Chapter 293: Who is this damned

The Palace Examination!

A ranking of thirty-three people!

One stone stirred up a thousand ripples.

At the same time, the cultivators who received this information were almost all stunned in place.

Zhu Xuanji's heart was greatly shaken: "The Palace Examination?!"

His first thought was: "By passing the Palace Examination, can one obtain the position of Palace Master?"

He was a Divine Catcher, famous throughout the country, with a meticulous mind; whenever he had key information, he could deduce many things.

"The Lava Immortal Palace has a mechanism: the standard for selecting a successor rises and falls with the state of the Immortal Palace."

"Now, the Immortal Palace is heavily damaged, so this mechanism has been triggered, thereby starting the Palace Examination!"

"This Palace Examination is highly likely to select the next Palace Master."

"The information is very clear—there are thirty-three people on the Palace Examination list! In that case, my main opponents are the other thirty-two."

Zhu Xuanji began to study this list carefully.

He first saw his own name.

He was not surprised to be ranked first. Because after he repaired the mechanism demon general, seeing that he had no hope of recovering the Demonic Path True Scripture in a short time, he had turned it in.

He had received a huge amount of merit for this.

This was also why, not long ago, he had taken out the Golden Phoenix Mirror to give to Ning Xiaohui.

"The second is Shuzhong Jun."

"All-Book Tower..."

Zhu Xuanji's gaze was deep. This neutral major sect had reached this step without making a sound.

If not for this ranking, Zhu Xuanji would not have known that Shuzhong Jun had disguised himself so well and had already made such huge progress, yet everyone seemed to have forgotten him.

The third is Zheng Danlian.

"Zheng Danlian himself had long been entering and exiting the Lava Immortal Palace, so the accumulation of his own merit began a long time ago."

"He not only has a solid foundation, but now he also has a sharp weapon for slaughter in his hands."

"That Night Rain Demon Weapon of his is very unusual, helping him recently slay the most Jin Dan-level Red Flame Demon Beasts, thus having a large amount of merit credited to him."

"Ranking third is understandable."

Zhu Xuanji looked at the fourth, fifth, and sixth.

These three positions were also occupied by Jin Dan cultivators, but the names were quite unfamiliar.

Zhu Xuanji sneered, knowing very well in his heart: these three, including the ones after them, were all reinforcements brought in by the Meng family.

Regardless of the fact that their names, backgrounds, and cultivation techniques had no connection, from their actions and performance, Zhu Xuanji had already determined their camp.

The names of these people were not important; in Zhu Xuanji's mind, they automatically became Meng Family Jin Dan A, Meng Family Jin Dan B, Meng Family Jin Dan C, D, E...

After this, Zhu Xuanji saw Zheng Shuanggou, Zhou Nongying, saw several Jin Dan rogue cultivators A, B, and C, and saw Ning Jiufan.

"Ning Jiufan's ranking is low, which shows that he has not been in the Lava Immortal Palace for long."

He also saw the Jin Dan inner-sect disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion, Zhu Zhen, and Song Fuli.

It was not strange that the Jin Dan inner-sect disciple of the Purple Firmament Pavilion was listed among them.

Zhu Zhen himself possessed mechanism attainments; he had come to help Zhu Xuanji and was absolutely giving his all. Therefore, he had also gained a lot of merit. This could be seen from this ranking.

The reason he was ranked behind was simply because he had just arrived not long ago, and compared to other Jin Dan cultivators, he did not have their old accumulations.

Song Fuli was the same, suffering from the lack of old accumulation, so his ranking was low.

Zhu Xuanji noticed that among this group of Cloud Merchants, it was not just Song Fuli who was a Jin Dan selected; there were two others.

The names of these two people were also automatically replaced by Zhu Xuanji with: Cloud Merchant Jin Dan A and Cloud Merchant Jin Dan B.

The last of the Jin Dan cultivators was Yang Chanyu.

Seeing this name, Zhu Xuanji snorted coldly in his heart, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

"Non-Empty Gate, Yang Chanyu, I will do my utmost to bring you to justice!"

He looked further down.

"Ning Zhuo?"

Ning Zhuo's ranking was right next to Yang Chanyu's.

"I didn't expect this kid to become the top among the trial disciples. Where is Meng Chong?"

Zhu Xuanji smiled slightly.

Although he was a little surprised, he was not too surprised. After all, he had already deeply understood Ning Zhuo's mechanism attainments before.

This junior Ning Zhuo had received Li Leifeng's recognition in his childhood. He had had an amazing talent for mechanism arts since he was a child!

Zhu Xuanji looked down and found that there were several people between Meng Chong and Ning Zhuo.

These several people were all at the Foundation Establishment stage and were some mechanism cultivators with some reputation in Fire Persimmon Immortal City.

It is worth mentioning that many of these people were on the screening list that Zhu Xuanji had once set up.

"Overall, the Jin Dan cultivators firmly occupy the forefront of the entire ranking, closely packed together, with no Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining cultivators in between."

Cultivation base was still the primary factor.

"Secondly, the main force of the second echelon is the members of the Four Directions Reform Team. The identity of a trial disciple is still very useful."

"Finally, there are some Foundation Establishment mechanism cultivators, some of whom are members of the four major forces of Fire Persimmon Immortal City, and some are rogue cultivators. These people are the fewest in number and basically all have old accumulations."

"If the Palace Examination had appeared later, their rankings would have been squeezed out by the trial disciples."

"Hmm?"

At the very end, Zhu Xuanji fixed his gaze on the "Entry Standard."

His expression gradually turned ugly.

Elsewhere.

A burly youth was staring with his tiger eyes: "What is going on with this ranking?!"

"Among all the trial disciples, I am actually not the first!"

Meng Chong felt very surprised.

"Ning Zhuo?"

"This guy is actually ranked higher than me. Interesting, I'll find an opportunity to meet him!"

Since leaving the trial level and entering the Immortal Palace, Meng Chong had been advancing bravely, and his merit had been rising steadily.

He possessed immortal aptitude, was powerful, and had the entire City Lord's Mansion as a strong support. He was originally full of confidence in his progress, but when the ranking came out, it completely slapped his face.

While surprised, he quickly accepted this fact and developed a strong competitive spirit toward Ning Zhuo.

Finally.

Meng Chong saw the "Entry Standard."

"How come there is an 'Entry Standard' here too?" Meng Chong's mouth twitched, and he just wanted to laugh.

But the next moment, his smile froze on his face.

He was stunned, then counted the list carefully and found that there were thirty-three people on the ranking, and thirty-two people besides the "Entry Standard."

In other words, this "Entry Standard" was actually a person's name?!

"If this Palace Examination ranking is like this, then what about the ranking in the trial level?"

Thinking of this, Meng Chong immediately threw the previous Ning Zhuo to the back of his mind.

His breathing quickly became heavy, his chest swelled, his breathing deepened, and bloodshot eyes appeared in his eye sockets.

"I've been played!"

"I've been played!!"

"So, on this line of soul entering the Immortal Palace, I have been the second place from beginning to end?!"

"The first place is this damned 'Entry Standard'!"

From childhood to adulthood, Meng Chong had never been so humiliated.

Thinking of how he had been complacent many times, feeling satisfied with his "first" ranking performance, he felt a strong sense of shame and annoyance.

"What a good 'Entry Standard,' I want to fight this person."

"How despicable, how insidious! Are you treating me like a monkey?!"

"Don't let me catch you, don't let me catch you!!" Meng Chong clenched his fists, his face bright red, like an angry bull.

Ning Zhuo's ranking was higher than Meng Chong's, but this status quo soon became unremarkable.

Zhou Zhu and Zhou Zeshen were also discussing.

"I didn't expect that Ning Zhuo would eventually become the first among us Qi Refining cultivators. This result makes me surprised, yet not surprised." Zhou Zeshen sighed.

Zhou Zhu echoed in a muffled voice: "For others, first place, I am not convinced. But Ning Zhuo is indeed powerful and helps many people."

"People from the Zhou family and the Zheng family have all been promoted by him and quickly got positions."

"He is this."

Saying that, Zhou Zhu raised his thumb.

Because of his full-effort management, Ning Zhuo's reputation in the reform teams of the three families had reached a certain peak!

Zhou Zeshen's face immediately turned gloomy: "The problem now is, is this last place 'Entry Standard' the one we saw on the five stone pillars in the trial room!"

Zhou Zhu thought for a while, nodded slowly, his expression and mood both very heavy.

Zhou Zeshen gritted his teeth: "I have the same thought as you. In that case, our three families, together with the City Lord's Mansion, have all been played by this 'Entry Standard'!"

"He should be Sun Lingtong."

"Hmph, eight or nine out of ten!"

"The Non-Empty Gate has been deeply cultivated for many years; I didn't expect them to have infiltrated the Lava Immortal Palace to such an extent!"

"To be able to change names like this, this is completely cheating; it's really cunning. Too cunning!!" Zhou Zeshen stomped his feet in hatred.

Whoever discovers that they have been deceived so miserably will not feel good.

And the real "Entry Standard" Ning Zhuo breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing this ranking list, he also broke out in a cold sweat.

Ning Zhuo's own ranking just barely reached the last spot.

"My Buddha Heart Demon Seal represents one-third of the power of the Lava Immortal Palace and will inevitably be rewarded with heavy merit."

"But I didn't expect that after turning it in, my merit would still be ranked behind people like Zhou Zhu."

"It shows how big the pit I blew up with the demon beast tide and the destruction of the History Pavilion was!"

"In addition, the passing of Ning Xiaohui and Zheng Jian is also a key factor. If they were still alive, I would be very likely to be squeezed out of this list."

Ning Zhuo was very glad that he had eliminated some competitors in advance.

This was not his original intention.

It was purely a matter of luck.

"Perhaps, this is also because I planted the Human Life Hanging Thread on them early, and the fortune is with me."

Fortunately, the ring reminded him in time, otherwise Ning Zhuo would have really missed this only opportunity!

"Brother Zheng Jian, thank you." Ning Zhuo secretly thanked him.

"Looking at it this way, even if I turned in my Buddha Heart Demon Seal, the name change has become a fact, so the name has not changed."

For Ning Zhuo, this was undoubtedly relatively good news.

The one bearing his "Ning Zhuo" name was Sun Lingtong.

This was the arrangement Ning Zhuo had made before.

"Will the public's misunderstanding of this be beneficial to my next Palace Examination?"

"An extra layer of hiding doesn't seem to be a bad thing!"

On the other side.

Yang Chanyu stared at Sun Lingtong: "So, the Entry Standard is you?"

"How exactly did you change your name?"

Sun Lingtong giggled: "That's my secret. Do you know now why I have the confidence to come and compete for the Lava Immortal Palace?"

Yang Chanyu shook her head: "I only know that you played with the entire high-level of Fire Persimmon Immortal City. You are in trouble; they must hate you to the core. After this, you must not let them catch you."

Sun Lingtong's smile couldn't help but stiffen for a moment.