Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 313: Zheng Tieshou's Wine Invitation and Secret Tale

The back workshop of the Vessel Hall was a furnace of rolling heatwaves.

It was completely different from the clamor of the front hall. The air was thick with the unique metallic, fishy scent of burnt coke and cooling metal. Giant bellows resembled the lungs of slumbering behemoths, each rise and fall accompanied by a dull, rumbling roar.

Zheng Tieshou led Su Ming through a long corridor piled high with discarded molds and pushed open a heavy, iron-clad wooden door.

Inside was a world of its own.

It was a stone chamber only about twenty feet square. The walls were hung with all manner of strange tools, some hook-like or claw-shaped, others seemingly carved from whole animal bones, gleaming with a cold luster. In the center of the room, a red copper beast-head furnace burned fiercely, its flames licking at a dark blue-green earthenware jar suspended above it. A rich aroma of liquor, carried by the hot air, rampaged through the confined space.

"Sit."

Zheng Tieshou casually kicked two rush cushions, sewn from some unknown beast hide, over beside the furnace and sat down himself with a wide-legged, imposing posture. He grabbed two rough earthenware bowls.

"This place is a bit messy, I'll admit, but it's quiet." Zheng Tieshou lifted the earthenware jar. A thick, viscous thread of dark red wine poured out, looking particularly enticing at that moment. "This is my private stash of 'Fire Pear Brew'. It's fierce stuff. Those delicate-skinned alchemists would feel their throats on fire after one sip. But for us ironworkers, this is the drink."

Su Ming sat down as instructed, accepting the bowl with both hands.

The liquor hit his throat, indeed feeling like a line of fire shooting straight down to his gut. Immediately, a wave of warmth spread to his limbs and bones, even making the spiritual energy circulating in his meridians feel a bit more lively."Good wine." Su Ming set down the bowl and exhaled a puff of white mist tinged with the scent of alcohol.

"You know your stuff!"

He casually wiped the wine stains from his beard. "Back there earlier, those little bastards must have given you quite

that 'water grinding effort' technique of yours. No fire refinement, no hammer forging, just using water spiritual energy to permeate and replace, and you smoothed out the hidden damage in that Yin-Yang Mother-Child Formation Plate. That kind of skill... you can't develop it without a good eight to ten years

bow of his head and picked up the jar to refill Zheng Tieshou's bowl. "Steward Zheng flatters me. This disciple's spiritual roots are impure, and my fire techniques are not

The soft,

about using overwhelming force to overcome all techniques, about how to push the fire temperature to the extreme, to refine materials

gaze suddenly becoming somewhat distant, as if looking through the dancing furnace flames at

ago, the Earth Patrol Division placed a huge

The Earth Patrol

fingers holding the wine

Three thousand *zhang* underground.

been lying lazily, suddenly sat up. "Disciple, this plot feels off. There's gossip to be

even requested a Golden Core elder to personally inscribe 'Rock-Shattering Patterns'." Zheng Tieshou let out a wine-scented belch, a self-mocking smile appearing on his face. "When that batch of drill

Ming didn't interrupt, just watched Zheng Tieshou

"And then?"

wine from his bowl into the furnace. The flames surged up

It only took half

Patrol Division sent that batch of drill cones back. Thirty-six in total. Twenty were broken. The remaining

of wine. "At the time, the three of us artificers refused to believe it was that strange. We wanted to melt them down

paused, a flicker of fear

exploded?" Su Ming

a bitter laugh. "The dark golden fragments on them... the moment they touched the earth fire, it was like they came alive. They didn't melt. Instead, they started devouring the earth fire! The spiritual energy in that furnace was sucked dry in the blink