Chapter 551: Chapter 407: Unexpected Joy: Rubber Tree! Steam Engine! (6400 words)_2

The main peak of Mount Akongagua is a dead volcano, towering at a remarkable 7,000 meters high, and it’s unrivaled as the tallest peak in the Hundred Beasts Paradise.

"And do you want to know where the inexhaustible Gold of the Sun Empire comes from? If I don’t tell you, you would never guess," he said, teasingly building suspense. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

As the two of them perked up their ears, their eyes bright with anticipation, he let out a proud laugh. He made a scooping motion with his hand, enlightening these two "poor relatives":

"Haha, all that Gold is scooped right out of the volcanic lava. Besides the molten rock, the magma actually contains a full twenty percent of various metals from deep within the earth’s crust.

Third Order [Molten Giants] can achieve Fire Element transformation, allowing them to dive into the magma and retrieve the abundant metals within—iron, copper, lead, Gold, silver, you name it.

Ever since the founding of the Empire, we, the Divine Descendants, have been continuously scooping it up. This stuff doesn’t decay; it just keeps accumulating.

It took over a thousand years of prolonged accumulation to reach the scale we have today.

Unfortunately, our Sun Empire occupies less than one-third of the Ring of Fire Mountain Range. Compared to the entire Hundred Beasts Paradise, we can only be considered to be tucked away in a corner.

However, the volcanic craters here are more than enough for our needs. Even if we assigned one to each Middle Sequence individual, there would still be a great surplus. What we lack isn’t volcanoes but a high-quality population.

Anyway, the Gold in the magma never seems to diminish. Even if we scooped for another ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand years, it would never run out."

"HISS—!"

Upon hearing this, Byron and Violet immediately lowered their heads to gaze at the massive volcanic mountain range. Their eyes flashed with boundless eagerness, which was promptly replaced by regret.

So that’s how it is. For these Descendants of the Sun God, the Ring of Fire Mountain Range is literally mountains of gold and silver. And they’re not even afraid of others robbing them; even if someone did, it would be useless.

No wonder they sit on such a treasure trove yet fear no covetous eyes, openly sharing their secrets.

Anyone who has studied geology knows that Gold is extremely rare on the planet’s surface; most of it lies deep within the crust or even at the core.

As the planet’s internal movements intensify, a volcano, upon accumulating sufficient Energy, will bring certain rare Materials from deep underground to the surface.

For example, Gold.

These Materials mix with volcanic magma, rise to the surface, and upon cooling, become ores rich in gold elements. These are primary gold deposits, which, after refining and processing, turn into dazzling Gold.

The Sun Empire, controlling these countless volcanoes, is essentially being showered with wealth by the planet itself.

Those tycoons with ordinary mines or oil fields can’t even compare to these Dog Landlords, who have literal mountains of gold and silver.

Whenever they need money, they just dive in and scoop. A single casual handful is enough to sustain an ordinary person for half their lifetime.

Considering the heavy metal content deep in the earth’s crust, these mountains of gold and silver will never be exhausted. How could the Divine Descendants of the Sun Empire ever be poor?

Someone like Atahualpa couldn’t even be bothered to scoop it himself.

And here I am, practically having to split every copper coin in two to fund our industrialization efforts!

Their eyes turned red with envy, their teeth practically grinding to dust.

Alright, alright, so that’s how you play, huh? You’ve managed to turn mining, which belongs to the secondary sector, into a gathering industry, part of the primary sector! Well, don’t blame us in the manufacturing sector for hitting your Sun Empire with a trade deficit then. Just you wait! Even though all these lovely little things are your money now, one day they’ll all be ours!

The determined pair resolved that on this trip, they absolutely had to dig deep into client needs and make a killing! After all, playing the international trade game well was much faster than outright robbery.

"My lords, we have arrived," the Prince’s voice announced, jolting the two back to their senses.

Looking down, they found themselves hovering above a majestic palace complex.

The periphery consisted of a massive, ring-shaped city built around an extinct volcano—Hot Spring City Kahamaka, the capital of Chinchasuyu.

The city spread across uneven terrain, its buildings square and solid—a city built upon a mountaintop.

In the center of the circular city lay a vast palace complex, primarily constructed from black Basalt.

Under the night sky, these black Basalt structures didn’t simply melt into the darkness or appear overly gloomy; on the contrary, they gleamed brilliantly under the illumination of countless fires.

These buildings were entirely covered in gold leaf.

The combination of gold and black exuded an air of regal majesty, grandeur, and unbelievable wealth!

"This..." The two were almost numb to the sight.

Byron and Violet followed Prince Atahualpa into a palace designed for entertaining guests. They stepped into a grand hall fit for giants, even more opulently decorated than they could have imagined.

Golden walls, a golden roof, golden floors, golden utensils—even the dining tables and chairs were made of solid Gold.

Illuminated by numerous high-hanging Fire Element crystals, the banquet hall was as bright as day, almost painfully dazzling.

So this is what they mean by ’wealth that dazzles the eyes.’ It’s a good thing Catherine isn’t here. If she had come along, she’d probably refuse to ever leave this place!

At that moment, even if Byron’s [Nautical Logbook] had indicated that something here was brass instead of Gold, he probably wouldn’t have believed it.

Instead, he would first suspect his Golden Finger was broken, wondering if it had somehow, by some mistake, turned into a ’Copper Finger.’

Separated by a central, gold-paved aisle, they took their seats on opposite sides, east and west. Byron and Violet shared a table on one side, while Prince Atahualpa and his wives occupied the other.