Lava Immortal Palace.
As Ning Zhuo's soul returned to his body, the puppet body he inhabited immediately collapsed, scattering across the ground with a clang.
But as Ning Zhuo quickly returned, the pieces of the puppet body on the ground reassembled and soon stood up again.
At the same time, a circle of light from the teleportation formation released Yuan Dasheng's corpse.
Seeing this, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit felt a sudden darkness before its eyes—its worst fear had materialized! Its dragon eyes widened, glaring fiercely at Ning Zhuo, its nostrils flaring, each breath spurting sparks.
But Ning Zhuo felt nothing.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit’s breathing grew heavier, and it threw its head back in a furious roar!
The roar echoed in all directions, shaking the entire Immortal Palace.
The sound waves reverberated outwards, causing magma to erupt atop Fire Persimmon Mountain, sending a vast plume of smoke into the sky.
Meng Kui, the city lord, opened his eyes abruptly, breaking off his cultivation. “Is it happening again?”
Inside the main hall of the Lava Immortal Palace, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit darted wildly in midair, spewing columns of fire in all directions as if it had gone mad.
The Lava Immortal Palace grew increasingly chaotic.
In the midst of the fiery glow, Meng Kui’s face turned increasingly grim.
Ning Zhuo remained oblivious to this.
In the peaceful silence of his room, Ning Zhuo quickly examined Yuan Dasheng’s corpse, feeling both excitement and disappointment.
He was thrilled that his first attempt had successfully brought Yuan Dasheng's body into the Lava Immortal Palace—a wholly new experience for him.
But he was disappointed that the storage bags he had hidden on and inside Yuan Dasheng’s body had not been transported along.
“I was constantly sensing the Buddha Heart Demon Seal as I entered the palace,” he thought.
“Ah, if only I could bring in large quantities of materials…”
“Almost every resource in the Lava Immortal Palace requires the consumption of limited spirit stones,” he mused.
With ample materials, he was confident he could fortify the first three levels to the point of being impenetrable!
Regaining his focus, Ning Zhuo began considering his next steps.
He had successfully brought in the ape’s body, but how to offer it to the Immortal Palace?
This step was unclear, as he lacked critical information.
This information should have been provided by the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, but it was now gritting its teeth in frustration, dashing frantically around the main hall.
Behind it trailed a flaming whip.
Crack! Crack!
The fire whip continued to lash the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, even as it darted around the pillars at high speed.
At the peak of Fire Persimmon Mountain, Meng Kui, with great effort, conjured a spell, summoning a giant hand to suppress the Lava Immortal Palace.
The radiant glow emitted by the palace’s treasures quickly pierced through the giant hand, leaving Meng Kui no choice but to activate the Fire Persimmon Immortal City Grand Formation.
Utilizing the formation’s power, he finally managed to stabilize the situation.
“What in the world is driving the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit insane?!”
This time, the Lava Immortal Palace’s eruption was more intense than ever, exerting tremendous pressure on Meng Kui.
In the palace, the sound of a dragon’s furious roars conveyed intense unwillingness, rage, and desperation, interwoven with anguished screams.
Initially, only one whip lashed the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, but as it continued to resist, refusing to perform its duties, more whips materialized.
Five or six fiery whips relentlessly pursued and struck the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit!
Its spiritual body grew increasingly dim, becoming translucent. Unable to endure, it finally relented and conveyed the key information.
Inside his room, Ning Zhuo, who had been about to make a few attempts, furrowed his brow upon learning this.
“The Lava Immortal Palace seems to be severely damaged. Such vital information should have been communicated right away.”
Wasting no time, Ning Zhuo dragged Yuan Dasheng's corpse to the door.
With his small puppet body, dragging Yuan Dasheng’s corpse proved laborious and time-consuming.
Once the body was at the door, a circle of teleportation light appeared, swallowing it.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, now curled up in a corner, braced itself as the fiery whips continued to strike.
The expression on its dragon head conveyed not just pain but utter despair. It knew Ning Zhuo had made the right choice!
Even if Ning Zhuo delivered a golden core stage corpse, creating a Spirit-Linked Mechanical Construct, he wouldn't be able to control it.
But Yuan Dasheng was not a golden core; he was at the third layer of qi refining and the ninth layer of essence refining.
Using him as the primary material for a mechanical construct was right at Ning Zhuo’s control limit.
Even more crucial was the presence of Immortal Talent!
Materials containing Immortal Talent were exceptionally rare and highly valuable.
The Lava Immortal Palace had furnaces of copper, iron, silver, and gold, four levels of fire furnaces.
To refine Immortal Talent materials, the gold furnace had to be used.
Each gold furnace could only be used once, even to refine the lowest-grade immortal materials!
Since the construction of the Lava Immortal Palace, there had been a maximum of eight gold furnaces.
Now, only four remained.
To refine Yuan Dasheng, another gold furnace would have to be sacrificed.
The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit absolutely did not want this to happen, but reality was harsh!
Forced to comply, it controlled the palace and placed Yuan Dasheng’s corpse into the gold furnace.
The gold furnace began refining, consuming vast amounts of spiritual energy as a grand beam of treasure light burst forth.
The treasure light was blindingly bright, shooting straight into the heavens, thick as a pillar.
“What’s happening now?” Meng Kui was taken aback.
Using the formation’s power, he stirred the clouds and smoke, attempting to obscure the enormous pillar of light.
“If only I could enter the palace myself…” Meng Kui clenched his teeth, sighing in frustration.
His skill in mechanical arts was very low; to be precise, by the standards of a nascent soul cultivator, it was abysmally low.
As such, he was not chosen to enter the Lava Immortal Palace.
In this regard, he was even less qualified than certain golden core and foundation establishment cultivators selected after the palace’s standards had dropped.
Among his subordinates, two were at the golden core stage but were likewise not selected by the palace.
Though some of his foundation establishment subordinates had been admitted, they provided no significant advantage, failing to set him apart from the Zhou and Zheng families.
For this reason, Meng Kui had personally taken action, stationed himself at the mountain peak, and, under the guise of investigation, sealed off the entire palace, temporarily barring all cultivators from entering.
Though the Zhou and Zheng families had voiced objections, Meng Kui forcefully denied them, as the city lord’s office had not sent any cultivators to intrude directly into the palace.
Representing the Southern Bean Kingdom, Meng Kui used the pretext of investigating demonic cultivators.
Thus, the two families had no recourse but to monitor the palace, ensuring no agents from the city lord’s office slipped inside.
“All my hopes rest on Chong’er.”
Meng Kui placed great faith in Meng Chong. Recently, Meng Chong had succeeded in a breakthrough, elevating his mastery of the Wild Sprint Thunderclap to an entirely new level.
“With his supreme talent and robust fate energy, any pressure can only make him stronger. In fair competition, who can overpower him?”
As the towering pillar of light gradually faded, the Lava Immortal Palace calmed once more.
Meng Kui let out a smug snort.
Meanwhile…
A teleportation circle appeared before Ning Zhuo.
From within the circle, a mechanical ape slowly descended.
“It’s completed so soon?”
Overjoyed, Ning Zhuo stepped forward to inspect it.
Hearing footsteps, the mechanical ape opened its eyes, lifting its head.
It looked at Ning Zhuo, its eyes gleaming with blood-red light, exuding an imposing aura.
Ning Zhuo slowed his pace.
In that instant, Yuan Dasheng was reborn!