Jin Shu pressed the tip of his inscribing needle against the rifle barrel laid out before him.

    He was about to carve a Durability rune into the metal, reinforcing it against overuse and potential impacts.

    However, the moment the glowing tip touched the surface, it punched straight through, leaving a clean hole.

    Metal that should have withstood the full strength of a Master Realm cultivator—pierced like paper.

    “Uh… what? How the hell did that happen?”

    “Use less Qi,” Long Jinshu warned. “Your Qi’s metal attribute makes it far too sharp when paired with the inscribing needle.”

    “The what? Metal attribute? Since when do I have that?”

    “That would be my doing,” Nano interjected. “If you recall, when you advanced to the Core Realm, I used your Qi to form a core of my own. Now, when your Qi cycles through your dantian into my core and back, it gains metallic properties.”

    “It’s as the creature says,” Long Jinshu confirmed. “Your Qi now carries the metal attribute, making it far, far sharper than standard Qi.”

    Jin Shu frowned. “I should be able to access your memories for insight on this, right? Since you were born with the same metal attribute Qi as a metal tribe dragon, yeah?”

    “Yes. Use them to guide your control.”

    Jin Shu glanced down at the rifle barrel, eyeing the neat hole he had unintentionally punched through.

    “Well… at least I started with Liu Hua’s weapon,” he muttered with a chuckle.

    A hole in the barrel could cause blowback. His older self said.

    “Yeah, not my problem.” He shrugged.

    …

    “Shit… she''ll kill me, won''t she?”

    With a sigh, he placed the inscribing needle back against the barrel and cleanly sliced off the damaged portion.

    “It’s a bit shorter, but that shouldn’t affect it too much, right?”

    Just the range due to reduced muzzle velocity and possibly a slight drop in accuracy. But she won’t know that.

    “Perfect.” He nodded. “Now, less Qi, you said?”

    “Yes,” Long Jinshu affirmed.

    “Hm… let’s try half,” Jin Shu muttered.

    Jin Shu moved on to the firing pin, carefully carving an Explosion rune into the metal. The rune’s purpose was simple: to propel the bullet at an even higher velocity.

    It probably shouldn’t work that way. But, miraculously, it did—evident by his last rifle. The one that now sat on Liu Hua’s shelf.

    He was still a bit miffed about that. But arguing? With her? The woman who killed people using their own weapons? Yeah, no. Definitely not worth it.

    Shaking off the thought, he exhaled. “Alright, what kind of formation do you recommend, oh mighty dragon?”

    “What? Mighty dragon? Are you referring to me?” Long Jinshu sounded almost amused.

    “I don’t see any other dragons around.” Jin Shu shrugged, chuckling. “Then again, I don’t see you either.”

    “Uh… huh. Right. Well, I’d recommend starting with an Imbuing formation. For this weapon, you can use all Lightning runes.”

    “Imbuing formation?” Jin Shu frowned, pulling up Long Jinshu’s memories on the subject.

    The formation was primarily used to infuse attacks with elemental properties—like flame or wind—granting them an extra edge in battle. Normally, a cultivator had to stand within the formation’s boundaries to benefit, making them vulnerable to attacks.

    But if he applied the concept to a weapon, specifically a gun, it would imbue the bullets themselves… or so he hoped.

    “Let’s see… It can hold up to five elemental runes. Wouldn’t using the same rune be kinda pointless?”

    “If all the runes are the same, they amplify each other,” Long Jinshu explained. “If you mix them, you gain more versatility instead.”

    “Gotcha. But what if I use multiple Imbuing formations? Could I get multiple elements at the same time?”

    “You should know the answer to that.”

    “I do?” Jin Shu frowned, thinking deeper. A moment later, the realization hit him.

    “Oh. They have a negative synergy… Well, there goes that idea.”

    Pushing the thought aside, he brought up a mental image of the Imbuing formation.

    He pulled the rifle stock across the table, positioning it for inscription. Just as he pressed the needle to the metal, a stray thought crossed his mind.

    These guns are made of pure metal… That means they’re ridiculously heavy. Huh. Luckily, I, and anyone else who might use them are cultivators. Otherwise, they’d be nearly useless.

    Shaking off the distraction, he got to work.

    Since the stock’s metal was weaker than the barrel’s, he used even less Qi this time. A good call—because as soon as the needle touched the surface, it sliced through like a hot knife through butter.

    At this speed, I can inscribe all thirty runes in no time.

    Even the most basic formations required at least ten runes, and before his sudden metal attribute upgrade, an inscription like this would have taken him minutes, maybe even an hour.

    Now? He was done in record time.

    “So? Is that it?” he asked.

    “Depends. Do you think that girl will be satisfied with this weapon?”

    “Uh… yeah? It’s much stronger than the one she… appropriated from me.” He scowled at the memory. “Though… you wouldn’t happen to know a formation that could act as a scope, would you?”

    “A scope…?” Long Jinshu paused. “Hmm… there is one.”

    “Really?! Show me!” Jin Shu blinked, then shook his head. “Ah, never mind—I can see for myself.”

    Closing his eyes, he focused.

    A moment later, he found what he was looking for.

    The Far Sight formation.

    It allowed the user to see far ahead in a straight line, enhancing their vision in whichever direction they faced.

    Some interesting trivia accompanied the technique. Apparently, it was created by a highly paranoid man who wanted to always see his enemies coming.

    He was stabbed to death by his own disciple.

    In the back.

    While using the formation.

    “…Yikes.” Jin Shu winced. “Uh, luckily no one wants to stab me in the back… I hope.”

    He exhaled, shaking off the eerie thought. “If I place this formation on the rail, it should work as a scope. Let’s test it.”

    This formation required far fewer runes—fifteen, to be exact—and he finished inscribing it in seconds.

    Lining up the sights with the spatial storage chest in the corner, he activated the formation.

    Instantly, his vision zoomed in on the chest.

    And only the chest.

    No rifle sights. No frame of reference.

    Which meant he had absolutely no idea where he was actually aiming.

    Jin Shu deactivated the formation with a heavy sigh. “Welp. That’s useless.”

    “Try placing an illusion formation around the Far Sight formation,” Long Jinshu suggested. “When you activate the illusion, picture a rifle scope.”

    “Will that actually work?”

    “I’m unsure. You’ll have to test it yourself.”

    Jin Shu hummed in thought. “Alright. Might as well try.”

    The illusion formation was even more complex than the Imbuing formation, so it took longer to carve. Still, with his current speed, he finished in a few minutes.

    This time, he activated the illusion formation while focusing on a mental image of a rifle scope.

    An illusionary scope flickered to life on the sight rail.

    Holding his breath, he activated the Far Sight formation again.

    “Oh ho! It works!”

    The zoomed-in image now appeared within the illusionary rifle scope. It wasn’t perfect, but it was far more functional.

    “That’s done, then. I’m sure she’ll love it… I’m not so sure she won’t use me as a test dummy, though…”

    Jin Shu sighed, eyeing the pile of unassembled gun parts.

    If I create these new weapons, I should be able to defend myself.

    With a determined nod, he got back to work.

    He quickly inscribed runes onto the three remaining barrels, then repeated the same formations for each, placing them on the frames and sight rails.

    For his own weapons, however, he added something extra—a Channeling formation.

    This formation would allow him to feed extra Qi into the existing runes, overcharging them and increasing their output by at least one and a half times.

    Unlike Liu Hua’s weapon, which focused on amplification, his Imbuing formations were of the variance type. Instead of stacking the same elemental rune, he chose multiple elements, allowing him to switch based on the situation.

    Not that he wanted to be in any situation requiring their use.

    But for a cultivator, avoiding fights was a luxury few could afford.

    And he had a sneaking suspicion his life would be anything but peaceful.

    Not with a cult of madmen running rampant on the other side of the mountain range.

    The thought of demonic cultivators soured his mood.

    He wished Yin’er was here—cuddling with her in her true form would be so much better than stewing in these thoughts.

    Instead, all he had was a psycho woman—

    His body tensed.

    A woman, clad in purple lightning, stood silently in the corner.

    He blinked.

    “…Uh. How long have you been there?”

    “I just got here. Why?” Liu Hua’s voice was as calm as ever.

    “No, nothing. I just didn’t hear you come in, so I was surprised.”

    She ignored his comment. “Is my weapon done?”

    “Give me a moment,” Jin Shu muttered, turning to collect the pieces of her rifle.

    As he carefully assembled each part, his mind raced with unsettling thoughts—mainly of the insane woman standing over him, crushing his neck like a twig… again.

    Before long, a sleek silver rifle with a long black barrel and gleaming runes rested on the table.

    A hand suddenly reached over his shoulder and snatched it away.

    Click.

    Jin Shu froze.

    Slowly—very slowly—he turned his head.

    A barrel pressed against his back.

    Liu Hua, as calm as ever, was pulling the trigger.

    His brain stalled.

    “…What exactly are you doing?” he asked, still struggling to process what had just happened.

    “I wanted to see if it worked,” she said simply. Then, with a frown, she gave him an accusatory look. “You gave me a fake.”

    “It isn’t fake—and if it had worked, I’d be dead!!” Jin Shu shot to his feet, stool scraping against the floor. “You psycho bitch! I didn’t think you’d actually pull the damn trigger!”

    He jabbed a finger at her, fury spilling out like an untamed flood.

    “First, you try to twist my neck off! Then you kidnap me! Then you make me strip! Then you cry on my back while we sleep! And finally—you force me to build you a weapon, only to immediately try and kill me with it?!”

    He was huffing, face beet red with rage.

    He took a step forward.

    She stepped back.

    Another step.

    Another.

    Until her back hit the wall.

    Slam!

    His palm slapped against the wall beside her head.

    “What the hell is your problem, huh?! I didn’t do anything to you or your sister! So why are you picking on me?!”

    It all poured out at once. And the second it did—he regretted it.

    He should have just held it in. He should have walked away.

    But no.

    Now, he was definitely going to die.

    So he shut his eyes and braced himself.

    Haa… haa… haa…

    Heavy breathing.

    She was mad. He knew it. Any second now—she was going to twist his head off his shoulders.

    Then—

    “…more…”

    His brows furrowed.

    What?

    Cracking his eyes open, he was met with an entirely different sight than he expected.

    Liu Hua’s face was flushed red.

    Her legs, were rubbing together. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    There were tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.

    She bit her lower lip, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

    “…Do it,” she whispered. “Push me down.”

    Jin Shu blinked.

    “Go on,” she murmured. “Berate me. Slap me. Do whatever you want…”

    Silence.

    Then—

    Jin Shu took a swift step back, yanking his hand off the wall, staring at her like she had just sprouted a second head.

    What in the hell is she saying…?