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

Only three sounds remained in the weapon-refining room.

The roar of hammering.

The hissing sound of quenching.

The screeching sound of the carving knife scraping against the iron surface.

The craftsmen were a bit inexperienced at first, and their coordination would occasionally falter.

But half an hour later, everyone had completely turned into emotionless work machines.

Forging only involves hammering.

For quenching, just soak it.

Those who specialize in engraving should just keep drawing.

The speed is getting faster and faster.

Shields were piled up on the ground, one after another.

An hour passed.

Forty Frost Shields were already stacked on the ground.

Two hours passed.

Eighty sides.

Du Heng stood in the corner, looking at the ever-growing shield-like mountain, his worldview completely shattered.

His proud art of weapon forging.

He persisted in using pneumatic traction for decades.

The idea of ​​"working in groups" casually suggested by the old handyman was utterly crushed.

Two and a half hours.

When the last Frost Shield was engraved with array patterns and thrown on the ground.

The entire weapon-refining room suddenly fell silent.

Thirty craftsmen slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

Their internal energy was almost depleted, but their eyes were filled with disbelief.

One hundred sides.

The work was completed half an hour ahead of schedule.

Chen Baichuan strode over and kicked over the waste bin next to him.

"good!"

"Excellent!"

He turned his head and stared intently at Zhou Lingxuan.

The look in his eyes was as if he were looking at a monster.

Zhou Lingxuan patted the dust off his sleeves.

"Mission accomplished, I'm returning to the abandoned hall."

He turned and walked out.

I had only taken two steps when my arm was gripped tightly by a large hand.

Chen Baichuan possessed astonishing strength.

"Why are you going back to that abandoned hall!"

Chen Baichuan didn't give Zhou Lingxuan a chance to refuse and dragged him towards the back of the weapon-refining room.

"Du Heng, take some men and deliver the shields to the administration office!"

"Anyone who dares to ask how these shields were forged, come find me!"

After giving his orders without turning his head, Chen Baichuan pulled Zhou Lingxuan through the corridor and into a secret room at the deepest part of the weapon hall.

boom!

The heavy stone door slammed shut.

Chen Baichuan released Zhou Lingxuan's arm.

He didn't speak, but instead took out three talismans that glowed with purple light from his pocket.

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

The three talismans were affixed to the three walls of the secret room.

With a flash of light, the highest level of soundproofing array was activated instantly.

Not even the sound of a mosquito flying by could be heard.

After doing all this, Chen Baichuan turned around.

The ecstasy and composure he had been putting on for show vanished instantly.

Instead, there was a suppressed rage that was almost igniting people.

"That old bastard Liu Quan!"

Chen Baichuan let out a beast-like growl and kicked over the black iron shelf next to him.

Crash!

The various rare ores and discarded magical artifacts on the shelves were smashed to pieces on the ground, making a jarring noise as they hit the blue stone floor.

The true energy of the Golden Core stage surged wildly around his body, causing the walls of the secret chamber to vibrate.

Zhou Lingxuan ignored his madness.

He walked to the stone table in the center of the secret room and pulled out a stone stool to sit down. On the table was a set of purple clay teaware. He reached out and lifted the teapot; it was empty.

Chen Baichuan was still circling in place, like an enraged bear.

"I already admitted defeat about that broken sword from back then, and I gave him so many good things in return. Yet he still won't let it go!"

"One hundred Frost Shields! Those are urgently needed military supplies at the front lines! How dare he tamper with them? Does he really think the sect's rules are just for show? Does he really think the Enforcement Hall is his personal property?"

Chen Baichuan grew angrier the more he cursed, then suddenly turned around and strode toward the door.

"No way! I can't swallow this!"

"I'm going to Heavenly Sword Peak right now, I'll beat the Heavenly Drum and demand the Sect Master come out of seclusion to settle this matter! Today, I'll skin Liu Quan alive!"

Zhou Lingxuan put the empty teapot back in its place with a soft "tap".

"Go."

Chen Baichuan's hand was already on the mechanism of the Dragon-Slaying Stone, but upon hearing this, his movements suddenly stopped.

He turned around and glared at Zhou Lingxuan.

"What would we say if we went?"

Zhou Lingxuan leaned back in the stone chair, not even lifting his eyelids.

"So, the Third Elder of Earth Sword Peak came to your Weapon Hall in the middle of the night and stuffed fire poison into your Cold Sound Iron?"

"Where's the evidence?"

Chen Baichuan stood frozen in place, the veins on his neck bulging.

"The materials are collected by your Weaponry Hall, the warehouse is managed by your Weaponry Hall, and the weapon forging is done by the people in your Weaponry Hall."

Zhou Lingxuan spoke calmly, yet every word he uttered was scathing.

"Now I've completely wiped out the fire poison using a clumsy method, not even a trace is left. And the hundred shields were handed over intact."

"What are you going to use to sue?"

"Go and tell the sect leader that Liu Quan is trying to harm you?"

Chen Baichuan opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

He was so focused on getting angry that he acted impulsively and didn't think about this aspect at all.

In the cultivation world, irrefutable evidence is paramount. To strike the Heavenly Drum without proof is to falsely accuse a fellow disciple, a crime punishable by double the severity.

"So I'm just going to swallow this bitter pill?" Chen Baichuan slapped the stone door, sending stone chips flying.

"Whether you suffer a loss or not is a matter for gods to fight; this old man doesn't understand."

Zhou Lingxuan shook his head, his cloudy eyes revealing a certain honesty typical of people from the lower class.

"The old man is just wondering, what's the Third Elder going to all this trouble for?"

Chen Baichuan stared wide-eyed.

"What's the point? To make me unlucky! To embarrass the Weapon Hall! To get severely punished by the sect for failing to deliver military supplies!"

"See, you're getting anxious again."

Zhou Lingxuan sighed.

"Failing to deliver a hundred Frost Shields is at most a dereliction of duty. A few years' salary deduction, or a few months of solitary confinement at Repentance Cliff, that's the absolute maximum, isn't it?"

Chen Baichuan remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.

"You are a powerful elder in the Weaponry Hall, holding a large number of weapon-forging orders. The sect leader would not possibly cripple your cultivation over such a small matter, much less expel you from the Weaponry Hall."

Zhou Lingxuan lowered his voice, as if he were chatting with an old neighbor.

"Since the Third Elder is at odds with you, he must be the type to not act until he sees a benefit. Why would he risk sabotaging military supplies just to let you get a scolding? No matter how you look at it, this deal isn't worth it."

Chen Baichuan's brows furrowed into a tight knot.

He followed Zhou Lingxuan's words and thought about it further, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong.

Liu Quan is the kind of person who won't get up early for nothing.

Taking advantage of the flying sword incident back then, Liu Quan managed to extort a large sum of resources from the Weapon Hall.

Is this risking the destruction of military supplies just to annoy him a little?

"If I can't deliver the military supplies, I'll be punished..."

Chen Baichuan muttered to himself, then suddenly looked up.

"What benefits would it bring to Earth Sword Peak?"

"There's no benefit to it." Zhou Lingxuan shrugged. "Earth Sword Peak doesn't handle weapon crafting. Even if you're unlucky, the resources of the Weapon Hall won't fall into Liu Quan's hands."

Chen Baichuan was stunned.

Yes, destroying the weaponry's supplies wouldn't benefit Liu Quan by a single spirit stone.

"If it wasn't him, who else could it be?" Chen Baichuan grabbed a handful of hair in frustration.

"The old man spent a hundred years forging iron in the outer sect's Sword Forging Valley. He didn't learn anything else, but he recognized iron." Zhou Lingxuan pointed in the direction outside the door. "The fire poison in that Cold Sound Iron is hidden too deeply."

"As you just said outside, once the fire poison enters the core, even the natal spiritual fire of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator may not be able to cleanse it completely."

Zhou Lingxuan said slowly.

"To silently implant the fire poison into the core of the Cold Sound Iron without damaging its external spirituality—how skilled would that be?"