Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master

Chapter 1243: Chapter 481: Mu Lan Longs for Her Husband

"Hmm?" Ning Zhuo immediately felt a sense of relief throughout his body.

He couldn’t help but show a look of surprise, as a thought suddenly popped into his mind: "Could it be that my mother has awakened?"

Li Guanyu, who had been observing him all along, revealed a trace of curiosity. This was the first time he had seen Ning Zhuo so moved.

Ning Zhuo quickly mobilized his Divine Sense and probed into his own Storage Waist Belt.

The result left him greatly disappointed.

The Mechanical Puppet Buddhist Physician, where his mother’s Spiritual Nature resided, showed no sign of movement, and the Big Snake Scythe was also motionless. A red flower emitted a faint light, absorbing the principles of the Monster Path from the outside.

"It’s the red flower sealing Wu Hen!" Ning Zhuo immediately recognized it.

In the battle at Thousand Peak Forest in Liangzhu Country, Ning Zhuo and Mu Lan cooperated and captured Wu Hen and Lin You. Mu Lan used the Red Flower Dharma Image to seal the two captives within the red flower and ultimately handed them over to Ning Zhuo.

This was a sub-body of the Red Flower Dharma Image, and as time passed, the power of the seal was consistently weakening.

Ning Zhuo had been waiting for these two red flowers to dissipate naturally. In this way, he could administer justice to the two captives.

But the durability of the red flower seal exceeded Ning Zhuo’s expectations; even now, it was still faintly persisting.

The once-thick petals now remained only as a thin layer, even revealing the vague features of the captives.

Ning Zhuo, busy participating in various Xingyun Trials, hadn’t focused his attention here. Unexpectedly, during this instance of creating Heart Fire Essence, because his body was eroded by the Monster Path, it inadvertently triggered an anomaly in Wu Hen’s red flower.

Observing carefully, Ning Zhuo saw this red flower rapidly grow in size after absorbing the Monster Path.

At the same time, the crimson color was being invaded by purple, making the hue cloudy and deep.

Wu Hen’s physical body suddenly swelled, slowly deforming, gradually losing its human shape.

"This is bad!"

Ning Zhuo’s heart sank upon seeing this: "Wu Hen’s practice is precisely of the Monster Path, a rare case of a cultivator successfully practicing the Monster Path."

"In this state, he is likely being corrupted by the Monster Path and has already fallen into Deviation?"

Deviation is a relatively broad concept in cultivation.

Ning Zhuo analyzed silently: Wu Hen has been confined and sealed for too long, with his physical and mental state both extremely weak, making it difficult to control the Monster Path in him.

The weakening of the red flower seal naturally attracted corresponding principles nearby to Wu Hen’s whole body.

This is why the Monster Path in Ning Zhuo was completely absorbed.

The Monster Path on Ning Zhuo was merely residual from handling the Monster Path’s exotic materials and was not cultivated by Wu Hen’s methods. After absorbing these, his already dying physical body found it even harder to endure, while the original foundation of the Monster Path was disrupted as if a clean basin of water was stained by a few drops of residual ink, causing a chain reaction in the foundation of cultivation, initially collapsing only a corner, then more and more, faster and faster.

"If it weren’t for the red flower sealing and suppressing, Wu Hen might have immediately transformed into Dao!" Ning Zhuo felt significant pressure.

Dao transformation refers to the host body being unable to bear the principle.

Previously, when Zhu Fenxiang invoked the Great God, the Divine Statue couldn’t bear the strong Divine Skills of the Earth Guardian True Monarch, resulting in Dao transformation, which even led a branch of the Martial Arts Hall to seal itself and be unusable for a short period.

Now, Wu Hen was in a similar situation, also beginning to Dao transform, which is equivalent to falling into Deviation.

"What should I do?" Ning Zhuo found himself almost helpless against the Monster Path.

He could only closely monitor the red flower seal while continuing to manufacture paper, managing the situation.

Due to Wu Hen continuously absorbing the nearby Monster Path, Ning Zhuo found it almost effortless to handle various exotic materials of the Monster Path.

Ning Zhuo’s paper-manufacturing speed soared!

Li Guanyu was utterly astonished, curious in his heart: "What technique has Ning Zhuo employed now? How can he handle these exotic materials of the Monster Path without any burden from the Monster Path?"

"How does he do it?"

"When I get the chance, I must consult him thoroughly."

Li Guanyu excelled in refining Heart Fire Spirit Paper, and he had his own method, which involved using Spiritual Wine to resolve the Monster Path by inebriation.

Ning Zhuo’s method seemed even more efficient than his Spiritual Wine method, arousing this Confucian Cultivator’s desire to seek advice.

"Damn... he indeed had more up his sleeve!" Gu Qing quickly noticed Ning Zhuo’s astonishing performance.

After the Haoran Xuan contest, Gu Qing had already regarded Ning Zhuo as his greatest enemy, shedding any sense of underestimation. Now that Ning Zhuo was starting to pull ahead of him, Gu Qing quickly accepted this harsh reality.

He set aside the medicine vials, no longer exhausting himself with elixirs.

"Save some strength to win in the fifth round!"

Such frantic consumption of elixirs would have given Gu Qing’s body and mind a severe burden. Elixir Pills are not Spirit Food; with Gu Qing’s method of drug use, it would inevitably accumulate heavy aftereffects.

Upon realizing that even if he exerted all his strength, he could hardly surpass Ning Zhuo, Gu Qing decisively eased off.

Eventually, Li Guanyu publicly declared Ning Zhuo the winner of this round.

The cultivators discussed it animatedly.

"Such difficult Spirit Paper, and Ning Zhuo managed to refine so many?"

"I’m ashamed; my cultivation level is at the Golden Core Level, far higher than Ning Zhuo’s, yet the number of Spirit Papers I ended up with is not even half of his."

"In this way, Ning Zhuo and Gu Qing each have taken first place twice, considered temporarily tied."

"In that case, the final fifth round will be their decisive match, haha, exciting. I’m really looking forward to this final showdown!"

Clearly, people favored Ning Zhuo more, or rather, Ning Zhuo was evidently more popular than Gu Qing.

As in the previous matches, many people gathered around Ning Zhuo, showering him with goodwill, eager to befriend the promising young talent.

But this time, Ning Zhuo, preoccupied with his thoughts, hurriedly dealt with them and then left directly.