Hao Ren was inside the refining hall, and he was working like a machine, every sword that he produced was better than the last, and the people were shocked. They didn''t understand how he managed to do this, even the Nine Star Master, Old Man Kai was shocked, he almost thought that he had been wasting his life.

    This monster called Hao Ren was going crazy and every ten swords, the percentage of Spiritual energy flow was increasing by one percent. This speed of growth was not unbearable, but even more so, abominable. They didn''t know what to do to make him stop, because one day, they ran out of materials that Hao Ren needed to make the sword.

    Today was the seventh day, his seven hundred swords he had refined, were all placed on a table, and they were neatly lined up. It was noon when Samaira appeared inside the workshop and she came under the cover of inspecting the articles. She checked them and then nodded in approval.

    She looked at Hao Ren and said using spiritual communication, as she held the sword in her hand and turned down to check it, "There is a news, the youngest of the five sons of Kano Ty is dead. He was killed by a girl, however, the old man left the corpse to be dealt by his eldest son and he went to the secret dungeon in his mansion. From what my spies gather, I am sure he is conspiring something big."

    Hao Ren nodded and said, "It seems that whatever he is planning to do is related to the liquid metal in his mind."

    Samaira agreed and asked, "What shall we do?"

    Hao Ren asked, "Get me to meet with Kano Ty once, I will decide then, is that possible?"

    Samaira thought and nodded before she said, "I will arrange something for you."

    Hao Ren nodded and then waved his hand at her to leave. Thankfully the people didn''t witness the interaction or they would have puked blood for him to treat the Director like this. Samaira had a small exchange with Elder Kai, who nodded repeatedly and then left the place.

    Old Man Kai sighed, and said, "Xiao Ren, you are so blessed. The Director just said that you will get a proper rest for a day from now on, and not to exhaust yourself."

    The young man nodded and bowed to Old Man Kai and then he left the refining hall to get to his room and comprehend all that he had learned. He was not etching the step by step improvisation entry on his Halo, it wasn''t a journal, but he was etching the meaning of refining the artifacts that he had come upon in the past few days.

    ...

    After a day, Hao Ren was back to refining the swords and he was growing even quicker than before. His hammer and his flames became the only thing that remained in the refinery, other people just stood by to watch him refine the swords. They were learning from his movements and his concentration. With everymove, his carved muscles rippled and the people could even detect the power generation path.

    Suddenly, Hao Ren said, "Muscles are like springs that store energy, if you move the springs, the energy moves with them too. All the muscles are connected, and when you move them all in a perfect sequence, they generate the maximum force you need. However, not every strike needs maximum force, so you ought to find the balance and the exact amount that you need to purify the metal and refine it with perfection.

    After your body, you need to sense the metal, that is the hard part after all, you are holding it with a pair of tongs, the best solution is to run your spiritual energy over the surface of the artifact and try to find the changes with every single strike. The method is exhausting but it works like magic.

    Also, each of you swines will get me wine for the lecture. I am not sharing it for free."

    The people broke away from the stupor and chuckled. Hao Ren paused and turned around to look at the people and said, "Old Kai, you have to note their names, and if they dared to skip the wine tribute, complain to the Director."

    Old Kai laughed and said, "You got it. I have some wine on me so take some from me first."

    Hao Ren chuckled and the rest of the people realized that he was not arrogant, he just didn''t like to talk much as he focused on his craft. After sharing a goblet of wine, Hao Ren said, "Old Kai, I will cook some spirit food for you lot on the occasion of my rank promotion."

    Silence!

    The entire place fell silent, and then Hao Ren raised the latest sword that he had refined and handed it to Old Kai who took the hint and channeled spiritual energy inside the sword and his hands shivered. He mumbled, "Perfect flow!"

    All the refiners who heard this got agitated as if they were chicken and have seen blood. Old Kai passed on the sword to the rest of the people and he looked at the young man beside him before asking, "You rascal, how long had you been hiding this? Were you holding back in your assessment?"

    Hao Re chuckled and said, "Hahahaha, I am not that omnipotent. I just broke through while refining last week. It gave me a lot of insights and when I pondered upon them I found many ways to solve the problems and improve my level. That was all."

    As he finished speaking, the people returned the sword, and Old Kai said, "Tomorrow is the day when Director Samaira comes for the weekly inspection, you should tell her about this, and she will take you to the assessment and handle your promotion process."

    Hao Ren nodded and said, "I will do just that, I also wish to meet with the other directors."

    Others thought he probably wanted to learn from the older people, but they didn''t know that he had another motive.

    ...

    Samaira was sitting inside her office, and reading a report, before she sighed and said, "This kid sure is a monster. He has my entire grassroot agents in his control. However, it is good that he is strong, he has no reason to deceive me. I heard that Xiao Yu has been searching for a nice mansion near the council, hmm, I shall help her out or she will keep searching in different districts like a brain dead puppet."

    Then she stood up and stretched her body before saying, "It is time I go and find Hao Ren again, Kano Ty is getting out of hand in search of Liquid Metal."

    ...

    When she came to the refining hall, she was shocked to find Hao Ren advancing to the pinnacle of the Ninth Star Refiner. She finally had the reason to throw this guy in a cage with Kano Ty and watch either one of them die and the other find her loyal. She was calculative despite the poison in her body because that was how humans worked in this world.

    She said, "Come with me to the directorate and we will get you a new badge."

    Hao Ren nodded and followed her, after they left the refinery, Samaira said, "I have some news."

    The young man said, "Listening."

    Samaira clenched her fists and forced herself to calm down, as she said, "Kano Ty''s eldest son has killed one of the researchers who gave him a clue."

    Hao Ren''s gaze turned cold and he asked, "What was the clue?"

    Samaira said, "It was something about the Liquid Metal being alive."

    Hao Ren shook his head and sighed as he said, "The loyalty they had is something you calculating cowards can never know. Bring me to Kano Ty, now."

    Samaira nodded and then they quickly came to the Council Tower, and Samaira was greeted with bows and praises, but she took Hao Ren to the chambers of the district directors hurriedly. She also gave him a calm hint when they were on the steps, "Please don''t do something too loud, it would be very risky."

    Hao Ren looked at her and said, "Don''t teach me. If I die, you would still get the best of it."

    Samaira gulped and came to the room of the southern director and knocked on the door.

    A hoarse voice sounded from inside, "Who is it?"

    Samaira said, "Director Kano, I have come here with a native from Crescent Moon, he has something to tell you."

    Hao Ren nodded at her, and the door was pulled open from the inside and an agitated old man appeared before the young man. The old man grabbed Hao Ren''s collar and asked, "What do you want to tell? Make sure that it is important or you will die."

    Hao Ren smiled calmly and said, "The Liquid Metal does not have spirit, it has technology, special arrays ingrained on the particles to make it work in different manners."

    His words shocked the old man and then Hao Ren said, "That is all that you will know."

    His hand was placed on Kano Ty''s abdomen and he unleashed his spiritual flames directly to burn a hole through the Dantian as if a spear of flames stabbing through Kano Ty''s body. Then Hao Ren used his other hand to slap Kano Ty, and sent him flying back inside the room, with Samaira watching the scene like a stupid wooden dummy.