Chapter 186

Ning Xiangqian's "Human Life Hanging by a Thread" was normal, but Ning Xiangguo's was the smallest and most transparent.

According to Ning Zhuo's understanding of this divine ability, he speculated that Ning Xiangguo was either hiding many secrets or had his heart elsewhere and was not truly relying on Ning Zhuo.

Considering the City Lord's Mansion's infiltration of the three major families and its consistently obvious intelligence advantage, Ning Zhuo made a preliminary judgment: Ning Xiangguo was very likely an eye planted by the City Lord's Mansion!

Divine Ability—Human Life Hanging by a Thread.

In the process of using it, Ning Zhuo felt its wonderful uses more and more.

When Ning Zhuo activated it, he could use the "Human Life Hanging by a Thread" to forcibly control other people's movements. As for what the specific movements were, the magnitude, etc., they were judged specifically based on the strength of both sides.

What Ning Zhuo tried out was that he could extract Yuan Dasheng's spirituality and Sun Lingtong's soul. But this was on the basis that the latter two were willing and very cooperative. For others, under the premise of resistance or ignorance, Ning Zhuo could not do these things.

At least that was the case for now.

"After the 'Human Life Hanging by a Thread' is set up, it has existed until now, and I don't need to replenish it."

"Even if the 'Human Life Hanging by a Thread' is not activated, I can infer the size of the secrets hidden by the target and their true state of mind through the state of the hanging thread."

This means that Ning Zhuo can, to a certain extent, detect the "loyalty" of his subordinates.

This point is already quite powerful!

Not to mention, there are other wonderful uses of power.

"Plus, after planting the 'Human Life Hanging by a Thread,' the destiny can be gathered together and added up completely."

"No matter how you look at it, this divine ability is a supreme weapon for managing forces!"

"I wonder what the divine ability will be like when the lotus blooms and reaches the final qualitative change."

Ning Zhuo became more and more curious about the answer to this question.

As for Ning Xiangguo, Ning Zhuo just pretended not to know and still entrusted him with important tasks.

It must be said that among all the Foundation Establishment cultivators, Ning Xiangguo had the highest vision and handled matters thoroughly. Entrusting tasks to him made people feel at ease.

By comparison, although Ning Xiangqian had the number one combat power and was once a steward of the family's Battle Hall, he was not as reliable as Ning Xiangguo.

After Ning Zhuo handled the black market affairs, he entered the room again for bitter cultivation.

He reduced his outside activities to a minimum.

The spell exchange that used to be once every three days was also changed to once every five days.

The content of the exchange also changed.

Previously, it was just sparring and exchanging insights and experiences on spellcasting. Now, there was an extra segment of commenting on mechanical creations.

These fellow students of Ning Zhuo would take out the mechanical Fire-Exploding Monkeys, etc., that they made in Chen Cha's workshop and hand them to Ning Zhuo.

After checking, Ning Zhuo commented on the Fire-Exploding Monkeys one by one.

Every time he pointed out the shortcomings, he could make it simple and easy to understand, making the makers suddenly enlightened. Ning Zhuo would also tell them how to make mechanical creations better and faster.

This behavior benefited his fellow students in the modification team greatly.

And because of this, it completely consolidated Ning Zhuo's authority in everyone's hearts.

When he encountered mechanical creations that met the standards, Ning Zhuo would take out spirit stones in public and buy them on the spot at the market price.

Seeing that their mechanical creations were fortunate enough to be acquired by Ning Zhuo, the parties involved all held their heads high.

If there were any innovative little gadgets, Ning Zhuo would take out elixirs or spiritual food to exchange for them. This was a higher level of recognition, and the young cultivators who received such treatment were all overjoyed.

Zhou Zeshen sat in a corner, watching this bustling scene, his eyes flashing with sharp light.

"Stars arching over the moon; Ning Zhuo has completely mastered this team."

"And in the Ning family's modification team, the main branch of the Ning family is small in number, and the branch families are the mainstream. This is to say that Ning Zhuo has basically become the actual controller of the Ning family's modification team."

Ever since Zhou Zeshen was summoned by the Zhou family patriarch and ordered to get along well with Ning Zhuo, he had been actively inviting Ning Zhuo, attempting to increase the frequency of their meetings and promote cooperation between the two sides.

As a result, Ning Zhuo had been bitterly cultivating these days and declined all of Zhou Zeshen's invitations.

Zhou Zeshen was quite persistent, and Ning Zhuo saw that always refusing was not a solution. He told Zhou Zeshen that he would organize a modification team exchange meeting every five days. At that time, if Zhou Zeshen was interested, he might as well come over for a chat. Otherwise, he would have to wait for the opportunity seven days later when Ning Zhuo went out to donate to the orphanage.

Zhou Zeshen participated decisively and found a corner in the courtyard to sit down.

He watched coldly and soon discovered that among the Ning family members, there was one person who was out of tune with the enthusiastic atmosphere.

"It's Ning Ji, Ning Zhuo's cousin."

For a small character like Ning Ji, Zhou Zeshen would not have paid special attention to him originally.

But Zhou Zeshen remembered all the information about Ning Zhuo, and therefore knew about Ning Ji.

"This guy once took the initiative to speak up when Ning Zhuo was heavily rewarded by the main branch, wanting to get a share of the pie and borrow Ning Zhuo's magic treasure for cultivation."

"As a result, he was severely rejected by Ning Zhuo."

Zhou Zeshen looked at Ning Zhuo again and sighed in admiration in his heart.

So far, what Ning Zhuo handled could be called perfect!

Once Ning Zhuo had relaxed his stance at that time, he would undoubtedly have fallen into a pit.

Such unconditional help would only encourage other people's greed, leading to being entangled by small ghosts.

Would a person like Ning Ji ever be satisfied?

Similarly, it would also stimulate more similar people to swarm up and cling to Ning Zhuo.

Over time, no matter how big the family business was, it would suffer heavy losses.

On the surface, it wins people's hearts and is like a cluster of flowers, but in fact, it is all an illusion!

Once Ning Zhuo stops helping, the others who benefited will have their expectations dashed, leading to resentment and even hatred.

Therefore, Ning Zhuo refused in words from the beginning, appearing very clean and neat.

Next, his actions were the key!

Ning Zhuo directed many fellow students to participate in the manufacture of mechanical Fire-Exploding Monkeys.

And for the mechanical monkeys produced, Ning Zhuo would inspect and evaluate them. Then he would buy most of them with spirit stones, and there would be other rewards for individual excellent ones.

With such measures, although Ning Zhuo still paid resources, it was not an unrequited payment, not a free gift to those who just reached out and wanted to get something for nothing.

This formed a positive cycle, and more importantly, it determined the background color of the team—

Justice and fairness!

Every comment Ning Zhuo made was public and clear, which brought about rewards and punishments that were clear and transparent. He prevented private corruption, formed a positive atmosphere, and won over more people's hearts.

Zhou Zeshen looked at Ning Zhuo, who was talking eloquently and smiling in front of him; he found it hard to imagine that Ning Zhuo was once a marginalized figure from a branch family!

"Shouldn't such a figure be cultivated by the family from childhood, with family elders teaching him personally?"

"These are the cognition and means that only a cultivator who has been cultivated in the direction of an heir since childhood would have."

Who would have thought that Ning Zhuo would have such a foundation?

Zhou Zeshen thought to himself: "Ning Zhuo is very good at hiding his sharpness. He hides it too well!"

"It is precisely because they did not expect him to be such a figure that the Ning family's main branch suffered a big loss this time."

It is understandable.

A normal sixteen-year-old cultivator spends most of his life in the school; what does he know?

Especially Ning Zhuo, whose parents died when he was young, was adopted by his eldest uncle, and had been subjected to harsh treatment and thinness since he was a child.

"How could he have such understanding, such vision, and such means?"

Zhou Zeshen could not figure it out.

He believed that the main reason for the Ning family's main branch's disastrous defeat this time was that they were too contemptuous of the enemy, thinking that they could easily solve Ning Zhuo by using such schemes.

As a result, it was easily resolved by Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo avoided the pit, organized his fellow students, and used the scheme against them, intervening in the black market, making the Ning family's main branch fail to steal the chicken and lose the rice!

The current Ning Zhuo has become the master of the black market.

Sixteen years old, a master of the black market at the third level of Qi Refining!

He also commands nearly twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators under his hand, and these Foundation Establishment cultivators are not ordinary, but can be counted as elite members among Foundation Establishment.

This series of actions by Ning Zhuo made Zhou Zeshen sigh in admiration in his heart, shouting that it was wonderful.

Zhou Zeshen is good at strategy and likes such intellectual confrontations very much.

In his view, the game of the righteous path is far more interesting, deeper, more connotative, and more worth savoring than a real fight with real swords and guns!

"Among the Qi Refining geniuses of the four major forces in Fire Persimmon Immortal City, only Ning Zhuo and I are the same kind of people!" Zhou Zeshen's favor for Ning Zhuo increased significantly.

He admired Ning Zhuo and was also quite envious.

"What is the difference between Ning Zhuo's current power and that of a family elder?"

"Although I have natural talent, I am restricted everywhere in the family. Even if I am the son of a family elder, it is the same, and I am quite unfree."

"How can I be as glorious as Ning Zhuo."

"The more critical thing is the profit!"

"What Ning Zhuo is getting now is the profit from the black market."

"Oh, right. These members of the modification team also look to Ning Zhuo as their leader. These are his manpower, used for his purposes!"

After Ning Zhuo finished commenting on all the mechanical creations, he began to exchange spell insights.

Zhou Zeshen listened quietly, and his surprise grew—it turned out that Ning Zhuo's talent was not only in mechanics, but he also had terrifying comprehension in traditional spells.

The five-sided leaderboard was all people from the City Lord's Mansion.

The Zhou family and the Zheng family knew nothing about the rewards of the leaderboard until now.

Zhou Zeshen became more and more fascinated as he listened, and his face gradually showed a look of obsession, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, unable to help himself because of the huge gains from this listening.

When it came to the question-and-answer session, Zhou Zeshen also participated and asked a few questions.

Ning Zhuo answered in detail after careful consideration.

Zhou Zeshen felt deeply and gained a lot, thanking him sincerely.

This made other Ning family cultivators feel quite honored, thinking that Ning Zhuo had "conquered" the Zhou family genius with his personal talent.

Zhou Zeshen did not just take; he was very clear that he was here to perform and to build a relationship with Ning Zhuo.

In the exchange, he also expounded his own spellcasting insights and took the initiative to invite Ning Zhuo to a public mechanical duel facing everyone in the courtyard.

Ning Chen, Ning Yong, and others all had bright eyes and were full of expectations.

Ning Zhuo only thought for a moment and then agreed decisively: "Then please don't hesitate to teach me, Brother Zhou."

He had always wanted to compete with Zhou Zeshen and Zhou Zhu to appreciate the mechanical means of the Mud-Flow Gate.

Now that Zhou Zeshen had taken the initiative to propose it, it was exactly what Ning Zhuo wanted.

How could Ning Zhuo not agree?