Chapter 290: This is Not Cheating! (Requesting Monthly Tickets)
Ning Zhuo calculated the time for the palace examination while focusing intently on each of the arenas.
He quickly realized that this was a rare opportunity!
He could stand below the stages and simultaneously observe the battles between the twenty cultivators across the ten platforms.
The cultivators were showcasing their abilities, and the mechanical puppets they had built in a short time contained various designs.
The most imposing and powerful one was undoubtedly Zhu Xuanji's mechanical puppet.
It had a red headband tied around its forehead, and Ning Zhuo privately called it the Red Turban Army.
Clearly, the Red Turban Army was a puppet constructed mainly from Fire Essence, and its fire-based attacks were extremely fierce.
Zhu Xuanji used clay baked over charcoal to form the puppet's body, with its fists wrapped in gold on the outside, creating armor.
"The Red Turban Army must have a very high-quality storage formation inside, it's using way too much Fire Essence."
The flames generated by the consumption of Fire Essence were compressed layer upon layer within the Red Turban Army's body, so much so that they became almost viscous.
Flames continuously spewed from the Red Turban Army’s mouth, nose, and palms, forming fire dragons, fire walls, covering the entire stage in a sea of fire, fiercely burning its opponent.
The Red Turban Army thrived in the flames, while its opponent faced disaster.
Ning Zhuo observed the ten platforms and found that almost all of the cultivators’ mechanical creations couldn't withstand such intense fire attacks.
Even his Five Elements Soldiers were no exception.
"The only one who might stand a chance should be Zheng Hua’s mechanical puppet."
He privately named it the Vajra Guardian.
Ning Zhuo continued observing and discovered that the only puppet capable of resisting the fire attack was indeed the Vajra Guardian.
Zheng Hua had natural talent and could easily refine materials.
Ning Zhuo speculated that he must have fused the gold fists and baked clay into a new hybrid material, using it to construct a large, sturdy puppet.
The black-gold metal armor, with a hint of grey light, almost completely covered the puppet’s body.
The joints were made of ancient wood engraved with spirit patterns.
The frost flower large water droplets were modified similarly to Ning Zhuo’s design, with formations embedded.
However, Zheng Hua had placed ice formations and healing formations in the water droplets, allowing them to repair the Vajra Guardian’s wounds. If the damage was too severe, the water droplets would split and temporarily freeze over the injury.
This sealing function effectively reduced the damage from attacks targeting the puppet’s wounds.
The Vajra Guardian’s defense was incredibly robust, standing firm despite the opponent’s attacks, remaining motionless.
Ning Zhuo turned his gaze to Ning Jiufan.
In Ning Zhuo’s assessment, of the twenty or so mechanical puppets across the ten stages, only three clearly surpassed his Five Elements Soldiers in performance.
Besides the Red Turban Army and Vajra Guardian, the other was Ning Jiufan’s Frost Emissary.
This puppet was entirely made of ice, with dense frost flowers scattered across its surface.
Clearly, Ning Jiufan heavily utilized the frost flower large water droplets.
Once he froze them into ice, he immediately entered his specialty field of ice sculpture mechanisms.
Since the total amount of water droplets was limited, Ning Jiufan’s Frost Emissary was rather small in size.
On its body, one could see some wood and metal joints, as well as armor structures.
Ning Jiufan’s craftsmanship was excellent; these joints and armor were small, exquisite, and beautiful, attracting much attention.
The Frost Emissary could release ice formations, and as the frost spread, the opponent’s movements often became slower, until their vital joints were frozen.
"If I encounter these three, my Five Elements Soldiers will most likely be defeated."
"There might still be a slim chance against Zheng Hua, but there’s almost no hope of winning against Zhu Xuanji or Ning Jiufan."
Ning Zhuo compared and knew his limits.
Although all the Golden Core stage cultivators were suppressed to the Qi Refining stage by the Immortal Palace, they still held significant advantages in control techniques, combat experience, and even in mana and spirit.
As for the remaining Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators, they too could not be underestimated. A moment of carelessness could lead to unexpected defeat.
After all, for these people to be recognized by the Lava Immortal Palace and to enter the palace, their expertise in mechanism techniques must be highly advanced!
"Honestly, Meng Chong’s expertise in mechanisms should be the lowest, right?"
Ning Zhuo’s attention unconsciously shifted to one of the platforms.
Meng Chong’s mechanical puppet was very crudely made, with an extremely simple structure. However, he had two mechanical puppets!
At that moment, his opponent only had one puppet, and upon seeing Meng Chong, immediately raised his hand to surrender.
"That person is clearly a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator."
"Has the City Lord's Mansion, with its vast influence and intricate planning, already contacted and secretly bribed him?"
Ning Zhuo tried his best to memorize everything.
Each of the twenty mechanical puppets on the ten platforms had unique characteristics, with each emphasizing different aspects of cultivation techniques.
For example, Ning Jiufan’s puppet focused on carving techniques, while Zheng Hua’s Vajra Guardian utilized many crafting techniques.
And these technical tendencies would likely continue into the following palace examination rounds.
Additionally, the design of the mechanical puppets also revealed each cultivator's personality traits.
For example, Zhu Xuanji, who despised evil, would always unconsciously position himself as the attacker, taking on the role of a hunter.
All of this information was extremely valuable.
"Sun Lingtong is in a bit of danger," Ning Zhuo felt a sense of worry.
Although Sun Lingtong had diligently studied mechanical texts, his talent for mechanisms was limited. Compared to most cultivators, he was excellent.
But now, in the palace examination of the Lava Immortal Palace, in comparison to these mechanical cultivators, his performance clearly showed weakness.
"I’ll continue using the Five Elements Soldiers."
"This type of puppet with balanced abilities tends to struggle in battle. However, this will make the enemies and spectators underestimate it."
"This is advantageous for me to hide my true strength!"
Ning Zhuo was not worried about himself, especially with the leaked exam question from the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, which gave him confidence.
But he was concerned about Sun Lingtong.
If Sun Lingtong, under the name of "Ning Zhuo," were to be eliminated in this round, others might soon realize that the true "entrance standard" was Ning Zhuo himself!
The second round of the palace examination continued.
Ning Zhuo later ascended the platform several times and, when facing Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, conceded without hesitation.
This kind of surrender was common and was not unique to him, significantly shortening the overall competition duration.
By the end of the day, the first question of the second round of the palace examination was already finished.
Ning Zhuo let out a long breath. Despite the rest periods between each battle, the entire competition was exhausting, a severe test of mana, spirit, and willpower.
As before, everyone quickly returned to their original location via the teleportation circle.
Soon after, Ning Zhuo was summoned.
Ning Jiufan looked at him with satisfaction and said, "Little Zhuo, I’ve been keeping an eye on you."
"Though each battle was a difficult test for you, you remained full of fighting spirit, persevering through one hard-fought victory after another."
"This is good. After all, you carry the blood of our Ning family, with the backbone of a Northern Wind man."
Ning Zhuo took the opportunity to express his loyalty and then, with a playful smile, asked Ning Jiufan for a reward.
Ning Jiufan, now used to Ning Zhuo’s thick skin, was in a good mood, having only lost to Zhu Xuanji. He directly handed back the Golden Core-level Mechanical Ape.
This Mechanical Ape was the one Ning Zhuo had lent to Ning Jiufan earlier.
"I didn’t expect that it wasn’t needed in the second round of the palace examination."
"Here, take it back."
"The internal mechanism parts inside it are also yours."
"Among them is a wooden round alarm mechanism, which is suitable for your current situation."
"You can release it to guard you day and night."
"The first question of the second round is over, and from now on, every cultivator’s situation will be filled with danger. After all, this is a battle for the Lava Immortal Palace's ownership."
Ning Zhuo hadn’t expected the Mechanical Ape he had just lent out to return to his hands so quickly.
He immediately expressed his sincere gratitude to Ning Jiufan.
After bringing back the Mechanical Ape, he opened the outer armor and saw the tightly constructed ice sculpture mechanism inside. The round wooden alarm mechanism that Ning Jiufan mentioned was particularly special, made of wood.
Ning Zhuo studied it for a while and felt its profound intricacies.
Ning Jiufan, after all, was at the Golden Core level, his expertise in mechanism techniques far surpassing Ning Zhuo’s. Many of his crafting methods were beyond Ning Zhuo’s reach.
The next day, the teleportation circle reappeared, and everyone once again ascended the platform for the second question of the competition.
The content of the second question was still five sets of Five Elements materials and one spirit stone.
Compared to the first question, the Five Elements materials were still at the Qi Refining stage, but the quantity was insufficient, forcing many construction plans from the first round to be invalid.
Because, in certain materials, there simply wasn't enough.
Even the spirit
stone was no longer of middle grade but of lower grade, which forced every cultivator to add at least one spirit gathering formation.
The difficulty of the second question was clearly much higher than the first.
Ning Zhuo performed decently, but Sun Lingtong and others were already losing more than they were winning.
This trend was quite unfavorable.
Fortunately, Ning Jiufan had returned the Golden Core-level Mechanical Ape.
After the second question competition ended that evening, Ning Zhuo went to the intensive care room to secretly meet with Sun Lingtong.
In front of Sun Lingtong, he called back Yuan Dasheng’s spirit and re-injected it into the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape.
Then, he handed over the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, to Sun Lingtong.
Yang Chanyu, who was beside them and learned of their next plan, was shocked as she looked at the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng. "Are you saying this mechanism came from the trial checkpoint?!"
"According to the requirements of the second round of the palace examination, can't you just use it directly? There’s no need for us to construct another puppet from scratch for every battle, right?"
Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes. "Why would you think that? Of course, we still need to keep building puppets. This way, we’ll be just like Meng Chong, fighting with two puppets at once."
Yang Chanyu froze for a moment. "That’s true."
So, on the third day of the competition, Sun Lingtong directly took out the Golden-Blooded Battle Ape, Dasheng, shocking the other participants into speechlessness!
(End of Chapter)