The underground workshop of the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace.
Soul Guidance Lamps shone as bright as daylight. Dozens of furnaces roared with flames, while the clanging of hammers rose and fell without pause.
Thousands of craftsmen worked at their assigned stations along the production line—grinding gears, casting crossbow arms, assembling springs. Each knew only one part of the process, never the whole.
"Your Majesty, the first batch is assembled. Please proceed to the testing grounds."
The foreman in black knelt on one knee.
He had once been a member of the Earl's household staff. After the entire family was confiscated, his memories were erased and loyalty commands implanted. Now, he was the workshop's most capable puppet.
Yan Lingji followed him through the palace gates to the imperial drill grounds west of the palace.
The square was neatly lined with war machines, including Earth-Breaking Three, Hundred-Battle Siege Crossbows, and Godly Zhuge Crossbows.
Dozens of steel pillars stood along the perimeter, each thick enough for a person to wrap their arms around. They gleamed a deep blue.
These were test targets smelted by Jiang Ce using a new formula. Their hardness was terrifying.
Even a Soul Douluo could leave a mark only with a full-force strike.
The Heaven Dou Empire's hoard accumulated over thousands of years, along with rare ores seized from dozens of noble treasuries—
Board Crystal, Hair Crystal, Mysterious Iron, Black-Veined Iron, Cold-Heart Iron Essence. All of them had now been smelted into engines of war.
Yan Lingji walked up to Earth-Breaking Three.
This mechanical beast stood three zhang tall and stretched more than five zhang long, like a giant pangolin.
When a city needed to be breached, its body curled into a massive drill wheel ten meters in diameter, smashing through city walls with unstoppable force.
Yan Lingji stroked its armor scales, a smile curling at the corners of her lips.
From the occasional hints Jiang Ce had dropped, she knew that some guy from a second-rate sect could strut across the continent just by relying on a few mechanisms and Hidden Weapons.
As for her, she had plundered dozens of noble houses. The rare ores alone would last for years of production.
But Jiang Ce wasn't satisfied with raw ore.
He combined Tyrannical Mechanism Art with modern concepts to overhaul the smelting process.
High-furnace temperature control, layered forging, alloy ratios—the craftsmen had brought each of these innovations to life through implanted knowledge.
After being repeatedly folded and forged, the iron became far harder and more resilient than ordinary steel. Then rare metals were added, producing an alloy that was black with a faint blue sheen. Even before being sharpened, it could easily cut through cold iron.
"These alloys alone are more than a whole tier above the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons."
Jiang Ce sounded pleased with himself.
The puppet foreman activated Earth-Breaking Three.
It leapt into the air and curled into a ball.
Then it began spinning at high speed.
—Boom!
Shattered stone flew everywhere.
Granite crumbled like tofu. In the space of a few breaths, the machine had bored a bottomless pit.
"What kind of city wall could possibly stop that?"
Yan Lingji drew a sharp breath.
"In theory, none," Jiang Ce said. "It can drill in from underground and dismantle a city's defenses from within."
Yan Lingji nodded, her gaze falling on a huge, scarlet-red sword scabbard.
The scabbard stood about as tall as a person. A black longsword leaned against it at an angle.
"A peerless divine weapon. I saw one once and made a few modifications," Jiang Ce said.
"Even a Soul Douluo would covet this sword."
Yan Lingji picked up the longsword. Its blade was light yet sturdy.
It had been forged from the new alloy.
It could certainly be considered a divine weapon.
"Insert the sword into the scabbard and twist the hilt."
Click.
Armor plates on both sides of the scabbard spread like an insect's wings, revealing a dense array of firing ports.
They formed a cross-shaped firing mechanism, aimed at the steel pillars.
"First stage—Pear Blossom Rain."
Thousands of silver needles, fine as ox hair, shot out in a sweeping barrage.
The steel pillar was instantly riddled with holes. The needles pierced several inches into the thick steel.
These pillars had been specially cast by Jiang Ce and were exceptionally hard. Even a Soul Douluo would struggle to leave a mark.
"That was only the first stage," Jiang Ce said. "Watch the second."
After the Pear Blossom Needle in Rainstorm had finished firing,
the armor plates on both sides of the scabbard began spinning rapidly. They detached from the main body as two enormous blades and flew toward the steel pillar like boomerangs.
Within seconds, they had hacked the pillar beyond recognition.
They were still cutting deeper into the steel at tremendous speed.
"Now for the third stage."
Boom!!
The explosion tore the steel pillar to pieces, sending fragments flying.
Yan Lingji's eyes narrowed. Her Holy Spirit Sword Technique, Sword One, sent sword energy surging outward, grinding every fragment to dust.
"Three stages of attacks—not even a Titled Douluo could withstand them," Yan Lingji marveled.
"The Pear Blossom Rain specializes in breaking inner-force barriers.
"Too bad I didn't use Deep Sea Heavy Silver Mother. Otherwise, it could directly cripple a Super Douluo.
"The explosion in the third stage uses Super TNT Explosive, which I developed by combining local materials.
"It's several times more powerful than the original TNT explosive."
Jiang Ce gave a derisive snort. "A certain Little Scumbag from a second-rate sect could kill dozens of Soul Saints and thirty Soul Douluos with nothing more than a Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus made from compressed black powder. My custom-built weapon can kill a Titled Douluo."
Yan Lingji's eyes shone.
"Master, you said that Little Scumbag's Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus and Pear Blossom Needle in Rainstorm were peerless, one-of-a-kind weapons.
"Even making one was a struggle. The materials had to be scoured from all over the world, the blueprints were unique, and a group of people had to pool their efforts just to barely produce a few. But here..."
Yan Lingji looked at the war machines filling the entire square.
"We have assembly lines, materials stacked into mountains, and thousands of craftsmen.
"Just the first stage of a single divine weapon fires over a thousand Pear Blossom Needles in Rainstorm, and we have enough rare ores to last for decades.
"The empire's accumulation over thousands of years really is wonderful.
"If that second-rate sect you mentioned had this kind of production capacity, it would've swept the continent long ago."
"Exactly. They're handcrafting in a workshop; we're running an assembly line.
"For the same item, they make one while we make a hundred.
"They can only equip their core disciples; we can outfit the entire army.
"What's more, their top-tier Hidden Weapons are nothing compared to Tyrannical Mechanism Art on the level of the Hundred Schools of Thought.
"The Tang Sect is just a second-rate sect. The Gongshu Family is the true heir to the legacy of Grandmaster Lu Ban.
"Siege engines built to capture cities and strongholds aren't even on the same level as their toys for ambushes and assassinations."
Yan Lingji was about to say something when her gaze fell on another display stand in the corner of the square.
It held precision metal tubes, polished bolt assemblies, spiral-rifled barrels, brass casings, metal bullets, and several wooden crates filled with black granular powder.
"Master, what are those?"
Jiang Ce took control of her body and guided her hands toward the table.
He picked up a casing, poured in specially prepared high-energy granular powder, tamped it down, and fitted a bullet into it.
The bullet's outer layer was made of high-strength alloy, with a Cold-Heart Iron Essence armor-piercing core inside.
At its tip, Board Crystal and Hair Crystal powder had been fused in, designed to pierce Soul Power barriers.
Then,
he picked up the parts on the table and began assembling them at speed.
Soon, a massive, rugged black rifle took shape.
Its entire body was forged from Cold-Heart Iron Essence and high-strength alloy, with faint blue patterns rippling across its surface.
It was, naturally, a Barrett.
Except that it was made entirely from special alloys, giving it a longer range and far more terrifying power.
Jiang Ce loaded a bullet.
He aimed at a mountain peak ten thousand meters away.
Boom!
The deafening report echoed as the bullet shot away at several times the speed of sound.
On the distant hillside, the bullet bored into the granite, leaving a bottomless hole and shattering the surrounding rock.
Only a puff of dust rose from the mountainside.
"If we swapped in an explosive round, that hill would be gone."
Jiang Ce spoke casually.
Yan Lingji fell silent.
In a world dominated by cold weapons, a weapon that could accurately snipe a target ten thousand meters away was an existence that shattered every rule.
"And this is only the first generation." Jiang Ce released control.
Yan Lingji flexed her fingers and looked down at the massive black weapon. Firelight glimmered in her peach-blossom eyes.
"Master, if the Peerless Douluos found out about this, wouldn't they go mad? This thing can absolutely hurt them."
"Wouldn't that be even better? Let them go mad. Even Peerless Douluos will have to grovel at our feet."
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