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

The moment the name was uttered, the air in the sealed room seemed to freeze.

Zhou Lingxuan raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Deputy Hall Master? Since he's already the second-in-command of the Weaponry Hall, why would he take such a huge risk and tamper with military supplies? What's his motive?"

"They're after the resources I have! They're after the position of the next leader!"

Chen Baichuan slammed his hand on the Qingming stone table, making the teaware rattle and clatter.

"The Weaponry Hall has three deputy hall masters. The old hall master is nearing the end of his life and will soon retire. Of the three deputy hall masters, besides an old codger who's just wasting his life, Li Yuan and Zhao Kuo are the only ones openly and secretly vying for power!"

As Chen Baichuan spoke, his anger grew, and the veins on his forehead bulged out.

"That grandson of Li Yuan has been stuck at the mid-Golden Core stage for over thirty years! In terms of cultivation and seniority, he certainly deserves a higher position. But the weapon-forging contracts and connections he holds are no match for Zhao Kuo!"

"A while ago, he approached me privately several times, trying to get me to take his side. I'm just a blacksmith, why should I get involved in their power struggles? I told him to get lost on the spot!"

Chen Baichuan sneered repeatedly, his eyes filled with a terrifyingly sinister glint.

"That bastard is definitely holding a grudge! Since he couldn't win me over, he's trying to ruin me!"

"If I fail to deliver the Frost Shield this time and am severely punished by the sect, or even stripped of my real power, he can use this as an excuse to legitimately seize the resources and connections of my lineage and use them as leverage in his competition for the position of hall master!"

The motivation is there.

They've also gained the strength. As veteran Golden Core cultivators, they certainly have the means to deal with the fire poison.

Zhou Lingxuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

"What about the time? Did he have the spare time to process those three hundred catties of Frost Sound Iron?"

"Yes! Absolutely!"

Chen Baichuan suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the secret room like an enraged bear.

"For the past two weeks, he's turned down all his other duties! He's claimed he's researching a brand new spirit-gathering array pattern, and he's been locking himself in the Class A Earth Fire Chamber every day!"

"He also issued a strict order, forbidding anyone from approaching the underground fire chamber even a step, and even the servants who delivered meals were only allowed to leave their food boxes outside in the courtyard!"

All the clues came together seamlessly at that moment.

"What a fine Li Yuan! What a fine deputy hall master!"

Chen Baichuan laughed in anger, his true energy surging wildly like boiling water.

"I'm risking my life forging weapons up front, and he's digging me out of my life! I'm going to skin him alive and rip out his soul right now, to see just how many guts he has!"

After saying that, Chen Baichuan turned around and rushed out of the secret room.

"stop."

Zhou Lingxuan remained seated, his voice not loud, yet it carried a calming power.

Chen Baichuan turned around abruptly, his eyes bloodshot.

"You're going to stop me?!"

"What pretext will you use to arrest him?" Zhou Lingxuan retorted.

"He destroyed military supplies and murdered his fellow disciples!"

"Where's the evidence?"

Zhou Lingxuan pointed outside.

"I've already cleaned the materials of any fire poison, and the hundred shields were handed over intact. Now you want to rush over and arrest a powerful deputy hall master, accusing him of plotting something nefarious?"

Zhou Lingxuan stood up and patted the hem of his clothes.

"If he turns around and accuses you, Chen Baichuan, of deliberately framing me to eliminate dissidents, what will you have to say in your defense? If it gets to the sect leader, you'll be the one who suffers."

Chen Baichuan choked, his face turning red, his fists clenching so tightly they cracked.

"So I'm just going to swallow this insult?!"

"Catch the thief red-handed."

Zhou Lingxuan walked to the door, his tone calm.

"Since he stayed in the Class A fire chamber for half a month, it's impossible that he didn't leave any trace. Shall we go take a look?"

Chen Baichuan took several deep breaths and forcibly suppressed the rampaging true energy back into his dantian.

"Walk!"

The two left the secret room, avoiding the disciples patrolling the weapon hall at night, and quietly made their way to the backyard.

The Class A Fire Chamber is located at the deepest part of the Artifact Hall, and normally only core figures at the level of elders and deputy hall masters are qualified to use it.

The courtyard was quiet, without even a guard.

Chen Baichuan walked to the heavy stone door, took out his elder token, and pressed it into the groove. The array flickered with a faint light, and the stone door slid open silently, releasing a lingering wave of heat.

The two slipped inside, and the stone door closed behind them again.

The underground fire chamber was extremely spacious, with a bronze furnace about half a person's height standing in the center.

The surrounding shelves were empty, and the floor was spotless, without even a speck of iron filings.

Chen Baichuan looked around, and his face immediately darkened.

"There's nothing there. That bastard is meticulous; he wiped away every trace before he left."

He kicked the prayer mat on the ground in frustration.

What a wasted trip!

Zhou Lingxuan did not respond.

He stood beside the forging furnace and slowly closed his eyes.

Deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, the small purple jade hammer hovered in mid-air, its ancient patterns gleaming faintly.

Previously in the weapon-refining room, this hammer had absorbed a large amount of fire poison, and now it is extremely sensitive to auras of the same origin.

Zhou Lingxuan released his senses.

The air inside the fire chamber was extremely dry, but amidst this dryness, he keenly detected a faint yet intensely piercing heat.

He opened his eyes and, following the direction of his senses, walked straight to the deepest corner of the Earth Fire Chamber.

This is the ventilation opening of the earth's fire vein, and the walls built of bluestone bricks are covered with tiny cracks.

Zhou Lingxuan crouched down, his gaze fixed on one of the cracks.

Seeing this, Chen Baichuan came over.

"What are you looking at? What kind of evidence could be hidden in this crack in the wall?"

Zhou Lingxuan extended his right index finger and scratched the nail hard a few times deep in the crack in the wall.

A speck of dark red powder landed on his fingertip. The powder was so fine that it was almost imperceptible unless one looked closely.

Zhou Lingxuan held out his finger to Chen Baichuan.

"Smell it."

Chen Baichuan leaned closer suspiciously, his nose twitching twice.

The next moment, his expression changed drastically.

"Fire poison?!"

Chen Baichuan suddenly turned his head to look at the wall, his face full of disbelief.

"How is this possible? Fire poison is an impurity that occurs alongside copper ore; it's not found in Cold Sound Iron at all! Even if he wanted to stuff fire poison into Cold Sound Iron, he should have done it in the forging furnace, not in a crack in the wall!"

Zhou Lingxuan rubbed his fingers together and crushed the powder.

"Because he didn't actually 'stuff' the fire poison inside."

Chen Baichuan was stunned.

"What do you mean?"

Zhou Lingxuan stood up and pointed to the ventilation opening on the ground.

"The old man has been a blacksmith all his life, and he knows one thing. Iron is a very stubborn thing. If you force something into it, it will crack. Cold-smelling iron is cold in nature, and fire-smelling iron is highly toxic. If these two things come together, the furnace will explode on the spot."

Zhou Lingxuan looked at Chen Baichuan.

"You were wondering before how he could hide the fire poison so well without damaging the spiritual essence of the materials."

"It's actually very simple."

"This fire poison was 'cultivated' by himself."

Chen Baichuan was completely confused.

"Grow it? You can even grow fire poison?"

"able."

Zhou Lingxuan walked to the furnace and patted the cold furnace wall.

"When the Cold Sound Iron was put into storage, it was clean. He moved the materials here without ever opening the furnace to smelt it. He used a special spiritual liquid to soak the Cold Sound Iron."

Zhou Lingxuan recalled the state of fire poison he had seen in his sea of ​​consciousness and continued to analyze it.

"That spiritual liquid should have extremely strong fire attributes and excellent penetrability. When the Cold Sound Iron is soaked in it, the coldness on its surface is slowly suppressed."

"Then, he turned on the ground fire and slowly roasted it over a low flame."

Zhou Lingxuan pointed to the ventilation opening in the corner of the wall.

"The spiritual liquid evaporates when heated, carrying the medicinal power of fire attribute, and seeps into the core of the Cold Sound Iron little by little. The coldness of the Cold Sound Iron itself and the fire of the spiritual liquid pull at each other within the core."

"Over time, this pulling force changes."

"It has turned into the fire poison you see."

Zhou Lingxuan turned his head and looked at Chen Baichuan, who was dumbfounded.

"This fire poison was grown by the Cold Sound Iron itself. That's why it's so deeply entangled with the material's spiritual essence, even your Nascent Soul Spirit Fire can't wash it off."

Chen Baichuan gasped, feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Soaked in spiritual liquid, ignited by earth fire..."

He quickly went through the various spiritual liquids in the weapon storeroom in his mind, and suddenly his eyes widened.

"Crimson Flame Marrow!"

Chen Baichuan blurted it out.

"Two bottles of Crimson Flame Marrow are indeed missing from the storeroom. The records show that Li Yuan took them away to study array patterns!"

Everything matches perfectly!

Chen Baichuan gritted his teeth, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

"What a vicious method! Soaking the Crimson Flame Marrow in Frost Sound Iron to generate a fire poison of the same origin. Even I couldn't have come up with such a way!"

Chen Baichuan turned around abruptly and pointed to the debris in the corner.

"The powder in the cracks in the wall is irrefutable evidence! I'm going to arrest him right now!"

Zhou Lingxuan grabbed his shoulder.

"What's the rush?"

"This residue at most proves that he used Crimson Flame Marrow here, but it doesn't prove that he poisoned the Cold Sound Iron. He can easily say that it's waste left over from his failed research on array patterns."

Chen Baichuan became anxious.

"Then what should we do? Just let him go?"

"To catch a thief, you need to catch him twice."

Zhou Lingxuan released his grip and turned his gaze to the heavy stone door of the Earth Fire Chamber.

"The hundred Frost Shields have been handed in. He must have received the news by now."

"Guess what he'll think when he hears the mission was completed on time?"

Chen Baichuan was stunned for a moment.

"He'll panic."

"Yes." Zhou Lingxuan nodded. "He'll wonder if he did something wrong, if he left a loophole. When people panic, they'll want to come back and check."

Zhou Lingxuan had just finished speaking.

Suddenly, a very slight fluctuation came from the array outside the Earth Fire Chamber.

Followed by.

A series of light, hurried footsteps stopped outside the stone gate.

"Click".

That was the sound of the token for activating the formation being inserted into the groove.