Elias Vance, now a being of unimaginable power with a universe-spanning mind and literal stars for fuel, chose to return to the Xianwu Continent not with the warp of a wormhole, but with an almost forgotten pleasure: flight at leisure speed. "Leisure speed," for him, still meant effortlessly exceeding the speed of sound, a silent, graceful dart through the sky that left no sonic boom in its wake, thanks to his refined control over the Law of Wind and Order. He observed the world below with a new appreciation, every atom, every energy signature, every subtle shift in probability now visible to his Quantum Divine Sense (QDS).
He had initially intended to return directly to his chamber, to begin the meticulous design of his new cultivation realms. But as he soared over a lesser-known region of the continent, a sprawling patchwork of green plains and scattered settlements, something drew his attention. Below, a plume of smoke stained the clear sky, accompanied by faint, desperate cries carried on the wind—sounds his upgraded senses effortlessly deciphered, even from miles above.
"Bandits," Elias mused, his vast intellect quickly cross-referencing this phenomenon with the local historical data he'd passively absorbed from the continent's ambient informational field. A common nuisance, typically dealt with by local garrisons or passing cultivators. Not a threat, certainly not to him. Yet, a flicker of curiosity, an echo of his past humanity, prompted him to descend. He wanted to see how the mundane world, the world of simple Qi and basic conflicts, functioned from his new perspective.
He decelerated, becoming a swift, silent shadow falling from the sky. As he drew closer, the scene unfolded with a brutal clarity. A small, walled town was under siege, crude bandit formations clashing with disorganized townsfolk and a handful of exhausted Qi practitioners. Fire licked at thatched roofs, and the air filled with the clamor of steel and the shouts of desperation.
Elias prepared to observe, perhaps intervene subtly if the townsfolk were truly on the brink. He could end this entire skirmish with a casual thought, a minor application of the Law of Entropy to rust their blades, or the Law of Fear to send them screaming. But he held back, preferring to analyze.
Then he saw it. And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Elias Vance, the axiom incarnate, felt a genuine flicker of surprise.
Amidst the chaos, a lone figure stood her ground at the town's central plaza, facing down a charging group of burly bandits. It was a woman, perhaps in her late twenties, dressed in practical, leather-armored clothing. In her hands, she held not a sword, not a staff, not even a talisman.
She held a gun.
It wasn't a crude black-powder firearm he dimly remembered from Earth's ancient history. This was sleek, metallic, adorned with faint, intricate Qi runes that glowed with a subtle, internal light. It hummed with a low-frequency spiritual resonance that his QDS immediately picked up as a highly refined Qi conduit.
The bandits charged, shouting. The woman calmly aimed. There was no elaborate spellcasting, no dramatic Qi burst from her body. Just a crisp, percussive CRACK!
A blinding flash erupted from the barrel. A bolt of raw, concentrated Qi, spiraling with visible energy, shot forth. It wasn't fast enough to escape Elias's perception—he saw every photon, every compressed Qi particle—but it was far, far faster than any mundane projectile. The leading bandit, a hulking brute, didn't even have time to scream. The Qi bolt struck him square in the chest, not with an explosion, but with a sudden, violent implosion. His chest cavity collapsed inward with a sickening crunch, and he dropped like a stone, lifeless.
The other bandits faltered, shock momentarily replacing their bloodlust. This was not the kind of "cultivator's magic" they were used to.
"A Qi gun," Elias whispered, a genuine, unadulterated fascination blooming in his mind. His eyebrows, now perfectly arched by his bodily sublimation, rose almost imperceptibly. "Well, I'll be damned. Someone else here is thinking with a modicum of mechanical engineering."
This wasn't just a surprise; it was a revelation. In a world dominated by traditional cultivation, to see such a clear application of scientific principles, albeit rudimentary ones compared to his own, was utterly captivating. It meant he wasn't entirely alone in his approach. It meant there was potential for cross-disciplinary intellectual exchange.
He descended further, hovering silently, invisibly, just above the rooftops, his QDS now focused entirely on the woman and her remarkable weapon. He analyzed the Qi flow within the gun: a complex, multi-stage compression array, energized by a small, integrated spirit stone, converting raw Qi into a highly focused, kinetic energy projectile. It was crude, inefficient by his standards, but undeniably effective. It bypassed the need for innate spiritual roots or years of meditative cultivation, allowing a person with basic Qi understanding and mechanical skill to wield devastating power.
The woman, however, was clearly not just a mechanic. Her own Qi flow, while not on par with a sect elder, was substantial, indicating a genuine cultivation base. She was a hybrid, a bridge between two worlds.
He watched as she fired again, the glowing Qi bolt striking another bandit's arm, cleanly severing it with surgical precision. Her movements were economic, her aim true, clearly the result of extensive training. She wasn't just relying on the gun; she was a combatant, augmenting her skills with technology.
A flicker of genuine intrigue sparked within Elias. This wasn't just a bandit raid anymore. This was an unexpected tangent, a new data point in the complex equation of this world. His original plan was to design new realms. But perhaps a brief detour was in order. He had just harvested a hundred stars; he could afford a few moments of curiosity.
"A Qi gun," he repeated, a slow, predatory smile spreading across his face. "This could be... interesting."
The cosmic engineer had found a new, unexpected project. And for a being who had just communed with the universe's fundamental truths, a gun, even one powered by Qi, was a marvel of the mundane, a delightful anomaly in a world he thought he had completely understood. He remained hidden, observing, calculating. The slice of life had just gotten a lot more intriguing.