The Qi Bullet Gun

As I continued hammering the Armored Boar tusk while flowing qi into it, the impurities scattered as powder, and the tusk deformed and shrank. When I checked its size, one beast’s worth really did not seem to be enough.

After that, I continued hunting Armored Boars, and once I had gathered their tusks, including spares, I refined them through qi-refining forging and turned them into white steel. I was uncertain about the weapon’s form, but I decided on the shape of a handgun, which I had been used to using in my previous life. However, instead of an automatic pistol, I would make something similar to a revolver.

The grip, trigger, and other parts would be made of black steel, while only the cylinder and barrel would be made of white steel. The cylinder would have four holes, and the Black Wind Tiger fangs would be fitted into them. Also, unlike a normal revolver, the barrel would be extremely thick and short. A qi bullet would be generated inside that extremely thick, short barrel and fly out.

The way to use this Qi Bullet Gun was to grip it, take aim, and pull the trigger while flowing Heavy Yin Qi into it. The trigger served as a safety device, and unless the trigger was pulled, Heavy Yin Qi would not flow into the Black Wind Tiger fangs.

Right after the Qi Bullet Gun, which was one size smaller than the revolver handguns used by police officers in my previous life, was completed, Haoxuen and Seiran came to the Old Immortal Workshop.

“Oh, is it finished?”

Seiran checked with me.

“It is finished for now. But I still have not tested it, so I do not know whether it is truly complete.”

“Then let’s go test it.”

Seiran showed unusual interest, so the three of us went into the mountains to test the completed Qi Bullet Gun.

“Senior Brother Kou, how do you use that?”

Haoxuen asked me, so I explained how to use it. After that, I aimed at a nearby tree trunk and pulled the trigger while flowing Heavy Yin Qi into it.

Then Heavy Yin Qi flowed into the Qi Bullet Gun’s cylinder, poured into the Black Wind Tiger fangs, and generated a qi bullet inside the barrel. The next instant, the qi bullet fired from the barrel with a “bashu” sound.

There was a “ba” sound when the qi bullet hit the tree trunk, and the tree shook greatly. When I checked the trunk, there was a hole about fifteen centimeters deep. With this much power, it would probably work even against yōma.

“That’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“With this, it looks like it could pierce an Armored Boar’s hide too.”

Seiran and Haoxuen were delighted as if it were their own achievement.

“That was when I used Heavy Yin Qi. Next, I will try using ordinary qi.”

As a test, I flowed ordinary qi into the Qi Bullet Gun and pulled the trigger. The tree it hit shook, but no hole opened. I had not expected there to be this much difference.

“Whoa, it’s unusable with ordinary qi.”

Seiran honestly voiced his impression. I nodded.

“It seems to have only about the same power as an ordinary punch.”

In its own way, it might be usable if the opponent was human.

We headed to the demon realm to test the Qi Bullet Gun’s power against yōma. We chose a Fang Rabbit as the test target. I found a Fang Rabbit in the grassland on the outer edge of the demon realm, aimed at it, and pulled the trigger.

Since I had used Heavy Yin Qi, the qi bullet pierced through the Fang Rabbit’s chest and knocked its body, which was about one hundred twenty centimeters long, backward. It seemed to have enough stopping power as well.

“As expected, something like a Fang Rabbit goes down in one shot.”

Seiran said that happily.

“With this, Elder Min will say you passed too.”

Haoxuen gave it his seal of approval.

After that, I tested its power against various yōma we encountered. Piercing Wolves and Gōrō could be defeated in one shot, but Armored Boars required several shots. If I hit a vital point, I probably could have defeated even an Armored Boar with one shot.

Incidentally, when I tested it with ordinary qi, even a Fang Rabbit was only knocked away and could not be killed. Interesting. It really seemed to have only the power of an ordinary punch.

I was satisfied with its power, but I felt that the grip was hard to hold. It did not fit comfortably. I decided to remake only the grip.

It seemed like true completion would take a little more time, but I would make it in time for the one-month deadline. I went to the Old Immortal Cave alone and began thinking about the Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword.

Gyorei Cave’s martial arts were often based on Heavy Yin Qi and Floating Yang Qi. However, the Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword used ordinary qi combined with spiritual power. It had none of Gyorei Cave’s characteristics at all. Of course, since it used qi and spiritual power, there were parts that used the same principles, but I could not find any of Gyorei Cave’s characteristics.

There were three characteristics of the Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword. The first was that the same techniques could be performed not only with spiritual power, but also with qi alone. It was probably devised so that Taoist practitioners from the end of the Qi Refining Stage to the Spirit Formation Stage could use the same sword art.

The second was that it featured unique movements that integrated defense and offense. Moreover, in its attacks, it seemed to place importance on the principle of raising power by cloaking the sword in spiritual power and qi.

The third was that training in Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword might awaken the Spiritual Awakening Eye, which sensed spiritual power. It probably had something in common with part of Spiritual Blossom Ascension Art, which recorded training methods for obtaining spiritual power.

The Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword I discovered in the Green King Snake’s nest had only the principle section written down, so I had no idea about its routines or movements. I would probably be unable to use it unless I analyzed each principle one by one and studied what kind of movement each principle would be effective for. It seemed like it would take time to learn.

I imagined the sword art while recalling the principles of Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword that I had memorized. A thought suddenly occurred to me: even if I constructed a sword art based on Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword’s principles using this method, it could probably not be called Spiritual Cherry-Orchid Sword.

In a sense, the work of creating a sword art was interesting. I became so absorbed in it that I forgot the time. Then I felt as though I might be able to create one technique.

It was a technique of cloaking a weapon in qi and releasing a slash. Flowing qi into a weapon was something I already did with Yang Fox-Flame and other techniques, so I just needed to control it so that it cloaked the weapon.

“Let’s try it.”