**: I Have a Head**

Darkness.

Complete darkness.

In the endless dark, Ning Zhuo gradually regained his senses.

"What exactly happened?"

"Where is this?!"

Just at that moment, a stream of information, transmitted along the Thread of Human Fate, reached directly into his heart: "Molten Rock Immortal Palace, Mechanical Legacy, Thread-Guided Soul Conveyance, Qi Refinement Trial... Leave Room One, enter Room Two."

Ning Zhuo's spirits surged, and he understood the situation.

"So it seems, reaching the peak of the third level of Qi Refinement is the first selection criteria."

"I met it, so my soul was drawn here, into the Molten Rock Immortal Palace, to begin the second trial."

"This is very different from the information Mother left behind!"

"Indeed, the appearance of the Law-Transmission Bell already hinted that the method for Qi Refining cultivators to compete for the Molten Rock Immortal Palace is completely different from before, for Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul stages!"

"Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense."

"Once a cultivator reaches Foundation Establishment, their dantian is completely remodeled and stabilized. Trying to change cultivation techniques becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible."

"But I, while still in the Qi Refining stage, took advantage of my dantian not being fixed yet to directly switch, cultivating the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art. To the Molten Rock Immortal Palace, I am like one of their own disciples."

"Compared to outsiders practicing other techniques, the distinction between close and distant is clear."

"However..."

"'Leave Room One, enter Room Two'? How exactly do I do that?"

Ning Zhuo calmed his mind, carefully sensing within the endless darkness.

He gradually perceived that his soul was not existing independently but was residing within some object, and hidden within this object was a mass of spiritual power.

Ning Zhuo tried to mobilize this spiritual power, but it had no effect.

He racked his brains and used the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art to attempt mobilization, and it immediately elicited a response.

The spiritual power was mobilized and, following the circulation path of the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art, began to flow slowly within the object housing his soul.

Through this, Ning Zhuo gradually sensed that his soul's residence was like a long, rectangular box.

"A coffin?" Ning Zhuo guessed.

"Also, this feeling of mobilizing spiritual power is very familiar to me."

"It should be a spirit stone. I'm drawing the spiritual power from within it."

"The spiritual power in a spirit stone is finite. Operating the technique like this continuously consumes the power."

Ning Zhuo stopped the technique, falling into hesitation.

He pondered in the darkness but couldn't find any more clues.

"It seems there's only this one option..."

Gritting his teeth, Ning Zhuo decided to gamble. He never lacked the courage to take risks.

This time, he pushed the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art to its fullest, causing the spiritual power to deplete rapidly, but he did not stop.

Spiritual energy began to leak out from the "long rectangular box."

The escaping spiritual energy acted like his tentacles, allowing Ning Zhuo to develop a faint sense of perception.

"In that direction, there seems to be something." Ning Zhuo perceived a certain presence in the darkness.

Moreover, this presence seemed to be faintly responding to him.

Ning Zhuo steeled his heart, pushing the spiritual power to its maximum.

The feeling of response instantly intensified, and within the next few breaths, the strength of the response skyrocketed dozens of times!

Until finally, a mysterious hard object suddenly bumped into the long rectangular box housing Ning Zhuo's soul.

The spiritual energy dispersing everywhere quickly pulled the long box and the mysterious hard object together, combining them directly.

The spiritual energy Ning Zhuo was emitting outward now had a new destination.

As spiritual power poured into the mysterious hard object, Ning Zhuo gradually sensed its shape.

"It looks like... like an arm?"

A thought flashed through Ning Zhuo's mind like lightning, and he immediately formed a hypothesis.

He continued operating the technique, confirming his earlier guess.

This was indeed an arm. At the front of the arm was a hand, and the hand had four fingers.

In the darkness, Ning Zhuo carefully experienced it.

He tried waving the arm, then extending the hand, moving the fingers, groping around.

He didn't have any tactile sensation, but the outwardly spreading spiritual power began to resonate with other mysterious objects.

A short while later, a cube-shaped hard object was also drawn to his body and combined with it.

The darkness that had plagued him suddenly dissipated, and Ning Zhuo's vision instantly lit up.

He could finally see his surroundings!

This was an enormous room, filled with countless mechanical parts. Torsos, heads, hands, feet, tails, horns, wings, and so on.

These mechanical parts were diverse, all made of wood, brownish-yellow in color.

And he, Ning Zhuo, was perched on a small mountain formed by piles of these mechanical parts.

Ning Zhuo observed himself.

"My guess was correct!"

The long rectangular box his soul had initially resided in was a rectangular mechanical torso component.

The first thing he attracted with spiritual power was the left arm.

The second cube-shaped object he assembled was a squarish mechanical head component.

"So it is a head!"

"I have a head now!"

"And it's quite a large head."

Ning Zhuo was delighted.

The head component had eye-like attachments, which allowed him to see.

With the ability to observe, things became much easier for Ning Zhuo.

He followed the same method, finding other components within the pile of mechanical parts on the small mountain and attaching them to himself.

By the time he climbed down from the mountain of parts to the ground, he had both arms and both legs.

"A mechanical puppet body..."

Ning Zhuo's current body had a long rectangular box as its main torso. He had two legs, one slightly thinner, one slightly thicker, and they weren't exactly the same height.

His two arms were the same length, but his hands had three and four fingers respectively.

And his large, square head was out of proportion with his torso, looking a bit silly.

"Having a body allows free movement like a human, but it also significantly increases the consumption of spiritual power."

Ning Zhuo constantly monitored the spirit stone within his torso. So far, he had consumed nearly half of its spiritual power.

"Other torso components should contain spirit stones as reserves. I can take them for backup."

However, as Ning Zhuo targeted a torso component and was about to act, new information arrived, informing him—damaging other components was not allowed.

"Then I'll just assemble another body." As soon as Ning Zhuo started, more information came—the current permitted upper limit for spiritual power components was one.

Ning Zhuo had no choice but to stand up.

He recalled the first piece of information—the requirement to go from the first room to the second room.

This was the assessment criteria.

"This second trial表面上has no time limit, but that's not really the case."

"Because there's only one spiritual power component, and the spiritual power in the spirit stone will continuously deplete."

"I must complete this first assessment before the spiritual power is completely exhausted."

"I should leave this place as soon as possible."

Room One was spacious, with red copper walls and a golden ceiling, brightly lit.

Ning Zhuo had long since seen the room's only door.

He hobbled towards the door.

As soon as his fingers touched the door, more information was transmitted to him.

One spirit stone, one component with a hanging ring, and one spell called "A Burst of Qi."

"Can I only choose one of these?"

(End of )