For three consecutive days, the wind and snow had wrapped Iron Wall Pass into a colossal silver beast. Only the "Ancient Formation Repair Workshop" under the jurisdiction of the Vessel Hall remained a seething cauldron of heat.

Located above an underground lava cave in the southeast corner of the pass, it drew earth fire year-round for forging.

As the heavy Mystic Iron door was pushed open just a crack, a wave of heat, laced with the smell of scorching and the clang of metal on stone, rushed out. It instantly licked the ice crystals clinging to Su Ming's hair into wisps of steam.

Su Ming had just finished handing over his watch duty at the Mysterious Ice Platform when an urgent order transferred him here.

"That new formation master? Come here."

The speaker was a middle-aged cultivator dressed in dark red work clothes. His ruddy face looked perpetually seared by furnace flames, his hands were covered in thick calluses, and a purple-gold hammer of unknown material hung at his waist.

This man was precisely the Vessel Hall steward in charge of the ancient formation repairs here, Zheng Tieshou.

For Zheng Tieshou, the only standard was whether you could do the work; all other empty titles were bullshit.

He pointed to a stone table piled with scrap in a corner of the workshop. "There's a tricky job over there. A damaged part of the 'Minor Dutian Thunder Roar Formation' sent over from Bing Battalion. Normally, this job wouldn't fall to you, but these past few days, the demon beast attacks have been intense. All the old hands in the hall have been pulled away to repair the main nodes of the mountain-protecting formation. First, go clean off the charred layer on the outside. Don't damage the patterns inside."

Su Ming looked in the direction he pointed.

Lying horizontally on that stone table was a half-section of charred-black wooden pillar, roughly the thickness of a bucket. Its surface was covered in cracked fissures, through which faint purple lightning could be seen flickering, emitting crackling bursts of sound.

This was the core formation base of the "Minor Dutian Thunder Roar Formation."

Su Ming took a few steps closer, his nose twitching as he caught an extremely pungent smell of sulfur mixed with rotten wood.

"Tsk, can this thing still be called a formation?" Lin Yu's voice sounded lazily in the Consciousness Sea. "It's practically burnt to charcoal. The 'Thunderstruck Wood' inside has been completely devoured by backlash from the thunder-fire energy."

Su Ming didn't speak, merely circling the charred wood twice, his brow slightly furrowed.

He extended a finger, not touching the wooden pillar, but hovering it in the air to sense the violent yet feeble fluctuations of spiritual energy.

Just as Master had said, the interior of this formation base was severely carbonized.

The conventional repair method was to excise the necrotic parts and replace them with new spiritual materials. But this was an ancient formation from hundreds of years ago. Its formation lines were archaic and unadorned, emphasizing natural unity. If new wood were forcibly inserted, the spiritual energy conduction would inevitably suffer gaps. Not only would its power be greatly reduced, but the risk of the formation exploding would be extremely high.

"What? Think it's dirty?" Seeing Su Ming hesitate to start, Zheng Tieshou walked over, a boning knife in hand, his tone somewhat impatient. "If you can't do it, go help the apprentices pump the bellows over there."

"Steward misunderstands."

Su Ming withdrew his hand, his expression calm as he spoke. "The interior of this Thunderstruck Wood is nearly carbonized, and the ancient patterns have long since fused with the wood grain. Using a knife to excise it would certainly damage the foundation. This disciple is considering whether there might be another method."

Zheng Tieshou snorted coldly, thrusting the boning knife into the chopping block with a thud, sinking it three inches deep.

"Another method? Kid, this 'Minor Dutian Thunder Roar Formation' has dual thunder-fire attributes, the most violent kind. Besides excising the necrotic parts and re-inlaying new material, what other method could there be? Do you plan to conjure wood out of thin air?"

"No need to conjure." Su Ming took out that set of self-made bottles and jars from his storage pouch, along with several pieces of ore glowing with a cyan light. "Since hard excision won't work, then we'll use soft grinding. Since we can't replace, then we'll mend."

"Mend?" Zheng Tieshou's brow furrowed into deep lines.

Su Ming didn't offer excessive explanation. He simply moved a stone mortar from the corner and tossed those pieces of "Azure Thunder Sand" into it.

He didn't use a pestle. Instead, his right hand pressed down emptily, a cluster of dark blue water spiritual energy surging from his palm.

That water spiritual energy didn't directly impact the ore. Instead, it transformed into countless fine vortices, enveloping the Azure Thunder Sand within. The water flow spun at high speed, the ore pieces colliding and grinding against each other within the whirlpools, emitting a fine, rustling sound.

In less time than it took to drink a cup of tea, the hard Azure Thunder Sand had turned into a pool of cyan slurry, fine and smooth as mud.

Zheng Tieshou had initially wanted to scold Su Ming for messing around—using a water method to handle thunder-attribute materials was a major taboo in artifact forging, extremely prone to causing spiritual energy conflict.

But just as he opened his mouth, the words stuck in his throat.

He saw that Su Ming didn't stop. With a point of his left index finger, an extremely thin thread of water snaked out like a spirit serpent, gently touching that charred-black section of Thunderstruck Wood.

Sizzle—!

Water and fire met, but instead of the expected violent explosion, only a faint white mist rose.

Su Ming's gaze became intensely focused at this moment, the depths of his pupils seemingly reflecting a microscopic world.

Under his control, that strand of water spiritual energy wasn't trying to "douse" the thunder-fire. Instead, it was like a water droplet seeping into a sponge, drilling into the already carbonized pores of the Thunderstruck Wood.

Water moistens all things.

The originally brittle, crumbling carbonized layer, under the infiltration of water spiritual energy, became soft, glutinous, and moist.

Immediately after, Su Ming waved his right hand. That cluster of cyan thunder-sand slurry, guided by the water flow, slowly poured into those softened pores.

The water spiritual energy acted as a perfect lubricant and adhesive, carrying the new thunder-attribute material, bit by bit displacing the useless dead ash, while simultaneously reconnecting the broken ancient patterns.

"This…"

Zheng Tieshou's arms, originally crossed over his chest, had unknowingly dropped to his sides. His eyes, perpetually hazy from years of smoke and fire, were now wide open.

He had never seen this kind of repair technique.

No fire forging, no knife carving. It completely defied the Vessel Hall's traditional craftsmanship, yet inexplicably carried an air of undeniable logic.

"Is this… 'water grinding effort'?" Several old artificers busy nearby were also drawn by the commotion, stopping their work and gathering around.

Su Ming paid no heed to the surrounding gazes.

By now, a layer of fine sweat had beaded on his forehead.

This job looked delicate, but in reality, it was more exhausting than his watch on the Mysterious Ice Platform.

He had to constantly maintain the "flexibility" and "resilience" of the water spiritual energy. He needed to soften the carbonized layer, suppress the backlash of the thunder-fire, and guide the thunder-sand slurry to precisely fill every minute crack.

The slightest mistake, and this piece of wood would explode into fireworks in his hands.

Time passed in dull, meticulous operation.

One hour, two hours…

Until the sky outside darkened and lightened, lightened and darkened.

A full three days.

Su Ming was like a statue. Aside from occasionally swallowing a fasting pill and a Qi Recovery Pill, he hardly moved half a step. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Zheng Tieshou's initial curiosity gradually turned to shock, and finally settled into silent awe.

He even personally waved away several apprentices who tried to come and disturb them. He moved a small stool and sat not far away, acting as Su Ming's protector.