Thankfully the cave is large enough for me to pull the massive serpent without being crushed under it.
Once the corpse was out, I pulled Creeping Demise and began by skinning the snake. The blade in my hand worked easily as it parted the skin from the flesh. But it still took me the better part of two hours to fully skin the snake. Once I had the skin on one side and the remains of the Snake on another, I decided against discarding this flesh, it might be poisonous to any other cultivator, but for me, it would be a hearty meal.
I kept the rest of the snake and spread the skin on the ground, after a few rounds of cleaning it and removing any excess fat I threw it into boiling water to harden it. It took me a day to wait for the snakeskin to harden enough and be ready for use. And after stretching it a bit and making sure it was in operable condition, I started cutting the skin into a large two-by-one rectangle.
Then I folded bits of it, it until it was shaped like a robe. I wasn't too crazy to try and wear the snakeskin like this, it was still not dry enough and it smelled bad. So I had to wait for it to fully dry.
I also still needed to have a robe needled on top of it. Otherwise, I would look like a barbarian wearing the skin of a foe he just defeated. Hardly a method that one could use to stay inconspicuous.
Then comes the second most important part of this process. Though this snakeskin had a godly defense, it was still just snakeskin, and to make it better. I needed something added to it.
I pulled my brush and began writing on the skin's scales, one scale at a time, the same writing on every scale. And this took an ungodly amount of time, as I was only done by the end of the seventh day. One would think that a few thousand scales was a big number but they'll be hard-pressed to understand the real truth of those words if one tried to inscribe every scale.
Once I was done with my work, the green-colored snake was beautifully decorated in golden writing, inscriptions that were all linked to each other. Hardening, linking, power infusion, power transfer. And lightening. I needed the robe to be as light as possible so it would not be cumbersome but at the same time hard enough to defend against attacks.
After all of the inscriptions were written, I began by writing a single circle in the center of the robe, this circle was not on the scales but on the inside of the skin, This circle will serve as a central mind of the whole robe. Almost like a puppet's mind, but this circle will serve to absorb Qi from the world and power up the scales. As much as I wanted to add a Spirit Stone to the robe, I couldn't find an appropriate way to place a Spirit Stone within my clothes without it bulging and being obvious, also it would be a waste of Spirit Stone, I might as well use the world's natural Qi to charge the robs and have it defend me.
The purer the world's Qi in a given area the stronger the robe's defenses become. While I still made sure to have two small circles in the snake robe's sleeves for Spirit Stones as a precautionary decision. This way, if I'm in an area or a situation where the Spiritual Qi of the world is not enough or lacking, I can still power it using Spirit Stones, backup energy for critical times.
Once the robe was done, I pulled a purple robe I had and began needling it on top of the snake robe, this way the whole thing became one. It looked slightly puffy, but not too puffy, this would look like a thick winter robe at worst.
I wore the robe and was amazed by how light and comfortable it was, though some parts of it were itchy as the leather wasn't too gentle on my brittle skin, I added an interior layer of thin silk to the inside. This made the whole dress feel comfortable and at the same time practical.
Right, the first part is done, now the second part. Offense. A gun, now this was going to take a huge deal of thinking, the mechanism behind a revolver wasn't that difficult and I could easily build one. The problem was, the inscriptions to power up the bullets as I won't be using gunpowder.
So I decided to start crafting a gun with the materials I had, I needed a prototype first, something to use as a point of reference before crafting the final product. I started with using Meteorite Steel, it was a good material to inscribe with, and can sustain reverberations, and didn't need too high temperatures to melt.
I pulled the brass cauldron I got from the emperor and placed pieces of meteorite steel inside it, after lighting hearth fire under the cauldron I began working on a mold.
I didn't need to use Qi to heat up the Dragon Brass Cauldron as I only needed high temperature and not regulated temperature as one needs for pills.
As for the mold casting, I used heated clay.
I began by creating molds for the barrel, handle, the revolver's bullet chamber, and bullet molds. It took me the better part of a day to finish, and thanks to the precision of cultivators' hands it was far easier done than said. It feels like cheating as a cultivator can actually be more precise in creating materials than a machine of the modern world.
Done with molds, I took note of the Dragon Brass cauldron and found that the Meteorite Steel had all melted completely and turned to black tar-like liquid.
I grabbed the cauldron and poured the content into the molds, slowly and surely the molds were full and I only needed to wait for them to cool down.
Another day had passed and everything was ready for me to assemble. I ended up with a weird weapon, it looked like a Desert Eagle combined with a revolver's chamber. The barrel was wide and large and the gun was heavy, and the rotating bullet chamber gave it a dangerous charm. Sweet.
As I didn't need to add any intricate parts inside the gun, thankfully, because I only needed the rotating bullet chamber and the trigger in the gun. The rest of the mechanism will be supervised by the inscriptions.
I then disassembled the weapon and began inscribing it, I needed to inscribe four distinct parts of the weapon.
The first, the handle, this will be where the power source will come from. As I made sure to leave a small hole where a spirit Stone can be safely placed. This was the only gun in the world that will need two types of ammunition. The gun's handle also had a magazine inside it, it was the same you'll find in any modern handgun, a magazine but not for bullets, for spiritual Stones that will be used to power up the bullets since I wasn't going to use any gunpowder.
I inscribed the interior of the gun with a power transfer inscription, a revebration inscription, a focus inscription, and finally a rotation inscription. Since I didn't want the weapon to explode in my face the moment the first bullet is shot, I made sure to write on the barrel, a power regulation inscription that I adjusted to 1% of the total power of the Spirit Stone that will be embedded into the back magazine.
This will allow every spirit stone placed within the gun to fire one hundred bullets before it turns to dust.
Now for the second part, the barrel, along with the power regulation, I added another rotation inscription, to increase bullet rotation as it traveled within the barrel and would give it additional penetration power.
Then a shock control option, as once the bullet would be shot, I needed the excess power, or what one would usually call, 'Recoil' to not be so strong as to dislocate my shoulder. So the recoil will work in an upward manner to forcibly make the gun stand in place once a bullet was shot.
Then came the Revolving Bullet Chamber, I needed a simple inscription there, the moment the trigger is pressed, I needed the chamber to rotate for another bullet to take its place. It wasn't difficult to create.
Now almost everything was ready. The whole gun was capable as of right now of shooting bullets, so before I went and started inscribing the bullets I made, I wanted to test the gun's power with uninscribed bullets.
I took six bullets and placed them in the chamber. Before I took a shot I made sure everything was in place, I had to check and double-check, and even go back on my mental notes to see if I had forgotten something, though a cultivator's mind is sharp and can keep tracks of the most minor of details, it would never hurt if one was careful.
Finding nothing worth my worries and the gun in theoretically operational conditions, I grabbed the gun with both hands, aimed at the wall, and pressed the trigger. Results? My shoulder almost threatened to break as an explosive echo sounded when the spirit stone released but one percent of its total power into the inscriptions.
The inscriptions worked together to create a reverberation and rotation force, a force that pushed the bullet through the barrel which also had another rotating inscription that increased the bullet's penetration and velocity. The bullet, made from Meteorite Steel bore through the stone of the cave as if they were made of tofu, creating a long and deep hole inside the rock.
"Holy mother marry," I called.
Suddenly, X came towards me, then pointed outside, it seems that trouble had come knocking…