CHAPTER 137 — The Weight of a Coming Challenge
Night settled over the Astral Forge Sect like a vast, slumbering beast.
The forges dimmed from stellar brilliance to steady ember-glow. Rivers of molten metal slowed, their light reflecting like distant galaxies along the mountain walls. Disciples withdrew to their chambers to cultivate or recover, leaving only the deepest furnaces awake—breathing slowly, endlessly.
Within his quarters, Lin sat cross-legged before the floating hammer core he had forged.
It was stable.
It was refined.
And yet—
It was painfully incomplete.
Aurora hovered nearby, arms folded, watching him with quiet scrutiny.
> "You're thinking about the Titan again," she said.
Lin didn't deny it.
"I felt his gaze all the way back here."
Saint Shengyuan's voice emerged from the inner world, calm but heavy.
> "Titans do not watch without reason. He is measuring you… and deciding whether you are worth crushing."
Lin slowly extended his hand toward the hammer core—but stopped short of touching it.
"Then I need to grow faster."
Aurora's golden eyes narrowed.
> "Careful. Wanting power and commanding it are two different things."
Lin closed his eyes.
"I know."
---
Secret Trial — The First Thousand Refinement Attempt
Lin drew the hammer core into his inner earth.
Within the private furnace of his solar system—nested between planetary orbits and burning twin suns—his personal forge flared to life.
The laws here obeyed him.
The fire did not resist.
The gravity did not crush.
The pressure did not rebel.
To the outside world, a thousand refinements required authority.
But here…
Lin attempted to replace authority with absolute dominion.
Refinement began.
Once.
Ten times.
Fifty.
The core trembled violently past the hundredth cycle.
By the three-hundredth refinement, cracks of law-light began to streak across its surface.
Aurora's voice sharpened:
> "Stop. You're forcing it beyond its structure."
Lin clenched his teeth.
"I can feel it reshaping."
Saint Shengyuan intervened.
> "Yes—but your inner world cannot yet sustain the contradiction that true thousand-refinement demands. You are not commanding laws here—you're overwhelming them."
The core screamed.
Cracks tore through it.
With a sharp wave of will, Lin halted refinement and expelled the metal back into his physical space.
The hammer core hovered before him again.
Damaged.
Not broken—but wounded.
Lin stared at it in silence for a long time.
"So that's the wall."
Aurora nodded slowly.
> "You can imitate thousand-refinement with power. But true thousand-refinement needs recognized authority—acknowledged by the outer world itself."
Lin exhaled.
"So I can't hide forever."
---
The Challenge Arrives
The following morning, the Outer Forge Yard shook with suppressed tension.
Whispers moved faster than flame.
"The Titan disciple is moving."
"He's descending."
"The void survivor is about to be tested."
Lin stepped into the yard just as the shadow fell.
The Titan arrived.
Eight feet tall.
Skin etched in glowing forge-runes.
Eyes like compressed suns.
The massive hammer resting on his back pulsed faintly with thousand-refined resonance.
His voice rolled across the yard like tumbling stone.
"Lower Realm Forger," he said calmly.
"You have touched astral fire. You have shaped star-iron. You will face me."
Silence followed.
Every disciple held their breath.
Lin stepped forward—
And before he could speak, a heavier pressure descended.
Elder Rowan appeared between them.
---
Rowan Draws the Line
"You will not fight him now," Rowan said flatly.
The Titan narrowed his gaze.
"I do not accept refusal."
Rowan's aura hardened, gravity reacting instantly around his body.
"You will," Rowan replied, "because at this moment, he would die in three strikes."
The Titan didn't deny it.
Instead, he tilted his head.
"Then set the date."
Rowan was silent for two breaths.
Then:
"Three months."
Shock ran through the yard.
The Titan's lips curved.
"Acceptable."
He turned his gaze to Lin.
"In three months, you stand before me at the Celestial Anvil.
If you lose—"
The pressure spiked.
"—your Dao breaks."
Lin felt the weight of those four words press into his bones.
But his eyes did not waver.
"I accept."
Rowan shot him a sharp look—but did not retract the timeline.
The Titan gave a single nod and stepped backward.
His presence withdrew like a receding mountain.
---
The Aftermath
Only when the Titan vanished into the upper forge did the yard breathe again.
Disciples erupted into hushed chaos.
"Three months?! He'll be crushed!"
"The Titan is ranked top thirty among astral forgers!"
"He's challenging a lower realm survivor?!"
Rowan rounded on Lin.
"Do you understand what you've just agreed to?"
Lin met his gaze.
"Yes."
Rowan's jaw tightened.
"If you lose, it won't just be your pride. Your whole future ends there."
Lin bowed deeply.
"That's exactly why I can't refuse."
Rowan studied him for a long moment.
Then he turned away.
"Good. Then we stop wasting time."
---
Pressure Is a Furnace
That night, Lin returned to his quarters with one truth burning brighter than any forge-fire:
Three months.
To claim authority.
To forge with law instead of power.
To survive a Titan's wrath.
Aurora hovered at his side, eyes alight.
> "Well… that escalated beautifully."
Saint Shengyuan's voice was calm, but resolute.
> "Pressure forges kings, Lin."
Lin looked at the wounded hammer core drifting before him.
"Then I'll forge myself first."
Outside, far above the sect, Titan runic constellations shifted quietly in the heavens.
The countdown had begun.
---