Chapter 340

Ning Family.

Discussion Hall.

The spirit lamp emitted a bright light.

A group of family elders gathered here, but the main seat and the seat to the left of the main seat were empty.

The Ning family head and the young family head were missing.

The elders had grim expressions and were in a bad mood, discussing government affairs.

"Sixty percent of the Red Flame beast tide besieging the Magma Immortal Palace has retreated. In a few days, the Red Flame demonic beasts around Fire Persimmon Immortal City will also begin to retreat. At that time, the City Lord's Mansion should issue a notice; not to mention disaster relief and settling the people, or clearing out the wild demonic beasts, garrisoning the border outposts is what we should intervene in most."

The words of the Rune Hall elder immediately drew the agreement of most people.

It had been four days since Ning Zhuo voluntarily gave the position of Palace Master to Meng Kui.

In fact, on the day Meng Kui became Palace Master, the three Nascent Soul cultivators joined forces, and Zhu Xuanji, the Book Scholar, and others launched a counterattack, killing countless and extinguishing the arrogant flames of the Red Flame demonic beasts.

The three Nascent Soul cultivators were naturally Meng Kui, Meng Hu, and the Taiqing Palace cultivator.

The Taiqing Palace cultivator had used the excuse that "his own disciple was wrongly killed by the Zheng family" to seek the Magma Immortal Palace.

After Meng Kui became Palace Master and actively displayed his duties, the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul immediately understood that his calculations had fallen through and his plan had failed.

Looking at Meng Hu and Meng Kui, he gritted his teeth in anger: "What formidable generals the Meng family has."

Meng Hu's gaze was focused, his attention more concentrated on the Life-Shortening Shield in the hands of the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul. This Night Rain magic weapon was truly strong; he had fought hard for a long time without seeing any hope of breaking the shield, and instead, he had been counter-injured, covered in wounds, and the power of all his defensive means had been weakened.

Meng Kui smiled, indicating that he would not let the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul leave empty-handed; he would hand over the entire Zheng family!

This surprised the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul, and after detailed questioning, he learned that the only two Jin Dan ancestors of the Zheng family had fallen, and core forces like Zheng Hua, as well as young geniuses like Zheng Jian, had all lost their lives.

He immediately understood the reason why Meng Kui could hand over the Zheng family.

Without the strength to protect itself, the Zheng family was just a pawn that could be sacrificed at will!

After learning the details, the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul's attitude softened: "I need the corpses of the Zheng family's two Jin Dan."

Meng Kui nodded and said meaningfully: "Zheng Danlian can be given to you, but Zheng Shuangou has already been killed by demonic cultivators, and the whereabouts of his corpse are unknown."

The Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul then said: "Just the corpse of Zheng Danlian is not enough!"

Meng Kui sneered: "Don't worry, wait until we kill those two demonic cultivators and snatch back Zheng Shuangou's corpse, and we can satisfy your needs."

The ones who killed Zheng Shuangou were actually two Jin Dan from Taiqing Palace, only they had disguised themselves as black-shadow demonic cultivators.

The Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul's momentum stalled, and he could only take a step back, his attitude softening further as he discussed with Meng Kui via sound transmission.

He did indeed need the Zheng family captives to take back to his sect to report. If he didn't cooperate with Meng Kui, he wouldn't get Zheng Danlian's corpse. He would also be driven away by the two Meng family Nascent Soul cultivators, which would look very bad.

After the two reached a partial agreement, Zhu Xuanji also flew into the sky, representing the Nandou royal family, expressing sincerity in cooperation. If the Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul could assist, it would be seen as a great merit and would receive a generous reward from the Nandou Kingdom.

Just like that, the two sides that had been fighting fiercely stopped and made peace. The Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul, Meng Kui, and Meng Hu joined forces to sweep the battlefield, killing the Red Flame demonic beasts until their corpses littered the fields.

The three Nascent Soul-level Red Flame demonic beasts were either dead or injured; the Flame-Treading Lizard fled in a panic with a hole in its head.

The Fire-Deviated Snake was imprisoned by Meng Kui.

The Demon Ape fell into a coma.

The Red Flame demonic beasts suffered heavy casualties, but beasts lacked wisdom and were stirred by death and blood into boundless ferocity, continuing to charge endlessly.

The three Nascent Souls first easily recovered the lost territory, then counterattacked into the magma, killing until they reached the depths of Fire Persimmon Mountain, killing until they all felt a bit soft-handed, and only then did they stop.

During this period, another Nascent Soul-level Red Flame demonic beast was angered and fought with the three Nascent Soul cultivators, retreating with heavy injuries.

Meng Hu chased all the way, and seeing the demonic beast go deep into the boundless fire poison and earth fire, he returned in frustration.

Without the support of the demonic beast kings with Nascent Soul-level combat power, the Jin Dan-level demonic beast elites naturally suffered heavy losses.

However, the Nascent Soul cultivators struck frequently, and the Red Flame beast tide was still endless, continuing until the third day, when the number of Red Flame demonic beasts emerging from the top of Fire Persimmon Mountain finally decreased significantly.

"This slaughter is too great, offending heaven. After returning to the palace, I shall fast for seven days and seven nights, bathing in the Qi of the Upper Clarity, to wash away the slaughter and blood energy." The Taiqing Palace Nascent Soul sighed, and from then on, he stopped striking.

Meng Kui also stopped immediately.

Only Meng Hu struck out in all directions, fighting until he was in the heat of the moment, roaring to the sky, the roar stirring the clouds and wind, covering the entire Fire Persimmon Mountain.

The Red Flame beast tide was suppressed by the joint efforts of the three Nascent Soul cultivators!

The Ning family elders continued to discuss various family affairs.

Counting losses, repairing the family's defensive arrays, strictly distributing pensions...

Finally, they had to talk about a topic. And this topic was one that no one in the hall wanted to face.

"Ning Zhuo is our real threat! This time, he wants to publicly sacrifice to the Ning family members who died in battle. Are we really not going to stop him?" The one who took the initiative to bring it up was Ning Qingqiao.

He possessed the talent of "Frost Falling Without Sound" and Foundation Establishment cultivation. Originally, he was not qualified to discuss affairs. But with the demonic beast siege, the Ning family didn't just lose the family head; family elders also lost their lives.

The family's top level had vacancies, and Ning Qingqiao was promoted, becoming a new face in the Discussion Hall.

The elders were silent.

The School Hall elder sighed faintly: "The great affairs of a country are only war and sacrifice. The family is the same."

Ning Qingqiao immediately added: "This time, if we really let Ning Zhuo preside over the public sacrifice, the hearts of our branch family members will probably turn to him. Between this increase and decrease, how will we compete with the branch family in the future?"

The elders frowned.

This was not because they lacked a big-picture view, but because they were all familiar with government affairs and knew the current situation very well: the main family and the branch family were like a lever supported in the middle because of blood ties. If one end is high, the other is low.

It is either the east wind pressing the west wind, or the west wind pressing the east wind. The side that is pressed will be continuously bled by the dominant side; the weaker side will become weaker, and the stronger side will become stronger.

The War Hall elder spread his hands: "Ning Zhuo has already become the branch family head, and this matter has even been recognized by the ancestor; it is already irreversible."

"Although he is only a small cultivator at the middle stage of Qi Refining, his status is high enough; there is no problem with him presiding over the sacrifice publicly. How can we stop it?"

Everyone was silent for a while.

"Ning Zhuo, sigh... who could have predicted that such a freak would appear in our branch family?"

"A few months ago, I would never have thought that my great Ning family would be split in two because of a small sixteen-year-old branch descendant!"

"Hmph, if it weren't for the Magma Immortal Palace coming out, how could it be?"

Seeing that the elders were all floating on the surface, Ning Qingqiao was anxious: "Hmph, in my opinion, we can't stop him head-on, so let's implement some underhanded means. If Ning Zhuo fails the sacrifice, or the scene is ugly, it will inevitably damage his prestige and win some advantages for our Ning family main line."

*Puff.

Just as Ning Qingqiao finished speaking, his expression changed drastically, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, falling directly from his seat and kneeling on the ground.

The elders were shocked and wanted to stand up, but were suppressed by boundless pressure on their respective seats.

Ning Jiufan suddenly appeared in the main seat of the Ning family head.

He swept his cold gaze across the hall and scolded: "You are all of the Ning family's origin, yet you want to fight among yourselves? With such a mindset, how can you make the family prosperous!?"

"Ancestor!" The elders called out, trying to excuse themselves; some even didn't forget to distance themselves, saying that this was Ning Qingqiao's personal opinion and did not represent them.

Hearing these statements, Ning Qingqiao was so angry that he spat out another mouthful of blood.

Ning Jiufan criticized everyone, finally looked at Ning Qingqiao, directly stripped him of his elder status, and ordered him to face the wall for three years to reflect deeply.

After Ning Jiufan finished dealing with it, he left directly.

The elders then regained their ability to move, one by one sweating profusely, as if they had gained a new life.

Looking at Ning Qingqiao, they felt disdain in their hearts; one cannot be an elder just by having combat power; one must also have a brain.

They also couldn't help but feel a sense of "the rabbit dies and the fox grieves."

Ning Qingqiao had talent and was still like this. They, the elders, had no talent; if they wanted to deal with Ning Zhuo, the outcome would definitely be worse than Ning Qingqiao's!

"I agree with Ning Zhuo presiding over the sacrifice; there is nothing bad about that."

"Yes, he is the genius of our family. It is a good thing that such an excellent descendant can stand up and be brave enough to take responsibility."

"This is a sign of the prosperity of our Ning family. I think we should come forward to help on the day of his sacrifice."

"Agreed."

"I agree."

"Seconded."

Seeing the elders behave like this, Ning Qingqiao was so angry that his eyes went black.

"The ancestor is biased!" He wailed and fainted on the spot.

The other elders agreed with Ning Qingqiao's grievance in their hearts, but they all acted as if they hadn't heard the sentence at all.

Ning Jiufan sighed faintly.

Although he had left, his spiritual sense still covered the Discussion Hall.

If the main line elders of the Ning family knew the truth about the Magma Immortal Palace, they would definitely understand Ning Jiufan deeply.

The combat power Ning Zhuo displayed at the end shocked Ning Jiufan very much!

Being able to repel the Buddha-Doctor Meng Yaoyin, who could fight Zhu Xuanji head-on.

Being able to deploy the quasi-Jin Dan-level array, the Milk Butterfly Lady.

The Heavy-Armored Blood Ape Da Sheng, the Nether Envoy Qi Bai, and the Weather Ball Ice Crystal Snow.

With these mechanical creations by his side, who would still dare to treat Ning Zhuo as just a small cultivator at the middle stage of Qi Refining?

Such powerful combat power was already above his, Ning Jiufan, okay!

And the wrist Ning Zhuo showed when facing Zhu Xuanji and Meng Kui made Ning Jiufan look at him with admiration and treat him with complete seriousness.

He regretted in his heart that he hadn't discovered Ning Zhuo's excellence earlier and had tried to win him over too late.

He was also secretly glad that Ning Zhuo had voluntarily split the family and hadn't stayed to cause trouble for the main line. With his righteous path wrist, strategy, and terrifying combat power, who in the main line could be his opponent?

Didn't he see that the Ning family head and the young family head had both died in front of him?

Ning Jiufan's public support for Ning Zhuo was actually to maintain the Ning family main line; after all, he had once promised to protect these descendants.

Ning Jiufan's handling of Ning Qingqiao was also in the hope that the latter could clearly recognize reality, cultivate well during the three years of facing the wall, and strive to provide new kinetic energy for the Ning family main line with his talent.

The current Ning Qingqiao, having suddenly obtained the status of an elder, was too arrogant. If he really provoked Ning Zhuo to strike, his life would be very precarious!

Unfortunately, Ning Zhuo, Zhu Xuanji, and Meng Kui had agreed to keep the final truth of the Magma Immortal Palace struggle a secret. Although Ning Jiufan was informed afterward, he could not leak it.

Everyone didn't know the truth and found it difficult to understand his painstaking efforts.