Chapter 271: Discovering Unlike 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 this manner.

"Could the City Lord's Mansion be repeating their old tricks?"

"Using this method to stage a self-directed act, diverting my attention and scattering my energy so I cannot go all out in the competition for the Magma 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's forces were stretched thin; Fei Si could not thoroughly investigate the entire Xiancheng and could only rule out whether fire persimmons were buried in vital locations.

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

Once 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 temperament, Meng Kui was the only strategist among the four generals.

Even if Zhu Xuanji confronted Meng Kui, he didn't have much confidence in using his lie-detection methods against a Nascent Soul-level cultivator.

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

"But what if it isn't?"

"What if the City Lord's Mansion is simply a victim? What if Meng Kui and Fei Si didn't secretly arrange this?"

"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 his purpose.

The servant bowed deeply: "This old slave is a subordinate of Lord Zhu Hou. This time, Lord Zhu Hou was selected to serve as the new director of the Children's Garden in Fire Persimmon Xiancheng. He has already arrived here for two days and is fully prepared for the handover."

"Tomorrow, a handover ceremony will be held."

"Lord Zhu Hou heard that you appeared in the Xiancheng and wanted to invite you to attend the ceremony."

"After all, this position at the Children's 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 Children's Garden matter was reported by me to the King, specifically instructing that talent be chosen from my Zhu family's Royal Family."

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

"With him here, 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 intention. If he, the Divine Catcher, attended the ceremony tomorrow, it would be equivalent to standing up for Zhu Hou, which would greatly improve Zhu Hou's situation and facilitate the Children's 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 servant's collar, took him into the air, and flew toward the Children's Garden with great fanfare.

Zhu Xuanji's actions quickly attracted countless gazes.

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

From this moment on, he had begun to support and stand up for Zhu Hou.

Zhu Xuanji landed in the Children's Garden with the servant and met Zhu Hou.

Zhu Hou only had Foundation Establishment cultivation; he was broad-bodied and stout, 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 I knew your intention."

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

"From now on, leave the management of the Children's 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 and send them to the Royal Family."

"Accumulating earth into a mountain, gathering fur into a coat—by accumulating bit by bit, we will surely be able to help the Royal Family resist the many powerful ministers."

Speaking of this, Zhu Hou sighed deeply.

"In the Nandou Kingdom today, the Meng family, the Su family, and others have become too powerful to control."

"The Retired Emperor suffered from emotional trauma in his later years and didn't handle all this well, leaving such a big mess for the younger generation."

Zhu Xuanji remained silent; he didn't want to recklessly criticize his ancestors.

Regardless, the founding emperor of the Nandou Kingdom was able to carve out such a foundation; his merits definitely outweighed his faults.

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 and 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 Children's Garden.

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

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

After Zhu Xuanji looked closely at the list, he discovered: Li Leifeng not only took care of the orphans in the Children's Garden, but sometimes he also helped some impoverished children outside the garden.

Although the Children's Garden received support from all sides, overall, resources were still limited.

From this list, one could see Li Leifeng's philosophy of managing the Children's Garden.

He didn't practice "eating from the same pot"; he didn't distribute resources equally, but invested heavily in orphans with more potential.

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 receive positive feedback as much as possible.

He very much hoped to cultivate some successful cultivators. Once these cultivators had spare energy, they could continue to feed more resources back into the Children's Garden, thus forming a positive cycle.

Zhu Xuanji sighed: "As expected of Li Leifeng; his heart of benevolence and care spreads out from this jade slip."

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

Li Leifeng managed the Children's Garden with great care; in Zhu Xuanji's feelings, this intention 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 that you are not the only one working hard; everyone is moving forward together."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, don't be too strict with 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."

"Our Royal Family's talent is currently withered, and you are the only cultivation seed that has emerged."

"Don't shoulder too much, and even more so, don't think that you have been 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 bit by bit, this strength is not to be underestimated."

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

After Zhu Hou's care, 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 scanned the end of the list and actually discovered a familiar name.

Unlike Ning Zhuo!!!

"How could he be on this list?!"

Zhu Xuanji hurriedly checked carefully.

In the jade slip, Li Leifeng had detailed records regarding Unlike Ning Zhuo.

More than ten years ago, Li Leifeng was performing a puppet show in the Children's Garden and accidentally discovered a child hiding in a corner peeking.

The child wasn't just peeking; 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 to the 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, every time watching with rapt attention.

This point 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 show.

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 aroused Li Leifeng's interest.

He secretly observed and was surprised to discover 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, constantly imitating his various techniques for controlling puppets during Li Leifeng's performance, practicing while watching.

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

After Li Leifeng secretly observed for a period of time, he was incredibly 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. Every time the child came to peek, 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, at most four or five. Then, he would learn them almost perfectly.

Finally, it reached the "Fang Qing Clears the Grievance" play; because there were many characters in several scenes and the operations were extremely complicated, it troubled the child for more than ten performances.

But after more than ten 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 Unlike 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 extremely difficult.

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

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

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: "Unlike Ning Zhuo, this child, has a quite large head; one look and you can see he has spiritual energy."

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

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

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

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

He said he didn't understand any operating 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 Unlike Ning Zhuo's eyes every time he watched a puppet show, he was incomparably certain that the latter loved puppets extremely much!

Li Leifeng thought, haste makes waste; slow down, then invite him again.

However, ever since the first failed invitation, Unlike Ning Zhuo rarely came to the Children's Garden to watch shows.

Occasionally coming once, 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, after every performance, he would be physically and mentally exhausted.

Li Leifeng knew that only such a puppet show could entice Unlike Ning Zhuo to watch, to come a few more times.

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

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

"An awl in a bag, even if covered, is only temporary. After he is six, he will definitely be able to stand out!" This was the judgment Li Leifeng made himself 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 Unlike Ning Zhuo came to the Children's Garden plummeted! When he was five, he only came two or three times a year. By the time he was six, he simply stopped coming.

"Unlike Ning Zhuo, Unlike Ning Zhuo!" Zhu Xuanji murmured to himself, 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 Unlike Ning Zhuo! ===== CHAPTER 272 =====