The Boar's Head Tavern was situated on the absolute edge of the Heavenly Forge Division's outer market. It wasn't an elegant establishment. The air inside was thick with the suffocating smell of roasted meat, spilled ale, and the sharp tang of sweat and coal dust.
When Fang Lin pushed open the heavy wooden doors, he was greeted by a wall of noise. The tavern was packed with disciples, and almost all of them shared the same physical profile as Senior Brother Ma Teng: massive, heavily muscled, and covered in faint burn scars. This was the undisputed territory of the Ironblood Faction.
Fang Lin swept his gaze across the room, maintaining the stoic, slightly brutish posture of his "Mu Tie" persona.
"Over here, Junior Brother!"
Ma Teng was sitting at a large corner table, waving a massive hand. However, unlike the rest of the disciples who were busy drinking and boasting about their latest quotas, Ma Teng wasn't holding an ale horn. He looked surprisingly tense.
Fang Lin approached the table. "Senior Brother Ma."
"Keep your voice down," Ma Teng muttered, standing up quickly. He patted Fang Lin on the shoulder, steering him away from the main hall. "We aren't drinking tonight. The gathering out there is just a smokescreen. I brought you here for a private meeting."
Fang Lin's eyes narrowed slightly, but he allowed himself to be led toward a narrow hallway at the back of the tavern.
Ma Teng stopped in front of a heavy iron door inscribed with several high-tier silencing arrays.
"Listen to me carefully," Ma Teng whispered, his gruff voice dead serious. "The patron of our faction, Elder Huo is inside. He is an Inner Sect Grandmaster who holds high authority in the Heavenly Forge Division. He has been looking for a direct apprentice for three months."
"Why hasn't he found one?" Fang Lin asked.
"Because of his forging path," Ma Teng explained grimly. "Elder Huo specializes in forging ultra-dense, heavy-class spirit armaments. The physical recoil from striking the metals he uses is terrifying. His last assistant shattered both of his arms at the elbows during a quenching process. He needs someone with an abnormal physical constitution. When I saw you finish that Star-Steel contract in a few days without collapsing... I knew you were the one."
Ma Teng pushed the iron door open.
The private room was entirely unadorned. Sitting at the head of a plain wooden table was a man who looked less like a cultivator and more like a dormant volcano.
Elder Huo was massive. His bare arms were corded with thick veins and covered in a crisscrossing network of white burn scars. Though he wasn't actively channeling Qi, the ambient temperature in the room was suffocatingly high.
"So," Elder Huo rumbled, his voice like grinding stones. "This is 'The Anvil' I've been hearing about. The outer disciple who crushes heavy ore like chalk."
Fang Lin bowed respectfully. "Disciple Mu Tie greets Elder Huo."
Elder Huo didn't return the greeting. His sharp, hawk-like eyes swept up and down Fang Lin's frame. "You don't look like much. You have the musculature of a sword cultivator, not a heavy forger."
"Muscle mass is not always an indicator of density, Elder," Fang Lin replied evenly.
Elder Huo snorted. He reached beneath the table and pulled out a forging hammer, slamming it onto the thick wooden surface.
*Crack!*
The heavy table instantly fractured under the weight, the thick wooden legs groaning in protest.
The hammer was entirely pitch-black, forged with a terrifyingly dense head that seemed to swallow the light around it. There were no intricate spiritual arrays carved into its surface, only raw, brutal weight.
"This is the Mountain-Crusher," Elder Huo said, leaning back in his chair. "It was forged using deep-sea gravitational iron. Most Inner Sect disciples can't even lift it off the table without heavily circulating their Qi. If you want to be my apprentice, Mu Tie, you must be able to wield it purely with your physical body. Lift it."
Ma Teng took a nervous step back.
Fang Lin looked at the hammer. Inside his glabella, the Dark Flame Spirit let out a low, mocking laugh. *Deep-sea gravitational iron? A child's toy.*
Fang Lin stepped forward. He didn't circulate a single drop of his Frost Qi. He suppressed his phantom Death Qi entirely. He reached out and wrapped his calloused hand around the handle.
He engaged his Asura Flesh.
There was no strain in his muscles. There was no hesitation. Fang Lin simply picked the hammer up off the fractured table.
Elder Huo's eyes widened slightly.
But Fang Lin didn't stop there. He didn't just lift it; he tested its balance. With a calm, almost bored expression, Fang Lin flicked his wrist. The impossibly heavy hammer blurred through the air, carving a perfect, deadly arc in the confined space before stopping instantly, hovering mere inches from Elder Huo's nose.
The sheer kinetic force of the swing created a localized vacuum, blowing Elder Huo's hair back and extinguishing the candles in the room.
The room plunged into silence.
Fang Lin slowly lowered the hammer, setting it gently back onto the fractured table. It didn't make a sound.
"The balance is slightly off in the handle," Fang Lin noted calmly. "But the density is adequate."
For a long moment, Elder Huo just stared at the hammer. Then, a massive, booming laugh erupted from his chest, shaking the walls of the small room.
"Adequate! He calls it adequate!" Elder Huo roared, slamming his hand on the table, completely shattering it. He stood up, his eyes blazing with ecstatic delight. "Ma Teng, you didn't bring me a workhorse. You brought me a monster!"
Ma Teng exhaled a long breath he hadn't realized he was holding, grinning widely.
Elder Huo reached into his robes and pulled out a heavy, dark-red jade token. He tossed it through the air.
Fang Lin caught it effortlessly.
"That is an Inner Sect access token," Elder Huo declared. "From this moment on, you are no longer a glorified laborer in the outer division. You are my direct apprentice. You have clearance to enter the Inner Forge, the middle archives, and my private peak."
"I am honored, Senior," Fang Lin said, bowing again.
"Report to the Ember Peak at dawn," Elder Huo commanded. "We have heavy metal to break."
***
An hour later, Fang Lin walked out of the Boar's Head Tavern alone. The cool night air felt refreshing against his skin.
He looked down at the dark-red jade token resting in his palm. The Ironblood Faction hadn't just given him protection; they had given him the keys to the kingdom.
The first phase of his infiltration was completely successful. He was no longer a faceless outer disciple. He had the status, the political cover, and the access clearance he needed.
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