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Although the Heaven Dou Empire had the support of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, one of the upper three sects—the Clear Sky Clan—secretly leaned toward the Star Luo Empire.
Even though the Clear Sky Clan had now sealed itself off from the world, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan still wouldn't dare send a Titled Douluo to interfere in a war between the two empires.
Moreover, while the Star Luo Empire lacked a Titled Douluo, it boasted several hundred thousand well-equipped elite troops. With these hardened soldiers, dealing with a few Titled Douluo was entirely within the realm of possibility.
After all, in this low-fantasy world, even the most powerful Titled Douluo could only take on ten thousand men single-handedly—except for Dugu Bo.
Dugu Bo, though the weakest of the Titled Douluo in terms of raw power, possessed terrifying poison techniques capable of wiping out an entire city with ease.
He was famously known as someone who couldn't defeat any Titled Douluo head-on, but could still reduce his enemies to only their Titled Douluo.
The true value of Titled Douluo lay in their deterrent power. They could carry out surgical strikes against enemy leadership, eliminating key figures. Without a commander, even the largest army would collapse into disarray—scattered like loose sand, utterly ineffective.
Besides the hundreds of thousands of elite troops, Dai Weisi also had his family backing him—his grandfather and grandmother, his father and mother, several uncles and aunts—all were Battle Soul Douluo at or above level 80.
With their family's martial soul fusion skill, the Nether White Tiger, they possessed combat power comparable to a Titled Douluo. A single Nether White Tiger could rival a standard Titled Douluo, and even when facing a Super Douluo, it could hold its own.
If the Star Luo Empire went all out, they could at least produce four or five Nether White Tigers—each equivalent to a Titled Douluo. That was why, for many years, the Star Luo Empire had held the upper hand in its war against the Heaven Dou Empire.
Were it not for Spirit Hall mediating between them, the Star Luo Empire would've already taken over more than half of Heaven Dou's territory—and even the Star Dou Forest would have become Star Luo's private domain.
Unfortunately, Spirit Hall would never stand idly by.
Though Dai Weisi deeply respected Spirit Hall's ideals of peace and understood many of their policies, he was, after all, a member of the Star Luo royal family—and very likely its future emperor.
Even if he himself didn't wish to oppose Spirit Hall, they would still see him as a threat, one to be eliminated.
It was entirely possible that one day, a high-ranking member of Spirit Hall would send someone disguised as his child to get close to him—just like they had done with Heaven Dou—and stage a coup from within.
If this fire might one day reach him, Dai Weisi couldn't afford to simply watch it burn.
Spirit Hall was a behemoth, and if he didn't want to be crushed by it, he needed to strengthen not only himself but also the overall strength of the Star Luo Empire.
"Did you bring the materials?"
"They're here, Your Highness. Here's the gunpowder and sugar you requested, along with the raw materials used to produce gunpowder."
As he spoke, the man in black pulled out a package containing already-refined gunpowder, high-quality white sugar, and about a dozen portions of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur.
That's right—Dai Weisi planned to bring gunpowder and firearms from his previous life into this world. Even before his transmigration, he had been preparing for it—after all, who hasn't fantasized about being transported to another world?
He was thankful that he had ended up in this low-fantasy world. If he had been sent to some immortal cultivation world, most of his modern knowledge would've been completely useless.
"All right. You may go rest now. Unless there's something urgent, don't disturb me."
"Yes, Your Highness!" With that, the man in black vanished with a leap, leaving Dai Weisi alone in the room.
Silently, Dai Weisi took a portion of the gunpowder and studied it closely. In the world of Douluo Dalu, gunpowder already existed—but unlike the black powder of his past life, Douluo's gunpowder was a rainbow of vibrant colors, with black only making up a small part of it.
The reason gunpowder in the Douluo Continent was mainly used for fireworks during celebrations was because it was mixed with various metal powders, giving it its vibrant, colorful appearance.
However, the potency of this gunpowder was severely lacking. It was likely only effective for scaring ordinary people and soul masters without soul rings, and couldn't cause significant harm to real soul masters.
Otherwise, when Tang San created the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, he wouldn't have needed to use concentrated black powder.
Now, Dai Weisi intended to manufacture the black powder from his past life and enhance its potency using white sugar.
As the saying goes, "One part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, three parts charcoal, and add some white sugar for a powerful explosion." White sugar could enhance the explosive power of gunpowder. If he could create firearms and grenades, they might not be able to kill a Titled Douluo, but at the very least, they could injure one.
In this world, where even hidden weapons can kill gods, an enhanced version of black powder should be enough to wound a Titled Douluo, right?
"Let's begin the experiment."
With that, Dai Weisi gathered the materials and went to the courtyard. There, he had set up three mortar and pestle sets to grind the materials into powder: one for saltpeter, one for sulfur, and one for charcoal.
"White Tiger Possession!"
—Roar!
A powerful tiger's roar echoed suddenly, and with the activation of his martial soul, a massive Evil Eye White Tiger appeared behind Dai Weisi, merging with his body!
Once the Beast Martial Soul was activated, Dai Weisi felt his physical attributes multiply by tenfold, gaining the immense strength, speed, and defense of the White Tiger.
"Truly worthy of a top-tier Beast Martial Soul! The Evil Eye White Tiger is indeed impressive. Just the possession alone increased my strength by ten times!"
Even without using soul techniques, Dai Weisi felt confident he could defeat dozens of fully armed soldiers.
He placed the materials into the three mortars and began grinding them with the pestle, working hard until the substances turned into fine powder.
The heavy pestle in his hands moved swiftly in the mortar, grinding the materials to a powder.
For the past week, Dai Weisi had only done two things: meditation to cultivate his soul power and continually experimenting with materials to improve his black powder.
After activating his martial soul, his strength was tremendous. In no time, he turned all the materials into powder.
"It worked!"
Dai Weisi was elated. He immediately mixed the three powders together in the proportions he remembered, creating a small batch of pitch-black mixture. The last step was the ignition test.
"I hope this works."
He placed half a kilogram of the gunpowder into a sturdy iron barrel, covering it with a large rock. Full of anticipation, he lit the fuse and quickly retreated to a safe distance, hoping not to injure himself.
A few days ago, he had conducted similar experiments, but the results were unsatisfactory. The explosions could only injure a Soul Sage at the third ring, falling far short of his expectations.
If it only injured Soul Sages, he might as well buy a Zhuge Divine Crossbow from Tang San.
Boom!
Suddenly, the gunpowder in the iron barrel exploded with a deafening roar. The rock covering the barrel was blasted into the air, shattered into pieces, and debris rained down, while the sturdy iron barrel itself was torn apart.
"This power is pretty good. At close range, it's enough to severely injure ordinary battle soul emperors with no defense. If I had more gunpowder, it could even harm Soul Saint-level soul masters."
"If I add more white sugar and other flammable and explosive materials, the explosion power will increase significantly. At that point, even a Soul Douluo or a Titled Douluo could be injured."
"Now that the gunpowder is ready, the next step is to create firearms and equip them to the Star Luo army, which will greatly improve their combat power."
Dai Weisi was confident that with firearms, the Star Luo army would be unstoppable. However, making the weapons himself was beyond his capability; he would need to rely on the blacksmiths.
"Fortunately, the Blacksmith Association is located in Gengxin City, which is within the Star Luo Empire. I can easily ask the association to help me create weapons, using the Star Luo royal family's influence."
(End of Chapter)