Beginning the Crafting

"This is also why Chief Sovereign envoys or Asura powerhouses, upon obtaining an offensive Sovereign Artifact, will alter their combat habits according to the artifact."

"They may even create techniques suited to them based on the Sovereign Artifact, because they know that the artifact is already bound to their destiny."

"When the Sovereign Artifact is lost, that is the moment their life comes to an end."

Huoxie sighed with emotion as he said this; he had lived for too long and had seen far too many such occurrences. Hodan had done him a favor, and Huoxie did not mind taking this opportunity to offer him some guidance.

"This young one is grateful for the lesson." Hodan was not an ungrateful person; knowing that Huoxie was guiding him, he hurriedly expressed his thanks.

"A weapon is merely a weapon. Only when a person becomes the edge of the weapon can the weapon truly shine. At the same time, only such a person can become a peak powerhouse. Blindly pursuing the sharpness of a weapon will only lead one to a lower path. Furthermore, that is merely a high wall right before one's eyes that one is unable to break through!"

Hodan nodded to show he understood. This was advice from a Paragon powerhouse; how many people wanted to hear such things but never got the chance!

After saying this, Huoxie continued walking toward the cave, not forgetting to call out to Hodan: "Hurry and keep up! I will need your help later to forge your blade."

Hodan followed in Huoxie's footsteps into the cave. The moment he stepped inside, a powerful wave of heat rushed toward him. The temperature was so high that the hair all over his body began to smell of scorching, and his entire body was soaked with sweat from the inside out.

Hodan hurriedly circulated his divine power to protect himself, yet he still felt a wave of discomfort.

Enduring the heat, Hodan asked: "The temperature here is at least tens of thousands of degrees. Why can you walk so easily without using your divine power?"

Hodan had not seen Huoxie circulate any divine power to resist the high temperature.

"You don't need to think about it; my true form is the Huoxie Holy Beast, and I have lived here for how long? If I couldn't even withstand this bit of temperature, how would I be able to endure the nearly million-degree heat that is coming later?" Huoxie did not stop his pace and shrugged as he answered.

Huoxie did not wait for Hodan at all and kept walking, and as he spoke, he had already left Hodan far behind, disappearing around a turn in the cave path.

Seeing Huoxie moving further and further away, Hodan hurriedly quickened his pace. After passing the corner, what he saw before him was a straight, glowing red tunnel of flames.

Looking at the flames leaping continuously on both sides ahead, Hodan hesitated slightly before taking a breath and quickening his pace to catch up to Huoxie.

Under the baking heat, Hodan felt dizzy and could no longer speak.

Enduring the suffocating heat all around, if not for the obsession in his mind to forge his own blade, Hodan would have long since left this hellish place that was not meant for humans.

Facing these waves of heat rushing toward him, every step he took exhausted all his strength. Hearing Huoxie's words, Hodan had questions but no longer had the energy to speak.

Not hearing a reply from Hodan, but hearing the heavy, dragging footsteps behind him, Huoxie understood that Hodan was reaching his limit. He slowed his pace and said: "Although the temperature here is high, it is beneficial for tempering the body; this is the reason I brought you down here. The longer you stay here, the stronger your body will be tempered by this high heat. Hang in there, young man."

Huoxie was still accustomed to calling Hodan "young man"; perhaps this was Hodan's status in Huoxie's heart, which made Huoxie appear more intimate toward him.

By this moment, Hodan could no longer hear any of the words Huoxie was saying ahead. The high temperature had already caused Hodan's mind to become delirious; now, all Hodan saw before him was an endless expanse of flames. The figure ahead gradually blurred and slowly disappeared into the unbearable tunnel of fire. Finally, everything went black before Hodan's eyes, and he fainted.

He did not know how much time had passed, but his skin could no longer feel even a hint of scorching heat. A powerful sound of wind whistling past was clearly audible in his ears, yet what hit his body were warm droplets of water. Upon waking up again, Hodan discovered that he was already on a protruding platform.

Although a massive pillar of fire surged into the sky ahead, strangely, Hodan could not feel any heat blowing toward him. The whistling wind in his ears came from the powerful airflow following the fire pillar straight up to the mountain pass. As for the water droplets that had just hit him, they were actually sweat splashing off Huoxie, who was standing at the edge of the platform in front of a massive furnace.

Hodan, who had no memory of what happened after he fainted, saw Huoxie shirtless, drenched in sweat, and working hard beside the furnace the moment he opened his eyes.

In his impression, even when walking through the tunnel of fire, Huoxie had not shed a single drop of sweat. He had not expected that Huoxie would now be drenched in sweat, his face flushed red. He held a massive blacksmith's hammer in his left hand, striking continuously beside the furnace, and the crisp, loud clanging sounds echoed endlessly in the enclosed valley.

Not long after, Huoxie stopped his work and picked up a towel hanging around his neck to wipe his sweat. At this moment, Huoxie turned his head and noticed that Hodan had woken up. Huoxie slowly put down the hammer, panting as he said to Hodan: "Phew... phew... young man, stay there and don't move. Take advantage of this time to rest while you can; you'll have plenty to be busy with later."

After Huoxie finished speaking, he dragged the hammer and looked down toward the edge of the platform. A moment later, the fire pillar rushing toward the mountain pass suddenly vanished. It was as if there were a powerful suction force below, pulling the originally upward-surging fire pillar down. Once the fire pillar vanished, the surrounding temperature climbed rapidly, and the previously cool platform began to emit white smoke.

Thinking of the painful sensation of walking through the tunnel of fire, the expression on Hodan's face changed, and he exclaimed in shock: "This..."

Hodan propped up his aching body and quietly walked behind Huoxie. He had intended to see how Huoxie's progress was coming along, but when Hodan walked to the side of the furnace and followed his gaze naturally toward the bottom of the valley, his eyes could no longer look away.

In a sea of boiling, molten lava and soaring, raging flames—in a space consisting entirely of fire—a ferocious beast that should not exist in this world lay quietly curled up.

Its massive red body occupied the bottom of the valley, and a pair of small, thin red wings, completely disproportionate to the massive body, were pressed gently against its back. From the nose of this beast, powerful flames were sprayed out from time to time.

This ferocious beast was the very reason for the massive pillars of flame that occasionally erupted in this Huoyan Mountain valley.

Seeing that the beast below was actually a dragon, Hodan was surprised and could not help but ask Huoxie: "Why is there a dragon here?"

"Hehe, this guy is not one of those ordinary dragons! This dragon is called the Red-Winged Flame Dragon, and it is a famous divine beast in the Fire-element Divine Realm!"

Hearing Hodan's voice, Huoxie continued his work diligently while proudly introducing the origin of the beast below.

"But no matter how great the background of this Red-Winged Flame Dragon is, shouldn't it be in the Fire-element Divine Realm? How could it be..."

Without waiting for Hodan to finish his sentence, Huoxie said dismissively: "There are many things in this world that you cannot imagine. Who decreed that fire-element creatures must be in the Fire-element Divine Realm?"

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