng Jian laughed: "Very well, very well."

"By the way, I almost forgot to tell you."

"In a few days, our three families will conduct a joint operation, and we need you to lead it."

"Those of us who are injured won't be able to go."

Although the geniuses of the three families could still project their souls into the Xian Gong, their physical bodies, during the recovery period, required their souls to be stationed in their bodies at all times.

Otherwise, the newly born bodies could easily grow crooked and fail to achieve a perfect match with the soul. This would cause many obstacles for future cultivation and lower cultivation efficiency. Over time, such losses would accumulate to an unacceptable degree.

Night fell, and Ning Zhuo left the Zheng family by carriage.

There was no curfew in Fire Persimmon Xiancheng, and Yuan Yuan Dasheng had also entered the city.

Before Ning Zhuo arrived at the family residence, it had already secretly sneaked into Ning Ze's residence, quietly waiting for Ning Zhuo's return.

Just as Ning Zhuo had guessed before, emotions would dissipate.

The more intense the emotion, the less it could last.

After Yuan Yuan Dasheng sat withered in the wilderness for two days and one night, its emotions receded like the tide, and the exposed spirituality once again obeyed commands, acting according to orders.

However, the sorrowful grief still existed, as if covering its spirituality with a thick gray cloth.

Ning Zhuo controlled Yuan Yuan Dasheng, but it was no longer as obedient as before.

"According to the records in 'The Theory of Spirituality', after the Long Spirit Stage, comes the Spirit Agility Stage."

"Ten parts of spirituality, already reaching self-sufficiency; Yuan Yuan Dasheng is no longer in the Long Spirit Stage, but the Spirit Agility Stage."

"Is so-called spirit agility just this kind of uncontrollable activity?"

"Once emotions rise again, I will once again be unable to control it!"

Ning Zhuo did not want to experience such a terrible ordeal again.

"There must be a way; there must be a way in the Lava Xian Gong to solve this problem," Ning Zhuo said.

This problem had to be solved as soon as possible.

"I cannot project my soul into the Xian Gong for no reason on weekdays; too many people are watching me."

"The best opportunity is the three-family joint operation in a few days!" ===== CHAPTER 125 =====