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

Around noon, with the sun high in the sky and scorching the earth, Lu Chen personally arrived at the military camp in the south of the city.

The soldiers in the camp were all curious about what the emperor had come for today, but in order to keep it a secret, Lu Chen did not let the soldiers see him test-firing the rune weapon.

Lu Chen ordered all the soldiers in the southern military camp to stay inside the camp, leaving only the Imperial Guards around him.

In the dense jungle, Lu Chen released his spiritual power to sense the situation of the entire forest. After confirming that there were no outsiders present, he raised the rune-inscribed firearm in his hand and aimed it at a five-centimeter-thick steel plate in the distance.

Lu Chen initially planned to start with one centimeter and gradually increase the test depth, but he thought that since the previous test shot had penetrated so much protective gear, it might not be a big problem to penetrate a steel plate of one or two centimeters, so he decided to go straight for the higher strength.

At this moment, the Jinyiwei soldiers and Mo Xing were both staring intently at the talismanic musket in Lu Chen's hand. They were also eager to know if this special talismanic weapon could penetrate a five-centimeter-thick steel plate.

Lu Chen did not pull the trigger immediately. He felt that the power of the rune weapon should be more powerful than he had imagined.

He then turned to the Imperial Guard soldiers and said, "Retreat another hundred meters."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Chen used a teleportation technique to lead the way, retreating a hundred meters. Seeing Lu Chen retreat, the Imperial Guards soldiers also hurriedly followed suit.

Once Lu Chen sensed that the distance was about right, he channeled his spiritual power into the musket. The next moment, the explosive runes on the musket emitted a blue light.

Immediately afterward, Lu Chen pulled the trigger, and the moment he did, a tremendous recoil came.

Lu Chen is now a pseudo-celestial being, and not just any ordinary pseudo-celestial being. The fact that someone of his level could feel the recoil shows just how powerful this musket is.

The next moment, the bullet flew out of the muzzle and began to absorb the faint spiritual energy around it. In an instant, the bullet collided with the five-centimeter-thick steel plate in the distance.

The moment the bullet collided with the steel plate, the explosive rune's properties kicked in, causing the bullet to explode violently, bursting out in a burst of blue light.

The range of the blue light wasn't very large, but the steel plate was instantly shattered into pieces.

Everyone present was stunned by what they saw. That was a five-centimeter-thick steel plate, and it had shattered just like that.

This rune weapon is incredibly powerful!

After regaining his senses, Lu Chen immediately said to the Jinyiwei soldiers, "Add another steel plate, and overlap the two steel plates."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's order, the Jinyiwei soldiers snapped out of their shock and quickly set to work, placing two more five-centimeter-thick steel plates at a distance.

After the soldiers retreated, Lu Chen prepared to pull the trigger, only to discover that cracks had appeared on the gun.

This……

Lu Chen immediately understood what was going on. After inputting spiritual power, the pressure on the gun body was too great, and the materials used to make the gun were not strong enough.

To mass-produce rune weapons, stronger materials are needed, but the steel they are currently using is already the strongest available.

We'll probably have to wait for advancements in technology to find other materials.

Seeing that Lu Chen hesitated to pull the trigger, Mo Xing looked at Lu Chen. Lu Chen then seemed to remember something and asked, "Did we thicken the barrels of the muskets we initially manufactured due to material limitations?"

When the muskets were first manufactured, the steel was not strong enough, so the craftsmen thickened the gun barrel and the internal parts, making the weight of one gun almost exceed that of a small mortar.

Later, as the strength of steel increased and the steel produced became more stable, the gun barrel began to gradually become smaller.

Upon hearing Lu Chen's question, Mo Xing immediately replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen thought for a moment, then said, "After we go back, we'll make a new batch of muskets using the same method as before. Don't worry about them being heavy; as long as a fifth-rank martial artist can carry them, it'll be fine."

Mo Xing immediately understood Lu Chen's meaning, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen then picked up another musket, inscribed explosive runes on it, loaded it with bullets, infused it with spiritual power, and pulled the trigger at two overlapping steel plates in the distance.

Gang...

With a loud gunshot, a burst of sound followed by an explosion from the steel plate.

Gong...

The explosion sound was somewhat muffled, unlike the sound of artillery shells exploding.

After the blue light of the explosion, the steel plate in front was shattered, and the steel plate behind was dented.

Lu Chen thought to himself, "It seems the power is still limited. I thought it would be able to blow through the second steel plate."

Just as Lu Chen was thinking this, a system notification sounded.

The power of the explosive rune depends not only on the spiritual energy infused into it, but also on the amount of gunpowder in the firearm; the explosive rune only plays a supporting role.

Upon hearing the system notification, Lu Chen was taken aback. Was it related to the amount of gunpowder?

Wouldn't that mean that if these explosive runes were used to inscribe on cannons, their power would be even greater?

Thinking about this, Lu Chen was eager to try.

However, considering that there are still many things to deal with in the Great Xia territory, if such a powerful weapon were to appear, it might have an impact on him. Therefore, he decided to wait until after he destroyed the Great Qian before adding explosive runes to the cannons.

At this moment, Lu Chen looked down at the musket in his hand again. Just like the musket before, it had already developed cracks after being used correctly only once.

The material strength is insufficient, so the gun body needs to be thickened. It seems that in the future, rune weapons will only be usable by high-level martial artists, and ordinary people will not be able to use rune weapons.

Come to think of it, to unleash the true destructive power of a rune weapon, one must infuse it with spiritual energy, and the worst person who can sense the outward release of true energy is at least a half-step grandmaster.

Rune weapons are not something ordinary soldiers can use, so it doesn't matter if they are a bit heavy. Of course, the penetrating power of rune bullets is also quite good. Although ordinary soldiers cannot fully utilize the power of rune weapons, the power of rune bullets and rune shells is still considerable.

At this moment, Lu Chen switched to another musket and said to the Imperial Guards again, "Change to another steel plate."

Upon hearing this, the Imperial Guard soldiers quickly replaced the steel plates, and Lu Chen took the opportunity to load the rune bullets into an ordinary musket.

After the soldiers replaced the steel plates, Lu Chen immediately pulled the trigger. With a gunshot, countless sparks instantly flew from the steel plates in the distance.

This time the bullet also penetrated the steel plate, but it melted upon contact with the plate, leaving only a small hole.

Without infusing spiritual power, the effectiveness of the rune weapon would indeed be greatly reduced. You should know that just now, he only infused a little spiritual power, and the steel plate was directly shattered.

Lu Chen then tested the effect of the amount of spiritual power infused on the power of the rune weapon. According to his test, with sufficient spiritual power, the rune musket was able to shatter a 10-centimeter-thick steel plate, which was comparable to a modern armor-piercing bullet.

However, there is a problem: if the spiritual energy input is increased further, the musket may explode. For safety reasons, Lu Chen cannot continue to increase the spiritual energy input.

This also made Lu Chen realize how powerful the materials used to make the God-Slaying Spear were. The God-Slaying Spear could not only completely withstand his spiritual power input, but it could also absorb spiritual power at an alarming rate.

Lu Chen then decided to send people to Fengyin Island to find the materials used to make the Cloud Piercing Bow and Cloud Piercing Arrow.

These materials from other worlds should be perfectly suitable for making rune-inscribed weapons. (End of Chapter)