Lanxing, Huaguo, Chang'an City, is located in a basement of an urban village near the West Sixth Ring Road.

The room was brightly lit and the air was a little hot, which seemed to be a bit out of step with the weather that had just passed.

However, if you notice the long, narrow box-type resistance furnace slightly behind the center of the house, then everything has a reasonable explanation.

"......"

With the sound, a stream of steam rises from the quenching tank and is quickly pumped away by the exhaust fan.

The sword embryo had been picked up by an iron tong before it could be completely cold, and the remaining quenching agent and soil covering on the sword embryo had been quickly erased.

"Huh......" It was only then that Lin Chenxing let out a long breath.

Putting down the sword embryo and iron tongs in his hand, taking off the thick heat-insulating gloves, turning off the furnace door and the power supply, he walked to the sink against the wall and washed his face, and then did not dry it, but just wiped the water droplets with his hands and reclined on the bamboo chair next to him.

"This is the most critical quenching step! It's really tiring to catch up, but ...... It's a really good feeling! ”

Squinting slightly, looking at the sword embryo lying flat on the small platform paved with refractory bricks, Lin Chenxing felt very satisfied.

He is not a legendary hero, nor is he a master of swordsmanship. The reason why I am satisfied is simply because I like the feeling of forging a sword with my own hands, just like a master of Chinese painting looking at his own masterpieces.

Although his craftsmanship is far from being comparable to that of the masters of Chinese painting, this does not prevent him from being self-absorbed.

Lin Chenxing, 25 years old, a 2032 master's student majoring in precision plastic molding of difficult-to-deform materials from the School of Materials of the University of Technology, is a state-owned enterprise in the field of aviation industry.

This small forging workshop is one of the only sources of income he relies on for his survival, and the other is of course the living allowance and scholarship given by the university and the state to graduate students. That's all he has when his parents died young.

He likes to forge swords, and he is also good at them.

His swords are made to order for the customer, and are almost entirely handmade except for the original blades.

Because of his good clay burning edge quenching skills, the small shop he opened on the Internet is also famous, and a sword can be sold for more than 1,000 yuan.

Although there are only a handful of people who like swords in modern society, and the control is relatively strict, opening a few times a month is a lot of income for Lin Chenxing, which is enough to maintain his life.

In the past two days, his character has exploded, and he has received eight orders at once. He has only two semi-finished products in stock, and he can sell them with a little processing according to the customer's requirements.

But the remaining few handles can only rush to work, to ship to the buyer as soon as possible, if it drags on for too long, there will be a few more bad reviews, difficult!

Although it is very tiring to rush to work, Lin Chenxing is happy to do it, he likes to forge swords, he likes that feeling, and interest is the source of motivation.

Considering the cost, it is impossible for him to forge many handles in one go. If he couldn't sell several backlogs in his hand, his poor little vault would collapse.

Therefore, this extra order is exactly what I can't ask for, which can not only get over the addiction of forging swords, but also enrich the small treasury! Why not?!

"Maybe I really have to thank the buddy who spread the doomsday rumors on the Internet! The end of the world, buy a sword for self-defense? Tsk, is this a novel that you read too much? Or is it a small advertisement written by a talented colleague...... Shouldn't it be the end of the world to dig deep holes and accumulate grain?! After resting for a while, Lin Chenxing secretly complained to himself and got up to continue to work.

In fact, not only Lin Xingchen's business has been good recently, but other businesses that sell swords and other cold weapons online have also made a small profit.

The reason for this comes from a post on the Internet a month ago titled "The end may be late, but it will never be absent".

The landlord talked about the end of the world at the forum, and the head of the talk was the Tao.

This person is a staunch supporter of the law of the dark forest of the universe, and he believes that human beings have touched the edge of the law of the dark forest in recent years, and they are playing with fire.

Humans must be careful and restrain their curiosity. Otherwise, the cosmic space position of the galaxy where the blue star is located will be exposed in the near future, and it will become a hunting ground or slave for a higher civilization.

If humanity still does not know how to converge, then the end may be late, but it will never be absent.

After the tirade, the landlord also intimately attached a doomsday survival guide, which is quite detailed.

Naturally, not many people believe in this kind of thing, and the end of the world has long been played by people.

So, before the building had been built many floors, it was distorted by a brother. A discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of hot and cold weapons in the last days unexpectedly set off a wave of high/tide on the forum.

In this way, the shops selling cold weapons on the Internet have a small bumper harvest, and Lin Chenxing also drank some soup with the bigwigs and dipped it in a little light.

It's not that everyone likes cold weapons, mainly because cold weapons ordinary people can still buy a handful of so-called 'handicrafts' that have not been opened, go home and polish them themselves, and enjoy it, while hot weapons can really only buy a model as a decoration, and it is impossible to sell high imitation.

Of course, if there is a special channel, it is a different matter.

......

The most critical quenching process for forging the sword has been completed, and the rest is simple.

Due to the strict control of Huaguo knives, Lin Chenxing does not have to open the sword, otherwise he will inevitably go to tea, he only needs to polish off the oxide layer generated on the surface of the sword body when it is quenched and heated, and then polish it, and then match the hilt and scabbard of the sword.

He already knew these processes by heart, and it only took two hours to finish perfectly.

A few sword lights flashed, and Lin Chenxing played with a sword swing in the basement on a whim. However, within five minutes, he was gasping slightly.

He loves long swords, and he also practices according to the so-called basic swordsmanship he has collected on weekdays, but the long sword weighing about two catties is still not something he can easily swing for a long time.

He took a sword flower decently, and then put the sword on his chest, looking at the faint cloud pattern on the sword body, he nodded with satisfaction.

The sword was not made of any special steel, nor was it folded and forged many times, and the moire pattern certainly did not have the texture of the famous Damascus knife, but only the appearance of the different texture of the surface of the sword due to the clay burning.

However, in this era of looking at faces, it is enough to look good enough and the quality is not bad. At least Lin Chenxing knew that this was the limit he could achieve with this ordinary steel, with both strength and toughness.

"It's half past five, and it's still too late to send." Looking at the wall clock on the wall, Lin Chenxing said in his heart.

His sales volume is not large, and there is no special courier company, so it is good to send it normally.

With a simple wrapped long sword, Lin Chenxing went out and rushed to the nearest express service point.

"Where? What is it? Please show your ID card! "The courier brother is proficient in business, and he will come as soon as he opens his mouth.

"Unopened swords, ornaments. Here's the address. ”

Lin Chenxing is not a novice, he skillfully reported the details of the items, and then consciously opened the package and prepared to let the courier brother take a look.

However, when he opened the simple package and looked up, he was confused.

"I ...... No way! ”

After being stunned for a long time, Lin Chenxing came back to his senses and spit out such a quintessence in shock.

Looking up, there were people all around, including the courier brother who was talking to him just now.

That's no problem!

But the real problem is that he was obviously in the small house of the courier service point just now, although it was said to be an old simple house, but it couldn't be dissipated by the wind in an instant, and it was gray.

He saw that the courier brother closest to him had the same face as him, and he also had a hellish expression.

There are a few young girls in the distance, who look like they're screaming?!

"Looks?! Seemingly?! ...... No way! ”

Only then did Lin Chenxing realize that in addition to his own voice, the falling needles could be heard around. But the people around him were obviously shouting to vent their fear!

"Why, I can't hear anything else?" Lin Chenxing's throat was dry.

"Hey! Can you hear ME? ”

“Hello？”

“......”

Forced to calm down, Lin Chenxing tried to shout at the courier brother a few more times, and he saw that the courier brother was also shouting something to himself.

After all, the two of them were still talking just now, and it was a bit intimate to suddenly encounter the current situation.

But apart from his own voice, Lin Chenxing didn't hear anything. He was just trying to get closer, and then something even more terrifying happened.

He can't move!

Yes, I just can't move, and my legs don't obey. He could feel the presence of his legs, but he couldn't move.

It wasn't that he couldn't lift his feet when he was stuck to the ground, but that he couldn't control his legs to step forward, as if he had severed all the nerves in his legs.

"What's going on?" Lin Chenxing felt fine beads of sweat oozing from the back of his forehead, and he panicked.

"Calm down! Calm down! Lin Chenxing secretly admonished himself. He knew that the more times like this, the more he had to be calm. Panic only makes things worse, and shortly after the death of his parents in a car accident at the age of fourteen, he slowly learned that social beatings are the best life coaches.

He wasn't the only one who noticed these weirdness, there were people fartzily waving their arms and swinging their hips a little farther away, but that's about it.

It was as if everyone's legs had betrayed their owners at the same time, and they all just stood quietly in place.

This weird place, and this feeling of losing control of oneself, is like ...... A nightmare, like a ghost pressing the bed!

"Hoo ......"

With a long breath, Lin Chenxing glanced at the long sword still in his hand, his palm tightened, and he felt a little more settled in his heart.

Since there is a problem, then solve it, and he has been doing this for the eleven years of living independently. This has long been etched in his bones.

"Sure enough..... There will be no such vulnerability. Lin Chenxing took out his mobile phone and wanted to try to make a call, but after pressing it for a long time, the screen didn't light up at all, which was what he expected.

Since this inexplicable place can make him lose control of his legs and limit the transmission of sound, how can they be able to make phone calls, blocking the signal is too simple.

Putting aside the weirdness of his legs and voice, Lin Chenxing began to look around carefully.

Skimming over the silent world that was still writhing wildly not far away, his gaze swept a little farther away.

Fortunately, although my legs didn't obey the call, I could still see almost all the directions around me by twisting my upper body as much as I could.

After taking a closer look, he had a general impression of where he was now.

Lin Chenxing found that the place where they were currently located seemed to be a huge square, and there was nothing special in the air, but there was mist, the light was relatively dim, and the visibility was not very good.

Far away from him at eleven o'clock was an unusually tall figure, resembling a humanoid form, but somewhat different, whose exact height and further details could not be determined due to the influence of the fog and the lack of references.

"Is that a statue? Or ......" Lin Chenxing looked at the hazy existence and had a guess in his heart.

Other than that, nothing else has been found.

Without giving up, Lin Chenxing carefully observed the surroundings again, but the result did not change anything.

He couldn't see anything around him at all, and he couldn't help but sink in his heart. It's not terrible to have a problem, but it's scary to find no clues at all.

After a little thought, Lin Chenxing calmed down again.

"Since you can't find any clues, just wait patiently! Whatever it was, he didn't believe it would be pointless for so many people to be here at the same time, silently. An existence that can use such an unbelievable power, whether it is a human or a ghost, a god or a demon, is unlikely to be idle and do meaningless things! ”

Thinking of this, Lin Chenxing couldn't help but clench the long sword in his hand tightly again, and then stood quietly in place, not shouting or screaming again, it was meaningless.

"Even if it's a nightmare, you'll wake up eventually......"