Jing Wei seemed to be lost in his work and was continuously talking to himself. He would scream at some times, and whisper at others. It was extremely strange and if any normal person saw it, they would certainly think that the old man had gone senile.
But if a person with some insights into spirit tool refinement and weapon forging heard them, they would feel their whole world view shake. Each and every sentence of Old Man Jing was filled with a deep meaning that many others would take thousands of others to reach.
~BOOM~
And just as Jing Wei was working on a slab of metal, it suddenly exploded.
"DAMMIT! THE HEAT IS STILL NOT ENOUGH!!" he cursed.
Gritting his teeth, he slammed his fists on the ingots of metal kept on the side in frustration.
~DENG~
The ingots were directly bent from the force, but after a few seconds, they reformed into their original form.
"Again!" Old man Jing said and waved his hand.
Making gestures with his fingers, he created runes. The runes flew around in the air in a peculiar pattern and went to several materials laying around the hall.
~whoosh~
~shing~
Various materials started to fly when the runes touched them. They came towards Jing Wei and floated around him. Extended his hand, the old man grasped a sheet of metal that was at least an inch thick.
It was unknown what kind of a metal it was, but it seemed to be rather tough.
~DENG~
Old Man Jing slammed the metal sheet on the forging platform and pulled on the door of the forge.
~HUAAAAAAAA~
Scorching flames shot out from the mouth of the forge, threating to burn everything down.
"Suppress!" Old man Jing made a hand seal, and the flames became a lot tamer.
And yet their heat had not been suppressed, what had been suppressed was merely the unruly shape of the flames. Now the flames were smooth, like a ribbon made from the finest silk fluttering in the wind.
Old Man Jing controlled the flames to meticulously spread over the metal sheet and heat up its surface. Once it was red hot in color, he closed the door of the forge and picked up the hammer that laid on his side.
The hammer was thick and dense, but looked rather plain. There weren't even any runes on it. But if anyone sensed the spirit Qi fluctuations coming from the hammer, they would realize that the hammer was no common hammer.
It was in fact, a Peak grade spirit tool!
One hit from such a hammer was enough to flatten a hill into a plain. And just like that, the hammer rose up in the hand of Jing Wei and came down like the first thunder of summer.
~DONG!!!!!!!~
A sonorous sound was heard as the entire metal sheet vibrated from the strike. An imprint of the hammer's face appeared on the sheet's surface. But that was simply the start as Jing Wei lifted his hand again and again, striking the metal sheet over and over again.
In just a minute, he had hit the metal sheet enough times that it had been flattened even more. It was now only half as thick as before, being elongated in size instead. When this was done, Jing Wei flipped the sheet on its side and struck it from the very edge.
~CLANG~
This hit was more powerful than the earlier hits and directly bent the sheet in half. He then pressed it further, making sure that the edges matched perfectly, and it was like half folded sheet of paper.
~HUAAAAAA~
The door of the forge opened again as flames shot out from it, heating the metal sheet again. Old Man Jing repeated the hammering process again, before folding the sheet in half again.
"Umm… should we stop him?" Lin Mu suddenly spoke.
It didn't look like the old man had even noticed the presence of Lin Mu and others, despite that fact that it had been half an hour. They had even been chatting amongst themselves, but the old man didn't seem to be aware of it at all.
His heart and soul were in his work and it didn't look like he would come out of it easily.
~Sigh~
Duan Ke shook her head.
"I've had to tell him for over a week before he finally took a break last time." She stated.
"Should I try?" Lin Mu asked.
"Go head." Duan Ke replied.
Lin Mu walked a bit ahead, but didn't go too forward since that area was protected by the formations.
"Old Man Jing! It's me Lin Mu! I've returned!" Lin Mu called out.
They waited to see if Jing Wei would respond, but there was no response.
"I'll try, he should respond hearing me at least." Jing Luo said.
It would certainly a matter of shock if Jing Luo, who was supposedly dead for over fifty years, were to suddenly return. They all thought that it should truly be enough to move the old man.
"GRANDFATHER I'M BACK! LUO'ER IS BACK!" Jing Luo yelled with excitement.
A minute passed, but the response never came.
"It's no use… he's too deep." Jing Luo said with a crestfallen face.
"It doesn't work. And we can't get close either. Only grandfather can lift that heat barrier." Duan Ke spoke.
"Does that barrier block sound to by any chance?" Lin Mu wondered if they had missed such an obvious thing.
"Of course not! It only blocks the extreme heat from the forge. If any of us get close, we'd be burned to ashes rather easily. Even a Dao Shell realm expert is not safe from it." Duan Ke replied.
"Huh… so that's all?" Lin Mu said in a rather casual tone.
"What do you mean?" Duan Ke asked before her eyes went wide. "WAIT!… DON'T!" she yelled as she saw Lin Mu getting closer to the barrier.
"It'll be fine." Jing Luo stated. "Just watch."
Under the shocked eyes of Duan Ke, Lin Mu easily walked past the barrier and into the scorching heat of the forge.
