A Blood-Moving Realm has arrived in the world of The Return of the Condor Heroes.

The three of them wandered around aimlessly, passing through several secluded corridors, and arrived at an inconspicuous little study.

The door was half-open, and it looked like it hadn't been properly maintained for a long time, more like a vacant place used by Kuoduan to conceal its true nature.

The room was not spacious, with old wooden shelves standing against the four walls, filled with all kinds of classic works, military books and strategies, books of various schools of thought, historical books and policy essays, etc. At first glance, it really looked like the residence of a Mongolian nobleman who was devoted to learning.

Zhang Huai glanced around casually, then pulled out a copy of "The Art of War" from the shelf. He flipped through a couple of pages carelessly. The handwriting on the paper was neat, but there were few signs that it had been read.

He casually tossed the book back onto the shelf: "I never expected that old bastard Kuo Duan, who's always fighting and killing, would actually pretend to read these things. I wonder if he really understands them or if he's just using them to fool others."

He quickly scanned the room, his gaze sweeping over the rows of bookshelves, but he didn't find anything of importance. He assumed it was just an ordinary library, and his interest waned. He turned to leave.

Lu Wushuang was not interested in this and simply stood outside the door, never stepping inside.

Just as Zhang Huai had stepped out of the room and was about to call the two away, Yao Yue, who was still inside carefully examining the corner, suddenly spoke softly:

"Brother Zhang, wait a minute, take a look at this."

"What could there be? Just some old books," Zhang Huai said dismissively, but still turned around and slowly walked over.

He tilted his head to take a look, initially thinking they were just ordinary calligraphy and paintings. But when his gaze actually fell on the paper Yao Yue was pointing to, the casual expression on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a slightly serious expression.

This paper is not precious Xuan paper, but rough yet exceptionally tough hemp paper. There are not many words on it; most of the paper consists of carefully drawn patterns with varying shades of ink.

The paper clearly depicts an object shaped like an iron pipe, with a sharp front end, a thick and sturdy middle section, and an exceptionally solid tail. Next to it, supporting components such as a bracket, axle, fixing iron hoop, and ignition hole are also drawn in detail. The structure is distinct and the proportions are regular, clearly indicating that it is a mechanical drawing.

Zhang Huai felt as if his mind had exploded.

The more he looked at the outline, shape, and components of the object, the more familiar it became to him, so familiar that it made his heart pound.

He held his breath, stretched out his finger, and gently slid it along the ink lines on the paper, carefully examining it from beginning to end, from the support to the medicine room.

With each new sight he saw, his heart sank a little deeper. After a moment, a startling thought confirmed it completely in his mind—these were cannons!

Why would cannon manufacturing blueprints appear in this era, in Kuo-duan's study?

This is completely illogical.

Although the annotations next to the blueprints were all in Mongolian, which Zhang Huai didn't recognize at all, he came from the modern era and had seen all kinds of weapons and equipment before his transmigration, so he was very familiar with the structure of artillery.

The complete assembly of the cannon barrel, chassis, chamber, and fuse in front of us is not a toy, nor a rough concept, but a set of blueprints for the manufacture of artillery that can be cast and put into actual combat.

He suppressed his surprise and looked at Yaoyue, who was waiting quietly to the side, and asked, "Do you know Mongolian?"

Yao Yue gently shook her head, indicating that she did not know him.

It makes sense. In those war-torn times, ordinary people struggled to even have enough to eat, and those who could read and write were extremely rare. Yaoyue was already proficient in all the arts, so why would she bother to learn Mongolian?

Seeing that the two hadn't come out of the house for a long time, Lu Wushuang thought there was something good in store.

His curiosity grew stronger, and finally, unable to contain himself, he stepped inside, quickly walked to Zhang Huai's side, and leaned close to him to ask:

"Brother Zhang, what's wrong? Did you find something important?"

Zhang Huai didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked up at Lu Wushuang and slowly said, "Let me test you. Do you know how the mainstream military operations are conducted nowadays, whether it's marching, fighting, or conquering territory?"

Lu Wushuang was momentarily confused, not understanding why Zhang Huai would suddenly ask this at such a time, but she still honestly replied, "How could I not know?"

She was once the young mistress of Guiyun Manor, and was exposed to the world from a young age. Although she was later kidnapped by Li Mochou and wandered around, without the opportunity to study systematically, she still had a good grasp of the basic knowledge of military operations.

"Nowadays, when the two armies clash, they use arrows for long-range shooting, spears for close combat, and shields to advance in formation, supplemented by catapults and ballistae for long-range suppression. When besieging a city, ladders and battering rams are used, and soldiers swarm up the walls. Most cities are built by taking countless lives."

Zhang Huai nodded knowingly; it was exactly what he had thought.

Gunpowder had already appeared during this period, but its application was extremely limited, mostly used for civilian fireworks, blasting rocks to clear roads, or small-scale arson and creating chaos in the military.

Occasionally, rudimentary firearms would appear, but they had extremely low accuracy, very short range, little power, and very poor airtightness, making them completely unusable on the regular battlefield. At most, they could scare warhorses at close range, and had no real killing power.

But the cannons on this blueprint are completely different.

With its excellent components, perfect design, and reasonable structure, it is fully capable of being mass-produced and mass-equipped for the military. It is a truly deadly weapon of firepower and should not exist in this era.

Even if there are exceptionally talented and extraordinary people in the world, it is one thing to achieve something, but it is quite another to be able to standardize and mass-produce it, let alone stably deploy it on the battlefield and change the course of the war.

From both a historical and philosophical perspective, cannons should never have appeared at this time.

Zhang Huai had no idea where Kuoduan had gotten the blueprint. His gaze fell on a Mongolian character in the corner of the blueprint that resembled a name. He secretly guessed that it might be the designer's signature. Unfortunately, he did not understand Mongolian and had no way of knowing who created it or where it came from.

Lu Wushuang kept her eyes fixed on Zhang Huai's expression. Since she had known him, she had almost never seen him so serious.

Zhang Huai is usually either relaxed and carefree or witty and lively. Even when he was surrounded by thousands of troops, he didn't look so serious.

Feeling uneasy, she cautiously approached him and asked softly, "What's wrong, Brother Zhang? What's drawn on this paper that's bothering you so much?"

Yao Yue also leaned closer. She was very perceptive and could tell from Zhang Huai's expression that he had probably discovered something extraordinary.

"Look at this," Zhang Huai asked in a deep voice, pointing to the center of the drawing.

The reason he specifically asked Lu Wushuang was that he still harbored a sliver of hope.

He hoped that Lu Wushuang had seen something similar, even if it was just a discarded draft drawn casually by a craftsman or a strange object made by a sorcerer. That would prove that the cannon on the drawing was just an unrealistic fantasy or a failed product that could never be accomplished.

Lu Wushuang looked in the direction he was pointing, and was slightly taken aback at first. Then, the curiosity on her face slowly faded, and her expression gradually became serious.

She had been wandering the martial arts world since childhood, following Li Mochou from place to place. She had met many strange and unusual people and seen many strange and unusual objects, including all kinds of tricky and vicious weapons.

But this strange thing in front of her, thick and long like an iron barrel, with hoops around its body and an exceptionally sturdy tail, was something she had never seen before in her life.

"What kind of device is this? It looks like some kind of tube, but it's not like a bamboo tube, nor does it resemble a crossbow or spear thrower commonly used in the military, and it's not a tool made by an ordinary craftsman."

Even without recognizing the specific name, Lu Wushuang could clearly sense from his years of experience in the martial world that this thing was no ordinary object. Its lines exuded a chilling and fierce aura, and it must be a deadly weapon used on the battlefield.

Yao Yue nodded gently beside her, her voice soft yet unusually certain: "These lines look menacing. They don't look like farm tools, nor do they look like everyday utensils. They look more like... something specifically designed to kill people."

Neither of them were ordinary young ladies; both were insightful and intelligent, and they could see that the unassuming blueprint in front of them was anything but simple.

Zhang Huai took a deep breath, his gaze slowly sweeping over the two of them, and said, word by word:

"You're right. If I'm not mistaken, this is a siege weapon that could rewrite the battlefield."

However, it doesn't rely on human labor to pull it, nor on a spring-loaded launcher; its true power comes from the explosive force of the gunpowder.