My CEO Bai Fumei’s wife

Tie Wuhen's laughter stopped.

Although he couldn't see what was happening inside the secret chamber through the two arrays and three layers of restrictions, he could sense the changes in the Chaos Furnace's aura—the furnace had been activated, and activated in a way that recognized its master.

"impossible."

The two words squeezed out of his mouth, each one sounding like it had been hammered out of his throat. He had spent fifty years cultivating in order to subdue the Chaos Furnace, scouring all the books in the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, and trying one hundred and thirty-seven different refining techniques, but none of them could get the furnace spirit to give in. The closest he ever came was when he burned three fingers in the furnace fire before the furnace spirit said, "Almost there."

A thief who broke in accomplished in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn what he couldn't do in fifty years.

"How did he activate the Chaos Forge?"

An old man following behind Tie Wuhen spoke up. He was the third elder of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, with a mid-Nascent Soul cultivation level and two hundred years of experience in weapon crafting.

"The conditions for the Chaos Refining Furnace to recognize its master are extremely harsh. The first Pavilion Master spent his entire life trying to find the answer, but this Blood Fiend is just a self-taught cultivator in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. What makes him so special?"

"Because I possess something that you could never forge in your entire lives."

Qin Yu's voice came from the secret chamber, passing through three layers of restrictions and two arrays, and clearly reached everyone's ears. The resonance of the chaotic furnace fire gave these words a weight that no weapon refiner could ignore.

Tie Wuhen took three steps toward the secret chamber, then stopped, not out of hesitation, but because the ground beneath his feet was burning hot.

The heat from the chaotic furnace fire seeped out of the sealed room, penetrating through three layers of restrictions.

The three layers of restrictions were personally set up by the Pavilion Master as a Nascent Soul level protection. The fact that the heat of the Chaos Furnace Fire could penetrate through them indicates that the furnace's output has exceeded the level when it was sealed.

"He really is using the Chaos Furnace Fire to forge weapons."

There was something in Tie Wuhen's voice that he himself couldn't suppress—not fear, but jealousy, pure and naked jealousy.

His greatest obsession in life was the Chaos Refining Furnace. For it, he gave up the opportunity to break through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm and devoted all his time and energy to researching the conditions for recognizing a master. After fifty years, all he got was that the furnace spirit didn't even give him a second glance.

"Senior Brother, should we inform the Pavilion Master?"

The Third Elder's words made Tie Wuhen pause again. Notifying the Pavilion Master meant admitting that he couldn't solve the problem. Given his status and reputation in the Heavenly Craft Pavilion, this was worse than death for him.

"No need, I will handle it myself."

He took something out of his storage ring: a grayish-white hammer with runes similar to those on the Chaos Furnace, but with a rougher pattern.

"The first Pavilion Master forged the Suppression Hammer from fragments of the Chaos Furnace. It was specifically used to seal the Furnace Spirit. Back then, the Furnace Spirit was knocked unconscious by this hammer before being imprisoned in the forbidden area."

"Even if the furnace spirit recognizes its master, it's useless once the Suppression Hammer is unleashed. I'll knock it unconscious first."

Tie Wuhen took a step forward, hammer in hand. The three layers of restrictions opened one by one in front of his array token. As the sect leader's closed-door disciple, his access to the forbidden area was second only to the sect leader himself.

The door to the secret room was open in front of him.

The scene that Tie Wuhen saw made him freeze on the threshold.

Qin Yu sat cross-legged in the center of the secret chamber, with the Chaos Furnace floating in front of him. The furnace was wide open, and the dark golden flames turned the entire secret chamber into a furnace. The armor plates of the Purple Sun Divine Armor rolled in the furnace fire, and the originally rough Yi wood joints were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. The patterns that appeared on the surface of the armor plates were ten times more refined than before.

But what truly pinned Tie Wuhen down with his footsteps was not these things.

It's Qin Yu's left hand.

The hand was inside the furnace, the chaotic furnace fire enveloping his palm, the flames flowing over his skin, but without any burn marks.

The first generation pavilion master, in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, reached in and was burned to a crisp; Tie Wuhen, in the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, couldn't even touch the edge of the furnace.

A cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage put his hand into the Chaos Furnace Fire as if soaking in a hot spring.

"You are the third person to say it's impossible to me. The first two were either killed by me or had all their teeth knocked out by me."

Qin Yu withdrew his hand from the furnace, his palm holding a newly forged armor plate. Its color had changed from dark gold to purple jade, and the wood grain on its surface was no longer a rough vine pattern but a fine, network-like structure resembling blood vessels. "Something that even the seventh generation of your Heavenly Craft Pavilion masters couldn't handle, I, this young master, recognized as my master in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. You think you can knock it out with a broken hammer?"

The armor plate automatically unfolded and covered his left arm as soon as it was attached to his body. The wood pattern perfectly matched his meridians, and the flow of spiritual energy was three times faster than before.

"Take a look at it when you knock it."

Tie Wuhen gripped the Suppression Hammer tightly. The runes on the hammer were glowing, but he discovered a fact that filled him with despair—the Chaos Furnace was floating in front of Qin Yu. The runes on the furnace were resonating with the spiritual power within Qin Yu's body. With each resonance, Qin Yu's aura grew stronger, and his foundation as a Nascent Soul cultivator was being tempered by the Chaos Furnace Fire, as if it had taken root and was growing deeper.

"He is using the Chaos Furnace Fire to temper his Nascent Soul."

The Third Elder's voice came from behind Tie Wuhen. Although his cultivation was not as high as Tie Wuhen's, his eyesight was sharp.

"The Chaos Furnace Fire can fuse all things. He also used the Nascent Soul as a material in the furnace to refine it. He dispersed all the five elements of spiritual power and then recombined them. I have only read about this kind of operation in ancient fragments in the past two hundred years."

Tie Wuhen's lips twitched. For the past fifty years, he had dreamed of refining his Nascent Soul with the Chaos Furnace Fire. Now, he was watching someone two major realms weaker than him doing it, and the Furnace Spirit was not only not resisting but was actively cooperating.

"Get out of my way."

When Tie Wuhen said this to Qin Yu, he had already raised the hammer. He didn't care anymore; he would rather smash the Chaos Furnace than let an outsider take it away.

“This belongs to me, to the Heavenly Craft Pavilion. You are not qualified to sit here.”

"Your things."

The one who answered him was not Qin Yu, but the spirit of the Chaos Refining Furnace, who let out a cold laugh from the furnace.

"Tie Wuhen, you've been dangling in front of me for fifty years, and I'm too lazy to even remember your name. What right do you have to say that I belong to you?"

These words pierced Tie Wuhen's heart like a knife. For fifty years, he had been reporting to the forbidden area every day, delivering spirit stones, materials, and his hard work. The furnace spirit said it was too lazy to even remember his name.

"Whether you acknowledge him or not, I must take you away today."

The hammer of suppression slammed down, and the special properties of the seal rushed straight towards the Chaos Furnace Spirit.

Qin Yu didn't use a sword or a bow. Instead, he pulled out a piece of freshly forged armor from the furnace and used it to block the hammer blow.

The hammer of suppression struck the armor plate with a muffled thud that made the entire forbidden area tremble.

The armor plate didn't break.

Tie Wuhen's arm went numb from the recoil, and a bloody gash appeared on his hand, with blood flowing down the hammer handle.

"Your hammer was made from fragments of the Chaos Forge, while my armor was forged by the Chaos Forge fire itself. Do you think fragments can defeat the original body?"

Tie Wuhen's face was completely distorted. The Suppression Hammer was his trump card, which he had spent thirty years digging out of the scrap yard and repairing. He firmly believed that with this hammer, he could take the initiative in front of the Chaos Furnace.

A replica made from fragments is nothing but dust compared to the original.

"Senior Brother, let's retreat."

The Third Elder's voice was low. His cultivation was not as high as Tie Wuhen's, but he had lived longer and could see clearly.

"The Chaos Furnace has already recognized its master. Continuing to fight will only force the furnace spirit to launch a full-scale counterattack, which will destroy the entire forbidden area."

"retreat."

Tie Wuhen chewed the word until it was broken and spat it out.

"Why should I step down? I've spent fifty years in this position. Why should I hand over my fifty years of hard work to some unknown nobody?" (End of Chapter)