The midday sun beat down mercilessly upon the grand caldera of Sacred Flame Peak, yet the suffocating heat of the volcanic crater was nothing compared to the fiery tension gripping the Grand Exhibition Plaza.
On the high guest pavilion, the crimson banners of the Scarlet Sun Palace rippled in the rising thermal drafts. Disciples from the Solar Flame Caverns were still cheering, their arrogant laughter echoing off the polished basalt walls as Huo Zhen stood proudly beside Grand Elder Yan Lie. To the foreign delegations, it seemed the gathering had already found its uncrowned king; the self-circulating thermal loop was a breakthrough that Black Tortoise Mountain seemed powerless to match.
It was amidst this suffocating atmosphere that the sixth batch of twenty-five Core Smiths crossed the translucent amber barrier of the central appraisal platform.
Leading the charge for the host sect was a broad-shouldered youth with skin the color of dark iron and arms as thick as small tree trunks. Dressed in the heavy, obsidian-studded leather tunic of Black Tortoise Mountain's Mountain-Core Division, his name was Gu Chen.
*Gu Chen.*
He was the foremost junior prodigy of the Mountain-Core heavy-forging lineage, a disciple renowned for his fanatical obsession with kinetic density and foundational hammer dynamics. While the rest of the host disciples had been plunged into dejection by Huo Zhen's earlier performance, Gu Chen's dark eyes burned with stubborn, unyielding defiance.
Up in the eastern spectator tiers, Fang Lin sat in his faded grey disciple robes, taking a slow, measured sip of warm spirit tea. Beside him, Elder Huo leaned tensely against the railing, his bloodshot eyes glued to the white-jade stage, while Senior Brother Ma Teng held his breath.
The moment the two-hour shift began, the participants fanned out around the white-jade pedestal.
Several rogue smiths and minor sect refiners immediately attempted to replicate Huo Zhen's thermal method, igniting small spirit flames and probing the mace's outer heat channels. But lacking Huo Zhen's seven years of lava-river sensory training, their probes were violently repelled by the mace's dormant domain pressure, leaving them coughing and clutching their throbbing temples.
Meanwhile, Gu Chen approached the *Volcanic Annihilation* with absolute reverence.
He did not bring flame crucibles, solar needles, or alchemical cauldrons. Instead, Gu Chen unslung a heavy, velvet-lined mahogany case from his back. Opening it, he revealed a pair of ancient, pitch-black measuring tools forged from Deep-Sea Abyssal Iron—the *Heavy-Earth Acoustic Calipers*.
Gu Chen took a slow, deep breath, his dantian surging as he activated his *Mountain-Core Heavy Qi*. A faint, earthen-yellow halo enveloped his arms, suppressing the ambient heat around his body.
He placed the lower prong of the acoustic calipers against the pommel of the mace and the upper prong against the base of the flanged head. With his left thumb, he lightly struck the central tuning fork of the calipers.
*Ting——*
A pure, low-frequency sound wave rippled through the obsidian body of the mace.
To an ordinary observer, the sound was nothing more than a dull metallic chime. But to Gu Chen, whose ears and divine sense had been honed through hundreds of thousands of heavy hammer strikes, the acoustic feedback told an entirely different story.
Gu Chen's brow furrowed.
He adjusted the caliper prongs, moving the upper node two inches higher toward the hexagonal ridges of the head, and struck the tuning fork once more.
*Ting——*
The acoustic pitch was slightly higher. The sound wave had traveled through the stone with noticeably greater velocity.
Gu Chen froze. His breath hitched in his throat.
"That's impossible..." Gu Chen muttered under his breath, his eyes widening in disbelief. "If the obsidian was uniformly compressed through standard heavy-forging, the acoustic velocity should remain identical across the entire length of the weapon..."
Feverishly, Gu Chen shifted the calipers again. He tested the handle: acoustic velocity measured at three hundred paces per breath. He tested the mid-shaft: four hundred and fifty paces per breath. He tested the flanged striking head: over eight hundred paces per breath!
The sound waves were accelerating as they traveled toward the striking point.
Gu Chen's heart hammered against his ribs like a war drum. He dropped to one knee, retrieving a set of microscopic jade load-bearing sensors from his case. Carefully placing them along the weapon's spine, he struck the pommel with a miniature brass hammer, simulating a wielder swinging the mace into a heavy physical collision.
The floating load sensors lit up with blinding yellow runes.
The shockwave did not disperse outward in a uniform sphere, nor did it ripple backward toward the handle. Instead, ninety-eight percent of the kinetic wave was drawn forward like water through a narrowing funnel, compressing violently into the crushing edges of the flanged head!
Gu Chen let out a ragged, trembling gasp. He stood up so fast that his mahogany case clattered against the white jade floor.
"I see it... by the heavens, I see it!" Gu Chen shouted, completely abandoning all composure.
Ignoring the remaining participants on the stage, Gu Chen grabbed his jade slip, his divine sense carving runic characters into the stone so furiously that spiritual sparks flew from his fingertips.
When the two-hour bell struck, Gu Chen did not wait for the attendant deacons. He sprinted across the platform, leaping up the terrace steps to plant himself directly before Grand Domain Smith Elder Duan and the Judgment Council.
"Core Smith Gu Chen of the Mountain-Core Division submits his analytical treatise!" Gu Chen roared, his voice ringing with wild, triumphant fervor.
Grand Elder Yan Lie of the Scarlet Sun Palace chuckled dismissively from his high seat, waving his hand with relaxed arrogance. "Another Black Tortoise youth rushing forward with heavy-hammer theories? Little friend, after Huo Zhen's thermal circulation discovery, simple density calculations can no longer save your sect's face."
Chi Yao smiled faintly beside him, her gaze cool and mocking.
However, Elder Duan did not dismiss the submission. With a flick of his sleeve, he placed Gu Chen's jade slip onto the evaluation array.
*HUMMMMM——!*
A radiant, golden-yellow projection exploded into the sky above the caldera, displaying Gu Chen's acoustic wave velocities, kinetic load dispersion models, and molecular density mappings.
Sect Master Xuan Yuan's eyes flashed with sudden, blinding brilliance.
Elder Huo, who had been sitting with his head in his hands, suddenly leaned forward so fast that his chair creaked violently.
"This is..." an elder judge from the Star River Alliance whispered, his hands trembling as he adjusted his appraisal monocle. "This is not uniform density!"
Gu Chen stood tall before the elders, his chest heaving, his dark eyes ablaze with sovereign pride as he looked directly at Grand Elder Yan Lie.
"The Scarlet Sun Palace believes our Black Tortoise heavy-forging is nothing more than brute, uniform compression!" Gu Chen declared, his voice booming across the entire three leagues of the stadium. "They claim that senior Ashen Anvil merely compressed obsidian to its limit! But my analysis proves that the physical body of the *Volcanic Annihilation* possesses **Directional Density**!"
The entire stadium went dead silent.
"Explain!" Elder Duan commanded, his deep voice trembling with suppressed excitement.
"The mineral density of this mace is forged along an intricate, ascending geometric gradient!" Gu Chen explained, pointing to the golden light diagrams in the sky. "The handle possesses the lowest density, allowing the weapon to remain nimble and balanced in the wielder's hands. The shaft possesses a medium density, acting as a kinetic accelerator. And the flanged striking head possesses the absolute pinnacle of compressive density!"
Gu Chen clenched his massive fist, illustrating the force.
"When this mace strikes a target, the directional density gradient forces one hundred percent of the kinetic impact to travel forward into the enemy! Zero percent of the shockwave reflects backward into the wielder's wrists! The wielder can unleash mountain-bashing blows all day without suffering a single sliver of bone recoil!"
*BOOM——!*
The entire grand plaza erupted as if a volcano had detonated beneath the basalt floor!
Tens of thousands of Black Tortoise disciples leaped out of their stone seats, roaring with absolute, unrestrained ecstasy. Banners of black and gold were thrust into the sky, heavy-forging hammers were slammed against stone balustrades, and the entire caldera shook with the thunderous chanting of Black Tortoise Mountain!
"Directional Density! That is our heavy-forging Dao!"
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
Up on the presiding pavilion, Elder Huo leaped onto his table, letting out a roar that shattered the surrounding sulfur clouds. "Hahaha! Did you hear that, you red-robed roosters?! Directional density! Our ancestral heavy-forging isn't just brute force—it's a kinetic art that your fire-poking fingers could never comprehend in ten lifetimes!"
Grand Elder Yan Lie's boisterous laughter died instantly in his throat. His sharp crimson beard twitched, his face turning an unsightly shade of dark purple as he stared at the verified kinetic equations projected in the sky.
Beside him, Chi Yao's haughty smile froze solid, her flame ribbon drooping motionless around her wrist. Even Huo Zhen, who had been basking in supreme glory only two hours prior, stared at the golden diagrams with wide, horrified eyes.
The Judgment Council quickly conferred. Elder Duan rose to his feet, his face glowing with earned vindication as he raised both hands to quiet the deafening crowd.
"The kinetic dispersion model... is authenticated!" Elder Duan proclaimed, his voice rolling like thunder across the peaks. "Core Smith Gu Chen has uncovered a foundational pillar of senior Ashen Anvil's craftsmanship!"
The scoreboard across the grand plaza was instantly updated:
*Scarlet Sun Palace: 1 Major Discovery (Self-Circulating Thermal Loop)*
*Black Tortoise Mountain: 1 Major Discovery (Directional Density Gradient)*
The contest was deadlocked at **1–1**!
The continental gathering had become an electrifying, razor-sharp war of intellect between the twin hegemons. Neither side held the upper hand; each sect had proven their sovereign mastery in their respective element, setting the stage for an explosive, unprecedented conclusion.
***
Up in the eastern spectator seating, Fang Lin set down his teacup, a subtle, knowing smirk playing upon his lips beneath his lowered head.
*Directional density...* Fang Lin mused quietly to himself. *Gu Chen really is a sharp one. He actually figured out how the seventy-two-strike rhythm shifts the mineral grain from the pommel to the crown.*
Inside his soul sea, the Dark Flame Spirit was rolling around in hysterics, laughing so hard that dark flame tears were streaming down its spectral face.
*Hahahahaha! Look at them! Look at those old fools dancing on the tables!* the spirit wheezed, clutching its sides in uncontrollable mirth. *The fire sect found their little flame loop, the turtle sect found their little kinetic slide, and now both of them think they're the masters of the universe! Neither of them realizes that if you have directional density without the thermal expansion cushion, the first time that mace strikes a True Domain, the whole front end will snap off like dry firewood!*
*Let them celebrate,* Fang Lin replied with a faint, silent chuckle as he watched the roaring crowd of Black Tortoise disciples. *A 1–1 tie makes the drama far more entertaining anyway.*
With the deafening cheers of Black Tortoise Mountain echoing across the volcanic sky and the two hegemons locked in a fierce, unresolved deadlock, the Annihilation Analysis Gathering reached the absolute peak of its continental tension.
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