This Isn't Cheating! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Ning Zhuo calculated the time remaining for the palace exam while keeping his full attention fixed on the various arenas.

He quickly realized that this was a rather rare opportunity!

He could stand below the arenas and simultaneously observe the fights between twenty cultivators across ten different platforms.

The cultivators were truly showcasing their abilities; the mechanical puppets they had built in such a short time incorporated a variety of ideas.

The one with the most imposing presence and the strongest combat power was undoubtedly Zhu Xuanji's mechanical puppet.

It had a red headband tied around its forehead. Ning Zhuo privately referred to it as the Red Scarf Army.

Clearly, the Red Scarf Army was primarily constructed using Fire Essence, granting it extremely powerful fire-based attacks.

Zhu Xuanji had used charcoal-fired clay to form the puppet's body, with Fist Gold only coating the exterior as armor.

"The Red Scarf Army must have an excellent storage array inside it; it's using an awful lot of Fire Essence."

The blazing flames generated by the consumption of Fire Essence were compressed layer upon layer within the Red Scarf Army's body, to the point of becoming almost viscous.

Flames continuously shot out from its mouth, nose, palms, and other areas, forming fire dragons and fire walls. The flames covered the entire arena, raging fiercely, immersing its opponent in a sea of fire, subjecting them to constant burning.

The Red Scarf Army was like a fish in water within the flames, while its enemy suffered a calamity.

Surveying all ten arenas, Ning Zhuo found that almost all the other mechanical creations could not withstand such a ferocious fire attack.

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 had privately named it the Vajra Guardian.

Ning Zhuo observed continuously and found that the only one capable of resisting the fire attacks was indeed the Vajra Guardian.

Zheng Hua himself possessed a natural talent, allowing him to easily smelt materials.

Ning Zhuo guessed that he had probably fused Fist Gold and charcoal-fired clay into a new composite material. Using this as the main component, he had constructed a sturdy, thick-set puppet.

Armor of a black-gold color, with a slight greyish glow, almost completely covered the puppet's body.

Ancient wood inscribed with spirit patterns was used at the joints.

The modification of the Frost Flower Large Water Droplet followed the same line of thinking as Ning Zhuo's; both had arrays placed upon them.

However, the arrays Zheng Hua placed within the water droplet were an Ice Array and a Healing Array. This allowed the water droplet to repair the Vajra Guardian's wounds. If a wound was too large, the water droplet would split off a portion, turning into ice to temporarily plug it.

This plugging function would effectively reduce the damage from enemy attacks targeting its wounds.

The Vangra Guardian's defense was exceptionally strong. It stood its ground motionless,任凭对手攻击自己 (allowing its opponent to attack it).

Ning Zhuo looked towards Ning Jiufan.

In Ning Zhuo's assessment, among the twenty-plus mechanical puppets on the ten arenas, only three clearly surpassed the Five Elements Pawn in performance.

Aside from the Red Scarf Army and the Vangra Guardian, it was the Frost Envoy created by Ning Jiufan.

This mechanical puppet was entirely constructed from ice. Dense frost patterns were distributed across the ice surface.

Clearly, Ning Jiufan had focused on using the Frost Flower Large Water Droplet.

He froze it into ice, immediately bringing himself into his most proficient field: ice sculpture mechanics.

Because the total amount of the Large Water Droplet was limited, Ning Jiufan's Frost Envoy was quite small in stature.

On its body, one could see some wooden and metallic joints, armor, and other structures.

Ning Jiufan's craftsmanship was good; these joints and armor were small, exquisite, delicate, and华丽 (eye-catching).

The Frost Envoy could release an ice frost array. As the freezing air spread, the enemy's movements would often become increasingly slower until their joints and other vital points were frozen solid.

"If my Five Elements Pawn encounters these three, it will most likely be defeated."

"There might be a sliver of chance for victory against Zheng Hua, but against Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, there's basically no hope of winning at all!"

Ning Zhuo compared them and was very self-aware.

All the Golden Core level cultivators, even though they were suppressed by the Immortal Palace to the Qi Refining stage, still held obvious advantages in manipulation techniques, combat experience, and even in spiritual power and willpower.

As for the remaining Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining stage cultivators, they couldn't be underestimated either. The slightest carelessness could easily lead to an upset.

After all, the fact that these people had gained the recognition of the Molten Rock Immortal Palace and could enter it showed that their attainments in mechanics were quite outstanding!

"If we really have to rank them, shouldn't Meng Chong's mechanical proficiency be the lowest?"

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

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

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

"This person is clearly a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator."

"Has the City Lord's Mansion, with its vast influence and meticulous planning, already contacted him and bribed him in private?"

Ning Zhuo memorized frantically.

The twenty-plus mechanical puppets on the ten arenas each had their own characteristics, and the cultivation techniques they employed had different emphases.

For example, Ning Jiufan's puppet emphasized sculpting skills. Zheng Hua's Vajra Guardian incorporated many artifact forging techniques.

These technical characteristics would likely continue to be maintained in the subsequent palace exams.

On the other hand, the design of the mechanical puppets also highlighted the personality traits of each cultivator.

For instance, Zhu Xuanji hated evil intensely and always unconsciously positioned himself in the attacking role of a hunter.

The above intelligence was extremely valuable.

"Boss Sun is in some danger." Ning Zhuo felt a hidden worry.

Although Sun Lingtong had also studied mechanical texts diligently, his natural talent for mechanics wasn't great. Compared to most cultivators, he was excellent.

But now, participating in the Molten Rock Immortal Palace's palace exam and comparing himself to this group of mechanical cultivators, his performance clearly showed weakness.

"I'll continue using the Five Elements Pawn."

"This kind of mechanically balanced puppet often struggles in combat. This恰恰 (precisely) will make enemies and spectators look down on it."

"This is very beneficial for me to hide my clumsiness!"

Ning Zhuo wasn't worried about himself, especially since the Longyuan Fire Spirit had leaked the questions, giving him quite some confidence.

But he was worried about Sun Lingtong.

Sun Lingtong was using the name "Ning Zhuo". If he were eliminated in this round, others would顺势 (then) discover that the "entry standard" was actually Ning Zhuo himself!

The second round of the palace exam continued.

Ning Zhuo subsequently ascended the platform several times. When he encountered Zhu Xuanji and Ning Jiufan, he毫不犹豫地认输 (hesitated not a bit to admit defeat).

There were quite a few instances of such surrender; it wasn't an isolated case like his. This undoubtedly greatly shortened the overall duration of the matches.

Before the day was even over, the first question of the second round's palace exam had already been completed.

Ning Zhuo let out a long breath. Overall, even though there was rest time after each match, it was still very taxing, posing a considerable challenge to his spiritual power, willpower, and concentration.

Once again, via the teleportation circles, everyone quickly returned to their original locations.

Ning Zhuo was soon summoned.

Ning Jiufan, full of gratification, said to him: "Xiao Zhuo, I've been paying attention to you."

"Although every fight was a difficult test for you, you始终 (always) maintained high morale,坚韧不拔地 (tenaciously) achieving victory in one hard-fought battle after another."

"This is very good. You are, after all, of my Ning family bloodline, possessing the character of our North Wind men."

Ning Zhuo顺势 (took the opportunity) to express his loyalty, then嬉皮笑脸地 (grinned cheekily) and asked Ning Jiufan for a reward.

Ning Jiufan was already getting used to Ning Zhuo's厚脸皮 (shamelessness). He had only lost to Zhu Xuanji in today's battles and was in a rather good mood. He directly took out the Golden Core level mechanical ape.

This mechanical ape was the one Ning Zhuo had previously lent to Ning Jiufan.

"I didn't expect that in the second round of the palace exam, it would have no use."

"Here, I return it to you."

"The internal mechanical components inside are also given to you."

"Among them, there is a mechanism called 'Round Wood Alert Pillow', suitable for your current situation."

"Release it to guard you day and night."

"The first test of the second round is over. From now on, the situation for all cultivators will be fraught with danger. After all, this concerns the struggle for ownership of the Molten Rock Immortal Palace."

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

He immediately expressed his profound thanks to Ning Jiufan.

After bringing the mechanical ape back, he opened its outer armor and saw inside a dense array of ice-sculpted mechanisms. Among them, the Round Wood Alert Pillow that Ning Jiufan had specifically mentioned was比较特殊 (rather special); it was made of wood.

After studying it briefly, Ning Zhuo felt its profundity.

Ning Jiufan was, after all, a Golden Core level cultivator; his mechanical attainments surpassed Ning Zhuo's. Many of his manufacturing techniques were beyond Ning Zhuo's current capability.

The next day, the teleportation circles appeared again, and everyone ascended the platforms once more 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 all at the Qi Refining level, but the quantities were insufficient. This forced many of the previous design plans to become unfeasible during the design phase.

Because, for certain individual materials, there simply wasn't enough.

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明显 (clearly) higher than the first.

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

This trend was quite unfavorable.

Fortunately, Ning Jiufan had returned the Golden Core level mechanical ape.

So, after the second test concluded that evening, Ning Zhuo went to the critical care treatment room to secretly meet with Sun Lingtong.

In front of Sun Lingtong, he recalled Yuan Dasheng's spirit, re-injecting it into the Golden Blood Battle Ape.

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

Yang Chanyu, who was nearby and learned of their next plan, looked at the Golden Blood Battle Ape - Dasheng in surprise: "You mean, this construct comes from the trial关卡 (stage)?!"

"Then according to the rules of the second round's palace exam, couldn't it be used directly? There would be no need for us to painstakingly construct a mechanical puppet for every arena match?"

Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes: "Why would you think that? Of course we need to continue forging puppets. That way, wouldn't we be like Meng Chong, fighting with two puppets?"

Yang Chanyu's expression froze: "Indeed."

And so, on the third day of matches, Sun Lingtong directly took out the Golden Blood Battle Ape - Dasheng to use, stunning everyone else speechless!

(End of )