The meat was tough and very bland in flavour. However, Huo Jin ate almost half of the rat's leg with gusto. To preserve the leftover meat, he decided to fillet it thinly and place the slices on the impromptu smoking apparatus he had made.
"My forge is not a kitchen!" Lingxu protested.
Huo Jin chuckled a bit and replied nonchalantly. "Sadly, I'm a mortal. I'd die without food."
If Lingxu had a corporeal body, she would have pulled his ears by now. Despite the palpable annoyance in her voice, Huo Jin showed no guilt whatsoever and fell asleep the moment he lay down on the floor.
"Hey, young boy…" Lingxu held her voice when she heard Huo Jin was already snoring. "You'll get sick if you sleep like this."
She then spread her qi gently, enveloping Huo Jin with a thin layer of protective barrier.
It had been a week since Huo Jin was trapped in the Heavenly Forge Hall.
After being awakened and cultivating her Dao of Forging Flame, Lingxu's size had increased from a small flame wisp into a flying fireball as big as Huo Jin's head. She was no longer restrained and able to fly around much farther.
During this time, Huo Jin had also gathered many resources and made several tools for his daily activities, such as a wok, ladles, a hunting knife, a pair of daggers, a bow, and arrows.
Lingxu protested at first, but she eventually understood that mortals were tool-dependent living beings, unlike immortal cultivators who could do anything with their thoughts to manipulate qi around them. Huo Jin reminded her of early humanity, which needed guidance simply to survive the wilderness.
He managed to forge three gun barrels using various techniques he remembered from his homeworld. They still looked very crude, but his forging skill improved with each attempt.
Entering the second week, Huo Jin was in a very good mood. His strength had also increased significantly, and his muscles looked well-shaped and shredded despite his young age.
After hours of pounding steel, he eventually reached the critical step. He slowly lowered the hot tubular steel into the quenching water. As the bubbles ceased, he did not hear any crack or loud tinging sound.
He was elated to see his best gun barrel so far, one that could be further developed into an actual gun.
"Yes! Finally! Hahaha! Lady Lingxu! Look, I finally did it!"
The flame wisp flew out of the forge, examining the gun barrel scrutinizingly. "Your technique is indeed very profound, young boy."
Nevertheless, Huo Jin did not want to indulge in his temporary triumph. Before he proceeded to the next step of the build, which was making the components of the trigger mechanism, he wanted to produce at least two perfected gun barrels.
"I appreciate the compliment, but this one is still far from perfect. I need a small file and some sandpaper to polish the bore, make trigger parts and so on."
Lingxu hovered around Huo Jin, pondering. A brief moment later, she stopped right before his face. "If I am not mistaken, the Rock Driller Worm's small tail is tougher than steel, the skin is so rough that it can be used for sanding anything."
"Really? Where are they?!"
"Nestling deep in the catacomb. But, I doubt you would be able to pull them up. They won't come out from their burrow unless it's feeding time."
"Feeding time, huh?" Huo Jin tilted his head. He subsequently glanced at the meat jerky, smirking from ear to ear.
"Before you have any bold idea, I must warn you. Those worms are more ferocious than the rats. You must not let them escape to the ground level lest you want them to tear down the entire Forge Hall." Lingxu knew Huo Jin would not stop for nothing to achieve his goal, so she gave him a stern warning instead.
Understanding the viability, Huo Jin gathered the necessary gear and provisions for his little exploration. He shoved everything into the leather backpack made from the giant rat's skin.
"How big is this creature?"
"Not too big, but its mouth is big enough to gobble up your head in one go."
"Weaknesses?"
"Aim for the underbelly. It's as soft as a pillow."
"Got it." Huo Jin tightened the sling of his backpack around his shoulder. "Alright… To which direction should I go?"
"I will take you there."
Huo Jin raised his eyebrows, slightly askew. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Lingxu confirmed. "The worms can be killed. But the darkness is something else entirely."
"I appreciate your help, milady." Huo Jin subsequently tightened the sling of his backpack. "Let's go."
Wasting no time, the two made their descent into the underground level. They eventually arrived at the huge stone doors. The mechanism cranked to life the moment Lingxu infused her qi into the keyhole. The floor rumbled gently as the doors slid open, revealing the downward stairway that led into the darkness.
Trudging along the winding stairway, Huo Jin heard hundreds, if not thousands, of bats screeching down below. They flew and scattered in every direction as Lingxu's light filled the space.
The darkness felt very damp and the surrounding air was a tad heavy to breath. As Huo Jin extended his hand outside Lingxu's protective light, he noticed the air was moving irregularly.
"The darkness… Is it alive?"
"Yes." Lingxu confirmed. "While the ground level is saturated with Fire Qi, which is derived from Yang Qi, the underground level is filled with an amalgamation of decaying energy that eventually turned into Yin Qi. It's very volatile and easier to cultivate due to its negative attribute, but it's highly corrosive for body and soul. Stay within my light lest you want to be crippled."
"En." Huo Jin nodded unconsciously.
Before long, they arrived at the catacomb. Rows of jade reliquaries were stored inside the walls. However, most of them were either destroyed or already emptied. Tons of common treasures were scattered on the floor. They held little to no value for Immortal Cultivators, but for Huo Jin, it was like hitting a jackpot.
Nonetheless, Huo Jin did not get greedy and only picked what interested him the most: a gold dagger with an intriguing red gem on its pommel.
Lingxu paused for a moment, then continued when Huo Jin walked behind her. She suddenly stopped and increased her flame's intensity, revealing a vast space with thousands of holes in the walls.
"We have arrived."
"Wow."
Huo Jin marvelled quietly at the sheer size of the cave. It was even bigger than a stadium. The air smelled foul and metallic, mixed with something rotten.
The stone floor was uneven, carved by countless cycles of burrowing and collapse. Holes riddled the walls, some as small as a bowl, others wide enough for a man to crawl through. A faint scraping sound echoed intermittently, as if something was gnawing at the stone itself.
Huo Jin crouched near the edge of the cavern and placed his backpack down gently. He took out a strip of dried rat meat and bit into it leisurely.
"So this is the nest?" Huo Jin said while chewing the meat jerky.
"Yes. Amazing isn't it? They mainly extract minerals and dead matter from the stones slowly. But they will turn ferocious the moment they smell blood."
Huo Jin's hands clenched into fists, determined to face any challenge before him.
After a brief calculation, Huo Jin cut his palm without hesitation and let the blood drip onto the stone floor.
Not long after, a dull vibration crawled up his legs as something moved beneath the stone. Dust trickled from the walls. One hole widened as rock crumbled outward, and a massive head burst through.
The Rock Driller Worm forced itself free, its segmented body grinding against stone. Overlapping plates of dull gray hide covered it from head to tail. The eyeless head split open vertically, rings of teeth rotating as it tasted the air.
Huo Jin stepped back just as the creature lunged. He slashed downward. The dagger shrieked against the coarse, thick hide, and his rusty dagger snapped.
At that moment, he switched his weapon in quick succession, thrusting the golden dagger right into its underbelly, piercing its heart beneath the soft skin. The worm shrieked, wriggling violently as Huo Jin pushed the dagger downward, splitting its entire length in one go.
As the worm's blood dripped onto the floor, dozens more emerged from their burrows, swarming toward the dead worm.
"Oh, I completely forgot to mention that Rock Driller Worm is cannibal. They treat anything that moves as prey since they are practically blind."
Huo Jin was slightly annoyed that the information came too late. He eyed the flying fireball sharply but refrained from protesting aloud and focused on his hunt.
As his kill count increased, more and more worms came out endlessly. However, Huo Jin did not show any fatigue just yet. In fact, he seemed to treat the killing spree as training to sharpen his movements.
But alas, the ground trembled violently this time. The Rock Driller Worms suddenly retreated into their burrows as something big and mean made its way up.
"Collect everything and retreat immediately! The Queen is surfacing!"
"What!"
"Quick! Before it sensed your qi!"
Huo Jin stopped thinking and did what he had been told. After collecting as many dead worms as he could carry, he promptly ran toward the exit. Lingxu followed behind him to watch his back.
He climbed the stairway in a hurry as the ground beneath his feet rumbled, as if the vertical shaft was about to collapse at any moment.
Fortunately, they made it out just in time. Lingxu promptly closed the huge stone doors before the monster detected their presence.
Huo Jin was hyperventilating and coughed as his lungs begged for fresh air. "What was that?"
"It's the Worm Queen. A Rank 2 Infernal Beast. It's not something a mortal could defeat. Even a Spirit Core Realm expert would have a hard time to deal with it."
"What?! So these worms were its offspring?"
"Yes. You can put it that way. Rock Driller Worm Queen considered its offspring as prey as well."
"You should have told me sooner."
"I am sorry."
"It's alright." Huo Jin sat up, resting his arms on his knees. "Anyway, what is Rank 3 Infernal Beast? Are they able to cultivate just like humans?"
"Of course they are. How could they survive in this hellish world without going against natural rules? According to my outdated memory, Immortal Beasts, or in this case Infernal Beasts are divided into ten categories starting from rank one all the way up to rank ten. Each rank corresponds to the human's cultivation stage."
Huo Jin lay down on the ground, his chest still heaving up and down. "Say, Lady Lingxu. Is there a chance for a mortal like me to walk in the path of Immortal Cultivation?"
"There are many ways. But the probability of success is very slim. You might lose your sanity in the process and lose your humanity."
Huo Jin eventually stabilized his breathing. He picked up five dead worms by their sturdy tails. "Well, nevermind. I'd better focus on my craft instead of chasing an empty dream."
"Wise choice, little friend."