Bandit's Attack

-" What had gotten into all of you? Keep moving! The stones aren't that heavy!" Jack screamed as he wiped the sweat off his brow. " We have to finish the walls of the slope today!"

A group of burly men reacted to Jack's shouts and began to push the cart with even more force, and after some more encouragement, they finally were able to bring the stone-filled cart to the spot in which the wall was under construction.

-" It looks like they are losing steam." Evan sighed as he saw how difficult it was for the group to push the cart uphill.

-" Sigh... They aren't used to this kind of work." Jack took out a small pipe and lit it up. " Thanks to the crazy ideas of your boss, most of our men who were able to easily push this cart are now cleaning the area in the front."

-" Well, you should have refused the work then." Evan couldn't help but let out a sigh, as he gazed at the wall running down to the river bank. " This was the only way to stop his madness."

-" He would just go look for another guild to make the wall." Jack puffed his pipe and sat down on one of the stones on the ground. " People always said that crazy people didn't fit well with money, and now I'm seeing it first hand." Jack still couldn't believe that Mathew had found a Limestone deposit, and decided to throw it all away to build such a useless wall.

-" Well, while this is quite a waste of resources, you can't say that he isn't interested in the village's wellbeing." Evan felt perplexed by Mathew's actions, but, at least he used the money in the village, and didn't hoard it for himself.

-" Speaking on the devil, what is he even doing? The last time I saw him was when he was directing the villagers to extract the limestone." Jack had a mixture of relief and anxiety, his work was easier when the man wasn't around, but, he was afraid that leaving him alone too much would cause more crazy ideas to come to his head.

-" I heard he was working on another project." Evan look at the prefecture hall with a worried look, he hadn't spoken with Mathew since the day he had decided to build the wall. " He said that he is going to make gunpowder or something like that."

Jack shook his head, imagining this was another dazzling idea that he had come up to. "Gunpowder? I never heard abo————" A loud explosion rang out, causing Jack to stop talking and look in the direction of the sound.

-" Well, it seems that we don't have to wait any longer to see what is up to." Evan took a deep breath as he began to walk in the direction of the noise.

-" Good luck with that! I just expect that he doesn't come with more trouble for me." Jack had taken pity on Evan as he was the one who had to deal with all the troubles that Mathew caused.

Evan's face was full of worry as he rushed to the location that the sound came from, and he arrived just in time to watch where the sound came from, as a strange weapon made of iron shoot out a hard ball of pure iron into a nearby stone, completely destroying it.

-" Prepare for another round!" Mathew shouted as he moved to the front of the iron weapon, and began to clean its insides.

-" Mathew? What the hell is this?" Evan was astonished, just the loud roar of the weapon was enough to scare him.

-" A cannon!" Mathew beamed with happiness, he had barely slept for the past few months, as he worked without stopping to not only perfect the cement formula but, also create the first working cannon.

-" Cannon? What the hell is this supposed to be?" Evan approached the iron weapon, and touched it, only to quickly take off his hand as it was too hot.

-" The most innovative way to use black powder!" A man with bright blonde hair gazed at the cannon with a mixture of pride and fear. " While an iron ball propelled by black powder may not appear to be a dangerous weapon, its power is quite impressive."

-" Black Powder? The powder used to make fireworks?" Evan gasped as he finally realized how the weapon functioned. " Can this threaten a cultivator?"

-" Do you think that you can stop that ball?" Mathew let out a laugh and proceeded to put another ball in the cannon. " The difficult part would be to hit a cultivator, as they could easily dodge the ball, but, I already have a solution for this."

Evan looked at Mathew in awe, he didn't understand where the man got all his crazy ideas and deep knowledge.

Mathew finished preparing the next cannon shot and placed a few wood planks a few meters ahead.-" This is just wood, but, it should suffice as a testing subject." Mathew let out a grin as he looked at Evan. " Of course, if any of you want to go ahead and test the weapon power, I wouldn't mind it too." Mathew's life turned into a living hell in the past few months, not only was Evan disrespecting his authority and refusing to talk to him, even Irelia and Simon began to act a bit rowdy too.

-" T-Testing it?" Evan looked at the state that the weapon left the stone and quickly shook his head. "Wood planks are fine, it is just a test, after all, there is no need to go that far."

Mathew was about to insist on Evan being a test subject, however, an eagle's cry made him halt, and smile as he looked up. " Well, it seems that he arrived at the perfect time." Mathew waved towards the eagle, which quickly descend on the area.

-" Oh? Did that sound come from here?" Even at the distance, Allan could hear the loud booms, and rushed to the village, as he thought that the village was under attack.

-" Just testing a few things." Mathew slapped the cannon and gestured for Allan to back off as he was in front of the targets. " Did you come to get some more limestone? I can arrange that after showing this to you..." Mathew was sure that the cannons would be quite an interest for the kingdom's army, and showing it to Allan who had military connections was a good way to advertise it.

-" Is this the weapon?" The shape of the supposed weapon was strange, and even with all of his military experience he still wasn't sure what the strange iron pipe could do.

-" Just sit back and watch." Mathew prepared the cannon, making sure that it was aiming directly at the dozens of wood plank, and lightened its fuse.

Everyone present watched as the fuse slowly burned, and eventually reached the powder keg, igniting the cannon and shooting out a wave of small iron balls, that smashed into the wood planks, turning them into splinters and rubble in the blink of an eye.

Allan's eyes were wide open from shock, he had never seen such a great weapon, especially since it didn't require a cultivator to fire. " Good Lord! You were the one to create this?" Allan approached the planks and observed the damage. " Can you fire once again? I want to test its power."

-"Are you sure?" Mathew was just joking when he asked if anyone wanted to be a dummy for the test, as he didn't want to actually shoot anyone with the cannon.

-" Don't be afraid... I'm already at the peak of the Golden Core Stage, I can handle something like this." Allan was interested in the weapon, but, he first needed to verify if it truly had a usage on the battlefield.

-" Okay then! I will use the solid ammunition first!" Mathew quickly readied the cannon one more time and aimed at Allan. " Be ready, I will fire now!" Matthew blew the fuse and closed his eyes in fear of what was about to happen.

Allan gathered his Qi around his hands in preparation and focused on the cannon, only moving after the fuse had been blown, and the ball was flying in his direction. Allan let out a punch, using only half of his strength, and meet the flying ball directly.

The iron ball easily exploded as it meet Allan's fists, sending small shards of iron flying everywhere, and leaving a large plume of smoke in the air. Matthew opened his eyes after hearing the noise and sighed in relief as he saw Allan had destroyed the iron ball.

-" Another one, will restrict my cultivation to the Foundation Establishment stage." Allan quickly prepared himself for another round of testing, a nervous smile plastered all over his face.

-" Are you sure about this?" Mathew felt worried that Allan would end up being injured, but, he nonetheless began to ready another round. " Should I still use the solid ammunition?"

-" Do another solid ammunition, you can use the other after this." Allan gave a firm answer and unsheathed his sword.

-" Mathew... We need to be careful." Milton, who watched everything from the sidelines finally spoke up. " The cannon might get overheated and break."

-" Don't worry, we have to test how many shots they can make." Mathew knew that this was only the beginner stages of the cannon development, and they would still have to do many tests before the cannon could be reliable. " I'm done! Are you ready?" Mathew lighted the fuse once again, however, this time he didn't close his eyes, and observed Allan closely.

Because his powers were significantly weaker this time, he had a much more difficult time following the ball, but he was still able to cut the iron ball in half, taking great care not to injure anyone, as his previous attempt had nearly resulted in an accident.

-" Good power, I bet that even a mortal sword would break after deflecting a few of those." Allan nodded, certain that based on the few tests, this could injure even cultivators of the Foundation Establishment Realm. " Should we proceed to the next test?"

Mathew began to prepare the cannon again, however, a man came running towards them before he could ignite the fuse.

-" Help! Help" The villager's face was completely white in a mixture of exhaustion and fear. " Bandits have arrived!"

Mathew looked at the villager and returned his gaze to the cannon. -" Allan, it seems that we don't have to test this on you anymore." Mathew had a devious smile as he began to push the cannon down the hill. " Simon! Evan! The two of you will control the other two cannons, follow me!" Mathew didn't mind if the bandits arrived now because not only was the cannon ready to fire, but they also had Allan on their side in case something went wrong.