Chapter 288: Assassination

A medium-sized mechanical beast moved its limbs and quickly left Zheng Jian and the others.

Zheng Jian focused on the Zheng family cultivator beside him: "How is it?"

The Zheng family cultivator looked full of doubt: "Strange! The merit I received is not much. It's not as good as me working alone."

Zheng Jian's face turned gloomy, and he didn't say a word.

The Zheng family cultivators beside him felt very strange.

Clearly they imitated Ning Zhuo, but why was the gap in effect so large?

The merit of the Ning family cultivators promoted by Ning Zhuo was rising steadily, and one by one they rushed into the medical hall.

On Zheng Jian's side, it not only delayed Zheng Jian himself, but the merit gains of others were not considerable at all.

"Do you want to try again?" The Zheng family cultivator suggested.

Zheng Jian shook his head: "Forget it, we have already tried three times, no need to try again."

At this moment, he thought of his exploration in the medical hall.

Zheng Jian had been sensing his innate talent—'Piercing Heart Insight'—the whole time.

Facing some rooms he couldn't enter, he would test them indirectly through his innate talent.

None of the other rooms were special, but when he faced the door of the severe illness treatment room and had the thought of breaking in, the 'Piercing Heart Insight' was triggered, and the alarm bell in his heart rang loudly, telling him that the outcome of breaking in hard would inevitably be death!

"In the entire medical hall, there is only one severe illness treatment room."

"There seems to be something tricky inside."

"Ning Zhuo has already been in twice, but I haven't seen any related tasks even once."

Thinking of this, Zheng Jian said to the people beside him: "Ning Zhuo was once controlled by the Non-Empty Sect; he likely retained some secrets that he didn't explain clearly."

"Among these secrets, there should be the results of the Non-Empty Sect's infiltration and continuous exploration of the Lava Immortal Palace."

"However, this is nothing!"

"The Ning family is, after all, the bottom of the three families. When my clan starts to exert force, the strength and weakness will be quite obvious. He, Ning Zhuo, is just a Qi Refining junior, hehe, he can't hold on."

"We just need to wait for the right time to come."

When Zheng Jian realized that he couldn't defeat Ning Zhuo and the Ning family in a legitimate way, he began to use the power of the family to launch competition at the family level.

In the sky.

A Fire Flood Dragon circled and flew.

A Fire Snake with horns on its head becomes a dragon, and most of them can master the ability to soar.

The aura of the Jin Dan level permeated everywhere.

Such a red-flame demon beast, relying solely on the mechanical creations in the Lava Immortal Palace, is extremely difficult to resist. Unless mechanical creations at the level of Dao Master or Demon General are dispatched.

Ning Jiu-fan and Zheng Danlian arrived here almost at the same time to save the situation.

Zheng Danlian held a mechanical sickle and smiled at Ning Jiu-fan: "Brother Ning, why don't you guess whether the mechanical weapon in my hand can take the life of this snake-dragon?"

Ning Jiu-fan's face sank: "Naturally, it can."

Zheng Danlian urged the mechanical sickle.

I saw the blade of the sickle shake slightly, and it seemed to flash a phantom micro-light.

The next moment, the Fire Flood Dragon, which was still hissing in the air, was directly decapitated.

Its demon core was knocked out of its body, falling toward the ground, and the entire snake body completely dissipated.

In an instant, it lost its life!

Ning Jiu-fan's pupils shrank violently.

Zheng Danlian spat out a mouthful of turbid air, a red halo flashed in the bottom of his eyes; don't look at his light and breezy appearance just now, he had actually used all his strength.

That urge consumed four percent of his Jin Dan magic power directly.

Although the consumption was terrifying, the results were excellent, strongly deterring Ning Jiu-fan.

"Brother Ning, congratulations, you guessed right." Zheng Danlian continued to ask, "Then look, can this mechanical weapon of mine take that medical hall?"

Ning Jiu-fan was silent for a while and said in a muffled voice: "It can."

Ning Zhuo walked into Ning Jiu-fan's study.

Over the past few days, he had achieved a lot, promoting most of the Ning family reform team members into the medical hall.

After arriving at the medical hall, he used his position to send good tasks to the Ning family reform team, allowing them to earn higher returns.

Currently, the Ning family has comprehensively surpassed the Zheng family in the competition for medical hall positions.

Ning Jiu-fan coughed and pointed to the bench: "Sit down first."

Ning Zhuo sat down.

"Look at this first." Ning Jiu-fan handed him several jade slips.

Ning Zhuo stuck the jade slip to his brow, and after scanning with his spiritual sense, he found that it was a report and request for help from the Ning family main line.

The letter said that the Zheng family had launched a comprehensive attack, making things difficult and hitting many of the Ning family's industries, and the Zheng family was attacking the Ning family everywhere, making the Ning family struggle.

There were also requests for help from the black market, from those former stewards of the Ning family.

The black market controlled by Ning Zhuo also had frequent accidents; it was clear that the Zheng family was acting in secret.

The black market did not have the foundation of the Ning family main line, and now it is in jeopardy!

Ning Zhuo snorted coldly: "It seems that the Zheng family is determined to get the medical hall."

He looked at Ning Jiu-fan again: "Ancestor, you summoned me here this time to let us give up?"

Ning Jiu-fan did not express his stance, but just asked: "Ning Zhuo, what do you think should be done in the current situation?"

Ning Zhuo fell into deep thought.

He paced three times in the study, and finally stood in front of Ning Jiu-fan, saying with bitterness: "The Zheng family is strong; by reason, we shouldn't fight them hard."

"But I think, there may not be no chance."

"We can ask Lord Zhu Xuanji for help!"

Ning Jiu-fan shook his head: "The Zheng family launched an attack, targeting our Ning family; these means are within the tacit approval. How can Lord Zhu Xuanji help us?"

Ning Zhuo said again: "Then let's ask Lord Meng Kui to preside over justice!"

Ning Jiu-fan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "Not appropriate! Our clan has already signed an alliance with Zhu Xuanji, the Zheng family, and the Zhou family. Going to ask Lord Meng Kui to intervene is no different from betraying the alliance."

Ning Zhuo said: "But there is a way to solve this. For example, let me split the family, lead the branch, and go to defect to Meng Kui."

"Anyway, the members of the reform team are almost all from the branch."

"If Meng Kui can really cover us, we don't have to retreat!"

"You brat, you want to split the family again!" Ning Jiu-fan gave Ning Zhuo a rap.

Ning Zhuo raised his head this time, his eyes flashing: "Ancestor, just tell me if this idea of mine has any room for implementation."

Ning Jiu-fan was stunned for a moment.

He thought about it carefully, eh? It might really be implemented successfully.

Meng Kui wants to divide the alliance; this is something everyone can see. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used the open conspiracy of retaining positions.

If Ning Zhuo can really split the family and defect to Meng Kui, Meng Kui will likely accept it happily, and then follow this point to intervene in the Ning family's affairs openly and honestly.

The Ning family's internal affairs are intervened in, and the City Lord's Mansion can also intervene in the alliance and other families' affairs.

But Ning Jiu-fan thought about it carefully and still denied Ning Zhuo's proposal.

Splitting the family is too risky!

Ning Zhuo sighed deeply: "If we can't borrow power, then I'm afraid we can only compromise with the Zheng family."

Ning Jiu-fan said: "Very good, Ning Zhuo kid, you can bend and stretch, and you can recognize the situation; it is indeed rare at your age."

Ning Zhuo hummed: "I want to defeat Zheng Jian upright and honestly even more, but unfortunately, my clan's strength is low. I will find Zheng Jian one more time, in the name of voluntarily retreating, and let him compensate us for some things. Sigh... we can't just retreat for nothing, right?"

Ning Jiu-fan nodded: "Just do it like this."

Ning Zhuo's visiting card was first sent to Zheng Jian's hands.

After Zheng Jian finished reading it, he handed it to others.

The Zheng family reform team members laughed loudly, and their morale rose significantly.

"Boss, you predicted like a god, that Ning Zhuo really surrendered!"

"He had to be beaten before he was willing to bow his head. You say, is this person cheap or not?"

"He didn't eat the toast and had to eat the punishment. Haha, this outcome is really deserved. In my opinion, there is no need to see him at all. He really thinks he is great."

Zheng Jian shook his head: "Ning Zhuo is indeed capable."

"Not to mention anything else, in terms of mechanical attainments, I admire him quite a bit."

"Meeting once and talking is also good. I am also slightly interested in the cooperation he mentioned in the letter."

Ning Zhuo and Zheng Jian met again.

Zheng Jian bowed: "Brother Ning."

He was not arrogant, but the smile he wore showed the superiority of an old-brand family.

Ning Zhuo sighed gloomily: "Brother Zheng Jian, this time I am not defeated by you, but my Ning family is defeated by the Zheng family."

Zheng Jian nodded: "Exactly so. Tell me about the cooperation you mentioned in the letter?"

Ning Zhuo sighed again: "You should know that I have mastered the rules; after completing a multi-person task, I can significantly increase the merit of my companions."

Zheng Jian nodded.

Ning Zhuo said: "I can exert effort for your Zheng family and help your people quickly become medical scholars."

"As long as they become medical scholars and have the equipment of the medical hall and the tasks belonging to medical scholars, the progress of the Zheng family cultivators will be very amazing!"

Zheng Jian was moved: "Your proposal is very interesting, so, what does my side have to pay?"

Ning Zhuo took a deep breath and tentatively said: "My Ning family needs a few positions in the medical hall."

Zheng Jian shook his head immediately: "This is absolutely impossible!"

Ning Zhuo gritted his teeth: "What if it's just me alone retaining the position?"

Zheng Jian shook his head again: "Brother Ning Zhuo, I dare not leave you in the medical hall. After all, above the medical scholar, there are higher positions. And the higher the position, the scarcer the quantity."

"If I let you move in the medical hall and become the curator of the medical hall in the future—I mean the highest position—then wouldn't my Zheng family, wouldn't I, Zheng Jian, be laughed at?"

"Even this won't work?" Ning Zhuo stared at Zheng Jian.

Zheng Jian shook his head: "Absolutely not!"

Pfft.

A light sound.

Zheng Jian's body stiffened, and he slowly lowered his head, seeing in disbelief a blade tip protruding from his chest!

A single-handed knife pierced his heart from his back and penetrated to his front chest.

Ning Zhuo was also stunned for a moment, then retreated violently, shouting loudly: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!"

His voice spread all around, and the Zheng family reform team members were already nearby, rushing to support one after another.

Then, they saw Yang Chanyu pull back her single knife and kill Zheng Jian.

Zheng Jian fell to the ground, his eyes wide open, without the slightest sign of life.

Yang Chanyu practiced the Old Cicada Skill, which is best at accumulating and carrying out assassinations. At the beginning, the dignified Luo Shang was defeated by her sneak attack.

Let alone Zheng Jian, who was only at the Qi Refining stage.

"Boss!"

"Head!!"

"Evil woman, I'll fight you to the death!"

The Zheng family cultivators were furious to the extreme, a surge of blood courage made them not fear Yang Chanyu, this Jin Dan cultivator, at all.

Yang Chanyu ignored them and aimed to kill Ning Zhuo.

Ning Zhuo shouted for help, and the Oily-Smooth Water-Slick Talisman on his body was automatically activated, forming an oily light shield.

Yang Chanyu slashed a few times, all of which were blocked by the oily light shield.

"Interesting." She suddenly stopped and looked toward the southeast, "I'll take your life next time, little traitor!"

She stared coldly at Ning Zhuo and left such a sentence coldly, then soared into the sky.

Leaving Ning Zhuo sitting on the ground, unable to hide his panic, covered in cold sweat, and soul-lost.

Leaving Ning Zhuo sitting on the ground, unable to hide his terror, drenched in cold sweat, and utterly distraught.