Chapter 409: Chapter 409 Vajra Bull’s Lair
As he advanced toward the location of the Vajra Bull’s lair, he continued to hunt down any Vajra Bulls he could find.
The closer he got to the lair, the more Vajra Bulls there were, and without exception, all the Vajra Bulls he killed were of the Mutated Ascension variety.
Strangely enough, aside from the first large Vajra Bull which was of the Ninth Turn, these mini-version Vajra Bulls were at most Third Turn, and the majority were still First Turn or Second Turn.
After killing more than a dozen Vajra Bulls, Lin Shen finally arrived near the lair of the Vajra Bull, hiding on the summit of a nearby mountain, peering into the den of the Metal Ox.
Lin Shen discovered that the Vajra Bull’s lair was a huge round pit, with many caves on the surrounding mountain walls, which were all what Lin Shen had seen before.
However, at that time, from the perspective of a giant, he didn’t feel anything special about those caves.
But from the current perspective, creating so many caves on the mountain wall was a vast undertaking, and it looked tremendously spectacular.
An astonishing number of Vajra Bulls moved in and out of those caves, heading in different directions in search of that particular type of metal fragment.
Lin Shen had obtained several pieces of those metal fragments, but he still couldn’t figure out the specifics, only knowing that this metal was much harder than the general metals found on Golden Star, and its toughness was also much improved.
It looked somewhat like jade, but its properties were still those of metal; it was hard, yet its ductility was very good.
There were too many Vajra Bulls below, and Lin Shen dared not venture down to hunt, as being surrounded by them would be a bit troublesome.
Anyway, he had already obtained plenty of Mutated Ascension Liquid and Spirit Base, enough to last him for a while, so there was no need to take risks at the moment.
Lin Shen hid in the mountains, observing the Vajra Bull’s lair, while continuously drinking Mutated Ascension Liquid, hoping to achieve a 100% Base Mutation rate as soon as possible.
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Golden Star too had the sun as a source of light, but its days were much longer than those on the Human Mother Planet.
When night fell, Lin Shen felt the temperature around him plummet.
Golden Star was scorching hot during the day, yet terrifyingly cold at night; the environment was just too extreme. Even Lin Shen found it somewhat hard to adapt, and it was extremely difficult for Ascenders to survive here, let alone for an extended period.
The Vajra Bulls actually followed the routine of rising with the sun and resting at sunset. When night came, the vast majority of Vajra Bulls returned to the confines of the lair.
A few Vajra Bulls, having ventured too far from the lair, could not make it back before the arrival of nightfall and their bodies slowly stiffened in the extreme cold until they seemed frozen in place, standing motionless.
“Although the temperature at night is very low, it’s not low enough to freeze Ascended Creatures. There’s something wrong here,” Lin Shen thought, and he quietly descended the mountain, stealthily approaching the frozen Vajra Bulls.
Along the way, Lin Shen was cautiously probing and scouting, quickly confirming that indeed no Vajra Bulls would come out of the lair, and those outside really had lost the ability to move.
Lin Shen approached one of the Vajra Bulls and no matter how much he pushed it, there was no response. It was like a golden statue, not at all like a living creature.
“Strange, with such a powerful body, how could the Vajra Bull not withstand this small degree of low temperature?” Lin Shen’s curiosity deepened.
However, this discovery made Lin Shen much bolder; as the Vajra Bulls couldn’t move around at night, there was nothing to fear.
Lin Shen did not kill any of the frozen Vajra Bulls, lest the noise startle the Vajra Bulls inside the lair.
He quietly approached an entrance to the lair, wanting to see what was inside.
The cave didn’t extend very far before it turned, thankfully there was only one passage and it wasn’t a complicated structure.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Shen decided to go in and take a look. Since there was only one path, if there was any danger ahead, he could simply run straight out, those Vajra Bulls couldn’t possibly block him outside.
Lin Shen tiptoed to the bend in the cave corridor and peeked inside quietly.
At that glance, he nearly lost his soul, his body reflexively employed the Shrimp Slide technique to spring backwards. The speed of his retreat was unbelievably fast, instantly moving back several meters.
Around the corner of the passage was a Vajra Bull staring at Lin Shen with its eyes wide. Just moments ago, Lin Shen had locked eyes with it, almost pressing his face against its own.
Soon, Lin Shen realized that this Vajra Bull was also frozen still, completely immobile and simply incapable of attacking him.
“You scared me!” Lin Shen rubbed his wildly thumping little heart, he was almost scared into having a heart attack just then.
“The Vajra Bulls returning to their nests are frozen stiff; what were they rushing back here for?” Lin Shen felt increasingly that something was strange.
Bypassing the Vajra Bull, Lin Shen continued deeper into the cave, and along the way, he saw several more Vajra Bulls frozen and immobilized.
As Lin Shen was continuing further into the cave, he suddenly heard a dull metallic clanging from deep within.
Lin Shen immediately stopped in his tracks, pressing his body against the cave wall, and stared intensely ahead.
However, nothing appeared in front of him, but he heard another crisp metallic clang.
This second clanging sound was much crisper and lighter than the first.
Clang! Ding! Clang! Ding! Clang! Ding!
One heavy and one crisp, these two types of rhythmic sounds repeated, making Lin Shen think they sounded like iron forging.
Before the era of mechanized forging, hammering iron required the cooperation of two people.
It’s usually the apprentice wielding the heavy hammer and the master with a smaller hammer, wherever the small hammer struck, the large hammer would follow suit.
The master’s small hammer acted as the baton, while the apprentice’s large hammer worked on forging the iron. They worked together, continually folding and hammering to eventually forge the iron into the desired shape.
The sounds Lin Shen was hearing now resembled two people working together to forge iron, both the rhythm and the sounds were very similar.
“How could someone be forging in a place ? This is the den of Vajra Bulls, it couldn’t possibly be a human, right? Even if Vajra Bulls were highly intelligent, with their hooves, they surely couldn’t use tools to forge iron?” The more Lin Shen listened, the stranger he found it.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Lin Shen continued towards the depths of the cave.
On the way, he saw many more Vajra Bulls frozen like statues, further piquing Lin Shen’s curiosity about what could possibly be forging iron.
The cave wound this way and that, but there were no branches in the middle. He followed the path to the end, where he discovered that the cave terminated in a stone chamber.
Lin Shen peered into the stone chamber, and what he saw was a strange sight.