Torchlight flickered, scattering the darkness at the mouth of the cave and illuminating a treasure vault sealed for centuries.
Ying Mo held the torch high as he stepped inside.
Looking at the sight before him, his breath involuntarily hitched.
Gold coins, like golden dunes, filled over half the room.
Rubies, sapphires, diamonds…
massive uncut gemstones of every kind lay scattered across the sea of gold like ordinary pebbles.
Illuminated by the flickering firelight, the entire vault glittered and glowed, radiating a deadly temptation capable of driving any king to madness.
Even Ying Mo—a modern man with little concept of extreme wealth—was stunned for a moment by this miraculous sight.
However, the shock lasted only a few seconds.
Behind him, Comet chirped merrily, clearly sensing the rich scent of food inside the vault.
But its target was completely different from what Ying Mo had imagined.
Bounding forward with agile steps, the dragon ran straight across the mountain of gold coins.
Claws scraped through the gold with a loud metallic clatter, but the dragon didn’t spare it a single glance.
It rushed straight to a corner of the vault where a pile of what looked like trash was dumped.
There were several broken, fully petrified eggshells that still retained a faint dragon aura, alongside a pile of rusted, ruined bronze and iron implements that looked like ceremonial items or discarded weapons.
Before Ying Mo’s astonished eyes, Comet let out a contented, kitten-like purr.
Lowering its head, it took a crunching bite out of a petrified dragon eggshell, chewing loudly as if eating potato chips.
To anyone else, those petrified eggshells were garbage, but to Comet, they were a feast packed with the purest residual dragon energy.
After finishing the eggshells, it thrust its head into the pile of bronze items.
With a sweep of its tongue, it swallowed a rust-covered bronze goblet whole.
Ying Mo couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
Gold and silver were chemically far too stable; for Comet, who relied on breaking down metal to extract energy, they were inert and extremely difficult to digest.
Meanwhile, these impurity-laden bronze and iron objects were true delicacies in its eyes.
*Works for me.
Saves us the trouble of figuring out how to haul all this gold away.* Ying Mo shook his head with a chuckle.
His gaze had long since shifted away from the glittering treasures.
As a top engineer, he knew better than anyone that in this world, knowledge and technology were the true hard currency.
He searched the vault carefully, and soon, his eyes locked onto another pile of objects in the corner.
Five rectangular metal ingots lay quietly on a stone pedestal.
They lacked the radiance of gold and the brilliance of gems, appearing under the torchlight as a deep, dark gray that seemed almost to absorb the light.
Yet the most extraordinary thing was their surface.
They were covered in strange, flowing patterns reminiscent of running water or swirling clouds—patterns that seemed almost alive, slowly rippling across the metal as the firelight flickered.
Valyrian steel!
Ying Mo’s heart skipped a beat.
He stepped forward quickly and picked up an ingot.
In his hand, it felt unnaturally light.
Judging by his experience, the density of this ingot far surpassed any known alloy on Earth, yet its weight was remarkably light.
He tapped the side of the ingot lightly with his knuckle.
*Cling—* A clear, resonant tone rang out like the cry of a dragon, echoing long through the empty vault.
“Good stuff!” A fervent light burst in Ying Mo’s eyes.
As a PhD in mechanical engineering, he understood what this implied better than anyone.
Ultra-high density and a unique crystalline structure translated to matchless strength, toughness, and sharpness.
This wasn’t just a weapon material; this was the ultimate synthesis of industry and art!
While captivated by the texture of the Valyrian steel, his attention was drawn to a box next to the ingots.
It was roughly half a meter square, crafted entirely from an unknown dark-red stone.
Ying Mo reached out to touch it.
It felt warm and smooth, not like stone at all, but more like some high-polymer material.
*Refractory material…* he concluded instantly.
In a vault storing Valyria’s finest metal, a box deliberately protected by refractory material had to contain something worth even more than Valyrian steel!
Ying Mo’s heart beat faster.
Feeling almost like a pilgrim, he carefully undid the box’s latch.
Inside was neither jewelry nor more metal.
Only a thick notebook made of an extremely supple hide lay quietly within.
On the cover, written in ancient, elegant High Valyrian, was a line of bold script: *Forging Notes of Master Gaemon* Taking a deep breath, Ying Mo eagerly flipped open the journal.
The leather quality was exquisite; even after centuries, it remained as flexible as new.
The handwriting inside was written with a special ink, still crisp and legible.
The first half detailed the forging methods of Valyrian steel.
The rhythm of hammering, the number of folds, the quenching temperatures…
and what outsiders perceived as mysterious, arcane spells.
In Ying Mo’s eyes, however, these so-called magic spells presented a completely different picture.
“…Quench its form in dragonfire, reciting the Incantation of Light…” “The high heat of dragonfire is rich in free carbon atoms—this is a carburization process to increase surface hardness!
And as for the Incantation of Light, judging by its syllables and rhythm, it uses specific acoustic frequencies to guide the metal as it cools, forming a more stable micro-crystalline structure…
Good lord, isn’t this ultrasonic-assisted phase transformation?” Awestruck, Ying Mo stared at the text.
Thousands of years ago, through empirical trial and magic, the ancient Valyrians had already figured out the metallic heat-treatment techniques that modern scientists spent endless effort researching!
The more he read, the more stunned and ecstatic he became.
This Master Gaemon was clearly no rule-abiding craftsman, but a madman obsessed with materials science!
The second half of the notes departed entirely from traditional smithing.
It was packed with mind-boggling alloy formulas, spectral analysis charts of subterranean fire energy, and comparative records of quenching effects on various materials…
This wasn’t a grimoire; it was a top-tier materials science thesis from an alternate world!
Ying Mo read as if intoxicated.
He felt he wasn’t reading an ancient manuscript, but engaging in an academic exchange with a kindred spirit across time and space.
When he turned to the final few pages, his movement froze.
Here, the handwriting became scribbled, distorted, filled with madness and passion, as if the author had been in a state of extreme frenzy when writing.
“…Failure!
Failed again!
Valyrian steel has reached the limits of what mortals can forge, yet it remains dead matter!
It wears down!
It snaps!
It is no divine creation, merely an ultimate tool!
“I need inspiration—an inspiration that can bring metal to life!
“Blood!
Dragon blood!
A dragon’s magic stems from its bloodline—flame, power, life…
the root of all lies in blood!
What if…
what if living dragon blood was used as a catalyst, fused into Valyrian steel during its most critical phase transformation?
Could it create a whole new metal endowed with life?
“A living metal that can self-repair, connect mentally with its master, even breathe and grow like an organism!
“Hahaha!
I must be mad!
Where could I find a living dragon willing to bleed for me?
The dragonlords would hang my head above the city gates!
What a pity!
What a tragedy!
I have glimpsed the threshold of the realm of the gods, yet I lack the key to open it…” The writing ended abruptly.
The last few words tore through the page, heavy with endless regret and unfulfilled longing.
Ying Mo’s hands trembled slightly as he held the journal.
Living metal!
His heart pounded wildly, as if seized by an invisible giant hand.
He abruptly looked up at Comet.
The little creature had finished all its snacks and was lying on a pile of gold coins, letting out contented burps.
*The key…* The key Master Gaemon had spent a lifetime failing to obtain was right in front of him!
Just then, a sudden change occurred!
Comet’s body burst into a blinding red light.
It uttered a long screech of both pain and exhilaration, arching its back.
Before Ying Mo’s stunned eyes, Comet’s size expanded rapidly in the red light at a speed that completely defied biological logic!
Its wingspan, originally only half a meter, burst outward.
Bones popped and crackled violently as it surged to nearly two meters!
The silver-white scutes on its body buckled, enlarged, and recombined, turning thicker and taking on a heavier metallic sheen.
A few seconds later, the light faded.
The hatchling that had been the size of a large dog had now grown into a sleek beast comparable to a leopard.
Its eyes held no trace of mere childish attachment or curiosity; they were sharp and agile, with stars seeming to flicker deep within its obsidian pupils.
It had officially transitioned from a hatchling to a juvenile dragon!
Ying Mo stared blankly at the scene.
Only after a long moment did he exhale deeply.
He looked down at *Forging Notes of Master Gaemon* in his hand, then at the five Valyrian steel ingots shimmering with captivating ripples, and finally at Comet, who was inquisitively inspecting its new body.
The materials were here.
The blueprints were here.
And the most critical biological catalyst…
was here too.
He turned to a page in the notes where a roughly sketched map pointed to a place Master Gaemon called the family sanctuary.
There stood the Ever-Burning Subterranean Forge—the only furnace capable of perfectly mastering Valyrian steel and enduring the magic of dragon blood.
Ying Mo closed the notebook, a crystal-clear blueprint forming in his mind.
A fiery resolve blazed in his eyes like never before.
Survival?
No.
From this moment on, that was no longer his goal.
In this world of ice and fire, he was going to recreate a miracle belonging to a Doctor of Mechanical Engineering.
“Let’s go, Comet.” Stowing the notebook and ingots carefully into his backpack, Ying Mo swung himself onto Comet’s broad, now rideable back.
“We’re going to build a…
mega-factory of our own!”