Qingzhou, at the foot of Yanyun Mountain.
Zhou Village.
The cold wind howled, making the robes flap noisily.
When Lin Chen opened his eyes again, the sounds of chaos reached his ears.
Women's screams, men's pleas for mercy, the clashing of weapons…
The ground was littered with severed limbs, and seven or eight lifeless bodies lay in pools of blood.
More than ten rogue cultivators wielding knives, spears, and other sharp weapons were pillaging, killing anyone they encountered.
"As expected... after I left, time in the cultivation world is also stopped..."
Lin Chen let out a small sigh of relief.
In this world, he had encountered a kind-hearted merchant caravan on his way, intending to travel to Changchun Sect to seek immortality.
Last night, the caravan had rested in Zhou Village, but before dawn, they were attacked by rogue cultivators who murdered and plundered them.
The rogue cultivators slaughtered the entire caravan and were about to wipe out Zhou Village.
Fortunately, Lin Chen had been smart enough to hide during the chaos.
Just when things were about to reach a critical point, the seven-day cooldown time ended, and he managed to traverse back to Blue Star at the last moment.
Placing the little dog he had been holding onto the ground, Lin Chen found that the dog hadn't traveled to Blue Star with him.
He glanced at the countdown on his arm: 167 hours 58 minutes 57 seconds.
"As expected, the time reset…"
Lin Chen confirmed his ability's hypothesis but didn't have time to think much more about it.
He was currently hiding in a corner of a wall, carefully observing the number and positions of the rogue cultivators.
"A total of… eleven rogue cultivators!"
"And I have sixteen bullets in my handgun… if I'm a little more accurate, it shouldn't be hard to kill them all."
In the Great Xia Kingdom, where martial arts were paramount, gun shooting was also an important course included in the national martial artist examination.
Lin Chen had always scored full marks in shooting.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Chen aimed his gun at a few rogue cultivators a few meters away.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
With the deafening sound of gunfire, bullets shot out at high speed from the barrel.
Three blood blossoms erupted in the air, and the chest of the three rogue cultivators was pierced with holes the size of a fist. Their eyes wide, they collapsed to the ground.
"Three shots, all hits!"
Lin Chen felt a surge of joy in his heart, but his body was pushed back half a step from the recoil of the gun.
The 17mm kinetic handgun, a new product from the Martial Science Research Institute, had an initial bullet speed of up to 800 m/s. It could effectively kill enemies within a hundred meters.
The powerful force was even capable of piercing a ten-centimeter-thick iron plate, but it came with a massive recoil.
Without a body strong enough to reach the ninth level of martial arts, even Lin Chen might have trouble firing a second shot in a short amount of time.
The loud gunshots drew the attention of the remaining rogue cultivators. Upon seeing their fallen comrades, they cried out in surprise:
"Be careful, there's another cultivator hiding here!"
Lin Chen couldn't afford to be distracted by the soreness in his arm. He knew he had the upper hand now, but if he didn't eliminate the rogue cultivators quickly, he would be the one who died once they fully reacted.
So—
Bang, bang, bang!
Lin Chen fired six shots in quick succession. The bullets exploded five times in the bodies of the remaining rogue cultivators under the dim moonlight.
Six bullets, five hits!
This was Lin Chen's first time using a handgun to shoot at humans, so he couldn't guarantee a hundred percent accuracy.
The poor visibility at night also affected his aim.
"Only three rogue cultivators left…" Lin Chen let out a breath of relief and moved his sore arm, still shaking from the recoil.
At the same time, the remaining three rogue cultivators had locked onto Lin Chen's position using the sound of the gunshots.
"He's over there!"
"Damn, look at his attire, he doesn't look like a cultivator! How did he use such a strange technique?"
The three rogue cultivators, holding their knives, were filled with confusion.
Clearly, as cultivators, they had never seen such a technological item like a handgun before.
Lin Chen didn't hesitate, and once again fired two shots!
Bang! Clang!
The two shots fired, but only one rogue cultivator fell.
"Blocked!"
Lin Chen was taken aback. These rogue cultivators clearly hadn't been in the Qi Refining stage for long—how could they possibly block bullets capable of killing a martial artist?
He focused his gaze and saw that one rogue cultivator had a faint golden shield in front of him.
The shield was engraved with mysterious patterns, resembling an illusory protective barrier.
Looking closer, Lin Chen saw that the cultivator was holding a broken paper talisman.
"It's a talisman! No wonder it managed to block the shot..."
Lin Chen's expression darkened.
The remaining two rogue cultivators were rapidly charging towards him, moving like phantoms in the air.
Their speed… it was nearly on par with martial artists!
Within just ten paces, they were about to reach Lin Chen in the blink of an eye.
In a critical moment, Lin Chen calmed down.
The 17mm kinetic handgun had a bullet velocity of 800m/s.
But that didn't mean the enemy couldn't dodge.
In fact, the movement speed of these two rogue cultivators had exceeded 20m/s, making it incredibly difficult to hit a target moving at such high speeds!
"I must wait for them to get closer! The moment they swing their blades will be the best chance for a counterattack…"
Lin Chen quickly made a judgment, and as expected, one rogue cultivator holding a large blade was charging towards him with a ferocious expression.
The bloodstained blade glimmered in the silver moonlight, looking even more terrifying.
Just two steps away, the moment the blade was about to fall—
Bang!
At the instant the blade was about to strike, the rogue cultivator's face twisted in disbelief, horror, and pain.
He lowered his head in disbelief, and a fist-sized blood hole appeared at his neck.
The high-speed bullet almost blew apart his entire neck, and his head was nearly severed.
With an unwilling expression, he collapsed.
"Only one rogue cultivator left! And I still have four bullets…"
Lin Chen let out a sigh of relief. If the last rogue cultivator's strength was similar to the others, this battle would be his victory!
He aimed his gun at the last rogue cultivator, who was about ten meters away.
Seeing his companions fall one after another, the last rogue cultivator realized the power of Lin Chen's "treasure" and began searching for the gun's weakness.
The cultivator quickly reacted, hiding behind a massive stone at the village entrance, covering his entire body.
Lin Chen frowned slightly.
This was the drawback of the handgun.
At first, the rogue cultivators had never seen such a "treasure", and they had no way to resist when caught off guard.
But once they understood how the gun worked, the threat of the handgun was greatly reduced.
Just as Lin Chen was thinking about his next move, the rogue cultivator's voice came from behind the stone.
"Little brother! Your treasure is truly powerful! You've already killed ten of my subordinates so quickly."
"But how many more times can this treasure be used?"
"The road ahead is long, why don't we go our separate ways... I won't rob this village anymore, and you don't need to make a move either..."
After a moment of silence, Lin Chen called out:
"Fine! Then you go quickly, I won't make a move."
Although he said this, Lin Chen did not lower his gun, his nerves were still tense.
Just as Lin Chen finished speaking, a gleaming long blade suddenly flew towards him.
The blade cut through the air in a strange arc, heading straight for Lin Chen's head.
"Using spiritual power to control the weapon!"
Lin Chen quickly reacted and raised his left hand.
In his left hand, he was holding a palm-sized shield.
It was the Y-3 Nano Shield!
This was the latest product from the Technology Research Institute. Its defense wasn't top-tier, but it could block a 17mm bullet and was lightweight.
One shield was worth a million Great Xia coins!
The additional support from Wang Xinyu had saved Lin Chen's life at a crucial moment.
Lin Chen activated the Nano Shield's switch.
The palm-sized shield immediately transformed, becoming a one-meter-diameter alloy shield that firmly blocked the long blade.
Clang!
The long blade left a shallow scratch on the shield.
The rogue cultivator, far away, cursed under his breath. The spiritual energy attached to his long blade had been exhausted, and he couldn't control the weapon anymore.
After blocking the long blade, Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
Luckily, he had been cautious, knowing that rogue cultivators were treacherous and could not be trusted. Otherwise, he would likely have already lost his life.
The voice of the rogue cultivator came again from afar.
"Brother, which sect do you belong to? You have so many life-saving treasures?"
"To be honest, I am an outer disciple of the Wild Wolf Sect. I came out to rob just to earn some spirit stones…"
"Why don't we just stop here..."
Lin Chen ignored the rogue cultivator's plea and continued to move forward.
He raised the Nano Shield with one hand, fully protecting his vital points, while his other hand held the handgun, slowly closing the distance to the rogue cultivator.
"Damn it, this is bad…"
The rogue cultivator also noticed Lin Chen slowly approaching and realized that with his strength, he couldn't withstand the power of Lin Chen's "treasure".
With a determined look, the rogue cultivator turned and ran towards the village's exit.
His sudden burst of speed was even comparable to that of a leopard.
Lin Chen didn't hold back. He adjusted his breathing, aimed, and fired at the rogue cultivator's back.
Bang!
He missed!
The bullet didn't hit the rogue cultivator's back but struck his thigh instead.
"Ah!"
The rogue cultivator screamed but didn't dare stop, continuing to run forward.
Bang!
Lin Chen fired again.
This time, the bullet successfully hit the rogue cultivator's back, creating a fist-sized hole in his chest, sending a large spray of blood and flesh flying.
Seeing the rogue cultivator leader fall, Lin Chen still didn't let his guard down.
He slowly approached, holding the shield, and when he was about two or three meters away, Lin Chen removed the long blade stuck in the shield and threw it far away.
The long blade hit the rogue cultivator's face, sending half of his head flying.
The rogue cultivator trembled, then fell silent.
"Finally… they're all dead..."
Lin Chen slumped to the ground, breathing heavily.
Even if he was a genius martial artist from the Great Xia Kingdom...
This was still his first time killing someone!
With his own strength, he had slain eleven rogue cultivators, and the tension in his body made his head feel heavy and dizzy.
Lin Chen was thankful that he had reported to the country and received support in the form of weapons and equipment.
Otherwise, at this moment, he would likely have already been hacked to death by the rogue cultivators...
After resting on the ground for a while, Lin Chen suddenly heard footsteps.
Instinctively, he jumped up, gripping his gun tightly, but the person approaching turned out to be villagers from Zhou Village.
More than twenty villagers, young and old, male and female, were kneeling on the ground.
Their clothes were ragged, their bodies covered in blood and wounds.
But at this moment, there was something in their eyes—something called hope.
Two or three children, about eight or nine years old, were dirty and hiding behind their parents, staring at Lin Chen with wide, curious eyes.
The villagers held eggs, steamed buns, and other food in their hands, kneeling and continuously bowing in gratitude.
"Immortal! Thank you, Immortal, for saving our lives!"
"Thank you, Immortal!"
At that moment, the sun rose behind the Smoke Cloud Mountain, its golden rays spilling down onto Lin Chen's feet and onto the villagers as well.
Lin Chen looked at this scene, and after a brief moment of silence, his gaze shifted toward the southeast.
Four hundred miles southeast of Zhou Village was the location of the Changchun Sect.
"I am not an immortal..."
"This time, I am here to seek immortals..."
Lin Chen did not accept the villagers' gratitude.
They were already poor, and it was nearly impossible for them to survive in this chaotic world.
This misfortune had befallen them because of the caravan they were traveling with, which had been attacked and plundered by the rogue cultivators.
Lin Chen walked to the side of the caravan's goods. Most of the cargo in the crates was exquisite silk.
Since he couldn't carry it with him, he decided to leave this shipment in Zhou Village.
Of course, the several thousand taels of silver notes and silver ingots from the dead merchants had been taken by Lin Chen.
Afterward, he began searching the bodies of the rogue cultivators.
He didn't find the rumored storage bags. These rogue cultivators were weak, with some of them not even having entered the Qi Refining stage yet.
After searching through the bodies of over ten rogue cultivators, Lin Chen found more than a dozen thumb-sized, crystal-clear stones.
"Spirit stones! In addition to the spirit stones, there are some spirit sand as well..."
Lin Chen counted them—about thirteen spirit stones, along with seven or eight hundred grains of spirit sand.
Spirit sand contained a faint amount of spiritual energy, which was not enough to aid in cultivation, but it could be used as a common currency among lower-level cultivators.
One hundred grains of spirit sand were roughly equivalent to one spirit stone.
Aside from the spirit stones, the only valuable items were the long blade used by the leader of the rogue cultivators.
It seemed to be a low-quality magical weapon, but it could still be worth some spirit stones.
There were also a few ancient books. Lin Chen skimmed through them, but they didn't contain any powerful techniques; they were merely records of common knowledge from the cultivation world.
Lin Chen didn't stay in Zhou Village for long and set off as soon as the sky brightened.
His destination was the Changchun Sect, located four hundred miles away.
It was the only righteous sect for cultivation within a thousand miles.
The sect's tri-annual assessment was about to begin, and if Lin Chen missed this opportunity, he would have to wait a long time...
He had to reach the foot of Changchun Mountain within six days.
With the long blade at his waist and his travel bag on his back, Lin Chen set off toward the southeast.
With the stamina and speed of a level-nine martial apprentice, covering a hundred miles in a day was no problem.
So, he cleared his path, cutting through the wilderness and crossing mountains.
Five days later, Lin Chen arrived at a bustling market.
This market was a place where both mortals and cultivators lived together, situated at the foot of Changchun Mountain.
"Finally here... The sect's assessment should still be ongoing..."
Lin Chen gazed at the towering mountain peaks and murmured.
(End of this chapter)