Chapter 188: Ning Zhuo vs. Zhou Zeshen (Part 2)

"This kind of sparring is a bit boring." Ning Zhuo let the Thunder-Silent Birds overhead suffer heavy losses, feeling quite bored deep in his heart.

"Zhou Zeshen took the initiative to propose a spar, wanting to get closer to me."

"In the first wave of confrontation, he took the initiative to lose, deliberately holding back, letting me have the advantage, giving me face."

"In the second wave of confrontation, I must also return the favor and let him show his style."

"Oh?"

At this moment, Ning Zhuo's eyes lit up, seeing Zhou Zeshen take out the White Tiger mechanical beast.

"So, Brother Zhou, you also feel bored, so you're adding some fun..."

"Very good."

"At this time, it is just right for it to make an appearance."

Ning Zhuo touched his storage belt.

A flash of fire, and a python appeared in front of him.

The python was about five zhang long, about one foot and five inches in circumference, entirely red, wooden, with red crystal eyes, coiled like a giant tree, majestic.

Zhou Zeshen raised his eyebrows, joy in his heart: "Very good, this is more like it."

"Use your full strength, Ning Zhuo!"

Zhou Zeshen's fighting spirit continued to rise.

Ning Zhuo transmitted his voice at this time, his tone gentle: "Brother Zhou, look, this Fire Bamboo Snake is a mechanism I recently created, used as an elite."

Zhou Zeshen's pupils shrank slightly: "A mechanism newly created by Brother Ning? Interesting, it successfully aroused my interest."

"But please be careful, Brother Ning."

"My White Tiger Charging Vehicle is a classic mechanism of the Mud Flow Gate, tested through many battles, and equipped with three types of heads."

"If Brother Ning loses, don't blame me for not warning you beforehand."

Ning Zhuo laughed, said no more, and used mana threads to control the Fire Bamboo Snake, rushing forward.

The White Tiger Charging Vehicle commanded by Zhou Zeshen also moved its limbs, running wildly in the mountain forest for a while.

Then, it leaped suddenly, its posture stretching gracefully in mid-air, directly crossing more than ten zhang and jumping onto the opposite mountain.

Bang!

The mechanical tiger and snake collided solidly at the mountainside, snake head and tiger head clashing head-on, making a loud explosion.

The snake head tilted high, while the tiger head deformed, directly retracting into its neck.

The wheel inside the tiger body slid, and when it extended again, it had changed from a beast head to a ramming head.

Although the ramming head was carved with tiger head patterns, it was integrated, solid in material, and extremely hard.

The White Tiger charged over, stirring up a gust of wind.

Under Ning Zhuo's control, the Fire Bamboo Snake dodged flexibly.

Suddenly, white light shot from the White Tiger, shining on the Fire Bamboo Snake, actually making the snake skin transparent, revealing the internal mechanism structure of the latter.

It could be seen that every length of the Fire Bamboo Snake's skeleton was connected by a huge round ball.

One side of the round ball was pitch black, and the other side was pure white. The pitch-black side had the word 'Death', and the white side had the word 'Life'.

Along with every movement of the Fire Bamboo Snake, many round balls rotated and stopped from time to time, some stopping on the pitch-black 'Death' side, others on the white 'Life' side.

When the round ball turned to the white 'Life' side, the joints would move freely. When the round ball turned to the black 'Death' side, the joint parts would be locked accordingly.

The even more wonderful part was that the round balls and snake bones were all arranged with magic arrays, forming a tight whole.

"Interesting mechanism accessory..." Zhou Zeshen saw this scene at close range through the White Tiger Charging Vehicle, and immediately understood part of the reason why the Fire Bamboo Snake was so agile.

This round ball mechanism accessory was the 'Half-Dead Half-Alive Bead'.

Back then, Chen Cha felt guilty and, to compensate Ning Zhuo, gave the latter all his old assets.

The Half-Dead Half-Alive Bead was Chen Cha's original creation.

In addition, there was a collection of array formations called "Curved Snake Springing Array Collection," which was Chen Cha's early opportunity.

Relying on these two items, plus his own mechanism attainments and a little accidental inspiration, Ning Zhuo finally created the Fire Bamboo Snake.

Snake and tiger clashed, making loud noises, trees broke one after another, and smoke and dust rolled in the battle group, making it difficult for both sides to distinguish victory or defeat for a while.

Zhou Zeshen's ten fingers twitched, constantly stretching and flicking. His main energy was focused on controlling the White Tiger Charging Vehicle.

The remaining energy was used on the Burrowing Rats.

The first wave of confrontation was unfavorable, and the retreating Burrowing Rats did not return to Zhou Zeshen's side, but burrowed into the ground, sneaking all the way, touching toward where Ning Zhuo was.

Although there were more Night Sky Bats in the sky and they had flight capabilities, they could charge at Ning Zhuo faster.

But Zhou Zeshen also wanted face.

He thought: Since Ning Zhuo deliberately held back in the air battle, it would be embarrassing for him to seize this advantage deliberately given by others to make a fuss.

Therefore, he chose the Burrowing Rats.

When the Burrowing Rats were ten zhang away from Ning Zhuo, they were discovered by the latter.

Ning Zhuo had always maintained the spell for detection.

After discovering the Burrowing Rats, Ning Zhuo did not change his position, but took out new Fire-Exploding Monkey mechanisms to guard his body.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Zeshen's pupils shrank.

Ning Zhuo's control ability was clearly a cut above his.

At this time, Ning Zhuo had to control the Fire Bamboo Snake while controlling the five Fire-Exploding Monkey mechanisms from the first wave, rushing toward Zhou Zeshen.

At the same time, he added five more Fire-Exploding Monkey mechanisms.

The second wave of Fire-Exploding Monkeys, under Ning Zhuo's command, were equally agile and clever, just like real monkeys.

If this were Zhou Zeshen, he certainly wouldn't be able to reach this level.

His current limit of control quantity was close to thirty.

But there were two prerequisites for this quantity. One was counting only Night Sky Bats or Burrowing Rats, which were simple to control. The second was Zhou Zeshen taking pills like 'Distraction Powder'.

The White Tiger Charging Vehicle that Zhou Zeshen was currently controlling required more control to exert its true power.

Just this one mechanism occupied the vast majority of Zhou Zeshen's attention. He also controlled three Burrowing Rats, and the few remaining efforts had to be reserved for his own spellcasting at critical moments.

It could be said that Zhou Zeshen had pushed his control power in a normal state to the maximum.

Yet his opponent, Ning Zhuo, took out five more Fire-Exploding Monkey mechanisms without changing his expression. Controlling them was not strenuous at all.

If Zhou Zeshen wanted to improve his control power, he would have to take medicine.

"Sure enough, Ning Zhuo's talent is in his brain."

"This allows him to have control ability far exceeding others in a normal state."

"How much of his strength is this current level? Eighty percent? Or ninety percent?"

Zhou Zeshen speculated secretly, analyzing continuously.

Ning Zhuo used five mechanical monkeys to protect himself, leaving the Burrowing Rats with no opportunity. He also used the powerful mechanism Fire Bamboo Snake to block the opponent's White Tiger Charging Vehicle.

Finally, seeing the five Fire-Exploding Monkeys surrounding him, Zhou Zeshen exhaled a turbid breath, laughed loudly, and admitted defeat.

The spar ended, and the watching Ning family members discussed heatedly, talking about the mechanism creations and control methods displayed.

The most discussed was Ning Zhuo's newly unveiled Fire Bamboo Snake.

Zhou Zeshen, in front of everyone, handed the Rivet Power Crossbow and the mechanism blueprints to Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo gained a lot of favor for Zhou Zeshen.

He thought: "Zhou Zeshen proposed the spar, deliberately held back, and took the initiative to lose, all to boost my prestige and give me fame."

"This is the real gift he brought."

"He knows I have just risen and need fame. So, he didn't hesitate to damage his own face to facilitate this matter."

"This capacity is far beyond the ordinary."

Zhou Zeshen looked at Ning Zhuo, observing his words and expressions, and felt that Ning Zhuo's attitude had become much more intimate.

He thought: "A battle full of passion is often no less than pouring out one's heart."

"Although this full-strength spar did not reach the level of pouring out hearts, it was enough to show the sincere temperament of both sides."

"The only regret is that I didn't test the upper limit of Ning Zhuo's conventional combat power."

"Unless I take pills like 'Distraction Powder'..."

But this was obviously impossible.

Once medicine is taken, it means the friendly nature of the spar is gone; it becomes a desperate fight with a strong and urgent desire for victory.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zeshen was still somewhat unwilling.

He couldn't help but use words to probe, secretly transmitting his voice, deliberately provoking: "Brother Ning, this time I just played around and lost to you. But in the next spar, I will be a little serious and use at least fifty percent of my strength."

Ning Zhuo's heart stirred: "Sure enough, Zhou Zeshen didn't even use half of his strength."

He smiled slightly and said honestly: "Brother Zhou has the interest, and I will try my best to accompany you. Next time, I will use a bit more strength, forty percent of my power as a minimum."

Zhou Zeshen patted Ning Zhuo's shoulder and laughed loudly, "You."

At the same time, he secretly slandered: "Really can brag!"

"Knowing I am probing, so you use this method to put me off?"

"Hehe."

"Sure enough, I shouldn't have had extravagant hopes—that I could probe your bottom line with a simple sentence."

Zhou Zeshen felt that Ning Zhuo was the same type of person as him, and Ning Zhuo also felt that Zhou Zeshen had a certain tacit understanding with himself.

The two looked at each other and smiled, both feeling that the other was a smart person, and many things between them were understood without being spoken.

Returning to the small courtyard, the group exchanged for a while longer.

Zhou Zeshen took the opportunity to propose to Ning Zhuo: Please Ning Zhuo to take action and help the Zhou family's renovation team to impact the rankings in the Lava Immortal Palace, striving to squeeze some cultivators from the City Lord's Mansion out of the top ten.

"Of course, if we can push all the way and exceed the entry standard, that would be the best!"

Ning Zhuo shook his head: "Brother Zhou's ambition is admirable."

"Exceed the entry standard?" Ning Zhuo sighed, "This is not something I can do. Please forgive me for not being able to agree; I am truly unable to help myself and find it difficult to pull away."

Zhou Zeshen did not give up: "Brother Ning, why don't you listen to the conditions our Zhou family has offered for help?"

Zhou Zeshen reported a long list of resources, making Ning Chen, Ning Yong, and others stare in astonishment.

After reacting, everyone's breathing became heavier, all attracted by this huge and generous reward.

Ning Zhuo, however, shook his head, smiling, his attitude polite, gentle, and firm, never agreeing.

Conversely, Ning Zhuo proposed a new cooperation: "The Lava Immortal Palace is a mechanism inheritance. We are all stuck at the peak of the third floor, and can only do some accumulation of mechanism techniques."

"Since our three families are united, why not form a joint academy to specifically teach mechanism techniques?"

"The teachers of the academy will be invited from various mechanism cultivators."

"In my opinion, the guest official Chu Xiyao recruited by your family is very suitable."

Zhou Zeshen heard this, his eyes rolled, and he thought to himself: "Among the three families, the Ning family's mechanism attainments and the accumulation of mechanism cultivators are the weakest."

"If the joint academy is established, it will be most beneficial to the Ning family."

"However, this is indeed a good proposal, and it is also a great help to our Zhou family."

Thinking of this, Zhou Zeshen indicated that this proposal was very good, he appreciated it very much, and supported it very much. But this decision was not something he could make, and he had to report it back to the family.

Ning Zhuo expressed agreement.

When leaving, Zhou Zeshen transmitted his voice to him, using a piece of intelligence to show goodwill: "The heads of the three families have almost discussed it, preparing to gather the elites of the three families and explore the Immortal Palace with full strength one more time."

"Striving to encounter that mechanical monkey and defeat it!"

"Many people speculate that the mechanical monkey might be a challenge set up by the three sect masters. After defeating it, it is very likely to receive a major reward from the three sect masters."

"If we can really kill the mechanical monkey, we can dig into its internal structure, and in the future, we can also target and restrain it."

Ning Zhuo was surprised: "There is such a thing? Thank you for telling me. I wonder when it will start?"

Zhou Zeshen: "It will start in the next few days. Before the full-strength exploration of the Immortal Palace, everyone will be gathered for a unified secret special training."

"Brother Ning, you might as well do more preparations."

Ning Zhuo showed a solemn look and nodded heavily with deep meaning: "Indeed, I must do more preparations!"