The OverSight was successfully cracked without issue much to An Jing's relief. Though he already had the Iceburst for long-range shots, the OverSight could still be a lifesaver in a time of need.

He received the restored sword case from Metalhand and felt a sense of familiarity that wasn't there before. It was just like receiving a phone that recognized him as its authorized user that could be unlocked through a fingerprint without using a code.

"You should be able to use it by imprinting your qi essence into the core." Metalhand hadn't rested at all and was focused entirely on cracking the military-grade core. He also did a lot of other things, but An Jing didn't pry since he seemed rather secretive about it. Curiosity was only useful when applied to the right things.

Even so, Metalhand didn't seem tired at all. Rather, he seemed excited and wanted to bring An Jing out to test out the power of the sword case. An Jing wasn't against it and went out with his new spirit-qi crucible, which was about the size of two fists and shaped somewhat like an hourglass that resembled a mini furnace. It was black and blue and seemed forged from some kind of spirit steel. There was a luminescent white crystal at the centermost part with the numbers "99/100" displayed on it, indicating the amount of spirit qi that remained within.

The brand was Ninelands, a subsidiary of the Shouyang Group that specialized in making spirit-qi crucibles. These were common energy sources that could be used to power all sorts of artifacts, allowing cultivators with insufficient qi to use more powerful artifacts or to sustain defensive formations.

The Ninelands crucible was as typical as crucibles went. It could be recharged through manmade spirit veins and was compatible with many types of artifacts, sword cases included. An Jing installed it in the sword case and used his own qi essence to make an imprint.

During the authorization process, he got the sense that he could use the sword case like his own limbs. He could also see a faint white ring in his field of vision that looked a bit like aiming sights.

"That's the target-acquisition formation of the sword case. Use it to lock onto your targets and activate the crucible to fire a flying sword. The flying sword will shoot toward wherever the formation is aimed at," Metalhand instructed. "Don't worry about whether you've aimed the weapon properly yourself. As long as the formation is still locked on to your target, your flying swords will make minor adjustments to their trajectories to hit it. This makes sword cases much more convenient than firearms. Even though it consumes lots of spirit qi, it's much more convenient and reassuring to use!"[1]

"An Jing, the flying swords of this advanced age truly are interesting!" Yvelbane cheered. "I can sense it... I can infuse my power into this sword case to make the flying swords even more powerful, accurate and fast!"

"That sounds amazing." This was the first artifact that An Jing had used, so it all felt fresh and exciting to him. He aimed the rail-powered sword case at some targets in the mountain of trash and used his qi essence to lock onto them. Then, he activated the crucible, effectively pulling the trigger!

The milk-white crystal flashed. Then, the rails accelerated a flying sword with a crackling sound. A white sword beam shot out at a curved arc, triggering an explosion near the target and reducing it to scrap in an instant.

"This is it!" An Jing was stunned by its power, overflowing with joy. This was a military-grade sword case no doubt. No normal Aura Realm martialist would be able to defend against something like this.

Even a martialist at the peak of the Tide Aura Stage or a Fortification Realm martialist would have to be fully on guard to defend against such a strike! Fortification Realm martialists could be taken out in an instant if ambushed, while An Jing's target, the white-robe scribe, was probably only at the Tide Aura Stage, regardless of the lifearc or other hidden tricks he might possess.

"What power..." Metalhand was stunned by the sword case's performance. He knew roughly what to expect and had seen a few military-grade sword cases himself, but somehow An Jing managed to fire off a much more powerful shot. Could it be a special-production unit of the Luofu Group? It didn't look that different from other military-issue ones when I cracked it. The core is quite useful, but the rest don't seem too out of the norm.

He couldn't figure it out at all and would have been amazed even if the flying sword only pierced through the scrap-metal targets and left a large hole. Making it explode completely was unheard of. Was the target already far too corroded to begin with?

An Jing realized that the crucible's capacity went from ninety-nine to seventy-two percent in a single shot. In other words, the average crucible would only be able to fire off three flying swords, while lower-grade ones could fire off two at most. An Jing would have to make up for it with his own spirit qi.

"Military-grade sword cases are known for being spirit-qi hogs. Normal sword cases can fire four or five shots," Metalhand said after noting the power consumption.

Intermediate spirit-qi crucibles had capacities comparable to the entire energy capacity of Tide Essence cultivators. However, humans weren't portable batteries. Using up their qi essence would result in injury. Most people only had access to around seventy percent of their total qi-essence capacity. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Cultivators like An Jing at the River Essence Stage could at most fire off one shot with a military-grade sword case like that. That was also the reason only members of large corporations could afford to use military-grade artifacts. The massive spirit-qi consumption of sword cases was also the main driving force that pushed for the development of conventional firearms.

An Jing didn't mind it, however. Being able to fire off three flying swords in Void Embrace could achieve a lot. He also learned how versatile the military-grade core was.

The OverSight's target-acquisition system was similar to homing magic bullets, making it far more capable than the Iceburst rifle. The core's true value lay in its compatibility with different kinds of artifacts and formations. However, that probably wasn't the real reason Metalhand wanted to take a crack at the Luofu Group's military-grade core.

"Thanks a lot, Boss Metalhand," An Jing said with sincere gratitude.

The huge man smiled confidently. "It seems like there wasn't anything wrong with my tinkering skills, then. Feel free to bring any military-grade artifacts to me if you pick up more next time. So, what do you plan to do next? My little friend, the city isn't going to be safe for the time being, so I would suggest that you wait a bit longer before going in."

As they returned to the recycling house, Metalhand handed him a semi-translucent card and a thumb-sized rectangle token to An Jing. "The card is your city pass. When they check it, all you have to do is to infuse some qi essence into it and it'll register you as the owner. The token is your ticket into the black market. If they ask who your referrer is, just tell them 'Metalhand Zhang Gu.'"

Metalhand could tell that An Jing was planning to leave. The mysterious badlander kid had appeared out of nowhere and would disappear without leaving a trace like many others who wanted to go to Deepnight City.

An Jing made an inventory of his current equipment. He had twelve flying-sword projectiles for the OverSight, thirty-six special bullets for the Iceburst rifle, two handguns with eight magazines, one Ninelands spirit-qi crucible, eight cans of compressed meat, five defensive lightning beads and one sacrificial jade dagger. He also had a bulletproof rain mantle, two stimulant pills, one spent souljade and another unused one. He also had Gunner's extendable artifact spear and some miscellaneous things like throwing knives, though they weren't that remarkable.

Metalhand noted how old and worn An Jing's sack was, figuring that he had picked it up from a corpse, and gave him a much sturdier camping rucksack and some buckles. He could use them to store things better and maybe hang some equipment off his body.

With An Jing leaving, Metalhand had to take Gunner, whose cultivation he crippled earlier, to visit the boss of the Noontigers. He left Huo Qing, who was officially declared dead, to watch his place. Huo Qing would need to get a new identity and maybe even a new chip in the future. Before he could swap his chip out, he had to lay low in the recycling house.

"Brother An, I know you said that I've repaid you for saving my life already, but you saved me twice." Huo Qing had nothing else to give, so he gripped An Jing's hand firmly with gratitude after he charged up the spirit-qi crucible. "There's only so much I can say. If there's anything I can help you with in the future, just let me know. If it's within my capabilities, I will not let you down!"

"Keep those words for when you're actually able to do something, why don't you?!" Metalhand gave Huo Qing's head a light knock on the back. Though, the fact that a timid lad like Huo Qing took the initiative to make such a promise showed that he was beginning to change, a change that Metalhand was quite happy to see.

"I will hold you to your words, then," An Jing said, not discounting this former gang accountant at all. The youth's earlier worn-out complexion was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, like Yvelbane said, An Jing had totally transformed Huo Qing's fate, causing him to essentially be reborn. This also helped improve An Jing's celestial arc.

After bidding farewell to the two, An Jing left the recycling house and disappeared into the mountains of trash. Metalhand and Huo Qing went on to prepare to deal with the Noontigers. Though the odds of a failed negotiation was low, it wasn't zero. The main reasons Metalhand was able to do his business in Mortality Plains for so long were his luck and caution.

Nobody knew anything when An Jing vanished from this world and returned to Void Embrace.

1. Ryogawa's thoughts: Smart guns, anyone? ☜