Chapter 271: Discovering Ning Zhuo

Zhu Xuanji walked out of the warehouse, lost in thought the entire way.

He had never imagined that a clue about the Shadow Demon Cultivator would suddenly be delivered to him in such a way.

"Could it be the City Lord's Mansion repeating an old trick?"

"Using this method to stage a self-directed act, diverting my attention and draining my energy so I cannot go all out in the competition for the Molten Lava Immortal Palace?"

If so, Zhu Xuanji had to admit that this scheme was extremely vicious!

The opponent must have seen through his character and gripped it tightly—his strong desire to protect the vast number of city residents.

With the beasts besieging the city, the City Lord's Mansion was stretched thin; Fei Si could not thoroughly investigate the entire Immortal City and could only rule out whether fire persimmons were buried in key defensive locations.

And with so many fire persimmons, even if they weren't buried in key defensive lines, detonating them in the city center would cause massive casualties.

If there were too many casualties in the city and it fell into chaos, it would also inevitably affect the front lines.

Zhu Xuanji believed in his own abilities and leaned toward the idea that Fei Si was not lying, but what about Meng Kui?

Although the Meng family was known for their frank and direct nature, Meng Kui was the only strategist among the four generals.

Even if Zhu Xuanji confronted Meng Kui, he had little confidence in using his lie-detection methods against a Nascent Soul-level cultivator.

Zhu Xuanji walked along the street, his eyes unfocused, various thoughts swirling in his mind.

"But what if it isn't?"

"What if the City Lord's Mansion is simply a victim? What if neither Meng Kui nor Fei Si made secret arrangements?"

"Then, is this Shadow Demon Cultivator on the same side as the culprit who shelled Fire Persimmon Mountain?"

Countless possibilities flashed through Zhu Xuanji's mind.

He felt as if he were in a fog, not knowing which path led to the truth.

"Lord Zhu! Finally found you!" A voice interrupted Zhu Xuanji's thoughts.

Zhu Xuanji looked closely and saw a Foundation Establishment cultivator dressed as a servant.

Zhu Xuanji asked for his purpose.

The servant cultivator bowed deeply: "This old servant is a subordinate of Lord Zhu Hou. This time, Lord Zhu Hou was selected to serve as the new director of the Childcare Garden in Fire Persimmon Immortal City; he has already arrived here for two days and is well-prepared for the handover."

"Tomorrow, a handover ceremony will be held."

"Lord Zhu Hou heard you appeared in the Immortal City and would like to invite you to attend the ceremony."

"After all, this position at the Childcare Garden was advocated by your side."

Zhu Xuanji's spirits lifted, and he smiled: "This is the only good news I've heard today! You are right; the Childcare Garden matter was reported by me to the monarch, and I specifically instructed that talent be chosen from my Zhu family royal line."

"I didn't expect my clan uncle, Zhu Hou, to take on this task."

"With him there, I can rest easy."

"Unfortunately, I am tied up with important matters and have no time to attend the ceremony."

Speaking of this, Zhu Xuanji's eyes flickered, revealing a hint of hesitation.

He understood Zhu Hou's meaning. If he, the Divine Catcher, attended the ceremony tomorrow, it would be equivalent to backing Zhu Hou, which would greatly improve Zhu Hou's situation and facilitate the Childcare Garden's work.

"Since I have already promised Li Leifeng, why not do it thoroughly?"

After weighing it, Zhu Xuanji decided on a compromise: "I will go see my clan uncle now. Let's go."

As he spoke, he grabbed the old servant by the collar, took him into the air, and flew toward the Childcare Garden with great fanfare.

Zhu Xuanji's actions quickly attracted countless gazes.

Just like when he had openly gone to find Ning Zhuo to implement the "startle the snake" strategy.

From this moment on, he had already begun to support and back Zhu Hou.

Zhu Xuanji landed in the Childcare Garden with the servant cultivator and met Zhu Hou.

Zhu Hou only had Foundation Establishment cultivation, was broad and stout, and was gentle and magnanimous.

Zhu Xuanji immediately bowed to Zhu Hou.

In his youth, Zhu Xuanji had received much leniency and guidance from Zhu Hou.

Therefore, even after becoming a Jin Dan-level cultivator, he had always been respectful to Zhu Hou and never neglected him.

Zhu Xuanji then apologized to Zhu Hou, stating that he could not attend tomorrow's handover ceremony.

Zhu Hou smiled slightly and gestured for him to sit down first.

Zhu Hou also sat down: "I saw you flying over with such fanfare and knew your intention."

"I am already quite happy that you could spare the time to come over."

"From now on, leave the Childcare Garden to me; you can rest assured."

"I've watched you grow up; how could I not know your ambitions? Our views are consistent."

"I will try my best to unearth talent from within and channel them to the royal family."

"Accumulating earth into a mountain, gathering fur into a coat—by constantly accumulating like this, we will surely be able to help the royal family resist the many powerful officials."

Speaking of this, Zhu Hou sighed deeply.

"Now, in the Southern Bean Kingdom, the Meng family, the Su family, and others have become too powerful to control."

"The Retired Emperor spent his later years deeply wounded by love and did not handle all this well, leaving such a big mess for the younger generation."

Zhu Xuanji remained silent; he did not want to rashly criticize his ancestors.

Regardless, the founding emperor of the Southern Bean Kingdom was definitely more meritorious than faulty for being able to carve out such a foundation.

Seeing Zhu Xuanji's melancholy expression, Zhu Hou took the initiative to change the subject: "By the way, Xiao Ji, while I was organizing Li Leifeng's things, I discovered a good item!"

"Come take a look."

Zhu Hou revealed a mysterious expression, took out a jade slip, and handed it to Zhu Xuanji.

The surface of this jade slip was smooth, the kind of smoothness that comes from frequent use and handling. Clearly, Li Leifeng had often used it during his lifetime.

Zhu Xuanji took the jade slip and scanned the contents with his spiritual sense.

He immediately discovered that this was Li Leifeng's diary from his lifetime.

This diary mainly recorded some of the outstanding orphans in the Childcare Garden.

Li Leifeng was very good at discovering the strengths of these children and then judging whether they were excellent seeds for cultivation.

Li Leifeng even created a detailed list. In the list, he recorded them in detail according to name and time.

After Zhu Xuanji looked at the list carefully, he discovered: Li Leifeng not only took care of the orphans in the Childcare Garden, but sometimes he also helped some poor children outside the garden.

Although the Childcare Garden received funding from various parties, overall, resources were still limited.

From this list, one could see Li Leifeng's philosophy for running the Childcare Garden.

He didn't do "communal pot" dining; he didn't divide resources equally, but rather invested more or less, focusing on orphans with better aptitude.

On one hand, he hoped that he would have successors. So, he had always been actively cultivating successors.

On the other hand, he also hoped that these resources could be used in more valuable places and could receive positive feedback as much as possible.

He very much hoped to cultivate some cultivators who would succeed in their practice. Once these cultivators had spare energy, they could continue to feed more resources back into the Childcare Garden, thus forming a positive cycle.

Zhu Xuanji sighed: "As expected of Li Leifeng, his benevolent and caring heart spreads out from this jade slip."

Holding this old jade slip in his hand, he felt it had significant weight.

Li Leifeng had run the Childcare Garden with great care; such heart, in Zhu Xuanji's feeling, was even more valuable than a magic treasure!

Seeing Zhu Xuanji's expression change, Zhu Hou smiled: "Are you feeling a bit more relieved now?"

He continued to comfort Zhu Xuanji: "Xiao Ji, your pressure is too great."

"You must know, you are not the only one working hard; everyone is moving forward together."

"Don't be too harsh on yourself, don't demand too much of yourself."

"You have already done very well."

"Perhaps, sometimes you will make mistakes, but who doesn't?"

"As long as they are cultivators, they are human, and as long as they are human, they will make mistakes."

"Now our royal family's talent is withered, and only you, such a cultivation seed, have emerged."

"Don't carry too much on your shoulders, and likewise, don't think you are always fighting alone."

"Like your clan uncle, although my cultivation is poor and my aptitude is lacking, I can still contribute a share of strength to the royal family. By accumulating little, this strength is also not to be underestimated."

Zhu Xuanji said solemnly: "Thank you, clan uncle, for your concern."

After this care from Zhu Hou, his mood was indeed much better.

However, just as Zhu Xuanji was about to return the jade slip to Zhu Hou, his expression suddenly changed drastically.

This was because his spiritual sense had scanned the end of the list and actually discovered a familiar name.

Ning Zhuo!!!

"How could he be on this list?!"

Zhu Xuanji hurriedly checked carefully.

In the jade slip, Li Leifeng had made detailed records in the column concerning Ning Zhuo.

More than ten years ago, Li Leifeng was performing a puppet show in the Childcare Garden when he accidentally discovered a child hiding in a corner watching.

The child wasn't just watching; he also took advantage of the guests leaving to steal some leftover pastries to eat.

Afterward, Li Leifeng saw him two more times.

The third time, he felt pity for the child and brought him backstage, taking some new pastries to invite him to eat.

From then on, the child came more and more frequently.

The child often huddled in the corner watching the puppet show, and every time, he watched with rapt attention.

This was very different from other children.

Generally speaking, children's minds are not settled, and their attention is easily distracted. The first few times they see a new, unfamiliar puppet show, they can focus for most of the performance.

When seeing old, familiar puppet shows, they often run around in the audience, unable to sit still for long.

But Li Leifeng discovered that every time, this child was focused.

This piqued Li Leifeng's interest.

He secretly observed and was astonished to find that this child was imitating his technique of controlling the mechanical puppets!

Others watched the show just to watch, but this child was constantly learning, imitating the various techniques Li Leifeng used to control the puppets during the performance, practicing while watching.

The child huddled in the shadows, stealing the techniques, his small hands tucked into his sleeves, constantly waving.

After observing secretly for a period of time, Li Leifeng was extremely amazed.

He discovered that for some simple operating techniques, the child only needed to watch two or three times to learn them quite well.

After discovering this, Li Leifeng felt it was very interesting. Whenever the child came to watch, he would temporarily add scenes, often adding plays with more complicated and difficult operations.

As a result, these puppet shows would at most trouble the child for two or three performances, four or five at most. Then, he would have learned them almost completely.

Finally, when it came to the "Fang Qing Clears the Grievance" play, because there were many characters and the operations were extremely complicated, it troubled the child for more than ten performances.

But after a dozen performances, the child had already mastered seven or eight out of ten.

"He has strong mechanical talent!" Li Leifeng had the intention to take him as a disciple; after a secret investigation, he discovered his surname was Ning, given name Zhuo, and he was a branch disciple of the Ning family.

Before Ning Zhuo was born, his father had already died. When he was two, his mother also lost her life.

Although he had a paternal uncle, for some reason, he still lived alone, and his life was exceptionally difficult.

After discovering this, Li Leifeng consciously left more pastries, inviting Ning Zhuo to eat whenever he came to watch the show.

Ning Zhuo was quite greedy, but very polite; every time, he was very respectful to Li Leifeng and knew etiquette quite well.

Every time he saw his small appearance, bowing respectfully to him, Li Leifeng couldn't help but reach out and touch his head.

Li Leifeng wrote in his diary: "This child Ning Zhuo, his head is quite large; at a glance, one can tell he has a lot of spiritual energy."

He also evaluated the Ning family: "The Ning family is a great cultivation clan, but that's all. Just looking at Ning Zhuo, one can tell that branch disciples have much bitterness."

After inviting Ning Zhuo to eat many times, Li Leifeng felt the time was ripe.

Once, when no one was around, Li Leifeng specifically asked Ning Zhuo if he wanted to acknowledge him as his master, and he would specifically teach Ning Zhuo more wonderful methods of controlling puppets.

As a result, Ning Zhuo's answer exceeded Li Leifeng's expectations.

He said he couldn't understand any control techniques at all and just liked watching puppet shows.

Li Leifeng knew this was a lie. He had seen too many people; from the look in Ning Zhuo's eyes every time he watched a puppet show, he was absolutely certain that the latter was extremely fond of puppets!

Li Leifeng thought, haste makes waste; let's slow down and invite him again later.

However, since the first failed invitation, Ning Zhuo rarely came to the Childcare Garden to watch shows.

Occasionally, when he did come, Li Leifeng would specifically add a performance of "Fang Qing Clears the Grievance" for him. This was the most complicated puppet show to control; even for Li Leifeng, he would be physically and mentally exhausted after each performance.

Li Leifeng knew that only such a puppet show could entice Ning Zhuo to watch and come more often.

By the time Ning Zhuo was four, he was already able to move his fingers while watching "Fang Qing Clears the Grievance," and the control techniques he had trained already had five parts of Li Leifeng's skill.

Such talent made Li Leifeng conclude that this child would surely achieve great things in the future!

"An awl in a sack, even if covered, is only temporary. After he is six, he will surely stand out!" This was the judgment Li Leifeng made personally in his diary.

Seeing this, Zhu Xuanji's heart shook violently, and he stood up with a start.

He widened his eyes, staring fixedly at the jade slip in his hand!

He continued reading.

As a result, he discovered that Li Leifeng's subsequent records were few and far between.

This was because the number of times Ning Zhuo came to the Childcare Garden plummeted! When he was five, he only came two or three times a year. By the time he was six, he simply didn't come anymore.

"Ning Zhuo, Ning Zhuo!" Zhu Xuanji murmured, golden light shooting from his eyes, his expression truly frightening.

He hadn't expected to obtain such a key clue from Li Leifeng's relics.

This allowed him to understand the true side of Ning Zhuo!