Chapter 302: This is not cheating! (Seeking monthly votes)

While calculating the time for the palace examination, Ning Zhuo remained fully focused, staring intently at each of the arenas.

He quickly realized that this was a rare and precious opportunity!

Standing beneath the arenas, he could observe ten arenas and the battles between twenty cultivators simultaneously.

The cultivators were truly showing off their skills; the mechanical puppets they had crafted in such a short time contained a variety of design philosophies.

The one with the greatest momentum and the strongest combat power was, surprisingly, Zhu Xuanji's mechanical puppet.

It had a red headband tied around its forehead; Ning Zhuo privately referred to it as the Red Turban Army.

Clearly, the Red Turban Army was a mechanical puppet crafted primarily from fire essence, and its flame-based offensive was extremely powerful.

Zhu Xuanji had constructed the puppet's body using charcoal-baked clay, with fist-gold wrapped only on the exterior to form armor.

"There must be a very high-quality storage formation inside the Red Turban Army; it is using far too much fire essence."

The raging flames generated by the consumption of fire essence were compressed layer by layer within the Red Turban Army, to the point of being nearly viscous.

Flames constantly erupted from the Red Turban Army's mouth, nose, and palms, forming fire dragons and fire walls. The flames covered the entire arena, surging with momentum, trapping the enemy in a sea of fire and burning them continuously.

The Red Turban Army was like a fish in water amidst the flames, while its enemies suffered a calamity.

Surveying the ten arenas, Ning Zhuo found that almost all the mechanical creations of the other cultivators could not withstand such a fierce fire attack.

Even his own Five Elements Pawns were no exception.

"The only one with a hope of winning should be Zheng Hua's mechanical puppet, right?"

He privately named it the Diamond Guard.

Ning Zhuo observed continuously and found that the only one capable of contending with the fire attack was indeed the Diamond Guard.

Zheng Hua himself possessed a natural talent that allowed him to easily smelt materials.

Ning Zhuo guessed that he must have fused fist-gold and charcoal-baked clay into a new composite material, using it as the primary component to construct a burly, sturdy puppet.

Black-gold armor with a slight grayish sheen covered almost the puppet's entire body.

The joints were made of ancient wood inscribed with spiritual patterns.

The modification of the Frost Flower Big Water Drop was the same as Ning Zhuo's idea; both had been equipped with formations.

However, Zheng Hua had installed cold ice formations and healing formations within the water drops, allowing them to repair the Diamond Guard's wounds. If a wound was too large, the water drop would split off a portion, turning into cold ice to provide temporary filling.

This filling function effectively reduced the damage from enemy attacks aimed at the puppet's own wounds.

The Diamond Guard's defense was extremely formidable; it stood its ground, unmoving, regardless of the opponent's attacks.

Ning Zhuo looked toward Ning Jiufan.

In Ning Zhuo's judgment, among the twenty-some mechanical puppets across the ten arenas, only three clearly surpassed the Five Elements Pawns in performance.

Besides the Red Turban Army and the Diamond Guard, there was the Frost Envoy crafted by Ning Jiufan.

This mechanical puppet was constructed entirely of ice blocks. Dense frost flowers were distributed across the ice.

Clearly, Ning Jiufan had focused on using the Frost Flower Big Water Drop.

Once he froze it into ice, he immediately entered the realm of ice sculpture mechanics, which he was most skilled at.

Because the total amount of Big Water Drops was limited, Ning Jiufan's Frost Envoy was quite small in stature.

On its body, one could see some wooden and golden joints, armor, and other structures.

Ning Jiufan's craftsmanship was excellent; these joints and armor were small, exquisite, and gorgeous, very eye-catching.

The Frost Envoy could release frost formations; as the freezing air spread, the enemy's movements would often become increasingly sluggish until their joints and other vital points were frozen solid.

"If I encounter these three, my Five Elements Pawns will likely be defeated."

"Zheng Hua's side might still have a glimmer of hope, but Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan basically have no hope of winning!"

Ning Zhuo compared them and was very self-aware.

Although all the Jin Dan-level cultivators would be suppressed to the Qi Refining stage by the Immortal Palace, they still held clear advantages in control techniques, combat experience, and even magic power and spirit.

And the remaining Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators were not to be underestimated either. A moment of carelessness could easily lead to a disaster.

After all, these people had gained the recognition of the Lava Immortal Palace and were able to enter it; it was evident that their attainments in mechanical arts were quite outstanding!

"If I really had to calculate it, Meng Chong's mechanical attainments should be the lowest, right?"

Ning Zhuo's gaze subconsciously shifted to one of the arenas.

The mechanical puppet manufactured by Meng Chong was very sloppy, and its structure was quite simple. However, he possessed two mechanical puppets!

His opponent at this moment had only one mechanical puppet, and upon seeing Meng Chong, they had voluntarily raised their hand to concede.

"This person is clearly a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator."

"Is the City Lord's Mansion's influence so vast and their layout so meticulous that they have already contacted him and bribed him privately?"

Ning Zhuo tried his best to memorize everything.

Across the ten arenas, the twenty-plus mechanical puppets each had their own characteristics, and the cultivation techniques they employed had different emphases.

For example, Ning Jiufan's mechanical puppet focused on carving skills. Zheng Hua's Diamond Guard employed many artifact-refining techniques.

And these technical characteristics would often be maintained in the subsequent palace examinations.

On the other hand, the design of the mechanical puppets also highlighted the personality traits of each cultivator.

For instance, Zhu Xuanji was someone who hated evil, and he would always subconsciously position himself in the hunter's offensive stance.

All of this information was extremely valuable.

"Sun Lao, things are getting a bit dangerous." Ning Zhuo felt a secret worry.

Although Sun Lingtong had also studied mechanical classics diligently, he did not have much talent for mechanics. Compared to most cultivators, he was excellent.

But now, participating in the Lava Immortal Palace's palace examination and comparing himself to this group of mechanical cultivators, his performance clearly showed a weakness.

"I will continue to use the Five Elements Pawns."

"Mechanical puppets with such balanced performance often struggle in battle. This will precisely make the enemies and spectators underestimate them."

"This is very favorable for my hiding of talent!"

Ning Zhuo was not worried about himself, especially with the Long Yuan Fire Spirit leaking the questions; he was quite confident in himself.

But he was worried about Sun Lingtong.

Sun Lingtong was using the name "Ning Zhuo"; if he were eliminated in this round, others would naturally discover that the "entry standard" was actually Ning Zhuo himself!

The second round of the palace examination continued.

Ning Zhuo subsequently entered the arena several times, and when he encountered Zhu Xuanji or Ning Jiufan, he conceded without hesitation.

Such instances of concession were quite common, and he was not an isolated case. This undoubtedly greatly shortened the overall duration of the competition.

Before the day had even ended, the first question of the second round of the palace examination had actually been completed.

Ning Zhuo let out a long breath. Throughout the overall competition, although there was rest time between each match, it was still very tiring, and it was a quite arduous test of magic power, spirit, and willpower.

Still using the teleportation light circle, everyone was able to return to their original locations quickly.

Ning Zhuo was soon summoned.

Ning Jiufan said to him with great satisfaction: "Little Zhuo, I have been watching you."

"Although every battle was a difficult test for you, you always maintained high morale and persevered to win one hard-fought battle after another."

"This is very good; you are, after all, of my Ning family bloodline, possessing the backbone of my Northern Wind men."

Ning Zhuo took the opportunity to express his loyalty and then cheekily asked Ning Jiufan for a reward.

Ning Jiufan had already begun to get used to Ning Zhuo's thick skin. Having only lost to Zhu Xuanji in today's battle, he was in a good mood and directly took out the Jin Dan-level mechanical ape.

This mechanical ape was the one Ning Zhuo had previously lent to Ning Jiufan.

"I didn't expect that there would be no use for it in the second round of the palace examination."

"I'll return it to you."

"The internal mechanical parts inside are also a gift for you."

"Among them is a log-pillow mechanism, which is suitable for your current situation."

"You should release it to guard you day and night."

"The first question of the second round of the palace examination has passed; from now on, the situation of all cultivators will be fraught with danger. After all, this is a struggle concerning the ownership of the Lava Immortal Palace."

Ning Zhuo had not expected that the mechanical ape he had just lent out would return to his hands so soon.

He immediately expressed his deep gratitude to Ning Jiufan.

After bringing back the mechanical ape, he opened the outer armor and saw a dense array of ice-carved mechanisms inside. Among them, the log-pillow mechanism that Ning Jiufan had highlighted was quite special, as it was made of wood.

After Ning Zhuo studied it for a while, he felt its profoundness.

Ning Jiufan was, after all, at the Jin Dan level, and his mechanical attainments surpassed Ning Zhuo's. There were many manufacturing methods that Ning Zhuo could not achieve.

The next day, the teleportation light circle appeared, and everyone entered the arena again to conduct the second question of the competition.

The content of the second question was still five portions of each of the five elements' materials and one spirit stone.

Compared to the first question, the five elements' materials were still at the Qi Refining level, but the quantities were insufficient, which forced many previous construction plans to fail during the design phase.

Because, for any single material, there was not enough scale.

Even that spirit stone was no longer a middle-grade spirit stone, but a low-grade one. This forced all cultivators to add at least one spirit-gathering formation.

The difficulty of the second question was clearly much greater than the first.

Ning Zhuo's performance was average, while Sun Lingtong and the others were already losing more than they were winning.

Such a trend was quite ominous.

Fortunately, Ning Jiufan had returned the previous Jin Dan-level mechanical ape.

After the second question was finished, that same evening, Ning Zhuo went to the intensive care room to meet Sun Lingtong in secret.

In front of Sun Lingtong, he recalled Yuan Dasheng's spirituality and re-injected it into the Golden Blood Battle Ape.

Then, he handed the Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng to Sun Lingtong to use.

Yang Chanyu, who was on the side, learned of their next plan and couldn't help but look at the Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng in surprise: "You mean, this mechanism came from the trial level?!"

"Then, according to the requirements in the second round of the palace examination, wouldn't we be able to use it directly, without needing us to grunt and construct mechanical puppets for every arena battle?"

Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes: "Why would you think that? Of course we need to continue crafting puppets; that way, wouldn't we have two puppets fighting, just like Meng Chong?"

Yang Chanyu's expression froze: "That is indeed the case."

Just like that, in the third day's competition, Sun Lingtong directly took out the Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng to use, shocking everyone else into dumbfounded silence!