Shiyu had a lot on his mind but couldn't express it.
He had been sincerely and diligently worshiping for half a month, constantly repeating to himself, "It is our duty to restore the glory of the Iron-Eating Beast," but the ruins showed no reaction at all.
On the contrary, when he slightly denied the evolution form of the Iron-Eating Beast, the "spirit" of the ruins immediately became restless.
What was going on?
It wasn't as easy to deal with as the stone statue in Pingcheng.
Perhaps, the "spirits" born from different ruins, sites, and ancient artifacts had different personalities?
If he had known this, he should have come here on the first day and loudly proclaimed, "The Iron-Eating Beast has no evolution form, come and debate if you dare."
...
This time, the historical images Shiyu saw were still very brief.
He saw a tribe filled with flaming furnaces.
In the tribe, there were a group of muscular men with bare torsos.
They were like blacksmiths, using batches of rare metals that Shiyu found familiar to forge armor.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of hammering continuously reached Shiyu's ears.
Then, the alloy armor was put on by a group of Iron-Eating Beasts.
After the Iron-Eating Beasts put on the armor, they seemed to use a master-level hardening skill, enveloping the armor with hardened material, making the armor and their bodies completely merge.
There were many types of armor. Some Iron-Eating Beasts wore complete sets of armor, some only had alloy claws on their arms, and some even held shields. They had different appearances, but all used master-level hardening to connect themselves with the armor.
This process, as they merged with the armor, seemed to significantly enhance their aura, and their bodies grew larger in a burst of light.
A moment later, the scene showed over a hundred Iron-Eating Beasts wearing various types of armor, neatly arranged in formation, extremely impressive. This group of Iron-Eating Beasts looked like a well-trained army ready to set out.
In the final scene, the Iron-Eating Beasts used their hardened claws to engrave special symbols on the armor, and at that moment, their entire bodies flashed with light...
The scene abruptly ended.
...
In reality.
Eleven poked his head to look at the silent Shiyu, not understanding what had happened.
At this moment, Shiyu's mood was very complex.
He didn't know how to express his feelings.
No wonder the Eleventh Bureau directly absorbed him into the organization without a second thought when they encountered a beastmaster with the talent to listen to the sounds of history.
This ability was indeed a bit like a bug.
While other archaeologists were still exploring the mysteries of ancient times, an archaeologist with this talent could directly peek into history as if watching a movie. Wasn't this cheating?
"So those metals weren't meant to be eaten." Shiyu fell into deep thought.
They were actually forged into alloy armor and equipped on the Iron-Eating Beasts, then connected using master-level hardening.
Don't tell him this was the evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts.
In the scene, Shiyu also saw the materials used to forge the alloy armor.
From their appearance, they seemed to be the same metals detected in the metal sheet.
If so, the evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts was simpler than Shiyu had imagined.
However, whether modern forging and processing technology could achieve the same results as ancient times in forging those metal minerals into alloy armor was still unknown.
So, what should this evolution method be called?
Tool-armed evolution?
Armed evolution was not unheard of in existing pet beasts.
However, there was a small difference between the two.
"Wait, that's not the point!"
Shiyu only saw the evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts but felt he hadn't fully grasped the full picture of history.
What were these Iron-Eating Beasts, wearing armor and completing their evolution, going to do? War?
What did the different symbols they engraved on their bodies mean?
Why were these symbols also found on Earth?
In the end, Shiyu felt he knew something but didn't fully understand...
Forget it... Let's start by researching the evolution form of the Iron-Eating Beasts.
...
"What happened?"
After Shiyu listened to the sounds of history, the stone wall seemed to have exhausted its "life" and developed many cracks.
The "boom" sound and tremor also immediately attracted Panda Senior and the Seven Archaeological Heroes.
When they arrived, they immediately saw the stone wall covered in cracks and Shiyu with his back to them.
Aaaaaaaaah!!!
Everyone: w(?Đ?)w???
So, what happened!!!
"Ying."
Shiyu hadn't turned around, but Eleven on his shoulder turned first, showing an innocent expression.
If he said they just taunted the stone wall a bit and it exploded, would they believe it???
"Damn, what's going on."
The stone wall exploded, and Zheng Yingjie and the others' minds also exploded.
Although the Iron-Eating Beast ruins weren't very important before, preserving such ancient artifacts intact was their basic responsibility. But now... it was a big deal.
They looked at Shiyu, who was slowly turning around. Could it be that Shiyu, after half a month of no results, finally lost it and smashed the stone wall?
"Don't panic."
At this moment, Shiyu turned to look at the panicked crowd, calming them down.
Stay calm.
"I have some findings." Shiyu chuckled at their confused expressions.
"I think I know what the evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts is."
"What?!!!"
Hearing Shiyu's words, the crowd was even more shocked than when they saw the stone wall crack, all staring at Shiyu with wide eyes.
Really?
"Um, let's go outside and talk." Shiyu said.
Next, everyone came to the open outdoors.
They all looked at Shiyu, their expressions full of anticipation and excitement.
So, what did Shiyu discover?
"The six metal components detected in the metal sheet are indeed the key to the evolution of the Iron-Eating Beasts."
"Our previous guess was that the Iron-Eating Beasts would eat these metals, but the real situation is similar."
"The evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts should be to forge these six metal minerals into alloy armor, equip it on the Iron-Eating Beasts, and finally, let the Iron-Eating Beasts use their master-level racial skill, hardening, to perfectly envelop and merge the power of the armor."
"The hardening material of the Iron-Eating Beasts and this alloy should produce a special reaction, assisting them in elevating their life level."
The few people were clearly stunned.
Lin Xiuzhu asked, "What's the principle?"
Shiyu: "What do we need that for?"
"How did you confirm it?"
"Uh..." Shiyu was taken aback and said, "Intuition?"
The crowd was dumbfounded, feeling that Shiyu hadn't said anything useful.
In short, it was still a guess, just another one based on their previous guesses.
"Can those six metals really be forged into an alloy?" Zheng Yingjie was puzzled.
"We've been researching their properties for days, and they have no commonalities at all."
Lin Yuer said, "And this method still requires master-level hardening..."
Everyone looked at Lin Xiuzhu.
Among the known Iron-Eating Beast beastmasters, very few had trained their Iron-Eating Beasts to master-level hardening.
Lin Xiuzhu had once said that her father, Lin Hongnian, the curator, trained his Iron-Eating Beast for 21 years to reach master-level hardening.
And Lin Xiuzhu herself started growing with her Iron-Eating Beast at the age of 10.
Although they weren't bonded at the time, she started cultivating a bond with the Iron-Eating Beast from a young age and began preliminary training and coordination.
As a result, after more than ten years, her Iron-Eating Beast's hardening skill, built on her father's training experience, was only at the perfect level, far from master-level.
If one of the evolution conditions of the Iron-Eating Beasts was master-level hardening, then this condition seemed quite difficult to achieve.
For the Qingmian Worm, reaching the proficient level of its silk was enough for evolution, but for the Iron-Eating Beasts, it required a master-level racial skill... It was simply unreasonable.
Moreover, the evolution materials for the Iron-Eating Beasts were mostly rare metals of grade five or higher. The cost of forging a set of armor from these metals was unimaginable.
It could be said that even if the evolution method of the Iron-Eating Beasts was made public, the number of beastmasters who could meet this evolution condition would be very few.
Everyone's stomachs ached. Was Shiyu's inference reliable?
"Um, how about trusting my intuition?"
Shiyu actually wanted to experiment.
However, unfortunately, he didn't have the evolution materials and didn't know how to forge them into an alloy, which was a technical challenge.
Additionally, Eleven's skill proficiency was also not up to standard.
Moreover, he hadn't decided whether to let Eleven evolve. Having a lump of iron on his shoulder would feel strange and heavy, and he would eventually get shoulder problems.
"Even if it's true, where can we try forging the alloy armor, and where can we find an Iron-Eating Beast with master-level proficiency to experiment..." Zheng Yingjie said, feeling a headache.
Although there was a clear experimental path, it still sounded like a research project with a budget of hundreds of millions...
"It's fine, finding a breakthrough is a good thing."
Panda Senior thought for a moment and looked at Shiyu. "I believe you. If you want to research, the cost of the evolution materials will be covered by our Bamboo Stone Martial Hall, and we can use my father's Iron-Eating Beast as a test subject."
Shiyu: ...
Everyone called her a filial daughter.
Panda Senior sold her father well.
"Mainly because my father's Iron-Eating Beast seems to be the only one that meets the conditions. He has invested a lot of money in researching the evolution form of the Iron-Eating Beasts. This time, it sounds more reliable than his previous random experiments." Panda Senior shook her head.
"If he knew, he would definitely agree, and even volunteer to come and cooperate."
Shiyu paused and said, "Then I'll ask if the Ancient Capital University can provide some technical assistance."
"For forging the alloy armor, the university should have more specialized personnel."
Shiyu and Panda Senior looked at each other, nodded, and reached an agreement.
Shiyu contacted the Ancient Capital University for technical assistance.
Panda Senior contacted her father to be the test subject.
Whether the Iron-Eating Beasts could soar to new heights and increase in value depended on this.