After following Mike to the shooting range, Li Xingkong looked like someone who had never seen the world.
That was hardly surprising, though. Guns were banned for everyone in the Divine Land, and even if there were shooting ranges, he had never looked into them much before. As an ordinary person, he had simply had too little contact with guns.
The range was large, but most of the space was reserved for targets. The actual shooting area had only two or three small sheds. When the two men arrived, scattered gunshots were sounding from the sheds, as though a few people were shooting.
Li Xingkong and Mike headed toward the gunfire. After walking for a while, they saw a burly man sitting upright in a chair with an old hunting rifle in his arms, looking out toward the targets.
He did not even notice the two of them approaching. The range was simply too noisy, like firecrackers exploding right beside his ears.
Only when they reached him did the range owner see them. Using the extra-long barrel of the gun in his hand for support, he pushed himself to his feet.
"Mike? You rascal, you haven't been here in ages!"
The range owner had spotted Mike, and clearly the two were more than mere acquaintances. Mike hurried forward, and they high-fived before he introduced Li Xingkong to the owner.
"You know I bought that lousy plot of land last year and moved into town. This is the buyer of that farm, Li Xingkong. He's from the Divine Land."
The owner looked at Li Xingkong and wiped his hand on his dusty pants. Working in a place like this, there was hardly any way to stay clean, but he still held out his hand to Li Xingkong.
Li Xingkong did not mind. After all, working outdoors at a shooting range was hard work too, and he had spent a year doing farm work himself. They were all the same. He hurried over and shook the owner's hand.
"Tang Bulunsi. I'm Mike's long-lost dad."
Clearly, he was joking. Sure enough, Mike punched him right in the shoulder.
"This is my son. Don't listen to him."
"Hahaha." Li Xingkong watched the "father and son," whose relationship could not bear close scrutiny, and thoroughly enjoyed the show.
After a brief chat, the three started toward the shooting sheds.
"What, playing with that old-timer gun of yours again today?"
Tang Bulunsi spoke to Mike. "Of course. If I could take that thing home, I would've had one there ages ago."
"Hey, I don't believe you don't have one at home. You've definitely got one stashed away." The owner clearly did not believe Mike. He turned to Li Xingkong. "What about you? What are you going to try?"
To tell the truth, Li Xingkong had only ever handled one handgun, and he had little idea about modern weapons. He wanted to try every kind of gun.
"Can I try them all?"
Tang Bulunsi was not surprised by Li Xingkong's request. Plenty of people from the Divine Land went abroad and grew curious about all kinds of guns the first time they tried shooting.
"Sure. Let's start with handguns! And since Mike brought you, I'll give you a discount. I'll only charge you for the bullets. Have all the fun you want with the guns."
Mike said a word to the two of them, then headed straight into a booth. Judging by how familiar he was with the place, this was hardly his first visit. He was as comfortable as if he were back home.
"Come on, young man."
Tang Bulunsi first took Li Xingkong to the handgun booth. The walls were covered with all kinds of handguns, a dazzling array that left Li Xingkong a little overwhelmed.
"Any model you like?" Tang Bulunsi casually picked one up. None of them had magazines, of course.
"Uh, I really don't know much about handgun models. Is there anything particularly powerful?"
Faced with so many handguns, Li Xingkong found himself having trouble choosing.
"Of course. A powerful handgun, huh? Young people like the hard-hitting ones. Let me find you one." Tang Bulunsi chose a silver-white handgun from the rack and handed it to Li Xingkong.
"Desert Eagle. This thing's famous for its power and its recoil."
Li Xingkong took the gun, and his hand dipped under its weight. It was even heavier than he had imagined. It looked incredibly cool, especially the chrome-plated exterior, which made him feel as though he were holding one of the peerless divine weapons of ancient times. It felt very comfortable in his hand.
They took the gun to a firing port, where it would be secured in a simple mount to keep customers from firing wildly. Once it was secured, the owner brought over a box of ammunition and a magazine, and motioned for Li Xingkong to start shooting.
Li Xingkong looked at the shooting instructions beside him and recalled how Tang Bulunsi had just taught him to load and fire. Then he raised the handgun.
Aiming at a target more than ten meters away, Li Xingkong took a deep breath and held it. Then, gripping the gun with both hands, he fired his first shot.
The Desert Eagle's recoil was even stronger than he had imagined. Although he had adjusted his stance based on the recoil of that little handgun he had used before, the shot still sent both his hands jerking upward.
As expected, the first bullet was nowhere to be seen. There was no mark on the target at all; he had clearly missed.
With the experience of his first shot, Li Xingkong adjusted his stance before firing the second. This time, he controlled the recoil much better.
The second bullet slammed into the target, leaving a clearly visible white spot on the metal.
Li Xingkong considered the handgun's power. If it struck a human body, it would do more than punch a hole. The impact between bullet and body was enough to tear the struck area apart. A shot to the waist might even cut a person in two.
To Li Xingkong as he was now, that was already tremendous power. He did not think he could withstand a single shot. Unable to contain his curiosity, he asked the system:
"System, handguns are so powerful now. Will I still be able to withstand one after Qi Refining? Can my spells deal that much damage?"
The system looked at Li Xingkong with some disdain.
"What do you think you're cultivating? The kind of immortal cultivation where a single magazine can kill three Golden Core cultivators? Does that even count as immortal cultivation?"
The system asked Li Xingkong a question.
"What do you think ultimately determines a firearm's power?"
Li Xingkong had never studied firearms, but he was not entirely ignorant of them.
"The power of the bullet? Or maybe the barrel, the firing mechanism, and the gun's gas-operated design?"
Li Xingkong offered a few possibilities.
"They all have an effect, but what ultimately determines a gun's power is the power of the bullet."
The system continued, "A gun is only there to fire a bullet. Modern firearms are designed merely to get as close as possible to the maximum power of the bullet they use."
"If you can't even match the power of a bullet, what are you refining qi for? The energy stored in your body is countless times greater than the tiny amount of propellant in a bullet, and even if you threw a brick, you could propel it with countless times the force generated by exploding gunpowder. To put it plainly, even if you learned no techniques at all and simply threw a handful of pebbles, that would still be one tremendously powerful shotgun."
Li Xingkong found the scene a little hard to imagine: a brick flying with tremendous momentum and smashing a huge crater into the ground.
After hearing the system's words, he felt even more confident in his cultivation.