Having many children brings many blessings; the struggle for power begins with marriage.

After Lu Chen became emperor, his daily life was basically the same. Except for the day of court assembly, he spent his days in the imperial study dealing with official documents. Occasionally, he would ask Bai Qingqing to help him relax. In the evening, he would cultivate relationships with his wives and concubines, and the next day he would repeat the same routine.

After leaving Linglong Palace, Lu Chen went to the Imperial Study to handle government affairs.

Upon entering the Imperial Study, Lu Chen opened the system interface to check the rewards the system had given him the previous night.

[Explosive Rune (Low-Tier): Used to create rune weapons; its power is doubled when combined with firearms.]

Upon seeing the description of the Explosive Rune, Lu Chen instantly realized something and immediately took out the God-Slaying Spear from his system space.

The God-Slaying Spear has many runes on its shaft, and its great power is inseparable from these runes.

Once runes are added to firearms, their power will increase many times over. Perhaps they can be used to deal with Grandmasters and Celestials?

This……

Lu Chen frowned. He wasn't happy about the reward. He suddenly realized that system rewards often consisted of things that he might need in the near future.

The fact that the system is rewarding such a powerful item means that there will be large-scale invaders in this world, which is why this world needs to develop rune weapons.

It seems that Yun Xianxian's prophecy was correct; the restrictions on the Misty World will soon disappear.

They need to prepare in advance.

At this moment, Lu Chen said to Bai Qingqing at the door, "Xiao Bai, have someone call Mo Xing over. I need to talk to him."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen planned to quickly have people learn how to inscribe explosive runes and then create new weapons. Only in this way could they deal with the invasion of those enemies in the Misty World.

At this moment, Lu Chen said to the female guard at the door, "Have the Embroidered Uniform Guard prepare some ordinary firearms."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Not long after, Mo Xing appeared in the imperial study. "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty!"

Upon seeing Mo Xing arrive, Lu Chen immediately stood up from his chair and said to Mo Xing, "I am preparing to research new weapons, so I have a task for you."

Upon hearing this, Mo Xing was taken aback for a moment. After realizing what was happening, he bowed again and said, "Your Majesty, this humble subject will certainly not disappoint you!"

Lu Chen walked towards the door, saying as he went, "Follow me to the training ground."

The palace has several training grounds. Lu Chen arrived at a relatively secluded training ground, where the Imperial Guards brought over the prepared muskets.

The Imperial Guards knew that Lu Chen wanted to test his gun, so they had even prepared targets, both dead and live targets.

Mo Xing was puzzled when he saw a large box of muskets in the training ground. These were just ordinary muskets, so what did they have to do with new weapons?

Lu Chen then picked up a musket and began to inscribe explosive runes according to the knowledge transmitted to him by the system.

However, Lu Chen soon discovered a problem: although he had drawn the explosive runes according to the knowledge transmitted to him by the system, the problem was still caused by the system.

However, if the explosive rune is engraved on the gun body, the user will need to use more spiritual power to activate the explosive rune.

At this moment, Lu Chen realized that the Explosion Rune was different from the Rune on the God-Slaying Spear. The God-Slaying Spear itself used spiritual power as a means of killing, so it needed to gather spiritual power in the spear body.

Since the killing method of ordinary firearms is bullets, the explosion runes should be engraved on the bullets.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen raised his hand and retrieved several bullets from a distance. Then he began to inscribe explosive runes on the bullets.

After the bullets were engraved with explosive runes, Lu Chen loaded them into the musket and aimed them at the target in the training ground.

However, Lu Chen did not immediately pull the trigger of the musket. Instead, he said to the Jinyiwei soldiers on the training ground, "Add more protective gear to those targets."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The Imperial Guard soldiers quickly sprang into action, bringing a considerable amount of armor to surround the target, forming more than a dozen layers in total.

Seeing this, Mo Xing was stunned. He was very curious. The emperor had just touched the musket and bullets and drawn a few strange symbols. How could that increase the power of the musket?

As someone who has received modern physical chemistry knowledge, Mo Xing finds it difficult to understand the underlying principles.

After a while, the Imperial Guard soldiers all left the vicinity of the target, which was now encased in protective gear and shaped like a ball.

It's safe to say that even if we used the Great Xia's cannons, we might not be able to damage the target inside.

Lu Chen then raised the rune-inscribed musket in his hand, aimed at the target, and fired a shot. As Lu Chen pulled the trigger, a bullet flew out of the musket.

Just after the bullet was fired, the runes on it emitted a blue light, and then the surrounding spiritual energy surged into the bullet.

When the bullet made contact with the protective gear, sparks flew instantly. In just a split second, the bullet pierced through all the protective gear and passed through the back of the target.

Keep in mind that there are protective gears behind the targets. It's one thing for a bullet to pass through the front protective gear, but it even passed through the back protective gear. The penetrating power of this bullet is simply terrifying.

Like a regular musket, after being modified into a rune-inscribed musket, its power was even more terrifying than that of the Barrett.

If a Barrett were used, it might be able to damage the target, but it would definitely not be able to penetrate it directly.

At this moment, the bullet was still flying in the other direction, and its speed did not seem to be greatly affected by the target.

Fearing that the bullet might penetrate the training ground's wall and injure others inside the palace, Lu Chen intervened and intercepted it.

However, it took him a lot of effort to stop the bullet.

Lu Chen muttered to himself, "This power is really considerable."

As soon as Lu Chen finished speaking, a system notification sounded in his mind.

[Before using a rune weapon, it needs to be infused with spiritual energy. This test shot by the host did not unleash the full power of the rune musket.]

Upon hearing the system's notification, Lu Chen immediately realized that he had been wondering why the rune, which was clearly called the Explosion Rune, had no "explosion" effect at all. It turned out that there was a problem with how he was using it.

Since that's the case, I'll test it again.

However, this time there's no need to use those targets; we can just use steel plates.

Lu Chen then said to the Jinyiwei soldiers, "Go to the steel mill and prepare some steel plates that are five centimeters thick."

Upon hearing this, the soldiers froze on the spot.

The Jinyiwei soldiers naturally knew how thick five centimeters was, as the Great Xia had long since adopted a new unit of length.

That's five centimeters thick. All their current weapons, even muskets, and even grandmasters, would find it difficult to break through a five-centimeter-thick steel plate.

After regaining his senses, the commander of the Imperial Guards next to Lu Chen immediately said, "Yes, Your Majesty, I will go and make preparations immediately."

Lu Chen suddenly thought of something and continued, "Send those steel plates to the military camp in the south of the city. I will go to the military camp in the south of the city to test fire them."

The palace's training grounds are still a bit too small. If the runic weapons were to unleash their true power, they might easily injure someone. It would be better to practice shooting outside. (End of Chapter)