Chapter 25: I Have a Head

Darkness.

Utter darkness.

In the endless abyss of darkness, Ning Zhuo gradually regained consciousness.

"What in the world happened?"

"Where am I?!"

Just then, a strand of information, following a thread of life, directly reached the depths of his heart: "Lava Immortal Palace, mechanism inheritance, soul drawn by a thread, Qi Refining trial... Leave room one, enter room two."

Ning Zhuo's spirit surged, understanding the situation.

"So it seems, the pinnacle of the third layer of Qi Refining is the first selection criterion."

"I reached it, so my soul was drawn in, entering the Lava Immortal Palace, initiating the second stage of the trial."

"This is vastly different from the information my mother left behind!"

"As expected, the appearance of the Bell of Transmission was already foreshadowing it – the way Qi Refining cultivators compete for the Lava Immortal Palace is completely different from that of Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and others before!"

"Thinking about it carefully, it makes perfect sense."

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

"But I, during the Qi Refining stage, seized the opportunity before the dantian was fixed, and directly switched to cultivating, furthermore cultivating the Five Elements Qi Harmony Art. To the Lava Immortal Palace, that makes me one of their own."

"Compared to those outsiders cultivating other techniques, the difference in closeness is clear as day."

"But..."

"Leave room one, enter room two? How should I do that?"

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

He gradually realized that his soul did not exist independently but was residing within a certain object, and that within this object, there was also a hidden cluster of spiritual essence.

Ning Zhuo tried to mobilize this spiritual essence, but to no avail.

He racked his brains, using the Five Elements Qi Harmony Art to mobilize it, and immediately there was a reaction.

The spiritual essence began to move, following the path of the Five Elements Qi Harmony Art, slowly flowing within the object his soul was residing in.

From this, Ning Zhuo gradually perceived that his soul's dwelling was like a long, rectangular box.

"A coffin?" Ning Zhuo guessed.

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

"It should be a spirit stone. I am drawing spiritual essence from within it."

"The spiritual essence within a spirit stone is limited. Circulating the art like this is constantly consuming spiritual essence."

Ning Zhuo stopped the art, falling into hesitation.

He pondered in the darkness, unable to find more clues.

"It seems this is the only option..."

Ning Zhuo gritted his teeth, deciding to gamble once.

He had never lacked the courage to take risks.

This time, he fully urged the Five Elements Qi Harmony Art, causing the spiritual essence to be consumed fiercely, but he did not stop.

Spiritual energy began to dissipate outward from the "long, rectangular box."

The dissipating spiritual energy was like his tentacles, allowing Ning Zhuo to gradually have vague sensations.

"In that direction, it seems something exists." Ning Zhuo sensed a certain presence in the darkness.

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

Ning Zhuo hardened his heart, urging the spiritual essence to its strongest.

The feeling of response immediately became stronger, and in the following breaths, the degree of response soared dozens of times!

Until a mysterious, hard object suddenly collided with the long, rectangular box that housed Ning Zhuo's soul.

The spiritual energy dissipating in all directions quickly pulled the long, rectangular box and the mysterious, hard object together, directly combining them.

The spiritual energy that Ning Zhuo had emitted outward now had a new destination.

The spiritual energy poured into the mysterious, hard object, allowing Ning Zhuo to gradually sense the shape of this mysterious object.

"It's like, it's like... an arm?"

Ning Zhuo's heart felt like a lightning bolt had struck, and he immediately had a conjecture.

He continued to circulate the art, confirming his previous guess.

It was indeed an arm, with a hand at the front end, and four fingers on the hand.

In the darkness, Ning Zhuo carefully experienced it.

He tried to wave the arm, then reach out the palm, move his fingers, and groped around.

He had no sense of touch, but the spiritual energy expanding outward began to respond to other mysterious objects.

A moment later, a square hard object was also attracted to him and combined with him.

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

He finally saw everything around him!

This was a huge room, filled with countless mechanical components. Torsos, heads, limbs, tails, horns, wings, and so on.

These mechanical components were diverse and made of wood, brown and yellow.

And he, Ning Zhuo, was right at the top of a small mountain made up of these mechanical components.

Ning Zhuo observed himself.

"My guess was correct!"

The long, rectangular box that housed his soul before was a rectangular mechanical torso component.

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

The square object that was spliced together second was a square mechanical head component.

"It really is a head!"

"I have a head now!"

"This head is quite big."

Ning Zhuo was delighted.

There were eye-like components on the head component, which was why he could see.

Now that he had the ability to observe, things were much easier for Ning Zhuo.

He followed the same method, finding other components in the small mountain of mechanical components and attaching them to himself.

By the time he climbed down from the small mountain of mechanical components, he had two arms and two legs.

"A mechanical puppet body..."

At this time, Ning Zhuo's main body was a long, rectangular box. He had two legs, one slightly thinner and the other slightly thicker, and the heights were not perfectly aligned.

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

And his big head was square and out of proportion to his torso, making him look a little dull.

"Having a body allows me to move freely like a person, but it also increases the consumption of spiritual essence."

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

"Other torso components should have spirit stones stored. I can take them out for later use."

However, just as Ning Zhuo found the right torso component and was about to start, new information came, telling him – destroying other components was not allowed.

"Then I'll just splice together another torso." Just as Ning Zhuo started, more information came – the current allowed upper limit for spiritual essence components is one.

Ning Zhuo had to stand up.

He thought of the first piece of information – requiring him to go from the first room to the second room.

This was the assessment standard.

"The second assessment, on the surface, has no time limit, but that is not the case."

"Because the number of spiritual essence components is only one, and the spiritual essence in the spirit stone will continue to be depleted."

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

"I should leave here as soon as possible."

Room one was very spacious, with red copper walls, a golden ceiling, and bright light.

Ning Zhuo had long seen the only door in the room.

He limped towards the door.

He came to the door, and as soon as his fingers touched the door, more information was conveyed.

One spirit stone, one mounting loop for a mechanical component, and one spell – a gust of qi.

"Can only choose one?"