The man scratched his head again while being at a loss for words. He had heard the old men from the village talk about Gu Zun often but he didn’t know much. He was aware that Gu Zun was an extraordinary character at Heaven Suppression and the old men were very vigilant about this person.

“Go and get some incense.” Li Qiye ordered the dazed man.

He calmed down and hurriedly grab an incense stack and lit it up before handing it to Li Qiye. Li Qiye accepted them with both hands and worshiped the tablets ahead, especially the ones without names.

He finally placed the stack of incense into the burner. Smoke slowly curled like a landscape painting, ethereal and mysterious. The middle-aged man was surprised to see this. In the past, the villagers would also worship their ancestors on the right date with incense sticks. However, no one has ever had smoke turning into a painting like this before.

It was too vivid with trickling streams and branches swaying to the wind. The cattle and sheep were on the move… In a short period, all of the things in the painting seemed to be coming alive.

“Phew!” Li Qiye blew towards the painting and the smoke engulfed the front row of tablets. They lit up with animated runes that eventually flew out of the tablets.

The runes floated in the sky gathered into a sphere to the astonishment of the man. Despite growing up in the village, he never knew about this unbelievable secret in this place.

The formation of a sphere was greeted with the opening of Li Qiye’s palaces. A law shot out like an arrow and pierced through the runic creation.

“Boom!” This sphere resembling a transparent leather ball being shot. All the runes fell down like water everywhere.

This surprised the man. He wondered why Li Qiye shot through this sphere.

“Rumble!” Splashing noises came about. A golden spring suddenly surged from the earth.

He looked closely at the ground to see if there was a crack. The temple was paved with tiles but there was no gap on the ground. This golden spring was coming out of thin air.

The current was pushing something up. It was also made from bronze with a strange shape. It looked like a gunstock with a handle and trigger.

At the very least, the man had never seen something like it before.

Li Qiye smiled and grabbed the object. With a loud blast, the golden spring fell to the ground and disappeared without leaving a single bead behind as if nothing has happened. The man found it to be unbelievable.

Li Qiye then took out the Netherlord Hexagear Launcher and attached the barrel-like object. With a clicking sound, the two locked together. Now he finally had the complete launcher in his possession.

It looked just like a bizarre pistol with an unreasonably large barrel. [1]

“Click! Click! Click!” The gears inside the weapon began to turn. After a certain extent, the six larger chambers slowly moved as well with a rhythmic and magical sound like a musical instrument.

“Such miraculous technology that isn’t available in our epoch.” Li Qiye said with emotions while holding the weapon.

The materials alone were shocking but the casting process was incredible as well. The technology behind its creation was completely different from the rest of the world.

Such art didn’t exist in this particular epoch since it came from the most technologically advanced Machine World. Li Qiye was the only one who knew about it now after a long period of accumulation and research.

This weapon was its highest culmination, at least in Li Qiye’s eyes.

The middle-aged man was surprised to hear the clicking gears: “What, what is this treasure?”

“Netherlord Hexagear Launcher, the supreme weapon.” Li Qiye smiled happily. After so many years, the complete version was finally out.

Meanwhile, the man didn’t expect for their temple to be hiding this treasure. It seemed that it was waiting for Li Qiye to come and take it.

“The world has never seen a destructive weapon of this magnitude.” He commented while patting his weapon.

He was quite excited at this moment and wanted to try the power of this weapon. Of course, he needed to meet a worthy foe first or it would be too wasteful.

After all, there were only six shots. Because of this, he wouldn’t use this precious weapon until he meets a worthy foe.

“I hope someone in the nine worlds will be worthy enough for me to test it before I leave.” He thought to himself while grinning.

The middle-aged man didn’t know Li Qiye but he was creeped out by this smile from Li Qiye.

In the end, he put away the weapon and left.

The man closed the gate and quickly chased after him: “You, you are friend with the goddess? She has mentioned you before.”

“That’s right.” Li Qiye nodded.

The man rubbed his palms awkwardly and didn’t know how to phrase the next line.

Li Qiye glanced at him in response: “Don’t worry, the old men won’t die for now and nothing will happen to Zi Cuining either. Before having absolute control over the situation, Gu Zun will leave himself a path of retreat. He’s not only a fox but also a very cautious one, preparing an escape path after every step.”

“I want to go to the city to take a look at the ancestors but I have to protect the village.” His face grew red with helplessness.

Even if he wasn’t very clever, he still knew that something has happened since the ancestors have been gone for so long. Alas, he couldn’t leave the village and had to anxiously wait here.

“It’s no use even if you go. Gu Zun isn’t someone a junior like you can deal with. Don’t worry, since I’m here, I’ll take care of it.” Li Qiye gently shook his head.

The man heaved a sigh of relief. Despite not knowing Li Qiye, he has heard the goddess talk about him before so he was confident.

He then asked: “Just how powerful is Gu Zun?”

Gu Zun was a popular topic in the village. Each time talking about Gu Zun, the ancestors became very cautious so Gu Zun left a deep impression on him.

“Not just strong.” Li Qiye chuckled and stared towards the distance: “His talent is incredible, only better than the Black Dragon King, not worse. I’m afraid few can be his match in the present day due to this.”

1. This is a rare moment when the author describes with modern terms. Even the mecha world didn’t have modern terms outside of gears. Also, I’m glad I didn’t name it a cannon or tube since it’s a pistol, launcher was ambiguous enough for me not to go back and fix it yet still sound relatively okay.