Chapter 563: Shortcomings

Thirty years later.

"Finally completed."

Yan Buji let out a breath; refining such a complex Accumulation Device for the first time truly strained his mind.

Discussing Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun Accumulation Devices sounds simple, but the many aspects involved make it hard for Yan Buji to define a scope.

For example, things like kill range and recoil—who would consider such things when using an ordinary Accumulation Device?

Thus Yan Buji got stuck on the most crucial point: his original aim in designing the Accumulation Device was to rely on the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun for firepower coverage, not to boost his own spell strength.

Consequently, he needed a result that was stable, efficient, with a wide kill range, low burden, and low error rate to meet his needs.

But with so many demands, it was naturally impossible to develop it easily and quickly.

Thus Yan Buji also borrowed some wisdom from Spirit Gun craftsmanship, integrating it into his design, even copying some parts verbatim, which completed the design of the Accumulation Diagram.

Over these thirty years, he was stuck at the material stage; the material strength couldn't keep up with the strength he envisioned, so he spent many years in trial and error, finally finding a relatively suitable ratio to craft the components.

After the components were refined, Yan Buji had a large number of finished Accumulation Device parts laid out before him—counting them came to thirty or forty.

"Next is the sealing and refining process, but since this is to be mounted on armor, it isn't as large as an ordinary Spirit Cannon."

Yan Buji picked up the barrel; this barrel is four meters long and half a meter in diameter, and the ammunition he designed allows two firing modes: collapsing his own spiritual power or loading ammunition.

First, it's mainly for convenience—if ammunition and spiritual power are sufficient, it can keep firing; but since he hasn't truly refined it to see this Spirit Cannon's maximum limit, Yan Buji finds it hard to judge.

Of course, he doesn't demand that the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun be capable of killing opponents; merely suppressing them is enough.

In cultivator duels, as long as spiritual sense isn't exhausted, one cannot dodge a straight‑line attack; although the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun have decent power, their lack of variation prevents them from being decisive.

Therefore, in duels one still has to rely on the potency of spells and abilities.

With that thought, Yan Buji began the sealing and refining process; after simultaneously completing the refinement of the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun, it was already the thirty‑fifth year since his return to the Youming Realm.

In the blink of an eye, Yan Buji is nearly four hundred years old.

Fortunately, his lifespan is sufficient to support breaking through to late Golden Core, even Nascent Soul; however, it's clear that pill and artifact refinement truly consumes both time and resources.

"Completed!"

Looking at the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun in his hands, their structure differs somewhat from those produced in the West Sand River Basin. Yan Buji's Spirit Cannon takes the components mounted on armor as the primary focus for refinement, so at the barrel and launcher positions he must add fitting parts to match the armor, placing them on the mutated bone for reasonable contraction. Overall, although the barrel is very long, when adding the armor's thickness the protruding section of barrel should be about one and a half meters.

Next is the Spirit Gun; its structure is simpler, lacking the many parts of the Spirit Cannon. Although mounted on the shoulder it looks asymmetrical compared to the Spirit Cannon, Yan Buji designed it for rapid continuous fire, which is not difficult.

"Let's go test it."

Thinking, Yan Buji left his cave dwelling, heading away from the Dragon Scale Tribe's direction to a dark mountainous area.

Yan Buji held the Spirit Gun in his left hand, lifted the Spirit Cannon in his right, gathered his spiritual power and infused it into them, beginning the test!

Bang bang bang!

Boom—boom—boom!!

As the Spirit Gun and Spirit Cannon ammunition poured out, the spot a hundred meters ahead was directly blown into a large crater, startling birds and beasts to scatter in all directions.

Yan Buji nodded, standing on the mountaintop observing the distant devastation.

"In terms of power, it's already on par with a Golden Core cultivator's spell might, though there is room for improvement—but the cost is not small." Yan Buji frowned.

These two finished Accumulation Devices have undergone Fourfold Transformation, yet they wasted so much time and resources, yielding an effect merely comparable to a Golden Core cultivator's spells; strictly speaking, this is somewhat of a loss.

However, the advantage is that by blasting spiritual‑power ammunition from the Spirit Gun and Spirit Cannon, he need not cast spells himself, and it can provide large‑scale firepower coverage, equivalent to several Golden Core cultivators casting spells simultaneously.

Although it poses no threat to Nascent Soul cultivators, Golden Core cultivators definitely cannot withstand it.

But whether it's worth it....

Yan Buji feels it's acceptable; at least he cannot now match a Nascent Soul cultivator's combat power in spiritual power, and in most situations he still relies on his Martial Dao cultivation to deal with enemies.

But Yan Buji insists on Magical Cultivation, because only through it can he experience so many interesting things; Martial Cultivation is utterly boring. All day of fighting and killing is meaningless; better to study pill and elixir refinement, which can also extend lifespan.

"If one wanted to increase power, it wouldn't be hard, but it would likely require refining Celestial Material for elevation, which would make the cost prohibitively high." Yan Buji sighed.

For an ordinary cultivator, gathering such resources would be impossible; yet those who possess such resources must also consider whether they suit them.

Moreover, there are the series of problems concerning cost, resources, time, and so on.

In short, the Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun have sufficient power but lack versatility; they can only serve as fire suppression or strike targets that basically lack wisdom, and only then can their effect be maximized.

Yet at the same time, spending so much time to forge an Accumulation Device whose ability to hit enemies is uncertain—this is a matter of differing perspectives.

However, Yan Buji does quite like it; after all, he has been alone for a long time, repeatedly falling into sieges, and each time he has endured by sheer grit.

But with the Spirit Gun and Spirit Cannon, at least the firepower gap can be filled.

Even if a cultivator casts spells with great speed, the rate at which my Spirit Cannon and Spirit Gun fire ammunition is not slow; at worst, we can exchange volleys for a while.

Afterwards, Yan Buji also tested stability and how long the maximum output could be sustained.

Thanks to the Spiritual Material Yan Buji chose and his decades of painstaking research, the Spirit Gun can sustain full‑power output for an hour, equivalent to discharging tens of thousands of bullets in that time!

Of course, the spiritual power consumed is not something Yan Buji can currently bear.

The Spirit Cannon can at most sustain full‑power output for half an hour, during which it can fire more than three thousand rounds of ammunition.

"If we don't use spiritual power as ammunition, manufacturing bullets and shells would also be a costly headache." Yan Buji sighed.

To produce bullets and shells, that would indeed be a long‑term huge drain.