Emperor of Steel

After completing the magic communication, Luke visited Zegal Moon.

Zegal Moon, who was with a dark complexion due to the Iron Core depletion, was amazed at Luke’s story.

“You can revive the Iron Core? Really?”

“Exactly.”

“Oh, oh, that’s great!”

Zegal Moon managed to learn a little more about Luke.

According to the stories of the merchants at Nanjing, who were trading with the Northern Continent, Luke was the descendant of Rakan. However, he was a Rune Knight, who did not only use a sword but magic too.

When he heard about the story where he revived the wasteland of the lordship into a fertilized and water-based farming land, he was kind of hoping for Luke to come up with a way to revive the Iron Core.

But for the man to directly come to his room…!

‘It looks like I need the Iron Core. But, so do the Zegal Clan.’

How long had they been carrying the burden of not having the Iron Core?

In addition to the Puppet, the Iron Core was used in various ways to express the technique of the Zegal clan.

Talismans made from the Iron Core were many times more effective, and their coal was used as the best for podium.

As it was useful in many ways, the Zegal clan tried to revive it with all the skills they were aware of, but they failed.

They had tried around a thousand times and gave up.

However, Luke had a solution!

He grabbed Luke’s hand and said, “If you can, we will sell you the Iron Core as long as you want it.”

“Huhuhu. Is that a promise?”

“It is like the Southern Continent’s middle-class gold!”

After talking to Zegal Moon, Luke headed to the mountain with the people of the Zegal clan to the plateau.

The plateau was 2,000 meters away from Angyong and 800 kilometers away from other regions.

Although it was quite a long distance, the Zegal clan had tactical flying objects called ‘Flying car’ which allowed them to move quickly.

“It looks a lot like a hot air balloon but much faster .”

“This is made of Iron Core as well.”

Zegal Moon, who was guiding Luke briefly, explained about the Flying car.

“The Flying car was made by Yemaek’s zen skill users, and it has been improved by our clan by making use of the Iron Core to make it lighter and have it turn using the pinwheel. This allows us to fly much farther and faster.”

“Can this cross the ocean?”

Luke asked in his normal cold tone so that he could probably use it to get back to his desired location.

“Hahaha. That is impossible. It can’t carry enough food and water for it to cross the sea, and it isn’t strong enough to withstand the harsh environment like storms and lightning.”

Even through air, the environment in the ocean was much harsher than on land.

There were many places with typhoons, and there were places with year-long thunderstorms.

And in such places, a single mistake could be life-threatening.

“If we could make the Flying car cross the ocean, then it would be the greatest invention for intercontinental trading. The exchange of culture and thought would have been active.”

“Yes, it could be difficult, but sometime later, such things might happen.”

Anyhow, thanks to the Flying car, Luke and the men were able to move pretty quickly.

“Almost there. The plateau is over there.”

Looking at the direction where Zegal Moon was pointing at, he could see a few small and large mountains covered in clouds.

The mountain was located at the southern part of the Song Empire, but due to the high altitude, it had a relatively cool temperature all year long.

There was an Iron Core forest slope on the central area, which was far from the mountain.

It had little rainfall and since there wasn’t sufficient water, few people lived in there.

The residents were tribals with small numbers, who came to the mountains to avoid taking up any societal role.

They hunted and collected herbs or grew tea or herbals roots. They enjoyed the rich life they had by giving Iron Core to the Zegal clan.

However, the Iron Core forest that those people lived on for many years got devastated by drought, disease, and fire.

‘This is much worse than I imagined.’

Almost half of the forest was burned, and the rest were all dried up plants because of drought and pests.

However, Luke was trying to be optimistic.

‘The vitality of the trees is strong. The burned trees are inevitable, but the dead trees can be revived.’

“There are the ones we have. Please save the Iron Core forest with your skills.”

“Huh. Don’t worry.”

After giving assurance to Zegal Moon, Luke took magic materials out of his subspace bracelet and opened the lid of the locket that Reina gave him.

Her hair strand was inside.

Exactly as Erwin had told him, he put crystal pieces and magic reagents into a small mortar and added Reina’s hair.

‘And then softened them with ultra-high temperature flame!’

As Luke began to inject magic into the mortar, smoke began to rise along with pure white light.

The materials, which were wrapped in the flame, began to melt and mix into a single mass.

‘What is that?’

The Southern Continent had something similar to magic; it was the Zen skill.

It was based on magic and other theories of the philosophers, and like magic, it too was a phenomenon of nature and using the power to know the nature of magic.

Zegal Moon was a master of Zen skill.

His skills weren’t just recognized in the Song Empire but throughout the entire Southern Continent.

However, it wasn’t because Zegal Moon solely focused on improving his Zen skill.

Rather, it was because the man had extensive knowledge of magic and sacred powers of the Northern Continent as well as the many bodies of the Arahan denominations.

And such a man was interested in Luke’s work.

‘I can feel a strange energy in the magical flame. This isn’t the magic from the north, nor is it Zen skill. It is like the things that the spirits did in the ancient times, the oral transformation of knowledge….’

It was when Zegal Moon was in his thoughts… A bright light began to rise apart from the flame; a brilliant green jewel had appeared.

‘T-this is!’

The spirit of Zegal Moon was thrilled at the sight of a magnificent and refreshing energy he felt from the jewel.

His eyes were blurry. It was as if everything around him was covered in mist, and then a huge tree began to appear.

The tree that was rooted deep into the ground spread around, and its branches moved toward the vast blue sky.

‘God tree?’

A sacred tree from the legends of Yemaek.

The thought that it was a legendary tree that could connect heaven and earth entered his mind.

“Chief, are you okay?”

At the question of the escort warrior next to him, Zegal Moon got back to his senses.

The spiritual tree that rose in front of his eyes disappeared like a lie. He then saw Luke burying the magical jade jewel.

“Did I faint?”

The escort warrior nodded at his question.

“Yes, it seemed like you weren’t in your right mind.”

“I guess my age is getting to me… T-that could be it.”

His body was still shaking.

Zegal Moon decided to watch carefully what kind of power the jade was going to show.

Wooong!

Right after Luke buried the green crystal, a gentle green light began to spread out in the ground.

That was when something surprising happened.

All the twisted Iron Core trees began to revitalize. The leaves began to bloom again, and new sprouts began to come out.

“Oh!”

“Unbelievable!”

Words of shock popped out of the mouths of men who were watching the scene along with Zegal Moon.

The Iron Core forest, which had been burnt black and brown, was rapidly going back to life.

It was like a miracle unfolding in front of their eyes for Zegal Moon and his men.

The escorts were smacking or pinching themselves to make sure they weren’t lost in a dream. People were kneeling down and praying to show their gratitude.

“Oh my God! The Heavens! Thank you so much!”

“Your kids can now live!”

While the people were all crying and smiling with joy, Zegal Moon touched the Iron Core tree with his hand.

For an illusion caused by magic, the sensation on his finger seemed to be too realistic.

It wasn’t just that, his body felt so refreshed that he felt like he could touch the sky.

He had never felt anything like that before.

“How was that? With this, I don’t think that you need to worry about extinction.”

Zegal Moon, who was close to being emotional, listened to Luke’s voice and looked at him.

‘This man, how did he…?’

Honestly, he hadn’t placed all his hopes on Luke when he said that he had a way to bring back the lost trees.

He was already feeling grateful to have only a few trees be saved by the man.

But the result was unexpected.

Therefore, Zegal Moon’s attitude toward Luke turned much more polite than before.

His tone had changed entirely.

“Are you a being of the heavens who reside in the sky? Or a miraculous master of something unknown?”

Being the best in using Zen skill at Kang Ho, he knew that the skills displayed by Luke were much better than anyone he had ever seen.

When asked with such a stupid question, Luke smiled.

“I am just a wizard who looks for the truth.”

He said and hurriedly added, “Kay then, now give me the Iron Core, and don’t think about handing me just one or two.”

“Hahaha! Would we even dare to do that? I will give as much as the grace wants.”

Zegal Moon politely answered with a smile.

Luke, who resolved the worry of the Zegal clan, would succeed in making a tuning Helm that could be installed into a hundred Gigants.

However, his biggest achievement was having new companions in the previously unfamiliar Southern Continent.