The Five Elements Pawn's frame was hard, and the charcoal roasted clay on its exterior further increased its defense.
In terms of Spiritual Power equipment, in addition to Spirit Stones, it also had a Spirit Gathering Array to extend endurance time. Inside, Spiritual Pattern Ancient Wood Strips served as delivery routes, which were very convenient.
If one were to discuss the characteristics of the Five Elements Pawn, it would be that it had no characteristics.
Or rather, it was balanced.
In terms of attack, defense, Spiritual Power, speed, etc., there was no standout aspect.
This was intentionally done by Ning Zhuo.
Without a standout aspect, there would be no obvious counter.
The second round of the palace test had just begun, and he needed to gather as much combat experience as possible. Thus, these mechanically balanced artifacts had a chance to fight anyone and could last longer.
Ning Zhuo made enough Fire Essence Firecrackers to maximize the Five Elements Pawn's loading capacity.
After completing this step, he still had the time of one cup of tea remaining.
The actual outcome was a bit better than what he had planned in his mind.
He closed his eyes to rest for a moment, then immediately opened them and began to inspect the Five Elements Pawn from the start, using the spare time.
Furthermore, he also used strings to control and test its performance in various aspects.
He controlled it briefly, and after confirming everything was correct, he ceased his testing.
Before the battle, one should not test too much. After all, once a Mechanical Artifact starts moving, it begins to wear out.
After the practical test, Ning Zhuo still had some time left.
He carefully checked the desk and took turns examining the artifact-making tools, finding nothing novel.
In the last few moments, Ning Zhuo closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and quietly awaited the end of the time.
Once time was up, Ning Zhuo opened his eyes and suddenly saw everything clearly in front of him.
He saw his opponent.
His opponent was a short statured person, dressed in a Martial Artist's snug attire, wearing a mask that only revealed a pair of small, narrow eyes.
Ning Zhuo immediately recognized his identity, "Feng Feidao, one of the top three leaders of the City Lord's Mansion Renovation Team."
Feng Feidao was somewhat flustered.
The time was up, and he was still making arrows for his Mechanical Puppet.
However, the arena, after the time limit was reached, had sent both of their Mechanical Puppets to the central area.
Ning Zhuo closely watched the opponent's Mechanical Puppet.
This yellow-green puppet had a tall and thin figure, holding a long bow, carrying a quiver on its back and also tied with two small quivers at its waist.
Inside the quivers, there were plenty of arrows, but they were not filled to the maximum.
Seeing the bulky figure layered with a lot of charcoal roasted clay, Feng Feidao immediately pulled his Wooden Arrow Knight back towards his direction.
Displayed in the center of the arena, the Wooden Arrow Knight retreated explosively, quickly putting distance between itself and the Five Elements Pawn.
"This speed…" Ning Zhuo couldn't help but frown slightly.
The Wooden Arrow Knight moved as swift as the wind, effortlessly creating distance.
Its advantage in speed was clear.
Ning Zhuo quickly judged, "Judging from its appearance and this action, the opponent used materials primarily made of Spiritual Pattern Ancient Wood."
"It seems they completely abandoned heavy materials like Fist Gold and charcoal roasted clay."
"Therefore, its performance in speed was quite outstanding!"
After distancing itself, the Wooden Arrow Knight quickly drew its bow and fired arrows at the Five Elements Pawn.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Arrows came flying, some of which exploded with a bang, others instantly turned into Ice Cones with piercing effects.
Originally, Feng Feidao used Fire Essence and Frost Flower Droplets to make the arrows.
Ning Zhuo controlled the Five Elements Pawn, walking step by step while being continually shot.
Fortunately, he had paid significant attention to defense.
Almost all the Frost Flower Droplets were used to form arrays, hidden inside the Five Elements Pawn, flowing like blood.
The Frost Flower Droplets surged out, quickly condensed into a large Round Shield, covering almost the entire body of the Five Elements Pawn.
Most of the arrows hit the shield, having little effect.
A glint flashed in Feng Feidao's eyes, but he wasn't panicked.
When he designed the Wooden Arrow Knight, he had considered how to deal with iron chunks like the Five Elements Pawn.
In the next moment, his fingers moved rapidly, controlling the Wooden Arrow Knight to pull out three arrows from the large quiver behind it.
The Wooden Arrow Knight placed all three arrows on the bow, and fired them all at once!
The three arrows didn't hit the Five Elements Pawn but landed at its feet.
The arrows rooted in the arena floor, rapidly grew, and turned into countless thorns, swiftly spreading towards the Five Elements Pawn.
Ning Zhuo quickly pulled back his hand, retracting the Five Elements Pawn a few steps.
At the same time, his fingers moved rapidly, directing the Five Elements Pawn to reach into its belly and pull out a Fire Essence Firecracker.
He scattered the firecrackers, which exploded with a bang.
The thorn bushes were destroyed, leaving the ground blackened.
The Five Elements Pawn stepped forward, continuing to close in on the Wooden Arrow Knight.
Feng Feidao's brows furrowed.
He had exhausted his offensive tactics, but could not secure victory.
"As of now, the only strategy is to engage in a war of attrition to seek a chance at victory."
"Ning Zhuo's mechanical creature is heavier, consuming much more Spiritual Power with every move compared to mine."
"And moreover, its shield is heavy and large, maintaining such a huge shield face requires a lot of spiritual power consumption."
"In contrast, my Wooden Arrow Knight is almost entirely made of Spiritual Pattern Ancient Wood, which absorbs the surrounding spiritual energy with far greater efficiency. It also has a Spirit Gathering Array inside, giving it an advantage in terms of spiritual power consumption!"
The standoff became a stalemate.
Ning Zhuo's Five Elements Pawn pressed forward with its shield while Feng Feidao's Wooden Arrow Knight maintained distance, continually shooting.
The situation was clear, one attacking and the other defending.
The space of the arena was limited, and Ning Zhuo utilized this advantage, carefully plotting the Five Elements Pawn's movements to steadily close the distance.
Feng Feidao's experience was also considerable, taking advantage of the round corners of the arena, constantly shifting and moving flawlessly.
Ning Zhuo remained expressionless, started having the Five Elements Pawn frequently throw Mechanical Artifacts.
These firecrackers had inherent area damage, forcing the Wooden Arrow Knight to constantly roll and jump, increasing its spiritual power consumption.
The Wooden Arrow Knight retaliated with arrows, which were mostly blocked by Ning Zhuo's Water Shield.
The few arrows that hit the body were hardly effective because of the Charcoal Roasted Clay.
Feng Feidao's expression gradually darkened.
He realized a disadvantage— he was running out of arrows!
In contrast, Ning Zhuo seemed to have an endless supply of Fire Essence Firecrackers.
For Feng Feidao, there wasn't enough time to refine his Mechanical Artifacts. But for Ning Zhuo, time was plentiful.
This advantage in production was now apparent on the battlefield.
Realizing this, Feng Feidao immediately reduced his shooting frequency, carefully using each arrow.
Seeing this behavior, Ning Zhuo instantly reduced the Water Shield's size to that of a typical shield, covering only half of the body instead of nearly the entire body as before.
"This Water Shield can actually shrink, not just one form!" Feng Feidao received more bad news.
With the shield minimized, it naturally consumed less spiritual power.
Feng Feidao tried to stay calm, "Even so, my absorption of spiritual power is still much higher than yours!"
"This prolonged attrition war, I will be the ultimate victor!"
Ning Zhuo had a serious look.
He had also analyzed where his opponent's advantage lay.
Thus, each firecracker throw thereafter was with his full effort.
As time passed, the Wooden Arrow Knight's Mid Grade Spirit Stones were exhausted, now operating merely on the external spiritual energy absorbed at the start of the battle.
Without robust spiritual power support, its speed significantly decreased.
But Ning Zhuo's situation was far from as dire as Feng Feidao imagined.
Under normal circumstances, the Five Elements Pawn's Mid Grade Spirit Stones should have been exhausted by now. But now, it still retained a tenth of its reserves.
This was because Ning Zhuo utilized a Five Elements Generating layout, each use of Water Element's Water Shield, Fire Element's firecrackers, Earth Element's surface protection, all consuming less mana than direct consumption.
The Five Elements Pawn's spiritual power reserves kept up with the Wooden Arrow Knight, not falling behind.
The scale of victory, at this moment, began to tilt in its favor.
The decreased speed of the Wooden Arrow Knight made it increasingly vulnerable to the ranged damage of the Fire Essence Firecrackers.
These damages accumulated over time, creating more and more impact, disrupting the Spiritual Patterns, reducing its efficiency in absorbing external spiritual energy, adding insult to injury.
Eventually, the slow-moving Five Elements Pawn cornered the significantly slowed Wooden Arrow Knight.
They engaged in close combat.
The Wooden Arrow Knight's punches scraped off layers of Stone Skin on the Five Elements Pawn.
The Five Elements Pawn's punches came thundering down, each one leaving deep imprints on the Wooden Arrow Knight.
The gap was too apparent!
Finally, the Five Elements Pawn left the Wooden Arrow Knight broken and paralyzed on the ground, motionless.
Feng Feidao watched this scene with wide eyes, hands trembling and veins bulging, almost cramping.
In the close combat phase, his control was pushed to the limit; as the Wooden Arrow Knight was weak in close combat, maintaining the situation demanded even more manipulation.
His fingers nearly knotted from busyness, but in the end, he tasted the bitterness of defeat.
Ning Zhuo defeated his first opponent and gained a bit of combat achievement.
New information arrived, allowing him half a cup of tea's time for cultivation.
He was teleported to the square.
Standing outside the arena, he saw that almost all the arenas were engaged in combat.
Even the arena he had just been in blurred, no longer clear, obviously with two other Cultivators starting their match.
On the square, there were only two people.
One was Ning Zhuo; the other was a Golden Core Cultivator from the City Lord's Mansion.
There was no need for any interaction between them.
Ning Zhuo's mind stirred, "After the first round of the palace test, and before the second round begins, another Foundation Establishment Cultivator was attacked."
"That means there are actually only twenty-two people participating in the second round."
"But with only two people in the field, this slot still exists. This means, in the upcoming tests, I might face this vacancy."
Back on the arena, Ning Zhuo couldn't see clearly below, otherwise he could have deduced this already.
"According to the message, everyone has to fight each other once. Although we're down one person, the slot is still preserved, similar to the first round of the palace test."
"So, it still counts as twenty-three."
Ning Zhuo calculated with his fingers: "In that case, the total number of matches would be two hundred fifty-three."
"With ten arenas, assuming simultaneous battles and simultaneous endings, it would take twenty-five rounds."
"This is just the first content of the trial. According to the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, there will be at least three occurrences in the second round."
"Taking into account the resting time between each session, thus, the total duration of the second round tests will be at least over ten days."