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While calculating the time for the main examination, Ning Zhuo remained fully focused, his gaze fixed on each arena.

He quickly realized that this was a rather rare opportunity!

Standing below the arena, he could observe the battles between twenty cultivators across ten arenas simultaneously.

The cultivators spared no effort, their quickly constructed mechanical puppets incorporating various ideas.

The most imposing and powerful was undoubtedly Zhu Xuanji’s mechanical puppet.

With a red bandana tied around its forehead, Ning Zhuo privately referred to it as the Scarlet Turban Army.

Clearly, the Scarlet Turban Army was a mechanical puppet crafted primarily from fire essence, its fire attacks exceedingly formidable.

Zhu Xuanji had built the puppet’s body from charcoal-baked clay, with metal wrapping its fists externally to form armor.

“The Scarlet Turban Army must possess an excellent storage array within it; it uses far too much fire essence.”

The raging flames produced by the consumption of fire essence were compressed layer upon layer within the Scarlet Turban Army, reaching a nearly viscous state.

Flames constantly spewed from the Scarlet Turban Army’s mouth, nose, and palms, forming fire dragons and fire walls, engulfing the entire arena and trapping the enemy in a sea of fire, continuously scorching them.

The Scarlet Turban Army thrived in the flames, while its opponents faced calamity.

Ning Zhuo surveyed the ten arenas and found that almost all cultivators’ mechanical creations were unable to withstand such fierce fire attacks.

Even his Five Elements Minions were no exception.

“The only one with a glimmer of hope should be Zheng Hua’s mechanical puppet, right?”

He privately named it the Adamantine Guardian.

Ning Zhuo continued to observe and found that the only one capable of resisting the fire attacks was the Adamantine Guardian.

Zheng Hua himself possessed an innate talent for easily refining materials.

Ning Zhuo speculated that he had likely fused metal from fists and charcoal-baked clay into a new mixed material, using it as the primary component to construct a robust and sturdy puppet.

Black and gold, with a faint grey metallic luster, armor almost completely covered the puppet’s body.

Joints were made of ancient wood with spiritual patterns.

The modifications to the Frost Flower Dewdrops, following Ning Zhuo’s idea, were also equipped with arrays.

However, Zheng Hua had incorporated ice arrays and healing arrays into the dewdrops, allowing them to repair the Adamantine Guardian’s wounds. If a wound was too large, the dewdrops would partially split, transforming into ice for temporary filling.

This filling function effectively reduced the damage from attacks specifically targeting its wounds.

The Adamantine Guardian’s defense was exceptionally strong; it stood rooted to the spot, unmoving, regardless of its opponent’s attacks.

Ning Zhuo looked at Ning Jiufan.

In Ning Zhuo’s judgment, among the twenty-odd mechanical puppets in the ten arenas, only three significantly surpassed the Five Elements Minions in performance.

Besides the Scarlet Turban Army and the Adamantine Guardian, the third was the Frost Messenger created by Ning Jiufan.

This mechanical puppet was entirely constructed from ice blocks, with dense frost flowers distributed across them.

Clearly, Ning Jiufan had heavily utilized the Frost Flower Dewdrops.

Freezing them into ice immediately brought him into the realm of ice sculpture mechanisms, which he was most skilled in.

Because the total quantity of dewdrops was limited, Ning Jiufan’s Frost Messenger was quite small.

On its body, one could see various wooden and metal joints and armor structures.

Ning Jiufan’s craftsmanship was excellent; these joints and armor were delicate, exquisite, and visually appealing.

The Frost Messenger could release ice and frost arrays. As the chilling energy spread, the enemy’s movements often slowed down, until crucial points like joints were frozen.

“Facing these three, my Five Elements Minions will likely be defeated.”

“Perhaps there’s a slight chance against Zheng Hua, but against Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, there’s essentially no hope of victory!”

Ning Zhuo made a comparison, clearly aware of his limitations.

All Core Formation stage cultivators, although suppressed to the Qi Condensation stage within the Immortal Palace, held significant advantages in manipulation techniques, combat experience, and even mana and spiritual power.

The remaining Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation stage cultivators were also not to be underestimated. Even a moment of carelessness could easily lead to a disastrous setback.

After all, these individuals were recognized by the Volcanic Immortal Palace and were able to enter it, indicating their quite excellent achievements in mechanism arts!

“If I had to guess, Meng Chong’s mechanism skills should be the lowest, right?”

Ning Zhuo’s gaze subconsciously shifted to one of the arenas.

The mechanical puppet created by Meng Chong was rather crude, and its structure was quite simple. However, he possessed not one, but two mechanical puppets!

His current opponent had only one mechanical puppet, and upon seeing Meng Chong, proactively raised their hand and conceded.

“This person is clearly a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator.”

“The City Lord’s Mansion is powerful and its plans are meticulous. Have they already contacted and privately bribed him?”

Ning Zhuo desperately committed everything to memory.

Across the ten arenas, the more than twenty mechanical puppets each had unique characteristics, focusing on different cultivation techniques.

For example, Ning Jiufan’s mechanical puppet emphasized sculpting. Zheng Hua’s Adamantine Guardian utilized many refining techniques.

And these technical characteristics would often continue to be maintained in the subsequent main examination.

Furthermore, the design of the mechanical puppets also highlighted the personality traits of each cultivator.

For instance, Zhu Xuanji detested evil and would always unconsciously position himself in an offensive, hunter-like stance.

All of this information was extremely valuable.

“Senior Brother Sun is in a bit of danger.” Ning Zhuo felt a hidden worry.

Although Sun Lingtong had diligently studied mechanism texts, his talent in mechanisms was not particularly high. Compared to most cultivators, he was excellent.

However, now participating in the main examination of the Volcanic Immortal Palace and comparing himself to this group of mechanism cultivators, his weakness was clearly evident.

“I’ll just continue to use the Five Elements Minions.”

“This type of balanced performance mechanical puppet often struggles in combat. This will precisely cause enemies and observers to underestimate it.”

“This is very beneficial for me to conceal my abilities!”

Ning Zhuo wasn’t worried about himself, especially with the leak of information from the Dragon Tortoise Fire Spirit; he was quite confident.

But he was worried about Sun Lingtong.

If Sun Lingtong, bearing the name “Ning Zhuo,” was eliminated in this round, others would naturally discover that the “entry standard” was actually Ning Zhuo himself!

The second round of the main examination continued.

Ning Zhuo subsequently took the stage several times. When he encountered Zhu Xuanji or Ning Jiufan, he did not hesitate to concede.

Such concessions were quite common, not just in his case. This undoubtedly greatly shortened the overall duration of the matches.

Before the end of that day, the first question of the second round of the main examination was already completed.

Ning Zhuo let out a long breath. Although there was rest time between each match, it was still very tiring, a rather demanding test of mana, spiritual power, and willpower.

Still through the transmission circle, everyone quickly returned to their original locations.

Ning Zhuo was soon summoned.

Ning Jiufan said to him with satisfaction, “Little Zhuo, I’ve been watching you.”

“Although each battle was a difficult test for you, you always remained full of fighting spirit, tenacious in achieving victory in one tough fight after another.”

“This is very good. You are indeed of my Ning family blood, possessing the character of a Northern Wind man.”

Ning Zhuo took the opportunity to express his loyalty, then cheekily asked Ning Jiufan for a reward.

Ning Jiufan had already begun to get used to Ning Zhuo’s thick skin. He had only lost to Zhu Xuanji in today’s matches and was in good spirits. He directly took out the Core Formation stage mechanical ape.

This mechanical ape was what Ning Zhuo had lent to Ning Jiufan earlier.

“Unexpectedly, it had no use in the second round of the main examination.”

“I’ll return it to you.”

“The internal mechanical components within it are also yours.”

“Among them is a mechanism called the ’round wood warning pillow,’ suitable for your current situation.”

“You can release it to guard you day and night.”

“The first test of the second round of the main examination is over. From now on, the situation for all cultivators will be fraught with danger. After all, this is a struggle for the ownership of the Volcanic Immortal Palace.”

Ning Zhuo hadn’t expected that the mechanical ape he had just lent out would return to his hands so quickly.

He immediately expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Ning Jiufan.

After taking back the mechanical ape, he opened its outer shell and saw a dense array of ice sculpture mechanisms inside. Among them, the round wood warning pillow that Ning Jiufan specifically mentioned was quite special; it was made of wood.

Ning Zhuo studied it briefly and felt its profundity.

Ning Jiufan was after all of the Core Formation stage, surpassing Ning Zhuo in mechanism skills. There were many manufacturing methods that Ning Zhuo could not achieve.

The next day, the transmission circle appeared, and everyone once again ascended the stage for the second test.

The content of the second test was still five portions of each of the five elements materials, and one spirit stone.

Compared to the first test, the five elements materials were still of the Qi Condensation stage, but the quantities were insufficient, which forced many previous design schemes to be discarded from the outset.

Because, for a single material, the quantity was not sufficient in scale.

Even the single spirit stone was no longer a mid-grade spirit stone but a low-grade one. This compelled all cultivators to add at least one spirit gathering array.

The difficulty of the second test was significantly increased compared to the first test.

Ning Zhuo’s performance was average, but Sun Lingtong and the others were already losing more than winning.

Such a trend was quite unfavorable.

Fortunately, Ning Jiufan had returned the previous Core Formation stage mechanical ape.

So, after the second test of the main examination was completed, Ning Zhuo went to the critical care area that evening to meet Sun Lingtong in secret.

In front of Sun Lingtong, he recalled Yuan Dasheng’s spiritual intelligence and reinjected it into the Golden Blood Battle Ape.

Then, he handed the Golden Blood Battle Ape – Dasheng to Sun Lingtong to use.

Yang Chanyu, who was next to them, understood their next plan and couldn’t help but look at the Golden Blood Battle Ape – Dasheng in surprise: “You mean this mechanism came from the trial stage?!”

“Then according to the requirements in the second round of the main examination, can’t we just use it directly, and we don’t need to painstakingly construct mechanical puppets for every arena match?”

Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes: “Why would you think that? Of course, we need to continue refining puppets. This way, wouldn’t we, like Meng Chong, have two puppets fighting?”

Yang Chanyu was stunned: “That is true.”

Just like that, in the matches on the third day, Sun Lingtong directly brought out the Golden Blood Battle Ape – Dasheng to use, astonishing the others and leaving them dumbfounded!