A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Sword-Forging Servant and Ascending to Immorta

Chen Baichuan stared at him for a moment.

"Even if you can handle the Frost Iron, you won't have enough time to forge a hundred shields. There are only a little over three hours left until dawn tomorrow!"

How many able-bodied people are left in the Equipment Hall?

"Including myself, there are nine."

"Where's the weapon-refining furnace?"

"Three main furnaces and five auxiliary furnaces. Even if one main furnace is destroyed, the remaining seven can still be operated."

"Who will carve the shield pattern?"

"All seventeen weapon refiners can inscribe Xuan Frost Array Patterns. The injured ones have taken pills and can still barely fight."

"That's enough."

Chen Baichuan doubted that he had misheard.

"Enough of what?"

"Enough to refine one hundred noodles."

"Don't talk nonsense at a time like this!"

Chen Baichuan grabbed Zhou Lingxuan's arm.

"One hundred Frost Shields—just shaping the blanks would take nine people three days of continuous work. Besides, the materials are poisonous; each one would have to be reprocessed!"

Zhou Lingxuan broke free from his hand.

"Tell those outside to stop healing and bring everyone who can leave back."

"Want me to come back and go crazy with you?"

"You can keep going around in circles here."

"I'm trying to think of a way!"

"Have you figured it out yet?"

Chen Baichuan's chest heaved a few times, but he couldn't finish the sentence.

Zhou Lingxuan kicked the discarded shield blank at his feet.

"Whose property is this?"

"They're all destroyed, so they're basically scrap."

"Who is responsible for managing waste materials?"

Chen Baichuan's anxious expression froze for a moment.

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about moving things into the abandoned hall?"

"I am the steward of the abandoned hall."

"so what?"

"Disposing of waste is my duty."

Zhou Lingxuan bent down and picked up a piece of scrapped Hanyin iron blank from the pile of scrap.

Purple light shone in his palm.

The purple jade hammer then appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Purple light shone in Zhou Lingxuan's palm.

Before Chen Baichuan could even see what it was, Zhou Lingxuan had already picked up the shattered shield embryo.

The edges of the shield blank were covered with charred cracks, but the inner layer still retained the frost-like patterns of the cold-sounding iron. Several dark red fine lines were coiled deep within the iron material, not fully visible on the cross-section, as if they had been kneaded into the iron beforehand.

Zhou Lingxuan didn't rush to use the hammer.

He first tapped the shield blank several times with his knuckles.

knock.

knock knock.

The sound is clear in the first half, but suddenly sinks when it reaches the middle.

Chen Baichuan took two steps closer.

"What did you figure out?"

"The fire poison is not on the surface."

Zhou Lingxuan flipped the shield over and tapped it a few more times.

"It has burrowed into the iron core."

Chen Baichuan's face was grim.

"Do you even need to tell me? I personally disassembled more than twenty pieces, and even the innermost part was poisonous."

"How did you handle it?"

"First soak it with cold spring water, then slowly burn it with earth fire, and finally use spiritual power to suppress it."

Zhou Lingxuan looked up.

"Whose idea was this?"

Chen Baichuan's face stiffened.

"Chief Weapon Refiner, Du Heng."

Where are they?

"In the side hall."

Chen Baichuan called out to the outside.

"Go and fetch Du Heng!"

Someone answered from outside the door and quickly ran away.

Zhou Lingxuan held the shield blank in his hand, his fingertips tracing the broken edge.

The fire poison is deeply hidden.

Cold Sound Iron is inherently inclined towards cold, and should not theoretically be compatible with fire poison. However, the other party used a special method to grind the fire poison into an extremely fine powder, and then used spiritual power to gradually inject it into the material.

This batch of iron looks perfectly fine from the outside.

After being placed in the furnace, the Cold Sound Iron begins to gather cold, while the Fire Poison is suppressed and rebounds, with the two forces colliding within the material.

The stove exploded.

The shield embryo cracked.

If the weapon refiners in the weapon hall continue to ignite the fire, the fire poison will only be aggravated.

Zhou Lingxuan placed the shield blank on the ground and then picked up a complete piece of Cold Sound Iron.

Why didn't the first batch of shields explode?

Chen Baichuan frowned.

"Only twenty pieces were made in the first batch, and there were no abnormalities when they were put into the furnace."

"Were the main materials used from the same batch?"

"They were all allocated from the warehouse."

"Have you tried using the leftover scraps from the first batch of refining?"

Chen Baichuan was stunned.

A disciple from the Weaponry Hall quickly ran to a corner and began rummaging through several wooden boxes.

A short while later, he ran back carrying a metal box.

"Elder, the remaining materials from the first batch are still available!"

Chen Baichuan snatched the iron box and opened the lid.

Inside were more than a dozen pieces of Cold Sound Iron fragments.

The color is ice blue, the frost pattern is complete, and there is not a single red spot.

Chen Baichuan took out a piece and handed it to Zhou Lingxuan.

Zhou Lingxuan took it and touched it with the piece of Cold Sound Iron from before.

The two pieces of iron made different sounds.

A piece of clear water.

It's so frustrating.

"This batch is clean."

Chen Baichuan's face turned even uglier.

"But they all came from the same warehouse."

Zhou Lingxuan looked at the pile of Cold Sound Iron.

"The action was taken before the goods were put into storage."

"You mean after it's put into storage?"

"The first batch was refined early, and the materials didn't have time to be tampered with. It was only later, with the Cold Sound Iron, that it was infiltrated by the fire poison."

Chen Baichuan slammed his fist on the edge of the furnace.

boom!

The iron furnace vibrated and hummed.

"How dare you!"

"They even dared to jeopardize the Weaponry Hall's emergency missions; they're trying to destroy the Weaponry Hall!"

"Liu Quan!"

He uttered the name in a very low voice.

Zhou Lingxuan did not respond.

Whether it is Liu Quan or not is another matter.

The Cold Sound Iron had been stored in the Weapon Hall's storeroom for over ten days, and more than one person had access to the material. Given Chen Baichuan's old grudge against the Third Elder, it was understandable that he would think of the other first.

But right now, the most urgent question isn't who did it.

The question is whether this batch of materials is still usable.

The sound of hurried footsteps rang out.

A middle-aged man strode into the weapon-refining room.

The man's robes were covered in furnace ash, and his left arm was wrapped in thick cloth, with blood still seeping through the strips. After entering, he glanced at the wrecked shields scattered on the floor, then saw Zhou Lingxuan, and his expression turned somewhat displeased.

"Elder Chen, did you call me?"

Chen Baichuan pointed at Zhou Lingxuan.

"Say what you just said again."

Du Heng frowned.

"What did you say?"

"Is there any hope for Han Yin Tie?"

Du Heng then looked at Zhou Lingxuan.

He recognized the steward of the abandoned hall.

The most talked-about things in the Weaponry Hall lately are all related to this person. A top-grade alchemy furnace, the Wind and Thunder Sword, and Chen Baichuan almost falling out with the administration department over getting him a managerial position.

But Du Heng disagreed.

Crafting weapons is not the same as forging iron.

Even if you swing a hammer for a hundred years, it doesn't mean you'll ever find a truly divine material.

"Does Manager Zhou also want to see these materials?"

"have a look."

Du Heng bent down and picked up a piece of Cold Sound Iron. A wisp of spiritual energy emerged from his hand, and he slowly poured it into the iron.

The surface of the cold-sound iron glowed with a faint blue light.

Soon, several red spots appeared inside the iron block.

The red dots are accumulating more and more.

click!

A thin crack appeared in the cold iron.

Du Heng immediately stopped.

"You saw it?"

He placed the cracked piece of iron in front of Zhou Lingxuan.

"The fire poison has become entangled with the spiritual essence of the Cold Sound Iron. As soon as the earth fire burns, it tries to escape. The stronger the spiritual fire, the more fiercely it attacks."

"Can't it be washed off with cold spring water?"

"It can't be washed."

"What about the sword intent vibration?"

Du Heng looked at Chen Baichuan, then back at Zhou Lingxuan.

"Sword intent can cut through the surface fire poison, but it can't reach the core of the material."

"What if we force it in?"

"The Cold Sound Iron will break first."

Zhou Lingxuan did not refute.

Du Heng's judgment was correct.

There is indeed no solution using conventional methods.

When Zhou Lingxuan processed the red copper, the fire poison sand was still an independent impurity. The sword intent could disperse it, and then the Heaven-Forging Hammer could absorb it.

The fire poison before them had already melted into the cold sound iron.

It cannot be peeled off.

It is entangled with the spirit of the iron material; if it is forcibly hammered out, even the cold-sounding iron will be ruined.

Seeing that Zhou Lingxuan remained silent, Du Heng softened his tone.

"Elder Chen, it's not that we are incompetent."

"This thing has been tampered with in a very insidious way. The fire poison has seeped into its marrow. Unless a Nascent Soul cultivator is invited to cleanse it with their natal spiritual fire for several days, there is only a sliver of hope."

Chen Baichuan's face darkened.

"A Nascent Soul cultivator?"

"Both of the sect's Nascent Soul elders are in seclusion, and the sect leader is out and hasn't returned. Even if we could invite them, we wouldn't be able to forge a hundred Xuan Frost Shields before Chen Shi (7-9 AM) tomorrow."

Du Heng lowered his head.

"This batch of materials is useless."