Mina led Yun Ming all the way up. From the Soul Elder guards on the ground floor to the Soul King guards between the second and third floors, and finally the two Soul Saint guards between the third and fourth floors—who were said to be disciples of the Blacksmiths' General Association president himself—it was clear that the higher one went, the more important the level became.
However, in this era, blacksmiths merely forged household utensils or common weapons. Did the Blacksmiths' General Association really need Soul Kings and Soul Saints to stand guard? What was the matter, were they afraid outsiders would covet the top-tier kitchen knives they had just forged? Yun Ming knew very well that in this era, blacksmithing was just ordinary forging; even Spirit Refined Metal had yet to appear, so he didn't quite understand the methods of the Blacksmiths' General Association.
On the other side, after Mina finished communicating with the two disciples of the God Craftsman guarding the door, Si Long and Si Yu, she bid farewell to Yun Ming and left. The subsequent matters would have to be handled by the higher-ups personally.
The guard on the left, the God Craftsman disciple named Si Long, returned the list to Yun Ming and said politely.
"Young Master, all the items you requested are rare metals, and the quantity is too large. Please follow me to the fifth floor to discuss the details with the president!"
"Fine."
Yun Ming had no objections, gave a nod, and followed Si Long.
There were no guards between the fourth and fifth floors. Only a large gate blocked the staircase. Yun Ming couldn't tell exactly what material the door was made of, only that it was likely an alloy composed of many different metals.
Si Long walked up to the alloy gate and tapped his hand against it. He knocked with a specific rhythm; every position Si Long's fingers struck was different, and the force applied varied as well. Inside the metal gate, a faint sound of mechanical gears followed.
Watching his actions, black lines couldn't help but appear on Yun Ming's forehead. Here it was again. With Soul Saints guarding the floors below, they still installed a mechanical gate like this on top; he truly didn't know what purpose it served for the Blacksmiths' General Association.
After Si Long had knocked a total of thirty-six times, the metal gate let out a creaking sound and slowly slid open to the side, revealing the path to the floor above.
Afterward, led by Si Long, Yun Ming ascended to the highest level of the Blacksmiths' General Association, the mysterious fifth floor. He wanted to see what exactly was here that warranted such a level of protection from the association.
Seeing Yun Ming observing the environment of the fifth floor, Si Long explained in a low voice.
"Actually, this fifth floor is the private forging area exclusive to the high-level blacksmiths of the Blacksmiths' General Association. Every blacksmith at the Grandmaster level or above has their own space here."
Yun Ming: "That's quite nice."
Yun Ming couldn't understand this practice of using gold-inlaid jade boxes to store refined iron. Forget it, he should just stick to business.
Hearing Yun Ming's praise, Si Long felt a sense of pride and smiled.
"Young Master is too kind, please, come inside."
Outside each forging room was only a simple number. From the outermost to the innermost, there were thirty-six forging rooms in total. Si Long brought Yun Ming to the innermost room, Room No. 1, stopped, stood respectfully by the door, and knocked on the metal gate.
No sound of forging came from this room. As soon as Si Long knocked, a frustrated voice came from within.
"Didn't I already say, no one is allowed to disturb me?"
Si Long hurriedly said respectfully.
"Teacher, it's me. I'm sorry to disturb you, but there is a deal we cannot decide on ourselves, so we had to notify you. Please forgive me."
After Si Long's words were transmitted inside, the frustrated voice vanished.
Not long after, accompanied by a series of mechanical sounds, the wide iron door slowly slid open, revealing the bright room inside.
The person who opened the door was a short, stout old man. He was only about 1.6 meters tall, but his waistline was likely 1.6 meters as well. He had wind-swept ears, small eyes, and a messy mop of short hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in days. He wore a wide robe, and his chubby face was stained with something resembling metal powder. This short, stout old man was none other than the current president of the Blacksmiths' General Association, the God Craftsman Lou Gao.
Lou Gao glanced at Si Long, then shifted his gaze toward Yun Ming and spoke.
"Young friend, come in and talk."
Yun Ming followed behind Lou Gao into the spacious forging room. Si Long did not enter; he quietly retreated, as he still had his own post to guard.
The forging room appeared messy. However, the space was indeed very large, over five hundred square meters, with all sorts of miscellaneous metals scattered on both sides. In the corner, a dark black forging furnace and a bellows of the same color caught Yun Ming's attention. The feeling the furnace gave him was surprisingly chilling. Forged from an alloy primarily consisting of Black Iron, not bad, Yun Ming evaluated.
In the center of the room stood a circular platform. This platform looked more like a massive metal pillar standing there, only a meter high, appearing extremely solid. At that moment, resting on top of it was a piece of metal the size of a fist, entirely silver-white, covered in profound runes, and looking somewhat hazy. Seeing this thing, Yun Ming was quite shocked—it was actually this!
Lou Gao led Yun Ming to his desk, intending to greet him. But following Yun Ming's gaze, he realized he was staring at the mysterious metal he had accidentally obtained two days ago. Putting the business aside for a moment, he asked with interest.
"Young friend, do you recognize what kind of metal that is?"
Although Lou Gao felt that since even he didn't recognize it, this kid before him likely wouldn't either, but what if?
Hearing Lou Gao's inquiry, Yun Ming didn't hide anything just because it was valuable, and answered seriously.
"This is Ether White Gold, a particularly precious rare metal."
Ether White Gold, a highly unique and rare metal. The metal's own hardness, toughness, and Soul Power conductivity were all at the top level among metals, but it possessed one most special and formidable characteristic: Metal Ascension.
Judging by the amount of metal required for a set of Battle Armor, if a small amount of Ether White Gold were mixed in during the forging process—not much, just about one-twentieth of the piece in front of him—it would be enough to raise the quality of the forged metal by an entire grade, and it could exert this effect regardless of the level of the metal. Therefore, it was also known as the King of Auxiliary Materials among metals.
Being able to help raise the upper limit of metals, in the later era where Battle Armor was extremely valued, its preciousness could be imagined. Moreover, due to the extremely scarce production of this metal, its pricing in the later era was also outrageous: 500,000 Gold Soul Coins per gram was its market rate. Seeing such a large piece here today, Yun Ming was truly surprised.
Hearing that Yun Ming had actually answered, and seemed to really know what it was, Lou Gao's eyes lit up, and he continued to ask with some excitement.
"Then, I wonder what the function of this Ether White Gold is, and how is it used?"
As a forging fanatic, discovering a metal he had never heard of before, he held immense passion for it. However, he had tried every way to tinker with it over the past few days, trying to study its properties and usage methods, but he simply couldn't do it.
No matter how high the temperature of the flame, it couldn't soften it in the slightest, and it was extremely hard. Even when Lou Gao brought in a Soul Saint with an Axe Spirit, they couldn't split it; it was completely impossible to divide, which made him very frustrated, but also even more curious.
Seeing Lou Gao ask, Yun Ming was naturally willing to tell him, but there were conditions.
"I can, I can tell you all the information about this Ether White Gold, and even forge with it once at your place, but the condition is that I want to buy the entire piece of Ether White Gold."
Originally, Lou Gao was quite excited when he heard Yun Ming say he could tell him about the Ether White Gold, but Yun Ming's condition was to buy the whole thing, which made him somewhat unable to accept.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: DaoistReader