Chapter 29

Sun Ran threw the vampire captive to the ground and asked, "Speak! How many of you are there? Who do you take orders from?"

Due to the cold, the vampire was still shivering uncontrollably, but he remained defiant: "My mouth has only fangs, not the truth! I will never betray my master!"

The punishment from the master was extremely severe; he would rather die at the hands of this person than endure the torture that made life worse than death.

Sun Ran lifted his foot and stomped heavily on the vampire's mouth, crushing his fangs, and then asked again, "Do you still have fangs now?"

"......" The vampire's mouth was full of blood, and he glared fiercely at this damn man, turning his head away in hatred, refusing to speak!

"Interrogating him is useless; we've tried before, and none of them would talk," Lan Xin said, somewhat worried.

So far, they only knew that the saboteur was roughly a vampire of the Count level, but what he looked like, where he was hiding, and how many members there were, they had no idea.

Sun Ran smiled slightly, pointed at the vampire's chest, and said to Ke'er, "The ice in his wound is almost melted. Stab him here again."

"Oh, okay." Ke'er responded, walked up with a smile, and under the vampire's terrified gaze, 'pfft,' she pushed the dagger into his chest again.

The vampire's body convulsed in pain, but he remained defiant, not making a sound. His heart, which had just started to stop bleeding and heal, was torn open again, and blood gushed out from the wound.

Sun Ran took out a porcelain bottle from somewhere and collected every drop of the heart's blood, filling more than half the bottle.

"Alright, Xuan Xuan, kick him out of the game." "What game?" the vampire asked, confused. "You know too much," Sun Ran's face darkened, realizing he had slipped, but he wouldn't admit it.

Bai Tingxuan stepped forward, pasted a ghost-expelling talisman, and flames immediately engulfed the weak and dying vampire.

After a moment, the flames died down, leaving only a small pile of white vampire ashes on the ground.

At this moment, the door of the Duke's mansion was knocked on, and someone outside shouted, "I am Captain Henry, Orlando Pasha, are you alright? What happened in the mansion?"

The city patrol guards had been alerted by the commotion in the mansion.

This was expected, and Sun Ran immediately tugged at his hair and collar, making himself look disheveled, then said to the three women, "Put away your weapons and deal with these two vampires. Drive a wooden stake through their hearts."

The Dark Middle Ages had vampires of its own, mostly ugly, hairy monsters. The usual method to kill them was to drive a wooden stake through their hearts. However, this method didn't work on the vampires bred by the saboteur, but it had to look like it was done.

The three women immediately took action, and Sun Ran went out to meet the guards.

As soon as he reached the courtyard gate, he saw two guards standing outside. Sun Ran said with a relieved look, "Henry, you came just in time. Vampires broke into my mansion!"

"What? Vampires!" Henry was startled.

"Please follow me!" Sun Ran opened the door to welcome the guests and led the guards to the collection room.

The room was full of signs of a struggle, with blood on the ground and walls. The most noticeable were the two bodies lying on the ground.

The bodies were terrifying, with sunken eye sockets, pale and ashen faces, and a strong aura of death, clearly evil beings.

Henry, of course, saw the wooden stakes in the vampires' chests. He looked at Sun Ran with admiration and surprise, "Orlando Pasha, you actually killed them?"

Sun Ran was very humble, "All thanks to Allah's favor."

Most of the Ottoman Empire were Muslims, believing in Allah, not God.

Henry agreed with this point and turned to the guards, "Carry these two bodies away and take them to the temple." The temple was a mosque.

The guards did as instructed, and Henry turned to Sun Ran, "Pasha, your brave deeds will be widely spread. Rest well tonight; I won't disturb you."

Sun Ran's face showed obvious signs of fatigue, and he nodded, "Thank you."

The city guards came and left quickly.

As soon as they were gone, Sun Ran quickly returned to the collection room to start crafting weapons. At this moment, a wave of vampires had just been repelled, and if there was a second wave, it would need time to prepare. This gap was enough for him to craft several powerful weapons.

He planned to craft two magic staves, a crossbow, and a pair of daggers.

The magic staves involved a large amount of rune fusion and were the hardest to craft, so he put them last. The daggers were simple but not very powerful and wouldn't have an immediate effect, so he decided to start with Lan Xin's turbo-accelerated crossbow.

In the collection room, the three women were present, all curious about alchemy and eager to see it in action.

Sun Ran naturally didn't keep anything secret. He closed the door of the collection room, took a piece of blue sapphire, and rubbed it in his palms. A bit of white light leaked between his palms, and when he separated them, the precious blue sapphire had turned into a pile of extremely fine powder.

Blue sapphire, a type of corundum, has a two-level data structure. As an additive, it can be used with special alchemical techniques to ceramicize metal, greatly increasing its strength.

Sun Ran then lifted a grayish-white stone sculpture weighing over a hundred pounds from the corner, placed it on an iron stand, and evenly sprinkled the blue sapphire powder on its surface. He then placed his hands on the stone, and a red glow appeared on them.

Soon, a large amount of silver-white liquid, like mercury, flowed out of the grayish-white stone. This metal liquid, mixed with the blue sapphire powder, turned into a strange, brownish-gray material that was neither metal nor wood.

This was a ceramic alloy with a three-level data structure. In the Dark Middle Ages, where most weapons had a one-level structure, weapons made from this material were invincible!

Soon, the stone was gone, leaving only some white ash. Sun Ran obtained a piece of ceramic alloy weighing over sixty pounds, which would be the base material for all the weapons.

With the materials prepared, Sun Ran muttered a few incantations. After ten seconds, his hands glowed white again. He extended a finger and gently twisted a small piece off the alloy block, then began to shape the parts of the crossbow as if he were kneading clay.

The precise shapes of the parts were already stored in Sun Ran's mind, so his efficiency was extremely high. One by one, strange-shaped parts with errors no more than ten micrometers were quickly formed in his hands.

This amazing scene left the three women speechless.

Ke'er cautiously approached and quickly poked the alloy block with her dagger. There was a 'ding' sound, and the tip of the dagger broke off.

This dagger had a sharpness rune and could cut through iron like butter, so one could imagine how hard the alloy block was. Sun Ran could actually play with it in his hands.

Ke'er swallowed hard, her face full of disbelief.

Sun Ran was amused by her expression and explained, "Everything in the virtual world has a data structure. This ceramic alloy is level three, while your dagger, even with the sharpness rune, is only level two, so it broke on contact."

"But your hands?" This was the perplexing part.

"This is a level three alchemical technique: Turning Metal to Mud. Within the range of the white light, all level three objects are softened to some extent, including this level three alloy block."

Sun Ran only had level two maintenance authority, and his alchemical techniques were native spells. Casting native spells required guidance, which greatly slowed down the casting speed. So, although it was a level three spell, in terms of data manipulation speed, it did not exceed the level two authority.

An hour later, all the parts were shaped, over thirty in total. Sun Ran began to draw magical runes on the parts.

This crossbow was designed to kill vampires. Vampires have strong vitality, and simply piercing their bodies wouldn't stop them. Aiming at the heart was too difficult, so it needed special magical power to assist.

This work was extremely demanding and required absolute precision. Sun Ran's body remained still as he focused entirely on the task. The three women watched quietly, not daring to make a sound, for fear of disturbing him.

By around three in the morning, the runes were drawn, and Sun Ran began to assemble the parts of the crossbow.

A series of crisp, pleasant sounds of metal clashing rang out as the parts were precisely assembled. The turbo-accelerated crossbow Sun Ran had promised slowly took shape in his hands.

The last part was installed, and the previously drawn runes aligned. A flash of fiery red light appeared, and the runes began to activate. The turbine inside the crossbow started, and the revolving chamber faintly glowed red, indicating that the acceleration turbine was functioning well.

The turbo-accelerated crossbow was now complete. The chamber was a revolving wheel with twelve slots, each holding a bolt, supporting twelve consecutive shots.

The crossbow had a very imposing appearance, with extremely hard lines. The gray-black ceramic alloy glowed coldly in the candlelight, looking extremely cold and ruthless. On the chamber, there were flowing, water-like fiery red lights, evoking a sense of explosive power.

Lan Xin fell in love with it at first sight.

"Is it done?" she asked in surprise.

Sun Ran picked up the crossbow, loaded the pre-shaped rune bolts into the revolving chamber, and then turned the chamber with a swift motion. The bolts were quickly positioned in a series of crisp, pleasant 'clicks.'

This action was extremely cool, making it seem like he was holding a Gatling gun rather than a crossbow.

Ke'er's doll-like eyes were full of stars, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "How can a weapon be so cool? I want one too!" Unfortunately, she didn't have the eagle eye skill for aiming.

Sun Ran laughed and handed the crossbow to Lan Xin, "This is the turbo-accelerated crossbow. The bolts have a three-level structure and can penetrate a one-inch thick steel plate within 300 meters. Each bolt is engraved with a level three burning flame rune, which activates upon impact, causing a small-scale explosion. The overall attack strength is 3.2. With the abilities of a vampire Count, a hit to the chest or abdomen will immediately turn them into minced meat!"

Actually, this shouldn't be called a crossbow but more like a rifle, as it wasn't powered by the mechanical energy of the crossbow arm but by the explosive rune power. The design was heavily influenced by the medieval style due to the constraints of the maintenance rules.

Equipped with this crossbow, Lan Xin would be one of the main sources of firepower for this mission.

Lan Xin happily accepted it. She was an expert with crossbows, and when she weighed it and tested the feel, it felt like an extension of her arm, perfectly suited to her.

"Can I test its power?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course, it's yours now. Don't worry about the bolts; I'll prepare them," Sun Ran smiled.

Lan Xin walked to the window of the collection room and aimed at a small bronze statue of a boy in the courtyard's fountain.

The statue was only one meter tall, thin and small, over fifty meters away from the window, and in the darkness, it was just a vague shadow, making it difficult to aim.

Lan Xin held her breath, her eyes flashing with a silver light as she activated the 'Eagle Eye' skill, then pulled the trigger.

A powerful, muffled 'bang' echoed in the night air, followed by a 'click' as the next bolt automatically loaded. At the same time, a straight line of fire extended from the crossbow, accurately hitting the bronze statue's head.

The bolt, over twenty centimeters long, penetrated most of the way, and then the burning flame rune on the bolt exploded!

From the window, the bronze statue's head suddenly glowed red, then softened and deformed into a flat persimmon. The persimmon was surrounded by molten bronze, similar to candle wax, indicating the high temperature generated by the burning flame rune.

One shot was enough to turn the solid bronze statue into this state, making it more than sufficient to deal with vampires.

The effect was so astonishing that Ke'er and Bai Tingxuan were wide-eyed, and Lan Xin herself was also in disbelief. She tightly held the crossbow, unwilling to let it go.

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