After rounding the foremost bend, Huo Hai finally saw the scene within the mountain hollow. To his surprise, this was neither the thatched hut of a recluse he had imagined, nor a stone house or cave.
Master Ning Gang's dwelling was completely out in the open. Although experts of the Spirit Emperor Realm hardly needed rest in their daily lives, this seemed excessive. At that moment, a muscular, brawny man stood beside a pool, conjuring Flame with his left hand while wielding a massive hammer in his right, repeatedly striking a piece of material in the middle. The sight was truly strange.
"Since when did artifact forging require something like a hammer?" Huo Hai found it rather odd. In his memory, only blacksmiths who had yet to reach the Spirit Practitioner Realm used hammers to forge things through repeated blows.
This method was actually difficult to control, and it could only offer a rather poor degree of assistance in tempering materials. Huo Hai did not know how long it had been since he had seen an artifact refiner use a hammer. It was truly strange.
The pool at the center of the mountain hollow was no ordinary pool either. It was actually a lava pool connected to the underground. However, in Huo Hai's view, this lava pool must have been restrained by a Spirit Formation; otherwise, it could never have remained like this for so long. With the underground lava and the power gathered by the Spirit Formation, even the natural flames here could reach the level of an attack from a Spirit Emperor Realm expert.
After a long while, Ning Gang took out a strange object whose purpose Huo Hai could not discern. After examining it twice, he casually tossed it aside and turned around. Only then did Huo