Magic Core Firearm: Thunderfire Feather! Please Follow! Please Vote!

Magic Core Firearm: Thunderfire Feather! Please Follow! Please Vote!

Jiang Lin's forging room contained an astonishing variety of materials, all slowly collected by him over time. There were not only all kinds of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, but even body materials harvested from first-, second-, and third-tier Magical Beasts.

The material that satisfied Jiang Lin most was a third-tier Silver-patterned Fire Rhinoceros Horn displayed on the shelf, crimson all over and resembling fiery jade. This was the only third-tier material Jiang Lin had collected, and he had obtained it thanks to Mr. Yao's Myriad Medicine Hall. The Silver-patterned Fire Rhinoceros Horn also counted as a medicinal ingredient. A Magical Beast Mercenary Group had sold it to the Myriad Medicine Hall, and Jiang Lin happened to see it. He then wheedled and pestered Mr. Yao until he gave it to him.

Thinking about it now, Jiang Lin felt that with the looks of his former self, perhaps acting cute gave him some special advantage against Mr. Yao???

"Three grams of Flowing Sound Graphite, one gram of Silver-patterned Fire Rhinoceros Horn powder, five grams of Fire Swallowing Sparrow Magic Core fragments."

After dozens of failures, Jiang Lin successfully concocted a specialized liquid-metal wire with exceptionally fast fire-element Dou Qi conduction. After grinding and calcining all the materials, the final product was a reddish liquid covered in flickering purple starlike specks. This liquid possessed a miraculous property: it turned into metal when exposed to fire, but reverted to liquid once the temperature rose high enough.

"The scaled-down Detonation Texture structure is in place."

Inside the blazing forging room, Jiang Lin glanced at the fist-sized metal model on the table. Using his tools, he pared it down to the size of a pigeon egg, first winding soft iron wire along the grooves and covering it with insulating material. Finally, he pulled out the wire, injected the specialized conductor he had concocted, and placed it into the furnace for several seconds. The liquid solidified into metal.

Jiang Lin then took out a pile of metal components he had pressed in molds beforehand and assembled them on the spot. Midway through, he placed the metal core inside. The connector on the core's surface fit snugly against the inner wall of the outer tubular metal. After confirming there was no problem, he offset them.

After spending half a day, Jiang Lin finally assembled an object held together by mortise-and-tenon joints. He then cast a layer of second-tier purple metal powder over its exterior. After the final calcining, it became entirely purplish red and resembled a blasting cap.

Jiang Lin looked at the "fire poker" in his hand. After some thought, he carved a round seal depicting a small dog looking up at the sky in an inconspicuous spot.

Thus, the second Dou Artifact Jiang Lin had forged that represented his Weapon Refining standards was officially complete.

Top-tier Yellow-grade mid-tier Battle Weapon: Thunderfire Feather. Purplish red with a golden sheen, tubular, half a chi and three fen long. It contained a Detonation Core and had a removable first-tier fire-element Magic Core mounted at its base. It came with three Qi Breaking Needles (replaceable). By rapidly twisting the base, the Dou Qi circuits would instantly rub together and connect, producing a detonation that launched specially made steel needles in an instant. At close range, it could penetrate a Dou Qi Garment and threaten a Dou Master.

Note: Due to the specialized liquid conductor, before the fire-element Magic Core reached its overload threshold, the conductor would directly liquefy to reduce pressure. At the same time, part of the gas would push back within the air chamber and strike the base, returning it to position and cutting off the Dou Qi output.

Drenched in sweat, Jiang Lin looked at the product of half a month's hard work and could not help feeling dazed.

If this Thunderfire Feather had existed in his previous life, Jiang Lin probably would not have needed to worry about food money for the rest of his life.

After all, this thing was a prototype firearm—or rather, a magically modified prototype firearm.

But in this world filled with Dou Qi, Jiang Lin had to admit that the Thunderfire Feather could only be considered a toy. It was fine for self-defense during the early stages, but relying on it forever would be foolish.

Still, Jiang Lin had never placed much expectation on the Thunderfire Feather to begin with.

Picking up the Thunderfire Feather, he aimed it at a piece of wood in the corner. With a click, Jiang Lin twisted the base.

Bang!

Jiang Lin only felt a slight numbness in his palm. Then, the dry log in the distant corner, as thick as a person's head, was pierced clean through by a finger-sized hole. The tremendous impact tore the wood into several pieces, while the disposable steel needle, as thick as a chopstick, burrowed halfway into the wall.

"It really does have the killing power of a firearm. When I have time later, I can make a better one to play with. This one would be pretty good as a self-defense weapon for Xiao Yi Xian." Jiang Lin assessed its power and completion, then could not help nodding.

With that penetration and suddenness, even a Da Dou Shi could easily be injured by this concealed weapon if he was careless. For ordinary Dou Zhes, normal steel needles could break through their defenses. Against Dou Masters with Dou Qi Garments, Jiang Lin would need the three Qi Breaking Needles he had specially prepared, which possessed material properties that could "weaken Dou Qi activity," to break their defenses.

"With this experience, logically speaking, I should be able to magically modify machine guns and autocannons too." An image seemed to appear in Jiang Lin's mind of himself carrying an autocannon and mowing down enemies across a battlefield.

"No, that would be courting death!"

Jiang Lin could not help shuddering and hurriedly stopped his dangerous train of thought.

"What lies beyond form is called the Dao. My original intention in Weapon Refining is Instrument Carrying the Dao. Focusing on mowing down enemies with firearms would instead mean falling into the trap of metaphysical thinking."

Traditional artillery could not kill this world's true powerhouses. That was merely a crude use of energy. The Thunderfire Feather was only a byproduct of Jiang Lin's experiments. He was attempting an entirely new Weapon Refining approach, which he called Magic Core Flow. Magic Core Flow weapons could allow low-level Dou Zhes to unleash supercharged Dou Qi and erupt with formidable combat power.

Magic Core Firearms, however, dealt damage primarily through high temperatures and shockwaves caused by explosions. They had definite limits and would struggle to affect Dou Emperors, Dou Zongs, and stronger experts. In contrast, Magic Core Firearms held an overwhelming advantage against low-level Dou Zhes and could easily produce massacre-level results.

Under such circumstances, Magic Core Firearms were already a minor path, not to mention that Jiang Lin was not even sure he could survive. High-level experts could ignore the damage of Magic Core Firearms while matching their destructive power. Magic Core Firearms offered no help at all to high-level experts; instead, they would create turmoil across the continent. In that case, Jiang Lin, who was useless to high-level experts, would have no value in remaining alive.

Therefore, in this extraordinary world where the upper limit of individual power was terrifyingly high, the energy-conversion logic of firearms itself determined that they had neither much potential nor a particularly high ceiling. Dao-bearing artifacts built through Instrument Carrying the Dao were the path Jiang Lin should follow.

Take Nuclear Bombs, one milestone of modern civilization's weapons. Such purely physical damage might not even break through a Dou Zun's defenses, much less affect a Dou Saint who commanded Spatial Power.

On the other hand, if your Nuclear Bomb were an artifact-level object, and each detonation shattered and collapsed space, then even if a Dou Saint came, he would run without the slightest hesitation when it was time to run.