Ning Zhuo was calculating the time for the hall examination while he focused intently on the various arenas.
He quickly realized that there was an exceptional opportunity at hand!
He could stand beneath an arena and simultaneously observe the battles among twenty cultivators in ten arenas.
The cultivators truly exhibited their abilities, crafting mechanical puppets with various ideas in a short amount of time.
The loudest and strongest was unmistakably the mechanical puppet crafted by Zhu Xuanji.
It had a red bandana tied around its forehead, which Ning Zhuo privately referred to as the Red Turban Army.
Clearly, the Red Turban Army was crafted mainly using Fire Essence, with extremely powerful flaming attacks.
Zhu Xuanji used charcoal roasted clay to construct the puppet's body, and Fist Gold only enveloped the exterior, forming armor.
"The Red Turban Army must have a very good Storage Formation inside; the amount of Fire Essence it uses is just too much."
The consumption of Fire Essence created fierce flames, which were compressed layer by layer inside the Red Turban Army to an almost viscous state.
Flames continuously spewed from the Red Turban Army's mouth, nostrils, and palms, forming fire dragons and fire walls, covering the entire arena with flames, impressively forcing the enemy into a sea of fire, continuously scorching them.
The Red Turban Army thrived in the flames while its enemies faced disaster.
Observing all ten arenas, Ning Zhuo found that almost no cultivator's mechanical artifacts could withstand such intense fiery assaults.
Even his own Five Elements Pawn was no exception.
"The only one that might have a chance should be Zheng Hua's mechanical puppet, right?"
He privately named it Vajra Guardian.
Ning Zhuo kept observing and found that the only one capable of countering the fiery attacks was undoubtedly the Vajra Guardian.
Zheng Hua himself possessed innate skills, allowing him to easily melt materials.
Ning Zhuo guessed that he must have merged Fist Gold and charcoal roasted clay into a new composite material, using it primarily to construct a robust, solid puppet.
Its black and golden metallic armor, slightly glowing with gray light, almost entirely enveloped the puppet.
The joints were made of ancient wood with Spiritual Patterns.
The transformation of the Frost Flower Droplets, like Ning Zhuo's strategy, involved arrangments of Arrays.
However, Zheng Hua set up Ice and Healing Arrays in the droplets, allowing them to repair the wounds of the Vajra Guardian; if the wounds were too large, some of the droplets would separate and transform into ice for temporary filling.
This filling function effectively reduced the damage from enemies targeting its own wounds.
The Vajra Guardian's defense was extremely strong; regardless of the opponent's attacks, it stood its ground, motionless.
Ning Zhuo looked towards Ning Jiufan.
In his estimation, among the twenty or so mechanical puppets in the ten arenas, only three clearly outperformed the Five Elements Pawn.
Apart from the Red Turban Army and the Vajra Guardian, it was Ning Jiufan's Frost Envoy.
This mechanical puppet was entirely constructed of ice blocks, which were densely covered with frost flowers.
Obviously, Ning Jiufan made extensive use of the Frost Flower Droplets.
He froze them into ice and immediately entered his most proficient domain of ice sculpture mechanics.
Because the total volume of the droplets was limited, Ning Jiufan's Frost Envoy was quite small.
On its body, one could see various wooden and golden joints and armors.
Ning Jiufan's craftsmanship was commendable; these joints and armors were compact, exquisite, and gorgeously eye-catching.
The Frost Envoy could release Frost Arrays, and as the Cold Qi spread, the enemy's movements often became slower until their joints and other vital points were frozen.
"Facing these three, my Five Elements Pawn would most likely be defeated."
"Zheng Hua might still have a slim chance of winning, but with Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, there's hardly any hope at all!"
Ning Zhuo compared them and was quite self-aware.
All the Golden Core Level Cultivators, although suppressed to the Qi Refining Level by the Immortal Palace, had clear advantages in terms of control techniques, combat experience, Mana, spirit, and other aspects.
And the remaining Foundation Establishment Stage and Qi Refinement Brew cultivators also should not be underestimated. Slight carelessness could easily lead to an upset.
After all, these people were recognized by the Lava Fairy Palace and had entered the palace, showing that their expertise in Mechanical Techniques was indeed excellent!
"By comparison, Meng Chong's skills in mechanics should be the lowest, right?"
Ning Zhuo's gaze subconsciously shifted to one of the arenas.
The mechanical puppet created by Meng Chong was very rudimentary and quite simple in structure. But he had two such puppets!
At that moment, his opponent, who had only one mechanical puppet, surrendered upon seeing Meng Chong.
"This person is clearly a Foundation Establishment Loose Cultivator."
"Has the City Lord's Mansion, with its vast influence and meticulous planning, contacted him and conducted a private transaction?"
Ning Zhuo tried hard to remember.
There were over twenty mechanical puppets in the ten arenas, each with distinctive features and emphasizing various cultivation techniques.
For example, Ning Jiufan's mechanical puppet focused on sculpting, while Zheng Hua's Vajra Guardian incorporated many Artifact Refining techniques.
And these technical traits would likely continue in the subsequent hall examinations.
On the other hand, the design of the mechanical puppets also highlighted the temperamental characteristics of each cultivator.
For example, Zhu Xuanji despised evil and always unconsciously positioned himself in the hunter's offensive stance.
These pieces of information were extremely valuable.
"Boss Sun, it's getting dangerous," Ning Zhuo expressed his hidden worries.
Although Sun Lingtong also diligently studied the Technique Classics, he didn't have much talent for Mechanical Techniques. Compared to most cultivators, he was outstanding.
However, now participating in the palace trials of the Lava Fairy Palace, his performance was clearly at a disadvantage compared to the other Mechanism Cultivators.
"I will continue using the Five Elements Pawn."
"This balanced performance of a Mechanical Puppet often proves difficult in battle, which exactly makes the enemy and spectators underestimate it."
"This is very beneficial for my strategy of hiding my skills!"
Ning Zhuo wasn't worried about himself, especially with the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit leaking the topics, he was quite confident in his abilities.
But he was worried about Sun Lingtong.
Bearing the name "Ning Zhuo," if he were eliminated in this round, people would naturally discover that the "entry standard" was actually Ning Zhuo himself!
The first round of the palace trials continued.
Ning Zhuo subsequently took the stage several times, encountering Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, and he conceded without hesitation.
This kind of concession happened frequently and wasn't unique to him, undoubtedly greatly shortening the overall duration of the competition.
The day had not yet ended when the first question of the second round of the palace trials had already been completed.
Ning Zhuo took a long breath, as the overall competition was tiring despite there being rest periods between each match, posing a significant challenge to Mana, spirit, and will.
Still, through the teleportation circle, everyone was able to quickly return to the original location.
Ning Zhuo was soon summoned.
Ning Jiufan welcomed him with satisfaction, saying, "Little Zhuo, I've been keeping an eye on you."
"Although each battle is a hard test for you, you've always fought spiritedly, persevering and securing victories through tough battles."
"This is good, you truly are of Ning Family's bloodline, possessing the backbone of a Northern warrior."
Ning Zhuo took the opportunity to express his loyalty, then cheekily asked Ning Jiufan for a reward.
Ning Jiufan had already started to get used to Ning Zhuo's thick-skinned nature, he was in a good mood because he only lost to Zhu Xuanji in today's battle, he directly took out a Golden Core Level Mechanical Monkey.
This Mechanical Monkey was previously lent to Ning Jiufan by Ning Zhuo.
"I didn't expect that there'd be no use for it in the second round of the palace trials."
"I'll give it back to you."
"I will also give you all the internal mechanism components inside it."
"One of the components, a round wooden alarm cushion, is suitable for your current situation."
"Deploy it to guard you day and night."
"The first question of the second round of the palace trials is over, and every cultivator's situation will be fraught with danger moving forward. After all, this is a competition for the ownership of the Lava Fairy Palace."
Ning Zhuo hadn't expected that the Mechanical Monkey he had just lent out would quickly return to his hands.
He immediately expressed his deep thanks to Ning Jiufan.
After retrieving the Mechanical Monkey, he opened its outer armor and saw a neatly arranged set of ice sculpture mechanisms inside. Among them, the round wooden alarm cushion mentioned by Ning Jiufan was particularly special, being made of wood.
Ning Zhuo briefly studied it and sensed its profundity.
After all, Ning Jiufan was at the Golden Core Level, and his mastery of Mechanical Artifacts surpassed Ning Zhuo. Many manufacturing methods were beyond Ning Zhuo's reach.
The next day, the teleportation circle appeared, and everyone ascended the stage again to compete in the second question.
The content for the second question was still five portions of Five Elements Material and one Spirit Stone.
In comparison with the first question, the Five Elements Material were still at Qi Refining Level, but the quantities were not as ample, which forced many of the previous construction plans to be unfeasible from the design stage due to the insufficient scale of a single material.
Even the Spirit Stone was no longer Mid Grade but Low Grade. This forced all cultivators to add at least one Spirit Gathering Array.
The difficulty of the second question had significantly increased compared to the first.
Ning Zhuo performed averagely, but Sun Lingtong and others were mostly on the losing end.
This trend was quite ominous.
Fortunately, Ning Jiufan had returned the previous Golden Core Level Mechanical Monkey.
Following the completion of the second question, that very evening, Ning Zhuo went to the Serious Injury Treatment Room to secretly meet with Sun Lingtong.
In front of Sun Lingtong, he summoned back Yuan Dasheng's spiritual nature and reinfused it into the Golden Blood Battle Ape.
Then, he handed over the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng to Sun Lingtong for use.
Yang Chanyu, who was present, learned of their next plan and couldn't help being surprised as she looked at the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng, "You mean to say, this mechanism originates from the trial stages?!"
"Then based on the requirements of the second round of the palace trials, can't we directly use it without needing to laboriously construct Mechanical Puppets in every fighting stage?"
Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes, "Why would you think that? Of course, we need to continue refining puppets. In this way, won't we be like Meng Chong, having two puppets to fight with?"
Yang Chanyu's expression froze, "Indeed, that's the case."
Thus, on the third day of the competition, Sun Lingtong directly used the Golden Blood Battle Ape·Dasheng, surprising everyone!