Douluo: Starting by Crafting a Gun

Douluo: Starting by Crafting Guns

Author: Lingyuntiancheng

Synopsis:

As the saying goes, if the neighbor grows grain, I craft guns; the neighbor is my granary.

Transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, how does one rise to the top?

Shen Feng tells you, it only takes three steps.

First, start by crafting guns to crush Tang San's mechanical hidden weapons.

Second, awaken true Innate Full Soul Power to crush Tang San's fake Innate Full Soul Power.

Third, walk Tang San's path so he has nowhere to go.

Douluo Continent, Bala Kingdom, thirty kilometers north of Suotuo City, Shuiyun Village.

The morning sun rose, and as the dawn light just began to shine upon the earth, the small woods behind Shuiyun Village welcomed two figures, one large and one small.

It was a young man not yet thirty, accompanied by a little boy of about five or six.

"Little Feng, is the gadget you made this time reliable? You really can't scam me again."

Stepping into the woods, the young man asked the little boy beside him with a strange expression.

The little boy's face stiffened, and he chuckled, "Don't worry, Dad, I guarantee there won't be any problems this time."

"The rifle parts this time were commissioned from the best blacksmith in Suotuo City, and the propellant for the bullets is a brand-new product. I've also carefully calibrated the charge, so that incident from last time will absolutely not happen again."

Hearing this, Shen Rui's face stiffened, because the last time they came to test a gun, Shen Feng had said the exact same thing.

As a result, the moment he pulled the trigger, the firearm Shen Feng had guaranteed exploded in his hands. If he hadn't possessed some skills, the whole village would likely be attending his funeral feast by now.

Swallowing with lingering fear, Shen Rui gave a strained smile: "I hope your guarantee this time is true."

Shen Feng stuck out his tongue and said mischievously, "Don't worry, Dad, I promise there won't be any accidents this time."

As he spoke, Shen Feng pulled a vest and a helmet from the backpack on his back and put them on properly.

Then he trotted away from Shen Rui, hid behind a large rock, and shouted, "Dad, I'm safe, please begin your performance."

Seeing Shen Feng's behavior, the corners of Shen Rui's mouth couldn't stop twitching: "You little brat, how did I end up with a son like you?"

With an angry curse, Shen Rui flipped his hand and took out a rifle with an extremely exaggerated design.

The entire gun was over two meters long, an absolute overlord among firearms. With an eight-centimeter barrel and a muzzle nearly five centimeters wide, no one would question it if you called it a piece of artillery.

After performing a final check on the firearm in his hands, Shen Rui took a massive bullet, 45 millimeters in diameter and 30 centimeters long, from his Soul Tool.

Well, it might as well be a cannon shell.

Pulling the bolt, loading the ammunition, pushing it into the chamber, and sealing the breech—after completing the series of actions, Shen Rui took a deep breath, and five brilliant light rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black—slowly rose around his body.

The rings flashed continuously until his arms glowed with a golden light and a soft, pale gold radiance appeared on his skin. Only then did Shen Rui tremblingly place his finger on the rifle's trigger.

"Son, please don't set me up."

BOOM--

The next moment, Shen Rui pulled the trigger. A deafening explosion rang out, and several trees as thick as a man's thigh in a straight line ahead were snapped in half instantly. The distant woods were suddenly filled with the sound of large flocks of birds taking flight in alarm.

Seeing that the projectile had been successfully fired, Shen Feng rushed to Shen Rui's side in a few strides: "Dad, quickly check how the gun is, is there any damage?"

Shen Rui shook his head slightly: "I've already sensed it with my soul power; there is no damage to the barrel. As for the inside, you'll need to check that yourself when we get back."

"It's just that this time seems a bit different from before. The white smoke from the firing is gone, that pungent smell of gunpowder is gone, and the power seems to have increased quite a bit."

Ever since Shen Feng started crafting guns at the age of three, Shen Rui had lost count of how many times he had helped him test them.

Although he could break trees before, it was at most two or three trees the width of a bowl; any more than that, and the bullet would fly off who knows where.

Like today, where a single bullet snapped five trees before the trajectory shifted, this was the first time ever.

Shen Feng chuckled: "Didn't I tell you earlier? I've replaced the propellant in the bullets."

"The current propellant is smokeless powder. Not only is it safer than black powder, but the bullets made with it are also much more powerful."

Shen Rui was stunned: "Smokeless powder? You've tinkered with something new again?"

"I really don't know how your brain is wired; you're always able to come up with a bunch of strange things."

Shen Feng said proudly: "That's naturally because Mom and Dad have outstanding bloodlines. Isn't it a matter of course that such a smart child was born from the combination of the strong?"

At the same time, Shen Feng added the second half of the thought in the depths of his heart.

Of course, this also owes a lot to the national education I received under the red flag in my past life, which allows me to show off in front of others in this strange yet familiar world.

In fact, Shen Feng is not from this world, or rather, his soul does not belong to this world.

In his previous life, Shen Feng lived in a peaceful country without supernatural powers. He started school at five, studied hard for twenty years, graduated from XX University of Technology, and after graduation, successfully transitioned into a qualified "cow-horse" who could serve as a social cog.

Later, he died suddenly and arrived at the Douluo Continent, a world possessing supernatural power, where Soul Masters were the only supernatural profession on this continent.

Very fortunately, Shen Feng's father and mother were both Soul Masters, and their aptitude was quite good. Seven years ago, they seemed to have participated in a competition called the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, and he heard they achieved decent results.

After the competition ended, Shen Feng's parents got together. After passing through Shuiyun Village and giving birth to Shen Feng, they settled down here, and it has been six years now.

At the age of three, as his brain gradually developed and his memories of his past life became increasingly clear, Shen Feng began consciously searching for the raw materials needed to craft the firearms and ammunition from his previous world.

After all, the construction of firearms was not complex—at least, it was far simpler than the mechanical hidden weapons of Tang San—and every component could be produced by the blacksmiths on the Douluo Continent.

As for the production of bullets, the only real difficulty lay in the propellant, but that was not a significant problem.

With the financial support of his Soul Master parents and relying on the professional knowledge of science and engineering he had acquired in his past life, Shen Feng finally succeeded, three years later, in perfectly replicating the most basic violent machinery from his previous life.

The large, cannon-like object in the hands of Shen Rui was the greatest masterpiece Shen Feng had created since arriving on the Douluo Continent, a firearm custom-made for Shen Rui's strength as a five-ring Soul King.

Shen Feng had even given it a very fitting name: .45 Breaker.

With a 45-millimeter caliber, if one were to be hit by a single shot, it would undoubtedly leave them bruised and battered, scattered in pieces.

Of course, Shen Feng did not develop this thing specifically to target people, but rather to help his parents stay safer when they went out to hunt soul beasts for others.

Glancing at the proud Shen Feng, then back at the heavy weapon in his hands, Shen Rui felt a warmth in his heart.

Indeed, no matter how intelligent you are, you are still the child of Ling Na and me; what parents in this world would ever dislike their own child for being too clever?

Storing the firearm into his Soul Tool, Shen Rui reached out and ruffled Shen Feng's hair.

"Let's go, let's head back. Your mother should have already finished cooking and be waiting for us."

"After we eat, I'll take you to the Martial Soul Hall in the center of the village. The deacon from the Martial Soul Hall in Suotuo City will be arriving today, and since you're six years old, it's time for your martial soul awakening."

Shen Feng was stunned for a moment, only then remembering that he had turned six three days ago. However, he had been so busy formulating nitrocellulose and manufacturing smokeless gunpowder bullets these past few days that he had completely forgotten his own birthday.

"Alright, Dad. I will definitely awaken with an Innate Soul Power higher than both yours and Mom's."

Shen Rui smiled slightly. "Good, it's a deal then. It would be best if you could awaken with Innate Full Soul Power."

Shen Feng's home was located at the foot of the mountain behind Shuiyun Village, actually several hundred meters away from the village proper.

The reason they lived in such a remote place, far from the village, was partly because wild beasts and low-level soul beasts would occasionally charge down from the mountain; by living at the foot of the mountain, Shen Feng's family could help block them for the villagers.

Secondly, ordinary people were either too respectful of Soul Masters, or perhaps more accurately, afraid of them.

On one hand, they hoped for a Soul Master to be born in their own family so they could climb to the upper echelons of society, but on the other, they worried that those powerful Soul Masters would oppress them, especially those they didn't know.

When Shen Rui first brought his wife, Ling Na, to Shuiyun Village, they were seen as those very types of unfamiliar Soul Masters by the villagers.

To ensure Ling Na could give birth to Shen Feng in peace and to avoid unnecessary trouble, Shen Rui had built their house at the foot of the mountain, far from Shuiyun Village, with his own hands.

To this day, after years of living as neighbors, although the villagers of Shuiyun Village no longer feared that Shen Rui would harm them, Shen Feng's family had long since grown accustomed to living at the foot of the mountain.

It was precisely because they were far from the village that Shen Feng could go all out with his firearms; even if an accidental explosion occurred, it wouldn't harm the ordinary people.

And even if the villagers of Shuiyun Village heard the sounds of explosions, they would naturally assume that it was the Lord Soul Masters practicing their soul skills, causing them to stay even further away from that area.

Therefore, in the three years Shen Feng had been developing firearms and other items, only a handful of people knew about them, and most of those had only been used once or twice when Shen Rui went out to help others hunt soul beasts.

As for the ordinary people, they never had the chance to see them at all.

In truth, Shen Feng had no intention of spreading the manufacturing techniques for firearms, at least not for now.

After all, firearms were tools that could drastically bridge the power gap between low-level Soul Masters and ordinary people.

With their extremely simple manufacturing principles and lack of safety mechanisms, they were dangerous items even easier to spread than the hand crossbows of the cold-weapon era.

As for ammunition, a consumable, one could actually produce qualified bullets using black powder as a propellant; while they couldn't be used in automatic firearms, they would work perfectly fine in bolt-action rifles.

Moreover, there was more than one person in this world who knew the formula for black powder; that Tang Xiaosan, who was still in Holy Soul Village far away in Fasinuo Province, knew it too.

Shen Feng did not want the firearms he had painstakingly replicated to eventually be turned into a different kind of hidden weapon aimed at himself.

The father and son of the Shen family walked down the mountain along a small path and soon saw a small courtyard at the foot of the mountain.

A few stone-built huts, combined with a small stone courtyard wall, totaling no more than three hundred square meters—this was the cozy home of Shen Feng's family of three.

As soon as he entered the house, Shen Feng immediately smelled the mouth-watering aroma of food, the scent of his mother's cooking.

"Big Mad, Little Feng, you're back."

Accompanied by a voice as sweet as a lark, a young woman wearing a goose-yellow dress with a slightly curvaceous figure stepped out of the room and appeared before Shen Feng and Shen Rui.

This was Shen Feng's mother, Shen Rui's wife, known in the Soul Master world as the Mad Blade, Ling Na.

And Shen Rui, having roamed the Soul Master world for over a decade, naturally had his own title: Mad Fist Shen Rui.

This was why Ling Na called Shen Rui "Big Mad," because Shen Rui was truly insane when he fought.

Back in the day on the arena of the Soul Master tournament, the two of them had been bitter rivals who refused to yield to one another.

But those were old stories from years ago; now, they were a loving family.

"Mom, what delicious food did you make? I'm starving."

Hearing the term "Mom," Ling Na's face darkened instantly. She flashed in front of Shen Feng, reached out to pinch his small face, and teased, "Mom? Am I really that old?"

"If it weren't for giving birth to you, you little brat, I would still be a beloved maiden that everyone adores."

Enduring the pain in his cheeks, Shen Feng stood on his tiptoes, grimacing as he shouted, "Mom, Mom, it hurts, it hurts! My face is going to be torn off!"

Hearing his son's plea for mercy, Shen Rui immediately stepped in to console her: "Nana, actually, your figure is just as good as it was back then."

Hearing the word "figure," Ling Na's anger surged, and she reached out to grab Shen Rui's ear.

"Figure? You dare mention my figure to me? If it weren't for eating well and training less while following you, would I have gained all this extra weight?"

"."

Suddenly, the quiet courtyard at the foot of the mountain was once again filled with the familiar sounds of bustle; this was the feeling of home.

Half an hour later, Shen Feng rubbed his cheeks while Shen Rui rubbed his ears, followed by Ling Na, who was dressed in a tight-fitting outfit, arms crossed, and looking thoroughly displeased.

The harmonious family of three walked out of their home together, heading toward the nearby Shuiyun Village.

This trip was, naturally, for the sake of Shen Feng's martial soul awakening.

Before long, the family arrived at the Martial Soul Hall in the center of Shuiyun Village; calling it a Martial Soul Hall was a bit of a stretch, as it was actually just a very ordinary stone-built house.

It was only because Shuiyun Village had a family of soul masters like them that the tax collectors from Suotuo City dared not act recklessly, which allowed the village to be relatively prosperous and able to afford this stone-built Martial Soul Hall.

Much like the Holy Soul Village where Tang San lived in the original story, the name sounded grand, but they could only afford to build a small wooden hut to serve as the Martial Soul Hall for the children's awakening ceremony.

When the family arrived at the village's Martial Soul Hall, quite a few villagers had already gathered, though they were all adults; there wasn't a single child like Shen Feng who needed to awaken their martial soul.

It seemed they had already gone inside the Martial Soul Hall.

"Mr. Shen, Ms. Ling, little Feng, good morning."

Seeing the family arrive, the villagers immediately cleared a path, bowing and greeting them one after another.

The family had settled in Shuiyun Village for six years, and although they hadn't personally done much for these villagers, their status as soul masters was enough for Shuiyun Village to gain many hidden benefits.

Not to mention the extra taxes that were no longer collected, the village had even gained two extra spots for work-study students at the Suotuo City Junior Soul Master Academy.

Though, in all likelihood, they wouldn't even be able to use them.