He removed the necklace from his neck, holding it carefully in his hand as he examined it.
It seemed to reveal more when detached—was there something special about it?
He had always thought it was just a worthless necklace, but now he wondered what secret it might hold.
The necklace was simple: a carving of a knife attached to a chain. Curiosity took over, and he sent out his spirit sense toward it. What he discovered left him flabbergasted—a hidden space filled with small boxes.
He had never imagined that something he considered worthless could contain so much.
One by one, he began pulling out the boxes which are fifty in total—some small, others larger.
What could be inside? He hesitated to open them all, but his curiosity was stronger.
The first box revealed a metal unlike any he had seen before, radiating an eerie energy that sent a chill down his spine. Was it the cauldron nearby that made the necklace reveal this?
He examined the metal closely but could not discern its nature. Without wasting time, he collected some quarters of it and poured it into the cauldron's cabinet. The rest he stored carefully in his ring.
The second box held another unknown metal, equally strange and powerful. He repeated the process, pouring half inside the cauldron and storing the rest.
One by one, box three to the twenty contained metals of varying unknown origins, each emitting their own mysterious aura. He poured portions of all into the cauldron.
When he opened the twenty-first box, he found something different: a bone of unknown origin, yet clearly strong, exuding a desolate beast's aura. The bone seemed almost alive, breathing faintly. Still, he placed it inside the cauldron cabinet.
Boxes twenty-two to twenty-five held more bones of different beasts, which he added as well.
The twenty-sixth box contained a fine powder of unknown composition, which he also poured in, unsure of its purpose.
Each box seemed to hold materials for crafting—liquids, powders, even blood of strange beasts. He used some of the blood but stored the rest for later.
The forty-first box held a detailed, large map of unknown lands, which he carefully folded and stored in his ring without hesitation. The forty-second contained the blood of a powerful beast het again, part of which he kept, leaving some behind.
The next box contained a sheet made from ancient animal skin. Whatever creature this skin came from must have been powerful, for the texture was unlike anything he had ever felt.
He unrolled the skin, revealing drawings of various weapons: daggers, spears, arrows, bows, twin blades resembling katanas, and a dozen short knives arranged in a circular pattern. There was even a flute, which made him wonder if it too could be used as a weapon, and a chain whip blade—short but with a long, flexible chain handle.
He was amazed by the aura that emanated from the drawings.
Then came the forty-third box, containing a crystal divided into three chambers—one red, one clear, and one black. When he touched the red chamber, it burned his hand. The clear chamber was icy cold, almost moving like water. The black chamber, however, gave off no sensation at all and felt utterly unnatural. Feeling uneasy, he placed it inside the cabinet.
Most of the remaining boxes held powdered substances, and the last box contained a stone that seemed to hold the power of the entire world. It was heavy, and energy swirled violently inside it.
After placing everything in the cabinet, he checked the necklace once more. Inside was a wrapped cloth in one corner. Unwrapping it revealed a storage ring, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open it.
Satisfied for now, he turned his attention back to the cabinet and the animal skin with the weapon drawings. To bind any weapon crafted here to himself before they are fully craft, he cut his finger and let his blood drip onto the animal skin's back.
This would make him the sole master of any weapon forged, ensuring no one else could wield it as long as it existed, then put it inside the cauldron as well.
Pushing the cabinet closed, he returned to the stone control panel near the cauldron—and what he saw next amazed him.
The buttons, once engraved with a fixed set of weapons, had transformed.
Now they displayed the weapons from the animal skin and the cabinet, all glowing and shining. Some previous buttons remained__showcasing the ancient armory in brilliant detail.
Without hesitation, he pressed the fire button.
The temperature of the entire area began to rise drastically.
Even outside the smithing hall, the heat could be felt. If Lin Wei had been outside, he would have noticed that herbs in the outer world were slowly withering—some drying up entirely.
The cauldron was absorbing energy, not just from the forging materials inside, but also from the surrounding world. Subtly, quietly, it drew spiritual essence from nearby plants—so subtly that only those with high cultivation could detect it.
But soon, the cauldron stopped absorbing external energy. Something had changed. If Lin Wei were inside the cauldron chamber, he would have sensed it too—the swirling energy from the mysterious stone that seems to contain heaven and earth energy that seems to be swirling within had awakened.
The cauldron no longer needed outside help; it was now being powered from within.
The temperature rose steadily, and Lin Wei, sitting cross-legged in the refining room, began to sweat profusely without touching a single thing.
Yet, strangely, he felt himself growing stronger—his body was being tempered by the heat, refined like a weapon in the forge.
A whole month passed like this.
The heat was intense becoming unbearable to him but Lin Wei endured. The pressure inside the room was refining not just weapons but him.
His muscles, bones, even his organs were slowly being strengthened.
Then, one day, he heard it: clang!—the unmistakable sound of metal being hammered within the cauldron.
The true refining had begun.
And so had his opportunity.
Feeling the heat surge once more, and knowing a breakthrough was near, Lin Wei retrieved a particular flower from his storage ring—a flower he had picked inside the barrier protected frame that cause up to forty beasts to start chasing him.
He was stunned as he looked at it closely for the first time.
"This... this is the Primordial Chaos Lotus," he muttered, disbelief in his voice. "A long-lost herb… even the lower realms don't mention it anymore."
This wasn't just any spiritual herb—it was a divine-grade treasure used for complete body reconstruction, bone transformation, and marrow cleansing.
He had unknowingly picked a treasure that should not have existed in this world.
Without further thought, he placed it into his mouth.
The lotus melted instantly, sending a surge of scorching and icy energy down his throat. His temperature skyrocketed.
Veins bulged across his skin as his pores excreted black impurities. The chaotic energy of the herb coursed through his meridians, bones cracking, muscles tearing and reforming.
He screamed.
But he endured.
The cauldron's own heat fused with the herb's power, pushing him past his limits. He felt like his very breath was on fire.
His body rolled on the ground in agony, overwhelmed by the fusion of inner and outer heat. The power of the Primordial Chaos Lotus was simply too vast to consume raw—it was meant to be refined into a pill or diluted in a spirit bath.
Yet he had swallowed it whole.
And now it was reshaping him completely.
Then, snap! Something broke inside him. A dam burst open.
He had broken through—reaching Body Tempering Level 13.
Yet the pain didn't stop.
More impurities were expelled. His hair began to fall off and regrow repeatedly. His skin cracked, then reformed. His bones shattered, then were rebuilt—stronger, denser, tougher.
It was as though a divine artisan was carving his body anew, using his very pain as the chisel.
Hours later—another breakthrough.
Level 14. Then Level 15.
Each leap brought more agony. His body wasn't just being tempered—it was being remade into something beyond human.
By the end of the week, Lin Wei reached Body Tempering Level 16—a realm unheard of. His tattoos, once faint marks, now looked alive like the veins of unknown beasts or ancient creatures dancing beneath his skin at the left side of his chest.
But this... was only the beginning.