"Little Grand-Uncle, you're the only one left..."
A supervising Elder, looking at Xu Xian who was staring blankly at the ore before him, couldn't help but whisper a reminder.
Xu Xian snapped back to his senses and glanced up at the sky.
The sun was setting behind the western mountains.
Looking around, the once-crowded spirit furnace forging tables had already been cleared away. In the vast venue, only he remained, with a few Deacons from the Forging Hall still hovering in mid-air.
Outside the venue, however, it was still a sea of people. The sound of hammers had faded, but the clamor of the crowd had not.
Feeling Xu Xian's gaze, Yao Xiaoxiao and Lin Qianqian waved their hands as if cheering him on. Zhang Yang had also joined the spectators' ranks.
On the viewing platform, Li Qingshan and Elder Yao seemed to be arguing. The two men, who usually looked like transcendent immortals, were now red in the face from their dispute.
Ye Xianyu squinted her eyes, watching with great interest.
Master Ruan looked at him from a distance, his expression neither happy nor sad, as tranquil as an ancient well.
Xu Xian asked, "How much time is left?"
The Elder replied in a low voice, "According to the rules, there are only four hours left."
Xu Xian nodded thoughtfully.
"Four hours!"
He took a deep breath and muttered to himself, "Whatever, I'll give it my all. Even though I didn't charge for tickets, I can't let everyone come here for nothing."
With that, he glanced at the tiny book spirit on his shoulder. "Little Book, it's time for us to get serious."
The Little Book tilted its head, its tiny eyes filled with massive confusion.
'If you want to be serious, go ahead. What does it have to do with me? I don't know how to forge iron.'
The youth didn't mind. He clenched his heavy fist, sank his qi into his dantian, and his eyes seemed to flash with a divine light.
"Then let's do this in one burst of energy!"
The youth's hammer fell, and the roar resumed. This time, the force seemed even greater.
It was unclear if it was because he was the only one left, making the noise seem louder, or if the youth had been holding back his strength all along.
In short, when that hammer struck, the entire Wendao Square seemed to fall silent.
Clang!
Clang!!
Clang!!!
The hammer rang out repeatedly. Unlike before, Xu Xian's strikes were slower and more rhythmic, but with every strike, the effect was far more obvious.
At the very least, even in the twilight, the spectators could see it more clearly.
"Look, the Little Grand-Uncle has started again."
"Why isn't he as fast as before? Is he out of strength?"
"No, no... look, his strikes are steadier."
"Really?"
"Go, Little Grand-Uncle!"
The laymen watched for the spectacle, but the experts watched for the technique. A disciple from Zhujian Peak stood among the crowd and spoke with certainty.
"It seems our Little Grand-Uncle is finally getting serious."
"Those strikes are as steady as ever!"
At this moment, Xu Xian had entered a state of selflessness. All sound faded from his ears, and a faint spiritual light emanated from his body.
In his eyes, there was only the ore.
In his hands, there was only the hammer.
Man, hammer, and stone seemed to merge into one under the connection of the Pupil of Insight.
He was performing spirit infusion on the crude base before him.
Over the past few days, Xu Xian had been researching how to refine spirit ore into immortal gold, and he had been searching for the reason for his failures...
He discovered that it wasn't a problem with his forging technique, nor was it theoretically impossible.
The reason it failed was because of the laws.
It was fundamentally disallowed.
What did that mean?
Simply put, even if he refined the spirit ore to a rare grade, this piece of ore could not carry the massive spiritual energy required to break the limits of spirit ore and promote it to immortal gold.
There was an upper limit to how much spiritual energy spirit ore could carry.
When that limit was reached, the transformation would stop. If forced further, the result would be the ore's inability to withstand the pressure, causing it to shatter.
There were two reasons for this.
First, it was constrained by the laws of heaven and earth in Fanzhou.
Second, there was an unbridgeable chasm between spirit ore and immortal gold.
It was the same principle as a cultivator reaching a bottleneck and stagnating.
But Xu Xian believed it could be broken.
Either his method was wrong, or his ability was insufficient.
Xu Xian had tried many methods, and since no one in Fanzhou had ever done this before, he was the first. Finding a solution in a short time was harder than ascending to immortality.
To succeed quickly, Xu Xian could only take another path.
That was to improve his own ability. As long as his power was strong enough, he could ignore all shackles. If he were strong enough, he could even trample the Heavenly Dao under his feet.
By the same logic, refining ore was the same.
If one piece of spirit ore couldn't carry the massive spiritual energy needed to transform into immortal gold, then he would use two. If two weren't enough, then three, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand...
As long as the base was large enough, quantitative change would lead to qualitative change.
As long as he succeeded once, he would master the trick.
Of course, the prerequisite was being able to perfectly merge thousands, or even nearly ten thousand, different pieces of spirit ore into one.
This was extremely difficult for others. Even if Ruan Hao did it himself, it would be no easy feat.
But Xu Xian happened to possess the Pupil of Insight.
He could see through the essence of all ores.
Even more, he could clearly know the compatibility of the fusion between ores down to the millimeter, achieving near perfection.
He could do it; it just took time.
So he wanted to try.
Taking advantage of this Sword Forging Assessment, where he could use ores for free as he pleased.
If it worked, he succeeded. If it failed, he lost nothing.
As for the impact? Xu Xian admitted that doing this was a bit embarrassing, but given his personality, face was something that could be discarded when necessary...
Time continued to pass.
However, the spectators did not find it boring. On the contrary, their hearts were in their throats.
For no other reason than they could see with the naked eye that the crude base before Xu Xian was glowing.
Yes, it was truly glowing.
The stars shifted in the sky, and the autumn moon was exceptionally bright. The luster emitted by the ore under Xu Xian's hammer initially rivaled the starlight, then the moonlight.
By this moment, it had already surpassed the moonlight.
A shimmering mist, like chaos, gradually began to glow with a faint blue aura.
With every strike of the hammer, the ore shrank slightly, and the light grew stronger.
Every cultivator knew what that light was. It was the glow released only when spiritual energy was compressed, and furthermore, it was a glow that only pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth could release.
At this moment, even the laymen could see what Xu Xian was trying to do.
Through forging, he was continuously compressing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into that red-hot iron.
A bold thought naturally flashed through everyone's mind.
What did the Little Grand-Uncle want to do?
He wanted to turn that crude base, compressed from ten thousand pieces of spirit ore, into a piece of immortal gold.
Even though such a thought sounded absurd.
Aside from that, they couldn't think of any other possibility, nor could they imagine any other motive for the Little Grand-Uncle's long-drawn-out efforts...
The experts, however, were uncertain. Precisely because they were experts, they were certain that the Little Grand-Uncle's goal was indeed to turn this ore into immortal gold.
But also because they were experts, they knew better than anyone how difficult this was.
Creating immortal gold by hand? In their view, it was no easier than forging a heaven weapon.
So they were dazed, even as they saw it with their own eyes.
Han Yi couldn't help himself and weakly asked Ruan Hao, "Elder Ruan, is the Little Grand-Uncle really going to create immortal gold?"
Hearing this, the others also turned their gazes over, intentionally or otherwise.
Ruan Hao pondered for a moment and said bluntly, "Looking at the technique, yes!"
Receiving a definitive answer, everyone couldn't help but shudder. Another fifth-rank spirit forger asked tentatively, "Then... in your opinion, can the Little Grand-Uncle really succeed?"
Everyone held their breath. No one knew a student better than the teacher, and Master Ruan was the number one master forger of Zhujian Peak. His words were naturally the most authoritative and credible.
Elder Ruan did not answer. He simply took out his tobacco pouch, slowly filled it, lit it, and took a deep drag.
"Whew~"
He slowly exhaled and shook his head.
"I don't know. But he has indeed been researching this for a very long time."
The crowd fell silent. If even Elder Ruan was uncertain, it proved there was a possibility...
And the answer, perhaps, only time could tell.
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