Dragon Canon

Xu Wenwu had talked about guns so many times that Wei Yuan’s ears were practically calloused. As for the others, although most of them only had one encounter with Xu Wenwu, thanks to Bao Yun pressuring him in the form of thirty thousand words, the guy had revealed enough information that they knew almost as much as Wei Yuan.

To Wei Yuan’s understanding, the principles of a gun were very simple. He picked up a rock from his Dao Foundation and squeezed it into a long tube. He then sealed off one end and manifested it in reality.

Eight inches thick and over five chi long, the “gun” was massive to say the least. Xiao Yu asked dubiously, “Are you sure this is a gun?”

“It is!” Wei Yuan declared without hesitation.

“If you think so!” Xiao Yu shrugged and did not argue. Wei Yuan did save his life. Forget this thing that was almost one chi thick and half a zhang long, he would agree even if it was several times bigger.

Truth be told, Wei Yuan had no choice. The stone tube he had manifested from his Dao Foundation was just an ordinary stone tube. Without Dao essence, it was no more durable than an ordinary rock. Having tested the potency of gunpowder earlier, he was afraid that the stone tube would explode if he filled it with the palm-sized, ball-shaped gunpowder Ji Liuli had created earlier.

Zhang Sheng asked, “What is saltpeter, and how did you find it?”

Meanwhile, Ji Liuli was creating another batch of gunpowder. While working, she replied, “Saltpeter? Our world doesn’t have an item that corresponds to that name, so I gave myself a Good Luck and suddenly recalled a herb called Flame Ice. Thinking it might be useful, I gave it a test and confirmed that it works. Flame Ice comes from an icestone mine, and they are available everywhere. Would you believe me if I tell you that all the gunpowder I’ve created so far is only worth a few taels in mortal silver?”

For the first time, Wei Yuan was truly impressed with the Heavenly Mysteries Hall. Ji Liuli had known nothing about saltpeter, but a Good Luck spell was all it took for her to guess the corresponding item correctly.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Wei Yuan. What if someone applied a Good Luck spell to themselves prior to the Immortal Sect Unified Examination? They would be guaranteed to ace the literary test then, wouldn’t they?

He was just getting a little excited when he realized that the aristocratic families had probably done exactly that.

Meanwhile, Ji Liuli had finished making her gunpowder. She took a portion of it, poured it into the stone tube, and compacted it directly using her Dao energy. Then, Zhang Sheng handed him a stone sphere. It was perfectly round and flawless, with a surface so smooth it could serve as a mirror. There was no doubt that it was just ordinary stone, but its surface was so polished that it gave off a lustrous, jade-like quality.

After Ji Liuli inserted the stone ball into the stone cylinder, Wei Yuan held it with both arms and aimed it at a large tree several zhang away. He then ignited the gunpowder with Dao energy.

There was a thunderous boom, and fire burst out of the muzzle. The stone ball whistled through the air and embedded itself in the tree with a trunk that took two people to encircle!

Looking at the scene, everyone was evaluating the power of the first ever gun to exist in this world based on their own experience.

Zhang Sheng spoke up first. “It’s on par with the heavy arrow loosed by a Northern Liao squad leader. Better than an ordinary Liao cavalryman’s, but weaker than a centurion’s. This is just in terms of potency. In terms of special effects, there is no comparison.”

Ji Liuli chimed in, “The Shamans are a pretty diverse breed. Disregarding the Warlocks, the gun could kill a blood-tempering stage warrior, but not one who has mastered the Body-tempering stage.”

Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli possessed the greatest amount of experience out of everyone present. Thus, their evaluation was the most accurate.

Wei Yuan reflected on the sensations he felt when firing the shot. In that instant, his entire body shook, and he shifted ever so slightly. Although the movement was so slight it was almost imperceptible, Wei Yuan realized that, without drawing upon his Dao energy, he could never completely eliminate the recoil with his physical body only. The smaller the movement, the greater the amount of force required.

Of course, he could keep perfectly still if he employed his Dao energy. He didn’t because this was a test.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan spoke up. “Can you make another pile of gunpowder, Big Senior Sister? Just a bit will do.”

Ji Liuli did as he said and created roughly a teacup’s worth of gunpowder. Wei Yuan then grabbed two pieces of heavy armor from, indented the center slightly, and placed the gunpowder between them. He then compacted the gunpowder and sealed the edges.

Wei Yuan mustered the power of the domain and enveloped the objects in it. He then ignited the gunpowder with Dao energy. There was a muffled bang, and the center of both heavy armor pieces swelled visibly. Not even the power of Qingming’s domain was able to suppress it completely.

The two heavy armor pieces were stored in the hidden storerooms of the Swelling Water God Palace. Meant to be worn by Dao Foundation stage cultivators, they were forged using refined steel that had been tempered a hundred times and refined using Dao energy. Each armor piece was half a fingernail thick and boasted exceptional sturdiness. Despite this, the explosion still warped its shape.

After witnessing the results of the experiment, Wei Yuan said, “It would seem that its potency is much greater in a completely sealed environment. Perhaps we can explore this angle further and research other potential applications.”

The group would continue to research for most of the night before finally going about their respective business.

It was nearly dawn. Wei Yuan took a look inside the stone house and found that Xu Wenwu had already gone to rest. On the table lay a brush, a jade paper, and an empty bowl.

Looking at the empty bowl, he abruptly recalled that he had attached a wisp of Dao energy to it. However, the bowl was ice cold at the moment, and the Dao energy was nowhere to be found. It must have dissipated already.

Wei Yuan picked up the jade paper and scanned it. Surprisingly, Xu Wenwu had written another ten thousand words in half a night’s time. The guy was starting to become diligent.

Wei Yuan returned the jade paper to its original position and grabbed the bowl. After returning to the summit, he reexamined the content Xu Wenwu had written in the past two days including the portions he had labeled as garbage.

Having witnessed gunpowder with his own eyes, Wei Yuan felt like he was looking at a completely different world. He was gaining a new appreciation for the value of Xu Wenwu’s writings as well.

The summit was pretty noisy today. The sound of clanging and clinking filled the air as Xiao Yu built a furnace. Once done, he started smelting iron. He was clearly in the middle of forging something.

Moments later, Xiao Yu held an iron tube in his hand and poured some gunpowder into it. Out of habit, he infused it with the power of The Sun. As a result, the gunpowder inside the tube caught on fire and unleashed a burst of flames through the muzzle.

The muzzle was pointing toward Xiao Yu’s face at the moment. As he was caught completely off guard, the flames managed to burn away a few strands of hair. He hadn’t reached the level where even his hair was refined.

Flashes of light were coming from Zhang Sheng’s direction as well. Though, his workplace was a lot quieter compared to Xiao Yu’s.

Ji Liuli was nowhere to be found. Perhaps she had made another new discovery.

Wei Yuan was very quiet and calm. As if Xu Wenwu’s world had appeared inside his spirit sea, he quietly observed the lives of these unfamiliar mortals and pondered the meaning behind it all.

When there were two hours remaining before dawn, Wei Yuan was roused from his immersion in that other world.

Bao Yun appeared before Wei Yuan and said, “I’m leaving now. You will follow one ke later. I will leave markers along the way. If anything unusual happens, I’ll note it on the markers.”

Wei Yuan nodded and took stock of the supplies in his Dao Foundation. Moments later, Ji Liuli took off and went after Bao Yun. He would be following a little later.

The main reason the trio were keeping their distance from one another was to avoid interfering with those ahead. If Bao Yun was alone, she could come and go freely right under a Great Warlock’s nose. However, Ji Liuli couldn’t, much less Wei Yuan.

At the central peak, Wei Yuan sat up straight and patiently waited for his time to depart. As he waited, it suddenly occurred to him that cultivators, people with powerful primordial spirits, did not need to worry about timeliness. For instance, his primordial spirit would automatically alert him about it when exactly one ke had passed. However, a mortal’s sense of time was very vague. Forget mortals, even a Body-tempering cultivator who hadn’t reached the spirit nurturing stage was much the same in this regard.

In everyday life, time intervals below half a ke was incredibly vague. Even among cultivators, people often used terms such as “one incense stick”, “one teatime”, “one breath” to describe a certain period of time. When it came to precise and minute measurement of time, their world was undoubtedly far inferior to Xu Wenwu’s.

The mortals in Xu Wenwu’s world seemed to lead incredibly strict lives. They left their homes and went to work every day at a specific time. If they were even one teatime late, they would lose half a day’s worth of wages just like that.

In light of this, it would seem that the mortals in Xu Wenwu’s world did not lead very pleasant lives either.

It was at this moment his primordial spirit alerted him that it was time. So, Wei Yuan rose to his feet and flew toward the southwest. It was completely quiet in the domain right now. Everyone except the night watch was resting and readying themselves for another full day of hard work.

When he was outside of Qingming’s domain, Wei Yuan dropped to the ground and ran on foot. At the distance, he could see a dark green glimmer guiding him forward.

The dark green glimmer was the marker Bao Yun had left behind for him and Ji Liuli. Only those possessing the seed of her treasure tree could see it. The young woman had given Ji Liuli and Zhang Sheng a seed each prior to her departure. Wei Yuan received nothing as he already had the One Wonder Treasure Tree.

Wei Yuan kept running forward following Bao Yun’s markers. The further he moved away from Qingming, the weaker the boost to the Great Realm became.

Bao Yun left behind a marker every few dozen li. The markers not only served as guides, but also provided some information about the surrounding area.

Along the way, Wei Yuan passed by a good number of traveling Shamans or patrol squads. The encounters were frequent enough that Wei Yuan inferred that the Shamans were accelerating their campaign of conquest.

The greater the number of Shamans occupying a plot of land, the more the world would shift toward the Shaman realm. The Shamans did not have anything resembling a realm stone, nor did they need one. All they needed to do was settle in one place and perform daily rituals to gradually transform their surroundings. The bigger the population, the faster and more thorough the transformation would be.

As the sky gradually brightened, Wei Yuan found the last marker. He followed it to the summit of a hill where Bao Yun and Ji Liuli were standing.

The girls were currently gazing into the distance. Wei Yuan followed their gazes and found a sizable encampment on a clearing a few dozen li away from them. The camp looked big enough to fit at least fifty thousand people; although, the circular tents where the troops were staying occupied less than thirty percent of the encampment. It would seem that the main force hadn’t arrived yet.

The encampment was fortified with walls constructed from wood and earth. They were a zhang tall. At the center of the camp was a natural platform where an altar had been constructed. A ring of blood red symbols surrounded the altar, each one spanning over a zhang in radius.

Drawing on his knowledge, Wei Yuan instantly recognized the altar as the most important structure of a Shaman encampment, the Sacrifice to Heaven Altar. At the moment, the runes surrounding the altar were glowing with a blood-red light. It meant that a Sacrifice to Heaven ritual had been completed some time ago, and the altar currently held ritual energy.

Ritual energy boasted an extremely wide variety of uses. It could be converted into a blood curse that corroded the very world, or inflict a powerful cultivator with a curse and kill them. Wei Yuan had experienced both of them. Besides that, it could be used to empower a specific Warlock, or defend an entire encampment.

Bao Yun said, “There are twelve thousand Shamans in the camp; fifteen hundred more than when I checked yesterday. They must have arrived last night. I’ve looked around carefully, and the only signs of a Great Warlock that I found in the vicinity is the lizard we killed. So far, I haven’t seen any signs of a second Great Warlock.”

Ji Liuli looked at the sky and said, “They’ll be sending out patrols in another hour or so. We need to move quickly.”

Bao Yun looked at Wei Yuan and asked, “What’s the plan of action for this mission?”

Looking at the Shaman’s encampment, Wei Yuan’s mind suddenly flashed back to the people leading lives worse than those of pigs and dogs in the northern district of Willow Ash Town; the pyramid of heads at Flying Sand Village, and Fang Hetong’s headless corpse.

He answered in a calm voice, “Kill them all. Leave no survivors.”