"Oh! High mountain tea from Daiyuan, Inoue, do you still have some left? I finished mine a long time ago."

"My mother sent these from Tamsui. How could you not know whether I have any in stock?"

"Hahahaha!" The two laughed heartily. They were very satisfied with their new life. Although they were far from the bustling city, their treatment had changed dramatically, not only in terms of supplies but also, more importantly, in terms of guidance in their cultivation.

After being selected for Qin Mo's elite legion, experienced senior cultivators would provide guidance on cultivation techniques to the captains every year. Both had received this guidance before coming to Luzon. Inoue Hideo benefited the most, rising to the middle level of the Human Realm; while Haruka Jiro also gained many insights, giving him more confidence for his next attempt to enter the Dao.

"Hmm? Inoue, are you also looking at the new weaponry? It's a really strange name, a Type 1 rifle, which was supposedly named by the prince himself!"

“My Chinese is okay when I listen, but much worse when I read. I can’t understand this ‘Instructions for Use’ either. Why don’t we try it out in the wild?”

"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking... Inoue-kun, please!"

The two left the camp and came to the edge of the dense forest. They looked at the diagrams on the "Usage Manual" over and over again, while their Type 1 rifles were being handled haphazardly.

The "Type 1 rifle" was actually a Minié rifle. It required first loading gunpowder into the muzzle, then tamping the gunpowder with a matching tamping rod, then inserting a wooden stopper, and finally loading a bullet that was slightly thinner than the muzzle.

"Inoue-kun, it looks like this. I think it's similar to a hand crossbow. Why don't you give it a try?"

Haruka Jiro felt he had almost finished setting up the rifle, so he handed it over to Inoue Hideo. As for why Inoue Hideo? Well, a monk recovers faster from an injury! What if the new weapon couldn't distinguish friend from foe and accidentally injures himself?

Inoue Hideo was clever and had a good feel for the game; aligning the three points seemed effortless for him. He became very interested and aimed at a large tree fifty zhang away, which was already the standard shooting range according to the manual.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, the two men were startled. After all, crossbow bolts are usually quite silent, and they hadn't expected this new "rifle" to make such a commotion.

"Inoue...did you hit the target?"

"I... there was a cloud of smoke just now, I didn't see anything... let's go take a look."

The two men walked to a large tree about a hundred paces away and saw the hole in it. Haruka Jiro, uncertain, used the bayonet of his rifle to dig halfway out, finally managing to remove the deformed bullet.

"Hiss!" Both of them gasped, and then saw terror in each other's eyes.