The Soul Skill Practice Area was tucked away in a corner of the Soul Fighting Arena.
Duan Fan hadn't even known the place existed until Li Yi, a teacher who specialized in researching martial souls, took him there.
That was also where Li Yi had asked Duan Fan about his situation, had him activate his martial soul and use his Soul Skill, and gathered various kinds of information.
The academy was on break today, and there were hardly any people in the entire Soul Fighting Arena, let alone in the Soul Skill Practice Area.
Even on ordinary days, few people came here. The Soul Fighting Platform served just as well for practicing Soul Skills.
Duan Fan entered the Soul Skill Practice Area and casually picked a room.
The room was spacious, a full three hundred square meters, with a gray-white layout and plenty of open space.
All four walls were built of special gray-white bricks, said to be able to withstand attacks from a Soul Ancestor.
The floor was paved with the same special gray-white bricks, and felt faintly cool underfoot.
Duan Fan locked the door from the inside. After confirming no one else was there, he felt inside his loose robe and pulled out the pistol.
But he didn't test-fire it right away. First, he released his martial soul.
White light surged, and the Fantasy Pen solidified in Duan Fan's palm.
At the same time, a yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet, giving off waves of Soul Power.
The moment the ring appeared, it flashed brightly.
Duan Fan moved the pen through the air, sketching in empty space. Silver light flowed from its tip and coalesced into lines, quickly outlining a Dream-Weaving Spider.
Within a few breaths, a half-man-tall Dream-Weaving Spider took shape out of thin air. Its eight legs touched the ground with a soft series of taps.
Its body was pitch-black, silver patterns glimmered across its shell, and its eight single eyes rolled about in confusion before settling on Duan Fan.
"Make a spider."
Duan Fan gave the Dream-Weaving Spider an order.
The spider's abdomen immediately contracted, spraying out silvery-white webbing. The strands rapidly crisscrossed and tangled in front of it, soon weaving themselves into a Giant Spider.
Once both spiders were in place, Duan Fan directed them to move ten meters away.
"The targets are ready. I wonder how powerful this gun is—and whether it can punch through the Dream-Weaving Spider's shell."
Duan Fan held the gun in one hand and raised it to eye level.
He aimed at the Dream-Weaving Spider's abdomen.
With the Eye of Insight, there was no need to worry about his aim.
His heartbeat was steady, his breathing slowing.
Duan Fan slipped his index finger inside the trigger guard and rested it on the trigger.
He squeezed.
"Bang—!"
The gunshot exploded through the sealed room, much louder than he'd expected. His eardrums rang.
A tongue of flame burst from the muzzle. The slide snapped back and returned to position, and the casing flew out of the ejection port, tracing a golden arc through the air before clinking onto the tiles behind him.
Almost at the same instant, a fist-sized hole burst open in the Dream-Weaving Spider's abdomen.
It hadn't been pierced through. It had been blown apart.
The shell at the point of impact had split in every direction, its edges curled and scorched.
The Dream-Weaving Spider swayed slightly but didn't fall.
It was merely something drawn into existence and had no sense of pain. The impact had only thrown off its balance a little.
Duan Fan stared at the M1910 in his hand in disbelief, then hurried over to inspect the spider's wound.
The hole was fist-sized and about ten centimeters deep. It wasn't fatal to a Giant Spider, but the destructive power was already quite impressive.
"This kind of power... Is this really still an M1910?"
"Could the materials in this world be different, making the guns built here more powerful too?"
Duan Fan's expression was strange. He was pleased, but even more than that, he couldn't believe it.
He'd expected the M1910 to leave a dent in the Dream-Weaving Spider's shell at best.
After all, it was only a pistol, and the Dream-Weaving Spider was naturally well-armored.
Before firing, he'd even thought he might need to hit the same spot repeatedly to see if he could break through its defenses.
But one shot had produced such an outrageous result.
Duan Fan stepped back, changed his angle, and aimed at the base of one of the Dream-Weaving Spider's front legs.
He squeezed the trigger again.
"Bang!"
The shot struck precisely where the joint connected.
Two-thirds of the leg was blown apart at the middle. The Dream-Weaving Spider staggered, its leg buckling to one side and its body tilting with it.
Duan Fan glanced at the M1910 in his hand again, still unable to believe it.
The memories bestowed by Firearm Manufacturing Mastery told him that the M1910's power shouldn't be anywhere near this outrageous.
The little pistol was perfectly adequate for a sneak attack, and it could certainly do enough damage to a person's body.
But this kind of power... It felt like he could take on a Soul Master head-on.
A Dream-Weaving Spider with over six hundred years of cultivation couldn't take many shots. A Soul Master's fragile body was even less likely to hold up.
Soul Masters below the Soul Elder level probably wouldn't be able to withstand it, even with an ordinary defensive Soul Skill activated.
"Let's see how much damage this gun does to the Giant Spider woven by the Dream-Weaving Spider. The Giant Spider's body should be sturdier than the Dream-Weaving Spider itself."
Duan Fan turned to look at the Giant Spider beside the Dream-Weaving Spider.
The Giant Spider crouched obediently in place. Just by its size, the puppet woven from spider silk was already a good deal larger than the Dream-Weaving Spider.
Without the slightest hesitation, Duan Fan raised the gun and fired at it. He aimed squarely at the Giant Spider's abdomen.
"Bang!"
This was Duan Fan's third shot.
The bullet struck the shell on the Giant Spider's abdomen, making a crisp pop—not the dull, explosive crack from before.
The Giant Spider's body shuddered violently, all eight legs splaying out at once. The impact had clearly been considerable.
Duan Fan walked over to take a look.
A dent marked the Giant Spider's back shell, with the bullet lodged in it. It hadn't punched all the way through.
Fine cracks radiated from the dent like a spiderweb, and silvery-white light shone through the fissures.
Duan Fan nodded thoughtfully.
"This gun's power really is outrageous. If I fire a few more shots, even the Giant Spider won't be able to take it."
"With this kind of destructive power, it can hold its own even against Tang San's Godly Zhuge Crossbow."
"Even if a crossbow bolt has better penetration, it's still just an iron spike stabbing into something. This pistol blows things open, tears them apart, and burns them with every shot. It does far more damage to soft tissue than a crossbow bolt ever could."
When it came to penetration, could the Godly Zhuge Crossbow pierce the shell of a Soul Beast with over six hundred years of cultivation?
Duan Fan doubted it. This gun hadn't quite punched through, but it had left a deep enough dent and cracks in the shell. A few more shots, or a closer range, would do the job.
More importantly, this thing was incredibly convenient. One squeeze of the finger fired a round, and reloading was quick. Once the magazine's seven rounds were gone, he could just swap it out. It was also small enough to tuck into his robe, where no one would notice it.
No matter how ingenious the Godly Zhuge Crossbow was, it still couldn't beat this.
Duan Fan held the gun in his hand and weighed it. It was just the right weight.
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