The moment Xu Yunfan’s boots touched the rammed-earth road, the soles of his feet went numb.

A muffled, thunderous pulse emanated from the ground every few seconds. Three hundred feet below, twelve Profound Steel Mountain Drilling Mechanisms—forged jointly by the Mechanical Hall and the Celestial Craft Department—were gnawing through the rock strata.

Bare-chested laborers, lined up like worker ants, carried barrels of faintly glowing green Thunderfire Rock into the tunnels. Each barrel was branded with a vermilion Fire Seal that read, "Melt Gold Hall, Bingchen Creation." From a distance, the procession looked like a red-scaled fire dragon winding its way into the earth.

"The earth dragon’s about to turn over again!"

An unknown voice cried out, and the entire plain plunged into a dead silence.

A few moments later, the ground in the southwest corner suddenly bulged into a mound, and a screech of metal on metal tore through the sky.

Eight elites from the Melt Gold Hall burst from the earth, heaving on a Meteorite Iron Chain. Attached to the chain’s end was a ten-foot-wide Spiral Drill Head, its blades still coated in incandescent magma.

Their leader was Yan Yuwei, the lead True Inheritor of the Melt Gold Hall. Her body was a mass of powerful, flexing muscle. As she hauled on the chain, thick veins popped out on her arms, and the sheer force of her effort sent cracks spiderwebbing through the ground beneath her feet.

"Excellent! We’ve finally found a place for Steel Refining that’s on par with the Thunder Fire Pool!"

Yan Yuwei’s face was filled with delight. A fire pool was crucial for accelerating the cultivation of their Melt Gold Hall’s Gold Melting and Iron Forging Technique.

They were naturally ecstatic, now that the existence of a magma field beneath the Ghostly Wail Abyss had been confirmed.

A shantytown built along the Moat stretched for over a kilometer. Beneath its straw-mat roofs lay piles of mechanical components.

Bare-chested men chanted as they lifted gear assemblies weighing over a thousand pounds. Women soaked transmission belts in tung oil, and even young children toted bamboo baskets, distributing screws.

It was the agricultural off-season, and tempted by high wages, entire families from the areas surrounding Shu City had flocked here for work.

The most stunning sight was the temporary furnace zone in the northeast corner. Thirty Earth Fire Wells spewed columns of violet-blue flame while apprentices, operating a spiderweb of chain hoists, lowered red-hot steel beams into a bottomless abyss to cast the foundational keel of the Mechanical City.

The two of them were accustomed to the Profound Daoist Sect, which eschewed the extravagance of carved beams and painted rafters in favor of learning from nature, taking "the mountain’s form as bone, the clouds and mist as clothing." To see such a city of steel rising before them was a truly eye-opening experience.

After a long while, Yhu Jingshan averted her gaze.

"It’s a shame. This place is incompatible with my cultivation method. If I lived here for too long, I fear my Cultivation would actually decline."

"Exactly."

Xu Yunfan glanced at his two companions but said nothing. He led them into Celestial Craft City and handed them over to his senior brother, Fu Jin, to be looked after. When she heard about getting a weapon custom-made, even Yhu Jingshan’s interest was piqued, and she began to pepper Fu Jin with questions. Seizing the opportunity, Xu Yunfan made a quick excuse and slipped away.

By the time Xu Yunfan had descended three thousand feet on the Refined Iron staircase, sulfurous steam was gushing from ventilation pipes, making his short tunic flap and snap in the currents.

The area had been hastily excavated by a mechanical drilling beast—a device developed by the Melt Gold Hall through the Mechanical Hall—uncovering a vast field of magma.

Just yesterday, Xu Yunfan had personally wielded a Mining Pickaxe alongside the Melt Gold Hall disciples to excavate this very cavern, bringing his mining Skill Level to within fourteen points of the Great Success Realm.

He couldn’t help but ponder to himself, ’Maybe after I’m done here, I’ll grab a Mining Pickaxe and spend a day digging with Wanshan, the lead True Inheritor of the Melt Gold Hall. That should be enough to push my mining Skill Level to Great Success.’

Three thousand feet underground, the Melt Gold Hall’s Forging Furnace district looked like the innards of a colossal beast. Twelve Earth Fire Wells spewed columns of violet-blue flame that painted the rock walls with patterns like molten lava. Thirty-six ventilation pipes, each a third wider than a man, continuously extracted noxious fumes from the deep while drawing in fresh air from the surface.

Beside the Forging Platform, steam billowed from Zhan Yan’s bare torso. His knotted back muscles rose and fell like waves with each swing of his Iron Hammer. Every time the hammer struck the red-hot steel billet, it sent out a meteor shower of iron rain.

CLANG!

As the final hammer blow fell, the steel billet let out a resonant hum, like the cry of a dragon.

Zhan Yan plunged the forging hammer into a quenching trough. Through the billowing white steam, the silhouette of an Eight-Edged Gilded Hammer gradually became clear.

The head of the hammer was patterned like the overlapping scales of a flood dragon, and the butt of the handle was embedded with three Profound Steel Inverted Thorns. This was the exclusive "Armor-Breaking Hammer" favored by the Craftsmen of the Celestial Craft Cave’s Weapon Casting Hall.

"Perfect timing."

Zhan Yan wiped the iron dust from his forehead, a laugh like muffled thunder rumbling in his throat. "Take a look at this hammer. How does it compare to your Thunderfire Qilin?"

Xu Yunfan stepped forward and picked up the pitch-black Heavy Hammer, which still radiated warmth. His fingertips traced the surface; it felt like stroking a living creature, and a strange heat seeped through his skin.

The residual heat from the hammer’s body seeped through his skin and into his meridians, making his muscles twitch involuntarily.

This was the "blood-pulse," a quality only the most supreme Weapon Forgers could bestow upon their creations.

It was an Upper Grade Sharp Blade Level weapon—the finest piece Zhan Yan had forged since the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer.

He took a deep breath. His twenty-four vertebrae seemed to lock together like the joints of a Steel Whip. The muscles in his arms swelled, and he lifted the 330-pound Heavy Hammer past his shoulder with just one hand.

"It’s a fraction heavier."

With a flick of his wrist, the hammer’s head spun into a blur. "But the ’Coiling Dragon Pattern’ on the handle absorbs thirty percent of the recoil, making it good for drawn-out battles... Of course," he added, "it’s still a far cry from the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer."

’With my Cultivation of the Celestial Craft Forging Technique where it is now,’ he thought, ’even if I were in peak condition and using the finest materials, I could only forge a Top-grade Mortal Weapon. To break through to the Sharp Blade Level, I’d need to at least reach the Minor Achievement stage.’

A sharp light flashed in Zhan Yan’s eyes. His hand, as large as a palm-leaf fan, suddenly clamped down on Xu Yunfan’s shoulder.

Xu Yunfan heard the muscles around his own neck and shoulder hum involuntarily, like a bowstring pulled taut.

The old Swordsmith’s thumb pressed down with precision. An unparalleled force, like the weight of a mountain, bore down on him in successive layers.

Xu Yunfan slammed his heels down. The muscles of his body rippled like a wave, his bones vibrating layer by layer and emitting a faint, cicada-like hum as he smoothly channeled the incoming Strength into the ground.

Spiderweb cracks spread across the stone tiles but stopped dead at the threshold, as if an invisible knife had cut the shockwave short.

The pressure had seemed casual, but it secretly contained the Stacking Skill Method of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength. The bricks beneath Xu Yunfan’s feet shattered, yet his knees didn’t move an inch—a manifestation of "Iron Stake Rooting," a technique that appeared when one was close to reaching Minor Achievement in the Outer Three Harmonies.

"You’ve trained the force-dissipating aspect of Iron Stake Rooting into something resembling the stance of River Diversion. The strengths of your sinews, bones, and skin are beginning to knit together, and your Blood Qi is so well-nourished it flows like liquid mercury..."

Zhan Yan’s voice held an unconcealable joy. He was shocked that Xu Yunfan, having only just begun to practice the Outer Three Harmonies, could already achieve such a remarkable state.

It had taken him at least three years to reach the level Xu Yunfan was at now, and even then, his ability in Emitting Force had not been nearly as fluid or as freely controlled.

This single act of neutralizing the force demonstrated that Xu Yunfan’s control over his own musculature was already at a minute level, perfectly fluid and responsive.

’Third Level Perfection!’

’Not a single person from Divine Weapon Ridge ever achieved that in my day.’

"Let’s try this!"

His palm suddenly shifted into a claw, his thumb hooking into a bundle of sinew on the inside of his apprentice’s shoulder blade. "Back in the day, your grandmaster practiced his stances on the Yellow River Beach. The tide would rise past his knees, yet his green robes wouldn’t even get damp. He relied on precisely this kind of force-intercepting Kung Fu."

A muffled grunt escaped Xu Yunfan’s throat. His right arm suddenly bent back like a drawn bow.