Chapter 162

The status of a true disciple is very high, and for a sect, it is quite important; they are the future high-level personnel and one of the core forces of the sect.

Immediately, an elder pondered and said: "I remember this matter. Not long ago, Qi Bai took a mission to go and spy on the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng of the Nandou Kingdom. There are rumors that there is a mechanical immortal palace in the Fire Persimmon Mountain that may have already been born, which is the Lava Xian Gong of the Three Sects Master from back then."

The Soul-Devouring Sect Master's gaze sank slightly: "Three Sects Master..."

"This person is not ordinary; his Void Refinement cultivation can actually hard-resist the Body Integration level."

"He practiced demonic, righteous, and Buddhist techniques, and indeed had talent. However, his later years were ominous; it seems he went into qi deviation and committed suicide."

The Sect Master pondered for a while, looked at one of the sect elders, and said: "Elder Luo, how do you think this matter should be handled?"

Elder Luo pondered and said: "A true disciple of our sect has fallen, so we must investigate the real culprit and punish them severely! However, the Lava Xian Gong is located in the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng. If we dispatch elder-level personnel, I am afraid it will cause unnecessary misunderstandings."

"This old man thinks it is more appropriate to dispatch one or two capable Golden Core cultivators and then dispatch several ghost generals to protect them."

"And first investigate the real culprit, then come to discuss and make a choice."

The Sect Master smiled: "This is the words of an experienced statesman. Then Elder Luo, which true disciple do you think is more suitable?"

Elder Luo knew the Sect Master's intention in deliberately asking him, and immediately said: "Promote the worthy without avoiding relatives; this old man recommends my nephew Luo Shang."

"Good, then it will be Luo Shang." The Sect Master immediately gave the order to dispatch Luo Shang to the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng to investigate, and also dispatched a ghost general with Nascent Soul-level combat power to protect his path.

This is already the limit of operation under normal conditions.

For a major demonic sect like the Soul-Devouring Sect, elder personnel are at least at the Nascent Soul cultivation level. Dispatching elder-level personnel will inevitably make the Nandou Kingdom nervous and is very likely to trigger unnecessary fighting.

Once the misunderstanding becomes big and the Soul-Devouring Sect provokes a behemoth like the Nandou Kingdom, it will not be good.

In the cultivation world, great power is often concentrated in one person.

Nascent Soul-level existences can guard one side, such as Meng Kui guarding the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng. Similarly, Nascent Soul cultivators can also invade one side.

Existences reaching this level cannot be moved lightly.

Therefore, before, when the Soul-Devouring Sect wanted to investigate the soul storage in the Fire Persimmon Mountain, they only dispatched the Golden Core true disciple Qi Bai. It is not that the Soul-Devouring Sect does not have Nascent Soul levels, but under normal conditions, dispatching Qi Bai is the most appropriate.

Now that Qi Bai is suspected to have died in the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng, the Soul-Devouring Sect has reason to dispatch a strong person to investigate.

This strong person does not have to be at the Nascent Soul stage, but must at least have Nascent Soul-level means. Therefore, dispatching a ghost general with Nascent Soul-level combat power to protect him is within the rules.

As for why the Soul-Devouring Sect, a dignified major demonic sect, has to follow the rules?

The reason is very simple.

If you have permanent property, you have a permanent heart.

The Soul-Devouring Sect occupies a large amount of territory, controls countless cultivation resources, and has a large family and business, so naturally, it has many scruples.

After Luo Shang received the order, he immediately set off and rushed to the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng.

Not long after he left, an inner disciple of the Soul-Devouring Sect quietly sent out a message.

The message was transferred through layers and finally arrived at a town.

The leader in the town then passed the message to the nearest secret branch of the sect.

In the branch, several cultivators were discussing and analyzing various intelligence.

"A true disciple of the Soul-Devouring Sect died? This is a big deal!"

"The Soul-Devouring Sect side tentatively judged that he died in the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng of the Nandou Kingdom."

"Isn't there a rumor over there that an immortal palace has been born?"

"Lava Xian Gong? That is just one of the twelve palaces of the Three Sects Master, and it is indeed buried in the Fire Persimmon Mountain. This has been confirmed."

"Wait, in the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng, aren't there disciples of our Empty Gate?"

"There are, called Sun Lingtong, who manages the black market of the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng and is considered well-informed. But he did not confirm the truth of the birth of the immortal palace, just reported some movements."

"Sun Lingtong... seems to be the only disciple of Xu Wuyan?"

"Yes. Many years ago, Elder Xu was trapped in the Lava Xian Gong. Sun Lingtong stayed in the Xiancheng and has always believed that his master is not dead, just trapped inside the Xiancheng. The sect, considering he has talent, once wanted to recruit him back, but he was refused."

"Hehe, really stupid."

"I, on the other hand, think that this child's character is rare! And even if he returns to the sect, it may not be a good choice. Don't forget, that Elder Qing is Elder Xu's deadly rival, and now he has monstrous power in the sect."

"Stop, we've chatted too much, let's report this matter first."

"Whether it is the Soul-Devouring Sect or the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng, we should dispatch sect disciples to go and investigate further."

A few days passed like this.

This secret branch of the Empty Gate collected a lot of intelligence again.

The cultivators of the Empty Gate discussed again.

"Strange, the news about the birth of the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng has suddenly skyrocketed in quantity recently."

"The source has been verified; it is the Meng family of the Nandou Kingdom."

"The Meng family?"

"Isn't Meng Kui, one of the four generals of the Meng family, the City Lord of the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng? Why does he want to vigorously promote this matter?"

"It is indeed very strange."

"Has the top not decided to dispatch sect elites to go to the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng to investigate? I feel there will be an opportunity."

Just as they were talking about this, a voice suddenly came: "I have already arrived."

In the secret room, a group of cultivators were terrified and scattered in a panic, all frantically urging their magic power, and a great battle was on the verge of breaking out.

A female cultivator slowly revealed her figure, and she showed the identity token in her hand. Only then did the cultivators lift their guard and salute one after another.

The female cultivator acted vigorously and resolutely. After appearing, she asked for all the intelligence about the Fire Persimmon Xiancheng and then immediately set off for the Fire Persimmon Mountain.

"It's the true disciple Yang Chanyu."

"The sect actually dispatched her!"

"Yang Chanyu is Elder Qing's beloved disciple; this purpose must not be simple. That Sun Lingtong is going to be in trouble."

Fire Persimmon Xiancheng.

Unlike Ning Zhuo looked at the recent intelligence, his brows furrowed slightly: "The rumors in the city recently seem a bit wrong!"

Without the black market channel, his intelligence collection mainly relied on street rumors, and the quality of intelligence dropped by more than one layer.

Even so, Unlike Ning Zhuo still felt the atmosphere was subtle: "There seem to be quite a few more strange faces in the city recently. The business of the inns has improved. Fighting and accidents occur frequently in some places. If you look back carefully, you can see that the vicinity of these places are all quite important areas in the Xiancheng, or key buildings."

For the past few days, he had been staying in the Ning family compound, almost never stepping out. He was either hard-cultivating techniques or hammering away in the temporarily assembled mechanical workshop.

The Tree Martial Battle Ape had been destroyed, and the remaining skeleton had become extremely fragile after the war because it carried the Righteous Bone Gold Firmness.

Unlike Ning Zhuo had to start from scratch to build a mechanical ape.

This time it was not as convenient as the last time; Unlike Ning Zhuo lacked many materials.

Last time he was at the Zheng family, thanks to Zheng Jian's funding, he used many precious materials to build the Tree Martial Battle Ape.

This time, Unlike Ning Zhuo did not have such good luck.

During his hard cultivation, a messenger brought an order to assemble.

Unlike Ning Zhuo acted according to the order and met with Zheng Jian and others in secret.

"Brother Unlike Ning Zhuo, we finally meet." Zheng Jian laughed heartily and took the initiative to greet him.

Unlike Ning Zhuo not only saw Zheng Jian but also Zhou Zhu and Zhou Zeshen.

"Congratulations on your recovery!" Unlike Ning Zhuo had a smile on his face, and the smile was quite sincere.

Zhou Zhu did not speak, while Zhou Zeshen said: "I heard that you and Ning Xiaohui explored the Xian Gong and ran into Meng Chong?"

Ning Xiaohui couldn't help but snort coldly.

"Ashamed." Unlike Ning Zhuo sighed faintly, a look of fear appearing on his face, "The gap between us and Meng Chong is too big; we simply had no power to fight back."

"To be honest, for the past few days, I have felt heavy-hearted and unable to be happy."

"With Meng Chong in front, how could we be his opponents?"

Zhou Zeshen nodded, his face becoming a bit more gloomy.

Zheng Jian patted Unlike Ning Zhuo on the shoulder and encouraged him: "If we work together, we might not be unable to win. It's too early to talk about failure now, Brother Unlike Ning Zhuo."

Unlike Ning Zhuo barely squeezed out a smile, looking like someone who had been deeply struck and was in low spirits: "To contend with Meng Chong, I can't do it; I can only rely on you all!"

Ning Xiaohui snorted coldly: "Unlike Ning Zhuo, with such a character, how are you worthy of the surname Ning?"

"If you are humiliated by failure, you should hold your head high, be actively enterprising, and wash away the shame with battle."

"Follow behind me and watch carefully!"

Thus, in the subsequent actions, Ning Xiaohui was the first to be soul-extracted by the Nether Envoy, Qi Bai. Amidst the screams, her soul was on the verge of collapse, triggering the Xian Gong mechanism, and her soul was sent back to her physical body.

Zhou Zeshen then said: "This action is very critical; we must try our best to clear as many checkpoints as possible and catch up with Meng Chong."

Unlike Ning Zhuo satisfied him.

In the subsequent actions, Unlike Ning Zhuo communicated with Sun Lingtong and took the initiative to let the joint team of the three families go, allowing them to reach the preparation room.

The cultivators of the three families were very shocked when they saw the leaderboard.

"Meng Chong is indeed number one!"

"There are actually so many people from the City Lord's Mansion's modification team on the leaderboard."

"Unreasonable! Meng Chong must have made great progress while we were recuperating!"

"It's just as we guessed before; the City Lord's Mansion is too far ahead."

Zhou Zeshen was the second to be soul-extracted.

The attack order discussed by Unlike Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong was reasonable.

The reason for prioritizing the attack on Ning Xiaohui was that her talent could not only curb various mechanisms but also freeze and treat injuries.

The second was Zhou Zeshen. This person had outstanding intelligence and was good at commanding on the spot; leaving him on the battlefield for a long time was irresponsible to his own side.

"Meng Chong is so powerful; I really want to fight him personally. Even if I lose, it doesn't matter; I can just see the gap between the enemy and us, and then work twice as hard later." Zheng Jian said expectantly.

Unlike Ning Zhuo gave him double the satisfaction for his expectation—letting Yuan Dasheng focus on greeting him.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!" Seeing Yuan Dasheng pounce toward him, Zheng Jian's talent was triggered, warning him frantically.

Zheng Jian became the third person to be soul-devoured.

Zhou Zhu was taciturn and was left for last. Unlike Ning Zhuo saw that his brain didn't seem very bright, so he chose him as a witness to personally witness Unlike Ning Zhuo's "death in battle."