As Xu Yunfan recounted everything, his grip on the handle of his Thunderfire Qilin Hammer was so tight it creaked. In the Thunderfire Cave, the sound of the wineskin bursting in Zhan Yan’s hand was piercingly clear.

The glow from the magma channels cast a crimson light on the old man’s hair and beard.

"Zhou Yuande is part of the Incense and Candle Sect?"

Zhan Yan’s voice was as deep as muffled thunder, and the hand that had forged iron for thirty years trembled slightly.

"Right before he died, he screamed, ’The Ming Venerable descends! Grant me longevity!’ He was no different from those Incense and Candle Sect fanatics in Wuzhou."

"Yunfan, this is a grave matter. The other departments might not take the word of our Weapon Casting Hall alone. If this is true, the Incense and Candle Sect has hidden themselves far too deeply and has been plotting for a very long time. Once they make their move, the entire Celestial Craft Cave could be annihilated in an instant."

The old man’s throat worked, and he said in a low voice, "Come with me to the Celestial Craft Hall. Strike the Nine Peaks Bell! I’ll have Fu Jin assemble the Foundry Hall Disciples and prepare for any eventuality."

As the ninth toll of the bell boomed from the peak of Guniu Mountain, Yan Yuwei, who had just rushed to the Melt Gold Hall’s quarters, froze abruptly. In that instant, she realized Xu Yunfan had already beaten her to it.

She hesitated no longer. As the lead disciple of the Melt Gold Hall, she summoned all the Melt Gold Hall disciples to assemble and simultaneously sent word to the lead True Inheritors of the Celestial Craft Department and the Mechanical Hall.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and the situation had to be rectified as quickly as possible.

-----------------

In front of the Celestial Craft Hall, the bronze prosthetic limb of Mo Han, the head of the Mechanical Hall, was jammed in the gears of the main doors. Wisps of electric arcs even sparked from the embedded machinery.

The old man, renowned for his mastery of mechanisms, was so electrified his hair stood on end. He wore an expression of utter disbelief as blinding sparks shot from the joints of his prosthetic. "How can the Pleiades Lock be bolted from the inside?"

"Stand clear!"

The roar from Wan Chen, Hall Master of the Celestial Craft Department, was accompanied by the whistle of his Red Copper Giant Axe slicing through the air.

As heat radiated from his body, the instant the axe blade struck the seam of the doors, the hall’s floor tiles flipped over, revealing a formation of armor-piercing crossbows glinting coldly below.

In the nick of time, the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer swept in with the force of a tempest.

The muscles on Xu Yunfan’s back bulged like an angry dragon rearing its head. The hammerhead precisely struck the mechanism’s central pivot. Three hundred and sixty poisoned crossbow arrows grazed the tips of everyone’s hair and slammed into the colonnade.

"Such immense power..."

The head of the Celestial Craft Department, a master of the Profound Turtle Carrying Mountain Strength with a physique even more immense than Yue Mountain, was stunned. He found it hard to imagine how Xu Yunfan, with what he saw as a slight build, could possess such monstrous strength.

"Someone’s tampered with the mechanisms."

Mechanical Hall Master Mo Han’s expression was grim as he strode into the hall. He pressed a hand against the wall behind the main throne in the Celestial Craft Hall, and instantly, an array of mechanical valves, pivots, and various other incomprehensible devices sprang out from the floor at his feet.

Without another word, Mo Han lowered his head and began adjusting the mechanisms. Soon, the sounds of turning gears and clicking machinery echoed throughout the Celestial Craft Cave.

Zhan Yan stepped into the hall, clad in crimson heavy armor. The Profound Iron patterns on his mail glinted with a cold light.

He glanced at Mo Han, who was hunched over his work and cursing under his breath, then said grimly, "The only person who could alter the mechanisms of the entire Celestial Craft City without you noticing would be Bao Yan of the Hidden Blade Pavilion."

Seeing this, Zhan Yan became even more convinced of the truth in Xu Yunfan’s words.

The Hidden Blade Pavilion not only houses all of the Celestial Craft Cave’s weaponry but is also responsible for security and arrests. Naturally, they have the authority to operate the various mechanisms of the Mechanical City.

Everyone then realized that in the wake of the Nine Peaks Bell’s alarm, neither Zhou Yuande of the Foreign Affairs Hall nor Bao Yan of the Hidden Blade Pavilion had appeared.

"Where’s the Sect Leader?"

Wan Chen, head of the Celestial Craft Department, asked in a booming voice that sounded like a muffled drum, the Giant Axe in his hand looking even more outrageous.

Zhan Yan’s heart sank even further, and he subconsciously glanced at Xu Yunfan.

Xu Yunfan naturally felt Zhan Yan’s gaze and, inwardly, was at a loss for words.

’If the Celestial Craft Cave’s Sect Leader, Hong Baichuan, is also with the Incense and Candle Sect, well, that’s game over. I’ll just tell Zhan Yan, turn right around, and leave Cangzhou without a second thought.’

"It’s recalibrated!"

As Mo Han’s sigh of relief sounded, his bronze prosthetic limb suddenly burst open, revealing seven layers of gears. Three hundred and sixty copper wedges shot into the mechanism apertures in the hall’s walls.

With a cringeworthy screech of twisting metal, the hall’s ceiling slowly opened, revealing a sky thick with leaden clouds.

Mo Han wiped the cold sweat from his brow. Construction on the Celestial Craft Cave had been continuous since its founding over a thousand years ago. To this day, the Celestial Craft City was still being constantly refined and improved through the combined efforts of the Mechanical Hall and the Celestial Craft Department. The entire city was riddled with mechanisms, many of them so interconnected that a single change could affect the entire system.

If he hadn’t recalibrated it in time, the entire Celestial Craft City would have been completely paralyzed for days. And if an enemy attacked during that time, the Celestial Craft Cave would have been utterly defenseless.

"Thousand-Eyes, go!"

Mo Han looked up at the empty Sect Leader’s throne in the hall, a bad feeling rising in his heart.

He turned to Zhan Yan.

"You old coot, what was the meaning of ringing the Nine Peaks Bell?"

Nine tolls from the Nine Peaks Bell signified a matter of life and death for the entire Celestial Craft Cave. They hadn’t dared to delay, dropping everything to rush over.

Before Zhan Yan could answer, Mo Han’s brow furrowed.

"Where are Zhou Yuande and Bao Yan?"

"My disciple hammered Zhou Yuande to death."

At these words, everyone stared in shock. They instinctively looked toward Xu Yunfan, who was standing beside Zhan Yan with his mind seemingly a million miles away.

Zhan Yan nudged Xu Yunfan’s arm with his elbow and cleared his throat. "I’m not the best storyteller. You explain it again."

Xu Yunfan could only step forward and repeat the story.

Sparks suddenly erupted from Mo Han’s bronze prosthetic. He whipped his head around to face Zhan Yan, the unique insight of a master mechanist allowing him to instantly grasp the crucial point. "You’re saying Zhou Yuande worshipped the Incense and Candle Sect’s Ming Venerable in pursuit of immortality??"

A dry laugh rumbled in his throat. He found the idea utterly absurd.

Mo Han couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. "That old fool! Did he really not know that the Ming Venerable only became that immobile, unthinking statue, able to appear only in dreams, because he too was seeking immortality?"

But he also understood that Xu Yunfan was, in all likelihood, telling the truth. Zhou Yuande of the Foreign Affairs Hall was dead, Hidden Blade Pavilion’s Hall Master Bao Yan was missing, and Sect Leader Hong Baichuan had not responded.

His expression quickly grew grave. ’If that’s true, then most of the disciples currently on duty in the Celestial Craft Cave are probably dead. But this sort of thing falls under my purview; it’s impossible for me not to know. Where did it all go wrong?’

This was a huge problem. A fatal vulnerability.

Celestial Craft City had countless mechanisms, and its warning systems had been perfected over a millennium to be nearly flawless. Yet, it had been silently infiltrated until it was as porous as a sieve.

Which part of the system had failed?

Even with an insider, it shouldn’t have been possible for the duty rosters to be swapped out without him noticing any clues. At least, everything had been normal yesterday.

The Profound Iron Kite Eye on Mo Han’s chest suddenly flared with a scarlet light.

The motionless Mechanical Giant Bird clinging to the roof of the Celestial Craft Hall suddenly stirred. The iron-clad mechanical creature, with a wingspan of thirty feet, flapped its wings and shot up through the open dome into the sky. Its tail feathers left a purple trail across the clouds, and a black thread trailed from its belly, connecting it back to the hall’s ceiling.

’Flying a kite?’

Xu Yunfan watched in amazement. He knew the various contraptions of the Mechanical Hall were incredible, but he had never imagined something like this.