pertwk Page 436
Page 436
Having many friends makes the road easier; as long as he doesn't die, his friends will always come to his rescue.
It was precisely because of this mindset that Lu Xiaofeng, who was not diligent enough in practicing martial arts, made such slow progress. His friend Ximen Chuixue had been a grandmaster for many years and was about to take another step forward, while he was not even a grandmaster yet.
With his martial arts talent, he shouldn't be like this.
Of course, everyone has their own ambitions, and Lu Xiaofeng has his own way of living. As his friend, Chu Yang has no right to interfere. He can only give him a powerful demon pill and let him be.
Lu Xiaofeng scratched his head and chuckled as he took the pill from Chu Yang's hand, saying somewhat awkwardly, "This isn't right. The pill is so precious, how can you just give it to me like this?"
Chu Yang laughed and said, "You've been running around for me, so one pill is nothing. If it weren't for the Ten Thousand People Umbrella, I would have had to deal with a lot more trouble."
"We're all friends, no need to be so polite!" Lu Xiaofeng coughed lightly and whispered, "Since that's the case, why not give me a couple more?"
Gee tut.
This is Lu Xiaofeng; he doesn't stand on ceremony for long, but he's quick to climb the social ladder!
Chu Yang was used to his shamelessness and said irritably, "Your martial arts cultivation has been stuck for so many years. This pill is just the final push. Any more would be a waste. When you reach the Grandmaster realm, you still have to rely on your own accumulation. Just taking pills will eventually lead to qi deviation!"
"Ah?" Lu Xiaofeng said with regret after hearing this, "I thought I could just lie at home and my martial arts would improve naturally. I didn't expect that I would still have to practice hard. In that case, this pill won't be of much use."
Chu Yang glared at him and said, "Give it back if you're not going to eat it!"
Upon hearing this, Cao Zhengchun scrambled to Chu Yang's side and cried out, "Your Majesty, considering my utmost loyalty, since Master Lu doesn't want it, why not bestow this elixir upon me?"
Lu Xiaofeng, who had just said that the pills were useless, suddenly revealed a malicious smile. "Oh dear, Eunuch Cao, what are you doing? I was just joking. Why are you so easily amused?"
"Such a miraculous elixir, only a fool wouldn't want it!"
"You...you..." Cao Zhengchun was so angry that he trembled, pointing at Lu Xiaofeng for a long time without being able to speak, and the veins on his temples were about to burst.
Yu Huatian seemed to have anticipated this scene, looking at Cao Zhengchun with disdain and a cold smile on his lips.
"Hahaha, you're quite an interesting kid. It's a pity I didn't know you were such a figure in the martial arts world!" Gu Santong looked at Lu Xiaofeng with a hint of mutual appreciation in his eyes.
In a sense, the two are quite similar in personality, both being unrestrained and carefree in their attitude towards everything. However, Lu Xiaofeng has a stronger sense of responsibility and chivalry than Gu Santong.
"Thank you for your kind words, senior. I have heard of your reputation as the Undefeated Rascal ever since I entered the martial arts world. I must invite you for a drink sometime when I have time!" Lu Xiaofeng immediately began to flatter Lu Xiaofeng.
His mouth can be incredibly eloquent; when it's kind, it can make you feel elated, and when it's venomous, it can leave you seething with anger.
Gu Santong smiled and nodded, saying, "I'll definitely do it next time."
Chu Yang kindly reminded him, "I've been drinking with Lu Xiaofeng for many years and I've never seen him pay. Senior Gu, you should be careful."
Gu Santong looked at Lu Xiaofeng with a surprised expression, his eyes seeming to say, "You're quite something, kid."
Lu Xiaofeng was not ashamed, but rather proud, his face full of smugness.
I am the only one in the world who can shirk the emperor's drinking bill!
With the emperor unharmed and the elixir in hand, the two naturally did not linger and left the palace under the guidance of the eunuchs.
"After you return, please select a group of trustworthy array masters from the Divine Marquis's mansion. After I have organized them, I will teach them the art of alchemy."
"Old minister, take your orders."
Zhuge Zhengwo then left the palace.
Chu Yang turned to look at the pitiful Cao Zhengchun and the respectful Yu Huatian, and said indifferently, "Over the years, you know in your hearts how many enemies the East and West Factories have made and how many shady things you have done in private."
"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If you want the pills, you have to fight for them, risk your lives. Choose a place, either the northern border or the three Mongol tribes, and do something."
"If you can't do that, then forget about the elixir."
........................
Jinling City.
General Qi's residence.
The craftsmen and array masters always lived and ate with Qi Jiguang, firstly to protect him, and secondly to be the first to know about the research and development results of firearms.
Ever since Qi Jiguang obtained the weapon blueprints from Chu Yang, the workload of the entire firearms battalion has been increased to the maximum.
They gained tremendous inspiration from the blueprints; the intricate parts and stable mechanisms opened up a whole new world for them.
The craftsmen became engrossed in it, attempting to combine two very different styles of firearms.
Not long after, the firearms battalion produced its first new firearm with a completely new design. If Chu Yang were here, he would recognize it as a revolver.
But it wasn't the revolver he remembered.
The punk revolver produced by Qi Jiguang's army is three times larger than a normal revolver, almost as big as a shotgun, except that the barrel is shorter and it has an extra cylinder.
It has six demon cores embedded in it!
Overwhelmed with excitement, Qi Jiguang held the new revolver in his hands, always thinking of blasting something to test its power.
So he led a squad of his personal guards to the wilderness to exterminate the spirits and demons, wanting to test his skills on them. However, after circling the area several times, he couldn't find a trace of the spirits and demons.
Qi Jiguang couldn't help but regret that he had made his troops move around too frequently, causing the surrounding monsters to leave without daring to linger.
Now I can't even find a target to try my hand at.
Left with no other choice, Qi Jiguang had to expand the search area by several dozen miles, operating almost right under the noses of the other generals.
As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. They finally found the spirit demon and successfully completed the test, with a terrifying result.
Most spirit monsters die instantly when hit in a vital spot. Hitting other parts of the body will cause them to be maimed due to the powerful destructive force, and then they will bleed to death. Under normal circumstances, it takes a maximum of two shots to kill a spirit monster.
This is equivalent to saying that the lethality of an ordinary civilian wielding a punk revolver is about the same as that of a martial artist who has painstakingly trained for ten years.
Not to mention that in the hands of a martial artist, the weapon's power can be further enhanced.
Qi Jiguang's face was radiant.
A revolver can bring about such a huge change; there are even more amazing things waiting to be unlocked.
However, the good times did not last long.
It took the firearms battalion a long time to discover a major problem.
The gun parts on the blueprints are too precise, especially for high-powered guns. With their current level of technology, they cannot mass-produce them. Handcrafting them is time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it difficult to equip the troops with a large number of them in a short period of time.
On the battlefield where two armies clash, firearms are primarily used for suppression; if they cannot be mass-produced, they are utterly useless.
The limited number of firearms would easily be overwhelmed by the hordes of demons during battle.
Qi Jiguang was very upset when he learned of this. He felt like a eunuch going to a brothel. He had already taken his pants off, but then they said it wouldn't work. Who could stand that?
The firearms battalion racked their brains, trying to overcome the obstacles of precision components, but limited by their knowledge, they couldn't think of any suitable methods and could only worry helplessly.
"It seems we can only turn to His Majesty for help. The blueprints were provided by His Majesty, so he should be able to come up with a solution."
After discussing with the craftsmen, Qi Jiguang decided to secretly go to the capital again. This trip was extremely risky, as all forces were watching Nanjing.
Not only is he prone to ambushes on the way, but Jinling City could also become a target of public criticism if he is not careful.
Mass production of the new firearms was imperative, leaving Qi Jiguang little room to consider gains and losses. However, before leaving, he still needed to make some necessary arrangements.
The South is very important and cannot be lost.
Upon his return to the capital, to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to understand the blueprints as before, Qi Jiguang prepared to bring along some craftsmen and formation masters.
at the same time.
Zhuge Zhengwo carefully selected a group of trustworthy array masters and secretly brought them into the palace.
Cao Zhengchun dared not be negligent, fearing that leaking information would ruin His Majesty's important plans, so he thoroughly searched the palace inside and out.
Yu Huatian was responsible for protecting the safety of this group of array masters.
After this incident, neither of them would stay in the capital. Instead, they would each travel to distant places to seek an opportunity to reach the pinnacle of martial arts.
The array masters were also encountering alchemy for the first time, and were being taught by His Majesty the Emperor himself, so they were inevitably somewhat apprehensive, and the initial results were very poor.
In the alchemy room that Chu Yang had reopened, the sound of exploding furnaces was incessant, forcing him to go into the Soul Palace every night to get a new batch of furnaces.
Fortunately, Chu Yang in the fantasy world is the head of the Shu Mountain sect, and his family and business are large enough to withstand such mismanagement. Otherwise, such a wasteful way of squandering the family fortune would be unbearable for ordinary people.
Fortunately, as the explosions continued, the array masters became familiar with the key points to pay attention to when refining pills, and the chance of the furnace exploding dropped sharply. The eunuchs and palace maids in the palace could finally get a good night's sleep.
Over time, some array masters gradually showed talent in alchemy, not only rapidly increasing the success rate of pill formation but also improving the quality of the pills.
Meanwhile, other array masters with mediocre talent in alchemy also played a role. After pooling their wisdom, they further improved the array formations of the alchemy furnace and the alchemy room.
Chu Yang was very pleased with this.
Time flew by, and more than half a month passed, with both the north and south remaining peaceful.
A memorial arrived from Li Chengliang's side, stating that the defenses of Wanli Xuanbing City were complete, with 500,000 troops plus the firearms of the Qi Family Army, arming the entire ice city to the teeth.
In his memorial, he confidently stated, "If the demon race attacks, this humble general will surely annihilate them all beyond the border!"
It's unclear how much confidence Qi Jiguang's new firearms gave him, but in Chu Yang's opinion, the young man had become ridiculously arrogant, so he didn't hesitate to write a long string of insults on the memorial.
It's all modern vocabulary, insults without using vulgar language. I bet Li Chengliang will have to think about it for a while after reading it.
Not many memorials were handed to Chu Yang's desk. Besides Li Chengliang's, there was another one from Qi Jiguang, who was already on his way to the capital.
Apart from that, all other memorials were submitted to the cabinet and handled by Zhang Juzheng and others, because Chu Yang had previously stated that all future government affairs would be handled by the cabinet.
It wasn't entirely because he was lazy, but because he needed to delegate some power to the civil service, since they were the key to the dynasty's operation. If you want the horse to run, you have to feed it some grass.
This is why Chu Yang had time to train many alchemists.
Most of them can use the flesh and blood of demonic beasts that possess demonic power but have not yet developed intelligence to refine pills. A small number of them can use the flesh and blood of spirit demons to refine pills. Only one array master with the most outstanding talent in alchemy can refine great demon pills.