Xu Wenwu had spoken of guns and cannons more times than anyone could count, and Wei Yuan's ears had long since grown calluses from hearing about them. And though it was the others' first time interacting with Xu Wenwu, thanks to the immense pressure of Bao Yun's daily thirty-thousand-word quota, he had already disclosed more than enough, leaving them knowing scarcely less than Wei Yuan.
In Wei Yuan's understanding, the principle behind guns and cannons was exceedingly simple. He picked out a piece of stone from within his Dao Foundation, casually kneaded it into a long tube, sealed one end, and manifested it into reality.
Looking at the stone tube—a full eight inches thick, over five feet long, with a pitch-black muzzle as wide as an open palm—Xiaoyu asked, "Is this a gun?"
"It is!" Wei Yuan replied with absolute certainty.
"Fine, if you say so!" Xiaoyu shrugged, declining to argue.
Considering Wei Yuan had just saved his life, even if Wei Yuan called this thing—nearly a foot thick and half a zhang long—a gun, it could be called a gun even if it were several times larger.
In truth, Wei Yuan had little choice. Having just witnessed the power of gunpowder, he knew the stone tube manifested from his Dao Foundation was merely ordinary stone; lacking Dao rhymes, its durability would not be high. If he loaded a palm-sized clump of gunpowder like before, he feared the tube would not be able to withstand it.
Zhang Sheng asked, "What is this saltpeter, and how did you find it?"
Ji Liuli mixed another pile of gunpowder, saying as she worked, "Saltpeter? Our world has no corresponding name for it. So I cast good luck on myself, and suddenly remembered an herb called flame ice that might work as well. I gave it a try, and sure enough, it did. Flame ice comes from ice stone ore, which is everywhere. Making a pile like this only costs a few taels of mortal silver."
Only then did Wei Yuan truly appreciate how formidable the Hall of Heavenly Secrets was. Even when knowing nothing at all, as long as one bestowed good luck upon oneself, one could blindly guess and still stumble onto the right answer.
Yet a new thought suddenly struck him: if one cast good luck on oneself before taking the Immortal Sect Unified Examination, wouldn't the literary test be an absolute breeze? Just as Wei Yuan felt a surge of excitement, it occurred to him that the noble clans and great families had probably been doing that all along.
As they spoke, Ji Liuli finished mixing the gunpowder, poured a portion into the stone tube, and packed it down directly with Dao power.
Then Zhang Sheng handed over a stone sphere. Perfectly round and flawless, its mirror-smooth surface gave the ordinary stone a lustrous, jade-like sheen.
Zhang Sheng had carved it out casually using his finger as a sword.
Ji Liuli loaded the stone sphere into the tube. Wei Yuan held the stone barrel in both hands, aimed at a large tree several tens of feet away, and ignited the gunpowder with Dao power.
With a deafening boom, a blast of fire spewed from the muzzle. The stone sphere whistled through the air and embedded itself deep into the tree, which was two arm-spans around!
Everyone fell into thought, assessing the power of the very first gun in this world based on their own experience.
Zhang Sheng spoke first: "Its power is comparable to the heavy arrows of a Northern Liao captain—stronger than ordinary Liao cavalry, but inferior to a centurion. And that is purely in terms of raw power; when it comes to mystical subtleties, it falls far short."
Ji Liuli said, "The Shamans are complex. Setting aside their shamans, this shot could kill a Blood Merging warrior, but it poses no fatal threat to someone at the Great Completion of Body Casting."
Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli possessed far more experience than the rest, so their assessment was the most accurate.
Wei Yuan, meanwhile, was recalling the sensation of firing the weapon. In that instant, a tremor had coursed through his entire body, shifting him ever so slightly. Though the movement was imperceptible to the eye, Wei Yuan noticed that without using Dao power, purely relying on physical strength, there was no way to completely eliminate the recoil. The smaller the shift, the more strength it required to absorb.
With Dao power, however, he could remain entirely motionless. It was only for the sake of the test that he had used pure physical strength.
"Eldest Senior Sister, make a little more gunpowder. Not too much," Wei Yuan said suddenly.
Ji Liuli prepared another batch, about a teacup's worth. Wei Yuan retrieved two plates of heavy armor, indented their centers slightly, sandwiched the gunpowder between them, packed it tight, and sealed the edges completely.
Wei Yuan mobilized the power of the domain to suppress the plates, then ignited the gunpowder inside with Dao power. With a muffled bang, the center of the plates bulged visibly outward—even the domain's power could not entirely suppress the blast.
These two plates were from the secret vault of Lanshen Palace, originally intended for a Dao Foundation cultivator's armor. Forged from hundred-refined steel and refined with Dao power, each half a finger thick, they were exceptionally sturdy. Yet they had still been blown out of shape.
Seeing the result of this experiment, Wei Yuan said, "It seems that under completely sealed conditions, the power of gunpowder increases dramatically. Perhaps we can build on this and think of more uses."
The group experimented for most of the night before dispersing.
Dawn was not far off. Wei Yuan checked on the stone hut and saw that Xu Wenwu had already gone to rest, leaving only paper, brush, and an empty bowl on the table.
Seeing the empty bowl, Wei Yuan remembered that he had attached a strand of Dao power to it. But now the bowl was ice-cold, the Dao power nowhere to be found—presumably, it had dispersed.
Wei Yuan picked up the jade paper on the table and scanned it with his divine sense. In just half a night, Xu Wenwu had written over ten thousand characters. The fellow had certainly become industrious.
Putting down the jade paper, Wei Yuan collected the bowl, returned to the main peak, and began to reexamine what Xu Wenwu had written over the past two days, including the parts previously marked as garbage.
With the example of gunpowder, Wei Yuan had glimpsed an entirely different world, gaining a new appreciation for the value of Xu Wenwu's writings.
The main peak was hardly quiet. Clang-clang echoed through the air as Xiaoyu, having built himself a furnace, began smelting iron and melting metal, forging something.
A moment later, an iron tube appeared in Xiaoyu's hands. He poured some gunpowder inside and habitually empowered it with the Immortal Sword Great Sun. The powder inside instantly ignited, and a jet of flame spewed from the muzzle.
The muzzle happened to be pointing right at his face. Caught off guard, Xiaoyu had several strands of hair singed by the flames. His cultivation was still modest, not yet extended to his hair.
Over by Zhang Sheng, flames flickered faintly as well, though in complete silence.
Ji Liuli was nowhere to be seen; perhaps she had made another discovery.
Wei Yuan calmed his mind. It was as though Xu Wenwu's world materialized in his sea of consciousness. He observed quietly, watching how the mortals there lived, pondering the significance of it all.
An hour before dawn, Wei Yuan was roused from his immersion in that other world.
Bao Yun appeared before him and said, "I'm heading out first. Follow a quarter-hour later. I will leave markers along the way and note any anomalies in them."
Wei Yuan nodded and checked his preparations within his Dao Foundation. Before long, Ji Liuli set off as well, following after Bao Yun. Wei Yuan's departure was to be later still.
The three staggered their departures primarily to avoid interfering with whoever went ahead. Alone, Bao Yun could slip in and out right under a Great Shaman's nose. Ji Liuli could not, and Wei Yuan even less so.
Wei Yuan sat upright atop the main peak, waiting for his time to depart. As he waited, a thought crossed his mind: Dao Foundation cultivators possessed powerful divine souls. If they decided to set out after a quarter-hour, their divine soul would naturally alert them when the time came, without the slightest discrepancy.
Ordinary mortals, however, had very vague notions of time. Not just mortals—even Body Casting cultivators, as long as they had not reached the Spirit Refinement stage, were little different from ordinary mortals in this regard.
In daily life, intervals under half a quarter-hour were exceedingly imprecise. Even among cultivators, time was often measured in terms of an incense stick, a cup of tea, or a breath. In terms of precise, minute timekeeping, this world fell far short of Xu Wenwu's.
The mortals of that world seemed to live by meticulous schedules, leaving home at fixed times each day to labor at workplaces. Even being late by just the time it took to drink a cup of tea would cost them half a day's wages.
Thinking about it this way, the mortals of that world did not seem to have it very easy either, did they?
As he pondered, his divine soul alerted him that it was time to depart. Wei Yuan rose and flew southwest. The domain was entirely quiet; apart from the night watch cultivators, everyone was resting in preparation for the day's labor.
Once outside the domain, Wei Yuan ceased flying and ran along the ground instead. Far ahead, a faint speck of emerald-green light flickered, guiding his path.
This was a marker left by Bao Yun, visible only to those bearing the seed of her treasure tree. Before setting out, she had planted seeds in Ji Liuli and Zhang Sheng, whereas Wei Yuan, already possessing the One-Wondrous Treasure Tree, had no need for one.
Wei Yuan sprinted along, feeling himself draw farther and farther from Qingming, the enhancement from Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains steadily diminishing. Every few tens of li, Bao Yun left a marker. The markers did more than guide the way; they also contained information about the surrounding area.
Along the way, Wei Yuan bypassed several bands of Shamans and patrol squads. The encounters were quite frequent; it seemed the Shamans had accelerated their pace of occupation.
The more Shamans lived in a land, the more the world transformed into a Wu domain. The Shamans had no such thing as boundary stones, nor did they need them. All they had to do was settle, multiply, and perform daily sacrifices to gradually transform heaven and earth. The larger their population, the faster and more thorough the conversion.
Before long, the sky began to lighten. Wei Yuan spotted the final marker and, guided by it, arrived at the summit of a small hill. Bao Yun and Ji Liuli were already there, looking into the distance.
Wei Yuan followed their gaze and saw a sizable camp spread across the plains dozens of li away. Judging by its footprint, it could accommodate at least fifty thousand soldiers. For now, however, the domed barracks filled less than thirty percent of the camp, meaning the main force was still behind.
The camp was enclosed by a ten-foot earthen-timber wall. At its center stood a natural elevated terrace topped by an altar, surrounded by a ring of blood-colored symbols, each about a zhang across.
Drawing on his knowledge, Wei Yuan immediately recognized the altar as the Heaven Sacrificial Altar, the core of any Shaman encampment. At this moment, blood-light pulsed across the surrounding runes, indicating that a sacrificial rite had already been completed and sacrificial power was now stored within.
Sacrificial power possessed a wide variety of uses: it could be converted into a world-corroding blood curse, or used to curse a powerful cultivator to death—both of which Wei Yuan had experienced firsthand. Beyond that, it could empower a shaman or protect the entire encampment.
Bao Yun spoke up: "There are twelve thousand inside the camp—fifteen hundred more than when I scouted yesterday, likely reinforcements from last night. I investigated thoroughly; the only Great Shaman traces nearby belong to that lizard we killed. So far, there's no sign of a second Great Shaman operating here."
Ji Liuli glanced at the sky and said, "In half an hour, they'll send troops out on patrol. We need to hurry."
Bao Yun turned to Wei Yuan and asked, "What's the plan?"
Looking down at the Shaman camp, Wei Yuan's mind flashed back to the people in Quliu Town's northern quarter who lived worse than dogs and pigs, to the pyramid of heads in Shayang Village, and to Fang Hetong's headless corpse.
Calmly, Wei Yuan said, "Exterminate them all. Leave not one alive."
Chapter 141