The drumming of her Eternium-clad fingers opened the door to the Elf Smith again, as if a strange spell was at play.

"I told you not to let the damn witch in again!" the Elf craftsmith mutttered at his apprentince, sounding displeased.

The glove goddess ignored the mostly feigned reluctance of the Elf. He would still be curious what she brought, or the smith's door would have stayed closed.

So she took out the Stingray's sting, with its deadly Chaos poison held in stasis by a clever temporal array.

The Elf smith took a step back, as the poison was quite deadly even for someone of his advanced cultivation. Smiling patiently, the glove goddess took off her helmet and sat down while Kalima served her tea, while ignoring the deadly sting as if unimportant. Which to be fair, it was. For an Iron Realm, such a weapon was 10 orders of magnitude above their faintest chance of survival.

"Why do you have such a gruesome thing?" the Elf asked a bit later, as he calmed down and sat at the table.

"I need a weapon. Steel Eminences are ridiculously hard to kill after all." the glove goddess admited with a shrug.

The Elf Steelsmith stared for a minute at the deadly sting. "It is also overkill, for that Jade Eminence. You're already at the 4th Star, right? The Jade War is already won, when you chose to act." he concluded in a wary voice.

The glove goddess just smiled in silence.

"Then again, the war isn't over yet. And while the late-stage Eminences have nothing to gain by involving themselves, there are a dozen middle-stage Eminences that might profit if they involve themselves at a crucial moment..." the Elf Steelsmith infered in a wiser tone.

"I knew I picked you for your brains, my dear smith. So, how can we make this thing work, and not give away the surprise too soon?" the glove goddess asked in a mild voice.

The smith grabbed the sting by the base and examined it with a professional gaze. "Disguise, deception and diversion. A spear-thrower, perhaps?" he mused while taking out a gun-type weapon with a long barel.

"The target would be too fast to maintain a target lock. " the glove answered with a dismissive tone.

"A punch-dagger would work in direct contact. No dodging." Kalima intervened as she also sat down to sip tea.

Both Eminences glared at the weak apprentice for a second, but then the glove nodded. It was quite a Pef-type weapon, a punch dagger. And Beasthunter wasn't that smart anyway.

"A pair of Steel knuckles, as used by those silly fist style fighters." she added with a sneaky smile.

"Concealed in such way that not even the user knows about the hidden sting? Devious...but it could work." the Steelsmith hummed to himself, while gazing at nothing.

"We could use the Unreal River, as to mask the incoming death warning with something else. Maybe use Sword Intent or..." Kalima spoke in a hesitant voice.

The glove goddess rose an eyebrow at the Fay Godmother. Being apprenticed to a Steel Realm Eminence had certainly favored the woman, as the confidence of her status had repaired a good deal of her damaged psyche. Or maybe was simply the cup of Ascension Wine, filling the gaps. And on that note, she was curious was kind of wine Pef will make with the Stingray's Preservation Core.

Her user's Winemaking defyied any attempt at calculating a probabilistic result. Pef himself didn't know or care what the result would be, thus only the material quality going into the wine gave a slight direction where the wine would end. Or maybe a higher power was having fun with all of them.

A similar analysis compared Pef's wine with the Mirror of Samsara actions, finding them comparable in the way they induced Order or Chaos into a closed system. Mostly Chaos to be fair.

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The Three Realms had so much Order infused into them that inventions and advancement in any field were almost inexistent. The same power structure had been maintained for a million chaos cycles, the 3000 Iron Realms, 33 Steel Realms and 3 High Ones in Adamantium Realm. Sure part of it was the lack of resources, but the Chaos Sea was also endless. More resources could be found, with some effort.

'I should ask the World Tree for another Sword Soul. The Beasthunter will release a different type of threat, masking the Chaos poison. Pay the tree with the new wine that Pef will surely make.

Then kill the Elder Phoenix with a surprise punch. That's a decent plan already. Just need to find possible flaws and fix those before they ruin everything.' the glove goddess thought as the Elf smith crafted a pair of fist knuckles, then struggled alongside Kalima to incorporate the sting without releasing any of the threat.

It took hours, but eventually the Heavenly Tribulation marked another Steel Artifact coming into the world. Which looked like a pair of innocent teeth-breaking knuckles. Excellent!

The glove goddess placed a single Iron Pill on the table, then collected the newest power suits for the Legion and began walking away.

"...And don't come back!" she heard the Elf mutter under his breath.

"You can always spit out the wine and forget about our deal, Steelsmith. Maybe ask the Celestial Dean for a better one." she quipped in a light voice, just before the door slammed at her back.

Something crashed inside the workshop, most likely the tea table and the expensive tea set.

Anger. The goddess smiled teasingly then vanished. The stages of grief were the same for any living being. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. As a Steel Eminence, denial wasn't really an option for the Elf, since the truth was apparent like day and night.

Now, let's see what the prodigy child had managed to get from her hard work.

A flitter of wings, then a portal and the Eternium Knight stepped on the beach where Pef liked to cook inside the Seven Color Pagoda.

The Taotie ignored the White Tiger smacking his face, as he lowered himself to the ground, trying to look small and harmless.

'See, I'm mostly harmless. Don't kill me.' the beast body language spoke in clear words.

The White Tiger only nodded at her, then glanced at Pef and Lara as if the humans were any help of salvation. Which they both were, as the glove's users for a time. The tiger was quite wise, after all.

The Bee Queen glared at her for a second, then returned to tending her flowers. Yeah, there was a debt there, with all the stolen honey. Eventually, it should all balance out when the bee transcended her beast body and became human as a Steel Eminence. Might not be far either, since Pef had somehow advanced into his 9th Star a few years too soon. Or was it too slow?

Probably too soon, to be fair.

"The core worked. I made some new wine, which only advances body cultivation to Iron Realm. Body Wine, huh..." Pef spoke first, setting a bottle of cloud wine on the table.

The glove goddess scanned everyone in the Blue Realm, and noted they had all drank said wine and advanced in Iron Body realm, even the Silent Monk.

Unexpected and random indeed. But still useful. She confiscated the remaining wine, then pointed at the Beasthunter meditating under an Immortal Peach Tree like a true cultivator.

"Come, Beasthunter. Today you gain your 6th Star."

As the brutish cultivator opened his eyes, the glove noted his new Sword Soul, barely formed and untested. Two steps in her plan had advanced without even making an effort. Unlikely to be a coincidence, so fortuitous. The World Tree was still reading her too easily then. Oh well. Nothing she could do, for now.

Then, as the Blue portal opened the tree fluttered its leaves, almost like saying 'have fun'. She let the Beasthunter pass first, then glanced up at the Tree. 'We're almost there, big guy. I hope you'd like the Jade Mountains.'

"Try not to die again, Pef. I might pick a better user next time." she spoke out loud, then stepped out.

"Tomorrow is a good day to die." Pef quipped in a sad voice, then hugged Lara at his side.

"You won't die, silly. All of us have an Iron Body now. We'll beat up that Jade Eminence and then we'll let the Taotie eat him. Easy!" Lara boasted in a grand voice.

The beasts glanced at each other in silence. Then the Taotie stood up and raised a clawed paw. "I for one do want to eat that Jade guy. Count me in."

Pef chuckled at the monster's antics. "Yeah, that part is settled, my old friend. She didn't mean the Jade guy though."

The Taotie gulped and sat down. "Yeah...I figured it would be something worse. The Legion already has the Jade House on the ropes."

'Trust in the glove as she trusts in me. Whatever comes, she is prepared and has something up her sleeve. She always does.' Pef mused to himself.

'Just do your best, Pef. Even if you die, I noticed an iron pin on her neck. She's become an Iron Alchemist already. You'll be back with a single pill.' the Icefire added with a compasionate voice.

'I would still be dead.' Pef muttered with a sigh.

'And the Mirror will bounce you back, if you die. Better not die though. She took our wine.' Icefire said in a joking tone.

Pef sighed. Why was cultivation so hard?