Chapter 322: War is Expensive!
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.
Liu Guang and Fogan also sniffed it. Upon catching the pleasant odor of the modern weed, they were tempted to taste it.
However, as soon as Fogan and Liu Guang took the first sip, their faces changed. They paused and circulated their Qi, driving out the toxic substance from the weed tea.
On the other hand, Miaomiao seemed to be enjoying the nostalgic taste without worrying about the toxic.
Ding
[You have obtained a strand of poison element Qi.]
[Your physique and dantian cannot contain the poison element Qi. The Qi will be stored in your backup dantian space.]
Having an assistant in a time like this was nice.
Meanwhile, CJ dropped another surprise bomb.
"Cheaper cartridges? Sure! How about bullets embedded with DU Element Qi!"
Miaomiao almost spat the weed tea when CJ mentioned that DU elements existed in this world.
DU, aka Depleted Uranium, was a byproduct of enriched uranium, which was commonly used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weaponry. In Miaomiao's previous world, this metal was widely used as armor-piercing shells and armor plates.
Although Miaomiao's knowledge in this field was limited, he understood the gravity of this metal. If it existed here, then uranium ore, nuclear reactors, and nuclear weapons might also exist!
He had a scare. He started to become weary of the combination of science and wuxia elements. Had one of the reincarnators or transmigrators invented nuclear technologies here, a nuclear war would be possible.
Seeing Miaomiao's dark expression, CJ burst into laughter.
"Yo, dude. Are you thinking that I own nuclear missiles? That ain't possible. If I have it, I would have shoved a missile down my dao god's ass already."
"Then, by chance, can you use DU element Qi?"
"Damn right! Thanks to my new boss, I've evolved my metal element into DU element recently. Don't worry about nuclear shit. It ain't happening here."
Miaomiao was relieved. At least, nobody was smart enough to make a nuclear warhead yet.
He changed the subject, "DU bullets, how much?"
"One essence cores a piece. How many do you need?"
Miaomiao was surprised, "Isn't that too cheap!? One advanced element bullet for an essence core?"
"Normally, I would have sold for 1,000 cores a piece. But since it's my G, I'll sell you at the 200% cost-price. Well, I still profit a lot even if I sell it for 1 C."
"You're… a nice guy."
"I'm always nice!"
Both men laughed and fist-bumped again. Then, Miaomiao started placing orders.
"I want 2,000 of these rifles and five million DU bullets."
"…"
CJ's face turned solemn. Now, he got serious, "Alright. But the delivery will take time. I only have 500 rifles and two million DU bullets with me. I also need you to pay in full since I need those essence core to fuel my element Qi.
CJ never complained about how Miaomiao procured such wealth or what he wanted to do with those weapons. On the other hand, his only concern was his own abilities to satisfy his customer. The African-American gunsmith started calculating how many days he needed to complete the order.
"Also, I probably need three weeks to make everything. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure. Can you deliver everything to Siren City when you're done? Do I need to come back and pick up the items?"
"Nah. I'll consult with my boss. How about you let my boss place an entrance to the dungeon somewhere near your city?"
The request was tempting since it might be convenient for him to revisit the underground dungeon shop in the future. Still, Miaomiao was concerned about the dungeon master's stance in the worldly affair.
"Will your boss raid the surface world any time soon?"
"Meh, he's either busy playing VDO game shit all day or fucking some sex dolls. He's a NEET through and thorough."
"…"
Although Miaomiao hadn't trusted the dungeon master yet, he believed that he could allow them to place an entrance or a surface shop somewhere near his city.
But for now, Miaomiao had another concern. He thought about a certain clan, who had several flying battleships.
As Miaomiao was aware of the limitations of these rifles, he needed something more to take down those flying battleships.
"By chance, do you have AA guns?"
"Oh? Planning on shooting battleships now?"
"Yeah. Something like that."
"Guess what? I have some!"
CJ walked toward the east wall, which had been decorated with cold weapons. He kicked it, and the wall was flipped over.
After the wall was turned to the opposite side, a new set of shelves appeared.
Instead of appearing as weaponry samples, the shelves held several spatial boxes, which were the safety boxes that could only be opened by their owner.
CJ placed his hand on the box with the label, [AA Weaponry]. Then, he started ejecting big guns from the box to the ground.
WW-II Anti-Air Flak Guns, Self-Propelled Machine Guns, and even 120mm cannons had been placed on display!
Unfortunately, CJ only had guns. He couldn't make modern missiles.
"Can these toys shoot through the battleship array barriers?"
CJ scoffed, "As long as the barrier is man-made, they will eventually run out of energy. Even if it's made by 8th-stage or 9th-stage cultivators, these bad boys can penetrate their anuses easily. I guarantee that those ships won't last a 100 round."
Getting the confirmation that 100 shells from these guns were enough to delete a battleship, Miaomiao was satisfied. He placed his hand on the AA-Machinegun as it might also be useful against flying cultivators.
"How much?"
"These toys are going to be a bit more expensive. Since they are big guns, they come with a big price."
"Just name the price."
"A 1,200,000 essence core a piece. And that's my 120% cost-price."
"You still profit by 20% though."
"I'm a businessman. Even if you're my G, I need to fill my stomach."
"Fair enough."
Miaomiao rubbed his chin as he examined the big toys. However, he was concerned about their shells since they might be more expensive than the guns.
"What about the shells?"
CJ grinned, "10,000 EC a piece."
"…"
The corner of Miaomiao's mouth twitched as he calculated how many essence cores he needed to spend.
War is expensive. His stash might be used up today!
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