Yang Che stood on the Snow Crane's back, seeing many Spirit Birds flying in the distance.
These Spirit Birds carried a large number of Storage Pouches on their backs, and their flight direction seemed to be the same as the Snow Crane beneath him.
Yang Che knew that there were many Ore mines like Pinglu Peak, and the Ore produced at different mines also varied.
After the Ore was refined and purified, it would be loaded into Storage Pouches and transported by these Spirit Birds to the ‘Sword Forging Pavilion’.
He looked at the Storage Pouches filled with refined and purified Ore, his eyes burning with eagerness.
...
The Snow Crane was very fast, and after half an hour, it landed on an enormous Azure Stone Plaza.
Yang Che leaped off the Snow Crane's back, and as soon as his feet touched the plaza's azure stones, he felt a scorching heat emanating from beneath them.
The Utility Disciple who led him there took out a Talisman and activated it; the Talisman glowed faintly, and a passage appeared out of thin air before them.
Two Qi Refining tenth-level Utility Disciples guarded the entrance of the passage.
“Junior Brother Yang, you can go with these two Senior Brothers.”
The Utility Disciple who led him there said expressionlessly, then leaped onto the Snow Crane's back and returned to Pinglu Peak.
Yang Che walked to the passage entrance. After these two Qi Refining tenth-level Utility Disciples checked his Disciple token, they led him into the passage.
Upon entering, Yang Che found it was a long stone staircase leading underground.
The further down he went, the higher the temperature became.
Before long, Yang Che heard various hammering sounds, like ‘ping-ping-pang-pang’ and ‘ding-ding-dang-dang’, coming from below.
When he reached the last step, an incredibly vast, fiery red underground world appeared before Yang Che's eyes.
Countless busy Utility Disciples were orderly divided into several groups.
Some Disciples were meticulously stacking the refined Ore piece by piece into the glowing red smelting pools.
Other Disciples were diverting the molten metal slurry and pouring it into various sword-shaped molds.
And still other Disciples were continuously hammering the already forged red sword blanks, then quenching them in water to cool them, performing the true ‘Sword Washing’.
Among these people, there were clearly dozens of transcendent elderly individuals, adding special Materials to the already washed sword blanks and using ground fire for the final refining.
These dozens of elderly individuals were undoubtedly the ‘Sword Forgemasters’ of the Qing Jian Sect.
The Qi Refining tenth-level Utility Disciple led Yang Che to a tall, burly, plump young man at Qi Refining twelfth-level and said, “Senior Brother Wei, this is a new Disciple named Yang Che, assigned to the Sword Washing Pond.”
The burly, plump young man had a stern expression; despite his physique, his facial features were very handsome, making him a strikingly handsome large man.
Upon hearing the words ‘Senior Brother Wei’, Yang Che immediately guessed that this person was likely Wei Yuhang, the leading Disciple of the Sword Washing Pond.
In the Qing Jian Sect, without special talent or background, all outer peak Disciples at Qi Refining fourth-level and below were Utility Disciples.
Qi Refining fifth-level to eighth-level were ordinary Disciples.
Qi Refining ninth-level to eleventh-level were Utility Disciples.
Qi Refining twelfth-level were leading Disciples.
Wei Yuhang's face was expressionless, appearing somewhat aloof.
He said to Yang Che, “Since you've just arrived, you'll start by sorting Ore.”
Yang Che was delighted, immediately nodded in agreement, and quickly joined the team that was stacking Ore into the smelting pools.
His original goal was to gradually shed his Utility Disciple status, and once he recovered to Qi Refining eleventh-level and Broke Through to Qi Refining twelfth-level, he would go to the ‘Mist Hidden Sea’ to continue his treasure hunt.
However, after gaining new insights into the «Heaven and Earth Chaos Art» and being able to purify and absorb Ore essence with the help of the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, Yang Che resolved not to miss this excellent opportunity to strengthen his Physical Body.
He had decided to use this opportunity to sort Ore, carefully and discreetly absorbing a portion of the Ore essence to strengthen his Physical Body.
...
One month later.
Yang Che clearly felt that his Physical Body, having integrated these metal essences, had become incredibly tough to a degree even he didn't know.
He became addicted, eventually increasing the absorption of the essence within.
Unfortunately, in the second month, he was assigned to pour liquid into the sword-shaped molds.
As a result, Yang Che lost the opportunity to continue absorbing Ore essence to strengthen his Physical Body.
However, he could observe the skills of these ‘Sword Forgemasters’ more closely.
Yang Che was also very interested in this, meticulously observing the steps and actions of these Sword Forgemasters almost every day.
Another two months passed, and Yang Che recovered his Qi Refining fourth-level Cultivation.
In the small underground stone room.
Yang Che held the «Heaven and Earth Chaos Art», sometimes frowning, sometimes smiling, sometimes surprised, and sometimes calm.
He increasingly felt that this Chaos Art was incredibly profound; the same words seemed to yield different insights each time he reread them.
After a long while.
Yang Che put away the Chaos Art and couldn't help but think of his former Immortal Cave in Wulong Valley, the Tongyou Cave.
What concerned him most, of course, was that Spiritual Soil, the Spirit Eye Tree sapling, and the Immortal Plant nine-leaf dark yang fruit.
Whenever he thought of this, he couldn't help but feel anxious.
He wanted to Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, but it seemed far off, and there was still no news of the legendary ‘Heavenly Grace’.
Also, Yang Che had not forgotten the revenge for Liu Hanyan's pursuit and framing in Wulong Valley for a moment.
His mind was filled with chaotic thoughts, causing him to smile bitterly.
On the path of Cultivation, achieving immortality was simply not something that could be leisurely accomplished by planting Spiritual Plants and raising Spirit Birds.
Recalling his thoughts, Yang Che then took out the items he had obtained from Xu Yong and Zhao Ji's Storage Pouches.
He naturally reclaimed his own Spirit Stones, and not only that, he also took most of the Spirit Stones from the two men's Storage Pouches.
Now Yang Che had over a thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones again.
He also took most of the valuable items from the two men's Storage Pouches.
Among them, Xu Yong's Storage Pouch contained a special Talisman that looked somewhat familiar to him.
However, he always adhered to his cautious habits, so after quickly putting it into his Storage Pouch at the time, he did not rashly take it out again.
Now, several months later, Yang Che carefully took it out and observed it closely in his hand.
The reason this Talisman was special was that it immediately reminded Yang Che of the life-saving Talisman that Wen Xingyao had taken out in the ‘Hanging Waterfall Medicine Garden’ to deal with the person who performed Possession on Wang Yue.
“That's right, it's a Talisman Treasure!”
Yang Che carefully and thoroughly examined the Talisman Treasure in his hand.
He saw a golden seal engraved upon it, lifelike, as if it could leap out of the Talisman paper at any moment.
The power of Wen Xingyao's Talisman Treasure, which summoned a giant Fire Spirit Bird, remained vivid in Yang Che's memory to this day.
So, after repeated confirmation that this special Talisman in his hand was indeed a Talisman Treasure, Yang Che was naturally overjoyed.
Putting away this ‘Talisman Treasure’, Yang Che checked the other items, found them to be ordinary, and thus lost much interest.
Yang Che continued to Cultivate for another half an hour, then quickly walked out of the stone room and arrived at the smelting pool.
“Oh? Junior Brother Yang, you've reached Qi Refining fourth-level?”
The leading Disciple Wei Yuhang walked over, noticing Yang Che's Cultivation improvement.
“Senior Brother Wei, I was just lucky enough to have a Breakthrough,” Yang Che said, cupping his hands in salute.
Over the past few months, Yang Che had found that although Wei Yuhang was usually somewhat aloof and rigid in his actions, his conduct showed him to be a righteous and fair person.
Moreover, recalling what Xu Yong and Zhao Ji had said earlier, he vaguely deduced that the two of them might have tried to collude with Senior Brother Wei, but Senior Brother Wei had refused them.
Wei Yuhang said, “Junior Brother Yang, since you have reached Qi Refining fourth-level, you can now transfer to hammering sword blanks and quenching them.”
Yang Che was delighted and thanked him with cupped hands.
This way, Yang Che would become even more familiar with the process and steps of sword forging.
Another half month passed.
Just as Yang Che's interest in sword forging grew stronger, one day, news suddenly came from Pinglu Peak, asking him to go there.
Yang Che's heart tightened, wondering if someone had truly managed to discover that he was responsible for the deaths of Xu Yong and the other man?
However, he quickly shook his head firmly.
He believed that this time he had left no flaws.
Besides the day he eliminated Xu Yong and Zhao Ji, he had never used the Flying Fire Needles in front of anyone.