Chapter 45: Everyone is the Protagonist

Ning Zhuo could not hear, see, or smell, plunging him once more into a world of darkness.

But he was overjoyed.

"I've finally made it in!"

"From now on, I can proactively enter the Lava Immortal Palace in this way."

The previous method was far too passive.

"Perhaps, I can even activate the 'Trial Disciple' imprint and actively leave the Immortal Palace?"

This conjecture lingered in his mind, but there was no need to verify it for the moment.

As Ning Zhuo pondered, he channeled the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art, unleashing his spiritual energy.

The outward-spreading spiritual energy soon drew the first mechanical component to him.

As with the previous two times, it was still the left arm.

Following that, it was the head.

And as before, it was still a large head.

Ning Zhuo assembled himself with practiced ease, then hopped off the small mountain of mechanical components.

He limped towards the door.

This time, to save some time, he didn't focus on finding legs of the same length.

"With the hanging loop, even if I limp, it's enough to get through Room Number Two."

"The immediate priority is to conceal my identity as soon as possible. I'm at least named on three lists, so according to the most conservative estimate, I need to make three trips."

As a result, when Ning Zhuo touched the door, he didn't see the hanging loop as a reward option.

The three options were: one spirit stone, a Recoil Silk (mechanical component), and a wisp of Qi (spell).

"No hanging loop?!" Ning Zhuo was stunned for a moment.

The next moment, he smacked his head. The wooden little hand collided with the large head, making a loud thud.

"A mistake!"

"I should have deduced it earlier."

"During the second exploration, I discovered that the Ice Holding spell was replaced by the Fire Gripping technique."

"This indicates that the reward options are not fixed. It's likely that because I chose them before, they will rotate."

"If spells are like this, then mechanical rewards should also have such changes."

"It's just that the spirit stone option has remained unchanged for years, making me less sensitive to this aspect."

Everyone makes mistakes.

Ning Zhuo was no exception.

Of course, it was mainly because his desire to conceal his identity was somewhat urgent.

Staring at the three rewards before him, Ning Zhuo thought for a moment and quickly chose the Recoil Silk.

He certainly couldn't choose a spell; Ning Zhuo still wanted to successfully get off the list this time.

Although he could enter the palace proactively through the Trial Disciple imprint, this mechanism had not been thoroughly explored, and there might be other restrictions.

"For example, must I wait several days before entering the palace a second time?"

Ning Zhuo didn't want to create unnecessary complications at this critical juncture. Right now, what he needed most was to get off the list!

He didn't want to take pointless risks.

He didn't choose the spirit stone either.

His spiritual energy was currently abundant.

The Recoil Silk was teleported over.

This was a ring of metallic silk, relatively thick. Looking closely, one could see a golden and silver luster on the surface of the silk.

Ning Zhuo was very familiar with this.

He plopped down on the ground and disassembled both of his lower legs.

Then, he extracted a section of Recoil Silk, winding it skillfully between his fingers into a spiraling shape, resembling a whirlwind.

Next, he installed this spiraling metal wire at the knee joint, adding a new connection method between the lower leg and the thigh.

Finally, he reattached the lower legs.

Following suit, he added Recoil Silk to his elbows as well.

He stood up and tried moving around a few times, feeling good.

There was no point in practicing in Room Number One; Ning Zhuo directly pushed open the door and entered Room Number Two.

He ran on the retreating floor tiles.

There was Recoil Silk between his lower legs and thighs. Whenever he landed, the Recoil Silk would compress. Once compressed to a certain extent, the Recoil Silk would unleash a force, forcing itself to return to its normal length. This, in turn, gave Ning Zhuo more momentum.

Before, Ning Zhuo had been running honestly to get through the levels. This time, he hopped and skipped, each jump covering a great distance.

The first two times, he had run to the middle of the path before being outpaced by the retreating tiles. But this time, his running and jumping were highly efficient; even after passing the midpoint, he still surpassed the tile retreat speed by a margin.

The giant tree struck horizontally, but Ning Zhuo was prepared; with a light leap, he jumped directly onto the tree.

"Before, I needed to jump with both feet together; now, the height and jumping speed of a single foot are stronger than the previous two times using both feet!"

Ning Zhuo jumped between the giant tree and the walls, occasionally landing on the floor tiles.

He tried and failed twice, but on the third try, he successfully crossed the final obstacle and landed in front of the door.

"Recoil Silk is more suitable for clearing Room Number Two than the hanging loop." Ning Zhuo made a judgment in his heart.

At that moment, he thought of the speedrun leaderboard.

"The elders of the Three Sects designed these levels not only for assessment but also for instruction."

"The so-called speedrun is actually to encourage us, these trial disciples, to constantly hone our skills and train our ability to use mechanical creations."

"What if Meng Chong came to challenge this level?"

"Can he skillfully use these mechanical components?"

"No, the determining factor isn't that, but his puppet. The puppet brought by a superior talent is definitely much stronger than mine!"

During the surprise attack on the Purple Yang Estate, Ning Zhuo had also seen Meng Chong's sneak attack on Han Ming through mechanical creations.

"Although Meng Chong was surging with medicinal power at the time, surrounded by dissipating magical power, he could still deliver such a powerful attack because of his talent, 'Raging Charge Thunder'!"

Ning Zhuo himself was a humanoid library and was very clear about the meaning of superior talent, but after seeing it firsthand at the time, he was still shaken to his core.

What is superior?

Inferior, medium, and superior are still on the same level. Superior, however, transcends the ordinary and exceeds equality!

Often, only one such person appears among millions of cultivators.

Cultivators with superior talent, as long as they grow up, are all major sect geniuses and pillars of the nation.

"The Meng family is a super family in the Southern Bean Kingdom, with tens of millions of members. With such a vast population, every once in a while, a superior talent will appear."

Ning Zhuo didn't have any jealous feelings.

Since he had the inferior 'Early Wisdom' talent and the mysterious 'Arm' talent, why couldn't others have them?

Why couldn't others possess something better than him?

On what basis?

The year Ning Zhuo's mother died, Ning Zhuo understood a truth – the world does not revolve around him!

He was just the protagonist of his own life, and everyone was the protagonist of their own life.

All the protagonists perform various grudges and feuds, grand schemes and conspiracies on the world's big stage.

"Precisely because it is like this, this world is wonderful."

Meng Chong had not yet entered, but Ning Zhuo had already felt a pressure from behind.

Concealing his identity was just a fallback, stabilizing his current first-mover advantage.

But with Meng Chong's formal entry, how long could this first-mover advantage be maintained?

Ning Zhuo had no confidence.

All he could do now was to continue moving forward.