Huo Jin stacked the coals on the forge and ignited them with the torch. He carefully poked them with a broken sword so they would burn evenly before completely turning into ash.
While waiting for the coal to turn into workable embers, he prepped the working station, cleaned the anvil, the vise and laid out the other tools on the table.
He wanted to ask Lady Lingxu who the hammer belonged to, or what happened to the poor skeleton in the storage room. But Huo Jin felt it was unnecessary. Besides, the guardian spirit remained silent as he brandished the hammer.
Once the embers reached maximum temperature, he tossed the broken sword which was long enough to be reforged into a short mandrel. He manually operated the wooden bellow by the forge rhythmically to achieve even heat.
The scorching heat from the forge made him sweat profusely yet he didn't feel exhausted at all. Instead, he could feel every fiber of his body was being nurtured by the flame.
Ignoring his physical change, Huo Jin pulled out the searing hot steel with the tongs and skillfully placed it on the anvil. He pounded it multiple times, folded it into a rectangular billet, reshaping it into a solid long cylinder.
He forged three mandrels in total until he was satisfied with the end result.
"Mm!" Huo Jin nodded after he quenched the last mandrel, eyeing the entire length closely. "This will do. The iron quality is indeed exceptional."
The forge's flame eventually died down. Lingxu emerged from the forge, immediately flying around the mandrel like a curious bee.
"What is this? A poking stick is it?"
"Nope. This is a mandrel for guiding the barrel's forging process. Without it, the barrel's bore would be uneven and cracked even."
"I see. That is very ingenious indeed."
"Thanks." A smile tucked in the corner of his mouth. "Now, I need to forge weld these scrap metals into a workable billet."
His bruised palm was tingling from the hammering. He disregarded the trivial pain and added more coal into the forge. Afterward, he meticulously sorted out the scrap metals according to their carbon content. He mixed both high and low carbon metal to balance out the barrel's sturdiness and expansion rate after firing.
On the other hand, Lingxu watched the entire process from close up. She was so fascinated by Huo Jin's advanced forging technique.
However, Huo Jin suddenly stopped swinging, stumbled on his knees and coughed up blood.
"Young boy! Are you alright?!" Lingxu's voice filled with worries.
"I'm not sure… It feels like my heart is being incinerated inside out."
Lingxu promptly used a portion of her Qi to drag Huo Jin right into the quenching pool. "Get down!"
Upon submerging himself inside the quenching water for a minute or so, Huo Jin emerged, taking a very deep breath in one go. He rested his arms on the pool's edge, still hyperventilating.
"What just happened?" He asked.
"I am so sorry. I should have warned you about the continuous Fire Qi exposure." Lingxu explained apologetically.
"How long have I been forging?"
"About six hours. Adding your upkeep time in the Flame Valley, you've been exposed to Fire Qi for at least twelve hours or so."
Huo Jin combed his wet hair backward, climbing out the quenching pool to dry himself. "I guess that is the limit for this young body, huh?"
"Obviously." Lingxu quipped. "You were lucky you didn't die immediately. Fire Qi nurtures and accelerates your physical growth by burning the dead cells and withered meridians. However, your mortal body couldn't outhealing the ongoing damage."
Huo Jin glanced back at the quenching water which remained clear and pristine after being used to quench the mandrel and his body.
"And… the water helps me balance out the energy in my body."
"Correct. The quenching water is sourced directly from Nine Colored Well. It has detoxification properties, supplementing innate Qi and banishes all impurities. That should explain why you didn't feel tired at all. But again, your mortal body has limited endurance."
Huo Jin stood upright, feeling energised once more. But instead of continuing, he decided to explore the other rooms with a torch in hand. He thought Lingxu would follow him, but she stopped ten meters away from the forge.
"Be careful of the rats, they could be ravenous sometimes."
"En. Thanks for the warning." Huo Jin nodded, waving the rusty dagger that he found in the storage room.
As he continued toward the darkness, he saw similar yet smaller forging stations on his left and right, but they were either scorched to crisp or destroyed entirely. He had been walking for about five minutes but he hadn't seen the end just yet.
"Just how big is this Heavenly Forge Hall?"
Suddenly, the torchlight flickered unevenly despite the absence of wind. Pairs of red eyes glowering in the dark, surrounding him from all sides.
Huo Jin's grip tightened around the dagger's handle. Without a warning, a rat as big as a dog lunged forward with a loud shriek. But Huo Jin dodged the attack effortlessly, stabbing the rat's under belly with a swift motion.
As the dead rat stumbled on the floor, a loud screeching sound reverberated from the dark. The colony parted to either side when a giant rat the size of a grizzly bear walked in the middle.
It rushed forward almost immediately the moment Huo Jin was about to run, waylaying him from the other side. The beast charged at him furiously.
"Rat meat for dinner, it is."
Huo Jin waited till the very last second rolled sideways and he did a backhand swing, hitting the giant rat's left eye with precision, effectively immobilizing it temporarily.
He rolled to the other side, and leapt onto its back in one motion, driving the dagger into its remaining eye. The giant rat screamed and thrashed violently, smashing pillars and walls as it tried to dislodge him. Huo Jin pulled the blade free, and used his hand to pull out the eye along with its brain with one hand.
By the time his adrenaline died down, he realized that his body had become stronger by leaps and bounds. Moreover, he was now capable of manifesting his killing intent. The smaller rats gradually backed away as their leader was brutally killed.
Notwithstanding the health risk of eating unknown meat, Huo Jin cut its limbs one after another. Before living, he burned the carcass to avoid airborne diseases.
Lingxu was bewildered as Huo Jin dragged two rat limbs with one hand.
"Don't tell me you are going to eat that filthy rat!"
"Unfortunately, yes. I am hungry." Huo Jin replied flatly.
"Disgusting!" Lingxu snorted. "Don't you dare using the forge to roast the—"
Before she could finish, he already tossed the giant rat's limb atop the forge to burn the hair.
"What?"
"You insolent brat!" Lingxu cried.