Sixty years of blacksmithing, a single hammer blow forging a celestial being.

The young disciple's arrogant voice was like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the little warmth that had just begun to ignite in the abandoned hall.

He Lu's smile froze. He quickly released Li Ping'an, jogged over with his cane, and greeted him with a humble smile.

"Oh my, isn't this Manager Wang? What brings you here?"

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming? We could have prepared..."

The young disciple, referred to as Manager Wang, didn't even bother to lift his eyelids. Looking at He Lu's wrinkled smiling face, he felt nothing but annoyance.

With a casual wave of his hand, he skillfully pushed He Lu aside, almost causing the old man to fall to the ground.

"Get out of here!"

Manager Wang's voice was filled with undisguised disgust.

"Who do you think you are? I'm not here to talk to you, you old piece of trash!"

His gaze shifted, passing over the panicked He Lu and the disciples who dared not speak out, and landed precisely on Li Ping'an, a mocking smile curving his lips.

"The one I'm looking for is this great genius who triggered the Heavenly Bell, alarming the entire sect!"

He emphasized the word "genius" heavily, with a sarcastic tone that even a fool could tell.

The atmosphere inside the abandoned hall instantly plummeted to freezing point.

The disciples who had just been calling out to Li Ping'an now subconsciously took a few steps back, lowered their heads, and dared not meet Manager Wang's gaze.

Having spent so much time in this abandoned hall, they understand best the principle of seeking advantage and avoiding harm.

This supervisor was in charge of the deployment and resource allocation of all the inner disciples, and was someone they absolutely could not afford to offend.

Li Ping'an saw all of this. He helped He Lu, who was about to fall, and then slowly turned around and calmly looked at Manager Wang.

He neither got angry nor groveled; he treated him like an ordinary person asking for directions.

"What brings you here, sir?"

Seeing his indifferent attitude, Manager Wang was even more annoyed.

What's with this old man who's about to die pretending to be a wise man?

"What are your orders?"

Manager Wang sneered, took two steps forward, approached Li Ping'an, and lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear him.

"Old man, don't think you can lecture me just because you're not long for this world. Let me tell you the truth, if you obediently die in the servants' quarters, nobody will even give you a second glance!"

"Even if you enter the inner sect, as long as you keep a low profile and don't say anything inappropriate, no one will bother with a dying old man like you!"

"But what about you? You old codger, you're really audacious!"

Manager Wang's voice suddenly rose, his eyes filled with disdain.

"You dare ask to see the Holy Maiden? You should take a good look at yourself in the mirror! A toad trying to eat swan meat, don't you even know if you're worthy!"

Hearing this, Li Ping'an understood perfectly.

Sure enough, it was because of that sentence.

It was because he wanted to see Lu Xue.

He didn't speak, but his hands, hanging at his sides, slowly clenched into fists, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

Seeing that the old man remained unresponsive despite all his mockery, Manager Wang suddenly felt rather bored.

He pursed his lips, too lazy to waste any more words, and simply announced the result.

"Alright, I'm too lazy to argue with a dead man like you."

He cleared his throat, turned to everyone in the abandoned hall, and loudly announced:

"From today onwards, Li Ping'an will be solely responsible for the disposal of all discarded pills, highly toxic slag, and spirit beast carcasses in the abandoned hall!"

"All related waste materials will be delivered directly to him by a designated person; no one else is allowed to interfere!"

Upon hearing this, He Lu and the others' expressions changed drastically.

Destroying waste materials is the dirtiest, most tiring, and most dangerous job in the entire abandoned hall!

Those things were mixed together, and the poisonous miasma produced when they burned was unbearable even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator after a while, let alone an old man whose life force was already depleted.

This isn't assigning him a task; this is taking his life!

Supervisor Wang's sharp gaze swept over Lawyer He and the others, carrying a strong sense of warning.

"Did you all hear me clearly? If I find out that anyone dares to outwardly comply but inwardly help him..."

He paused, then said, word by word, "Get out of the Tongtian Sword Sect right now!"

These words completely extinguished any thought of anyone offering a helping hand.

Li Ping'an remained silent, as if he himself was not the one sentenced to death.

Seeing his appearance, Manager Wang assumed he was just scared out of his wits and felt a surge of pleasure.

He leaned close to Li Ping'an's ear again and whispered in a gloating tone.

"Look at you, you're so old, you're about to die, wouldn't it be better to just find a place to die peacefully? Why did you have to pull this stunt, making yourself suffer such a terrible death?"

"Satisfied now? The feeling of being burned alive by the subterranean fire is enough to give your old bones a real hard time."

Li Pingan finally raised his head. He looked at the young yet distorted face so close to his own and slowly spoke, his voice hoarse but exceptionally clear.

"I just want to know, which senior brother is so interested in the Holy Maiden?"

Manager Wang was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting that this old man, on the verge of death, would be concerned about this.

He then sneered, a smug cruelty on his face.

"Telling you won't hurt, so you can die knowing why!"

"Our Heart Sword lineage's chief senior brother! You piece of trash dare to know his name?"

"If it weren't for you, like a fly, constantly buzzing around the Holy Maiden, how could our Senior Brother Zhang have pursued her for so many years without any results!"

"Originally, your senior brother was going to be merciful and let you die of old age on your own, but you brought this on yourself, so you can't blame anyone else!"

Manager Wang's eyes were full of satisfaction.

"I advise you, if I were you, to quickly find a deep pit and jump in yourself, so you can at least have a whole corpse. Otherwise, when the Holy Maiden returns from the Holy Land..."

He let out a soft chuckle.

"Don't worry, you will absolutely never see her again!"

After saying this, Manager Wang straightened his robes with satisfaction, then turned and left without looking back, leaving the room in deathly silence.

Li Ping'an stood there, his face terribly gloomy.

The chief disciple of the Heart Sword lineage.

He finally found out who was the person who wanted him dead.

Moreover, the other party's goal was very clear: to make him disappear from this world completely before Lu Xue returned.

Even if he manages to survive the poisonous fire in the ruined hall, when Lu Xue returns, that guy will definitely stop at nothing, and might even personally take action to end his life.

weak!

I'm still too weak!

A mere Foundation Establishment stage cabinet official could crush him like an ant.

Not to mention the chief disciple!

In any case, we must improve our strength as soon as possible before Lu Xue returns!

"Teacher Li... Teacher Li..."

He Lu and several disciples cautiously approached, their faces full of worry and guilt, but due to their supervisor's warning, they didn't know what to say for a moment.

They wanted to offer some words of comfort, but found that any words seemed so pale and powerless in the face of absolute power.

Li Pingan ignored them.

He took a deep breath, suppressed the murderous intent surging in his heart, silently walked to the corner of the wall, and threw the two packets of useless pills that the dark-faced junior sister had given him, along with the packet on the ground, into a huge wicker basket next to him.

Then, to everyone's astonishment, he bent down, his arms bulging with veins, and actually managed to lift the wicker basket filled with over a hundred pounds of waste.

He turned his head to look at He Lu, who seemed hesitant to speak, his voice calm and even.

"Where will the destruction take place?"

……

He Lu led Li Ping'an through the backyard of the abandoned hall to a cliff.

Below the cliff is a huge, bottomless pit.

Surges of scorching heat billowed out of the pit, turning the surrounding rock walls black.

Deep within the pit, molten golden-red iron churns, fueled by underground fire specifically used to smelt the most stubborn scraps within the sect.

This place is definitely not a good job.

Even hard metal scraps can release highly toxic substances that are invisible to the naked eye when they are smelted in the earth's fire.

Just standing on the edge of the pit, Li Ping'an could feel a scorching heat of poison seeping into his bone marrow through his mouth and nose.

Li Ping'an put down the heavy wicker basket and turned to look at He Lu, who was standing beside him with a worried expression.

"Manager He, I'd like to be alone here for a while. You should go back now."

"But, Teacher Li, you..."

He Lu wanted to say something more, but seeing Li Ping'an's unyielding gaze, he could only let out a long sigh.

He knew that staying there wouldn't be of any help, and might even cause more trouble for the stubborn old man.

"Then you... must be very careful."

He Lu shook his head and left, looking back every few steps.

After confirming that no one else was around, Li Ping'an's tense body slowly relaxed.

He walked to the wicker basket and dumped the large bag of waste pills mixed with highly toxic substances onto the scorching ground.

Black dregs of medicine and broken ore were scattered all over the ground, emanating an ominous aura under the scorching heat of the earth's fire.

Li Ping'an looked at the pile of garbage in front of him, which others would consider deadly, but his eyes blazed with an unprecedented light.

He slowly extended his right hand, and the Sky Hammer appeared out of thin air in his palm.

Bathed in the golden-red firelight, the hammer appeared even more ancient and mysterious.