Chapter 280: Refining The Gold

Lin Mu almost recoiled in shock after seeing the current look of Jing Wei. He had doubts whether he was really seeing this or if he was hallucinating.

Jing Wei finally noticed the two of them enter the workshop and turned to look at them.

"Excellent time! I finally got the right methodology, this is going so well!" Jing Wei uttered with joy.

Lin Mu felt creeped out by his current behaviors and felt like he needed to stay a meter away from the old man.

Duan Ke was unfazed by this though and walked forward with ease. She came to stand at a short distance from the forge and then placed the three packages there. She had stored them into her spatial treasure and was now simply depositing them here.

Lin Mu felt a bit strange as to why she had stepped away from the forge instead of directly giving it to Jing Wei. But then he soon witnessed the reason. After placing the packages down, Duan Ke went four meters back and came to stand beside Lin Mu.

Then a barrier appeared just ahead of the packages and expanded to engulf them. 

"Ignite!" Jing Wei shouted.

~Crackle~

~Whoosh~

A stream of fire came out from the furnace, looking like a flowing river. The fire was extremely hot and Lin Mu could feel its heat from his position. The temperature of the workshop had just increased by at least ten degrees. 

If it were any other commoner here, they would have already gotten burns on their skin and they would have fainted due to the heat. When Lin Mu originally entered the workshop, it was already hot being at around fifty degrees, but now it had reached sixty degrees where a normal human would not survive for long.

Although Lin Mu felt the heat, it was not painful for him and it seemed the same as normal for him. He did not feel as if his body was under any kind of distress. The vital energy circulating within him was protecting him and isolated him from the heat in a unique manner.

Lin Mu observed the stream of fire touch the packages, instantly burning away the canvas coverings and revealing the gold hidden beneath. The crudely manufactured gold glutted under the orange flames and looked dazzling to the eyes. Its deformed look did not hamper its appeal, but rather highlighted its beauty.

"Engulf!" Jing Wei shouted next as he gestured with his hands. 

His left hand was gesturing towards the gold and the stream of fire, while his right hand was towards the forge.

The stream of fire surrounded the bars of gold, which had now melted slightly to become one large block of gold instead. The fire lifted the gold block and pulled them towards each other. The three blocks of gold collided with each other and became softer and softer.

"Merge!" Commanded Jing Wei.

The block of gold melted together and formed a sphere of liquid gold, which glowed with a golden shine.

Lin Mu was watching the entire process with rapt attention and did not miss even one second of it. He even slowed the blinking of his eyes so that there were lesser chances of missing something that was quick.

"Refine!" Jing Wei shouted with fervor.

And along with his shout, his hands started to move in different styles. They formed multiple gestures, the meaning of which Lin Mu could not perceive. 

The golden ball of molten gold was quite large and had the diameter of almost a meter. If such a large among of gold was ever revealed outside, there would definitely be a myriad of greedy eyes gazing at it, if not outright fighting for it.

The gold ball started turning and spun around. The spinning got faster and faster until a change occurred. The gold ball started reducing in size and the heat emanating from the fire increased.

"More! More! More!" Jing Wei kept on urging.

About five minutes passed at the end of which the gold ball was spinning at a blinding speed and a sharp whirring sound could be heard. The gold ball had now reduced to the size of a football and was still floating in the air while being surrounded by flames.

"Not enough! I need more!" Jing Wei declared before gesturing with both his hands.

"DUAN KE! Restrict the Forge!" He ordered.

A serious expression appeared on Duan Ke's face as she flourished her hands and took control over the forge. The formations that were previously glowing around Jing Wei were now surrounding her. But unlike Jing Wei, she seemed to be greatly troubled by this. 

Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and her breathing became heavier.

"Do you need help?" Lin Mu asked with concern.

"NO! You just keep on looking and don't disturb us!" Duan Ke spoke in a curt tone which immediately made Lin Mu shut up.

Duan Ke then gritted her teeth and focused on the task at her hands. It was evident that controlling the forge was much harder for her than it was for Jing Wei, who seemed to have been doing it effortlessly.

Lin Mu tenured back to look at Jing Wei and saw the football sized mass of gold float to in front of Jing Wei. The old man then extended his rough and calloused hands before placing them around the gold ball. They were not touching the ball and were simply hovering around it.

"Condense for me!" Jing Wei ordered in an authoritative tone and making the gold ball spin even faster.

Jing Wei started moving his hands closer, which now made the gold ball shrink even further, until it reached the size of a cantaloupe.

~HAAAA!~

The old man yelled with vigor as he forced his hands together, this time touching the gold ball. 

~Sizzle~

A sizzling sound was heard as Jing Wei's hands made contact with the fierily hot gold ball. But strangely enough, no burning smell appeared from it as one would expect.

~Shing~

Suddenly a green glow burst from the gold ball.