An unmatched aura soared from the sword furnace beside the Dragon Whisker River. The sound of the Militarian sage forging iron boomed like thunder, and when the demons in the surroundings heard this, they felt as if their internal organs were about to explode.0

For the past few days, almost all of the cultivators in Dragon Spring Prefecture had involuntarily turned their attention to the blacksmith shop beside the river. Qi refiners would often crowd on the newly constructed pagodas and pavilions on the mountain peaks, as well as that dangerously high bridge between the two mountains. From these high vantage points, they would gaze at the distant scene of Ruan Qiong forging iron in the sword furnace.0

In fact, even the convicts and refugees from the Lu Empire, as well as the soldiers from the Great Li Empire responsible for supervising them, would often engage in spirited discussions about this in their spare time. They speculated whether Ruan Qiong would trigger a peculiar phenomenon of heaven and earth once he succeeded in forging the sword.0

The commotion by the river suddenly intensified at an explosive rate today, and all of the vagrant demon cultivators in the mountain started to feel restless and uneasy. In fact, some weaker demons and fiends felt as if they were being melted in a furnace even though they were already being protected by the formless fortune of the mountains and rivers in this area. They were suffering immense pain. Thus, everyone felt like Sage Ruan Qiong had reached a critical stage of the sword-forging process. This was the moment that would decide success or failure.0

Inside the bamboo building in Downtrodden Mountain, Chen Ping'an had already made all of the necessary preparations and was ready to set off at any time. He was ready to head to the ferry station at Parasol Tree Mountain. The last time Wei Bo had taken the young boy around...0