After regaining his composure, Evan Chu slowly opened his eyes. He felt noticeably better, but his vision was still blurry. If one looked closely, his eyes were now a deep shade of red.
After slowly standing up, Evan Chu asked the Blacksteel King, "Big Brother, since this stone is so dangerous, why haven't you destroyed it or moved it away?"
The Blacksteel King replied helplessly, "We've tried to destroy the stone before, but never succeeded. Every time we attack it, it emits a blinding radiance, causing many Blacksteel Beasts to die or be wounded."
"That really is a problem. If I can remove this stone, how will you thank me?" Evan Chu asked.
The Blacksteel King stared at Evan Chu in disbelief. "If you can remove this stone, I’ll agree to any condition you name. For the sake of my Blacksteel Clan, I won’t hesitate at all."
"I know your Blacksteel Clan was formed because of the Metalheart Vein here. Wherever there’s a spirit vein of metal, Metal Crystals are bound to appear. How many Metal Crystals have formed in this vein?"
"So that’s why you had me bring you here—your real goal was the Metal Crystals. To be honest, there are two crystals in total: one is the ancient main Metal Crystal, and the other is a sub Metal Crystal that formed in the last tens of thousands of years.
If you can remove that stone, I’m willing to give you the sub Metal Crystal. That’s my absolute bottom line. Only my Blacksteel Clan knows the location and extraction method for these crystals—otherwise, even if you know about them, you still wouldn’t be able to obtain one," said the Blacksteel King.
"Evan, hurry and agree! This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance—I have a way to get the Sunflare Stone!" Sword Spirit Luna immediately urged.
Hearing Luna’s voice, Evan was delighted—he hadn’t guessed wrong, she really did have a way. He immediately said, "Alright, I hope Big Brother won’t go back on his word. Removing that stone is going to cost me dearly."
"Of course I understand. As long as you can do it, I’ll never go back on my word. This would be a tremendous help for my Blacksteel Clan—I’ll definitely agree!" the Blacksteel King said solemnly. However, Evan Chu couldn’t see his true expression.
"Have him leave for a while—I'll go get the Sunflare Stone myself!" Luna said.
"Big Brother, I'll need to attack the stone to get it out. If you stay here, you could get hurt. Why not wait up ahead? Once I'm done, I'll call you back," Evan Chu said.
"Then I’ll leave it to you!" said the Blacksteel King, turning to leave.
"Get some of your dragon blood—I need it!" Luna demanded.
"How much? Why do you need blood to remove the Sunflare Stone?" Evan Chu asked.
"Not much—just a bowlful will do. I know it’s hard for you to bleed now, but if you want the Metal Crystal, you’ll have to pay the price. Once you finish the Water-Shift transformation and absorb the crystal’s power, you’ll be able to break straight through to the Divine Martial Realm. After that, you can start learning the third transformation, Earth-Shift. Even fifth-layer Divine Martial experts might not be a match for you then," Luna explained.
Luna’s offer was so tempting that Evan had no reason to refuse. But now that he’d advanced to the Fourth Layer of the Starforge Body, getting a whole bowl of blood out was actually pretty difficult.
Just then, a white glow flashed at Evan’s brow, and a small white sword appeared before him. Luna’s voice echoed in his mind: "Just drip your blood onto the sword. I’ll let you know when there’s enough!"
Evan glanced at the little white sword floating in front of him, then grimly took out the Frostbane Sword from his storage ring. Gritting his teeth, he slashed hard at his wrist—a deep, bone-revealing wound opened, and pale yellow blood slowly began to flow.
If it were anyone else, their blood would be gushing out like a fountain right now—but for Evan Chu, it only dripped slowly. The difference was truly incomparable.
What frustrated Evan even more was that the wound on his wrist began to heal before his eyes. In less than three minutes, a scar had already formed, and no more blood was coming out. Altogether, he’d only managed to collect about enough to fill a small wine cup.
"Damn it, why’s my blood so stingy now? I’ll have to cut myself a few more times—this is just miserable!" Evan muttered helplessly.
"Cut both wrists, or you'll never get enough blood," Luna said.
Evan’s face darkened. His blood really was worthless—when he hatched Little Shadow, he nearly bled to death; when he absorbed the power from the dragon scale, it was the same; and now, to get the Sunflare Stone, it was happening again. He couldn’t tell if his blood was too precious or just too cheap.
"Let’s see what’s faster—my healing or my cutting!" Evan grumbled, then grimly slashed both wrists again.
This kind of physical pain meant nothing to him. Compared to the agony of breaking through the Starforge Body, it felt like child’s play.
He then cut open his other wrist. This time, the blood flowed much faster. Evan noticed that the blood didn’t actually drip onto the sword, but seemed to be caught by something invisible above it—he knew this was Luna’s doing.
The wounds kept healing quickly, so Evan just kept cutting himself over and over. He lost track of how many times he’d done it before Luna finally said, "You can stop now. Getting your blood sure isn’t easy—it’s taken almost half an hour. Now step back and close your eyes; the Sunflare Stone’s light could really blind you."
As Luna finished speaking, the little white sword carrying Evan’s pale yellow blood flew off. Evan had already learned his lesson about the Sunflare Stone’s light—though he was curious about how Luna would extract it, he decided not to risk it this time.
So he walked a few steps away, sat down, and closed his eyes, waiting for Luna to bring good news.
Luna flew to the Sunflare Stone, and with a flash of white light, revealed her true girl form. If Evan could see her now, he’d be shocked—she looked far more real than ever before, her presence much less hazy than in the past.
She shot a beam of white light from her fingertip straight at the Sunflare Stone. The stone instantly erupted with dazzling radiance, flooding the cave with light as bright as day.
Luna seemed completely unfazed by the light. She then dripped all of Evan’s blood onto the Sunflare Stone, and gradually, its radiance began to weaken. After about ten minutes, the cave returned to calm.
Luna then struck the Sunflare Stone with her sword. A deafening crash echoed through the cave, startling both Evan Chu and the Blacksteel King, but neither dared to look back and see what had happened.
A pale yellow bead slowly floated up from the shattered Sunflare Stone and landed in Luna’s hand. She held the bead and murmured, "Evan, you’ve really hit the jackpot again this time…"