: The Wooden Arrow Hero (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

The Five Elements Pawn's skeleton was sturdy, with baked clay further enhancing its external defense. Its spiritual power setup included not only spirit stones but also a spirit gathering array to extend its operational time. Inside, ancient spirit-patterned wood strips were used as conduits, making it very efficient.

If there was one characteristic of the Five Elements Pawn, it was that it had no distinct characteristics. Or rather, it was balanced. Attack, defense, spiritual power, speed—none of these aspects stood out particularly. This was intentionally done by Ning Zhuo.

Having no outstanding strengths meant it wouldn't be easily countered. The second round of the palace exam had just begun, and he needed to gain as much combat experience as possible. Thus, a balanced construct like this stood a chance against any opponent and could last longer in battle.

Ning Zhuo produced enough Fire Essence firecrackers, maxing out the Five Elements Pawn's ammunition capacity. After completing this step, he still had about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea left before the deadline. The actual result was even better than he had planned.

He closed his eyes to rest briefly, then opened them and used the remaining time to thoroughly inspect the Five Elements Pawn from start to finish. He even used control strings to manipulate it, testing its performance in various aspects. However, he only tested it briefly to avoid excessive wear and tear before the battle.

Even after the practical test, Ning Zhuo still had some time left. He carefully examined the workbench and the tools used for constructing the mechanism but found nothing new. In the final moments, he closed his eyes, regulated his breathing, and quietly waited for time to run out.

Once time was up, Ning Zhuo opened his eyes and found the space in front of him suddenly clear. He saw his opponent—a short man dressed in martial attire, with a masked face revealing only a pair of narrow eyes. Ning Zhuo immediately recognized him: "Feng Feidao, one of the three small team leaders of the City Lord's Mansion's renovation squad."

Feng Feidao appeared flustered. When time ran out, he was still making arrows for his construct. But as soon as the deadline passed, the arena transported both constructs to the central area.

Ning Zhuo closely observed the opponent's construct. The tall, slender, yellow-green humanoid figure held a longbow, with a quiver on its back and two smaller quivers at its waist. The quivers contained many arrows but were not full.

Seeing the burly Five Elements Pawn, heavily armored with baked clay, Feng Feidao immediately pulled his Wooden Arrow Hero back toward himself. On the arena, the Wooden Arrow Hero swiftly retreated, quickly creating distance between itself and the Five Elements Pawn.

"This speed..." Ning Zhuo frowned slightly. The Wooden Arrow Hero was as swift as the wind, effortlessly creating distance. Its advantage in speed was obvious.

Ning Zhuo quickly assessed, "Judging by its appearance and this movement, the opponent primarily used spirit-patterned wood as material. It seems they completely abandoned heavier materials like Fist Gold or baked clay. As a result, its speed performance is quite outstanding!"

After creating distance, the Wooden Arrow Hero quickly drew its bow and fired arrows at the Five Elements Pawn. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the arrows shot forth, some exploding with a bang, others instantly turning into ice spikes for piercing effects. It turned out Feng Feidao had used Fire Essence and Frost Flower Large Water Drops to make the arrows.

Ning Zhuo controlled the Five Elements Pawn to advance step by step, enduring the arrows as it moved. Fortunately, he had put considerable thought into its defense. Almost the entire Frost Flower Large Water Drop was used to form an array hidden inside the Five Elements Pawn, flowing like blood. The Frost Flower Large Water Drop surged out, quickly forming a large round shield that covered almost the entire body of the Five Elements Pawn. Most of the arrows hit the shield, with minimal effect.

A gleam flashed in Feng Feidao's eyes, but he remained calm. When designing the Wooden Arrow Hero, he had considered how to deal with iron-clad constructs like the Five Elements Pawn. The next moment, his fingers moved rapidly, controlling the Wooden Arrow Hero to take three arrows from the large quiver on its back. The Wooden Arrow Hero nocked all three arrows on the bowstring and fired them at full draw!

The three arrows did not hit the Five Elements Pawn but landed at its feet. The arrows took root in the arena ground, rapidly growing into numerous thorns that swiftly spread toward the Five Elements Pawn. Ning Zhuo quickly pulled the Five Elements Pawn back 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 handful of Fire Essence firecrackers.

The firecrackers scattered and exploded, destroying the thorny thicket and leaving the ground charred. The Five Elements Pawn stepped forward, continuing to advance toward the Wooden Arrow Hero.

Feng Feidao frowned. He had exhausted his offensive methods but could not secure victory. "The only option now is to rely on a war of attrition to seize victory. Ning Zhuo's construct is heavy; every movement consumes more spiritual power than mine. Moreover, its shield is heavy and large, maintaining such a massive shield also consumes a lot of spiritual power. In contrast, my Wooden Arrow Hero is made almost entirely of spirit-patterned wood, with far higher efficiency in absorbing surrounding spiritual energy. It also has a spirit gathering array inside. In terms of spiritual power consumption, I have the advantage!"

The situation reached a stalemate. Ning Zhuo's Five Elements Pawn advanced with its shield raised, while Feng Feidao's Wooden Arrow Hero maintained distance, continuously shooting arrows. One attacked, the other defended—the dynamic was clear.

The arena space was limited. Ning Zhuo took advantage of this, carefully designing the Five Elements Pawn's positioning to gradually close the distance. Feng Feidao, with his considerable experience, utilized the circular edges of the arena, constantly shifting positions without a single misstep.

Ning Zhuo's expression remained unchanged as he began controlling the Five Elements Pawn to frequently throw mechanical firecrackers. These firecrackers had area-of-effect damage, forcing the Wooden Arrow Hero to constantly dodge and jump, increasing its spiritual power consumption. The Wooden Arrow Hero retaliated with arrows, but most were blocked by Ning Zhuo's water shield. The few arrows that hit its body had minimal effect due to the baked clay.

Feng Feidao's expression gradually darkened. He realized one of his disadvantages—he was running out of arrows! In contrast, Ning Zhuo seemed to have an endless supply of Fire Essence firecrackers. For Feng Feidao, the time to craft his construct had been insufficient. But for Ning Zhuo, he had had plenty of time. Ning Zhuo's advantage in construct crafting was now evident on the battlefield.

Realizing this, Feng Feidao immediately reduced his shooting frequency, cautiously using each arrow. Seeing this, Ning Zhuo shrunk the water shield to the size of a常规 shield, protecting only half of the body instead of nearly all of it as before.

"The water shield can shrink? It's not fixed to one form!" Feng Feidao received another piece of bad news. A smaller water shield naturally consumed less spiritual power.

Feng Feidao forced himself to stay calm. "Even so, my absorption of spiritual power is still much higher than yours! I will be the ultimate victor in this war of attrition!"

Ning Zhuo wore a serious expression. He had also analyzed where the opponent's advantage lay. So, from then on, he put his all into every firecracker throw.

As time passed, the medium-grade spirit stones on the Wooden Arrow Hero were depleted, and it relied solely on the external spiritual energy it had been absorbing since the battle began. Without ample spiritual power support, its speed decreased significantly. Ning Zhuo's situation, however, was far less dire than Feng Feidao had imagined.

Under normal circumstances, the Five Elements Pawn's medium-grade spirit stones should have been depleted long ago. But now, it still retained about ten percent of its spirit stone reserves. This was because Ning Zhuo had employed a Five Elements mutual generation setup. Each use of the water element's shield, the fire element's firecrackers, or the earth element's surface protection consumed less mana than direct consumption. The Five Elements Pawn's spiritual power reserves kept pace with the Wooden Arrow Hero and weren't left behind.

At this point, the scales of victory began to gradually tilt in its favor. The Wooden Arrow Hero's greatly reduced speed made it increasingly vulnerable to the area damage of the Fire Essence firecrackers. These damages accumulated, damaging the spirit patterns and reducing its efficiency in absorbing external spiritual energy—a vicious cycle.

Finally, the slow-moving Five Elements Pawn cornered the severely slowed Wooden Arrow Hero. Close combat ensued. The Wooden Arrow Hero's punches scraped layers of stone skin off the Five Elements Pawn. The Five Elements Pawn's punches, however, landed with loud thuds, leaving fist-shaped dents and marks on the Wooden Arrow Hero. The difference was too obvious!

In the end, the Five Elements Pawn broke the Wooden Arrow Hero's legs and arms, leaving it paralyzed and motionless on the ground. Feng Feidao stared at this scene, his hands trembling, veins bulging, as if about to cramp. During the close combat phase, he had pushed his control to his personal limit. Since the Wooden Arrow Hero was weak in close combat, he had to perform more operations to maintain the situation. He was so busy his fingers almost tangled together, but in the end, he still tasted the bitterness of defeat.

Ning Zhuo defeated his first enemy and gained one victory point. New information arrived, allowing him to rest for half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. He was teleported to the plaza.

Standing outside the arena, he saw that almost every arena was engaged in battle. Even the arena he had just been in immediately became blurred and indistinct, clearly occupied by two other cultivators beginning their match. Only two people were on the plaza: Ning Zhuo and a Golden Core cultivator from the City Lord's Mansion. There was no need for communication between them.

A thought occurred to Ning Zhuo. "After the first round of the palace exam and before the second round, another Foundation Establishment cultivator was assassinated. That means only twenty-two people are actually participating in the second round. But there are only two people here now, indicating this vacant spot still exists. This implies I might encounter this bye in the upcoming matches."

If he could have seen the situation outside the arena during the match, he would have deduced this earlier. "The information said everyone must fight each other once. Although one person is missing, the spot is still retained, same as the first round of the palace exam. So, it can still be considered twenty-three participants."

Ning Zhuo did a quick calculation. "In that case, the total number of matches would be two hundred and fifty-three. With ten arenas, assuming simultaneous starts and finishes, it would take twenty-five rounds. And this is just for the first part of the competition. According to the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, the second round of the palace exam will have at least three parts. Adding in the rest periods between each part, the total duration of the second round of the palace exam will be at least ten days or more."

(End of )