The child’s voice was clear, crisp, and tender.
In the deathly silent Taiji Hall, it sounded especially jarring.
Lin Zhenxiong froze, his bloodstained sword still clutched in his hand.
Work?
What kind of work?
Following Su Yaoyao’s gaze, he looked toward Su Jin, who stood off to the side.
Su Jin was draped in an oversized black cloak.
Like a ghost that dared not see the light of day, he huddled in the shadows beside the small golden throne.
Lin Zhenxiong couldn’t help letting out a mocking laugh, his eyes filled with contempt and disdain.
“Su Zhen, you’re actually counting on the Useless Crown Prince to save you?”
“Even if his martial arts are exceptional, can they possibly surpass three hundred crossbowmen?”
“What a pipe dream! You’re making a laughingstock of yourselves!”
High above them, on the massive roof beams,
the three hundred black-clad death warriors received the order and tightened their fingers around the mechanisms of their crossbows.
The moment Lin Zhenxiong gave the command, the second volley of poisoned arrows would mercilessly shoot the entire imperial family into a bloody sieve.
In the face of Lin Zhenxiong’s frenzied mockery, Su Yaoyao remained perfectly calm. She turned around and faced the enormous banquet table.
This was the grandest imperial table in the entire Great Yuan Kingdom.
It was absurdly large—big enough for ten adults to sit and dine around it at once.
The tabletop had originally been covered with an exquisite golden-yellow cloth embroidered with coiled dragons in shimmering thread.
But during the chaos moments earlier, all the bowls and dishes had been shoved to either side.
The entire table was concealed beneath the enormous cloth. No one had any idea what was hidden underneath.
Su Yaoyao took her short little legs to the very center of the table.
She reached out and seized the edge of the golden-yellow cloth.
Then she took a deep breath, turned back, and gave Lin Zhenxiong a devilish smile.
“Old Dog Lin, aren’t you curious what my Crown Prince brother can do?”
“Open your dog eyes and watch carefully!”
The instant her words fell,
Su Yaoyao yanked the cloth back with both arms, leaning her tiny body far behind her.
“Rip!”
A sharp tearing sound suddenly rang through the empty hall.
The magnificent tablecloth, weighing dozens of pounds,
was flung into the air by the little girl’s sheer brute strength!
The golden-yellow fabric billowed and twisted overhead, like a curtain being drawn open.
The ultimate weapon concealed in the darkness was finally exposed to everyone’s view!
“Hiss…”
The sound of people sucking in cold breaths echoed throughout the Taiji Hall.
Every gaze was drawn to the enormous monstrosity on the table.
It was a crude yet terrifying metal beast.
Its entire body had been forged from pure wrought iron tempered in the weapons workshop of the Cold Palace.
Under the flickering firelight, it gleamed with a chilling golden metallic sheen.
Six thick, icy iron barrels were bound tightly together in a strange hexagonal formation.
Behind the barrels was a complicated network of gears and mechanical components.
Every part fit together with flawless precision, exuding an industrial brutality far beyond the era’s technology.
This was the weapon Su Yaoyao had poured countless hours into creating, using primitive steelmaking methods and blueprints from the stars—
A homemade, hand-cranked, multi-barreled Gatling heavy machine gun!
Along the side of the Gatling gun ran a thick, gleaming brass ammunition belt, twisting like a deadly metallic viper.
It stretched from the feed port on the receiver and hung heavily down to the floor, trailing all the way beneath Su Zhen’s solid-steel dragon throne.
The belt was densely lined with thumb-sized brass cartridges.
Every bullet was packed with the powerful black powder specially refined by Su Yaoyao.
All the civil and military officials in the hall were utterly dumbfounded.
Their eyes bulged, and their mouths hung open wide enough to swallow an ostrich egg.
In this cold-steel era that recognized only swords, spears, blades, halberds, bows, crossbows, and concealed weapons, how could they possibly have seen such a mechanically engineered steel beast?
“What… what manner of ingenious weapon is this?”
“It looks like a miniature ballista, but where are the bowstrings and arrow grooves?”
“And what is that brass chain hanging beside it? Some kind of hidden weapon?”
Their limited imaginations could not comprehend the terror of the metal contraption before them.
To them, although the thing looked intimidating, it was nothing more than a strangely shaped iron frame.
Lin Zhenxiong was startled by the enormous metal contraption at first.
But once he got a good look at it, he burst into arrogant laughter once more.
“Hahahaha! Su Zhen, this is your trump card?”
“You put a broken iron frame on a table and expect it to scare away this prince’s hundred-thousand-man army and three hundred death warriors?”
“This is utterly absurd!”
Lin Zhenxiong abruptly raised his sword and roared at the beams overhead.
“Fire! Shoot that iron frame and the entire imperial family into a sieve!”
The three hundred crossbowmen on the beams immediately obeyed.
They drew their bowstrings taut once more, aiming their blue-glowing poisoned arrows at the Gatling gun and the imperial family.
The threat of death descended again.
Su Yaoyao stood beside the imposing Gatling gun with one hand on her hip.
Her tiny body radiated an aura of terrifying dominance, as though she looked down upon the entire world.
“An iron frame?”
Su Yaoyao let out a cold laugh, pity filling her eyes.
“Old Dog Lin, the greatest mistake you’ve made in your entire life was failing to study physics properly.”
She turned her head toward Su Jin, concealed beneath the cloak.
Her childish voice tolled the bell of death.
“My lord, the times have changed!”
“Crown Prince brother, turn the crank!”
The command exploded like a clap of thunder.
The Crown Prince Su Jin, who had remained silent as a ghost, suddenly raised his head.
He tore off the oversized black cloak and casually tossed it aside.
With the cloak gone, another strange commotion swept through the hall.
For the merciless Crown Prince of the Great Yuan Kingdom, a man who had killed countless people, was actually glowing with a ghostly pink light that spilled wildly from his body!
In the dark, oppressive Taiji Hall, he looked like a human-sized pink lightbulb.
The sight was bizarre, with a ridiculous and comical contrast to it.
But at that moment, no one dared to laugh.
Because the expression on Su Jin’s face was twisted with excitement.
Bloodthirsty red light flickered in his eyes, like an ancient ferocious beast finally freed from its chains.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment!”
Su Jin let out a wild roar and strode toward the enormous banquet table.
He gripped the thick metal crank behind the Gatling gun with both hands.
The profound internal force of the Great Yuan Kingdom’s foremost expert erupted in that instant.
He poured every ounce of it into his arms.
“Turn, damn you!”
The veins on Su Jin’s forehead bulged, and the muscles in his arms swelled instantly.
He exerted himself violently and began cranking the heavy handle with furious speed.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
As Su Jin spun the crank madly, the Gatling gun’s complex internal gears meshed in an instant.
They emitted a terrifying grinding of metal.
The six thick, icy iron barrels began to rotate under the support of his internal force.
Then they spun faster and faster!
Their motion, visible to the naked eye only moments before, instantly became a blurred metallic afterimage.
A terrifying mechanical whirlwind formed with a thunderous roar before the dragon throne.
The golden ammunition belt, like a venomous serpent brought back to life, was rapidly drawn into the receiver’s feed port.
Lin Zhenxiong stood at the foot of the steps, staring at the wildly spinning barrels.
A terror originating from the depths of his soul suddenly spread through his heart like poisonous weeds.
A martial artist’s instinct told him that something horrifying was about to happen!
“Quick! Loose the arrows! Fire!”
Lin Zhenxiong shrieked hoarsely, his voice trembling.
The crossbowmen on the beams sensed that something was wrong as well and immediately released the locked triggers.
But it was already too late.
The speed of cold weapons was like that of a snail before the triumph of heavy industry.
When the first poisoned arrow had only just left the bowstring, the crank in Su Jin’s hand had already reached its maximum speed.
The firing pin slammed into the primer of the first bullet.
As the crank turned, the cold gun barrel spun rapidly.
“Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!”
The deafening roar of metal tore through the air of Taiji Hall!
A dazzling, one-meter-long tongue of flame burst from the muzzle!
