CHAPTER 528: FLAMING HAMMER.

Hao Ren walked around the city and soon he came to a seemingly average mansion. The place was emitting strong vibrations from the forging hammers moving inside the boundaries. He smiled and walked up to the door. The guards stopped him, "Hey! Where do you think this is?"

Hao Ren didn’t wish to argue and took out the form that he had taken from the wall of the council and said, "I am here for the assistant job."

The guards inspected the paper and they were shocked. They exchanged glances and one of them asked, "Brother, are you new to the city?"

Hao Ren nodded calmly and said, "Yes, what is this about?"

The guard sighed and said, "That explains it. Well, go in, and be careful."

Hao Ren thanked them and entered the courtyard. What he saw surprised him, because this place was nothing like what it seemed from the outside. He imagined there would be at least one garden when he entered, but all the open places have been occupied by small furnaces and anvils as young disciples stood their and swung hammers from time to time to refine artifacts.

There were at least three dozen people refining artifacts with great focus in their eyes. The young man took a deep breath and looked around, before he found an old butler standing on the side. He approached the old butler and asked, "Elder, I am here for the job of the assistant, can you tell me where is the Grandmaster?"

The old butler was surprised and asked, "Can you show me your Master’s badge?"

Hao Ren nodded and took out the badge of a refining master. The old man nodded and after inspecting the badge he said, "You sure are a talent in the refining world."

Hao Ren smiled and asked, "Can you lead me to the Grandmaster Flaming Hammer?"

The old butler nodded and then led him to the back of the courtyard where there was a single furnace and anvil sat in the garden. Hao Ren looked around and the butler said, "Please wait here."

Hao Ren nodded and inspected the place with his spiritual sense. The butler went to the room on the side, and after a few minutes, the butler returned with a grumpy old man. Hao Ren turned to face the old man, he found that the person had a burly build, but his hair was scattered and one of his eyes were missing, replaced with a scar.

While the young man was looking at the old man, the old man was also looking at Hao Ren, and he asked, "You are the kid who came for the job?"

Hao Ren nodded and replied, "Yes, Grandmaster."

The old man said, "Ignite the furnace and smelt a few metals for me. Refine your best weapon and then show it to me."

Hao Ren nodded and walked up to the furnace, he wanted to use his own flame but then he stopped and decided against it. He looked under the furnace and found an array on the ground. He channeled his spiritual energy through the array formation and the furnace lit up.

Then he picked up a few chunks of metal and tossed them inside the furnace. It appeared as if he was acting very casually but his measurements were all on point. Grandmaster Flaming Hammer looked at the situation nodding in approval. The young man waited for a few minutes, and then he used his spiritual energy to bring out the smelted metal and placed it all on the anvil and held it all together in the shape of a spear.

This was not Hao Ren’s best weapon, and his spear crafting was still behind the Swords, so to stick with his character of a master refiner he went ahead and forged the spear. The young man didn’t use any of his special visions this time. However, even then, his creation had some defects.

After an hour of refining, when Hao Ren finished refining the spear, he handed it over to Grandmaster Flaming Hammer. The old man gazed at the spear for a bit and then he took it in his hand and began to inspect it calmly. After five minutes, he nodded and replied, "Hmmm, good. You are hired, I will give you thousand spirit stones for a week."

Hao Ren replied, "Thank you, Grandmaster. However, if you permit, may I ask you a question?"

Grandmaster Flaming Hammer nodded and Hao Ren asked, "Grandmaster, can you tell me what are the things that I need to do?"

The old man gazed at him for a few minutes and then said, "I only need you to handle the master level orders that are coming over. However, let me remind you, none of your produces could be lower than this."

Hao Ren nodded and replied, "Yes."

That said, the old man replied, "Steward Hami will be your coordinator."

Steward Hami bowed to the old man and then the Grandmaster left the place. Hao Ren looked at Hami and the latter said, "Master Ling, please come along with me. I will bring you to your lodgings."

Hao Ren followed the old man and they reached a room located on the side. Hao Ren settled inside the place and Hami said, "Master Ling, these are the orders that you need to handle."

Hao Ren looked at the scroll, and after looking at the list, he sighed and said, "Shall I start now?"

Hami smiled slightly and replied, "That would be the best."

Hao Ren stood up and went to the furnace in the courtyard before taking out his forging hammer and then placed the scroll on the side, before he took some chunks of metals from the side and began to smelt them. He looked at the side and said, "Steward Hami, can you get me even more metal?"

The old man nodded and replied, "I will get it right away."

The Grandmaster had a lot of metal reserves. The young man began to hammer his way through the scroll and while he was doing this, he began to comprehend everything slowly as well.

Hami watched on the side and after a few hours, he was surprised to see that Hao Ren was refining artifacts very swiftly, and while he was just a steward, he himself was a master refiner. He inspected the quality of the artifacts and found that while none of them was lower than the artifact that Hao Ren had created earlier, some of them were even better in quality.

He gulped and thought about how he wasted his life compared to how this young man before him was moving forward. Hami thought Hao Ren would stop after refining five artifacts. However, Hao Ren seemed to have forgotten about the concept of breaks.

He was throwing chunks of metal inside the furnace to smelt them all, and then he began to refine them all into sabers, daggers, and swords as per the order mentioned on the scroll. Hao Ren crafted a total of twenty artifacts and then he said, "Elder Hami, please see to it that these artifacts are delivered to the clients."

Hami nodded and said, "Yes, Master Ling."

Then Hao Ren went inside his room, and then he sat down with his legs crossed. After that he moved his hand to cast a barrier around him before immersing himself in meditation. Hao Ren was refining his saint halo, but it was not to increase his level, but it was only to refine the quality of his halo even more.

He spent an entire night in meditation. Soon, the next day came up, and Hao Ren went out in the courtyard and began to refine the weapons on the scroll once again. His falling hammer was strong and stern. He was immersed in refining the artifacts and didn’t realize that Old Man Flaming Hammer was watching him from the side.

The Grandmaster had been cultivating inside his room, but he was disturbed by the clangs of hammer. He came out to check who it was and was stunned when he spotted Hao Ren standing in front of the anvil wielding his hammer.

Hao Ren was not wearing a shirt and Grandmaster Flaming Hammer was impressed. When Hao Ren stopped after refining an artifact, he spotted the old man and greeted him with a bow. Grandmaster Flaming Hammer nodded and asked, "What is the hammering technique that you use?"

The young man replied calmly, "Basic Hammering Technique."

This caused the old man to raise his brow and he remarked, "Seems like your comprehension skills are higher. No wonder you can bring out such a high potential of this technique to this level."

Hao Ren smiled faintly and replied, "It is because of practice, Grandmaster, nothing special."

Flaming Hammer walked over to him and said, "Let me show you my technique, if you can comprehend it, you will gain a lot of experience."

Hao Ren was surprised but before he could say anything, the old man raised the hammer and when he swung it down towards the anvil, Hao Ren saw that the hammer seemed to be rubbing against the void and catching heat, before turning orange.

He gulped a mouthful and remarked, "Flaming Hammer, it makes sense now."