Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master

Clouds floated deeply, and Ning Zhuo was silently cultivating.

At times, he was surrounded by five colors, with fluctuating auras, sometimes his essence and blood surged with sinister demonic energy, and other times his face shone with the solemn glow of a Buddha.

After testing the three cultivation methods once, he gained a more direct and profound understanding of the subsequent techniques from the seventh to ninth layers.

"These three techniques all retain their greatest advantage from the past — fast cultivation speed."

"But if I were to follow the original method, the cultivation time would be at least three times longer than before!"

This was because a new advantage appeared in the techniques from the seventh to ninth layers — thickness.

Whether it was spiritual sense, mana, or blood essence, they were all much thicker than what was cultivated through ordinary methods.

Although the advantage of fast cultivation speed remained, the total amount required to cultivate had increased threefold, so the cultivation time was also drastically extended by three times.

What made Ning Zhuo frown even more was another point.

"Starting from the seventh layer, these three techniques begin to echo each other."

"Small realms are fine, but major realms must advance and retreat together, which is rather troublesome."

In other words, the three techniques must enter the seventh, eighth, and ninth layers at the same time. However, one could be in the early stage of the seventh layer, another in the middle stage, and the third in the peak of the seventh layer.

Previously, Ning Zhuo's cultivation in the Sea of Consciousness had reached the sixth layer, while the other two techniques were in the fifth layer.

This situation could no longer occur with the techniques from the seventh to ninth layers.

According to the techniques, if such a situation were to occur, it would greatly affect the chances of successfully forming a Foundation.

Ning Zhuo understood the reason.

"Because this involves the unification of the Three Dantians!"

It had been mentioned before that after the Qi Refining stage comes the Foundation Establishment stage. The Qi Refining stage has three main paths: the Upper Dantian's Sea of Consciousness, the Middle Dantian's Sea of Qi, and the Lower Dantian's Sea of Essence.

For most techniques, they specialize in one Dantian, so there’s no such concern.

However, for superior or top-tier techniques, they don't just specialize in one Dantian but often involve two.

No matter which two Dantians are involved, unification must be achieved. For instance, uniting spirit and qi, or aligning spirit and mind, or perhaps harmonizing essence and qi.

For the Three Sect Lords, they had to do even more — the unity of essence, qi, and spirit!

This unity did not mean merging the three Dantians into one, but rather aligning their auras to function as one, truly clearing the path to Foundation Establishment.

Without such unity, Ning Zhuo's cultivation of these three techniques would be like simultaneously practicing three incompatible techniques.

When it came time to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, failure was inevitable.

If all three Dantians had cultivation, even the slightest disharmony, or lack of priority, would lead to severe conflict, resulting in failure and damaging all three Dantians. At best, it would affect one's cultivation foundation, causing a fall from genius to waste; at worst, it could be life-threatening.

This was the main reason why cultivating all three Dantians was still so rare in today's advanced world of cultivation.

Ning Zhuo summed it up: by the late stages of Qi Refining, the advantage of fast cultivation speed for the Three Sect techniques remained, but the time required had tripled, and all three techniques had to progress together.

He immediately realized the difficulty involved.

"In that case, I can't let my Sea of Consciousness cultivation advance too quickly."

"I must balance the progress of the other two Dantians."

"Fortunately, small realms don’t need to be the same, so I can still use the Ice Jade Wine to boost my Sea of Qi cultivation."

"But what should I do about the Sea of Essence?"

Ning Zhuo's cultivation in the Sea of Essence had always been the slowest.

It wasn't that he lacked talent in this area, or that it was truly slow, but compared to the rapid progress of his Sea of Consciousness and the boosted Sea of Qi, the Sea of Essence was always lagging behind.

Previously, this wasn't an issue.

But now, according to the late-stage techniques of the Three Sects, this had become Ning Zhuo's biggest shortcoming in his cultivation.

"I’ve acquired the later techniques, but new problems have emerged as well."

Ning Zhuo had only glanced at the later stages of the Mirror Platform Spirit Technique when he felt his Sea of Consciousness cultivation subtly surge, showing signs of breaking through to the seventh layer. This startled him, and he hurriedly dismissed all related thoughts from his Sea of Consciousness.

His Sea of Qi cultivation had also reached the peak of the sixth layer.

Only his Sea of Essence was still lagging behind.

"I must focus all my efforts on raising my Sea of Essence cultivation!"

Most research on the Sea of Essence came from demonic sect techniques.

Ning Zhuo had little exposure to this area.

His knowledge mainly came from the public library of the Ning Family, and his mechanical techniques were primarily inherited from his mother's legacy.

Though he had also been gathering intelligence from the black market for years and had paid attention to collecting books,

the cultivation techniques and spells that trickled down to this level of the market were generally of low quality (after all, Huoshi Immortal City was a new city). Unless he stumbled upon a rare find or attended certain auctions, it was difficult to acquire high-quality techniques.

Demonic sect techniques were also officially targeted and banned, making them hard to acquire through conventional markets.

Before the age of sixteen, Ning Zhuo had been firmly committed to walking the righteous path, and had little desire for demonic techniques.

He never expected that the Lava Immortal Palace’s techniques would involve cultivation of all three paths.

This led to a severe mismatch between his preparation and his actual needs for demonic techniques.

Luckily, he had an elder brother who came from a major demonic sect.

Ning Zhuo thus consulted Sun Lingtong on the matter.

Sun Lingtong directly gave him an answer: "It's simple."

"To raise your blood essence cultivation is actually the easiest."

"But, little Zhuo, you definitely won’t be able to do it."

"Big brother, just tell me anyway," Ning Zhuo pressed.

Sun Lingtong gave an answer that made Ning Zhuo’s expression change slightly, and he immediately shook his head, saying, "I can’t do it, I can't!"

The method Sun Lingtong provided was very simple — relatives of the same sect shared the same bloodline.

The terrifying demonic cultivators, for their own benefit, would massacre their own clans to rapidly advance their cultivation.

The key was that, as long as the demonic cultivators focused on refining and purifying, this method had almost no side effects!

Ning Zhuo was unwilling, "Brother Sun, is there no other way?"

Sun Lingtong did offer a few alternatives, but they were either too difficult or too distant to solve the current problem.

What was to be done?

Ning Zhuo had no choice but to focus on frantically cultivating his Sea of Essence, while also keeping an eye out for related information, hoping to find an opportunity or a chance in the outside world.

Sun Lingtong comforted him, "This isn’t even a bottleneck; you're still steadily progressing. This is clearly a normal cultivation speed, yet you're not satisfied."

Ning Zhuo sighed and shared his concerns with Sun Lingtong.

Huoshi Immortal City was already becoming crowded, with more and more outsiders being drawn by recruitment notices, coming here to try to explore the Immortal Palace.

Ning Zhuo felt the pressure growing day by day.

He had to go all out, racing against time, doing everything he could to increase his chances of seizing the Immortal Palace.

If he slacked even slightly, he would never forgive himself.

"Sigh, little Zhuo is too hard on himself," Sun Lingtong sighed inwardly, but he did not comfort him.

Because he knew very well what the Lava Immortal Palace meant to Ning Zhuo.

He also understood that any attempt at persuasion would be pointless. The best help he could offer Ning Zhuo was his full support.

That was why, even though Sun Lingtong was being hunted, he still risked staying in Huoshi Immortal City.

He always hid in underground bases, relocating every so often. Given his personality, this kind of life was more torturous than prison.

But Sun Lingtong endured it all, just so he could stay close to Ning Zhuo and help his little brother if needed.

What he didn’t know was that his situation was even more dangerous than Ning Zhuo’s — he had already been targeted by Luo Shang of the Soul-Devouring Sect and Yang Chanyu of the No-Void Sect, both Golden Core True Disciples.

When he returned to his previous underground base, he would fall into the enemy’s trap.

Ning Zhuo's courtyard.

"Good, this Mechanical Explosive Monkey is of excellent quality. I’ll buy it," Ning Zhuo took out money and purchased a mechanical monkey.

Recently, he had been making this purchase action much more frequently.

"Hmm, you’ve improved the jetting tube based on the mechanism map from the Lava Immortal Palace?"

After receiving a positive response, Ning Zhuo also bought the jetting mechanism tube as encouragement.

After Ning Xiaohui withdrew from the renovation team, the rest of the main branch members, who were already few in number, now lacked leadership and were completely insignificant.

The Ning Family’s renovation team was now

entirely under Ning Zhuo’s control.

Ning Zhuo took the initiative to send members of the renovation team to various mechanical workshops to accumulate mechanical technique knowledge.

After some time, the results were visibly impressive!

This led Ning Zhuo to wonder if the Ning Family was originally a family specializing in mechanical techniques, and whether their current focus on ice and snow techniques was a deviation.

A former steward in the Foundation Establishment stage dispelled his confusion.

This former steward had once participated in selecting personnel for the higher-ups.

Only then did Ning Zhuo realize that the renovation team’s members weren’t chosen randomly but were handpicked by the Ning Family's higher-ups, carefully selected from a large pool of people who were suited for mechanical techniques.

"The more people a family has, the more talents there are for different cultivation arts."

"From the family’s perspective, the more people, the better. It’s truly a case of the more, the merrier."

The Ning Family’s carefully selected personnel had now fallen into Ning Zhuo’s hands, and were used for his benefit.

Sun Lingtong's former black market was now under Ning Zhuo’s control, with profits soaring.

Everything had its pros and cons. The influx of outsiders into the Immortal City brought him immense competition pressure, but it also brought more transactions and more revenue.

Ning Zhuo’s funds were accumulating at an unprecedented speed, even though he was constantly spending.

When he went to donate to the Kindergarten for Benevolence, he contributed a sum of spirit stones far greater than what he had originally planned.

The wages for Ning Family’s Foundation Establishment subordinates were quickly becoming a smaller portion of his total income.

Ning Zhuo also invested a large sum of money in covertly gathering intelligence.

A lot of information about demonic techniques that could speed up cultivation had been collected, but most of it was unreliable.

With over ten years of intelligence training, Ning Zhuo had developed a keen sense for information. He could often tell at a glance how much rumor was mixed into the reports.

Many pieces of intelligence and clues were collected, but most were just rumors with no real value.

The vast majority of answers were what Sun Lingtong had already mentioned — starting with family members.

"Because this involves demonic sect techniques and concerns the Lava Immortal Palace, I can't use official channels, nor can I seek help from the three major families."

"The current situation is still manageable, but if my Sea of Essence cultivation reaches the seventh layer and the time triples, that will be unbearable!"

Ning Zhuo pondered for many days.

Then, one day, he suddenly had a brilliant inspiration and made a delightful breakthrough—

"Wait, I can have mechanical puppets cultivate for me!"