Chapter 264 - 188: A Soul Shot, a Second Accident

Chapter 264: Chapter 188: A Soul Shot, a Second Accident

With a flick of her finger, Xia Lan tossed the warhead to Yu Fei.

"Take a look!"

Yu Fei examined it closely and saw fine patterns carved into the warhead’s core.

Xia Lan explained, "This is from the Academy of Sciences. They call it an Extraordinary Micro-Flow Particle model or something. It acts as a stabilizer for Qi Blood. Level two and above attribute warheads use a different model. I don’t get the specifics, but it works great.

"Back in the day, before we had this stuff, a bullet’s trajectory could easily be thrown off by the quality of a Martial Artist’s Qi Blood or Inner Qi. But now? It’s amazing. You shoot exactly where you aim!"

Yu Fei carefully observed the carved patterns in the warhead. The construction of these super-energy weapons, though seemingly simple, contained hundreds of years of wisdom from millions of people in the martial world—a culmination of their exploration of the world. It was the crystallization of a civilization.

Xia Lan continued, "The infusion method for these bullets is more or less the same. You’re a Qi Blood Martial Artist, and these are all level-one bullets. Give it a try."

Hearing this, Yu Fei followed Xia Lan’s instructions. He took a super-energy bullet in his hand and slowly infused his Qi Blood into it. About fifteen minutes later, the bullet in his hand suddenly grew scorching hot.

"That’s enough! Any more and the bullet will explode right there!"

Yu Fei stopped the infusion and opened his palm, looking at the massive, twenty-centimeter-long bullet.

"Once infused, a standard model super-energy bullet only maintains its peak power for half an hour. After that, its power will rapidly decay over ten minutes. Then you’ll need to infuse it again. Come on! Try firing a shot!"

He turned his head and saw Xia Lan holding yesterday’s "Osprey Dragon" super-energy firearm. It was a level-one weapon; he remembered Xia Lan complaining about its poor performance.

With Xia Lan’s help, Yu Fei pushed the bullet into the chamber. He noticed the "Osprey Dragon’s" magazine had a maximum capacity of only five rounds. Considering the limited time an infused bullet remained effective, five rounds was actually quite a lot.

He deployed the bipod, knelt on one knee, and pressed the stock against his shoulder, preparing to fire.

With the beyond-visual-range enhancement from his Illusory Cicada Star Pupil, using the auxiliary scope would actually hinder his accuracy.

After a moment’s thought, Yu Fei reached out, detached the scope, and set it aside.

"Hey... Hey? What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to defy the heavens?! It’s your first time shooting and you’re not even using a scope? Who gave you the guts, huh?"

Xia Lan had been guiding Yu Fei on the fundamentals of his shooting posture, but a moment’s inattention and she saw the kid was being ridiculously arrogant. The target was ten kilometers away, for crying out loud! Even she had to strain when using her Pupil Skill to see it.

Yu Fei remained silent, relying solely on his eyesight to aim. He lined up the sights, centering the reticle on a two-meter-tall yellow rock on a distant mountain.

Xia Lan was still a little miffed. ’I’ll just see about this. Is this kid putting on a show, or is he actually confident?’

As he aimed, Yu Fei realized that "Fleeting Moment" combined with his Illusory Cicada Star Pupil gave him an unparalleled advantage in mastering super-energy weapons.

His Pure Yang True Body was at the perfected stage, taking his self-control to another level. The Illusory Cicada Star Pupil allowed him to lock onto distant targets, and "Fleeting Moment" granted him extraordinary reflexes, letting him seize any fleeting opportunity to shoot.

For an ordinary person, aiming at a target ten kilometers away would be incredibly difficult. Even with the steadiest hands, factors like breathing and the surging of Qi Blood would throw them off.

At such an extreme distance, any tiny movement would be magnified over ten thousand meters, resulting in a massive deviation.

But Yu Fei could accurately seize any opening.

He had the rifle ready for less than five seconds before he decisively pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The super-energy bullet fired at a terrifying speed, far exceeding ten times the speed of sound. The immense, instantaneous recoil slammed the hundred-kilogram "Osprey Dragon" brutally against Yu Fei’s shoulder. A deafening roar exploded by his ears as a shockwave spread out in all directions with him at the center.

The bangs on Xia Lan’s forehead whipped wildly about her stunned face. On the distant mountain, a massive red rock was blown to smithereens.

Thanks to his Pure Yang True Body and his many other talents, Yu Fei’s formidable constitution was unmatched among those in the third realm. He completely absorbed the recoil from the shot without any issue.

"He... actually hit it..."

Yu Fei’s ears were ringing, but his supernaturally enhanced senses quickly restored his hearing, and he heard Xia Lan’s voice.

He wanted to explain that he had actually missed, but an ecstatic Xia Lan was yanking his arm and jumping around, leaving him no chance to get a word in.

With waves surging before him, Yu Fei was momentarily dazed and forgot to tell her the truth.

"Yu Fei, you must have perfect pitch for shooting! I’ve never seen a genius like you. A newbie, on your first time with a gun, no scope, and you hit a target ten kilometers away! You’re definitely going to be one of the best sniper-type Martial Artists!

"That’s amazing..."

Xia Lan recalled that while she had been called a genius when she started practicing, it had still taken her over a hundred shots to hit a target at that range.

The distance was just too great; the slightest deviation and the bullet would fly off to who-knows-where.

"Come on, let’s keep going. I’ll teach you how to infuse the bullets quickly."

Saying this, the excited Xia Lan handed him another bullet and began to earnestly explain the technique.

Just now, during his first infusion, Yu Fei had followed the operational requirements to the letter, carefully controlling his immense Qi Blood without deviating in the slightest.

"The Red Sulfur Powder is extremely stable while it’s absorbing extraordinary energy before saturation. But once it’s full, its stability plummets, and it reacts very easily with the Dark Thunder Stone Particles. One wrong move and it’ll blow up in your hand. That’s why the instruction manual tells you to maintain a slow infusion speed, to give the Martial Artist enough time to judge.

"But on a real battlefield, no idiot follows the instruction manual. Every second counts. Every effective shot could save a teammate’s life. If you take fifteen minutes to infuse a bullet, your captain will beat you half to death."

Yu Fei listened quietly to Xia Lan’s explanation. ’The standards are just the baseline. In a life-or-death situation, no one would be so rigid.’

"There’s also a high-heat reactant in the bullet called ’pyro-fluxin’. It rapidly absorbs the energy from the Red Sulfur Powder right as it’s about to reach the critical point, releasing a massive amount of heat. That’s why you have to stop infusing immediately when you feel the bullet heat up."

"So, do you get it?"

After explaining, Xia Lan watched Yu Fei with keen interest.

He thought for a moment before answering, "So I can start with a massive injection of Qi Blood, then slowly taper it off, and stop immediately when I feel the bullet get hot. Am I right?"

Xia Lan nodded. "Come on, try it. Infuse it with your strongest Qi Blood. Don’t worry, I’m watching. Nothing will go wrong."

’That makes sense,’ Yu Fei thought. ’As a Gang Qi Martial Artist, Xia Lan probably wouldn’t even get hurt if she took a direct hit from a level-one super-energy weapon.’

With that, Yu Fei took a deep breath, and his Qi Blood poured into the super-energy bullet like a lake being drained.

Xia Lan was completely unconcerned, cheering him on carelessly. "Don’t worry, it hasn’t even been a minute, you’re fine. Harder! Don’t stop..."

As she spoke, Yu Fei suddenly felt an intense sense of threat from the bullet in his hand. It hadn’t gotten hot yet, but his "Insight" ability had already detected the danger.

Yu Fei quickly tossed the bullet to Xia Lan, shouting in alarm, "It’s gonna blow!"

Xia Lan frowned as she caught the bullet, looking at him with exasperation.

"You coward. It’s only been a moment, how could it...? Fuck, it really is going to blow!"

She suddenly realized something was wrong. Her Gang Qi erupted instantly, and just as the azure Qi Jin enveloped the bullet in her hand, a BOOM was heard. Xia Lan’s body trembled, the waves unceasing, and a trickle of blood actually flowed from the corner of her mouth.

Yu Fei stood to the side, awkwardly wanting to speak but not knowing what to say. ’Isn’t she in the Gang Qi Realm? How did she get hurt?’

"Are... are you okay?!"

Xia Lan’s brows shot up as she snapped, "Do I look okay to you?"

He was a little confused. "But aren’t you in the Gang Qi Realm?"

This only made Xia Lan angrier. "Fuck! I *am* in the Gang Qi Realm! I could take this bullet to the face and be fine! But there’s a little third-realm rookie here, so I had to use all my power to contain the blast. Otherwise, if a stray piece of shrapnel hit you, I’d have to scrape you back together! Hmph!"