Chapter 681 - 429: Legacy of the King

Chapter 681: Chapter 429: Legacy of the King

Zhou Chen followed the Sensing and looked toward its source: a massive workbench.

The forging table resembled a small, rectangular mountain of black steel. Behind it stood an even more enormous Forging Melting Furnace, like a mountain range cast from iron, running through the entire interior of Sun Cliff Mountain. However, the furnace was now extinguished and cold, and the forging table was covered in a visible layer of dust.

Zhou Chen felt like a tiny person who had stumbled into a land of giants. Everything here was several times his size; even the junk piled up in the corners was as tall as a four or five-story building.

"If there were rats or cockroaches here, they’d probably grow to be over twenty meters long..." Zhou Chen grumbled as he flew to the forging workbench. There, he found two Forging Hammers of different sizes and two books, all neatly arranged.

The Forging Hammers and books were shrouded in a thick layer of dust. Zhou Chen flapped his wings, unleashing a hurricane-like gust that blew away the traces of time. In an instant, dust filled the air.

He landed and picked up the Artifacts.

--[Forging Hammer of the King of Dwarves: The Forging Hammer once used by the King of Dwarves, containing supreme Power. He once used this hammer to forge the upper half of the Ten Thousand Kings Court Armor for the King of Gaia.

Only a Master Forger with exquisite skill can wield this Forging Hammer.]

--[Book Left by the Dwarf King: The King of Dwarves did not wish for his legacy to disappear, so he wrote down his life’s work for a fated person of a future generation.]

--[Forging Hammer of the Giant King: The Forging Hammer once used by the Giant King, containing supreme Power. He once used this hammer to forge the lower half of the Ten Thousand Kings Court Armor for the King of Gaia.

Only a Master Forger with exquisite skill can wield this Forging Hammer.]

--[Book Left by the Giant King: At the urging of the Dwarf King, the Giant King finally decided to write his Forging Skills into a book to pass down to future generations.]

[Mission "Legacy of the Kings" Complete. +10,000 EXP!]

Within his Soul, the Hammer of Forging pulsed with unbearable hunger, eager to absorb the Secret Power contained within the Forging Hammers.

These were the Forging Hammers that two Master Forgers had used until their deaths, not like the previous ones that were merely used in their earlier years. The amount of Secret Power they contained was worlds apart.

Zhou Chen wasted no time. He immediately took out the Hammer of Forging and struck it against the two Forging Hammers, one after the other.

CLANG. CLANG.

With two crisp sounds, the Forging Hammers left by the Dwarf King and the Giant King transformed into two streams of molten iron that flowed into the Hammer of Forging. A blazing light erupted from the Hammer of Forging, outlining ancient, desolate, crimson fire runes.

Zhou Chen watched as the repair progress bar for the Hammer of Forging shot up rapidly.

61%... 67%... 72%... 79%... 85%...

Finally, the repair progress bar stopped at 89%.

At that moment, a vast, cloud-like torrent of knowledge rushed into him. Zhou Chen instantly froze in place, his eyes vacant. He had almost completely shut off all perception of the outside world, focusing all his energy on digesting and comprehending the knowledge.

This terrifying knowledge contained not only the legacy of Robert, the King of Melting and Casting, but also that of the Dwarf King and the Giant King. Although the latter two had not entered the Tier Five level, they both possessed unique insights in the Forging Realm and were absolute Forging Giants. Even a tenth of their skill would be enough for most people to study for a lifetime.

And now, their life’s work had surged into him all at once as a torrent of knowledge. Even Zhou Chen, who possessed the legacy of the King of Melting and Casting, had to spend a great deal of time digesting it.

’It’s too much, way too much! This isn’t something a person can bear in a normal state!’

Zhou Chen decisively made a wish in his heart: "Increase my comprehensive learning speed by two hundred times!"

This was a multiplier that completely surpassed his limits!

[Wish Value -10,000]

His speed of thought and comprehension ability suddenly skyrocketed as if shot with adrenaline—surging, climbing, soaring! Any abstruse knowledge could be memorized and deeply understood with just a moment’s thought.

The seemingly endless knowledge transformed into a vast ocean that swallowed Zhou Chen’s Soul. He felt as if his consciousness had been split into tens of millions of pieces, with all of them simultaneously immersed in the immense ocean of knowledge, changing infinitely in a single instant.

The origin of all things, the essence of Forging, Essence, Rule, creation and destruction, sublimation and transformation...

In this world composed of pure knowledge, time became insignificant. A single second seemed to stretch into infinity, while long eons felt compressed into a single moment.

After a long, long time, the tens of millions of consciousnesses became United as One.

"I understand now."

Zhou Chen awoke from his long contemplation, a look of sudden realization on his face as he nodded knowingly. "So that’s how it is. That’s really how it is."

"What do you understand?" the Nameless Ghost’s voice sounded.

"Destruction."

Zhou Chen raised his palm. "True destruction. And creation, sublimation, extraction... and so much more..."

"Congratulations. It seems you haven’t wasted these past three days," the Nameless Ghost said, clapping in celebration.

"...Three days?" Zhou Chen was stunned.

"That’s right. Ever since that hammer lit up, you’ve just been standing there motionless. It’s been a full three days now. Danika and I were both very worried."

The Nameless Ghost pointed at the top of Zhou Chen’s head. "Smoke was coming from your head the whole time, making the surrounding temperature soar. I thought you were a robot and your CPU had burned out."

Zhou Chen touched the top of his head. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. ’Hmm... it must have been an overheating situation caused by my thinking speed surpassing its limits. Good thing I’m in a state of Essence Materialization, so I don’t have to worry about excessive brain damage or anything.’

Still, he never would have expected that this epiphany would take three days. If he hadn’t wished to increase his thinking speed, wouldn’t it have taken even longer?

But it couldn’t be helped. After all, the amount of knowledge this time was simply too vast, containing the life’s work of two Forging Giants and involving a great deal of Rule Level knowledge, and even Authority Level knowledge.

Of course, the rewards for Zhou Chen were correspondingly rich. He had already comprehended the true meaning of many Rules, such as the Destruction of All Things. He only needed to leave the Restricted Area to be promoted to Tier Four·Crowned King on the spot.

"A lot of strange things must have happened outside these past three days, right?" Zhou Chen came back to his senses, a little worried. Based on his calculations, all the volcanoes should have erupted by now, and various disasters should have broken out all over Gaia.

"Er... actually, the volcanoes had already erupted after your battle with the Magma Giant Beast. That fight not only brought forward the time of the eruptions, but it also moved up the schedule for the other disasters as well," the Nameless Ghost said with a slight cough.

Ah... Zhou Chen immediately decided to skip this topic.

He turned and looked outside the cave.

The long-extinguished Artificial Sun hung at the World’s Peak. The tormented cries of the two Souls were so clear and intense.

Zhou Chen gripped the Hammer of Forging and said in a solemn voice:

"It’s time to grant them release."