Smelting All Things, Waste Hall? Treasure Everywhere

Li Ping'an stood there in a daze, watching the elder leave with his own eyes.

"He actually refused to take a master? Has he lost his mind?"

"If you won't accept him, give him to me! I've been in the outer sect for twenty years—I dream of becoming an elder's disciple!"

"Give it a rest. Even if he took a master, what would it change? At most, he'd live another two years."

"Forget it, let's go! What a waste of time!"

Seeing Li Ping'an refuse to take a master, the crowd that had gathered for the spectacle dispersed.

Zhou Wen, the steward of the menial workers, looked at his old brother standing there blankly and sighed.

"Old Brother, once you go to the inner sect, I won't be able to look after you anymore."

"This is what you saved up from forging iron all these years. I never touched it—I kept it safe for you. The inner sect isn't like this place. Whether for cultivation or greasing palms, you'll need these things."

Zhou Wen took out a cloth pouch containing four low-grade spirit stones.

Looking at his only close friend, Li Ping'an's heart stirred.

Now that he had the Heaven-Tempering Hammer, his path of cultivation finally held hope. Naturally, he could not give up cultivation resources like spirit stones.

Without standing on ceremony, Li Ping'an accepted the pouch of spirit stones.

But the moment it landed in his hand, the Heaven-Tempering Hammer in his right hand suddenly grew scorching hot.

A tremendous suction force burrowed through his palm straight into the pouch.

Immediately after, the spiritual energy within the four low-grade spirit stones was forcibly drawn out by the Heaven-Tempering Hammer through Li Ping'an's body.

Without changing expression, Li Ping'an tucked the spirit stones, now reduced to useless rocks, into his robes. Then he reached out and patted Zhou Wen on the shoulder.

He casually opened the white jade medicine vial the elder had handed him earlier and poured out a smooth, round pill.

A Life-Extending Pill.

Lu Xue had given it to him!

Li Ping'an held the pill out before Zhou Wen.

"Xiao Wen, you're only at the third stage of body forging. You probably have only five or six years of lifespan left, right? Take this medicine."

Zhou Wen's expression changed drastically when he saw the pill, and he hurriedly reached out to push it away.

"I can't accept this! Even in the inner sect, Life-Extending Pills are rare treasures. One is worth at least five mid-grade spirit stones. It's far too precious—I can't take it!"

Li Ping'an did not waste words. He directly held down Zhou Wen's head and forcibly stuffed the pill into his mouth.

"After spending a full sixty years in this outer sect, you're my only brother. Why are you still being polite with me?"

Zhou Wen's eyes reddened, but he could not say a word.

Li Ping'an patted his shoulder and said with a smile.

"Once I leave for the inner sect, I'm afraid it will be hard for us to meet again. Take care of yourself."

With that, Li Ping'an turned away with easy grace and headed toward Heaven-Piercing Peak.

Zhou Wen stood where he was, watching that stooped back as he clasped his fists and shouted.

"Big Brother, take care!"

Li Ping'an did not turn back. He merely waved a hand.

The mountain path was rugged, and all along the way, Li Ping'an studied the Heaven-Tempering Hammer in his sea of consciousness.

At that moment, the dark golden iron hammer floated silently at the center of his sea of consciousness.

After absorbing the spiritual energy from those spirit stones, four obsidian-like crystals had appeared on its handle.

The last of them emitted a faint gleam.

Heaven Tempering, Earth Forging, Immortal Smelting, Divine Casting.

Li Ping'an understood that those four crystals were the Heaven-Tempering Hammer's energy. The stronger the energy, the greater its power and effects!

He wondered whether the few spirit stones from before were enough to unleash the Heaven-Tempering Hammer's abilities.

Let's try it!

With a thought, he directed the Heaven-Tempering Hammer to strike his own sea of consciousness.

Thud.

Li Ping'an's vision went black, and the world spun around him.

His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground. Only after a long while did he recover.

"It hurts so much!"

Enduring the lingering pain, Li Ping'an turned his inner sight toward his sea of consciousness.

He discovered that his sea of consciousness, originally only the size of a palm, had doubled in size.

One had to know that the size of a cultivator's sea of consciousness was determined by heaven. Unless one possessed a legendary god-tier cultivation technique, it was exceedingly difficult to expand.

Yet the Heaven-Tempering Hammer had merely trembled once, and his sea of consciousness had doubled.

Li Ping'an was stunned!

Was this divine artifact really so heaven-defying?

Since it could temper his sea of consciousness, what about his body?

Li Ping'an thought of this and directly took out the Heaven-Tempering Hammer.

Taking a deep breath, he raised the iron hammer and smashed it into his own chest.

Thud.

With a soft sound, Li Ping'an's entire body trembled. The pain was so intense that he could not breathe.

After the searing pain came an unbearable itch. Li Ping'an felt as though countless ants were burrowing through every inch of his body.

Lowering his head, he saw foul-smelling black impurities continuously seeping from the pores of his skin.

Third stage of body forging.

That single hammer blow had allowed him to leap across two entire realms.

Li Ping'an panted, savoring the exhilaration brought by his increase in cultivation.

Gripping the hammer, he wanted to strike himself once more.

Yet this time, when the hammer fell, nothing unusual happened.

He looked over in confusion and discovered that the final obsidian crystal on the hammer's handle had already dimmed.

There was no spiritual energy left.

Two strikes had actually exhausted the spiritual power of four low-grade spirit stones.

This thing truly was a divine weapon, but it was also a bottomless pit.

Li Ping'an looked at the inner sect mountain road disappearing into the clouds ahead, his gaze flickering.

It seemed that after reaching the inner sect, he would first have to find a way to obtain more resources.

And there happened to be a place perfectly suited to him, where he could obtain plenty of resources!

Having made up his mind, Li Ping'an quickened his pace.

The inner sect of the Heaven-Piercing Sword Sect stood atop the mountain and consisted of ten great peaks.

The Inner Pavilion he sought was located at the very center.

It was where inner sect disciples accepted sect missions in exchange for cultivation resources, and it was usually the busiest place.

The moment Li Ping'an, an old man dressed in worn menial-worker clothes, entered, he instantly drew everyone's attention.

Among the inner sect disciples in flowing white robes, he stood out like a crane among chickens.

"This guy is Li Ping'an?"

"That's right! He's that old fellow who spent sixty years forging iron!"

"I heard he had some unclear relationship with Saintess Lu Xue, which was why the elder made an exception and let him into the inner sect."

"A relationship? He's just a mortal clinging to a high branch. She's now a lofty saintess and has already drawn a clear line between them."

The crowd discussed him in low voices, but not a single person looked at Li Ping'an seriously.

In the cultivation world, strength was supreme.

Li Ping'an was merely at the third stage of body forging, so naturally they looked down on him.

Even though he had stirred the Heaven-Ringing Bell, a third-stage body forger whose blood and vitality were nearly exhausted would still be nothing but a joke in the inner sect.

With a calm expression, Li Ping'an passed through the crowd and entered the Inner Pavilion's main hall.

The Inner Pavilion's deacon sat behind a rosewood desk, flipping through a registry.

When he saw Li Ping'an enter, he paused in surprise.

"Li Ping'an, right?"

"Your situation is special. Come speak with me in the inner room."

Li Ping'an was somewhat surprised, but he silently followed him inside.

The moment they entered, the smile vanished from the deacon's face, replaced by an expression of difficulty.

"Li Ping'an, according to the rules, those admitted to the inner sect by special exception should be assigned by a deacon. But your situation truly puts this deacon in a difficult position."

"Our inner sect's Spirit Sword Lineage only accepts gifted geniuses with excellent aptitude. At your age, you can't even touch the threshold."

"The Heart Sword Lineage requires one to unite heart and mind, and its demands on the sea of consciousness are extremely high. Your sea of consciousness is only two palms wide, so they won't accept you either."

"Difficult, truly difficult!"

The deacon kept saying it was difficult, yet the little motions of his left hand were obvious.

Looking at that gesture demanding money, how could Li Ping'an not understand?

He had spent sixty years in the outer sect. Besides forging iron, he had done all sorts of odd jobs daily and understood these underhanded ways perfectly.

What difficult or easy? Wasn't it all about money?

Unfortunately, the four low-grade spirit stones on him had long since become useless rocks, leaving him with nothing to grease palms with.

Besides, from the very beginning, he had never intended to join either the Spirit Sword Lineage or the Heart Sword Lineage.

He had long set his sights on a particular place.

The inner sect's Waste Hall.

As its name implied, the Waste Hall was a place specially meant to store and process rubbish.

Waste pills, damaged spirit artifacts, even the corpses of dead spirit beasts—all of them were piled there.

Because the residual spiritual power within such discarded items was unstable, explosions or poisonous gas leaks often occurred. Those assigned there were mostly peripheral disciples who had committed mistakes or had no prospects whatsoever.

In other words, the inner sect's trash!

Trash disciples guarding trash—that was the Waste Hall!

The sect's disciples privately called it the Waste Hall of Trash!

But a place of rubbish to others was Li Ping'an's paradise.

The ancient iron hammer in his sea of consciousness possessed the power of Immortal Smelting.

It could smelt all things and extract their essence.

What others saw as rubbish was treasure in his eyes.

Looking at the deacon's shifty-eyed appearance, Li Ping'an spoke directly.

"Deacon, there is no need to make things difficult. Ping'an knows his own worth; I will not go to either the Spirit Sword Lineage or the Heart Sword Lineage."

"Ping'an only wishes to give the sect one final measure of service. I volunteer to guard the waste materials in the Waste Hall."