I left the palace and headed straight to the pavilion, it’s time I go crazy about shopping, I already have too much money for it to sit in my holding bag doing absolutely nothing. Not to mention I need a lot of materials for the upcoming venture.

Once I was inside the pavilion, the woman who received me the last time came with a token in hand, “This was from the emperor it’ll give you a 30% discount on everything you purchase and a single free pick from the whole pavilion,” she said, her tone was deferential and welcoming as always.

“Right, thank you,” I said and asked, “Where are all your spiritual herbs?” I said as I looked around the various items on the lower floor.

“Emm, the third floor, you have anything in mind?” she asked.

“I just want to see what you have for sale, I’ll decide when I’m there,” I said and she nodded and led the way.

We climbed up the stairs of the pavilion and entered the third floor. It was a vast space full of showcasing glass cubes. Spiritual herbs were planted and well preserved within them and there were plenty.

“I’ll take everything here,” I said without batting an eye.

The girl looked at me bewilderedly and nodded, “Right, then, I’ll have everything summed up and handed to you once you’re prepared to leave, anything else?” she asked as she gave a courteous bow.

“Yes, I want to take a look at the metals and crafting materials you have,” I replied, “No need to treat me like some sort of nobility, I’m just a customer,” I added.

“More reason to, customers are kings. she smiled then added, “We’ll go to the craftsmen’s workshop, please follow me.” 

As we were going towards another floor, something caught my eye, it was a cylindrical hollowed slab of metal, and almost immediately the hair on my skin stood to no end.

“Is that a cannon?” I asked.

“Oh, yes, it’s just a mortal weapon, some Craftsman wanted to inscribe it, and make it useable for cultivators, but he couldn’t manage it. The metal was either too heavy to support the inscriptions, or the explosive material was too powerful it would destroy the cannon. Anything that could be used to kill a cultivator added to that cannon would usually destroy the material. It was only used once and it still craked. An ingenious idea, but it was met with failure.” The woman said.

‘Yeah, because he is stupid! Why the hell do you even need to add explosive material? You can simply inscribe a pressure inscription, but hang on that will actually harm the barrel…’ more questions began popping in my head and other theories debunked the other, and other questions appeared, size, speed, weight, material, the interaction, cannon? Why cannon, a handgun, yes that would be better, small simple, easy to carry, and could be used sneakily. But, a handgun will have the disadvantage of being light and won’t carry much power. But that’s if I’m thinking of creating something like this cannon, a flintlock? No too much work for little effort and I won’t be using gunpowder anyway.

A revolver? Yes, it could work, actually, it’s even better because this way I can inscribe the gun and the bullet, have two inscriptions that complement each other to create something new. This way even if someone were to have a look at the gun, they’ll have no way to replicate my success, as I have the whole diagram split between two parts… still I need proper material, and…

I kept on rambling as my mind began working on overdrive, and when the woman saw me contemplating, she was polite enough not to rudely wake me from my stupor.

And I continued thinking about all the possible things I could add to this gun. Damn, but the bullet’s speed, no matter how fast will be easy to dodge for high-tier cultivators, it could even be deflected and blocked by armor. But, what if I add a penetration inscription on the bullet? Or even yet, why not put a poison pill inside the bullet? This way if the bullet manages to penetrate through one’s body, it will infuse the pill into their bloodstreams, killing them instantly. Damn, even if the person on the bullet’s end was to strike away from the bullet, the pill would blow up in his face poisoning him. Damn, so many amazing possibilities and so many doors to explore.

I grinned as I said, “Show me the material room, and your strongest yet lightest metal in possession.”

“Right then, please follow me.” She said and I followed after her as we entered the workshop.

The workshop had hundreds of different storage areas that held various metals and crafting materials. And on the other side of the metals and crafting materials was a locked door.

“This is the item you’re looking for,” she said as she opened the door showing me a broken sword. This sword was easily as large as I was, and it had already lost half of its length. It only had its handle and half of the blade.

“This sword was found in the possession of a convicted criminal, it was confiscated. Many craftsmen tried to melt it to reforge it anew, but all failed. It’s a strange metal and we don’t know of its origin, the only thing that’s impressive about it is its weight.” The girl said and went to pick up the sword that was clearly far larger than her, but she easily lifted it.

“It’s somehow extremely light even if it’s large, many theorized that this metal was useless to be wasted on such a large sword as it would do wonders on a short sword, and I agree.” She said.

“Yes, but did you try to infuse it with your own Qi, use it as a part of you instead of just a weapon to stab,” I said.

The girl tilted her head then tried to infuse the sword with her own Qi, almost immediately the sword dropped to the ground and cratered the whole floor from its sheer weight.

“Neutron Steel…” I said

This metal is so dense that a single spoon would usually weigh tons, but the craftsman that made this sword was crazy smart. He added Helios Iron to it, the exact opposite of Neutron Steel, a metal that was so light that it was the best thing to use in crafting flying swords. Add a few other materials and the whole sword would feel immensely light, then they added a few inscriptions on the handle that once a person infuses the sword with Qi, it will temporarily stop the Helios steel from interfering with the Neutron Steel’s density and weight, this is some high-level inscription stuff, even I am unable to fully comprehend it.

“You’re saying that this sword stayed here for so long that no one even thought about infusing it with their own Qi?”

“Huh? You mean you didn’t know?” the girl asked in complete shock.

“Know what?” I asked.

“That’s it’s tantamount to suicide to infuse your own Qi in another person’s weapon, no one in their right mind was going to do that, heck, I only did that because I trusted in your opinion and thought you saw through something… I could have died!” the girl shuddered.

‘Ah, that reminds me, this is probably why the poison god said that I should not try and open the Crimson Robed cultivator’s holding bag… damn I should be more careful.’

I coughed hiding my shame and said, “No, don’t worry I already saw that the sword was ownerless.” I lied.

“Oh, right, thank you, I was scared there for a second. Anyway, do you wish to procure this? It will cost you a million spirit stones.”

“Yeah, I’m not paying for that, I’ll take my freebie, I already have one free item to take.”

“Right, if you wish then I’ll have this added to the herbs you procured. Anything else?”

“Yes, I’ll take some of these metals, I said as I pointed at the various metals in the shop, I needed them to craft a few things and further improve X, also I need armor. Or at least gear that’s strong enough that will protect me once I go out and start my venture.”

*///***////***

HEYYY everyone, hope that not all of you got hella pissed when this story turned premium, still I’m really appreciative of the guys that paid the previ and are now joining. Btw, I have about 20 additional chapters ready for posting, these are my stockpile, you can go to Patre0n and read them, or wait for next month when Previ is available.

Finally, please don’t forget, use your power stones, my old legionnaires who come from the undead legion are always the ones voting. Though I know many of you like the story, you probably just forget, your power stones really help out a great deal, so use them here if you can. Thank you all