“Hey, idiot! Get off!”

Gray was knocked out of his stupor by a rude voice. He leaped down and glared at the culprit. Who else could it be but Amin Baba?

“You got a problem with me?” Gray spat, tired of the trader’s attitude.

“Yeah, I do. What are you going to do about it, fatass?” Amin Baba shot back.

It was ironic for him to call Gray this since the merchant was actually wider around the belly than him. Gray seriously contemplated smashing the rotund man into the ground but he felt it wasn’t quite proper. He was in a new place where he knew nothing. His cultivation was still at the first level of the Spiritual Strengthening Realm.

Amin Baba wasn’t done with Gray but they were interrupted. A large group of guards emerged from the stone castle and surrounded the caravan. They took stock of the goods that had arrived and tabulated them in paper booklets. They were much more thorough than the guards at the gate; they even weighed everything.

Once the task was done, Amin Baba left with his caravan, leaving Gray in front of the castle with his solitary cart of gold ore.

“Come, Gray,” Harsh Patel said as he drove the cart down a side street, “This ore is very important to the lord. It will be processed into gold immediately.”

“Oh…”

They stopped in front of an open-aired workshop. It was a smithy, a place that specialized in metalwork. Tens of workers quickly swarmed the cart, unloading the raw gold ore by the bucketful, and beginning the process of turning it into pure gold.

The ore rocks were first crushed into small fragments using large iron hammers. This required brute strength above all. The smithy workers were all cultivators and they were even stronger than Gray. The fragments that remained were dumped into a thick smelting pot and placed inside the forge which was by now a roaring pit of flame. The heat was so intense that Gray had to stand far away. The workers were unperturbed and they most likely practiced some cultivation art that gave them an affinity with fire and heat.

Once the rocks melted into a pool of molten lava, it was taken out and allowed to cool while another smelting pot was put in. When the molten concoction within the pot solidified, it was taken out and smashed again with hammers. The fragile slag broke into fragments, revealing a solid nugget of gold hidden within.

“Amazing!” Gray exclaimed as he laid eyes on the final product.

“Indeed, it is!” A cheerful voice answered.

A short, stocky man with wild, soot-covered black hair approached. "Greetings, Captain Patel, young man!"

He held out a hand to Gray, “I’m Basu. You must be the lucky man who brought in this gold.”

“Yes, I’m Gray.” Gray said and shook the man’s hand.

Basu nodded, “I’m the head metalsmith for the Jade Hill Lord. You have quite the mountain of gold ore here. You are going to be very, very rich!”

“Really, how rich?”

“Perhaps one of the richest in the whole town!”

Gray was pleased. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. Coming from a destitute childhood, he prized wealth almost as much as food.

“This much gold, it must have been a great gold mine?” Basu asked.

“There’s not much gold ore left. I think I mined all of it.” Gray shrugged and maintained a straight face. It wasn't a total lie, he really did get all the gold that was within easy reach.

Basu wasn’t perturbed and tried again, “Ah… that’s too bad. Did you notice anything while you were mining? Gold that seemed special or strange, like it was much heavier than normal?”

“Huh? What is that?”

Basu explained that gold mines had a chance of producing a precious variant that was much heavier and way more expensive. Called heavy gold, it was something called a spiritual metal. Unlike ordinary metals such as iron, copper, silver, and gold, spiritual metals contained the essence of heaven and earth. It contained spiritual energy with specific attributes just like elemental gems.

Heavy gold was aligned with the spiritual attribute of the earth. It was heavy, strong, and resilient. It could be crafted into powerful weapons, armor, or tools. It was ten or twenty times more expensive than ordinary gold and coveted by all respectable metalsmiths.

“As head metalsmith for the lord, I get to work with a spiritual metal about once a year. It's simply not enough! I need more!” Basu said, “ The lord chides me constantly for daydreaming too much about unattainable things. But I can’t help it.”

Harsh Patel patted Basu's back, “Dreaming is good. A man should always have dreams.”

Gray agreed. He had always dreamed about becoming rich. It would help a great deal in attaining his dreams. Achieving his promise to Xueling would be one step closer with a mountain of gold.

The work of the smithy continued throughout the day. Gray stood by and watched intently along with Harsh Patel and Basu. The trio chatted about random things but the topic always came back to metals.

The metalsmith was a fanatic on the subject and it was all he cared about. He excitedly spoke of other spiritual metals besides heavy gold that he had touched before. They had fantastical names such as burning bronze, blue mercury, living copper, and sky steel. Some were easier to obtain than others but it depended on the region. Of the eight precious metals in total, some were not even available in the Rising Sea Kingdom. He had only heard stories about such treasures as corrupted lead, aged silver, and void iron.

“Void iron, wait, meteorite?” Gray interjected.

“That’s right. Meteorites are the source of void iron, the metal of the heavens. A single piece costs as much as this whole town!” Basu almost shouted, “Do you have any?”

“I don’t…”

“Ah, that’s okay.” Basu looked sad for a moment before his mood lifted again, “But did you know? Void iron isn’t the most valuable metal. No, that honor belongs to the rare metals. These metals are of an even higher grade than precious metals. They are rarer than rare. They are solely used to craft legendary treasures belonging to the most powerful cultivators of the world!”

“Oh…” Gray muttered as he recalled a memory.

---

“Gray, do you know what my sword is made of?” Xueling asked as she twirled the treasure sword around in her hand, filling the cave with flashes of sky-blue light.

Gray shook his head.

“Hehe, listen closely. In this world, there are spiritual treasures called precious metals and rare metals. Compared to gems, metals can't be used directly for cultivation because although they contain tremendous amounts of spiritual energy, it is difficult to extract. Therefore, spiritual metals are usually used for spiritual treasures such as weapons, armor, and tools. This sword is at the superior grade and made entirely of the precious metal sky steel. It contains attributes of wind; peerless speed and supreme sharpness. It can effortlessly cut through anything below the Spiritual Impulse Realm.”

“Wow!”

“Mmhmm, but it’s not as good as treasures made of rare metals.” She put away the sword and withdrew a golden fragment, “This is orichalcum, a rare metal containing powers of the earth, the strength of the world. It used to be part of an armor set but that was destroyed. This is the only piece left.”

She offered it to him. It fell into his palm and weighed almost nothing as if it didn’t exist. His eyes focused on it which caused a raging wave of immeasurable power to burst out. He felt a sharp tightness in his chest as his heart thumped rapidly. He winced and closed his eyes but his vision remained bathed in golden light from the piece of orichalcum.

Xueling didn’t notice his discomfort and continued explaining, “There are eight rare metals in total. Each one contains its own special properties and attributes. Each rare metal can be thought of as a much more powerful version of its precious metal counterpart. Orichalcum is the rare metal version of heavy gold. This piece of broken orichalcum is enough to buy twenty sky steel swords. On the other hand, zephyrium is the rare metal form of sky steel. Not considering cost, a zephyrium sword can be anywhere from ten to a hundred times sharper than a sky steel sword, perhaps even more. This is why rare metals are so coveted. A source of rare metal is the cause of endless bloodshed in the cultivation world. The greatest treasures of the world can only be crafted from rare metals!”

"Ugh..." Gray rubbed his chest, still not feeling well.

"What's wrong with you." She asked suspiciously and snatched back the piece of rare metal, "Are you trying to trick me again? I'm warning you. I know all nine hundred and ninety-nine schemes men use to seduce women. I won't fall for any of them! One time, during a new year banquet, this asshole tried to pretend he was ill..."

He groaned, "Please stop talking..."