Inside the spacious workshop, walls were built from dark-brown stones that resembled the skin of giants. The hard, strange rock beneath their feet was sometimes icy cold, sometimes scorching hot.
Three enormous, round furnaces precisely divided the workshop into three sections. The fire in the middle furnace roared, its eerie blue flames casting strange colors across the panel sealing the furnace chamber.
The sealed furnace seemed to contain the Eight Trigrams Furnace that had once imprisoned the Monkey King. Its lid rattled and bucked, and blue steam periodically burst from the gaps with a startling hiss.
More bizarre still, a Giant Man lay slumped beside each of the workshop's left and right walls. Their bodies were intact, but their heads had been smashed to pieces, and black blood and brain matter covered the floor.
Rushing into the workshop, Elder Song went straight for the furnace and struck it with a palm from afar. The lid, which had looked ready to break free, immediately quieted down considerably.
Elder Song's expression relaxed somewhat. Then—clatter, clatter, clatter—the lid suddenly began jumping even more violently.
Horrified, Elder Song struck out with two more palms, then roared at Xu Yi, who stood dazed off to one side, "What are you standing there for? Get over here and work the bellows for me!"
Xu Yi darted to the furnace, grabbed a thick black handle, and began hauling on it.
The moment he applied force, Xu Yi frowned. The handle was unbelievably heavy; pulling it must take the strength of an ox.
Xu Yi pulled twice, and the lid's clattering immediately eased considerably. Elder Song watched it tensely without daring to move, but he didn't tell Xu Yi to stop, either.
Xu Yi had a thought. "Elder Song, I have something urgent to take care of. Could