Some men drank. Some gambled. Austin improved base layouts.
Give him five loose boards, three rusty spikes, and a free afternoon, and he would find something useful to build. Over the next four days, he worked through Sunset Peak’s long list of chores with steady focus.
No scrap sat idle. Every broken tool was material waiting for a hammer.
He heated his stone kiln and fed in the fourteen spare ghost-iron daggers left by the assassins. The blades smelled of sulfur and old blood. Dark curses clung to the metal.
Austin’s star-fire burned all of it away. The curses vanished, and dirty slag floated to the top of the melt. Clean, hard steel remained.
He carried the glowing metal to his granite anvil.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
By the third afternoon, the demonic weapons had become two heavy door hinges, four gate latches, a set of framing chisels, and a drawknife. He also cast a ten-pound skillet with a thick, even base. Then he spent two hours heating oil into its surface until it became smooth and black.
Li Xiaoyao watched from the porch steps, hugging his broom.
To him, this was not simple metalwork. The Master had taken soul-drinking blades used in village massacres and cleansed them without chants or talismans. Murder weapons had become gate hardware, carpentry tools, and a pan for eggs. It felt like watching the Great Dao turn destruction into creation.
Austin just liked the way the skillet balanced.
“Eggs will slide right off this. No hot spots. Holds heat too.”
He wiped his hands on his apron and checked his quest log. Clearing thistles, feeding the Sun-Crows, composting the potato beds, and laying gravel paths had produced a steady stream of rewards.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
On the fifth morning, Austin fastened the last copper rivet in the chicken-coop latch. A deep golden chord sounded inside his head.
Something heavy dropped into place behind Austin’s navel.
WHUUUUUMP.
His teeth snapped together, and his ribs groaned under the sudden pressure. The spark in his dantian swelled to the size of a blue marble. It spun inside a tight field that bent the space around it.
Its temperature passed twenty-five thousand degrees.
Even with almost all of the heat contained, the small leak had to escape somewhere. Blue threads of electricity danced across Austin’s palms and jumped between his fingers.
He wiped his wet forehead and fanned himself with a dry lotus leaf.
“Lord above. The climate engine is broken. It feels like ninety degrees and there’s no breeze at all. Did somebody trip the main breaker?”
He drank a ladle of cold well water, completely unaware of what was happening beyond his fence.
***
Across the mountain, the air split under the sudden heat.
Frost flashed into steam. The temperature on Sunset Peak jumped from twelve degrees to sixty-five in four seconds. Heat distorted the horizon, and a blue aurora spread across the daylight sky.
Spiritual qi rushed toward the peak from seven mountain chains. Trees bent, loose stone slid into ravines, and the wind howled through the pines.
Five miles away, Sect Master Gu Qing dropped his tea bowl. It shattered on the marble terrace and soaked his boots, but he did not look down.
Seven Grand Elders rushed from their meditation rooms and crowded against the railing.
“The western sky...” Elder Zhao’s hand shook so hard that his ring clicked against the jade. “Look at Sunset Peak!”
Violet light covered the ridge. Pure Yang pressure rolled down the slopes. The elders’ flying swords rattled in their sheaths.
Gu Qing gripped the rail.
“That power is coming from Sunset Peak. Send healers toward the lower ridge. If the heat spreads, our disciples will need help.”
Elder Mu pointed at the gathering clouds. “And that is no normal storm. Heaven has noticed him.”
BOOM!
The thunderclap shook the entire mountain range.
Black tribulation clouds five miles thick raced across the sky. Within moments, they covered the sun and turned noon into night.
Crimson and violet lightning coiled inside the storm.
The Heavenly Dao had found an unregistered star burning in a mortal world, and it had brought its strongest punishment.
On Sunset Peak, Austin stepped onto the porch with a bowl of roasted peas, sea salt, and wild garlic.
Li Xiaoyao stood near the fence, gripping his broom with white knuckles.
“Kid! Get on the porch and out of the wind!” Austin shouted. “If this storm washes out the path, you’ll track red clay through my kitchen. And I don’t need you catching a cold.”
He leaned against the railing, ate another pea, and looked up at the lightning above his roof.
“Unbelievable. Severe weather particle effects right before I haul gravel. If it washes out the road, I’ll have to strip the whole base and start over.”
The windows rattled with thunder.
Austin crossed his arms.
“Can’t a man get forty-five dry minutes to finish some basic work?”