Chapter 18

There was a moment of incredulous silence between us as Keqing looked at my nude form as I instinctively covered up and as her mouth opened in a stunned silence I finally reacted and yelled out. "Close the damned door pervert!" 

Keqing choked at my demand and I could tell the role reversal was a hammer to her mind as I took a step over and pulled the circular door closed with a metallic clanging noise that made my ears ring within the closed-in metal room.

'Well this is fucking awkward.' I thought blankly but before I could relax Keqing yanked the door open slightly and yelled in. "Jake, get dressed now and cut off this damned machine! We don't have any seals to block off the rampant spread of spiritual energy from leaking out into the wild!"

For a moment I blankly wondered what the damned issue was. Then it hit me as things had mostly been pretty calm since getting the massive metal and concrete wall around the machinery. The leaking spiritual energy was going to flood out eventually and gather the interest of any monsters or demons outside!

So I quickly pulled the lever to stop the catalyst converter which was breaking down the spirit stones and then I pulled on my clothes as quickly as I could and threw open the door as I hurriedly asked Keqing. "Are monsters coming?" 

The purple-haired Yuhung of Liyue blushed slightly seeing me, but my quick question made her refocuse as she seriously replied. "Indeed... It's inevitable really, due to you running that machine, the saturated spiritual energy that has flooded out of the machines passively will turn this area into a minor blessed land."

My face twitched and I wanted to scream as it wasn't like I was even letting much spiritual energy leak out! But seeing my reaction Keqing added on. "Jake, monsters and demons are beings of spiritual energy and are far more in tune with it... A place that is soaked in spiritual energy will scream food and opportunities to their senses. It's why Liyue is endlessly attacked by monsters and demons regardless of the endless defenses surrounding it."

I took a breath and nodded before speaking bluntly. "Alright, so we close the entrance to the dome, feed the angry spirit to eat the monsters, and the guards can clean up the rest right?" I brought out and Keqing wryly shook her head.

"Jake... I have no idea how, but you soaked the area in so much spiritual energy that its soaked into the materials making up the dome. But with it already being a closed system, the spiritual energy density within the dome is more than five times the basic level outside the dome, and spiritual beings can easily sense such a spiritual energy density." 

Keqing then finished off bluntly. "Such spiritual energy density is a prime target for Golden Core Cultivators or Xiantian Martial Artist leveled beings... I can't guarantee your life should something at that level come."

'You know... I really want a good space station right now. Fuck the surface of Teyvat honestly.' I thought with some frustration before taking a breath to calm my heart rate as I spoke. "Fine. I get it, I won't run the machine and I imagine Ningguang doesn't have cultivators or martial artists at your level able or willing to come further secure the area does she?" 

But Keqing actually paused and then bit her lip as something entered her mind and she grimaced. "Yes... Actually, there actually is, and she would be perfect to secure the area. But you get to babysit her!" She said with some irritation in her voice as she pulled out a thumb-sized stick of jade.

She then took a breath and spoke to the Jade piece which glowed with the white energy of Keqing's Ki. "Yelan, there's been a development... Please come here as tier three cultivators or demons will likely be making their way here. Also please send a message to Ganyu to quadruple the security of the caravans." 

The jade stick then flashed with light and seemingly disappeared from her hand with Keqing muttering under her breath. "There goes fifty spirit stones."

Hearing her mutter I couldn't help but tease her. "If you take responsibility I will make sure you have all the spirit stones you want!"

A violent twitch was Keqing's answer as she seemingly convulsed in frustration as she had no answer to seeing my naked having not knocked or anything. But with the joke made, I spoke more seriously. "So monsters are coming... I want to try to make something for you to use as an opening weapon." I spoke as I went to the tables and gathered some of the highly exotic materials I had on hand that could use along with a couple High Quality Spirit Stones Keqing traded me for a large amount of Medium Quality I could mine up.

"So the issue with my previous guns to a decent cultivator was two issues. One, tier three beings whether they be cultivators or martial artists have energy shields around them, but I have a question. What if the energy shield is overwhelmed by an extremely small projectile powered by simple unattributed spiritual energy?" I spoke as I began assembling my trump card beside Fatebringer which was strapped to my side.

At hearing my hypotheses Keqing answered with a hum. "The tier three being in a combat situation would have their energy fields naturally block all foreign energy sources to block out things like poison Ki or something akin to that." 

Hearing her answer I hummed but that didn't matter as I continued for the next while until finally finishing with a larger-than-usual Thompson Contender with two rounds laid beside the gun. 

But rather than normal rounds used in the gun, each round's shell was a high-quality spirit stone, and the actual bullet tip was a special metal called 'Soul Stealer Iron' due to its effect in doing damage to the spirit/soul of whatever it touched.

I was confident this would be a deadly surprise for anyone who got fired at... If only I could use it and not get my hand shattered by the force of the damned recoil though.

But while explaining to Keqing about what it did and how to reload it. A guard yelled at the entrance of the cabin. "Lady Yuhung! A Xiantian Hellboar has been seen inspecting around the cabin, and the sensors have picked up monsters in the surrounding forests!"