The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

After wandering around, Moran returned to the cabin and retrieved some unique ingredients from the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins world. He then directed the kitchen utensils to prepare a dinner with an otherworldly flavor.

The mother and daughter sat around the dining table, enjoying their dinner and chatting about what they had seen and heard during the years they had been apart.

Moran's experiences in the other world couldn't be shared with those who hadn't been to the Sky Well. More often, it was Shana's mother who told her interesting stories from the Chaotic City.

Outside the window is the tranquil night view of the mirrored space, while inside is the warmth of a mother and daughter's reunion and the aroma of delicious food.

After their meal, the two, stuffed and completely unladylike, lounged on the sofa, stretching their bellies contentedly in unison, as if they had returned to their time in Cuixi Plain many years ago.

However, such heartwarming moments are always fleeting.

Shana's mother also had the Healing House to look after, so she returned to Chaos City before dawn.

After seeing her mother off, Moran didn't linger. After packing up and taking a carefully prepared gift, she used spatial magic to teleport to her next destination—the dwarf capital deep within the Dulin Volcano.

The hammer selection ceremony for the children of the Forging Star family will be held at noon today.

This was a momentous occasion for the dwarf, comparable to a coming-of-age ceremony, and she couldn't be late.

Moran appeared outside the magnificent stone walls of the Dwarven capital.

However, instead of going directly into the city, he first rode a broomstick and flew to an Iron Stone Ranch outside the city, following the address Cheryl had given him.

Twenty years ago, Cheryl traveled to this place and used her savings to buy the ranch from a witch elder.

From then on, she raised iron golems while learning dwarven forging techniques.

Cheryl was pleasantly surprised to see Moran.

After graduation, they kept in touch occasionally, but never saw each other again.

After exchanging pleasantries, Moran inquired about the situation of Forging Star·Rending Gold.

"He's become one of the most sought-after blacksmiths in the Dwarf Kingdom these past few years!"

Cheryl spoke with admiration to Moran as she recounted the story.

It turns out that back then, the man who was designed by the Heavenly Star Marrow and contracted the Light Element Disease, who could only live under the light forever, Rift Gold Forging Star, after leaving Shadowless Mountain, not only was he very fortunate to return to his beloved hometown, but also, with his many years of experience in holy silver forging and his ancestral perseverance, he restarted the long-declining Rift Gold Forging Workshop.

With astonishing skill, he crafted top-tier mithril equipment comparable to holy silver weapons, causing a sensation throughout the city and completely clearing the Rift Gold Clan of the injustice of being wrongly accused of betraying the God of Forging for many years, restoring the glory of the Rift Gold name.

Cheryl is now both an ore supplier and a cooperating blacksmith for the Rift Gold Forging Workshop.

“What’s even more exciting,” Cheryl said with a smile, “is that a few years ago, he fell in love with the little princess of the dwarf kingdom and they became partners. Soon after, they had a very strong and healthy child! Forgestar named the child ‘Lightbringer,’ which means that the descendants of the Gold Rift Clan have finally been completely freed from the curse of the Light Elemental Disease and have regained their health and freedom!”

Hearing this, Moran felt genuinely gratified for the Forging Star and the Rift Gold Clan.

“Today is Little Light’s hammer selection ceremony,” Cheryl added. “It’s an important tradition of the dwarves, usually held when a child is three years old, signifying that they have grown to the point where they can wield the lightest forging hammer and have officially begun to explore the path of forging.”

Moran had seen these things in books before. Seeing that it was getting late, he and Cheryl rode their brooms and flew to the Rift Gold Forge in the central city of the Dwarven capital. When Moran saw the massive forge, with its roaring furnaces occupying an entire volcano, and the many guests who had come to offer their congratulations in the forge's plaza, he finally had a better understanding of the Dwarven race's most sought-after forging master.

Among the crowd, Forging Star·Rending Gold had changed a lot. His gaze was calm and his temperament was dignified. He stood with his wife, proudly looking at Xiao Liguang, who was in the center of the field and was curiously fiddling with a row of small forging hammers of different sizes and with fancy decorations.

If Cheryl hadn't pointed it out, Moran would never have been able to connect him with the dwarf child who lay on the ground calmly waiting to die back then.

Moran was not using the same appearance she had when she first met Duanxing, so Duanxing did not recognize her.

As an ordinary witch guest who came to witness the ceremony, she stood quietly in the crowd, watching as Xiao Liguang finally embraced a small forging hammer with a blue crystal embedded in its head, drawing cheers and blessings from those around her.

After the ceremony, Moran did not approach Duanxing to acknowledge him. Instead, he handed a prepared gift to a servant and quietly left to search for a suitable property in the royal city to set up a teleportation portal.

In the gift, she included an unsigned card with a note written in cryptic handwriting that only Forging Star could understand:

"Starlight does not fail those who persevere; the hammer's hammer finally resounds in the hall. Congratulations, Forging Star, for everything you have won, and for the future of 'Leaving the Light.' —A deceased friend"

She believed that when Duanxing saw the gift and the message, she would understand that she had been there.

Moran also began wandering around the city, looking for suitable properties.

However, this task was much more troublesome than it had been in the chaotic city.

The vast majority of buildings in the Dwarven capital are built on the massive mountain.

Everywhere you look, there are clanging blacksmith shops and forging workshops billowing with smoke, not carved directly into the mountainside, but natural or expanded cave-like stone houses.

The environment was unimaginable; the air was filled with the lingering smell of coal smoke and the scorching heat of molten metal, which remained intense even with a powerful ventilation system.

Noise was everywhere, with the booming of metal being struck, the roar of bellows, and the creaking of gears all blending together.

Finding a detached, well-lit, relatively quiet and clean property is extremely difficult.

Moran looked at several cave houses for sale. They were either next door to a forging workshop, which made her head spin, or located below a ventilation shaft with coal dust falling down, or deep in the mountains where sunlight couldn't reach.

Even if she only intends to use this place as a location for teleportation exits, these drawbacks cannot be ignored.

She didn't want to be either annoyed by the noise, covered in dust, or forced to adapt to complete darkness every time she came from the witch's house to the dwarf capital.

Left with no other option, she could only search further out of the city and to higher ground.

Finally, on a high mountain platform near the edge of the royal city, she found a relatively independent stone house with a wide view.

Although the faint rumble of the distant city can still be heard, it has diminished considerably, and the air is much fresher.

It's just that the location is remote, travel is inconvenient, and there's no lava or geothermal energy to draw it over for forging.

However, these shortcomings were irrelevant to Moran. (End of Chapter)