Advent of Immortal Truth

The skeleton of the Five Elements Infantry was sturdy, and the outer layer of baked clay further increased its defense.

In addition to spirit stones, its spiritual energy was supplied by a Spirit Gathering Formation to extend its endurance.

Spirit patterns were embedded in ancient wooden strips inside, making energy transmission very convenient.

As for the characteristics of the Five Elements Infantry, it had none.

Or rather, it was balanced.

In terms of attack, defense, spiritual energy, and speed, none stood out.

This was Ning Zhuo’s deliberate design.

Without any outstanding traits, it wouldn’t be easily countered.

The second round of the imperial examination had just begun, and he needed to gain as much combat experience as possible.

Ning Zhuo filled the Five Elements Infantry with enough Fire Essence Firecrackers, pushing its ammo capacity to the limit.

After completing this step, he still had the time of one cup of tea left before the deadline.

The actual outcome was better than he had initially planned.

He closed his eyes for a brief rest, then opened them again, using the remaining time to inspect the Five Elements Infantry from the beginning.

He even used his Puppet Strings to control it for a short while, testing its various functions.

After a brief operation, Ning Zhuo confirmed everything was fine and stopped.

Before the battle, it wasn’t wise to test too much, as once a mechanical creation started operating, it would begin to wear down.

After the test, Ning Zhuo still had some time left.

He carefully examined the desk and the mechanical crafting tools but didn’t discover anything new.

In the last short period, Ning Zhuo closed his eyes again, regulating his breath and waiting for the time to run out.

When the time was up, Ning Zhuo opened his eyes and found the area in front of him had suddenly cleared up.

He saw his opponent.

It was a short man, dressed in warrior attire, with a masked face, revealing only a pair of narrow eyes.

Ning Zhuo immediately recognized the man’s identity: “Feng Feidao, one of the three deputy leaders of the City Lord’s Mansion renovation team.”

Feng Feidao seemed a bit flustered.

The time had run out, and he was still crafting arrows for his mechanical puppet.

But after the time limit, both mechanical puppets were sent to the center of the arena.

Ning Zhuo focused intently on the other party’s puppet.

The yellow-green puppet was tall and slender, holding a longbow with a quiver on its back and two small quivers strapped to its waist.

The quivers were filled with arrows, though not fully.

Seeing the burly Five Elements Infantry covered in layers of baked clay, Feng Feidao immediately tugged his hand, pulling his Wooden Arrow Knight back toward him.

In the center of the arena, the mechanical Wooden Arrow Knight swiftly retreated, quickly distancing itself from the Five Elements Infantry.

"This speed..." Ning Zhuo couldn’t help but frown slightly.

The Wooden Arrow Knight moved as swiftly as the wind, easily widening the gap.

Its speed advantage was immediately obvious.

Ning Zhuo quickly analyzed: “Judging from its appearance and movements, the opponent primarily used spirit-patterned ancient wood.”

“It seems they completely abandoned heavy materials like iron fist or baked clay.”

“As a result, it excels in speed!”

After creating distance, the Wooden Arrow Knight quickly nocked an arrow and began shooting at the Five Elements Infantry.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The arrows shot forth, some exploding with loud bangs, while others turned into ice spikes, piercing the air.

It turned out that Feng Feidao had used Fire Essence and Frost Flower Water Droplets to craft his arrows.

Ning Zhuo controlled the Five Elements Infantry to move forward step by step, enduring the barrage of arrows.

Fortunately, he had put considerable thought into defense.

Almost all of the Frost Flower Water Droplets had been used to form a formation hidden within the Five Elements Infantry, flowing like blood.

The Frost Flower Water Droplets surged out, quickly forming a large round shield, covering nearly the entire body of the Five Elements Infantry.

Most of the arrows struck the shield with little effect.

A glint of sharpness flashed in Feng Feidao’s eyes, but he didn’t panic.

When designing the Wooden Arrow Knight, he had already considered how to deal with an iron block like the Five Elements Infantry.

In the next moment, his fingers moved rapidly, controlling the Wooden Arrow Knight to pull out three arrows from the large quiver on its back.

The Wooden Arrow Knight nocked all three arrows on the bow and released them together!

The three arrows didn’t strike the Five Elements Infantry’s body but landed at its feet.

The arrows embedded themselves into the arena floor, rapidly growing into a mass of thorns that quickly spread toward the Five Elements Infantry.

Ning Zhuo hastily pulled his hand back, making the Five Elements Infantry retreat a few steps.

At the same time, his fingers moved rapidly, commanding the Five Elements Infantry to reach into its belly and pull out a handful of Fire Essence Firecrackers.

The firecrackers scattered, exploding with loud bangs.

The thorny growth was destroyed, leaving the ground scorched black.

The Five Elements Infantry took another step forward, continuing to close in on the Wooden Arrow Knight.

Feng Feidao’s brow furrowed.

His offensive tactics had been exhausted, but he had not yet secured victory.

“At this point, the only option is a battle of attrition to seize the upper hand.”

“Ning Zhuo’s mechanical creation is heavy, and every movement consumes far more spiritual energy than mine.”

“Moreover, its shield is large and heavy, and maintaining such a huge shield consumes a lot of spiritual energy.”

“On the other hand, my Wooden Arrow Knight is almost entirely made of spirit-patterned ancient wood, and its efficiency in absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy far exceeds his. It also has a Spirit Gathering Formation inside, giving me the advantage in spiritual energy consumption!”

The battle entered a stalemate.

Ning Zhuo’s Five Elements Infantry advanced behind its shield, while Feng Feidao’s Wooden Arrow Knight maintained its distance, constantly shooting arrows.

The situation was clear: one side was attacking, while the other was defending.

The arena space was limited, and Ning Zhuo made use of this, carefully planning the movements of the Five Elements Infantry, gradually closing the distance.

Feng Feidao was also experienced, using the round edges of the arena to keep evading without making any mistakes in his positioning.

Ning Zhuo remained expressionless, controlling the Five Elements Infantry to frequently throw mechanical firecrackers.

These firecrackers had an area-of-effect damage, forcing the Wooden Arrow Knight to keep rolling and jumping, increasing its spiritual energy consumption.

The Wooden Arrow Knight countered with arrows, but most were blocked by Ning Zhuo’s water shield.

Occasionally, a few arrows struck the body, but the baked clay reduced the impact to almost nothing.

Feng Feidao’s face gradually darkened.

He realized he had a major disadvantage—he was running out of arrows!

In contrast, Ning Zhuo seemed to have an endless supply of Fire Essence Firecrackers.

For Feng Feidao, there hadn’t been enough time to craft his mechanical creations. But for Ning Zhuo, he had ample time.

Ning Zhuo’s advantage in crafting mechanical creations now showed itself on the battlefield.

Realizing this, Feng Feidao immediately reduced his shooting frequency, carefully conserving each arrow.

Seeing this, Ning Zhuo immediately reduced the size of his water shield, shrinking it to the size of a regular shield that covered only half of his body, instead of the nearly full-body shield from before.

“This water shield can actually shrink—it’s not fixed in shape!” Feng Feidao received yet another blow.

With the shield’s size reduced, its spiritual energy consumption naturally wasn’t as large.

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

“In this prolonged battle of attrition, I will be the final victor!”

Ning Zhuo’s expression remained serious.

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

So, with each firecracker he threw, he did so with all his might.

As time passed, the medium-grade spirit stone inside the Wooden Arrow Knight was depleted, and it relied on the spiritual energy absorbed from the environment since the beginning of the battle.

Without an ample supply of spiritual energy, its speed decreased significantly.

Ning Zhuo’s situation was not as dire as Feng Feidao had imagined.

Normally, the medium-grade spirit stone inside the Five Elements Infantry would have been depleted long ago. However, it still retained about ten percent of its energy reserves.

This was because Ning Zhuo had set up a system of mutual generation among the five elements. Every time he used the water-element shield, fire-element firecrackers, or earth-element defensive coating, the spiritual energy consumption was much lower than if he had used them directly.

The Five Elements Infantry’s spiritual energy reserves kept up with the Wooden Arrow Knight, not falling behind.

At this point, the scales of victory began to tip in its favor.

The Wooden Arrow Knight’s speed had significantly decreased, making it increasingly susceptible to the area damage of the Fire Essence Firecrackers.

The accumulated damage disrupted its spirit patterns, reducing its efficiency in absorbing external spiritual energy, worsening its situation.

Finally, the sluggish Five Elements Infantry cornered the severely slowed Wooden Arrow Knight.

The two engaged in close combat.

The Wooden Arrow Knight’s punches scraped layers of stone skin off the Five Elements Infantry.

But when the Five Elements Infantry punched, each hit landed with a bang, leaving fist-shaped dents in the Wooden Arrow Knight.

The difference in power was too great!

In the

end, the Five Elements Infantry broke the Wooden Arrow Knight’s legs and arms, leaving it paralyzed on the ground, completely motionless.

Feng Feidao stared at this scene, his hands trembling, veins bulging, almost cramping from frustration.

During the close combat phase, he had pushed his control to the limit, knowing that the Wooden Arrow Knight was weaker in melee combat and that he would need to make more complex maneuvers to hold his ground.

His fingers were working so fast that they were almost tying themselves in knots, but in the end, he still tasted the bitter fruit of defeat.

Ning Zhuo had defeated his first opponent, earning a point in the competition.

New information arrived, informing him that he could rest for the time it took to drink half a cup of tea.

He was teleported to the plaza.

Standing outside the arena, he saw that nearly all the arenas were engaged in battle.

Even the one he had just left quickly blurred, as two new cultivators began their duel.

In the plaza, only two people were present.

One was Ning Zhuo, and the other was a Golden Core cultivator from the City Lord’s Mansion.

There was no need for any exchange between them.

Ning Zhuo’s mind stirred: “After the first round of the imperial examination, before the second round began, another Foundation Establishment cultivator was assassinated.”

“That means only twenty-two people are participating in the second round.”

“But since there are only two of us here, it means that slot still exists. This suggests that in the next battles, I might face this vacant slot.”

If Ning Zhuo had been able to see the situation below the arena earlier, he could have calculated this more accurately.

“The message said that everyone has to face all the other contestants at least once. Although we lost one person, the slot remains, just like in the first round.”

“So, it still counts as twenty-three contestants.”

Ning Zhuo calculated: “In that case, there will be a total of two hundred fifty-three matches.”

“There are ten arenas, so assuming all matches start and end simultaneously, we need at least twenty-five rounds.”

“And this is just the content of the first round of the competition. According to the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, the second round of the imperial examination will have at least three sessions.”

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

(End of this chapter)