Inside the Ashen Crucible, the heat of the subterranean fire vein never faded.
Beyond the roaring central hearth, the pocket dimension opened into a wide sparring ground made of dark, volcanic basalt. Giant crags of scorched granite and dark-iron rock rose from the perimeter like jagged teeth, naturally hardened by centuries of intense geothermal pressure.
Fang Lin stood in the center of the dark stone ring, his upper body bare, his breathing slow and steady.
In his right hand rested **Ashen Glaze**.
The seven-foot-two spear was breathtaking to behold. Its shaft was forged from a translucent, smoky-grey crystalline glaze that revealed glowing veins of deep crimson and star-silver deep within. The spearhead was shaped like a sharp, diamond-angled leaf, with zero reflection on its cold edges.
Fang Lin tightened his fingers around the shaft.
To his own grip, the spear felt as light as a dried reed. The soul-bound resonance forged between the weapon and his spiritual sea eliminated all personal weight.
Yet, as Fang Lin took a single step forward and swept the spear in a wide horizontal arc—
*WHOOOOOSH——!*
A terrifying gust of compressed air screamed across the training grounds.
The swing created a gale so violent that three heavy granite boulders forty paces away were instantly cleaved in half by the sheer wind pressure, tumbling down the basalt floor with thunderous crashes.
"Tsk, tsk."
A small plume of black smoke drifted over. The Dark Flame Spirit floated cross-legged in the air, casually nibbling on a ball of golden magma fire like a piece of fruit.
"Look at you, swinging a spear like a clumsy woodcutter," the spirit taunted, rolling her fiery eyes. "You spent five precious materials on that thing, and you're using it to make a breeze? Give it some real food!"
Fang Lin smiled faintly. "Then let's feed it."
He shifted his stance, leveling the spear toward a thirty-foot wall of dense, cooled lava-stone.
*Thump!*
Fang Lin kicked off the basalt floor, his *Asura Flesh* exploding with terrifying physical power. He closed the distance in a fraction of an instant and drove the spearhead straight into the rock face.
*BOOM!*
The impact was brutal. Thousands of pounds of raw physical force surged through the strike. But instead of pushing back against Fang Lin's arms or causing the crystalline glaze to shudder, something incredible occurred.
The smoky-crystal shaft flared with brilliant vermilion light.
*Thermal-Kinetic Storage.*
The violent kinetic shockwave of the strike, along with the scorching heat radiating from the surrounding magma veins, was completely swallowed by the spear's internal lattice. The weapon drank the kinetic impact like water, storing the entire force inside its crystalline core without losing a single drop of energy.
The harder he struck, the more energy the spear stored.
"Release," Fang Lin whispered.
*KABOOM!*
With a subtle flick of his wrist, Fang Lin triggered the stored energy.
A blinding eruption of crimson and star-silver force detonated directly from the spearhead. The thirty-foot wall of lava-stone was blown to dust in a single heartbeat, leaving behind a clean, melted crater surrounded by glowing embers.
Fang Lin stood completely still. His arms were steady, having suffered zero recoil from the massive explosion.
"Not bad," the Dark Flame Spirit admitted grudgingly, floating closer and tossing her leftover fire ball into her mouth. "The storage is clean. But physical force is child's play. What about your real technique?"
"Let's see," Fang Lin said quietly.
His eyes sharpened. The playful atmosphere vanished in an instant.
Deep inside his Dantian, the four flawless cores—Frost, Life, Death, and Dark Flame—locked into synchronized centrifugal rotation. The *Four-Pillared Cosmic Cycle* roared to life.
A dense, silver-grey stream of *Four-Pillared Cosmic Force* rose through his meridians. At the same time, Fang Lin drew upon the unyielding power of his *Peak Mortal Will*, imbuing the primordial grey force with the terrifying, conceptual authority of his *Eradication intent*.
He raised Ashen Glaze and channeled the *Ashen Heaven Sutra*.
*HUMMMMM——!*
The internal meridian pathways etched inside the spear lit up.
The smoky crystalline shaft turned into a brilliant pillar of starlight and dark flame. The diamond leaf blade at the tip vanished beneath a layer of silent, silver-grey light. The space within ten feet of the spearhead began to visibly fold and twist, as if reality itself could not endure the presence of conceptual erasure.
Across the field stood an ancient basalt pillar, three hundred feet thick and solid to the core.
Fang Lin stepped forward and thrust with absolute precision.
*Forbidden Skill: Divine Glaze Spear!*
There was no deafening roar. There was no explosion.
A single, razor-thin beam of silver-grey light flashed across the training ground.
*ZIP.*
The light pierced straight through the center of the three-hundred-foot basalt pillar and vanished into the crimson mist beyond.
For a full breath, nothing happened.
Then, a faint breeze drifted through the Crucible. A perfectly round, smooth hole—three inches wide—appeared straight through the heart of the colossal stone pillar. The walls of the tunnel were as smooth and polished as liquid glass. Every particle of rock along the beam's path had not been crushed or burned—it had simply been erased from existence.
Fang Lin lowered the spear. The weapon hummed with cool perfection, its crystalline structure completely unmarred by the immense cosmic force.
"Incredible," Fang Lin murmured.
In the air nearby, the Dark Flame Spirit's jaw hung wide open. The little fire spirit froze mid-chew, coughing out a puff of black ash.
"You... you really pulled it off," she stammered, staring wide-eyed at the erased tunnel. "A core-formation mortal piercing matter with conceptual eradication without blowing his own arms off..."
She quickly caught herself, puffing out her tiny chest and crossing her arms with a loud huff.
"Hmph! Well, it's passable! Barely one percent of my peak glory! Don't let it go to your head, Loud-Boy!"
Fang Lin let out a low chuckle. "We still have one more test."
He walked to the center of the training grounds, surrounded by clusters of dense granite boulders and iron-slate crags.
He raised Ashen Glaze high above his head, then drove the butt of the spear straight into the basalt floor with sovereign authority.
*Innate Skill: Ashen Domain Implosion!*
*CRACK!*
A brilliant, fifty-foot ring of fiery glaze exploded outward from the spear, scorching the surrounding ground in a circle of molten light.
Enemy cultivators would instinctively brace for an outward shockwave. But in the next split second, the rules of destruction inverted.
*VOOOOOOM——!*
Instead of blasting outward, the entire fifty-foot ring violently snapped and collapsed inward!
A terrifying gravitational and destructive vortex formed at the spearhead. The surrounding granite boulders, iron-slate crags, and residual fire were ruthlessly dragged toward the center with inescapable pulling force.
*CRUNCH!*
Inside the collapsing vortex, the matter was crushed, burned, and ground into microscopic ash within two breaths. When the vortex dissipated, the entire fifty-foot circle was completely bare, swept clean as if nothing had ever stood there.
Fang Lin stood in the center of the cleared ring, holding Ashen Glaze in his grip. The spear radiated a calm, profound resonance, fully synchronized with his soul and body.
The first month of his seclusion was complete.
With Ashen Glaze perfected, Fang Lin closed his eyes and sat down upon the basalt floor, turning his full focus toward cultivating the *Four-Pillared Cosmic Force* and preparing for his public advancement.
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