Chapter 314

Being suddenly sucked in by the main hall gate, Ning Zhuo's vision changed drastically, a riot of five colors.

An intense feeling of weightlessness and dizziness struck; Ning Zhuo knew this feeling.

In the past, when Sun Lingtong used the Void-Piercing Art to teleport him, it was this feeling.

Ning Zhuo suddenly landed on his feet, and the five-colored scene before his eyes suddenly disappeared.

Ning Zhuo immediately became fully alert, scanning his surroundings.

Red copper walls, scorching temperatures, and a golden ceiling—a quite familiar situation that made him mistakenly think he had entered the Xian Gong in soul form again.

But unlike entering the Xian Gong in soul form, this time Ning Zhuo's soul was not pulled out by someone, but his body and soul entered together.

New information was conveyed to his heart—

"Lava Xian Gong third round palace examination!"

"Cultivators will explore the Turning Secret Pavilion, accept unique challenges in each mechanism room, and win corresponding rewards."

"Finally, the person who finds the correct path, breaks out of the Turning Secret Pavilion, enters the main hall, and sits on the throne will become the Palace Master of the Lava Xian Gong!"

"Please note: The difficulty of the mechanism rooms varies."

"Please note: During the process of exploring the Turning Secret Pavilion and stepping into the Xian Gong main hall, the cultivators' cultivation bases will all be suppressed to the Qi Condensation stage."

"Please note: Magic tools, elixirs, etc., carried by the cultivators themselves will be prohibited from use; violators will be eliminated."

"Please note: Cultivators are allowed to use various props provided in the secret pavilion and are allowed to use spells. Spell power will be suppressed to the Qi Condensation level."

"Please note: Mechanism creations in the trial levels can be used unconditionally during the exploration process."

"Please note: For every thirty-six explorations accumulated in the Turning Secret Pavilion, a small turning point will occur. For every one hundred and eight explorations accumulated, a major turning point will occur."

"Please note: Cultivators can choose to ask for the list at any time and can choose to concede. Once they concede, they will be immediately teleported away."

"Please note: Every change in the palace examination list will be announced to all participants in a timely manner."

A long string of information made Ning Zhuo stop in his tracks, and only after carefully savoring it did he begin to act formally.

He scanned the area and found that the first mechanism room he was in was unremarkable, with only a pedestal in the center.

The pedestal was covered by a beam of light, and a mechanism prop was placed on it.

This was a wooden ring. The ring body was thick, and eighteen diamond-shaped crystals were embedded on it. The crystals all presented a blue-purple faint light. As long as the observation angle changed slightly, the blue-purple faint light would also change, which was quite exquisite.

"A hanging ring." For a moment, Ning Zhuo had the illusion of returning to the past.

He was cautious, examining it with twelve points of vigilance in his heart, and after using various spells without detecting any mechanism traps, he reached out and took the hanging ring out.

The beam of light covering the pedestal immediately dissipated, and the entire pedestal slowly sank until it was completely submerged in the floor.

Finally, the floor on both sides closed toward the center, tightly sealed, without even a crack.

Ning Zhuo stood where he was, scanning left and right, alert for a short while, but there was no movement.

"Is that it?" Ning Zhuo felt surprised.

The Turning Secret Pavilion elsewhere...

"Wahaha." Sun Lingtong ran wildly.

Behind him, a Foundation Establishment-level Flame-Treading Lizard was like a wild bull charging, chasing him relentlessly.

The room volume was limited, and Sun Lingtong was forced to jump up and down, sometimes having to fly over eaves and walk on walls.

His pair of small legs moved like wheels.

The Flame-Treading Lizard suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a string of fire lines.

The tip of the fire line touched Sun Lingtong's butt, immediately setting his pants on fire.

Sun Lingtong had no choice but to run with all his might while reaching out to cover his burning butt, patting it constantly.

Another Turning Secret Pavilion...

Ning Jiufan was pierced by more than a dozen long spears and pinned to a wall.

Ning Jiufan's expression was ferocious; enduring the severe pain, he pulled the long spears out one by one.

He could not take out the elixirs in his storage belt, so he had to use the Ning family's ice magic to freeze himself for emergency healing.

Ning Zhuo was cautious, stepping into the second secret pavilion.

The layout was exactly the same as before; also in the room, there was a pedestal.

A beam of light shone down, making the mechanism creation on the pedestal very clear and conspicuous.

Ning Zhuo walked over alertly and took the mechanism creation, but it was a Blood-Dissolving Pool.

"This mechanism component can dissolve living beings with blood into countless blood. Used with a blood oil bottle, it can allow mechanism puppets to sustain war with war."

"However, my Golden Blood Battle Ape, Dasheng, is designed precisely, and there is no space left in its body to add such a huge Blood-Dissolving Pool component."

Currently, the Golden Blood Battle Ape, Dasheng, was still in Sun Lingtong's hands.

Ning Zhuo had to meet with Sun Lingtong first to retrieve Yuan Dasheng.

"Sigh, I hope to meet Boss Sun soon."

The storage belt could not be used, so Ning Zhuo could only leave while holding the bulky Blood-Dissolving Pool.

Front, back, left, right, and even the ceiling above and the center of the floor beneath had doors to leave.

Ning Zhuo chose a door at random and pushed it open to leave.

In Shu Zhongjun's secret pavilion, there was only one door.

A huge door.

There were a large number of wooden blocks on the door, and these wooden blocks were spliced together, all constrained within the door frame.

Shu Zhongjun held the door handle with one hand; he needed to consume magic power and spirit to move these wooden blocks so that the characters on each wooden block were arranged appropriately one after another. The final overall characters would all form a correct copy of the "Demon-Dyed Blood Tendon Art."

But the problem was...

"I don't know what the 'Demon-Dyed Blood Tendon Art' is at all!"

Shu Zhongjun roared in his heart in anger.

At this moment, he regretted extremely why he had not participated in the Jin Dan melee in Huoshi Xiancheng previously, when they were fighting for the true scripture of the demon art.

Even if it was a fake scripture, there were still some real gains.

"Or, in the second round of the palace examination, someone selling me some demon scripture content would have been fine too. At least I could have inferred a lot from it, and wouldn't be stuck here now."

This was the second secret pavilion Shu Zhongjun entered.

The huge door blocked his path forward.

After trying for a while, Shu Zhongjun gave up voluntarily with a slightly pale complexion.

"My strength has been suppressed to the Qi Condensation stage."

"Not only the total amount of magic power and spirit, but even the recovery ability is limited to the Qi Condensation stage."

"I cannot consume too much in front of this door."

"I must be on guard at all times that someone else might enter this secret pavilion and break out into a fight with me."

Before leaving, Shu Zhongjun took one last lingering look at this huge door.

A feeling in his heart told him that the room behind the door must have great benefits.

"Unfortunately, I am not a trial disciple."

"From the first and second rounds of the palace examination, it can be seen that the Three Sects' superiors treat the disciples they cultivate quite well."

This secret pavilion had two external passages.

One was the big door, and the other was the small door.

The small door was the path Shu Zhongjun came in from.

He sighed, opened the small door, and returned to the first secret pavilion he entered.

This time, he chose another small door and left.

He was still unwilling to give up, silently noting the route in his heart.

Ning Zhuo had just left his third secret pavilion.

From this secret pavilion, he obtained a portion of elixirs, which, after swallowing, could quickly restore magic power.

Just as he pushed the door open and entered the fourth secret pavilion, the entire room suddenly shook.

The shaking was not intense, and a sound of mechanisms came, echoing throughout the room.

The mechanism sound lasted for more than a dozen breaths and stopped abruptly. During this period, the room had been vibrating. As the mechanism sound stopped, the room also calmed down.

"Ha!" A Qi Condensation-level kung fu puppet took a stance, waiting in full battle array for Ning Zhuo.

"Finally, something different." Ning Zhuo's eyes lit up, and he walked forward.

The kung fu puppet rushed toward him.

Ning Zhuo had self-knowledge, immediately retreating and using spells to attack from a distance.

The kung fu puppet was gradually tied up by rapidly growing vines.

"Blood Tendon Demon Dye!" Ning Zhuo walked to its front leisurely, using his own essence blood to perform the Demon-Dyed Blood Tendon Art, forcibly subduing this puppet.

"Before I get back the Golden Blood Battle Ape, Dasheng, I'll make do with this for now." Ning Zhuo left his fourth secret pavilion, and behind him, the Demon-Dyed Kung Fu Puppet followed step by step.

This time, he chose to return the same way.

However, pushing open the small door he came from, he entered an unfamiliar room.

This verified one of his conjectures.

The information had once said: For every thirty-six explorations accumulated in the Turning Secret Pavilion, a small turning point will occur. For every one hundred and eight explorations accumulated, a major turning point will occur.

"Is this the so-called 'small turning point'? The connections of the Turning Secret Pavilion are shuffled, and the previously remembered routes are completely useless."

"I have explored to the fourth secret pavilion here, and there are thirteen cultivators participating in the second round of the palace examination. Some have explored fewer secret pavilions than me, so the total number of secret pavilions explored by everyone just now accumulated to thirty-six."

"Reaching this number triggered the mechanism and performed a small turning point."

"If the small turning point is like this, what is the major turning point?"

Ning Zhuo set his mind in motion, thinking constantly. Regarding the rules of the third round of the palace examination, he needed to explore for a period of time before he could truly develop a profound understanding.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was closely watching the Turning Secret Pavilion.

This was an exquisitely structured mechanism building and the last line of defense for the Lava Xian Gong main hall.

The trial levels set up by the Three Sects' superiors were realized precisely by relying on this mechanism building with peculiar functions.

And the various trial levels only utilized a little of the power of this secret pavilion.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was the only audience; it surveyed the overall situation and, after the first small turning point was triggered, immediately summarized the encounters of each cultivator.

Some were good, some were bad; some were racking their brains, and some were still being hunted down.

"The ones with the most gains are Meng Chong and Ning Zhuo."

"These two have gains in every secret pavilion. Currently, their accumulated mechanism creations are neck and neck, firmly occupying the first tier."

In the first tier, there were only Meng Chong and Ning Zhuo.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit's expression was grave: "The route selection in the Turning Secret Pavilion is actually verifying the cultivator's fate."

"The more abundant and prosperous the fate, the more excellent the route the cultivator chooses, and the more profitable it is. The opposite is also true."

"Meng Chong has Immortal Talent, and his natural fate is strong and fierce. Ning Zhuo also has such performance? Although he has the 'Life Hanging by a Thread' divine ability, his fate, when fully added up, only creates a common fate pool, and everyone is at the same level."

"He has no measured talent; could it be that he also has Immortal Talent?"

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit inevitably guessed this way.

"But this isn't right."

"If he had Immortal Talent, having lived in Huoshi Xiancheng for sixteen years, how could he be so unsuccessful and so suppressed?"

"This is definitely not the fate performance of super-grade talent!"