Chapter 8: Red Spider Lily (1/2)
Volume 1 – Between Daybreak and Evernight, Chapter 8: Red Spider Lily
From that week onward, a tall, wiry, man that seemed gloomy yet ordinary replaced Zhang Jing on the stage. Big men brought a few heavy, rectangular-shaped metallic boxes into the room. After they were opened, the kids discovered that there were actually several hundred types of firearms within!
“You can call me Shadow,” the man said coldly. That single line was the end of his introduction.
Immediately afterward, Shadow walked to a weapon box and took out two handguns, the models of which looked nearly the same. He raised them, showing them to the kids.
Up close, there were some differences between the two handguns. One of the guns had a barrel that was polished, as bright and smooth as a mirror, whereas the other gun had a barrel that was covered in all sorts of patterns.
“This is a model from the famous Eagle series, the signature weapon of the Empire’s Imperial Frontier Army. It is renowned for its impressive firepower.” While the man spoke, he pointed directly at a wall of the classroom and pulled the trigger of the gun that was as smooth as a mirror.
A loud bang caused a ringing sound to buzz in everyone’s ears, and a deep hole the size of a bowl appeared on the sturdy wall. The damaged frame and foundation were now visible.
Qianye was immediately shocked by its power! If it could do this much damage to a wall, then it would probably be able to open a huge hole in the human body with a single shot. If it struck hands or feet, that one shot would completely destroy them.
“Is this powerful? Of course not!” Shadow’s cold voice rang out.
The other handgun glowed, the patterns on it suddenly lighting up. There was the sound of a slamming hammer and a massive object piercing through the air as the muzzle of the gun discharged a green light at the wall. A sudden crash resounded!
A tremendous blast of air mixed with countless shrapnel struck the kids, preventing them from lifting their heads.
When Qianye lowered his arms that had been protecting his head, he was shocked to discover a huge hole in the limestone and metal frame of the thick wall! The outside scenery was visible through the hole!
Qianye hadn’t realized that this ball of green light would be so powerful!
The man waved the still glowing handgun, saying, “This is a firearm powered with origin power. Its power is unrivaled by common firearms. Just this low grade origin gun has enough firepower to equal a cannon. It was exactly because we had these origin firearms that we were able to beat back those abominable dark race bastards during the War of Daybreak, laying the foundation of the Empire as it exists today!”
Shadow then gave a detailed explanation of the theory behind origin firearms.
Origin firearms and traditional firearms might be similar in appearance, but the theories behind them were completely different. The mechanism used to load gunpowder and bullets was replaced with an energy compression device. The user needed to inject their own origin power and condense it into origin bullets before being able to fire.
While the ammunition capacity of the energy device and firearm materials differed, the firepower of origin firearms obviously differed by a significant amount as well. Some origin firearms were even imbued with powerful special abilities, and only those types of guns were qualified to be counted in the ranks of legendary guns.
There were also guns that stood out among the legendary guns.
There were ten Grand Magnums in the world, and every one of them wielded unparalleled power. Any of the ten Grand Magnums had the ability to turn an entire continent upside down!
For hundreds of thousands of years, there had been countless open and secret conflicts over the ten Grand Magnums, and only god knew how many supreme individuals of peerless talent had died for them. Even then, people continued to relentlessly struggle for them, like an unruly crowd on a wild goose chase.
Three out of the ten Grand Magnums were currently in the human race’s possession, five had fallen into the possession of the dark races, and two were unaccounted for.
From this distribution of the ten Grand Magnums, one could see that the power of the world of elites had been split into three factions: Daybreak, Evernight, and Neutral.
From the beginning of the training camp to the present, this was possibly the most that the class of children had paid attention. Even the children of distinguished families were completely fascinated by the lecture.
Shadow reached out with his hand to open a teaching board, and revealed a stereogram of an ancient, but beautiful handgun.
It was an old, flintlock-style handgun. Its hammer stood vertically behind the barrel of the gun, it was silver white in color, and it was shaped like a ceremonial scepter. The barrel and handle of the gun were covered in gold and were engraved with complex patterns of beautiful flowers. An eye-catching, sanguine flower was on the body of the gun, and its petals spread in every direction like tendrils.
Shadow subconsciously straightened his body and wore an extremely solemn expression on his face. In fact, obvious fanaticism leaked from his face as he enunciated, “This is one of the ten Grand Magnums currently in possession of the human race. Red Spider Lily, also known as the Other Shore Flower, is also the first Grand Magnum that the Empire ever owned.”
Qianye quietly repeated the name, “Red Spider Lily,” several times in his heart. He felt that there was an indescribable sense of mystery and beauty to this name, so he etched it deeply inside of his heart.
A child worked up the courage and asked, “D-does it also have a special ability?”
“Great question!” At this moment, Shadow was completely excited. With a face full of fanaticism he said, “According to the oral legends of the human race, the Red Spider Lily grows on the shore of the Nether River in the Void Abyss. Every time a life vanishes from the world, a small flower blooms on that river’s shore. The Red Spider Lily is capable of igniting the world’s origin power and lighting the star path to the Nether River. That is the ultimate skill known as the ‘Forgotten River!’”
From that week onward, there were three more classes related to origin firearms in Qianye’s schedule. Respectively, they were energy fluid mechanics, gun dismantling and maintenance, and marksmanship.
Qianye’s results sat solidly in the top five of these three classes. This boosted his ranking considerably, enabling him to enter the top fifty in one go. When the results were announced on the weekend, he was in 49th place.
49th place and 51st place were only two numbers apart, yet the difference between them was like the difference between heaven and hell. Qianye already knew that every rank after 50th fell under the disqualification zone. Those who were disqualified from the training camp would only be met with one fate—death.
Monday quickly arrived, and Qianye was incredibly excited when he stepped into the cultivation room. As expected, the black slave placed two portions of Vermillion Countenance Blood inside of the incense burner!
With senses that had grown ten times sharper, Qianye once again experienced the resonation of origin power as if it were a symphony. Using he circulated the Combatant Formula, the origin power inside Qianye’s body began to surge, and each shocking tide seemed larger than the next! Without the Vermillion Countenance Blood, his origin power would have already subsided due to the lack of subsequent strength.