Modifying the Gun

After Yi Xuan learned from Fatty Lin about the capital's auction two months away, he never left his little courtyard.

Aside from delivering grenade parts to Liang Shi at set times each day, he spent all his time alone in the secret chamber, even replacing his meals with Grain Avoidance Pills.

He also left the delivery of the grenades and collection of payment entirely to Liang Shi. Yi Xuan had grown completely accustomed to this capitalist way of doing things; the reluctance he had felt at first disappeared after he did it a few times.

During that time, Li Jingming came twice, but he did not see Yi Xuan either time. Liang Shi told him that Yi Xuan was in seclusion, making something.

Li Jingming assumed Yi Xuan was working overtime to make the artifact-refining cauldron, and left Yi Xuan's courtyard in high spirits.

Liang Shi was right. Yi Xuan really was making something in the secret chamber. But it was not an artifact-refining cauldron; he was making a gun!

That was right, the kind of firearm Yi Xuan had known in his previous life.

In fact, Yi Xuan had made several guns when he first began studying technology. They worked well enough against ordinary people, but they were far too weak to use against immortal cultivators.

Fortunately, Yi Xuan had lived within the Azure Cloud Sect's territory all these years and had no need to worry about encountering danger, so he had put his firearms research aside.

Now that Yi Xuan had decided to leave the Azure Cloud Sect's territory with Fatty Lin in two months and go to the capital for the auction, he had also decided to resume his firearms research and development for the sake of his own safety.

Yi Xuan had long had ideas for developing and designing firearms, but because there was no danger in his surroundings, he had packed those ideas away on No. 01's hard drive.

"No. 01! Pull up the previous firearm modification plans!"

"Right away, boss!"

After receiving Yi Xuan's command, No. 01 quickly opened the firearm modification plans Yi Xuan had stored on the screen.

They contained not only ideas for modifying firearms, but even some blueprints. Yi Xuan had reverse-engineered these blueprints step by step from the guns he remembered. Although some of their internal structures might have differed from the originals, Yi Xuan had made them before and knew they functioned properly.

"The problem now is how to increase a firearm's power. Never mind ordinary pistol bullets-even rifle bullets can't pose a threat to immortal cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm!" Yi Xuan muttered to himself as he looked at the blueprints before him.

"To make firearm bullets more powerful, the most direct way is to increase their speed and caliber. Greater speed will produce enough kinetic energy, while a larger caliber will cause more damage," Yi Xuan muttered to himself in front of No. 01.

"If Spirit Stones can replace the air conditioner's power source, can they do the same for firearm bullets? Use the spiritual power in Spirit Stones instead of the gunpowder in bullets!"

The moment the idea came to him, Yi Xuan could not restrain himself. He picked up a bullet from the pile of firearms he had made before. After examining it for a long while, he took it apart, poured out the gunpowder, and reassembled it.

Yi Xuan placed the bullet on the table, released his Divine Sense, and began inscribing an array on it. Since it still worked on the principle of a bullet, he needed to find a way to detonate the spiritual power and produce an impact.

This was not difficult for Yi Xuan. Among the basic arrays with similar functions in the world of immortal cultivation, there were some that could do the job.

After inscribing the array, he casually found a pitifully tiny fragment of a Spirit Stone and put it into the bullet. Yi Xuan picked up the pistol beside him, loaded the bullet, and fired at a wooden rack at the other end of the secret chamber.

With a boom, the pistol in Yi Xuan's hand actually exploded the instant he fired.

Literally: the gun in his hand shattered into fragments that flew in every direction around the secret chamber.

If Yi Xuan had not protected himself with True Qi beforehand, he might already have been injured by the flying fragments.

Its power really has increased quite a bit, but it seems too dangerous. It's almost as powerful as a grenade! Yi Xuan thought, his heart still pounding.

The accident nevertheless proved that Yi Xuan's idea was right: spiritual power really could increase a firearm's power. But the increase seemed to have been a little too great, exceeding what the firearm itself could withstand.

Fortunately, the pistol Yi Xuan had made was only made of ordinary steel, and he had long expected that a firearm made from that material would be unable to withstand the power of a Spirit Stone bullet.

From experience, Yi Xuan could estimate that, judging by the force with which the pistol had just exploded, replacing its material with mysterious iron would be enough to withstand the power of a Spirit Stone bullet.

So Yi Xuan quickly refined the mysterious iron parts. More than ten parts flashed rapidly through his hands, and in less than five minutes, an identical-looking pistol appeared before him.

Yi Xuan loaded a newly made Spirit Stone bullet and pulled the trigger once more, aiming at the wooden rack in the distance.

Bang!

This time the pistol was undamaged, but the shock had left Yi Xuan's arm somewhat numb.

Although Yi Xuan's strength was meager, he was still a genuine immortal cultivator. The fact that the recoil could numb his arm showed just how outrageous the pistol's kick was.

But Yi Xuan's attention was not on the recoil at the moment.

A fist-sized hole had appeared in the wooden rack he had just aimed at, and tiny flames were burning around it.

Yi Xuan went around the rack to the wall behind it. A small hole had appeared in the middle of the wall, which had been undamaged just moments ago.

Yi Xuan sent his Divine Sense through the hole and discovered that the bullet had penetrated nearly a meter into the wall.

Having bored through the wall to such a degree, Yi Xuan was very satisfied with the improvements to his pistol. Judging by its power alone, the pistol could now pose a threat to cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Next, he had to consider the pistol's recoil. In his previous life, solving the recoil problem while maintaining the pistol's performance would have been no small task.

But this was a world of immortal cultivation, after all, and solving it an immortal cultivator's way was much simpler. After he inscribed a few arrays on the pistol, its recoil was negligible when Yi Xuan fired again.

And so, Yi Xuan tinkered away in the secret chamber for a full month.

A month later, when Yi Xuan emerged from the secret chamber, he even felt as though he had stepped into another lifetime.

Seeing Liang Shi still working diligently in the courtyard without complaint, Yi Xuan called out, "Liang Shi?"

"Sir! You're out. Where are today's parts?" Liang Shi asked, seeing that Yi Xuan was empty-handed.

"Starting today, the grenade business is suspended! Go notify Young Master Li's household as well. If he asks, tell him I'm going away and will be back in three months. By then, production can be expanded to the rate he wants!"

With that, Yi Xuan left the little courtyard and headed for Fatty Lin's residence.