Chapter 19

Faced with Ning Zhanji's sudden test, the others looked at each other.

Ning Zhuo guessed, "These spiritual plants are all very young and have very low value, so picking them is naturally not for the sake of the spiritual plants themselves. I think it should be to maintain this passage and deliberately clear them out. If there are spiritual plants, they will attract spirit beasts and demon beasts. If our clan wants to use this passage for a long time, it is obviously necessary to nip the trouble in the bud."

"Not bad," Ning Zhanji nodded, "The family school's cultivation of you is still effective."

"Pick one from these spiritual plants; consider it a reward for answering correctly."

"As for which one you can pick, it depends on your eye for quality."

Ning Zhuo did not hesitate, reached out directly, took a Fire Crystal Grass, and then thanked him, "Many thanks, Lord Ning Zhanji! I have some research on the herbal market; among the spiritual plants, this Fire Crystal Grass has the best quality and will definitely have the highest selling price."

Ning Zhanji nodded, then shook his head, "Choosing one with a high market price is also not bad."

"But if I were you, I would choose the Vigor Ginseng."

"Because as members of the Ning clan, we practice ice-attribute cultivation techniques, and spiritual plants like Fire Crystal Grass are not suitable for our constitution. But Vigor Ginseng can, and it can nourish our physical bodies."

"You are still young now, don't just drill into the money pit. You must know that investing in yourself is the best path to success."

"Once you reach the Foundation Establishment realm, you will have a different life situation."

Upon hearing this, Ning Zhuo showed a look of awe and instruction.

Ning Zhanji took the opportunity to instill, "Excellent cultivators are all those who dare to fight. You must fully estimate the ratio between risk and return. If you join the Battle Hall and are assigned to guard here, you can harvest several spiritual plants every day, and there is also the protection of the temporary camp. This is a rare opportunity."

"Many times, rejecting risk is rejecting opportunity."

Ning Zhuo showed a look of being moved.

This change in expression was all caught in Ning Zhanji's eyes, and the latter chuckled inwardly, "He is a youth after all..."

"My lord, I want to be stationed here," Ning Yong shouted.

Ning Zhanji laughed, "Newcomer, pass the special training first before you talk."

The Ning family cultivator brigade entered a large underground hall.

This was clearly a frontline position specially built by the Ning family.

Two Ning family cultivators were left in the hall to guard it.

The guarding cultivators hurriedly responded.

Ning Zhanji ordered a temporary rest, while he himself stood in the center of the underground hall, circulated his magic power, and formed finger seals.

Immediately, complex array patterns appeared on the cave wall above the hall.

In the center of the array patterns, an array disk the size of a millstone slowly descended, finally landing in front of Ning Zhanji.

Ning Zhanji placed his hands on the array disk, communicated with his spiritual sense, and quickly reviewed the recorded information in the array disk. Therefore, in just a few breaths of time, he had a thorough grasp of everything that had happened at this frontline camp.

After doing this, he took out spirit stones from his money bag and replaced all the spirit stones in the array disk that had completely turned into gray stones or were mostly dim.

After a short rest, the Ning family cultivator brigade continued to set off.

During the subsequent journey, Ning Zhuo passed through three more forward camps in total.

Some were for rest, while others were passed by directly.

As everyone gradually deepened into the volcanic underground, the threat gradually increased.

The traces of demon beasts increased significantly.

There were fire-velvet mice the size of a foot, stone-like skulls that could float in mid-air—Red Rock Demon Heads, and Flame-Stepping Lizards.

"Stop!" Ning Zhanji, who had been leading the charge, suddenly raised his hand and paused in place.

The cultivators stood firm quickly, turning from movement to stillness, obeying orders and prohibitions, revealing excellent tactical literacy.

Ning Zhanji lowered his head and carefully examined a small ditch in front of him.

He stretched out his finger and gently touched the concave surface of the ditch. The surface was smooth, slightly emitting a luster like glazed glass.

"It's a Fire-Walking Snake; it should be over a hundred years old, a Foundation Establishment-level demon beast," Ning Zhanji introduced, then ordered the entire army to be on alert.

Ning Yong was carefree and excited, "Finally encountered one? With Lord Ning Zhanji here, are we still afraid of a small demon beast?"

Ning Chen analyzed, "Except for us few newcomers, we have six Foundation Establishment cultivators here, and the others are high-level Qi Refining cultivators."

"It's just a mere Foundation Establishment-level demon beast."

Ning Zhuo, however, was secretly vigilant.

He knew: the physical talent of demon beasts is often far superior to that of human cultivators. Moreover, this is the Red Flame Demon Melting Cave; if a protracted battle really occurs, it is very likely to attract other demon beasts to come and besiege them.

The Ning family cultivator brigade continued to move forward.

But this time, their speed slowed down significantly, and the atmosphere in the team also changed.

Not long after, they discovered the Fire-Walking Snake.

The Fire-Walking Snake had a slender body, and its whole body emitted dazzling firelight; the entire snake was like a long strip of violently burning flame.

In fact, it was precisely a flame that had become a spirit; it did not have the flesh and blood of a conventional demon beast.

The Fire-Walking Snake had a fierce temperament and fast speed; as it traveled through the rocks, it would often burn a snake path into the surface of the stones.

Just now, Ning Zhanji had discovered the snake path and made a judgment based on the width of the snake path and the degree to which the concave surface was scorched.

Now, they had encountered the real thing and found that Ning Zhanji's judgment was not wrong at all.

This was indeed a Foundation Establishment-level demon beast.

The Ning family cultivators began to fight.

First, some cultivators threw out array disks, temporarily setting up an array to conceal everyone's aura.

Then, a large number of cultivators began to brew spells.

Not long after, arrows of water shot toward the Fire-Walking Snake.

The Fire-Walking Snake was first hit by a wave of concentrated fire, and its flame light withered by more than half before it reacted.

The Fire-Walking Snake lunged at the Ning family cultivator brigade with fierce momentum.

Two strong men rushed out from among the Ning family cultivators, covered in various spells, and fought the Fire-Walking Snake head-on, dragging it in place.

The remaining cultivators cast spells again, on one hand to buff the melee cultivators, and on the other hand to actively inflict damage on the Fire-Walking Snake.

The Fire-Walking Snake could not defeat four hands with two fists, and was soon beaten by waves of water-type and ice-type spells until its body shrank by one-third.

Knowing it was no match, the Fire-Walking Snake wanted to escape.

Ning Zhanji's figure was like lightning, intercepting the Fire-Walking Snake. He clapped his palms together and struck out two palm prints condensed from frost.

The palm prints flew in mid-air, cold air overflowing, and the Fire-Walking Snake was enveloped, its movements slowing down by a few points.

Bang, bang.

With two sounds that almost overlapped, the frost palm prints directly killed the Fire-Walking Snake.

A beautiful surprise attack!

Ning Yong's eyes shone, becoming even more excited, "This is Lord Ning Zhanji!"

In his words, he revealed an extremely strong yearning and worship.

Ning Zhuo nodded repeatedly, also with an expression similar to Ning Yong's, but secretly wondered, "In this volcano, the fire-element spiritual energy is unusually rich, and using ice-frost spells is thankless; why is everyone using them?"

After the next few battles hunting demon beasts, Ning Zhuo gradually understood.

It turned out that this was Ning Zhanji consciously training the troops.

When encountering weaker demon beasts and spirits, they used spells to fight and trained their cooperation with each other.

When encountering powerful demon beasts, the Ning family cultivators used various magic tools, and Ning Zhanji took the lead in attacking.

To avoid long nights and many dreams, the Ning family cultivators mainly focused on quick battles, striving to end the battle in the shortest possible time.

"There is a Fire-Melting Demon Ape ahead!" suddenly, a cultivator responsible for reconnaissance in the team shouted a warning.

The entire team stalled for a moment.

An adult Fire-Melting Demon Ape is very difficult to deal with; one demon ape can be worth ten Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Clearly, it was very unlikely that the demon ape that could reach here was a juvenile.

Even Ning Zhanji frowned.

"Wait a minute, the state of the demon ape seems wrong," the reconnaissance cultivator closed his eyes tightly, and the headband he was wearing was emitting a faint light.

"It seems to be dead?!" the reconnaissance cultivator opened his eyes, somewhat incredulous.