Chapter 75: Apathy - The Deep Forges.
'Asura Smith… what a name to be given…' Shu He thought to himself as he paced along the metal grate, light clanging sounds echoing out as his feet meet the metal.
After getting a quick explanation from the man he had asked for directions, apparently the upper layers were where the mortals did most of the work and the cultivators and sect members did their work below, Yun Jiang was the same, or rather he lived down there apparently, so did most other disciples that joined the Forging Division.
'Such preferential treatment…' he felt a little left out, apparently they didn't just live in small caves with basic décor like the other outer disciples, but they're granted a proper house equipped with all they need to live like a NEET and work away on their forging and craftsmanship.
"Guess that shows how much this sect values those that are skilled at blacksmithing or crafting…" he muttered to himself as he made his way to the large metallic pillar, the closer he got the more he could see that it was not only a major support pillar for all these platforms, but it seems to be an actual building as well, it seemed to pierce down in to the depths of the mountain deep in the magma so he couldn't tell just how deep it went.
The reason he was heading over to the pillar was because in order to descend to the lower layer he'd need to use the stairwell here, said stairwell being a massive set of stairs formed from thick metal plates that wrapped around the large metal pillar in a spiral leading all the way to the bottom, there were other ladders and stairs down however those were towards the outer circumference of the platform or were behind barriers he wasn't allowed to access.
Either way, he had thanked the man that told him about this information with a couple of large silver coins, he still kept some ordinary currency on him just in case he needed it and since the man was a mortal, he probably had use for it and he was correct, the man's face glowed when presented with the coins thanking him gratefully as he walked off.
"But really, Asura Smith? I can't see it at all, not that old man" He spoke to himself as he tried to picture Yun Jiang as an asura, but it wasn't quite working in his mind, sure the old man had a build that didn't match his age, but his mannerisms felt the complete opposite.
He remembers when he first met him, he had damaged his bow during his lessons for the first time and his father said to take it over to his store to get a new one made, so he did.
When he arrived at the store it was quiet as if nobody was home, Shu He took it upon himself to look around and arrived in the back yard of the store where he saw a lot of tools hanging on racks plus many wooden sculptures placed around the yard, there were boars, birds, insects, tigers, bears, a myriad of different species all with the likeness captured in wood.
He heard gentle tapping as he followed the source of the sound and when he arrived he saw someone sitting on a tree stump with another in front of him, he steadily held a chisel and hammer in his hand as he rhythmically tapped the two together, slowly shaving off shavings of wood the flew away in the gentle breeze, Shu He could see that the sculpture was supposed to the that of an owl from the initial shape but right now it looked like a low poly model you'd see on an old games console.
He felt like he shouldn't disturb the old man, so he gently took a seat on the grass where he was and began watching, waiting for the old man to take a break and notice him.
But he never did.
And so Shu He became entranced watching him work, his gentle but precise work was mesmerising to watch, and each movement was incredibly refined as if done thousands of times before, the old man didn't even show signs of tiredness or heavy breathing it was like he was a machine made to perform a single task without tiring.
And before his eyes, an owl made of wood formed, if he had seen it perched on a tree in the forest he'd struggle to determine whether it was real or not at first, that's how good it was.
He had sat still for hours, and when it finished the old man stood up and looked at the sculpture from the distance.
Yet Shu He saw something he didn't expect, there wasn't joy or pride in the old man's expression.
Just apathy.
As if he knew he could make something like this, like he was hoping to see something different.
To this day, Shu He was never able to understand what the old man wanted.
What Yun Jiang wanted.
That was his first time meeting him, and even in the short time he became closer to him in the journey to Orefine he never found out, he just became more familiar.
Shu He stood before the solid silver staircase that had signs of rust showing in some corners.
"I wonder if I'll be able to find out…" He murmured as he began to descend.
…
"You'll want to head to the deep forges if you want to find that guy, take care though it gets quite hot there" Another disciple warned Shu He as he stood on the last layer of the 'camp'.
'Camp my ass, this place is a fortress!' He rebutted in his head.
"Thanks for the warning" Shu He nodded in thanks as he made his way towards the outer parts.
'I can't believe it! He threw away a proper house to live in the forges!' Shu He shook his head with disbelief, apparently Yun Jiang certainly did live in a higher layer when he first arrived here, but because of his talent with forging he kept being moved down, and eventually he outright asked the division head to be given a deep forge to himself.
At first, he was refused, why wouldn't he be, he was still fairly new so the head didn't want to show much favouritism, yet the more things he made and the more intense his forging became, the more other people near him became affected so in the end he was chucked into a deep forge so he wouldn't disturb others.
'Is this the same old man I saw back then?!' Shu He questioned his memory the more he heard.
He came before another wider cave, this time however it was lined with metal plates and next to it was a counter where a disciple was sitting.
"Hm? Are you a new division member?" The man sitting at the counter asked him while looking him up and down.
"No I'm here to visit someone." Shu He shook his head and explained.
"Visit…? These are the deep forges, if you want to visit a friend they'll be on the upper levels" The man kindly directed.
"Um, my friend is currently in the deeper forges".
"Even if they are you should wait until they come out, you shouldn't disturb a craftsman doing their work" The man's tone made it clear he was scolding Shu He for his actions.
Shu He just sighed lightly as he scratched his head.
"No, I mean the person I want to visit is Yun Jiang" He explained once more, clearly.
"…Come again?" The man stared at him wide eyed as he picked his ear with his pinkie, clearly not believing what he just heard.
"I said, I'm here to visit Yun Jiang!" He raised his voice slightly, making sure the man heard it.
"That old demon has friends?!!!!" He exclaimed as his expression twisted in disbelief.
Shu He crossed his arms as his brows furrowed "Has he really been that bad?"
"He gave his neighbours nightmares with the noises he makes while forging…" The man recounted, his face slightly pale.
"Seriously…?"
'What the hell happened?' Shu He felt even more lost than ever.
"Well… if it's him it should be fine, here" The man pointed to a device on the desk.
Shu He knew the general rules already, so he grabbed his token and placed it in the device, it flashed for a second and then he removed it.
"I granted you access to the deep forge he occupies, it's the one on the far right of the first level".
"Thanks" Shu He bowed and entered the metal tunnel.
"If you can do something about that guys yelling, then please do" A pleading yell came from behind as he entered.
A wry smile formed on Shu He's face "I'll see what I can do" he said.
The tunnel went quite deep, and after he had walked for a minute he felt a clear incline form.
'We're going below the magma level then' He thought as he looked around.
Other than the metal plating on the tunnel walls, there seemed to be pipes leading from the outside and deeper in, he wasn't sure what was inside, as it definitely wasn't cover for electrical wires.
'Maybe air? I think I've heard that deep in mines it can be dangerous due to lack of oxygen…' He theorised in his head as he went deeper.
He could feel the temperature rising with every minute, outside in the main area was already hot enough but now it was starting to cause him to sweat quite a lot.
Soon he reached a level area which was a hallway lined with thick metal doors.
'I guess this is where he spoke about' He began walking along looking on the doors, they too were marked with numbers like a lot of the other areas in this sect, he travelled along until he got to the end of the hallway, there was another tunnel leading deeper, but he wasn't going to head there, instead he turned to the door on his right.
It was spaced far away from the other doors, on the other side of the room there was a similar door, so the hallway was symmetrical.
'Are these rooms special?'
The room number was 32, he placed his token near the metal plate next to the door and a clank sound echoed as the door slightly swung open, now unlocked.
Shu He opened it with his hand and immediately a wave of heat hit him dead in the face causing him to choke as he felt his saliva begin to evaporate.
'What the hell is this heat?!' He stared with dread at the hallway, luckily the initial heatwave was the worst of it likely from trapped heat, but it was still almost boiling.
He stepped in and began to walk through as the door slammed behind him, he could feel the skin on his feet and toes begin to warm up like he was standing on a frying pan causing his pace to speed up, eventually he reached another thin metal door which he quickly opened and hopped inside.
"What?!" He paused.
'It's cool here!' The room he had entered was as cool as a cold summer, he felt like he had just jumped into a freezer with the temperature difference.
He looked around and could see some furniture and a bed, there were metal pipes lining the roof corners some emitting cool white air.
'So that's what they're for, they contain air and water, they use formations along with those to create air conditioning!'
Of course, he knew that wouldn't be their only use, but it was certainly a luxurious one.
'I guess they couldn't live in the deep forges without cool living quarters' He reasoned to himself as his eyes locked with another door on the opposite side of the room.
He was reluctant.
Having come to a cool place after walking through that heated hell, he didn't want to leave it so soon, but he had to otherwise he'd be stuck here.
And so, he opened the door and stepped out.
Hell.
That was what it felt like, his sweat began evaporating and even his eyeball fluids felt like they were quickly drying up.
Out of instinct Shu He circulated his Qi throughout his body causing him to feel slightly more vitalised, he has still really hot, but he didn't feel like he was going to faint.
'Oh, why the hell didn't I do this before'.
Having discovered another use for qi, Shu He felt like slapping himself that he took this long to do it, now that he thought about it he never used his sight to observe the other cultivators here, were they doing it too? Was it common knowledge so no one told him?
He was going to sigh but before he could-
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
His heart almost jumped out of his chest.
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
"YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"
"GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
A cacophony of voices echoed through the hall in front of him, causing him to want to immediately go back.
'What in heavens?!'
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
The continued to echo ceaselessly.
'Are these the noises they spoke about?!'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ShiroN3K0
ShiroN3K0 Still ill so i'll be a bit slower with chapters right now.
Enjoy anyway!
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