Dawn broke over Caldera Peak 9 in a bright wash of gold and violet light.
High above the clouds, the morning air was crisp and cool, smelling of clean pine needles and sharp sulfur from the volcano. Down inside the crater, bright orange lava bubbled and churned, sending white steam hissing into the sky. All around the peak, the Ninth-Order Grand Warding Array hummed with quiet power, creating an invisible dome of heavy gravity that blocked all prying eyes.
Fang Lin sat cross-legged at a low stone table, wearing comfortable charcoal robes. A small clay kettle of mountain spirit tea bubbled gently over a coal brazier.
"Ah, the quiet life," Fang Lin thought to himself, pouring hot golden tea into a small ceramic cup.
"Quiet life? Hah!" a mocking voice snorted from deep inside his soul sea.
The Dark Flame Spirit sat cross-legged on a floating black ember, resting its chin on its fist as it grinned with wicked glee.
"You were sitting up there last night looking all calm and polite, but I was watching the whole room! Complain? I'm giving you expert commentary! Look at that corner table! Those three guys from Scarlet Sun Palace look like they swallowed live toads. They rode burning chariots ten thousand miles to spy on us, and what did they get? Stuck on wooden benches, watching thirty drunk brutes toast a young blacksmith and scream wedding blessings!"
The small spirit cackled with raspy joy, rolling around on its ember.
"And look at your little mountain girl! Those old ladies were squeezing her shoulders and asking if she liked hammer-wielding boys! She looked ready to rip up a boulder and bury the whole room in gravel! Ah look, she is almost here! This time aren't you going to take her to your bedchambers?"
Fang Lin took a sip of hot tea, sending a dry thought back: "You've been laughing about that for five hours. Go take a nap."
A crisp metallic ring echoed along the perimeter as a jade token touched the outer ward.
Fang Lin raised his hand and gave a light wave toward the southern edge. The golden barrier parted like a pair of curtains, letting the fresh morning breeze rush inside.
Lin Wan walked through the gap.
She had already ditched the fancy banquet robes. Now she wore her everyday battle gear: a dark green sleeveless tunic, tough linen pants, and steel wrist-guards. Across her back was the seven-foot staff of thousand-year violet-iron. In her right hand, she swung a heavy stone jug sealed with red wax.
The barrier snapped shut behind her. The moment it sealed, Lin Wan let out a loud, bone-deep groan. She marched across the black stone terrace, dropped onto the stone bench opposite Fang Lin, and slammed the stone jug onto the table with a loud thump.
"If one more elder's wife stops me on the mountain trail to ask about our birth stars aligning," Lin Wan growled through her teeth, "I am going to smash their teacups into powder. Those old women have way too much free time."
Fang Lin slid a steaming cup of tea across the table toward her. "You are now a Legacy Disciple named by a sleeping Grand Ancestor. Can you blame them for wanting to tie you to the Heavenly Forge?"
"I can blame them for having brains like iron slag," Lin Wan grumbled, grabbing the cup and gulping the hot tea down in one breath. Her stiff shoulders finally relaxed.
She leaned back against the stone seat, narrowing her sharp amber eyes at Fang Lin.
"Now... explain yourself, Crafting Elder Mu." Her lips twitched into a smirk. "I went into the deep earth vault for six months to fight a bottleneck. I climb out, and the quiet apprentice who used to sweep my forge dust is sitting next to Elder Duan as the Eighth Master Smith. Elder Huo was shouting that you made a real Spirit Manifestation blade. Did you dig up another ancient tomb, or did you hit a miracle?"
Fang Lin smiled calmly, pouring her another cup of tea.
"Nothing crazy like that, Senior Sister. While I was in seclusion here on the ninth peak, my fire core broke into Mid-Stage Core Formation. With hotter fire and the volcano's natural heat, my hammer rhythm finally clicked. I forged a forty-nine-fold basalt cleaver using the Ironblood method. Elder Huo took it to the Ancestral Forge, Elder Duan tested its resonance, and the elders voted. That's all there is to it."
Lin Wan stared at him for a few seconds, then let out a sharp laugh.
"That's all? You make reaching Mid-Stage Core Formation in five years sound like boiling noodles. And making an authentic Spirit Manifestation weapon before late core formation... Tie Peng and Qian Han must have looked like they got hit by lightning."
"Elder Qian did knock his teacup over. It's also thanks to the Annihilation Analysis Gathering that I was able to improve quickly." Fang Lin admitted with a modest grin.
"Good. Serves that old frost-puffer right," Lin Wan chuckled. Her teasing smirk softened into quiet respect. She reached into her pouch, pulled out a long black jade box tied with silver paper seals, and slid it across the table.
"Here. To celebrate you becoming an elder. Consider it a gift from the Earth Guardian Division."
Fang Lin raised an eyebrow. "Senior Sister, your visit and that jug of wine are plenty."
"Just take it," she ordered, waving her hand. "During my breakthrough, I broke open an ancient rock crack in the lowest room of the earth vaults. This was buried under petrified stone. Since you only take rare plants for your commissions, I figured you would like this more than spirit stones."
Fang Lin tore the seal and lifted the heavy jade lid.
The moment the lid came off, a cool smell of rich earth drifted out. On a piece of grey silk lay a twisted black root that looked like a coiled snake. It gave off a soft purple glow from inside a block of clear amber—an authentic Earth-Vein Black Spirit Root.
Down inside his soul sea, the Dark Flame Spirit scrambled to the edge of its ember, sniffing wildly.
"Brat!" the spirit yelled, eyes wide with greed. "Grab it! That's an Earth-Vein Black Spirit Root! It drank subterranean death-soil for eight hundred years under a mountain plate! The pure death essence locked in that amber is enough to feed your Midnight Lotuses until they burst wide open! Tell her your forge flux needs it! Don't let her take that box back!"
Fang Lin kept his face smooth, but inside, he was thrilled. The root was an incredible find—an ancient plant full of deep earth-death energy that would supercharge the growth of his Midnight Lotus.
He closed the lid gently and looked at Lin Wan with genuine gratitude.
"An eight-hundred-year Earth-Vein root," Fang Lin said. "This is an ancient treasure, Senior Sister. Thank you."
Lin Wan grinned, showing white teeth. "As long as you can use it. Besides... I didn't come up here just to hide from the matchmakers."
Her tone shifted, turning serious and practical. She unhooked her leather shoulder harness, lifted the massive Thousand-Year Violet-Iron Staff, and set it across the stone table. The granite slab groaned under the concentrated weight.
"Take a look," Lin Wan said, her voice dropping. "You made this for me five years ago when I was at late Core Formation. For five years, it has smashed every beast, formation, and rival disciple in my way. But since I reached Half-Step Spirit Manifestation and the Grand Ancestor unsealed the Xuanwu Heaven-Bearing Scripture..."
Fang Lin raised a hand, gesturing for her to pause. "Wait, Senior Sister. During last night's decree, the Grand Ancestor said you refined the Ancient Mountain Core, and unsealed the Xuanwu Heaven-Bearing Scripture for you to inherit the Sovereign Earth Mantle alongside Senior Brother Xuan Beihai. What actually is the Ancient Mountain Core? And what does the Heaven-Bearing Mantle do?"
Lin Wan chuckled, taking a sip of wine. "You've been hitting iron on this peak for five years and never asked around? Deep in the earth vaults, where the heat and stone pressure could flatten an iron carriage, there is a vein of living yellow rock. That's the Ancient Mountain Core—the primordial heart of Black Tortoise Mountain that has gathered earth essence since the sect was founded. Surviving down there to refine a single strand of that core is what gave me the breakthrough to Half-Step Spirit Manifestation."
She tapped her chest with her knuckles, letting out a solid, dull thud like hitting thick granite.
"As for the scripture? The Xuanwu Heaven-Bearing Scripture is the supreme ancestral inheritance of our Black Tortoise Mountain. It is locked in the deepest forbidden vaults, and only disciples who refine the Mountain Core are permitted to cultivate it. When the Grand Ancestor decreed my promotion last night, his divine will unsealed the ancient manual and imprinted the core technique—the Primordial Xuanwu Heaven-Bearing Mantle—straight into my sea of consciousness. When I circulate it, the Sovereign Earth Mantle wraps around my body, fusing my strength with the mountain. My defense doubles, and every strike carries the momentum of a falling cliff. Until yesterday, only Xuan Beihai had the right to cultivate it among the younger generation. Now, the Ancestor bestowed it upon me too."
Her grin turned into a sigh as she rested her hand back on the purple metal.
"Which brings me to my problem. My body got stronger, and my energy got twenty times heavier. But this staff... it can't keep up."
She laid her palm flat on the purple metal and pushed her energy inside.
A deep golden-brown light surged into the staff. The thick metal gave off a low hum, but instead of a clear, ringing tone, a muffled vibration rattled through the shaft. Around the middle, the air warped with heat and a rough, dragging stutter.
"The spiritual veins inside can't handle the flow," Fang Lin pointed out immediately.
"Exactly," Lin Wan nodded grimly. "The violet-iron itself is indestructible, but the inner paths were folded for Core Formation Qi. My new Heaven-Bearing earth energy is too heavy. When I push full power, it bottlenecks inside the staff, causing a delay and wasting thirty percent of my swing."
She reached into her pouch again and pulled out a heavy lead box. Flipping the iron latch, she revealed a jagged crystal about the size of a thumb. It gave off a suffocating, heavy gravity that pressed down on the table. It was murky amber, filled with glowing veins of molten gold: an Earth-Origin Heavy Crystal.
"The Grand Ancestor gave me three pieces of this when my Legacy status was named," Lin Wan explained. "The old masters in the Mountain-Core Division saw it and offered to rebuild my staff with sixteen defensive arrays and spell runes."
She let out a loud, angry scoff.
"Runes! Formations! They wanted to turn my brutal iron staff into a fragile, fancy toy!" Lin Wan growled. "They don't understand. When an Earth Guardian attacks, we don't want flashy sparks—we want to break the ground! Nobody on this mountain understands pure, crushing weight like you do. Can you hammer this crystal into the staff, Mu Tie? Keep the balance perfect?"
In his soul sea, the Dark Flame Spirit snorted lazily: "That crystal has a stubborn rock soul, kid. Your little fake fire will take weeks to melt it down. Want me to breathe a tiny thread of black fire through the bottom of the anvil? Just a fingernail's worth. She will never notice."
"Quiet," Fang Lin told the spirit. "I have the seventy-two Ironblood rhythm and my soul sense. I don't need the Dark Flame to melt rock."
Fang Lin looked up at Lin Wan, his eyes calm and steady. "Bring it over to the forge platform. Let's see what this staff can really do."
The private forge platform of Caldera Peak 9 sat directly over an open crack in the volcanic bedrock.
A massive anvil made of solid Star-Core Lead rested on a thick slab of slate. Right beneath the iron grate, a river of red-hot magma rushed through deep channels, venting roaring heat into the sky.
Fang Lin rolled up his sleeves, showing thick, solid forearms. The bronze tint of his hidden Asura Flesh looked like ordinary sun-tanned skin, but the muscles underneath were wound tight like steel ropes. He picked up a heavy black-iron hammer from the rack.
"Take three steps back, Senior Sister," Fang Lin said softly.
Lin Wan stepped back to the edge of the terrace, crossing her arms, her eyes glued to his hands.
Fang Lin placed the Thousand-Year Violet-Iron Staff across the lead anvil. With iron tongs in his left hand, he gripped the Earth-Origin Heavy Crystal and pushed it straight into the mouth of the magma vent.
He pushed his energy forward.
A thick wave of orange fire poured from his palm, wrapping around the vent to pull the volcano's natural heat into a tight cone—the classic move of a skilled Master Smith.
Underneath the fire, Fang Lin opened the sharp vision of his Crystal Soul Realm. Invisible threads of soul sense plunged into the crystal, mapping every tiny crack, fault line, and dense pocket inside the ancient stone.
"Now," Fang Lin murmured.
The hammer rose.
The heavy hammer slammed down in a steady rhythm: Clang! Clang! Clang! With every strike, Fang Lin hit the tiny weak points deep inside the stone. Pushed by the underground fire and the raw power of his muscles, the tough crystal finally broke, melting into bright liquid gold and amber.
Lin Wan watched from the side, holding her breath. She knew real physical power when she saw it. Fang Lin's swings had zero wasted motion. Each hit sounded like clean thunder rolling across the crater.
Clang!
With a smooth flick of his tongs, Fang Lin dumped the glowing amber liquid right onto the middle of the Violet-Iron Staff. The moment the primordial earth essence touched the violet-iron, the two metals fought back, throwing bright purple sparks across the anvil.
Fang Lin didn't blink. His hammer speed doubled, shifting into the full fury of seventy-two overlapping kinetic hits.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The air around the anvil warped into visible shockwaves. Fang Lin hammered the metal like an iron machine built into the mountain, driving the molten amber stone deep into the inner veins of the staff.
The spiritual pathways inside the staff stretched and widened, their capacity growing ten times larger as the earth crystal fused into the metal bones of the weapon. The purple metal grew darker, drinking in the amber liquid until it turned deep obsidian-violet, wrapping itself in a heavy, invisible gravity field.
"Quench!" Fang Lin exhaled.
Grabbing the seven-foot staff with long tongs, he pulled it off the anvil and plunged it straight into a stone trough filled with freezing mountain water.
A giant pillar of white steam roared out of the trough, shooting fifty feet into the morning sky like a launching dragon. Thick mist rolled across the platform, swallowing the stone terrace in white fog.
For ten long heartbeats, the only sound on Peak 9 was the crackle of the magma vent and the steady drip of water.
Fang Lin reached into the steam, pulled the weapon out, and wiped the shaft with a rough cloth.
The Thousand-Year Violet-Iron Staff was completely transformed. Its surface was smooth and dark, without a single carved rune or spell circle. Yet its black-violet skin shone with a cold, terrifying gleam. Natural lines that looked like deep continental rock layers ran down the shaft, giving off a feeling of absolute, unmovable weight.
The whole process took about a few hours.
The staff gave off the real, undeniable spiritual pressure of a Peak-Grade Spirit Manifestation weapon.
Fang Lin stepped forward, holding the staff flat in both hands, and pushed it toward Lin Wan.
"Give it a swing, Senior Sister."
Lin Wan stepped through the thinning mist, her hands reaching out eagerly. Her fingers locked around the center grip.
The instant her skin touched the metal, Lin Wan's right arm jerked downward three inches. Her eyes went wide. The staff's weight had more than doubled. It didn't feel like an iron weapon anymore; it felt like holding a solid pillar ripped from the foundation of the earth.
Lin Wan took a deep breath, planted her boots firmly into the stone, and channeled her Half-Step Spirit Manifestation Heaven-Bearing Qi.
The staff let out a low, deep hum.
There was no drag. There was no stutter.
Her dense earth energy rushed through the widened channels of the staff like a wild river finding a wide canyon. The dark purple metal drank in her strength and vibrated, sending a heavy tremor right through the bedrock of Caldera Peak 9.
Lin Wan grinned and gave the staff a casual horizontal swing through the empty air.
A loud sonic boom cracked across the platform. The sheer air pressure created a wild gust of wind that ripped across the terrace, sending rolling waves across the magma lake sixty yards below.
Lin Wan stood frozen in the center of the terrace, her knuckles white on the dark metal, her jaw hanging open.
This was not a low-grade or mid-grade weapon. The clean energy flow, zero-rune physical density, and total balance made it an undisputed Peak-Grade Spirit Manifestation weapon. It was a masterwork that only old grandmasters with hundreds years of experience should have been able to make.
Fang Lin walked back to the stone table and set down his hammer.
"Senior Sister," Fang Lin spoke, keeping his voice low and steady. "A word of advice. Don't show its real grade to anyone for now. When you carry it outside this peak, keep your energy locked down. Let the sect think it's just a normal middle-grade weapon."
Lin Wan didn't move for several seconds.
Slowly, she turned her head. Her sharp amber eyes locked onto Fang Lin, staring straight into his calm face with terrifying intensity.
The thoughts in her head clicked together like falling stones.
A outer disciple who joined around five years ago as a humble apprentice. A disciple who quietly reached Mid Core Formation in secret. A disciple who claimed he only forged a normal cleaver for Elder Huo, yet took an Earth-Origin Heavy Crystal and forged a Peak-Grade Spirit Manifestation staff in a single morning without using a single magic rune...
Just like the mace at the auction.
Volcanic Annihilation. The weapon made by the mysterious Grandmaster who embarrassed the Scarlet Sun Palace and baffled all ten Hegemons. The creator who used seventy-two hammer strikes, compressed metal past normal limits, and hated external runes.
Lin Wan's eyes narrowed into sharp slits. A slow smirk spread across her face, packed with disbelief, wild amusement, and deep awe.
She took a slow step forward, planting the butt of the heavy staff onto the stone floor with a solid thud, leaning in until her face was inches from his.
"Wait a minute..." Lin Wan whispered, her voice full of dangerous teasing. "Junior Brother... a Mid Core Formation Master smith cannot forge a Peak Spirit Manifestation weapon in one morning with a basic iron hammer. That legendary masterwork at the Star River auction... the one that made Grand Elder Yan Lie choke on his own spit... Grandmaster Ashen Anvil..."
She tapped her finger right against his chest.
"...it wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"
Inside Fang Lin's soul sea, the Dark Flame Spirit buried its face in its hands, howling with laughter: "Hahaha! Caught! Busted! The girl figured it out in three seconds! Look at your face, kid! What are you going to tell her now? That the wind forged it?"
Fang Lin didn't blink. His heartbeat didn't skip a beat.
He looked right into Lin Wan's sharp eyes, picked up his cup of mountain tea, took a slow sip, and offered her an innocent, peaceful smile.
"Senior Sister," Fang Lin said smoothly, raising an eyebrow. "The five-hundred-year amber wine from last night was very strong. It seems its fumes are still clouding your brilliant head."
Lin Wan stared at his deadpan face for two seconds, and let out a rich, loud laugh that blew the remaining mist away.
"You slippery smith" she chuckled, shaking her head with huge delight as she strapped the heavy staff back into its leather harness.
She didn't push him any further. Between cultivators who had bled together in Ou Yezi's ancient tomb, some things didn't need to be said out loud. The silent trust between them was completely unbreakable.
Lin Wan turned back toward the stone table, her face slowly growing serious as she looked out over the sea of clouds toward the northern horizon.
"Keep your secrets, Master Smith," Lin Wan said quietly, her voice taking on the sharp edge of a real warrior. "You're going to need them. And you're going to need the best armor you can forge for yourself."
Fang Lin set down his teacup, sensing the sudden change in her tone. "The Grand Ancestor?"
"Yes," Lin Wan nodded, her amber eyes reflecting the distant mountain peaks. "The Grand Ancestor didn't wake up just to give me a title and hand out heavy crystals. An ancient message was sent to the Sect Master and Elder Duan last night."
She looked at Fang Lin with grim focus.
"In eight months, the Ancient Primordial Beast Graveyard will unseal its gates. It has been dormant for three hundred years under the continental divide. All ten Hegemon sects—including the Scarlet Sun Palace and the Heavenly Sword Lake—will send their top Legacy Disciples and elders into the abyss to fight for primordial beast marrow and ancient law fragments."
Fang Lin's eyes sharpened. He asked proactively, "The Ancient Primordial Beast Graveyard? What kind of place is that?"
"A sealed pocket world from the primordial era," Lin Wan said, her voice turning grave. "Legend says that more than ten thousand years ago, colossal beasts the size of mountain ranges fell into the earth abyss during an ancient war. Their skeletons turned into stone and iron, their blood pooled into rivers of essence, and the realm was locked away by ancient spatial seals by unknown beings so that it didn't affect the continent. It only opens once every few centuries by itself. The blood essence, beast marrow and ancient law fragments inside can let a Core Formation cultivator build a terrifying foundation—or help an elder touch higher realms. Every hegemon sect is mobilizing. Blood will flow like water."
Her hand reached back, resting against the cold, dark grip of her new staff.
"The continent is getting ready for war, Junior Brother. You make the weapons up here on your peak. And when the gates tear open... I will use this staff to crush anyone who stands in our way."
Fang Lin looked at her fierce, confident stance, then glanced down at his own hands, a quiet smile touching his lips.
"Eight months," Fang Lin echoed softly. "That is plenty of time."
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