Spirit Testing Stone Stele

The grating of metal carried a sluggish heaviness. With a crack, it abruptly shattered the silence outside the artifact refining chamber.

The heavy crimson metal door slowly slid inward, as though pushed by an invisible giant hand.

A scorching gust, carrying the smell of hot metal mixed with a faint burnt odor, rushed out through the opening. From deep within came the lingering echoes of dull hammering.

Elder Xuan Qiuluo's somewhat aged yet robust voice came from where shadows and firelight intertwined behind the door. "Come in."

"Yes!" Wang Da Fu swallowed, suppressing the unease in his heart. He answered and stepped over the faintly warm threshold.

The artifact refining hall was even more spacious than he had imagined. Its four walls were forged from dark, heavy black iron, their surfaces covered in traces of years of fire and smoke.

Several enormous fire pits had already gone out, yet their residual heat still made the air ripple faintly.

Xuan Qiuluo stood at the front of the hall, with the remains of the largest furnace by the entrance behind him. His figure appeared somewhat lean in the dim light, but he stood straight as a pine.

He turned around with a kindly smile that had clearly been prepared in advance, perfectly measured. His gaze rested gently on Wang Da Fu.

"Disciple Wang Da Fu greets Master!"

Wang Da Fu's heart tightened. Not daring to show the slightest negligence, he hurried forward several steps and dropped to his knees with a thud, his forehead striking the cold, hard floor solidly. Thud! Thud! Thud! He kowtowed three times.

"Good. Rise."

Xuan Qiuluo stroked several short gray-white whiskers beneath his chin and nodded in satisfaction. His voice became even gentler. "From this day forth, you are my registered disciple.

"When your cultivation reaches the