A big group of villagers were eating when they saw a strange large white paper suddenly descending from the sky. They quickly picked up their rice bowls and scattered while running away, laughing as they fled: “What strange thing has the Great deity sent us this time? This one doesn’t seem edible, ah.”

The A5 paper lay flat on the ground, with many odd patterns drawn on it. Viewed obliquely, it seemed like it might have a firearm?

Gao Yiye pointed at the paper and said: “Li Da, what’s on that paper is meant for you to forge. Go take a look.”

Li Da saw nothing in the sky when the big paper suddenly dropped out of thin air. His whole mind went blank, and for a long moment, he couldn’t react, until Thirty-Two grabbed his shoulders and shook him twice, and only then did he jolt awake.

The paper was pond-sized. Li Da stood on flat ground looking at it obliquely, but could only spot something like a firearm and a pile of parts with it; he couldn’t get a full view. So he climbed onto the nearby two-zhang-high city wall and gazed down at the paper’s surface.

“Huh? In the center, that seems to be a novel firearm? The surrounding patterns are detailed diagrams of all its parts.”

Li Daoxuan chuckled darkly: “Exactly! The Chassepot rifle—a fine model among early breech-loading rifles. This is its design blueprint.”

As it turned out, Li Daoxuan hadn’t been idle these past days. He had constantly pondered what kind of weapons could be forged by Ming Dynasty smiths’ craft level, given that he could supply the materials himself.

He also anonymously posted a thread on his usual military history forum, asking: “Folks, if you traveled back to the Ming Dynasty, and used Ming Dynasty smiths’ craft level with modern raw materials at hand, what’s the highest-level weapon you could make?”

Reply 1: Death Star Destroyer.

Reply 2: First, bury the first floor! Of course, it’s the AK-47. Now, any home workshop can make one; in the Ming Dynasty, they could pound it out with a hammer.

Reply 3: Don’t be foolish. Just knocking out a shell casing is useless—precise fit isn’t achieved; one shot might blow up the chamber, and you still can’t solve the ammo problem. Rifled guns are the most reliable; time-travel experts all use rifles.

Reply 4: Upstairs seems to forget OP said “with modern raw materials.” Since that includes modern stuff, we have rubber to fix gas sealing. So, why skip rifled guns and jump straight to breech-loading rifles? The Chassepot rifle is quite good—its precision demand isn’t as high as an automatic rifle’s, and Ming Dynasty smiths could truly hand-forge it.

Reply 5: Is everyone missing the point? Traveling back to the Ming Dynasty, you should buy several maids, lift their skirts, and peek at their baths. After all, bought maids can’t resist their master; I’d play all kinds of games with them.

Li Daoxuan: Dang it, it’s you again!

All replies cursed together: You jerk, get out of this military history forum!

After the chaos, Li Daoxuan noted down “Chassepot rifle.” With help from the forum’s seasoned folks, he miraculously got photos of that rifle, design blueprints, and actual snapshots of parts. He printed it on an A5 paper and was ready to bring it out when the smith arrived.

Li Da stood on the city wall, looking very intently at the A5 paper below.

He looked left, he looked right, he spun around to view it. After seeing it all, sweat suddenly gushed down: “This… this firearm… I… I dare not promise I can craft it.”

Li Daoxuan said: “Don’t be pressured. Try hard to make it happen. I’ll give you a very long time—years don’t matter. If you truly succeed, I’ll make your dream come true.”

For Li Da, the dream meant becoming an ordinary commoner without obligations.

That was no simple thing. When it came from Gao Yiye’s mouth, it felt rather unreliable.

He couldn’t help but shout aloud: “Miss, Third Lady, I do trust you all somewhat, but what I must do isn’t ordinary business. I… I don’t even know who the wealthy lord is, so I feel a bit…”

“Hasn’t that big paper dropping from the sky enlightened you?” Gao Yiye shouted loudly: “Try jumping down from the city wall right now; instantly you’ll know who the wealthy lord is.”

Li Da got startled: “Jump down?”

Thirty-Two also laughed: “Go on, take a jump and see.”

Li Da looked downward.

This was a two-zhang-high city wall!

What’s he playing at—testing my courage?

Year after year, he hammered iron, so his body was still robust. Jumping from this height, if he landed carefully, might not injure him; even if hurt, it’d likely be no worse than a broken leg. If this act could get the wealthy lord to free him from the artisan registration, it wasn’t… impossible or not worth a gamble.

Li Da gritted his teeth. Better see that wall beneath him as the artisan registration. Escape required risking his life—it was a deadly deal. “I’ll go all in,” he clenched harder and leaped down.

The moment he leaped, he had mentally prepared to land with a crouch and roll to dissipate the force.

However, just as he cleared the city wall, before he even began to fall, he felt something catch him. His feet stepped onto something? It was so unexpected that he couldn’t maintain his balance. He fell forward, his hands landing on the invisible “ground,” yet the sensation felt distinctly like touching someone’s palm.

“Huh? Huhhuh?”

Li Da was terrified, scared stiff and unable to move.

Gao Yiye called out loudly, “You are now on the palm of the Great Deity.”

Li Da: “!!!”

Li Daoxuan deliberately moved his hand slightly, supporting Li Da as it slowly traversed the half-sky.

Li Da felt as if he was flying through the air, though his posture was exceedingly undignified. Orz – whichever way you looked at it, it was not a proper flying stance.

Before entering the village, Thirty-Two had told him that the wealthy lord of this village was the Great Deity. At the time, Li Da had been utterly confused, unable to understand what Thirty-Two meant. But now, it seemed like, just maybe, he grasped a little bit.

Li Daoxuan’s hand slowly lowered towards the ground, then tilted slightly. Li Da slid off, landing seated on the dusty yellow earth. His face was filled with terror and panic, yet there was also a tiny spark of elation.

The elation, of course, was because his dream now had a guarantee!

As his mind cleared, he flipped over, changing from sitting on the ground to kneeling prostrate. He exclaimed loudly, “This humble servant, this humble servant guarantees he will exert all his strength to forge the firearm you commanded. However, this thing seems rather complex; this humble servant may require a long time – as you said, perhaps one or two liang worth.”

If Li Da swung his hammer and produced a Chassepot rifle in just a few days, he would definitely be a System-possessing time traveler. Li Daoxuan, of course, knew this was impossible: “Mmm, take it slow, no need to hurry. Teach Gao Yiyi how to forge armor while you slowly research this firearm! If you need any materials, have Gao Yiye report them to me. In short, whenever you succeed in forging it, that is when your dream will come true.”

Here, his tone shifted: “Gao Yiye, are there any empty houses left in the village?”

Gao Yiye replied, a little embarrassed, “No, the only inhabitable empty cottage was allocated to Third Lady’s family.”

Li Daoxuan said, “Oh! Then wait a moment.”

He took a can of Pepsi Cola from the fridge, gulped it down in a few swallows—glug glug—let out a burp—ahh, refreshing. Then, he grabbed scissors and cut the can in half, resulting in a cylindrical cup. He cut out a small door and two small windows in it. Finally, he inverted this half-can and placed it over an empty patch of ground in the village…

Thump!

The villagers heard a tremendous bang; the earth seemed to tremble. Then, a peculiarly shaped, brightly colored small blue domed hut appeared in a corner of the village. The characters for “Pepsi Cola” were printed backwards on it, looking rather comical.

Li Daoxuan announced, “Li Da, you will live in this temporary hut for now. After a while, I will arrange better houses for everyone.”

The villagers, though they had been shocked by “divine miracles” several times already, today were once again startled so badly they nearly dropped their bowls. The Great Deity’s method of constructing a house truly inspired immense, bewildered awe.

Third Lady, who had been secretly watching nearby, started kowtowing like pounding garlic, unable to stop.

…

To avoid disrupting the flow of the story, it should be noted here that the massive sheet of A5 paper was retrieved that night. It was later reprinted much smaller before being placed back into the box and given to Li Tie to store in his house.

There will be many such points like this in the future. I dislike writing about these details explicitly in the story, as it fragments the narrative and wastes significant word count on explanations irrelevant to the main plot, affecting the reader’s experience. Therefore, I often omit unimportant matters and would appreciate it if readers could mentally fill in such trivial chores themselves. Spare readers these minor details.