Longevity by Grinding Skills

"This is a Forging Skill from the Mechanical Hall. It allows for perfect control, whether near or far."

Only when another voice spoke did Xu Yunfan realize that a short, sturdy old man with an iron left hand was standing beside Zhan Yan.

This was Mo Han, the Hall Master of the Mechanical Hall. The entire Mechanical City within the Celestial Craft Cave was his creation, a fifty-year project he led with both the Celestial Craft Department and the Mechanical Hall.

Xu Yunfan cupped his hands in respect. "Hall Master Mo!"

Mo Han waved his hand dismissively, his eyes glued to the Heavy Hammer in Zhan Yan’s hands.

Zhan Yan laughed heartily. "Don’t even think about it, you old coot. I spent two long months forging this Treasure Artifact."

Mo Han snorted. "I’ve already memorized the forging technique. I might just be able to forge one myself in the future."

Zhan Yan countered, "Your mechanisms lack the heart and soul a Craftsman pours into their work, and they aren’t nourished by blood and qi. They’re just empty shells. You could reforge it for a hundred years and it would still be nothing but scrap metal."

"You old fossil, just you wait! The Celestial Craft Cave’s Mechanical Hall has existed since before the Great Zhou was even founded. When the time comes, I’ll show you something that will make you kneel and call me grandpa!"

Mo Han was hopping mad. The old fossil had come to him begging for help, and now that the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer was complete, he was getting impossibly arrogant.

Zhan Yan just laughed three times and said no more, not wanting to push Mo Han into a real rage.

Fu Jin couldn’t help but step forward. He deliberately wiped his rough palms on his clothes before tracing the spiral patterns on the hammer’s handle with his calloused fingers. "Master? Was this Thunderfire Qilin Hammer forged with Outer Heaven Meteorite Iron mixed with Thunderstruck Charcoal?"

"Wrong!"

Zhan Yan plunged the Heavy Hammer deep into the Quenching Pool. Amidst the white steam that billowed up as the Cold Pond Water met the heat, a sonorous clang rang out, like the booming of a closing city gate or a muffled drumbeat that could make one’s heart skip a beat.

"The main material is Celestial Iron that fell in Youzhou three hundred years ago, supplemented with sixty-four jin of South Sea Thunder Pattern Steel. And of course, there was the little finishing touch your junior brother provided. It couldn’t have been forged otherwise."

Zhan Yan didn’t turn his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the final quench.

The moment the pool’s water boiled, twelve Warriors suddenly pulled on Iron Chains, and the entire Thunder Fire Pool began to slowly tilt!

Xu Yunfan watched as the crimson body of the hammer gradually cooled to a dark luster in the quenching liquid. A brilliant light suddenly flashed between the scale-like patterns on the hammer’s head, and intricate Thunderfire Patterns materialized, interwoven on the handle.

"The most brilliant part of this hammer is its recoil mechanism. I have to admit, the Mechanical Hall has some truly ingenious ideas."

Hearing Zhan Yan’s praise, Mo Han finally stopped fuming. He put on an air of indifference, but the slight upturn at the corners of his eyes betrayed the Hall Master’s inner smugness.

Zhan Yan suddenly swung the hammer, smashing it against the Basalt Platform. The instant the head hit the ground, a copper spring, over three inches long, shot out from the end of the handle.

A full seventy percent of the strike’s force was redirected back into the air by the copper spring. The cast-iron floor tiles within a hundred-foot radius were buckled upward as if by an invisible giant’s hand. Fu Jin hurriedly pulled Xu Yunfan back three steps, but they were still pelted by a shower of flying debris.

"To rely on a copper mechanism at the end... it hasn’t reached the rank of a Divine Weapon, yet it possesses a sliver of a Divine Weapon’s essence. Truly an eye-opener."

Xu Yunfan suddenly noticed the Eight-sided Copper Pillar standing by the pool, each face densely carved with tiny, neat characters. "This is..."

"The complete ’Essentials of a Thousand-Jun Forging’. Didn’t Fu Jin say you wanted to learn forging? After you win the True Inheritance Ceremony, you will come down to the Thunder Fire Pool and learn forging with me."

"Here?"

Xu Yunfan glanced down at the Thunder Fire Pool below. The heat from this Weapon Forging Platform was immense, easily several hundred degrees. Stay here too long, and a person would be roasted dry.

"Giving up already at the first sign of trouble?"

Xu Yunfan wouldn’t let himself be looked down on. "Of course not, Master. As soon as the True Inheritance Ceremony is over, I’ll come down."

"Good."

Laughing, Zhan Yan plunged the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer into a nearby pool of cold water that had long been prepared. The searing Heavy Hammer hissed, sending up clouds of steam. SIZZLE! The vapor rapidly enveloped the Weapon Forging Platform, only to be instantly burned away by the intense heat of the surrounding Thunder Fire Pool.

Beside them, Fu Jin used his sleeve to wipe the iron dust from the copper pillar, his expression full of emotion.

"From selecting the ore to the final quench, there are seven hundred and twenty-one steps. Master spent twelve years forging right here just to fully master the method for Thunder Pattern Steel."

He pointed to a Refined Iron Wheel turning at the edge of the pool. "See that silvery-white molten iron? That’s produced by a magnetic sorting wheel powered by twelve waterwheels. It takes thirty continuous days and nights of filtering to obtain that Refined Iron. It’s the best material for forging Sharp Blade Level weapons. A pity that in the Weapon Casting Hall today, there are only five or six Craftsmen who can forge Sharp Blade Level weapons. It’s a rare year when they can produce even two or three."

"It’s ready."

Just then, Zhan Yan pulled the Heavy Hammer out and tossed it to Xu Yunfan. "Get a feel for it!"

The moment Xu Yunfan caught the hammer, his knees buckled and the green bricks beneath his feet instantly cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

But as he went with the momentum and swung the Warhammer, he felt the seven Meteorite Iron Beads inside the handle slide along a path that perfectly matched the force-channeling principles of the Cloak Hammer Technique.

The air pressure from the hammerhead slicing through the air was so great it cleanly sheared a torch in half from thirty feet away!

"A normal Treasure Artifact needs to be nurtured for three days after its creation."

Fu Jin watched with undisguised envy. "But this Thunderfire Qilin Hammer of yours comes with its own Evil Qi. The sound it made just now... I’ve never heard anything like it in my life."

Xu Yunfan was about to speak when the ground began to tremble violently.

Several dragons of fire suddenly erupted from the center of the Thunder Fire Pool. Zhan Yan’s face changed drastically. "The Earth Vein Dragon Breath is erupting! Get back, now!"

Before his words had faded, the twelve Warriors had already thrown the levers of the Brass Gates on the wall. Thirty Cast Iron Chains, each as thick as a water bucket, crashed down, pulling a massive Profound Steel Lid from above to seal the boiling Thunder Fire Pool shut.

Amidst the roar, everyone quickly retreated. Xu Yunfan tightened his grip on the still-humming hammer handle.

On the dark, lustrous surface of the hammer, star-like flecks flickered with the residual heat, as if a river of stars fallen from the night sky had been imprisoned within its small frame.

Once they were out of the Thunder Fire Pool’s cavern, Xu Yunfan looked at Zhan Yan. His master was utterly exhausted, his eyes webbed with red veins. He looked as if he had pulled more than a dozen all-nighters in a row.

He dropped to his knees, his heart filled with genuine sincerity.

"My deepest thanks, Master!"

Looking at Xu Yunfan, Zhan Yan, who was old and wise to the ways of the world, could easily hear the raw emotion in his disciple’s voice. An involuntary smile touched his lips, and he felt the accumulated fatigue of the past days simply melt away.

He helped Xu Yunfan to his feet and patted him on the shoulder. After a moment’s thought, he said, "Your senior brother and I are both getting old. From now on, the future of the Weapon Casting Hall rests on your shoulders."

Xu Yunfan’s expression turned serious. "I will not disappoint you, Master!"

Watching from the side, Mo Han felt a pang of bitterness. The Mechanical Hall was large, with thousands of disciples, but how many of them could truly shoulder its future? He flicked his sleeve.

"I’m done here. Leaving."

Zhan Yan went to get some rest. He had barely slept in two months and desperately needed to recuperate.

"Junior Brother, can I give it a try?"

Fu Jin was brimming with excitement, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Xu Yunfan smiled and handed the Heavy Hammer over. But the moment Fu Jin’s hand touched it, he flinched back as if shocked, snatching his hand away. He looked down at his palm to see that the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer had torn a bloody gash in the web of his thumb.