"Why do you want an entire plate armor suit crafted from Eternium?" the Elven Steelsmith asked with a doubtful frown.

The Winged Goddess in front of him just shrugged cutely. "Is it not durable enough?"

"... Fine! Keep your secrets, little girl. But even such an armor will not conceal your heart from someone in my realm." the Steelsmith added with a knowing voice. As an Eminence in the middle of Steel Realm, he could see clearly through the heart of anyone of lower realm.

The orange glove nodded in agreement. This is why she had thousands of Void clones scouring the High Heavens for a Heart Mirror, digging for lost sects ruins and forgotten small worlds. "I'm not worried about your Highness. Your High House fell a long time ago, and only the fruits of your Forging Dao keep the hyenas at bay. In fact, if I am pleased with your work, I may bring you a huge gift, one day soon."

The old smith frowned once more, as his Destiny reading failed once more to clearly dechiper the mystery girl. He could tell from her heart that this Orange Goddess was truthful, yet truth has long lost the meaning it used to have. "You aim to become the Eternium Knight. And this somehow ties with the Celestial Academy..." he declared after a painful search, that only got worse once he got hooked into the Principal's Destiny Rod and had to rip his thread free.

"Very good, your Highness! However, do try not to annoy the Fisherman. You know how he gets, if his students are being harassed by higher realms."

the Orange Goddess exclaimed with a cute smile, then dropped two halves of a large Eternium vault door on the floor.

Ignoring the implications of girl's words, the smith collected the damaged door and examined it carefully, especially the ragged cut which managed to split the door in half. "Poor sword skill, most likely self-taught. I'd guess...no. I won't pry further into this, for your sake and mine as well. The Academy is still a respectable client that brings me lots of valuable work. I will keep half as payment." the smith declared in confident tone, then took one last look at his client, before starting to forge a new Artifact from one half of the Eternium door.

The Orange Goddess skipped at the far side of the forge and sat down, with her eyes closed in meditation. And if her senses managed to catch any glimpse of the secrets of Eternium forging, it was only a coincidence, right?

"Hmph. As if forging Eternium is so easy that someone as young as you can learn it, just from spying..." the Steelsmith muttered, as a sign that he did notice the action, but choose to ignore it from sheer hubris. Perhaps the girl was instead scared he would steal the Eternium? It was quite unbelievely expensive after all, even for a Steel Realm Eminence, as the source was lost behind the final Dao Barrier.

Millions of Formations, including Artifact Arrays and True Flame enhancers powered up at the Steelsmith's breath, and Creation began, as the forge became slightly submerged in the Creation River. Slowly, the metal began to flow into the armor pattern envisioned by the smith, each centimeter of forged armor consuming his True Qi by the huge ammounts.

'What is she doing?' the smith wondered as one his surveilance selves noted the girl was forging something inside her right arm, taking advantage of the presence of the Creation River. 'A bone sword? Is she forcefully Ascending a weapon to Iron Realm? Why?'

He couldn't know the orange glove was borrowing the Creation River's powers to reforge herself, into a better Artifact, if not quite a real girl. Millions of tiny flaws could be repaired without fear of failure, while small upgrades, especially in mnemonic concealment, would also help. And, Ascending the Taotie's claw to Tier 11 had a different purpose than to serve as a mere weapon. Or rather said, it would be like borowing another's knife to kill someone. Plus it served to disguise her craft as something else.

The Steelsmith sighed and continued. The girl could have simply asked for a Iron Realm weapon, which took mere minutes to craft for someone like himself.

Oh well, he could gift her a weapon or two anyway, as the price paid more than covered it. Even simply the chance to forge with Eternium was a huge boon, as he could feel his Forging comprehension advance once more, after untold years of stagnation.

Hours turned to days, until a whole month passed in careful forging. Eventually, the Tribulation clouds appeared and bestowed the armor its Steel Artifact rank, and a great degree of pride for the old Steelsmith.

"Looks good, your Highness. Should withstand elemental or dimensional attacks without harm to myself, right?" the girl asked with obvious worry, while examining her new Eternium armor with curious eyes.

"... Indeed. Unless you fight a Sword Soul, you will be fine. And I think there are less than a hundred of those special souls, in this entire Heaven." the smith added in a comforting voice as he began to rapidly craft a thin Iron Realm sword and a large armor-piercing hammer for this cute client.

The Orange Goddess took out a bowl of beast blood and began to paint her armor with tiny runes, while also layering defensive and concealment Formations onto it, again surprising the old Steelsmith. Formation users were rare anyway, but good ones even rarer.

"Godbeast blood? Even in Bronze Realm like this one, those are rare! No wonder the Laws are binding to the armor so easily." he exclaimed in a startled tone. Where did the girl even find such precious materials?

The girl just ignored him, and finished enscribing her armor at the same time with the new weapons being forged. "Are those weapons for me?" she asked in a calm voice.

"Errr. Yes. I noticed you lack Iron Realm weapons." the old Elf Noble muttered in a low voice.

The girl bound the armor to herself, then willed it to cover her in impenetrable defense. "Two Iron weapons, thus two cookies." she offered as a trade, placing two nice-smelling biscuit-like cakes onto a plate beside the forge, and picked up her precious weapons.

As girl began to walk out at a sedate pace, to old smith picked up one cookie and ate it, mostly from curiousity.

By the time he recharged his True Qi and got over the shock of such a miracle, even better than a Silver Alchemist's best pill, the girl had already vanished under a large number of concealment arrays and her heart had also stopped beating. 'A mystery wrapped in a riddle, and then in Eternium Armor. Oh well, the next customers will surely bring news if anything big happens in the Academy.' the Steelsmith muttered as he held the second cookie in hand, his eyes wide in wonder. Was there any such cooking genius in the High Heavens? Could this cook make even better things?

The Divine Smith sat at his forge, for once unsure of what path to choose. The Dao of Creation called to him to pursue this cook, since there were hundreds of unknown layers of Formations binding the cookie and granting it miraculous properties. Could this be copied into Forging as well?

He hesitated for a minute, then slashed the space and crossed into the Sword River, then followed the river until he met a certain fisherman.

"Old Smith, I just heard you crafted a Steel Realm Artifact! And somehow managed to leave a bit of yourself in my hook, at the same time." the fisherman said in a joking tone, while patting his fishing rod with a finger, likely a clear sign he wasn't too pleased for trespassing into his domain.

The Divine Smith simply held up a cookie, and noted the fisherman's eye glint in recognition. "Just a coincidence, Celestial Dean. I traced it for a bit, until I realized it crossed into the Academy domain. It would seem you have a new gifted student, especially in Formations" he explained in a knowing voice.

The fisherman pinched his fingers, then sighed. "I should have known, the kid followed another river to reach the High Heavens."

"Really, you were just waiting here?" the Divine Smith realized with a start, then ran away before the Celestial Dean could smack him.

Sighing, the old fisherman cast his rod into the Dao River, and just waited patiently for the hook to catch something again. It always did.