Chapter 35: I Have a Head

Darkness.

Utter darkness.

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

"What on earth happened?"

"Where is this?!"

Just then, a piece of information traveled along the "Human Life Hanging by a Thread" directly into his heart: "Molten Immortal Palace, Mechanical Inheritance, Hanging Thread Soul-Pulling, Qi Refining Trial... Leave Room Number One, enter Room Number Two."

Ning Zhuo’s spirit suddenly lifted, and he understood the cause.

"So it seems, the peak of the third layer of Qi Refining is the first standard for selection."

"I reached it, so my soul was pulled in, entering the Molten Immortal Palace to begin the second step of the trial."

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

"Sure enough, the appearance of the Dharma-Transmitting Bell was already signaling—the way Qi Refining cultivators compete for the Molten Immortal Palace is completely different from the Foundation Establishment, Jin Dan, and Nascent Soul stages before!"

"Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense."

"Once a cultivator reaches the Foundation Establishment stage, the dantian is completely transformed and stabilized. The difficulty of switching cultivation methods is extremely high, almost impossible."

"But I am at the Qi Refining stage, and I switched directly while my dantian was not yet set, and I am cultivating the Five Elements Qi Law. To the Molten Immortal Palace, this makes me one of their own."

"Compared to those outsiders cultivating other methods, the distinction between close and distant is clear at a glance."

"However..."

"Leave Room Number One, enter Room Number Two? What should I do?"

Ning Zhuo calmed his heart and felt carefully in the endless darkness.

He gradually felt that his soul was not existing independently, but was residing in 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 set his mind to work and used the Five Elements Qi Law to mobilize it, and immediately there was a reaction.

The spiritual power was mobilized, following the circulation path of the Five Elements Qi Law, and began to flow slowly inside the object where his soul resided.

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

"A coffin?" Ning Zhuo guessed.

"Also, this feeling of mobilizing spiritual power, I am very familiar with it."

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

"The spiritual power in a spirit stone has a limit; my circulating the cultivation method like this is continuously consuming it."

Ning Zhuo stopped the cultivation method and fell into hesitation.

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

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

Ning Zhuo gritted his teeth, deciding to take a gamble.

He never lacked the courage to take risks.

This time, he urged the Five Elements Qi Law to its peak, causing the spiritual power to be consumed violently, but he did not stop.

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

The leaking spiritual energy was like his tentacles, allowing Ning Zhuo to gradually have a vague sense of things.

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

Moreover, this presence seemed to be faintly echoing him.

Ning Zhuo hardened his heart and urged the spiritual power to its strongest.

The echoing feeling suddenly became intense, and in the following few breaths, the degree of echoing surged dozens of times!

Until a mysterious hard object suddenly collided with the long rectangular box where Ning Zhuo’s soul resided.

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

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

As spiritual power was infused into the mysterious hard object, Ning Zhuo gradually perceived the shape of this mysterious hard object.

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

A lightning bolt seemed to flash through Ning Zhuo’s heart, and he immediately had a conjecture.

He continued to circulate the cultivation method, confirming his previous guess.

This was indeed an arm; the front of the arm had a palm, and there were four fingers on the palm.

In the darkness, Ning Zhuo felt it carefully.

He tried to wave the arm, then extended the palm, moved the fingers, and groped around.

He did not have any sense of touch, but the spiritual energy spreading outward began to echo with other mysterious objects.

A moment later, a cube-shaped hard object was also sucked onto him by Ning Zhuo and combined.

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 room with a huge space, piled with countless mechanical components. Torsos, heads, hands, feet, tails, horns, wings, and so on.

These mechanical components were varied, all made of wood, brownish-yellow.

And he, Ning Zhuo, was on a small hill piled up by these mechanical components.

Ning Zhuo observed himself.

"My conjecture was correct!"

The long rectangular box where his soul had previously resided was a rectangular mechanical torso component.

The first one he sucked over with spiritual energy was the left arm.

The second cube he spliced together was a square mechanical head component.

"Sure enough, it’s a head!"

"I have a head!"

"This head is quite big."

Ning Zhuo was overjoyed.

The head component had components similar to eyes, which was why he could see.

After possessing the ability to observe, it was much more convenient for Ning Zhuo.

He followed the same method, found other components in the small hill of mechanical components, and spliced them onto himself.

When he climbed to the ground from the hill-like pile of mechanical components, he already had both hands and feet.

"A mechanical puppet body..."

At this time, Ning Zhuo’s main torso was a long rectangular box. He had two legs, one slightly thinner, one slightly thicker, and their heights were not completely consistent.

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

And his big head was square, disproportionate to the torso, looking a bit dull.

"Having a body, although I can move freely like a human, the consumption of spiritual power has also increased a lot."

Ning Zhuo constantly monitored the spirit stone inside the torso. So far, he had already consumed nearly half of the spiritual power in it.

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

However, just as Ning Zhuo targeted a torso component and was about to take action, new information came, telling him—it is not allowed to destroy other components.

"Then I’ll just splice another body." Ning Zhuo had just moved when information came again—the current allowed limit for spiritual power components is one.

Ning Zhuo had no choice but to stand up.

He thought of the first piece of information—requiring him to enter the second room from the first room.

This was the assessment standard.

"The second trial, on the surface, has no time limit, but in fact, it does."

"Because the number of spiritual power components is only one, and the spiritual power in the spirit stone will be continuously consumed."

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

"I should leave here as soon as possible."

Room Number One had a large space, red copper walls, a golden roof, and bright light.

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

He limped toward the door.

He arrived in front of the door, and just as his finger touched the door, information came again.

A spirit stone, a mechanical component hanging ring, and a spell "A Burst of Qi."

"Can only choose one of them?" ===== CHAPTER 36 =====