Chapter 353 - 345: Only for Forged Gold

News of a "Buddha's Light" appearing on Baiyun Mountain before sunrise soon surfaced on the gossip pages of several online forums.

Editors on a few major portal websites used extremely exaggerated phrasing to describe the "Buddha's Light phenomenon" captured by tourists.

Furthermore, they only posted two blurry photos of illuminated clouds.

Even though it was a truly mystical scene, this backhanded approach—using descriptions designed to provoke the masses—successfully caused ninety-nine percent of casual browsers to click, glance, and immediately lose interest.

'It's probably just disgusting clickbait again. Just another gimmick for some tourist trap. It's definitely just an optical phenomenon, most likely just the glow of the sunrise.'

As for the tourists who shot videos, some did upload them, but because they had missed the very beginning when they started recording, the result was just a blurry video of a glow. After all, it was before dawn; how good could a phone's camera be?

On the other hand, the cyber police downloaded these videos and provided them to the Special Security Team.

Within the Special Security Team, reports from multiple outposts near Baiyun Mountain had been received immediately. But compared to the unease of the Soldiers at these outposts, the higher-ups' reaction to the incident was rather tepid. They simply told the troops to heighten their alert level and left it at that.

A proposal from high-level military officials in the Baiyun Mountain region to enter the mountain for an inspection was also directly rejected by the top leadership.

The truth was, the Special Security Team had always paid close attention to Baiyun Mountain. After all, it was where the world's first confirmed Evolution Beast had appeared, and it was also the only Evolution Beast that Dawn had personally intervened to take.

Those rats in Shen City, on the other hand, didn't really count as having evolved.

Since then, including the three giant leopards the Special Security Team recently discovered, Dawn had never again made an appearance anywhere in the world. This invalidated the Special Security Team's earlier theory that the Dawn Association would take away many evolved animals.

To say that Dawn didn't know would be an absolute joke.

By now, the nations of the World Alliance had basically confirmed it: the Dawn Association, a Guardian faction that had been active since the previous Dark Tide, possessed a predator's nose for the creatures they called Demons. Their wondrous abilities were endless, and their foundations were unimaginably deep.

Especially since members of Dawn had even lent a hand during the capture of the giant leopards, the claim they were unaware was a complete joke.

Therefore, one could only imagine that there had been a special reason for taking that Monkey, and that Baiyun Mountain itself was anything but ordinary.

The number of monkeys on Baiyun Mountain today was terrifyingly large. It was only thanks to the absurdly vigorous growth of vegetation in the wilderness—with fruit yields far exceeding previous years—that they could survive. Otherwise, even for a place as vast as Baiyun Mountain, it was doubtful whether it could sustain them all.

Zoologists had also begun to take notice of the monkey troops on Baiyun Mountain. The recent online story about a monkey migration was one of the events that had drawn significant attention.

To be honest, this matter shocked quite a few people, not just the experts, but even some of the older generation living near the mountains found it incredible.

It wasn't the monkey migration that was strange, but the fact that many people thought there were no monkeys left in some of these mountains, yet so many suddenly appeared, drawn by Baiyun Mountain's appeal.

Thus, the Special Security Team had a suspicion: the Monkey King that Dawn had taken away was likely managing the depths of Baiyun Mountain.

Regarding this so-called "Buddha's Light phenomenon," based on the descriptions from some tourists, they had a relatively complete picture of the process. Adding the fact that the satellite-pinpointed location was the same spot where the Monkey King was captured, they could form a vague guess. Although not specific, it was enough to determine that it was related to Dawn.

Faced with this, the Special Security Team chose to remain silent. They had no intention of reaching out to the Dawn Association for an inquiry.

...

Dawn Silent Moon Island, Crafted Secret Realm Layer.

The Craftsmen of the Dawn Association were sweating profusely. The absorbent needed for Magic Steel was difficult to acquire; even with the Forged Gold Monsters on hand, the material was still in short supply.

As a result, the equipment for most Association members couldn't be made from pure Magic Steel Alloy. However, thanks to the techniques of the Forged Gold Monsters, the quality of the Magic Steel Alloy could be elevated to a new level.

The eight Forged Gold Monsters spent all their time—outside of their Pilgrimage and rest—forging Magic Steel Alloy.

Only they could handle the process without wasting a single shred of the absorbent—a material even more precious than Magic Steel.

CLANG CLANG CLANG... DONG DONG DONG...

Their four arms—two on the left and two on the right—wielded large hammers. They also held a delicate small hammer and a strange, blue substance that radiated a chilling mist.

They swung the hammers with incredible speed, constantly interspersing the blows with corrections from the small hammer and the blue ice.

The flying sparks and the high-temperature glow from the surrounding furnaces made the area both blindingly bright and unbearably hot.

"Zevari... Zevari... Zevari..."

With each full cycle of swinging and correcting, Big Brother would chant the three syllables, "Ze-va-ri," amidst the thunderous din of the hammers. He swung the hammers so quickly that the syllables ran together in a continuous cry.

TSSSSSS...

He pressed the blue ice in his hand against the Magic Steel Alloy on the anvil. In just a few seconds, it all turned into a white mist, but instead of dissipating, it was quickly and completely absorbed by the metal on the anvil.

"The quenching is perfect!"

A grin split Big Brother's face, revealing severely worn, yellow teeth—a testament to his years of eating wretched food while suffering abuse at the hands of the Akenis Slave Traders.

On the anvil, the dense white mist was completely absorbed, revealing a slightly convex, diamond-shaped metal plate.

It had the color of dark gold, with a subtle, peculiar sheen flowing within. Once the white mist vanished completely, the sheen pulsed a few times before finally going still.

Seeing this, Big Brother raised a large hammer high with one of his right arms and brought it down with immense force.

DOOONG—

It was like striking a great bell, releasing a deep, powerfully vibrating metallic clang.

When the hammer was lifted, the metal plate on the anvil remained utterly motionless. Forget deformation, there wasn't even a scratch. It was as if it weren't the same piece of metal that had been constantly reshaped under Big Brother's hammer just moments before.

"The forging is perfect! Mwahahahaha..."

"Mwahahahaha..." "Mwahaha..."

The other Forged Gold Monsters who had stopped to watch this scene also let out their characteristically hearty laughter. They had originally thought they would never have the chance to work with a forging material of Magic Steel's caliber in their lifetime.

But fate was just that miraculous. Not only could they forge Magic Steel Alloy, but they even had the chance to touch a legendary miracle. That would be the glorious pinnacle of their lives; it was no exaggeration to say they could die without regrets.

In order to forge the masterpiece of their dreams, the eight Forged Gold Monsters had held countless private discussions. They had long since resolved to risk everything.

'No matter what kind of world this was, no matter what terrifying beings controlled these creations... the Zevari World was already a wasteland. What did anything else have to do with the Forged Gold Monsters?'

'So what if they were now in the hands of a Demon!'

The surrounding Human Craftsmen also gathered around to watch, extremely curious about the thing on the anvil, and at the same time captivated by its miraculous beauty.

Big Brother used a pair of steel tongs to pick up the armor plate and lift it into the air.

"The first plate!"

Only when he raised the plate did the Human Craftsmen on the periphery get a clear look at the dense symbols of the Magic Pattern covering its concave inner surface.

'It was hard to imagine how the Forged Gold Monster had etched them during the forging process. They clearly didn't possess any Magic Power, so had they been hammered into the metal purely through technique?'

There wasn't the slightest trace of Magic Power on these Magic Patterns, but without a doubt, the task of infusing it with Magic Power would fall to its future owner.

On the wall behind them hung several color-printed concept illustrations, which were the only few armament designs drawn by Qin Xiaoxia himself.

The eight Forged Gold Monsters treated these armaments as a warm-up, a trial run before forging a true Divine Weapon, and poured immense passion into the work. Their lives had been reduced to a simple triangle.

Pilgrimage, the rest area, and the forge.

Their efforts also signaled that the Dawn Association's Magic Steel forging technology had truly matured.