Huang Yulang’s imagination ran wild, but the blacksmith’s pupils contracted violently.
His mouth fell open, utterly terrified by how Huang Yulang handled the hammer as if it weighed nothing.
“How is that possible?” The man was completely stunned by Huang Yulang’s strength, his voice trembling as he spoke.
“Hehe, Master Wang, I’m very satisfied with this Eight-sided Copper Hammer.
In that case, I’ll be taking it.
Thank you for the gift,” Huang Yulang said, turning to leave.
“You…
you…” Blacksmith Wang’s face turned pale.
He was filled with endless regret and wanted to stop Huang Yulang, but he’d already spoken the words.
How could he have the face to ask for it back?
Still, he couldn’t accept it.
This was a family heirloom!
Not to mention, the three hundred pounds of copper alone were worth a fortune.
“What?
Don’t tell me Master Wang is going back on his word?” Huang Yulang asked, a faint smile playing on his lips as he hefted the hammer and looked at the man.
The blacksmith opened and closed his mouth, his heart bleeding.
Forget not having the face to ask for it back—the weapon in that young rascal’s hands weighed a full three hundred pounds.
If he angered the boy and got hit…
The mere thought made Blacksmith Wang break out in a cold sweat.
“N-no, not at all.
Since I promised you, the copper hammer is yours.” Blacksmith Wang’s smile was more painful to look at than a grimace.
Huang Yulang, however, burst out laughing, walked over, and clapped the blacksmith on the shoulder.
“Relax, I was just messing with you, Master Wang.
It’s not easy for blacksmiths like you to make a living by your strength.
I’ll pay what it’s worth.
Also, I’ll need to trouble you to forge a chain for it.
Money is no object.”
“Really?” The blacksmith was instantly excited and quickly pasted on a fawning smile.
Huang Yulang shot him a glare and headed outside.
“Get to it.
Dawdle any longer and this young master will take his business elsewhere.”
“Oh, don’t do that!
Right away!
I’ll get to work for you right away, young hero!” Blacksmith Wang was overjoyed and quickly scurried after him.
Huang Yulang didn’t leave right away.
Instead, he stayed to help.
After all, his strength was plain to see.
A chain over ten meters long would be a tough job for just Blacksmith Wang and his few apprentices to finish quickly.
The apprentices stoked the fire to smelt the iron ore.
As the molten iron flowed out and cooled into ingots, Huang Yulang, under Master Wang’s guidance, hammered and forged the metal.
To curry favor and enhance the chain’s durability and toughness, the blacksmith even added a generous amount of Iron Essence and Refined Steel.
In just under three days, an eighteen-meter-long, two-finger-thick iron chain was complete and fused to the hammer.
They even repolished his Eight-sided Copper Hammer, giving it an exquisite finish.
Huang Yulang went out to the courtyard.
With the chain wrapped around his waist, he brandished the copper Hammer, its swings whistling through the air with immense power.
With a casual toss, the copper Hammer shot through the air like a cannonball.
Huang Yulang spun in place.
Just as the Hammer was about to smash into the courtyard wall, he yanked the chain.
The Hammer instantly reversed course and flew back, and he caught it with ease, immensely satisfied.
“Amazing!
Young hero, you are so mighty!
Incredible, truly incredible!
This is the first time I, Blacksmith Wang, have ever seen someone wield such a weapon as if it were an extension of their own arm.
Absolutely masterful!”
Blacksmith Wang wasn’t just flattering him; he was genuinely stunned by Huang Yulang’s prowess.
A three-hundred-pound Hammer, plus an eighteen-meter chain of refined iron, had to weigh at least four or five hundred pounds combined.
This was truly Innate Divine Power.
At such a young age, Huang Yulang wielded it like an extension of his own body, throwing and pulling with flawless precision.
It would be impossible without true skill.
The apprentices were also dumbstruck, their gazes filled with awe as they watched Huang Yulang.
“Heh, just a little something,” Huang Yulang said smugly.
He coiled the chain again, hoisted the Eight-sided Hammer onto his shoulder, pulled ten one-hundred-tael silver notes from his clothes, and stuffed them into Blacksmith Wang’s hands.
“You’ve all worked hard these last few days.
The extra is a bonus for you and your apprentices.
This young master is leaving.”
With that, Huang Yulang turned and left, leaving the grateful master and his apprentices to thank him profusely.
However, the moment he straddled his horse, the animal let out a panicked whinny and collapsed.
Stunned, Huang Yulang quickly dismounted.
He glanced at the hammer and chain on his person and sighed in resignation.
‘Well, that’s that.’ The weapon was simply too heavy.
This was just an ordinary horse; it couldn’t possibly bear a weight so much greater than its own.
Just then, Blacksmith Wang and his apprentices came out to see him off and were stunned by the scene.
Huang Yulang simply smiled.
“Forget it.
The horse is yours,” Huang Yulang said, then departed with a swagger, leaving the blacksmith and his apprentices with wry smiles on their faces.
After buying a few jars of wine and placing them in his Storage Pouch, Huang Yulang sauntered out of the city.
However, he did not continue east, instead heading straight for a mountain range about thirty miles to the southeast.
According to the memories he’d sorted from Yun Ji, the mountain range to the southeast was called Baixian Mountain.
Legend said that a very, very long time ago, an immortal descended from the heavens and landed there.
Countless people journeyed into the mountains to worship, and so it earned its name.
Later, many Cultivators gathered there, hoping for a fated encounter with an immortal, but alas, no one ever saw one.
Some Cultivators, unwilling to leave empty-handed, simply repaired some cave residences in the mountains and settled down.
However, for some unknown reason, the Spiritual Qi in the mountains grew increasingly sparse.
The vast majority of Cultivators decisively left, leaving behind many vacant cave residences.
Afterward, some Loose Cultivators with low cultivation levels began to appear in the mountains, searching for opportunities.
They traded items they no longer needed among themselves, and over time, a small, somewhat famous Fang Market formed.
Huang Yulang was, of course, heading for this Fang Market.
Although he had gleaned much information about Cultivators from Yun Ji’s memories, a lot of it was incomplete and required him to investigate for himself.
The vegetation on Baixian Mountain was lush, and wild beasts could be glimpsed from time to time.
To Huang Yulang’s frustration, it seemed Yun Ji had looked down on this backwater Fang Market for Loose Cultivators and had likely never been there.
That meant Huang Yulang could only search for it all over the mountainside.
As he searched, Huang Yulang practiced with his Flying Hammer.
He leaped into the air, Eight-sided Copper Hammer in hand, and brought it crashing down on a giant boulder.
BOOM!
With a muffled crash, the boulder shattered, and the force of the impact sent Huang Yulang stumbling back.
Seeing the result, however, Huang Yulang was thrilled.
He charged forward a hundred meters and let the copper Hammer fly from his hand, smashing it directly into a tree as thick as a dinner bowl.
BAM!
The bowl-thick tree snapped in two.
Before the copper Hammer could hit the ground, Huang Yulang yanked the chain.
The Hammer shot back, its chain wrapping around another tree.
“Hah!” With a great shout, Huang Yulang pulled with all his might.
With a sharp CRACK, that tree also snapped.
Hearing the commotion, birds flapped their wings and took to the sky, while smaller, cleverer animals scattered in all directions.
“Hahahaha!” Huang Yulang laughed in excitement, running wildly as he swung the hammer and chain, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake.
About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a middle-aged man and woman came strolling along.
But when they saw the scene of utter destruction, their expressions immediately grew grave.
The woman frowned at the man.
“Tian, could there have been a Magical Combat here?
Why is it such a mess?
But there don’t seem to be any lingering fluctuations of Spiritual Qi.
How strange.”
The man surveyed the area, then shook his head.
“From the looks of it, this wasn’t a battle.
It seems more like someone destroyed all this with sheer brute force.”
“With brute force?
How is that possible?
I doubt even a late-stage Qi Refining expert wielding a hammer-type Magical Artifact could cause this much destruction!”
The man’s expression also grew grave.
He strode to a snapped tree trunk, examined it, and said seriously,
“These are definitely the marks of a large hammer.
There’s no residual aura of Magical Power.
It must have been broken by someone wielding a hammer with pure physical strength.”
The woman was even more astonished.
She frowned at the man and said,
“Are they insane?
Do they have so much strength they don’t know what to do with it?
Smashing things for fun with a giant hammer?
What’s wrong with them?”
But the man just frowned slightly.
“Yu Mei, don’t speak so recklessly.
I can’t be sure of their cultivation level, but anyone who can shatter a tree this thick so easily with a hammer must have astounding physical strength.
They could well be a Cultivator who trains in both their Dharma Body and magical techniques.
That’s not someone we want to provoke.
Say no more, lest you invite disaster.”
The woman, however, seemed unconcerned.
The two of them were fairly well-known among Loose Cultivators.
When fighting together, they could even hold their own against an expert at the peak of Qi Cultivation.
Many who had tried to rob them on the road had died by their hands.
‘A Dharma Body dual cultivator?
So what?’ The woman was disdainful.
How could the man not see what his wife was thinking?
He patted her on the shoulder and urged her seriously,
“Yu Mei, we’ve killed a few witless Loose Cultivators on our journey, but that was just luck.
We haven’t encountered a true expert yet.
This is a wide world, full of strange things.
The Spiritual Qi in the dozen or so surrounding nations may be thin, but that doesn’t guarantee a powerful expert won’t show up.”
“When traveling, it’s always best to keep a low profile to avoid attracting trouble.
Don’t forget our purpose for coming here.” The woman seemed to recall something, and her gaze dimmed for a moment.
Then, she playfully stuck her tongue out at the man.
“I know, Tian.” Only then did the man relax.
He took her hand, and they skirted the area, heading deeper into Baixian Mountain.
Aimlessly searching for the Fang Market, Huang Yulang stumbled upon an abandoned cave residence.
It was completely empty.
Seeing that the sky was growing dark, he put away his copper Hammer and decided to spend the night there.
He took out the Array Banners for his Spirit Gathering Array, placed them around the cave, and sat down cross-legged to meditate.
The Spiritual Energy Vortex within his body began to turn slowly.
Streams of emerald-green Magical Power flowed along specific meridians in a Great Cycle, endlessly nourishing his whole body.
But it had been nearly two months, and the Spiritual Energy Vortex remained saturated.
The nurturing of his Dantian and meridians was still far from enough to break through to the second level of Qi Refining.
At this rate, he feared it would take at least another year or two of cultivation before he could break through.
‘Sigh.’ Huang Yulang let out a frustrated sigh.
He calmed himself and continued to meditate.
In the dead of night, Huang Yulang faintly heard two sets of footsteps—one light, one heavy—approaching his cave.
His eyes snapped open, and he quickly pulled out the Array Banners.
“When we go to the Fang Market this time, I hope we can trade for more Elixirs.
We’re running low, and my cultivation progress is just too slow!” The voice that spoke was gruff and frustrated.
Immediately after, a second, slightly hoarse voice could be heard.