Casting immortality in the furnace

Chapter 79 Identity

Inside the tea room, the aroma of pine resin rises gently, creating a pleasant fragrance.

A pot of clear spring water simmered on a small stove, and four cups of tea sat on the table, all exuding a ethereal charm.

Fan Zhou sat on the mat, his gaze passing through the open French windows to look at the pink and white lotus flowers in the pond, feeling deeply at ease.

Chen Sheng took a sip of tea and praised:

"Junior Brother Fan is now quite famous. His feat of defeating two of the Gumi's direct descendants has spread throughout the entire market."

Peng Yue looked on with envy:

"I've heard about this. Princess Changming personally placed her crown on your head in front of everyone. Such favor is truly the envy of all."

Fan Zhou touched the feathered serpent ring on his left middle finger, a series of images flashing through his mind, but in the end he just smiled slightly.

"It seems that Princess Changming gave me the golden crown out of respect for my master and to avoid antagonism between the two families."

Luo Yu, who had been silent all along, finally found a topic to talk about and spoke:

"After all, we just did a big business deal with Gumei, and we'll be doing a lot of business together in the future, so we definitely can't afford to ruin the relationship."

Peng Yue glanced at him and grinned slyly:

"Senior Brother Luo, Junior Brother Fan has now become a disciple of Peak Master Lou. Such a joyous occasion, shouldn't you treat us to a feast to celebrate?"

"That's easy to arrange, it just depends on when Junior Brother Fan is available."

Luo Yu looked somewhat embarrassed, but did not refuse.

After all, Fan Zhou has now transformed himself, becoming not only Lou Zhenqing's disciple but also favored by Princess Gumi. His status and position are completely different from before, so he naturally wants to maintain a good relationship with him to prevent Fan Zhou from harboring resentment over what happened before.

Fan Zhou knew what he was thinking and was happy to give Chen Sheng and Peng Yue face, so he smiled and said:

"Since Senior Brother Luo has put it that way, how about the night of the third day of the eighth lunar month?"

"Okay, it's settled then!" Peng Yue immediately agreed.

Chen Sheng chuckled and said to Luo Yu:

"Junior Brother Luo, I won't go anywhere other than Happy Forest."

Luo Yu picked up her teacup. "Sure, I'll book a private room later."

"Great, that's generous! I'll bring two jugs of good wine over, and we can all have a good drink," Chen Sheng said heartily.

Fan Zhou had never been to Happy Forest before, but he knew that there were many entertainment options and music and dance performances, and that the prices were very high.

He was about to ask what was going on when suddenly shouts came from outside:

"Is Senior Brother Fan home?"

Chen Sheng laughed and said, "It's most likely that someone has come to visit Junior Brother Fan."

"You guys talk first, I'll go take a look."

Fan Zhou walked out of the tea room and into the courtyard. When he opened the door, he found a handyman disciple standing outside.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Fan. This is an invitation from the Pipa Workshop. They invite you to attend their Autumn Equinox Song Festival on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month."

The servant disciple handed over a letter with both hands.

"A singing contest? I don't know anything about music."

Fan Zhou took the letter, feeling rather helpless.

These days, he has been receiving invitations to banquets and other events. The reasons given are mostly to introduce their own children to each other, and many of them also subtly express their intention to invest or marry off their daughters.

Of course, he declined them all.

"Wait a moment, I'll write them a reply."

Fan Zhou gave an instruction to the servant disciple and then turned back to the tea room.

"Junior brother, this Pipa Workshop sells musical instruments. Among its disciples are many talented and beautiful noblewomen. Wouldn't it be wonderful to go and admire them?" Chen Sheng said with a smile.

Peng Yu said enviously, "That's right. This Autumn Equinox Song Festival only invites people of high status. It would be a good thing to get to know a few disciples of famous masters."

They had heard what the servant disciple said and all thought it was a good thing and worth going.

Fan Zhou tossed the letter onto the desk, ground ink, and sighed:

"That's true, but unfortunately I have many things to attend to right now and simply don't have the time."

Chen Sheng and the other two exchanged glances, none of them quite understanding.

But Fan Zhou was telling the truth.

In terms of cultivation, he has just broken through the fourth level of embryonic breathing, and it is the time to make great progress.

In terms of skill, he has only just mastered the thirty-six-fold steel forging and urgently needs to stabilize his condition as soon as possible.

Not to mention that he also had to cultivate the Nine Absolute Sword and study books on various topics, he just wished he could be in two places at once.

Chen Sheng comforted him, saying, "Junior Brother Fan's diligence is commendable, but don't push yourself too hard and avoid unnecessary anxiety."

"Thank you for the reminder, senior. I will pay attention."

Fan Zhou responded, picked up his pen and wrote down a few words of polite refusal, then returned them to the handyman disciple, instructing him to deliver them to the people at the Pipa Workshop.

Luo Yu shook his head with a sense of regret.

He really wanted to go and see for himself, but unfortunately, he wasn't invited.

The group chatted and drank tea for a while longer. When the work bell rang, they packed up their things and headed to the workshop together.

Fan Zhou arrived at his workstation, heated the furnace, and continued forging a steel billet in his hand.

This steel billet is his best work in the past few days. It has reached the thirty-third refining stage and is only a little short of the thirty-sixth refining stage.

Dangdang Dangdang!

Sparks burst forth.

As the hammer fell, Fan Zhou once again focused intently on his work, his eyes fixed on the changes in the steel billet.

But after he folded the billet twice, the billet in his hand suddenly became limp and lost its toughness and hardness.

"Unfortunately, he stopped at the thirty-fifth level of the training."

Fan Zhou sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The elderly man, with a hunched back and gray hair, appeared beside him at some point and offered some guidance:

"Thirty-six refinings is the limit of the iron block in your hand. The closer you are to the limit, the faster you have to forge it and the more even your strength has to be. You can't reheat it in the furnace multiple times, otherwise it will be easy to melt the iron."

Fan Zhou nodded silently.

The old man glanced at him and asked:

"Do you have any other questions?"

Fan Zhou shook his head silently, not saying a word to him. He simply picked up a new piece of iron, put it into the furnace to heat it, and prepared to start over.

The old man walked away disappointedly, hands behind his back, muttering to himself:

"That brat isn't falling for it."

Fan Zhou smirked silently.

A few more days passed.

It's almost the end of July.

That night, the weapon forging workshop was quiet, and almost all the disciples had gone back to rest.

Only the forging room still had a fire, and the clanging sound of metal nails being struck could be heard continuously.

"Hahaha, thirty-six steel refineries, finally complete!"

A sudden burst of laughter swept away the silence of the night.

Fan Zhou picked up the gradually cooling steel sheet from the anvil.

After more than two months, he finally achieved this.

Looking at the dark steel sheet in front of him, Fan Zhou couldn't help but sigh:

"A five-pound iron block, after three days of forging, only yielded a small piece weighing seven or eight ounces."

"But this small piece of refined steel is worth far more than five catties of spirit iron."

"Does the change in people also resemble that of steel?"

Fan Zhou let out a soft sigh, put away the black steel sheet, cleaned the work area, and covered the furnace.

As he stepped out of the workshop, the full moon hung high in the sky, and the ground was covered in a silvery frost.

Bathed in the cool moonlight, Fan Zhou's body heat gradually subsided.

He slowly walked back to the courtyard, took out the last two pieces of the century-old He Shou Wu and swallowed them, then sat down on the mat to practice the Longevity Technique.