Supersonic Iron Pellets

With the mass kept constant, the power of an iron pellet depended on its speed.

The iron pellet he had fired just now was only about as powerful as a handgun from his previous life. He estimated that its speed had been roughly around the speed of sound.

If he could accelerate an iron pellet to three, four, or even ten times the speed of sound, its power would reach a terrifying level. Even a Foundation Establishment expert would likely suffer serious injuries if struck by an iron pellet traveling at ten times the speed of sound.

Theoretically, disregarding the material limits of the iron pellet, if he could accelerate a twenty-gram pellet to near-light speed, he could flip the entire Qionghua Continent upside down with a single pellet.

However, that existed only in fantasy.

Leaving aside everything else, the energy required alone was far beyond what he could provide. Not to mention, he had no idea whether any material could withstand such a tremendous speed.

Setting aside such excessively fanciful matters, merely accelerating an iron pellet to ten times the speed of sound was not impossible.

Accelerating an iron pellet depended on only two things: the force exerted on it and the time it spent accelerating.

His magnetic field strength apparently had a limit. In other words, the force he could provide to accelerate the pellet was fixed, and the only thing he could work with was the acceleration time.

Just now, he had fired the iron pellet in a straight line, so its acceleration distance had only been the one zhang covered by his magnetic field.

What if, instead of firing the iron pellet in a straight line, he made it move in a circle within the range of his magnetic field, then launched it after it had accelerated to a certain extent? Just how terrifying would it become?

After pondering for a moment, Zhou Qing felt that this method would work, so he decided to test it immediately.

He formed a circular magnetic field around himself, making the iron pellet accelerate within it.

He quickly discovered that this was far more difficult than firing an iron pellet in a straight line.

Not only did he need to accelerate the pellet, he also had to continuously use his magnetic field to restrain it, overcome its centrifugal force, and prevent it from suddenly flying out of the magnetic field's range.

Both his mental strength and energy were being consumed at twice the rate.

Still, the results were gratifying.

Zhou Qing watched the iron pellet orbit around him, like a planet circling a star.

The pellet spun faster and faster, soon exceeding the limits of the naked eye.

Yet Zhou Qing's magnetic field perception still held firmly onto the moving pellet.

The iron pellet exceeded the speed of sound, creating small-scale sonic booms around Zhou Qing. The entire courtyard roared with the sounds of wind and thunder.

Fortunately, he had chosen this secluded residence. Furthermore, the sect seniors above Foundation Establishment all lived on Azure Cloud Mountain, nearly ten li away. Otherwise, he would surely have alerted someone.

The iron pellet continued accelerating.

Zhou Qing had no choice but to use more magnetic field energy to restrain the pellet and prevent it from escaping the magnetic field's range.

With less magnetic field available for acceleration, its acceleration naturally slowed as well.

Very soon, it reached a limit. All of Zhou Qing's magnetic field had to be used to restrain the iron pellet flying at an extremely supersonic speed, leaving him with no surplus energy to accelerate it further.

In this state, the energy in Zhou Qing's body drained away at a furious pace. He felt as though a faucet had been installed on his body, ceaselessly drawing away his strength and mental vigor.

Suddenly, his body went weak, and he collapsed to the ground. He no longer had the strength to maintain the magnetic field.

Freed from the magnetic field's restraints, the iron pellet swiftly plunged into a nearby building used to store miscellaneous items.

Boom!

A thunderous crash rang out.

Zhou Qing turned his head with difficulty and saw that the building had completely collapsed.

This was a little too terrifying!

Zhou Qing pulled a small porcelain bottle from his robes, took out a Bigu Pill, and put it into his mouth.

This was the food Chen Qingxuan had distributed to the Immortal Seedlings aboard the flying boat. A single pill could provide the body with three days' worth of energy.

The Bigu Pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, turning into a stream of pure energy. The weakness throughout Zhou Qing's body rapidly vanished.

He immediately ran to the collapsed building and began digging through it. He wanted to see exactly how much destruction the iron pellet had caused.

The energy released by the iron pellet upon impact had been extremely concentrated. The building's collapse was merely the result of the shockwave, a kind of secondary damage. The true impact effect lay within.

After spending more than half a shichen, Zhou Qing finally cleared away most of the collapsed building.

On what had once been the building's floor, he found a hole large enough to fit a football inside. The surface of the pit was smooth and crystalline, with some iron filings still clinging to it.

Zhou Qing guessed that the immense heat generated by the iron pellet's high-speed impact had vaporized the pellet, creating this effect.

With this power, it was probably already comparable to a landmine!

What realm of Cultivators could this level of power rival?

Zhou Qing mulled it over.

Unfortunately, he knew far too little about Cultivators to make a reasonable estimate.

It seemed he would have to begin cultivating himself before he could properly assess it.

No matter what, the power of this strike could probably at least rival a cultivator at the sixth or seventh level of Qi Refining. After all, cultivators at the third level of Qi Refining could not yet ignore mortal arrows.

Even if sixth- or seventh-level Qi Refining cultivators were powerful, they could not be leaps and bounds stronger.

However, this move also had obvious flaws.

First, its windup was far too long. To accelerate the iron pellet to the level it had just reached required roughly ten seconds.

When fighting an enemy, they would not give him that much time to prepare his ultimate move.

Another issue was that he had not yet learned how to aim.

To launch an iron pellet moving in a circle at an enemy, he needed to alter its trajectory with precision. He could not yet do that, and it would likely require a long period of practice.

Finally, the iron pellet's energy consumption was simply too terrifying. It consumed not only energy but mental strength as well. His head was still buzzing, and he probably would not be able to use his magnetic field again for at least one shichen.

Weighing all these strengths and weaknesses, Zhou Qing devised a suitable tactic for himself.

Rather than accelerating the iron pellet to its limit, he would bring it to a level he could just barely control. That speed might only be half the maximum speed, and its power would naturally be much lower.

But this would make it easier for him to control the iron pellet, while greatly shortening the acceleration time. Only such a tactic could truly be used in a life-and-death battle.

An iron pellet at maximum speed was certainly astonishingly powerful, but the conditions for using it were simply too demanding.

Having made up his mind, Zhou Qing planned to find someone to custom-make a batch of iron pellets for daily practice when he had the chance. But he immediately felt that this was inappropriate.

This kind of supersonic iron pellet attack would become one of his trump cards in the future. It was best not to let anyone know it was connected to him.

Otherwise, if someone discovered his anomaly, the future troubles would be no small matter.

It seemed he would have to find a chance to obtain some pig iron and make the pellets himself. In any case, there was no real technical difficulty involved, so it should not be too troublesome.

Putting the matter of the iron pellets aside for now, Zhou Qing looked at the ruins in the courtyard and could not help feeling fortunate.

Fortunately, once a courtyard had an owner, its restrictions automatically took effect. Ordinary people would not enter to inspect it unless they were sect seniors above Foundation Establishment.

Those seniors had no interest in paying attention to a newly admitted Outer Disciple like him.

Otherwise, if anyone discovered that he had collapsed a building on his very first day of moving in, with obvious traces of a powerful impact inside, it would be stranger if it did not draw attention.