Chapter 700 — The Netherworld's Supreme Presses the Frontier

He is in fact a very easy man to talk to; it is only that, like Grandpa Silent Craftsman, the two of them are a little too fond of talking. " His primordial spirit came forward and set down the Heavenly Fire Prism and the Taotie Bags. Shen Mu at once took out some Tianyin gold, saying, "It is only that his current state is rather bizarre. Once I refine a vessel that can store the darkness for him, he will be normal.

.

.

hmm, he will still be very bizarre.

" The two girls exchanged a glance, their faces puzzled.

A sheet of human skin, a little too fond of talking? As talkative as Grandpa Silent Craftsman? That was indeed very bizarre.

Shen Mu drew a medium-sized smelting platform from the Taotie Bag, laid the Tianyin gold upon it, thrust the Heavenly Fire Prism into the furnace, and carefully controlled his vital essence to rouse the prism.

Suddenly a blaze of fire melted the smelting platform, vaporized it, leaving nothing behind.

Shen Mu's eyes went wide, and he was at a loss what to do. Before him was emptiness; even the Tianyin gold had been vaporized utterly away.

"To clear a path with this kind of flame would be extraordinarily quick!

" Yan Jingjing said delightedly.

Fear flickered in He Yiyi's eyes. She shook her head hurriedly and said in a low voice, "The slightest carelessness with this fire and it will burn us too, until nothing at all remains!

" Yan Jingjing was baffled. "Then just control the heat," she said.

She looked as though it were only natural, thinking that controlling the heat should be very simple. Something stirred in Shen Mu's heart.

"Little Sister Jing, this is the heavenly fire of Xuandu.

I am nowhere near your mastery at controlling heat. You try it. " Yan Jingjing stepped forward and roused the Heavenly Fire Prism with her vital essence.

The flame seemed to come alive, stretching its limbs and dividing into crystal-shaped tongues of fire, very calm and still. Shen Mu, cautious, took out more Tianyin gold, and controlling the grains of divine metal like sand, set them upon the flame; the Tianyin gold slowly melted.

"See?

It is very simple," Yan Jingjing said with a smile. Shen Mu's heart bloomed with joy.

He laughed. "Little Sister Jing's control of fire is indeed a cut above; I cannot come close.

From now on you can wander the streets and alleys with me, forging knives and grinding scissors for people, smelting a spoon or a ladle, hammering out a hoe or a shovel; you would be a dab hand at them all! " Using the melted Tianyin gold, he forged a delicate hourglass, marked with the divisions of the hours, and upon it he branded many rune marks.

This hourglass was somewhat similar to the Yin Son of Heaven's Heavenly Dipper, merely an imitation. The circulatory system the Yin Son of Heaven had set up was rather complex: the soul black sand circulated among the Wasteland, the Tianyin Realm, and the various heavens.

Shen Mu intended to use the hourglass made of Tianyin gold to store some soul black sand, and to let the soul black sand flow back and forth between the Kaihuang Divine Man's body and the hourglass. In this way a small circulatory system would take shape; so long as no error occurred in the markings of time, the Kaihuang Divine Man would, with the alternation of day and night, switch between human skin and human form. Tianyin gold was the divine gold of the Tianyin Realm, one of the few substances able to contain the black sand, and so it was the very best material for such refining.

Then Shen Mu refined a small tray, within which many gear components marked out precise divisions of time, divisions that followed the rising and setting of the sun and were not the ordinary measures of time. Moreover, upon each gear he branded rune marks, and these rune marks would enter into affinity with the Kaihuang Divine Man and serve to maintain the circulatory system.

Thus a small Tianyin Realm circulatory system would be formed.

When he had finished refining, he set the hourglass upon the tray, and continually refined the two treasures smaller and smaller, until they stood only two or three fingers tall, exquisitely delicate. Shen Mu then forged a ring, clasping the hourglass and tray in its midst, like a somewhat larger pendant; a single chain was all that was needed to hang it about the Kaihuang Divine Man's neck and maintain the circulatory system.

His refining done, he let out a breath and stretched. Yan Jingjing took the strangely shaped necklace and saw that besides its function it was also beautiful, so that one could not bear to put it down. Shen Mu turned and looked at the cliff wall, thinking, "I wonder how the battle between the Yin Son of Heaven and Lady Tianyin goes?

If Lady Tianyin cannot hold the Yin Son of Heaven within the Tianyin Realm, I fear she will still not escape death.

. .

" In the Tianyin Realm, above the great sea, a towering woman stood at the center of the ocean, rousing a pagoda of immeasurable height, doing battle with the Yin Son of Heaven across the worlds.