SSS-Rank 10x Reward System: Accepting Disciples to Live Forever-Chapter 227: Ling Huang in danger

Grandmaster-level blacksmith.

The words sat at the very top of the scroll, etched in bold, unyielding strokes that seemed to carry a quiet arrogance of their own.

Wang Chen’s eyes lingered on that single line.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

Then his eyelids lowered slightly, his gaze turning flat.

A faint silence settled around him.

The scroll in his hand, which had felt promising just a second ago, suddenly lost most of its appeal.

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

Grandmaster-level refinement.

Not intermediate.

Not advanced.

Straight to grandmaster.

His fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the scroll before loosening again.

There wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in his mind.

He didn’t know how to refine.

Not even the basics.

Forget grandmaster-level—he couldn’t even identify half the tools required for forging, let alone control them. The entire field of blacksmithing might as well have been an alien language to him.

The more he stared at that line, the more absurd it felt.

His lips twitched.

Then again.

And again.

A faint, helpless expression passed through his eyes before disappearing just as quickly.

Without saying anything, he lowered the scroll slightly, as if distancing himself from it would somehow make the requirement less ridiculous.

It didn’t.

The conclusion was obvious.

This so-called recipe...

Was completely useless to him.

The only path left—

Was the long one.

The painfully long one.

For a brief moment, Wang Chen’s thoughts drifted toward the Tower of Enlightenment.

A place where time stretched endlessly.

Where years blurred into decades.

And decades into centuries.

Just imagining himself being trapped there, spending thousands of years grinding through that slow, monotonous process—

His lips twitched uncontrollably.

The faint calm he had been maintaining cracked ever so slightly.

Just my luck...

The thought passed through his mind like a bitter echo.

Right at that moment—

A voice suddenly broke the silence.

"What happened, little cultivator?"

Mo Huyan’s voice echoed inside his mind.

It sounded casual at first.

But beneath that calm tone, there was a subtle instability.

A faint crack.

Something that hadn’t been there before.

She had seen it.

Every second of it.

The moment Wang Chen erased the ancient winged woman as if she had never existed.

That scene had burned itself into her memory.

The sheer horror of it—

The absolute, undeniable finality—

Even now, recalling it made something in her chest tighten.

Yet at the same time...

She was also someone who had watched Wang Chen grow.

Watched him struggle.

Watched him learn.

Even guided him along the way.

That contradiction alone was enough to make her thoughts feel unstable.

So she chose not to dwell on it.

Not now.

Not when she still needed her sanity intact.

Back in the present, Wang Chen’s body stiffened slightly.

The sudden voice caught him off guard.

For a split second, his mind blanked.

Even now, despite everything that had happened, he still wasn’t fully used to having others around him.

Voices that weren’t his own.

Presences that lingered.

It felt... intrusive.

Unnatural.

He had always been the kind of person who preferred solitude.

Quiet days.

Simple routines.

Moments spent appreciating the world without interruption.

A true loner.

The kind who found comfort in silence rather than company.

So when a voice suddenly appeared in his head—

His first instinct was still resistance.

A faint ripple of discomfort passed through him.

But it didn’t last long.

Recognition followed quickly.

His expression eased.

The tension faded.

Letting out a soft, almost absent-minded sigh, Wang Chen leaned back slightly.

His gaze drifted away from the scroll, toward nothing in particular.

"It’s nothing..."

His voice was calm.

Flat.

He didn’t bother explaining further.

There was no need.

Time would reveal everything on its own.

Just as Wang Chen leaned back, still half-annoyed at the useless scroll in his hand, a thought suddenly surfaced.

It wasn’t slow.

It didn’t build up.

It simply... appeared.

His fingers paused mid-air.

"Hmm..."

His gaze shifted slightly, unfocused for a brief moment.

"Nether Empress, do you happen to know anything about weapons...?"

The question had barely begun to leave his lips—

When everything changed.

Wang Chen’s pupils shrank.

The faint ease in his posture vanished instantly.

His body stiffened.

A sharp, invisible tension snapped into place.

How...?

From the depths of his perception, something had shifted.

No—

Something had disappeared.

Lin Huang.

The connection was still there... but wrong.

Before, it had been like a steady flame, clear and present within his awareness.

Now—

It was gone.

Not extinguished.

Not destroyed.

Just... gone.

As if it had slipped beyond the boundary of his perception.

As if it had been pulled out of the world itself.

Wang Chen’s breathing slowed.

His expression didn’t change much on the surface—

But deep inside, something sank.

Even across vast distances, he had always been able to sense Lin Huang’s presence. The bond between master and disciple was not so fragile.

And Lin Huang...

Was not weak.

Even if he had been on the Soaring Dragon Continent, handling the Yun family’s affairs, Wang Chen had never worried.

Because he knew.

Knew his disciple was safe.

But now—

That certainty was gone.

And it wasn’t just Lin Huang.

Another presence—

Fainter, but still familiar—

Had vanished as well.

Little Yunfei.

The realization struck like a silent hammer.

Wang Chen’s heart dropped..Hard.

What happened?

His thoughts began moving rapidly, one after another, sharp and precise.

Enemy?

Possible.

Highly possible.

But that raised another question—

Why didn’t Lin Huang call for help?

Before sending him away, Wang Chen had made it absolutely clear.

If there was danger beyond his control—

He was to call immediately.

No hesitation.

No pride.

So why...?

The room felt colder.

The scroll in Wang Chen’s hand slipped slightly before he let it fall back onto the table.

He didn’t even look at it.

His mind was already elsewhere.

A faint pressure gathered around him.

Not explosive.

Not chaotic.

Just... heavy.

Dense.

The kind of stillness that came before something broke.

After a brief moment—

He stood up.

The movement was smooth.

His actions Decisive.

No hesitation left.

He shook his head once, as if discarding unnecessary thoughts.

"Now isn’t the time to sit around."

His voice was low and Controlled.

"If I move fast enough... I might still catch something."

The air around him began to distort.

It started subtly.

A faint ripple.

Like the surface of water disturbed by a single drop.

Then—

The ripple expanded.

Space folded.

Layer upon layer, like paper being pressed together.

The world itself seemed to bend inward around Wang Chen’s figure.

His outline blurred.

The edges of his body softened.

Before anyone could notice—

He was gone.

Swallowed whole by the space that had wrapped around him.