The upper reaches of Sacred Flame Peak were wrapped in thick clouds of sulfur and heat. Unlike the lower mountains where thousands of disciples crowded into noisy smelting halls, the air here was thin, heavy, and quiet. Only the low, rhythmic rumble of the volcano echoed from the deep earth.
Walking along the wide basalt path that wound up the volcano's crest were three figures.
At the front strode Elder Huo. He walked with his chest puffed out so far his crimson-and-black robes strained against his shoulders. Every time a patrolling deacon or an inner sect elder passed by, Elder Huo would loudly clear his throat, deliberately slowing his pace to give them ample time to salute.
"Greetings, Elder Huo! Greetings, Master Mu!"
The patrolling deacons stopped instantly, bowing a full ninety degrees at the side of the road, their eyes filled with genuine reverence.
Elder Huo waved his massive, calloused hand with sovereign magnanimity. "At ease, at ease! Just escorting our division's newest Rank Three Master Smith to his private mountain! Carry on with your duties!"
Beside Fang Lin, Senior Brother Ma Teng was grinning so hard his face looked ready to cramp.
"Look at him," Ma Teng whispered, leaning toward Fang Lin with a chuckle. "The old man hasn't stopped grinning like an idiot for three days straight. If the Sect Master gave him a banner, he'd probably hang it from the main gate of Scarlet Sun Palace just to watch Grand Elder Yan Lie choke on his own beard."
Fang Lin offered a faint, polite smile beneath his plain disciple collar. "Master Huo is in high spirits."
"High spirits? That's an understatement, Brother Mu," Ma Teng laughed, shaking his head with fond disbelief. "I still remember nearly eight years ago when you first stumbled into Smelting Hall Number Seven with soot on your nose, swinging a heavy hammer at Crushing Station Four. You shovelled slag, ate cold buns, and barely said five words a day. And now? You're a continental Master Smith with a peak of your own!"
Ma Teng sighed, patting his own stomach with mock sorrow. "Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get my third-order spirit iron to stop cracking during quenching. The heavens are truly unfair."
"Senior Brother's foundational hammer technique is solid," Fang Lin said mildly. "You will cross the threshold soon."
"Don't flatter me, you monster," Ma Teng grunted playfully. "Just make sure that when you become a Grand Domain Smith, you forge me a warhammer heavy enough to crush a mountain."
"Hey! You two slackers, stop whispering like old women and hurry up!" Elder Huo roared from ahead, gesturing grandly toward the summit. "Behold!"
The path ended before a colossal stone archway carved directly into the dark granite ridge. Beyond the archway lay an immense, circular volcanic caldera that stretched for nearly two leagues—**Caldera Peak Nine**.
Rising from the center of the entrance was a smooth, rectangular stone control altar inscribed with dense, interlocking defensive runes.
"Here it is," Elder Huo said, his booming voice softening with genuine paternal warmth. He turned toward Fang Lin, his sharp eyes shining with undisguised pride. "Caldera Peak Nine. Tapped directly into the third main artery of the planetary core magma. It has an unbroken geothermal flow, zero inspection quotas, and its own Ninth-Order Grand Warding Array. From today onward, this mountain belongs solely to you, Mu Tie."
Elder Huo pointed to the stone control altar. "Drop your blood and your Master Smith token into the core altar. Seal the gates."
Fang Lin stepped forward. He retrieved his dark-iron Master Smith token—carved with the four-clawed black tortoise and nine interlocking hammers—and placed it into the central recess of the altar, letting a tiny drop of blood seep into the stone.
*HUMMMMM——!*
The entire caldera vibrated with a deep, resonant hum.
From the outer perimeter of the two-league crater, nine towering stone pillars of dark basalt ignited with brilliant amber-and-black light. Giant beams of protective Qi shot straight into the volcanic sky, intertwining to form a dense, dome-shaped barrier that completely enveloped the mountain.
The air within the caldera instantly settled into absolute stillness. The noise of the outer sect vanished, and all external flight paths and sensory probes were cleanly cut off. The Ninth-Order Grand Warding Array had fully locked down the peak.
"Good!" Elder Huo nodded in satisfaction, slapping Fang Lin's shoulder with enough force to shatter ordinary granite. "The array is bound to your life-force. Even if the Sect Master wants to visit, he has to knock on the front door first. Now, go inside. Take all the time you need. If any old bastard tries to bother you for custom commissions before you're ready, tell them to talk to my warhammer first!"
"Thank you, Master," Fang Lin said, bowing deeply with sincere respect. "Thank you, Senior Brother Ma."
"Go on, genius," Ma Teng grinned, waving as he stepped back outside the barrier archway. "Show those foreign grandmasters what the Ironblood Faction can really forge."
With a final wave, Elder Huo and Ma Teng turned and descended the mountain ridge.
Fang Lin stood at the threshold for a few moments, watching their figures disappear down the rocky path. Then, with a casual wave of his sleeve, the grand stone entrance sealed shut behind him with a heavy, final *thud*.
***
Fang Lin turned and walked down the wide basalt steps into the heart of Caldera Peak Nine.
The interior was a breathtaking natural amphitheater. The walls were smooth, glassy black volcanic rock, naturally tempered by thousands of years of extreme heat. In the absolute center of the crater, surrounded by wide terraces of fire-resistant stone, sat a roaring lake of molten, white-hot earth-core magma.
A natural geothermal conduit, over thirty feet wide, bubbled up continuously from the depths of the earth, feeding pure, unfiltered elemental fire into the central forging platform.
The heat was suffocating enough to turn a standard Foundation Establishment cultivator to ash in seconds. But to Fang Lin, whose Asura Flesh had already devoured Earth-Core Magma and attained Greater Mastery, the scorching draft felt pleasantly warm.
*SWOOSH!*
The moment the mountain's defensive array was confirmed to be completely sealed, a burst of dark flame erupted from Fang Lin's glabella.
A tiny, spectral girl made entirely of burning black fire shot out from his spiritual sea, doing three rapid backflips in the air before hovering over the roaring magma lake with wide, glowing eyes.
"Hahahaha! Finally! Real food!"
The Dark Flame Spirit spun in circles, her hands spread wide as she greedily inhaled the thick waves of geothermal energy rising from the conduit. Her dark flames flared with ecstatic brilliance, crackling with sharp, sizzling pops.
"Look at this place, Loud-Boy!" the spirit cackled, her voice echoing playfully off the caldera walls. "An unbroken magma conduit straight from the planet's belly! Those tiny little earth-fire arrays you rented on Peak 74 were embarrassing! They were like sipping warm water from a rusty tea-kettle! This... this is a proper banquet!"
Fang Lin walked to the edge of the central stone altar, his dark robes fluttering in the rising thermal currents. A subtle, dry smirk touched the corner of his lips.
"Do not swallow the entire lake," Fang Lin said mildly. "I need that heat to forge."
"Please! As if I'd fancy a little mountain lava!" The spirit landed lightly on Fang Lin's shoulder, crossing her tiny, flame-wreathed arms and puffing her cheeks. "Besides, you should be thanking me! If you just dump your ores into raw magma, the wild impurities will ruin the metal. Watch and learn, amateur."
With a flick of her tiny wrist, the Dark Flame Spirit sent a ripple of black fire cascading downward into the magma conduit.
The bubbling, chaotic lava suddenly calmed. The erratic red flames condensed into a focused, smooth pillar of pure, white-hot elemental fire that hovered perfectly beneath the central forging platform, stabilized and purified to an impossible degree.
The geothermal conduit was now a precision furnace, tuned to perfection.
Fang Lin's eyes flashed with quiet satisfaction. *Perfect.*
He swept his hand across his spatial ring.
A small, translucent glass marble—the Ashen Crucible—materialized in his palm.
Fang Lin channeled a thread of his Core Force into the marble and tossed it into the air above the central stone altar. It hovered motionless directly above the white-hot pillar of geothermal fire, its microscopic spatial intake arrays drinking in the planetary heat like a parched beast to fuel the vast world within.
Wrapping his Peak Mortal Will around the marble, Fang Lin locked onto its internal coordinates.
The space around him folded inward. A ripple of viscous grey light enveloped his figure, and in the span of a single breath, Fang Lin vanished from the physical caldera. The only thing left behind in the silent, warded cavern was the tiny glass marble, drifting harmlessly above the roaring flame.
Inside the Ashen Crucible, Fang Lin materialized onto the vast obsidian platform. The sprawling, charcoal-and-ember pocket dimension hummed with renewed power as the siphoned geothermal fire flooded its subterranean veins.
Inside the quiet, spacious chamber, Fang Lin swept his hand across his spatial ring once more.
*THUD. CLANG. HUMMM——*
The three supreme treasures he had claimed from the Deep Ancestral Resource Vault materialized before him:
The three-foot-long bar of **Primordial Spatial Shadow-Iron**, its pitch-black surface flickering in and out of the physical plane like an ethereal phantom;
The two dense, crushing blocks of **Nine-Abyss Heavy-Gravity Stone**, so heavy that the spatial floor beneath them bent slightly under their localized gravitational mass;
And the crystal vial of **Starlight Mercury Essence**, glowing with a flowing, silver-blue liquid that shimmered like captured moonlight.
Beside these three sovereign components, Fang Lin also unloaded several dense ingots of ancient starlight metals and extinct beast essences from Ou Yezi's legacy ring, arranging them neatly across the stone workstations.
He stood in the center of the crucible, his gaze resting upon the raw materials.
Until now, he had fought with heavy broadswords, massive hammers, and long swords to conceal his true abilities behind a facade of brute physical force. But those were just tools.
To complement his unique Tetra-Core Foundation, along with his Chaos Phantom Extreme Physique, his *Shadow Breath Technique*, his *Four-Pillared Cosmic Force*, his Nine Nether Phantom Body and his Peak Mortal Will, he needed a true weapon.
A weapon of absolute piercing speed and catastrophic destructive power.
A spear that could channel the *Divine Glaze Spear* forbidden attack and unleash the laws of Fire and Eradication in a single, silent thrust.
Fang Lin took a slow, deep breath. Inside his dantian, the Four-Pointed Astral Star rotated in quiet, terrifying balance.
"Let's get to work, Loud-Boy," the Dark Flame Spirit cheered, her black flames flaring on the anvil. "Don't embarrass me!"
Fang Lin raised his right hand. A heavy Qi hammer condensed in his grip, vibrating with the boundless vitality of his Asura Flesh.
With a calm, steady exhale, he brought the hammer down.
*CLANG!*
The seclusion on Caldera Peak Nine to forge a weapon had officially begun.
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