The skeleton of the Five Elements Foot Soldier is tough, and the clay baked onto its exterior further enhances its defense. In terms of spiritual energy, in addition to spirit stones, it is equipped with a spirit gathering formation to prolong its endurance. Inside, spiritual pattern ancient wood strips are used as conduits, providing great convenience.

To speak of the Five Elements Foot Soldier’s characteristics, it has none.

Or rather, its characteristic is balance.

Offense, defense, spiritual power, speed, and so on, none of these aspects are particularly outstanding.

This was intentionally done by Ning Zhuo.

Without any outstanding features, it won’t be easily countered.

The second round of the Palace Examination has just begun, and he needs to gain as much combat experience as possible. Therefore, a clockwork mechanism with balanced performance like this one has a chance against any opponent and can last longer.

Ning Zhuo created enough Fire Essence Firecrackers to bring the Five Elements Foot Soldier’s ammunition capacity to its limit.

After completing this step, he still had the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before the deadline.

The actual completion was even better than the plan he had in mind.

He closed his eyes to rest for a short while, then immediately opened them, using the spare time to re-examine the Five Elements Foot Soldier from scratch.

He also used a puppet string to control it for a bit, testing its various performance aspects.

The control was brief; Ning Zhuo confirmed everything was in order and stopped.

Before a battle, one should not test too much. After all, as soon as a clockwork mechanism becomes active, it begins to incur wear and tear.

After the practical operation, Ning Zhuo still had some time left.

He carefully examined the desk and also checked the clockwork mechanism tools in turn, finding nothing new.

For the last remaining time, Ning Zhuo closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and quietly awaited the end of time.

As time was up, Ning Zhuo opened his eyes and found the area directly in front of him suddenly clear.

He saw his opponent.

He was a short fellow, clad in martial arts attire, his face masked, revealing only a pair of small, narrow eyes.

Ning Zhuo immediately recognized the other party’s identity: “Feng Feidao, one of the three minor leaders of the City Lord’s Mansion’s Modification Team.”

Feng Feidao was a bit flustered.

The deadline had arrived, and he was still making arrows for his clockwork puppet.

But the arena, after the deadline passed, sent both their clockwork puppets to the central area.

Ning Zhuo stared intently at the opponent’s clockwork puppet.

This greenish-yellow puppet was tall and thin, holding a longbow, with a quiver on its back and two small quivers tied to its waist.

The quivers contained a large number of arrows, but they were not full.

Seeing the Five Elements Foot Soldier, which was burly and had a large amount of baked clay piled on its surface, Feng Feidao immediately pulled on a string, drawing his Wooden Archer back towards his direction.

In the center of the arena, the Clockwork Wooden Archer retreated rapidly, quickly widening the distance between itself and the Five Elements Foot Soldier.

“This speed…” Ning Zhuo couldn’t help but furrow his brow slightly.

The Wooden Archer was as light and agile as the wind, easily pulling away.

In terms of speed, its advantage was obvious.

Ning Zhuo quickly judged: “From the appearance and this action, the opponent used spiritual pattern ancient wood as the main material.”

“It seems to have completely abandoned heavy materials like Fist Gold and Baked Clay.”

“Therefore, in terms of speed, it performs quite excellently!”

After widening the distance, the Wooden Archer quickly bent its bow and nocked an arrow, beginning to shoot at the Five Elements Foot Soldier.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh.

The arrows shot out, some exploding with a bang. Some instantly transformed into ice cones, having a piercing effect.

It turned out that Feng Feidao had used Fire Essence and Great Water Droplets of Frost Blossom to make arrows.

Ning Zhuo controlled the Five Elements Foot Soldier, moving forward step by step, enduring the barrage of arrows during this process.

Fortunately, he had put considerable effort into defense.

Almost the entire Great Water Droplet of Frost Blossom was used by him to set up formations, hidden within the Five Elements Foot Soldier’s body, flowing like blood.

The Great Water Droplet of Frost Blossom surged out, quickly condensing into a large circular shield, covering almost the entire body of the Five Elements Foot Soldier.

Most of the arrows hit the shield surface, having little effect.

A gleam flashed in Feng Feidao’s eyes, but he didn’t panic.

When he designed the Wooden Archer, he had considered how to deal with iron lumps like the Five Elements Foot Soldier.

The next moment, his fingers moved rapidly, controlling the Wooden Archer to take out three arrows from the large quiver behind it.

The Wooden Archer nocked all three arrows onto the bow and shot them simultaneously at full draw!

The three arrows did not hit the Five Elements Foot Soldier, but landed at its feet.

The arrows rooted themselves in the arena ground and grew rapidly, turning into countless thorns that quickly spread towards the Five Elements Foot Soldier.

Ning Zhuo quickly pulled back his hand, causing the Five Elements Foot Soldier to retreat a few steps.

At the same time, his fingers moved rapidly, directing the Five Elements Foot Soldier to reach into its belly and take out a handful of Fire Essence Firecrackers.

The firecrackers scattered and exploded with a bang.

The thorn thicket was blasted away, leaving the ground blackened.

The Five Elements Foot Soldier stepped forward, continuing to close in on the Wooden Archer.

Feng Feidao’s brow furrowed.

His offensive means were exhausted, but he couldn’t defeat the enemy.

“The only course of action now is to seek victory through a war of attrition.”

“Ning Zhuo’s clockwork mechanism is heavy, and every movement consumes much more spiritual power than mine.”

“Furthermore, its shield is heavy and large, and maintaining such a large shield surface also consumes a lot of spiritual power.”

“In contrast, my Wooden Archer is almost entirely made of spiritual pattern ancient wood, and its efficiency in absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy far exceeds that of the opponent. It also has a spirit gathering formation inside. In terms of spiritual power consumption, I have the advantage!”

The situation entered a stalemate.

Ning Zhuo’s Five Elements Foot Soldier advanced with its shield raised, while Feng Feidao’s Wooden Archer maintained its distance and continuously shot arrows.

One attacked and one defended, the situation was quite clear.

The arena space was limited, and Ning Zhuo used this to his advantage, meticulously designing the Five Elements Foot Soldier’s movements, closing the distance step by step.

Feng Feidao’s experience was also quite seasoned, utilizing the rounded corners of the arena to constantly maneuver and shift position, without any mistakes in his movement.

Ning Zhuo’s expression remained unchanged, and he began to control the Five Elements Foot Soldier to frequently throw clockwork firecrackers.

These firecrackers had an area of effect kill, forcing the Wooden Archer to constantly roll and jump, increasing its spiritual power consumption.

The Wooden Archer retaliated with arrows, which were almost all blocked by Ning Zhuo’s water shield.

Occasionally, a few arrows hit the body, but they had little effect due to the baked clay.

Feng Feidao’s face gradually darkened.

He discovered a disadvantage of his own – he didn’t have enough arrows!

In contrast, Ning Zhuo’s Fire Essence Firecrackers seemed inexhaustible.

For Feng Feidao, he didn’t have enough time to forge the clockwork mechanism. But for Ning Zhuo, he had plenty of time.

In terms of creating clockwork mechanisms, Ning Zhuo’s advantage was maintained, and at this moment, it was reflected on the battlefield.

Feng Feidao realized this and immediately reduced the frequency of his shots, using each arrow cautiously.

Seeing the opponent’s behavior, Ning Zhuo immediately reduced the size of the water shield, shrinking it to the size of a regular shield, able to protect half of the body, instead of almost the entire body as before.

“This water shield can actually shrink; it’s not a single form!” Feng Feidao received another piece of bad news.

A smaller water shield naturally consumed less spiritual power.

Feng Feidao forced himself to remain calm: “Even so, my absorption of spiritual power is still much higher than yours!”

“In this prolonged war of attrition, I will be the final winner!”

Ning Zhuo wore a serious expression.

He, of course, had also analyzed where the opponent’s advantage lay.

Therefore, with every firecracker he threw next, he gave his full effort.

As time went on, the Wooden Archer’s mid-grade spirit stones were already exhausted, and it was operating by absorbing the external spiritual energy it had been absorbing since the battle began.

Without the support of ample spiritual power, its speed dropped significantly.

Ning Zhuo’s situation was far less dire than Feng Feidao had imagined.

Under normal circumstances, the Five Elements Foot Soldier’s mid-grade spirit stones would have been depleted long ago. But now, it still retained ten percent of its spirit stone reserves.

This was because Ning Zhuo had adopted a Five Elements Inter-Promotion arrangement. Each time the water attribute water shield, fire attribute firecrackers, and earth attribute body protection were used, the mana consumed was much less than direct consumption.

The Five Elements Foot Soldier’s spiritual power reserves kept pace with the Wooden Archer’s, not being left behind.

The balance of victory, at this moment, began to gradually tilt towards it.

The Wooden Archer’s speed greatly decreased, making it even more susceptible to the area damage of the Fire Essence Firecrackers.

These accumulated damages, adding up little by little, damaged the spiritual patterns, causing its efficiency in absorbing external spiritual energy to continuously decrease, making things even worse.

Finally, the slow-moving Five Elements Foot Soldier cornered the Wooden Archer, whose speed was severely impaired.

The two sides engaged in close combat.

The Wooden Archer’s fists hitting the Five Elements Foot Soldier scraped off layers of stone skin.

The Five Elements Foot Soldier’s fists hammered down, each time making a thudding sound, smashing fist-shaped dents into the Wooden Archer.

The difference was too obvious!

Eventually, the Five Elements Foot Soldier beat the Wooden Archer until its legs and arms were broken, leaving it paralyzed on the ground, motionless.

Feng Feidao stared at this scene with wide eyes, his hands trembling, veins bulging, almost cramping.

During the close combat phase, he pushed his control to his personal limit. After all, the Wooden Archer was weak in close combat, and to maintain the situation, he had to perform more operations.

He was so busy his fingers were practically tied in knots, but in the end, he still tasted the bitter fruit of defeat.

Ning Zhuo defeated his first enemy and gained one point in battle achievements.

New information arrived, allowing him a rest of half a cup of tea time.

He was transported to the square.

Standing outside the arena, he found that almost all the arenas were in battle.

Even the arena he had just been in immediately blurred, becoming indistinct. Apparently, two other cultivators had started their competition.

In the square, there were only two people.

One was Ning Zhuo, and the other was the Nascent Soul cultivator from the City Lord’s Mansion.

There was no need for communication between the two sides.

Ning Zhuo’s heart stirred slightly: “After the first round of the Palace Examination, and before the second round, another Foundation Establishment cultivator was ambushed and killed.”

“This means that actually only twenty-two people participated in the second round of the Palace Examination.”

“But there are only two people in the field, which indicates that this vacant spot still exists. This means that in the following matches, I might encounter this empty spot.”

Just now on the arena, Ning Zhuo couldn’t see the situation below the arena, otherwise, he would have been able to deduce it long ago.

“The message stated that everyone must fight every other person once. Although one person is missing, the spot is still retained, the same as the first round of the Palace Examination.”

“So, it can still be considered twenty-three people.”

Ning Zhuo calculated with his fingers: “In that case, the total number of matches reaches 253.”

“There are ten arenas. Assuming battles start and end simultaneously, it will still take twenty-five rounds.”

“This is only the content of the first competition. According to the Long Yuan Fire Spirit, the second round of the Palace Examination will have at least three times.”

“Adding in the rest time between each round, the total duration of the second round of the Palace Examination will be at least ten days.”