Location: The Shadow of the City Walls
Li Mu walked through the darkness, carrying Zhang Wei over his shoulder like a sack of rice. He held the Thunder Steel Spear in his other hand. The City Lord's manor was in chaos behind them, sirens wailing, but no one dared chase the monster who had suppressed the gate.
He kicked open the door to the abandoned shed behind the Noodle Shop.
"Wake up," Li Mu grunted, dropping Zhang Wei onto the straw.
Zhang Wei groaned, clutching his chest. His heart felt like a bruised peach. "Did... did I get it?"
"You got it," Li Mu tossed the spear down. "And you nearly cooked your heart doing it. I told you to use the spear as a conductor, not a battery. You absorbed the shock instead of cycling it."
Li Mu sat down, his expression serious.
"The Thunder Breathing art died with my sect because it demands perfection," Li Mu lied. "The body generates electricity. The spear directs it. If you block the flow, you burn. If you let it flow too fast, you exhaust."
He pointed to the spear.
"That metal isn't just heavy. It vibrates. From tomorrow, you don't lift it. You breathe with it. You must match your heart rate to the resonance of the steel. Only then will the weapon become light."
Zhang Wei looked at his sister, who was sleeping peacefully in the corner, a layer of frost covering her blanket. He looked at his burned hands.
"I will master it," Zhang Wei whispered. "Lin Fan... he was faster than me. He had gadgets. He had a plan. I just had anger."
"Good," Li Mu took a drink. "Anger is fuel. But an engine running on pure fuel explodes. You need oil. You need control. Sleep now. Tomorrow, we break your bones."
Location: Iron Blood Sect – The Core Room
Lin Fan didn't sleep. He stood in the heart of the sect's industrial zone.
The Core Room was a cavernous underground chamber where the sect's Earth Fire vein was tapped. Previously, it was used for alchemy. Now, it was a power plant.
In the center was the "Elder Array." Grand Elder Chen and his fifty loyalists were chained to treadmills and bellows. They were forced to circulate their Qi constantly to keep the massive blast furnace at 3,000 degrees. If they stopped, the shock collars Lin Fan installed would deliver a non-lethal but agonizing jolt.
"Heat efficiency is up 40%," Lin Fan noted, checking a pressure gauge.
He walked to the main workbench. On it lay a holographic projection of the Thunder Steel Spear.
"Boss," Fatty Wu waddled in, eating a bun. "We secured the trade route. The City Lord is terrified of the 'Beggar' and thinks we work for him, so he lifted the blockade. But we have a bigger problem."
"The Alliance?" Lin Fan asked, adjusting a microscope.
"Yes. The Azure Sword Sect has united with the White Tiger Sect and the Mystic Valley. They are marching. Three thousand cultivators. Estimated arrival: 48 hours."
"Let them come," Lin Fan said calmly. "Do we have the raw materials?"
"We have the iron. We have the spirit stones. But we lack the conductive filament for the Railgun coils."
"No, we don't," Lin Fan pointed to the forge.
Inside the crucible, glowing a violent blue, was a molten mixture.
"I analyzed the molecular structure of the Thunder Steel," Lin Fan explained. "It's just an alloy of Iron, Nickel, and crystallized Lightning Qi. I synthesized it."
He pulled a lever.
The molten blue metal poured into a mold. It wasn't shaped like a sword or a spear. It was shaped like a long, rectangular barrel with electromagnetic rails running down the center.
[System Notification] [Item Created: MK-1 Spirit Railgun (Prototype)] [Damage Output: Siege Class] [Power Source: High-Grade Spirit Stones]
Lin Fan looked at the ugly, brutal weapon.
"Fatty, tell the operators to switch production. Stop making the muskets. Start making Landmines and Razor Wire. We aren't going to meet them in the open field. We're going to welcome them to the trenches."