97: Chapter 97 Thunderous Gun

Wang Shouren stared at the items in front of him for a long time, still unable to make a decision.

Sword. His qingfeng sword had shattered long ago. Although this type of sword was already a Medium Grade Magical Artifact and could be retrieved from the clan at any time, its grade was somewhat falling behind his cultivation.

Similarly, swords lean towards agility. With the strength he currently possessed after initially forming his Fierce Thunder True Body, every time he held a sword, he felt the awkwardness of an adult holding a child's chopsticks.

A single punch could shatter half a mountain, but a single sword thrust required him to cautiously restrain his strength, fearing the blade wouldn't be able to bear it.

Saber. It was too short and close-range. Given his sweeping and uninhibited fighting style, he would have to retract the saber intent before it was fully spent, preventing him from unleashing his full potential.

A heavy sword was heavy enough, but heavy swords focused mainly on slashing and hacking, lacking the decisive penetrating power that could settle an issue in a single strike.

What he practiced was Fierce Thunder, and he walked a path of sheer might and dominance. What he needed was penetrating power to shatter the enemy in a single blow, not a protracted melee of exchanging moves back and forth.

He needed a long weapon. A long weapon that would allow him to pour out his Fierce Thunder True Intent without reservation.

He closed his eyes, and ancient weapon manuals he had seen in his past life flashed through his mind.

The spear was the king of a hundred weapons, capable of parrying, thrusting, sweeping, and smashing. An inch longer meant an inch stronger; it possessed the advantages of a long weapon while also being able to unleash sweeping and uninhibited force.

Especially with a thrusting spear, twisting the waist to deliver force, power rising from the ground and penetrating straight into the spearhead, slamming into the enemy's embrace with both man and spear.

With this single spear thrust, who in the same realm would dare to take it head-on?

That was it.

He opened his eyes, picked up a snake fang from the table, and weighed it in his hand.

This fang was pitch-gold throughout, with a root as thick as a child's arm and a tip as fine as a wheat awn. It was a natural embryo for a spearhead.

The other one was slightly shorter, just right for the counterweight at the spear's tail.

For the main material needed for the spear shaft, he chose adamantine, hard, heat-resistant, and capable of enduring the repeated scouring of thunder power without cracking.

He would then run thunder-attribute array patterns through the spear shaft to guide the power of the Fierce Thunder into the spearhead.

When this spear thrust down, it would possess both the penetrating power of a Cultivator of thunder and the savage strength of a Body Cultivator.

He spread out paper and brush, and began drawing diagrams by the candlelight.

The spear was one zhang and two chi long, with the snake fang as the main body of the spearhead, supplemented by cutting edges ground from adamantine. It was double-edged, capable of both thrusting and sweeping.

The spear shaft was polished entirely from adamantine, as thick as a child's arm, with a groove in the middle section embedded with a fire marrow crystal, and covered on the outside with a thin layer of snake bone fragments for protection.

The spear tail was capped with the other snake fang, serving both as a counterweight and as a short dagger when reversed during close-quarters combat.

Finishing the final stroke from spearhead to spear tail, he put down the brush, picked up the blueprint, scrutinized it against the candlelight for a moment, and nodded with satisfaction.

Then, he fished out a transmission talisman from his Storage Pouch and sent a message to Wang Yaowu.

"Third Uncle, I need you to help me find someone to refine a Magical Artifact..."

A month later, Wang Yaowu personally delivered the spear to Wang Shouren's quiet room.

"Shouren, you really are generous. Any one of those two Tier 2 snake fangs could be exchanged for a High Grade Magical Artifact, but look at you, you used both on a single spear."

Wang Yaowu thumped the long spear wrapped in a dark-colored spear bag against the ground. The spear tail struck the bluestone slab, producing a muffled sound of metal and stone.

"That being said, the quality of this spear is truly exceptional. Even that Artifact Refining Great Master from the Hundred Treasures Pavilion said this was the best batch of Tier 2 Materials he has handled in all these years."

Wang Shouren took the spear bag, and it felt heavy the moment it touched his hands.

Untying the cord and pulling off the dark spear sheath, a dark golden cold flash swept across the spearhead, causing the candlelight in the entire quiet room to dim momentarily.

The spear was one zhang and two chi long, dark gold throughout. The spearhead was polished from a snake fang, double-edged, with faint red fire patterns circulating across the blade.

The spear shaft used adamantine as its main body, as thick as a child's arm, with a fist-sized fire marrow crystal embedded in the middle section, emitting a faint red glow under the candlelight.

The spear tail was capped with the other slightly shorter snake fang, which could be used as a short dagger when reversed.

The hand gripping the spear tightened slightly, and a very subtle tingling sensation came from where his knuckles met the spear shaft.

That was the instinctive response of the thunder-attribute array patterns upon sensing the Fierce Thunder Spiritual Qi within his body.

"Third Uncle has extensive connections; this time we owe it all to Third Uncle."

Wang Shouren's gaze could not leave the spear in his hand. His fingers slowly stroked across the spear body, feeling the adamantine surface, which had been repeatedly polished until smooth as a mirror, as well as the extremely fine and meticulous array pattern incisions around the embedded fire marrow crystal, "What grade is this spear?"

Wang Yaowu leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed, a teasing smile on his face: "Why don't you try it yourself and find out?"

Wang Shouren asked no more questions, took a deep breath, and the scarlet-gold thunder light around his body suddenly flared brightly.

The surging Fierce Thunder Spiritual Qi poured into the spear shaft along his arms, and the fire marrow crystal in the middle section of the shaft suddenly lit up, illuminating the entire spear like a glowing red-hot branding iron.

The adamantine spear shaft trembled slightly under the scouring of this Spiritual Qi, yet showed no signs of cracking at all.

The thunder-attribute array patterns actually directed all the excess thunder power toward the spearhead, condensing it into a flickering scarlet-gold spear radiance.

Wherever the spear radiance passed, the air was ionized into a blinding purple-white color, emitting crackling explosions.

"Top Grade Magical Artifact!" Brilliant light burst forth in Wang Shouren's eyes, and his voice involuntarily raised a few notches, "Third Uncle, this is a Top Grade Magical Artifact!"

Wang Yaowu laughed heartily, patted the dust off his knees, and stood up.

"I pulled a few strings and invited an Artifact Refining Great Master from the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to personally wield the hammer."

"With Tier 2 snake fangs as the main material, adamantine for the spear shaft, and fire marrow crystal as the array core, such a configuration, if put out there, would be enough to serve as a natal Magical Artifact for a Foundation Establishment Cultivator."

"That Great Master said the foundation of this spear is too good; he merely went with the flow and finally did not disgrace those two snake fangs you traded your life for. Refine it well and do not let it down."

After Wang Yaowu left, Wang Shouren sat cross-legged, placed the long spear horizontally across his knees, placed both hands over the spear shaft, and began repeatedly refining it with his essential blood and Fierce Thunder Spiritual Qi.

Refining a Top Grade Magical Artifact was not a task to be accomplished overnight, but he had plenty of patience.

Right at this moment, a violent fluctuation of Spiritual Qi suddenly came from the direction of the back mountain.

At first, that fluctuation was only a faint tremor, but within a few breaths, it surged violently, as if someone had crushed a giant Spirit Stone in the back mountain.

The Spiritual Qi of the entire quiet room was surging backward toward the back mountain, and the window lattices rattled noisily, caught in the current of Spiritual Qi.

Wang Shouren abruptly opened his eyes, pushed open the window, and looked out. Above the dome of the seclusion chamber in the back mountain, a pale golden pillar of light soared straight into the sky, dyeing the clouds within a radius of several miles into an auspicious pale gold.

That gold was not very intense, far from being as glorious and dazzling as the legendary five-colored auspicious clouds, but in this Three Counties region, it was already an extremely rare phenomenon.

The golden auspicious clouds slowly gathered above the seclusion chamber, churning and flowing as if possessing intelligence, lingering for a long time without dispersing.

Lotus Pier was boiling over.

Wang Yaowen rushed out of the Clan Affairs Hall, forgetting even to put down the account book in his hand, stood under the veranda looking at the patch of golden auspicious clouds in the back mountain, and his lips trembled for a long time.

"This, this is..."