That's right. From the beginning, Leyvi had always treated her sincerely. She was the one who approached him with a hidden agenda. Even when her ulterior motive was exposed, Leyvi had never treated her differently.

She asked about his biggest secret, and he directly revealed it without hesitation. Yet, she was the only one here who acted insincere, still hiding everything and unwilling to answer his question.

His question was very reasonable. Anyone else would have freaked out if a stranger suddenly revealed that they knew their biggest secret.

Am I a horrible person? Sawi started questioning her morals.

"Calm down Anda. She has her own circumstances. Why are you being too harsh on her?" Leyvi tried to defuse the situation.

"Hmph! You still want to defend her! That's why we always have to keep our eyes on you! She's clearly a bad, selfish, and heartless person who wants to take advantage of your pure heart." Anda was relentless.

Sawi who was already frozen felt multiple stabs in her heart.

"Hahaha! Don't worry about her, Sawi. My heart is not pure at all. It's full of lewd stuff. You can take your time inspecting the metal bat. I don't mind at all. After all, we are friends." Leyvi smiled.

"Leyvi....I...." Sawi teared up followed by bawling. "Huaaaaa.... Leyvi, I'm sorry I treated you like this. I didn't mean to take advantage of you like this... I'll tell you everything.... huaaaaa."

Leyvi was stunned as he witnessed everything happening exactly as the evil mastermind Anda planned. She called it the guilt trip plan, and she played the role of a guilt catalyst.

Although he didn't have to act differently for his part, seeing Sawi like this made him feel a little guilty.

Sawi, who was overwhelmed by the guilt she felt, told Leyvi everything about her identity and the secret she was carrying. She didn't want to take advantage of her honest and kind friend anymore.

It turned out that Sawi's blacksmith ancestor was one of the best blacksmiths in the entire history of Forge Quarter. He was a blacksmith, alchemic smith, array master, inventor, and craftsman. Any profession that exists in Forge Quarter, he could do them all. This was how he became the top blacksmith of his generation and was given the title of Supreme Blacksmith.

He created many tier-5 equipment throughout his entire life. They had changed hands many times, and nobody knew who possessed them anymore. Before he passed away, he created one last artifact solely for his descendants.

A token that could detect all of his past tier-5 creations. He told his descendants that if they found any of his creations using the token, something would happen. His descendants naturally believed his words and made it their mission to find them. Some even speculated that if their family declined, the token could make their blacksmith lineage prosper again.

As time passed, thousands of years later, the token had not once activated. Sawi's family bloodline slowly deteriorated and finally, she was the only person left. Sawi couldn't believe herself when the token that had never reacted before finally vibrated. Following the vibration frequency as an indicator, she met Leyvi.

"Something will happen if you find your ancestor's tier-5 works?" Leyvi felt intrigued.

Sawi nodded. For some reason, she felt like a massive weight on her shoulder was lifted. She felt refreshed! She didn't expect that sharing her secret with someone could make her feel this way.

"Okay, since it was related to your family's secret, I won't be shamelessly trying to see what it is. How about this? I will let you borrow the metal bat first. After whatever your ancestor said happened, you can return the metal bat back to me," Leyvi suggested.

"Leyvi..." Sawi teared up again. Leyvi's straightforwardness touched her heart.

Even after sharing her deep secret of a potentially great inheritance, not a single ounce of greed could be seen from him. Not only that, he trusted her enough to lend the metal bat to her without asking anything in return.

"Come on Sawi, are you going to cry again? If you cry too much, you are going to become my wife's sibling, a panda." Leyvi joked.

"Well, there's another way she could become my sister. She could just marry you." Anda smiled mischievously.

Sawi was dumbfounded. Why does this panda lady seem nicer to her now? Ah, it's probably because I have come clean. So she really was looking out for her husband. What a good pan... wife.

Sawi stood there, looking at their interactions. A new desire grew quickly within her. She wanted to hang around them more. This group of people made her happy, especially Leyvi.

Finally, Sawi made her decision.

"Leyvi, you said you come here to hire people for your family, right? Can I work with you? Will you hire me as your family array master? I might not be the best one in my field, but I will try my best." Sawi offered her service.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Anda smiled. Bingo. Mission complete.

Leyvi sighed inwardly. In the end, everything played out as Anda planned. Just where did she learn how to manipulate people like this? He and Sawi only met two times, but somehow, Anda managed to escalate Sawi's feelings to this step.

Leyvi wasn't sure if Anda becoming better and better at manipulating people was a good thing or not. But he would be there, acting as the line to prevent her from overstepping the boundary.

"Are you sure, Sawi? You will have to leave this place if you work for us." Leyvi made her rethink.

"Yes. I have made my choice. There's nothing left here, anyway. Everything related to my heritage except for the heirloom token is gone. I'd rather work with someone who trusts me. Hehe." Sawi blushed toward the end.

"Hahaha! Very good! Welcome Sawi, welcome. Many arrays in my house needed maintenance. Your service will be appreciated." Leyvi accepted her job application.

True to his words, Leyvi lent the metal bat to Sawi as she returned to her place for the last time to pack her things. She would quit her job tomorrow and join Leyvi right away.

That night, Sawi was alone in her room, inspecting the metal bat thoroughly. As someone who grew up in Forge Quarter, she naturally had blacksmithing knowledge to a certain degree.

"Incredible.....I've seen many spirit equipment throughout my life and this is definitely on another level. How did our ancestor do this? The Qi spread through the metal bat uniformly. It's almost a perfect flow, most likely over 95% Qi efficiency. As for what he did to make the metal have a special effect. I have zero idea." Sawi talked to herself.

The best Alchemic Smith in the Forge Quarter right now could only produce Qi-conductive metals of around 80-85% efficiency. It meant that while using the spirit equipment, some Qi would be wasted. The lower the Qi-conductive efficiency, the more Qi spirit equipment drains the user.

Sawi then used her spiritual sense to magnify and check the embedded array pattern used for the metal bat.

"Hmm? Why are there two kinds of array patterns? This array pattern..... Holy! So many inscription symbols! This isn't an array anymore, this is a complete combination of inscriptions, a formation! The ancestor was a formation master, not just an array master! What kind of genius was he?" Sawi was truly shocked.

"What is going on here? Why would my ancestor include a mini formation in the metal bat? And it doesn't seem to be related to the metal bat," Sawi mumbled.

"Oh, right. The token." Sawi took out her family heirloom token.

As soon as the token appeared in her hand, it vibrated strongly and escaped her grip, floating directly above the metal bat.

The next moment, a thread-like beam was shot from the token into the metal bat, activating the mini formation.

The mini formation exited the metal bat and transformed into a figure with an illuminated outline, sitting in a meditation position. Sawi was flabbergasted.

Who? Who is this old man? She tried to touch the figure, but her hand passed through it. A projection?

"Oh? How many thousand years has it been? Someone in the Cloud Continent finally activated my formation. Lass, what is your name?" The illuminated figure asked.

"Ah...My name is Sawi." She replied. The shock in her still hadn't subsided.

"Hmm....let me confirm first." A thread-like beam was shot into Sawi, scanning her body.

"Good, you are indeed my descendant."

"Huh? Descendant? Are you my ancestor?" Sawi connected the dot. He should be her legendary blacksmith ancestor, Vulcan Orebender.

Orebender was also Sawi's family name, but she hadn't used it for so long.

"Yes, I'm your ancestor. Where are the others? I want to see the rest of my descendants."

Sawi's face turned gloomy. "Ancestor Vulcan, I'm the only one left in the direct line."

"Hmm....not surprising. Most families are like this." It did not bother him.

"So, how did you find the metal bat? They couldn't do it when they were still prosperous, but you alone could find it. That's almost impossible." Ancestor Vulcan seemed interested.

"A friend lend it to me...." Sawi started to recount everything that happened.

"I see. There is someone like that, huh? However, don't let your guard down." Ancestor Vulcan wasn't convinced that Leyvi was as good as Sawi described him to be. He even thought that Leyvi had an ulterior motive for Sawi. However, he wasn't going to interfere. A simple reminder was enough.

"Ancestor Vulcan, are you a remnant soul?" Sawi asked.

"Fart! Unfilial descendant! Why are you cursing me? I'm still alive and well. This is a super long distance image projection!"

"Ah? Alive?" Sawi was shocked.