Chapter 322: War is Expensive! (1/2)
Miaomiao's group reached their destination safely. However, they were shocked by the state of the imperial city.
The glorious town, skyscrapers, and ancient-style wooden houses had been destroyed and burnt to crisp. Only ruined structures, broken bricks, debris of concrete, and charcoal remained.
”Who the hell did this!?” Liu Guang was speechless. She had been looking forward to seeing her hometown once again, but the ruins shocked her.
”That's probably the Yuan Clan or one of his allies. Since they are shamelessly framing us, they should be the culprit.”
”…”
Miaomiao patted Liu Guang's back and grabbed her hand, soothing her.
After a few minutes of sightseeing, Miaomiao led the group to the imperial palace, looking for the underground entrance. As he knew only one entrance to the dungeon, he revisited the summer palace.
Upon arrival, everyone was greeted by the shining palace. Liu Guang looked away and covered herself under a thick cloak by reflex as she hated bright places.
”You're becoming vampire-like, Guang'er.”
”But I'm a vampire! I hate light!”
Miaomiao laughed. This little vampire was too cute, and he had the urge to prank her.
Meanwhile, Fogan only glanced at the girl and sighed. Had he met this girl several months ago, he would have torn her clothes and ravished her on the spot. Now, lustful thought no longer existed in his mind.
As Fogan was worried about Liu Xuande's gang, he urged Miaomiao, ”Let's hurry. We don't have the luxury time for sightseeing. We need whatever weapons and armors we can get.”
”Ah, that's right. Let's hurry. But before that, do you have a spatial ring with you?”
Fogan tilted his head, wondering why Miaomiao asked for a spatial ring, ”This monk has three rings. One stores my battle gears, healing spring water, and cultivation resources. Another one is for the daily life supplies, and the other ring is a spare. Do you need a spare ring?”
”Ah, no. Well, before we dive into the underground dungeon, can you tear this palace apart and collect every piece of jewelry, gemstones, and shiny objects in this palace?”
”…”
”…”
Liu Guang and Fogan were speechless again. At a critical time like this, Miaomiao still thought about looting the palace for worthless gemstones.
As Fogan was about to retort, Miaomiao pointed at the gemstone on the ceiling, ”Most of these gemstones are worthless and useless for us. However, I'm an alchemist. Jia Wenhe and Ju Shoufen are also experts in alchemy. We can enchant and refine these gemstones with our Qi and create artifact accessories. So… you know what to do.”
Fogan's eyes brightened when he heard that Miaomiao could create artifacts. He smiled, ”This monk understands.”
Fogan flashed, leaving behind an afterimage. He began dissembling the summer palace, collecting every gemstone into his spare spatial ring.
Every second, a portion of the palace disappeared as if it had been deleted. The orc also displayed his fist techniques, crushing walls, ceilings, floors, and pillars that he came across.
After five minutes, the grand summer palace, which was bigger than a soccer stadium, turned into a ruined concrete house.
”Done!”
”That's fast.”
”Haha! This monk is efficient! Here are the gemstones, junior Mao,” Fogan passed the ring to Miaomiao.
”Keep the ring with you for now. Follow me.”
Miaomiao led the group toward the ex-emperor's chamber, which had already been reduced to an empty concrete pavement.
…
The entrance passage was still there. Miaomiao followed the same path and got to the maze.
However, as soon as he entered the maze, the room trembled and a stone tablet emerged from the ground.
On the giant tablet, golden words shone.
[Welcome back, my dear guest. I see that you've brought escorts. Well, that doesn't matter. What can I do for you today?]
Miaomiao got to the point, ”I would like to purchase your [Wares], preferably high-quality weapons and armors.”
A new set of gold words replaced the old ones on the stone tablet.
[Ah! A customer! Welcome, welcome!]
Rumble
The maze trembled again. Then, the room that Miaomiao and others were in changed.
Walls sunk into the ground, and new walls descended from the ceiling. On the shelves, extended from the new walls, decorated with guns, rifles, bullet-proof vests, plate mails, leather armors, cold weapons, and grenades, glittered in rainbow light as if they were ultra-rare items from gacha games.
Fogan and Liu Guang's jaws dropped as they had never seen modern weaponry before. As for Miaomiao, he was excited to see modern guns and grenades again.
”THIS IS SICK! YEEHAW!!”
A blue door manifested on the ceiling and a cultivator entered the room.
He was CJ!
”CJ, my man!”
Miaomiao was delighted to see CJ again.
CJ laughed and fist-bumped with Miaomiao, ”What's good my G! So, you're here for my boomsticks?”
”Damn straight! Which one can you recommend if I want to kill several 7th-stage and 8th-stage cultivators?”
”WHOA, you are up for some firework so soon? Here, check these bad boys.”
CJ pointed at the north wall section, where several .50 caliber machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and rocket launchers were displayed. He picked up a rifle and showed it to Miaomiao.
”This is Johnson-M82. It's a semi-automatic and anti-material rifle. Even the shittiest cultivator can use it with a week of training. I've modified it from the modern version and added an element crystal socket in there, just in case you want to add elemental properties to your bullets.”
Miaomiao inspected the rifle. He held it and felt the weight, which was as light as a feather due to his current strength and physique.
”Can it kill an 8th-stage cultivator?”
”Yo paranoid shit! You fucked a gangster's daughter or something!?”
”Uh, sort of. The Yuan Clan wants me dead.”
CJ raised his eyebrows, being surprised by the sudden news. As he was still Yuan Hua's vessel, he wondered whether helping Miaomiao was a good idea.
Fortunately, she hadn't communicated or sent an agent to contact him, and CJ didn't like the clan. He chuckled and brought out several brown steel boxes.
Inside the boxes, 12.7mm shells leaked a strange aura, similar to 8th-stage cultivators. They were the bullets, which could be used with Johnson Rifle in Miaomiao's hands.
”That boomstick alone can't kill any 8th-stage monster, but these little guys do!” CJ picked up a bullet, ”These bullet heads are made of soul stones. As long as you can put a cap on their heads, they're done!”
Miaomiao's face twitched. If he remembered correctly, the cheapest soul stone cost a million essence cores. Using these bullets might be the same as throwing his money away.
But to be sure, he asked for the price tag.
”How much do the rifle and the bullets cost? I meant, these bullets.”
”The rifle is 1,000 essence cores. A 10-cartridge box will cost you one soul stone.”
In short, one shell would cost Miaomiao 100,000 essence cores! Still, it was cheap if he could assassinate Liu Bei's brothers with these bullets.
”Let's put this rifle and 10 special shells on my shopping cart. By the way, do you have cheaper shells? Something weaker and cheaper, but enough to kill 7th-stage cultivators.”
As Miaomiao said that, CJ gave him, Fogan, and Liu Guang cups of tea with a leaf on top. Miaomiao unhesitatingly sniffed the leaf as if he had longed for it before he started sipping the marijuana tea.