"Are you begging for mercy?" Feng Wushuang licked her red lips with her tongue. "You're quite a handsome young man. If you're willing to be my cauldron, I might consider sparing your life."
"As for the others..." Feng Wushuang said coldly, "No room for negotiation!"
"Then, please, be my guest," Ye Fan shrugged helplessly.
"Trying to trick me?"
Despite her words, Feng Wushuang hesitated for a moment.
After all, Ye Fan was the one who had obtained this magical artifact.
Perhaps he really knew something?
Or was he bluffing?
Feng Wushuang felt the latter was more likely.
So, she aimed the butt of her rifle at True Person Yun Hua and channeled a trace of her internal energy into the gun.
"BANG—!"
With a deafening roar, Feng Wushuang was blasted flying!
Her right arm, which was holding the sniper rifle, was blown off completely!
"Thump!"
Feng Wushuang landed heavily on the ground.
"This... How is this possible!"
Feng Wushuang clutched her right shoulder and stood up shakily.
The intense pain contorted her once beautiful face into an ugly grimace.
Her wide eyes were filled with disbelief!
The blast had sent the sniper rifle flying towards Ye Fan.
Ye Fan casually picked up the rifle and affectionately stroked its barrel.
When had he last touched this thing?
It seemed like a very long time ago...
Then, Ye Fan raised the sniper rifle with both hands and aimed the scope at Feng Wushuang.
"Didn't your mother teach you not to touch other people's things?"
With that, Ye Fan gently pulled the trigger!
"BANG!"
Feng Wushuang's entire head, along with half of her chest cavity, exploded instantly!
"Thump!"
Her headless body crashed to the ground, marking the end of her wicked life.
"The rest is up to you," Ye Fan said casually, putting down the sniper rifle.
True Person Yun Hua and the others immediately channeled their internal energy and began slaughtering the remaining enemies.
Yes, slaughter.
Even though True Person Yun Hua was injured, they were still terrifying existences that could not be faced.
"Rumble—!"
Under the absolute disparity in strength, the battle was no longer in doubt.
In a matter of moments, Ling Tianhua and Feng Wushuang's remnants were all eradicated.
Caressing the sniper rifle in his hand, Ye Fan fell into recollection.
This was a toy he had given to a friend's son when he was adventuring in the Immortal Realm.
Of course, this toy was not cheap...
The material for the gun body was ordinary, common Fire Source Immortal Stone from the Eastern Immortal Realm.
What was truly valuable were the five rune arrays inscribed on it.
Precision, Extreme Speed, Tracking, Armor Piercing, and Spirit Devouring.
As for why it was so valuable...
After all, Ye Fan was already a master of formations back then, and his services were not cheap.
Originally, the power of this artifact could only make a Human-tier Immortal feel a slight sting.
But with Ye Fan's rune arrays, it was enough to instantly kill a beginner Earth-tier Immortal!
In fact, Ye Fan could have made the artifact even more powerful, but considering it was a toy for a child, this level was sufficient! The great wind novel network.
Moreover, a seal had been added to temporarily suppress the sniper rifle's power to that of a beginner Human-tier Immortal.
It wouldn't do if the unruly child accidentally hurt someone...
He had originally planned to remove the seal when the child came of age.
This way, the child would have some means of self-preservation when venturing out later.
In addition, Ye Fan had imprinted his and the child's mental power onto it.
If anyone other than them tried to input immortal energy into it, they would be retaliated against by the arrays on it.
In layman's terms, it was a password lock...
This was why Feng Wushuang was blasted away when she tried to input her internal energy into it earlier.
Immortal energy and internal energy were just manifestations of different energy levels; the only obvious difference was their power.
Fortunately, Feng Wushuang had only input internal energy.
If she had used immortal energy, the backlash would have been even more intense.
She probably would have disintegrated on the spot!
As for why Kuruta was able to use the sniper rifle without backlash earlier, the reason was actually quite simple.
Firearms, in a way, were products of mechanics.
Furthermore, firearms existed in the Goblin Kingdom.
Besides that, there was another reason.
Although the sniper rifle had a password lock, it was only for the five rune arrays.
To unleash the power of those five rune arrays, immortal energy was required for activation.
This meant that simply pulling the trigger could still fire it, albeit with less power.
If someone were to snatch the sniper rifle and attack the friend's son, without activating the rune arrays, it wouldn't even be enough to injure a Human-tier Immortal, so it wouldn't matter.
Thinking of this, Ye Fan frowned.
Even at its lowest power setting, it was still an immortal-tier attack.
However, the attack power displayed by the sniper rifle earlier was clearly not at that level...
This meant that there was a reason why the sniper rifle's power had decreased.
The gun body was not damaged, and all the runes were intact.
In this case, it seemed the problem could only be with the energy source...
Ye Fan quickly opened the cover at the butt of the gun.
Inside the cover was a miniature energy gathering array, and in the center of the array lay an immortal stone.
An immortal stone could be understood as an upgraded version of a spirit stone.
Similar in nature to spirit stones, it was the common currency in the Immortal Realm.
However, this immortal stone was now dim and covered in cracks of various sizes, clearly having reached its end.
Ye Fan stroked his chin.
A废弃 (fèiqì - scrapped/discarded) immortal stone could no longer provide energy for attacks, so how did Kuruta's previous attack originate?
Could it be...
The Spirit Gathering Array?
When Ye Fan originally refined this sniper rifle, he had included a Spirit Gathering Array within it.
The effect of the Spirit Gathering Array was to absorb surrounding immortal energy and provide auxiliary power.
For example, if the immortal stone ran out of power, the immortal energy absorbed by the Spirit Gathering Array could be used as an emergency supply.
It was essentially a "backup power source."
If Kuruta's previous attack was powered by the immortal energy gathered by the Spirit Gathering Array, it was not impossible.
But the problem was...
The premise for Ye Fan designing this Spirit Gathering Array was based on immortal energy from the Immortal Realm.
He had not considered low-dimensional energy like internal energy at all.
Although immortal energy and internal energy were just different manifestations of energy, there were still significant differences.
It was like installing a modern graphics card onto the world's first computer.
The fact that it could even work was a miracle...
To be honest.
He had never considered such a cross-dimensional energy utilization method before.
After all, with better options available, who would choose the inferior ones.
Fortunately, his professional skills were strong.
After a quick calculation in his mind, he had a general answer.
Converting the Spirit Gathering Array into bullet attacks was like filling a pool with water.
Using immortal energy, a large pipe, would certainly be faster than using spiritual energy, a small, thin pipe.
In the cultivation world, it would take about a month to condense one bullet.
And in terms of power, it could at most instantly kill a cultivator at the peak of the Out-of-Body stage.
Of course, there were ways to increase its power.
For example...
The demonic cores of demonic beasts.
The higher the realm of the demonic beast, the greater the power provided by its demonic core.
However, this involved a very troublesome issue – energy wastage.
Demonic cores were, after all, products of the cultivation world.
Using low-level energy to activate high-level equipment would inevitably lead to waste.
A demonic core from a Tribulation Stage demonic beast might not even be enough to instantly kill a cultivator in the Body Refinement stage.
This wastage was not just reflected in power.
With such "high-power" consumption, a demonic core would likely be depleted after only a few shots.
As for relying on his "water pump" to guide spiritual energy from the surroundings and force it in?
It was regrettable to say...
It wouldn't work!
After all, this was a dead object; the conversion and running routes within it were pre-set.
Especially the conversion process, which required a certain amount of time.
It might take five minutes to absorb spiritual energy, and then a full day for conversion and compression...
Doing so would be like overloading a machine, and it might even "burn out" the Spirit Gathering Array within.
The current Ye Fan had no materials to create another immortal-tier Spirit Gathering Array.
If he accidentally broke it, it would break his heart...
Fortunately, Ye Fan had a good mindset and believed that this regret was minor.
One bullet a month was more than enough.
He wasn't someone who courted trouble; people wouldn't be trying to kill him every single day, would they?
Moreover, with a high-level demonic core, it would be like having an additional ammunition reserve.
As for how to obtain a high-level demonic core...
He, a weakling, indeed lacked the ability to hunt high-level demonic beasts.
However, his refined pills and magical artifacts, and other items, would surely interest many powerful individuals!
All in all, the future looked bright!