Graduation Ceremony

"How on earth did you do that?" Still reeling from the shock, Sainiya could not help asking curiously, "I heard from Aili that this kind of weapon couldn't fire gunpowder, or there would be a risk of the barrel bursting. Has that problem been solved?"

"No, we merely changed our line of thought." Mo Yun smiled as she watched the target ship burn fiercely.

The current Long-rod Projectile had an Artifact Warhead fitted to the front of its metal shaft. Its structure resembled a wooden plug wrapped in iron sheeting. The plug itself consisted of three parts: a Li Technique artifact, a Xun Technique artifact, and a Gen Technique artifact.

When the shooter activated the artifacts, the Gen Technique took effect first, coating the wooden plug with a crystalline layer of rock so that the temperature inside the projectile would not rise too quickly. The instant the warhead struck something, the tremendous impact deformed the plug, triggering the Li Technique's explosion and the Xun Technique's wind-drawing effect—the source arts behind both leaned toward self-preservation, and after being made into artifacts, they retained that trait of passive activation.

Even the Li Technique used in the warhead was not one commonly found in the Bureau of Military Affairs. To achieve the best explosive effect, Mo Yun selected Yama Ninjutsu's Explosion Talisman as her point of reference from among more than a dozen Li Techniques. Only after repeated research by over a dozen Li Technique apprentices in the Mechanical Bureau was the artifact's configuration finally settled.

"So that's how it was." After hearing Mo Yun's explanation, the High Priestess wore an enlightened expression. "You couldn't make it before because you hadn't found suitable materials, right?"

"That was exactly the reason." Mo Yun nodded.

When selecting materials for artifacts, wood had a far greater