A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Sword-Forging Servant and Ascending to Immorta

Zhou Lingxuan's hand stopped at the very edge of the tool rack.

There was actually nothing there, just a shadow.

But with an extremely natural flick of his wrist, the small purple jade hammer appeared silently in his palm.

To outsiders, it looked like he had just pulled a dusty little hammer from the corner of the shelf.

Xue Yi had been full of anticipation, thinking the old man was going to pull out some secret weapon. But when she took a closer look, she almost laughed out of anger.

"What are you doing with a walnut-cracking hammer?"

Xue Yi pointed to the small purple jade hammer, which was only the size of a palm, and raised her voice by eight octaves.

"That piece of red copper must weigh at least several dozen pounds. Are you going to use this thing to scratch an itch on it?"

Zhou Lingxuan ignored her.

He carried the small purple jade hammer and slowly walked back to the anvil.

The dark red copper lay quietly on the anvil, its surface temperature having dropped considerably.

Zhou Lingxuan took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the pure sword intent drawn from the sword-testing stone suddenly trembled.

Immediately afterwards, an extremely domineering force flowed through his meridians and poured into the purple jade hammer without reservation.

A faint purple light flashed across the surface of the hammer.

"Watch closely," Zhou Lingxuan uttered three words.

He raised his arm, aimed at the red copper on the anvil, and smashed it down with the hammer.

Xue Yi instinctively covered her ears, bracing herself for the deafening sound of hammering.

However, the expected metallic clanging sound did not occur.

Zhou Lingxuan's hammer stopped abruptly three inches from the surface of the red copper.

"What are you doing? Did your hand cramp?" Xue Yi was stunned for a moment, about to speak sarcastically.

"Buzz—"

A deep, muffled thud suddenly erupted from inside the copper!

Xue Yi felt the ground beneath her feet shake. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she stared intently at the anvil.

The copper, which had not been melted by the high temperature, suddenly developed a strange ripple on its surface.

Immediately afterwards, accompanied by a series of fine cracking sounds, countless cracks, finer than a hair, appeared on the hard copper shell.

Zhou Lingxuan flicked his wrist, and the purple jade hammer slammed down again from a distance.

The second blow!

"puff!"

A stream of black powder shot out directly from the gaps in the copper and landed heavily on the anvil.

Xue Yi froze completely.

She stared blankly at the black powder, her mind a complete blank.

That's Fire Poison Sand.

The accompanying impurities of red copper are fire poison sands that can only be barely removed by boiling them with top-grade spiritual fire for ten to fifteen days.

Now, he's been shaken out of nowhere by a single hammer blow?

They haven't even lit a fire?

"This...how is this possible?"

Xue Yi stammered, rubbing her eyes hard, wondering if she was hallucinating from the repeated explosions.

Old Qin, who was sitting in the corner, dropped the sunflower seeds he had just peeled onto the ground.

His cloudy old eyes suddenly flashed with a sharp light as he stared intently at the small purple jade hammer in Zhou Lingxuan's hand.

Xue Yi couldn't see through the trick, but he was a Golden Core cultivator!

The moment that hammer slammed down, he clearly felt an extremely sharp sword intent!

This old fellow imbued the hammer with sword intent, using it as an invisible carving knife to pierce directly into the red copper.

Using the vibration of sword intent, the fire poison sand was forcibly peeled off from the texture of the red copper.

Old Qin gasped.

What level of abnormal control must one have over sword intent to achieve such precise and meticulous operation? The slightest carelessness would have shredded the entire piece of red copper into dust!

"monster……"

Old Qin cursed inwardly, then silently bent down, picked up the sunflower seeds from the ground, blew on them, and put them in his mouth to calm his nerves.

Zhou Lingxuan continued his work beside the anvil.

He swung the small purple jade hammer repeatedly.

The third strike.

The fourth strike.

The fifth strike.

Each hammer blow, though not actually touching the copper, would cause a stream of black, fiery sand to erupt from within.

The tempering technique of the Heavenly Hammer, combined with the penetrating power of pure sword intent, is simply a perfect cheat code to eliminate impurities.

In less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, a small mountain of black powder had already piled up on the anvil.

The original dark red copper had now turned into an extremely pure bright red, with a faint spiritual light flowing across its surface.

Zhou Lingxuan put away the small hammer and picked up a rag to wipe his hands.

"The copper is processed." He turned to Xue Yi. "Do you still think the material is wasted?"

Xue Yi suddenly came to her senses.

She rushed to the anvil, not even caring about the heat, and reached out to touch the piece of reddish copper.

It feels warm to the touch, and the flow of spiritual energy is incredibly smooth.

perfect!

This was absolutely the highest quality red copper she had ever seen. Even the copper refined by the elders of the Weapon Hall might not be as pure!

"How...how did you do that?"

Xue Yi looked up and stared at Zhou Lingxuan as if he were a monster.

"Without using spirit fire or any formations, you forced out all the fire poison sand with just a few taps from a distance? What kind of evil magic is this?"

"These are family-inherited skills, and we never pass them on to outsiders," Zhou Lingxuan casually made up.

He turned and walked to the pile of broken iron pieces.

The problem with cold iron is that it has internal cracks and cavities, and it will crack if it is heated unevenly.

Zhou Lingxuan followed the same method.

The small purple jade hammer struck the air more than a dozen times.

The sword intent penetrated the body, and combined with the reorganizing power of the tempering technique, it forcefully solidified the cavities inside the cold iron, completely smoothing out the dark cracks.

Under the intense pressure of the sword intent, the two broken pieces of cold iron miraculously fused together again, transforming into a single, perfect spiritual material radiating a bone-chilling cold aura.

Xue Yi was numb.

She now felt that she wouldn't be surprised if Zhou Lingxuan turned this piece of cold iron into a hen that could lay eggs on the spot.

"Alright, the materials are all set." Zhou Lingxuan threw the processed red copper and cold iron back into the earth fire furnace.

This time, without the obstruction of impurities, the two spiritual materials quickly began to soften under the scorching of ordinary earth fire, gradually merging into a mass of red and white metallic liquid.

Zhou Lingxuan replaced it with a normal-sized iron hammer.

The real forging has only just begun.

He gripped the hammer with both hands, his eyes instantly becoming focused.

"clang!"

Sparks flew as the first hammer blow landed.

Zhou Lingxuan's movements were extremely rhythmic. He didn't use any fancy forging techniques; it was just pure blacksmithing.

But in Qin Lao's eyes, each strike of the hammer contained some profound sword principle.

Chop, flick, intercept, stab.

Zhou Lingxuan perfectly integrated basic sword techniques into the forging process.

In his hands, the hammer seemed to transform into a heavy sword. Each strike removed the last trace of impurities from the molten metal, while simultaneously forcibly injecting the surrounding spiritual energy into the material.

Xue Yi stood to the side, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Although she didn't understand weapon crafting, she could see that the originally rough molten metal was being transformed into the prototype of a pill furnace at a visible speed under Zhou Lingxuan's hammer.

The furnace wall is smooth and flat, with three legs standing upright, and the flowing cloud patterns are naturally formed under the hammering.

too fast.

That's too stable.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Zhou Lingxuan's forehead, but the hammer in his hand did not stop for a moment.

The forging process has reached its most crucial stage.

The fusion of the furnace bottom and the inner wall.

This is the area on the drawing that's prone to leaving blind spots and flaws.

Zhou Lingxuan took a deep breath and summoned the Purple Jade Hammer again, preparing to use the "Hitting a Cow Across a Mountain" technique he had developed the night before.

Just then.

In the overgrown weeds surrounding the abandoned hall, a pair of cold eyes were fixed on the firelight in the courtyard.

Zhao Feng lay crouching behind the pile of waste, clutching a talisman that glowed with an eerie red light tightly in his hand.

He was Zhang Qian's confidant.

Half an hour ago, Zhang Qian received news that Xue Yi had taken the materials to the abandoned hall to find the old handyman named Zhou Lingxuan's alchemy furnace.

Zhang Qian laughed on the spot.

He was just looking for an opportunity to kill this old bastard who had made him lose face.

"Go, bury this 'Exploding Flame Talisman' on the ley line node of the ruined hall." Zhang Qian tossed the talisman to Zhao Feng, his eyes filled with malice. "As soon as the earth fire goes out of control, that old bastard's furnace that's currently refining weapons will explode. At that time, Xue Yi's materials will be completely destroyed, and that old bastard will also be burned to ashes by the raging earth fire."

"Without anyone noticing."

Zhao Feng snapped out of his thoughts, glanced at Zhou Lingxuan who was intently forging iron in the courtyard, and a sinister smile crept onto his lips.

"Old man, in your next life, remember not to mess with the wrong people."

He slammed the Explosive Flame Talisman in his hand into the soil beneath him, simultaneously channeling a surge of spiritual energy into it.

"Buzz!"

The talisman instantly transformed into a beam of red light and burrowed into the ground.

yard.

Zhou Lingxuan had just raised his purple jade hammer.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet shook violently.

An extremely frenzied and scorching aura surged wildly upwards through the underground pipes.

"What happened?" Xue Yi exclaimed, almost losing her balance.

Old Qin's expression changed drastically, and he abruptly stood up: "The earth's veins have been tampered with! The subterranean fire is out of control!"

Before he could finish speaking...

"boom!"

A deafening roar.

At the fire valve, the originally dark blue flames instantly turned into an extremely violent blackish-red!

A pillar of fire shot into the sky, engulfing the entire forging platform.