Chapter 314

Being suddenly sucked in by the main hall gate, Ning Zhuo's vision changed drastically, a chaotic mess of five colors.

A strong sense of weightlessness and dizziness struck; Ning Zhuo knew this feeling.

In the past, when Sun Lingtong used the Space-Piercing Art to teleport him, it was this feeling.

Ning Zhuo suddenly landed on his feet, and the five-colored mottled scene before his eyes suddenly disappeared.

Ning Zhuo immediately became fully alert, scanning his surroundings.

Red copper walls, scorching temperatures, and a golden ceiling—a quite familiar situation that made him mistakenly think he had entered the Immortal Palace with his soul again.

But unlike entering the Immortal Palace with his soul, this time Ning Zhuo's soul was not pulled out by the Life-Hanging Thread, but his physical body and soul entered together.

New information was conveyed to his heart—

"Lava Immortal Palace third round palace examination!"

"Cultivators will explore in the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion, accept unique challenges in each mechanism room, and win corresponding rewards."

"Finally, the person who finds the correct path, breaks out of the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion, enters the main hall, and sits on the throne will become the Palace Master of the Lava Immortal Palace!"

"Please note: The difficulty of the mechanism rooms varies."

"Please note: During the process of exploring the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion and stepping into the Immortal Palace main hall, the cultivators' cultivation bases will all be suppressed to the Qi Refining stage."

"Please note: The magic tools, elixirs, etc., carried by the cultivators themselves will be prohibited from use; violators will be eliminated."

"Please note: Cultivators are allowed to use various props provided in the secret pavilion and are allowed to use spells. The power of spells will be suppressed to the Qi Refining level."

"Please note: Mechanism creations in the trial levels can be used unconditionally during the exploration process."

"Please note: For every thirty-six explorations accumulated in the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion, a small turning point will occur. For every one hundred and eight explorations accumulated, a large turning point will occur."

"Please note: Cultivators can choose to ask for the list at any time and can choose to concede. Once they concede, they will be immediately teleported out of the venue."

"Please note: Every change in the palace examination list will be notified to all participants in a timely manner."

……

A long string of information made Ning Zhuo stop in his tracks, and only after carefully savoring it did he begin to act formally.

He scanned the area and found that the first mechanism room he was in was unremarkable, with only a pedestal in the center.

The pedestal was covered by a beam of light, and a mechanism prop was placed on it.

This was a wooden ring. The ring body was relatively thick, and eighteen diamond-shaped crystals were embedded on it. The crystals all presented a blue-purple shimmer. As long as the observation angle changed slightly, the blue-purple shimmer would also change, which was quite exquisite.

"Hanging ring." For a moment, Ning Zhuo had the illusion of returning to the past.

He was cautious, examining it with twelve points of vigilance in his heart, and after using various spells without detecting any mechanism traps, he reached out and took the hanging ring out.

The beam of light covering the pedestal immediately dissipated, and the entire pedestal slowly sank until it was completely submerged in the floor.

Finally, the floor on both sides closed toward the middle, tightly sealed, without even a crack.

Ning Zhuo stood in place, scanning left and right, remaining alert for a short while, but there was no movement at all.

"Is that it?" Ning Zhuo felt surprised.

Another Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion……

"Wah-yah-yah." Sun Lingtong ran wildly.

Behind him, a Foundation Establishment level Flame-Treading Lizard was chasing him relentlessly like a wild bull charging.

The room volume was limited, and Sun Lingtong was forced to jump up and down, sometimes having to fly over eaves and walk on walls.

His pair of small legs moved like wheels.

The Flame-Treading Lizard suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a string of fire lines.

The tip of the fire line touched Sun Lingtong's butt, immediately setting his pants on fire.

Sun Lingtong had no choice but to run wildly with all his might while reaching out to cover his burning butt, patting it constantly.

Another Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion……

Ning Jiufan was pierced by more than a dozen long spears and pinned to a side wall.

Ning Jiufan's expression was ferocious; enduring the severe pain, he pulled the long spears out one by one.

He could not take out the elixirs in his storage belt, so he had to use the Ning family's Ice Art to freeze himself for emergency healing.

……

Ning Zhuo was cautious as he stepped into the second secret pavilion.

It was the exact same layout as before, and there was a pedestal in the room as well.

A beam of light shone down, making the mechanism creation on the pedestal very clear and conspicuous.

Ning Zhuo walked over alertly and took the mechanism creation, which turned out to be a Blood-Dissolving Pool.

"This mechanism component can dissolve living beings with blood into countless blood. Used in combination with a blood oil bottle, it can allow mechanism puppets to fight while nourishing themselves."

"However, my Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng is designed precisely, and there is no space left in its body to add such a huge Blood-Dissolving Pool component."

Currently, the Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng was still in Sun Lingtong's hands.

Ning Zhuo had to meet with Sun Lingtong first before he could retrieve Yuan Dasheng.

"Sigh, I hope to run into Boss Sun soon."

The storage belt could not be used, so Ning Zhuo could only leave while holding the bulky Blood-Dissolving Pool.

In front, behind, left, right, and even the ceiling above and the center of the floor beneath his feet all had doors to leave.

Ning Zhuo chose a door at random and pushed it open to leave.

……

In Shuzhong Jun's secret pavilion, there was only one door.

A huge door.

There were a large number of wooden blocks on the door, and these wooden blocks were spliced together, all constrained within the door frame.

Shuzhong Jun held the door handle with one hand; he needed to consume magic power and spirit to move these wooden blocks so that the characters on each wooden block were arranged appropriately in sequence. The final overall text would all form a correct copy of the "Demonic Blood-Tendon Art."

But the problem was……

"I don't know anything about the 'Demonic Blood-Tendon Art' at all!"

Shuzhong Jun roared in his heart in anger.

At this moment, he regretted extremely why he had not participated in the Jin Dan melee in the Fire Persimmon Immortal City earlier when they were fighting for the true demonic scripture.

Even if it was a fake scripture, there was still some real gain.

"Or, in the second round of the palace examination, someone could have sold me some content of the demonic scripture. At least I could have inferred a lot from it and wouldn't be stuck here now."

This was the second secret pavilion Shuzhong Jun had entered.

The huge door blocked his path forward.

After struggling for a while, Shuzhong Jun gave up voluntarily with a slightly pale complexion.

"My strength has been suppressed to the Qi Refining stage."

"Not only the total amount of magic power and spirit, but even the recovery ability is limited to the Qi Refining stage."

"I cannot consume too much in front of this door."

"I must be on guard at all times in case someone else enters this secret pavilion and breaks out into a battle with me."

Before leaving, Shuzhong Jun took one last lingering look at this huge door.

A feeling in his heart told him that the room behind the door must have great benefits.

"Unfortunately, I am not a trial disciple."

"From the first and second rounds of the palace examination, it can be seen that the three sects' superiors are quite kind to the disciples they cultivate themselves."

This secret pavilion had two external passages.

One was the huge door, and the other was a small door.

The small door was the path Shuzhong Jun had entered from.

He sighed, opened the small door, and returned to the first secret pavilion he had entered.

This time, he chose another small door and left.

He was still unwilling to give up and silently noted the route in his heart.

……

Ning Zhuo had just left his third secret pavilion.

From this secret pavilion, he had obtained a portion of elixirs, which, after being swallowed, could quickly restore magic power.

Just as he pushed the door open and entered the fourth secret pavilion, the entire room suddenly shook.

The magnitude of the shaking was not intense, and a burst of mechanism sounds came, echoing throughout the room.

The mechanism sounds lasted for a dozen breaths and stopped abruptly. During this time, the room had been vibrating. As the mechanism sounds stopped, the room also calmed down.

"Ha!" A Qi Refining level Kung Fu puppet took a stance and stood ready against Ning Zhuo.

"Finally, something different." Ning Zhuo's eyes lit up, and he walked forward.

The Kung Fu puppet rushed toward him.

Ning Zhuo had self-awareness and immediately retreated, using spells to attack from a distance.

The Kung Fu puppet was gradually tied up by rapidly growing vines.

"Demonic Blood-Tendon Corruption!" Ning Zhuo walked leisurely in front of it, used his own essence blood, performed the Demonic Blood-Tendon Art, and forcibly subdued this puppet.

"Before I get back the Golden Blood Battle Ape · Dasheng, I'll make do with this for now." Ning Zhuo left his fourth secret pavilion, and behind him, the Corrupted Kung Fu puppet followed step by step.

This time, he chose to return along the original path.

However, when he pushed open the small door he had come from, he entered an unfamiliar room.

This verified one of his conjectures.

The information had once said: For every thirty-six explorations accumulated in the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion, a small turning point will occur. For every one hundred and eight explorations accumulated, a large turning point will occur.

"Is this the so-called 'small turning point'? The connections of the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion are shuffled, and the previously memorized routes are completely useless."

"I have explored to the fourth secret pavilion, and there are thirteen cultivators participating in the second round of the palace examination. Some people have explored fewer secret pavilions than I have, so the total number of secret pavilions explored by everyone just now accumulated to thirty-six."

"Upon reaching this number, the mechanism was triggered, and a small turning point occurred."

"If a small turning point is like this, what is a large turning point?"

Ning Zhuo set his mind to work, thinking constantly. Regarding the rules of the third round of the palace examination, he needed to go through a period of exploration before he could truly develop a profound understanding.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was closely monitoring the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion.

This was an exquisitely structured mechanism building, the last line of defense for the Lava Immortal Palace's main hall.

The trial levels set up by the three sects' superiors were precisely realized with the help of this uniquely functional mechanism building.

And the various trial levels only utilized a small portion of this secret pavilion's power.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit was the only spectator; it surveyed the overall situation, and after the first small turning point was triggered, it immediately summarized the encounters of each cultivator.

Some were doing well, some were doing poorly; some were racking their brains, and some were still being chased.

"The ones with the most gains are Meng Chong and Ning Zhuo."

"These two have had gains in every secret pavilion. Currently, their accumulation of mechanism creations is neck and neck, firmly occupying the first tier."

In the first tier, there were only Meng Chong and Ning Zhuo.

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit had a solemn expression: "The route selection in the Turning Mechanism Secret Pavilion is actually verifying the cultivator's fortune."

"The more abundant and prosperous the fortune, the better the route the cultivator chooses, and the more profitable it is. And vice versa."

"Meng Chong possesses Immortal Talent, and his natural fortune is fierce. Ning Zhuo also has such performance? Although he has the Life-Hanging Thread divine ability, when his fortune is added up completely, it just creates a common fortune pool; everyone is at the same level."

"He has no measured talent; could it be that he also has Immortal Talent?"

The Dragon-Turtle Fire Spirit inevitably guessed this way.

"But this isn't right."

"If he had Immortal Talent, having lived in the Fire Persimmon Immortal City for sixteen years, how could he be so unsuccessful and so suppressed?"

"This is definitely not the fortune performance of a super-grade talent!"