I Have a Head Now

Darkness.

An expanse of darkness.

In the endless darkness, Ning Zhuo gradually came back to his senses.

"What exactly happened?"

"Where is this?!"

Just then, a stream of information traveled along the Life Hanging by a Thread and directly reached the depths of his heart: "Magma Immortal Palace, mechanism inheritance, hanging threads guide the soul, Qi Refining trial... Leave Room One and enter Room Two."

Ning Zhuo's spirits jolted, and he understood what had happened.

"So it seems that the peak of the Qi Refining Third Level is the first criterion for selection."

"I met it, so my soul was drawn here, entering the Magma Immortal Palace and beginning the second trial."

"This is vastly different from the message Mother left behind!"

"Sure enough, the appearance of the Dharma Transmission Bell had already foretold it—the way Qi Refining Stage cultivators competed for the Magma Immortal Palace was completely different from the methods used by those in the Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, Nascent Soul Realm, and beyond!"

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

"Once cultivators reach the Foundation Establishment Realm, their dantians are thoroughly transformed and stabilized. Trying to switch cultivation arts afterward is extraordinarily difficult, nearly impossible."

"But while I'm still in the Qi Refining Stage, before my dantian has taken shape, I directly switched cultivation arts—and to the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art at that. To the Magma Immortal Palace, that makes me one of their own."

"Compared to outsiders cultivating other arts, who was close and who was distant was obvious at a glance."

"It's just..."

"Leave Room One and enter Room Two? How am I supposed to do that?"

Ning Zhuo calmed himself and carefully sensed his surroundings amid the endless darkness.

He gradually sensed that his soul did not exist independently, but was lodged within some object. Hidden inside that object was a clump of spiritual power.

Ning Zhuo tried to mobilize that spiritual power, but nothing happened.

He racked his brains and used the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art to guide it. Immediately, there was a response.

The spiritual power began to move, slowly flowing through the object housing his soul along the circulation route of the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art.

Through this, Ning Zhuo gradually sensed that the place housing his soul resembled a long rectangular box.

"A coffin?" Ning Zhuo guessed.

"Besides, this feeling of mobilizing spiritual power is very familiar."

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

"The spiritual power inside a spirit stone is limited. Circulating my cultivation art like this is constantly consuming it."

Ning Zhuo stopped his cultivation art and fell into hesitation.

He pondered in the darkness, yet could not find any further clues no matter what.

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

Ning Zhuo gritted his teeth and decided to take a gamble.

He had never lacked the courage to take risks.

This time, he drove the Five Elements Qi Rhythm Art with all his strength. Spiritual power was consumed violently, yet he did not stop.

Spiritual qi began to leak out of the "long rectangular box."

The spiritual qi that escaped was like his feelers, gradually giving Ning Zhuo a faint perception.

"There seems to be something in that direction." Ning Zhuo sensed a certain presence in the darkness.

Moreover, that presence seemed to be faintly responding to him as well.

Ning Zhuo steeled his heart and drove his spiritual power to its utmost limit.

The sensation of response immediately intensified, and over the next few breaths, its strength surged dozens of times over!

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

The spiritual qi scattered in every direction swiftly drew the long rectangular box and the mysterious hard object together, directly assembling them.

The spiritual qi Ning Zhuo had released outward suddenly had somewhere new to go.

Spiritual power poured into the mysterious hard object, allowing Ning Zhuo to gradually sense its shape.

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

A bolt of lightning seemed to flash through Ning Zhuo's mind, and he immediately formed a guess.

He continued circulating his cultivation art, confirming his earlier speculation.

It really was an arm. At its front was a palm, and on that palm were four fingers.

In the darkness, Ning Zhuo carefully experienced it.

He tried swinging the arm, then extended the palm, flexed his fingers, and groped around.

He had no sense of touch, but the spiritual qi spreading outward began responding to other mysterious objects.

A moment later, a cube-shaped hard object was also drawn onto Ning Zhuo and assembled with him.

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

At last, he could see everything around him!

This was an enormous room, piled high with countless Mechanical Components. Torsos, heads, hands and feet, tails, horns, wings, and more.

These Mechanical Components came in every conceivable variety. They were all wooden, brownish-yellow in color.

And Ning Zhuo himself was atop a small mountain piled from these Mechanical Components.

Ning Zhuo examined himself.

"My guess was correct!"

The long rectangular box that had previously housed his soul was a rectangular mechanism torso component.

The first thing he had drawn over with spiritual power was a left arm.

The second cube he had assembled was a square mechanism head component.

"It really is a head!"

"I have a head now!"

"And this head is pretty big."

Ning Zhuo was delighted.

The head component had parts resembling eyes, which was why he could see.

Once he had the ability to observe, things became far more convenient for Ning Zhuo.

Using the same method, he found more components amid the mountain of Mechanical Components and assembled them onto himself.

By the time he climbed down from the mountain-like pile of Mechanical Components to the floor, he had a complete set of arms and legs.

"A Mechanism Puppet body..."

At this moment, Ning Zhuo's main body was a long rectangular box. He had two legs, one slightly thinner and one slightly thicker, and they were not quite the same length.

His two arms were the same length, but one hand had only three fingers while the other had four.

His oversized head was perfectly square and out of proportion with his torso, making him look rather foolish.

"Now that I have a body, I can move freely like a person, but the consumption of spiritual power has also increased greatly."

Ning Zhuo kept a close watch on the spirit stone within his torso. By now, he had consumed nearly half of its spiritual power.

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

However, just as Ning Zhuo located a torso component and was about to act, new information arrived, telling him—he was not permitted to damage other components.

"Then I'll assemble another torso." Ning Zhuo had barely started when more information arrived—the current maximum number of spiritual-power components allowed was one.

Ning Zhuo could only stand up.

He recalled the first piece of information—it had required him to leave Room One and enter Room Two.

That was the assessment criterion.

"The second trial appears to have no time limit, but that isn't actually true."

"Because only one spiritual-power component is allowed, and the spiritual power in the spirit stone will continuously be depleted."

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

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

Room One was vast, with red copper walls, a golden roof, and bright lighting.

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

So he limped toward it.

When he reached the door and his fingers had just touched it, more information came to him.

One spirit stone, one mechanism component Hanging Ring, and one spell, "A Breath of Qi."

"Can I only choose one?"