Destiny in Cinders

Chapter 104: Drone Shopping

Unlike the free-trade zone, the three lower floors that dealt in weapons and equipment didn’t have any storefronts to speak of. Instead, they were merely rows of sealed metallic warehouses, each representing a brand or manufacturer. Each warehouse had a waterscreen and a helpful staff member. To make a purchase, one needed only to select the equipment from the waterscreen and return to the safe zone where the equipment would be brought over by a puppet.

On closer inspection, there were many light-gold talisman seals on the doors of the warehouses. They seemed quite dangerous; Yvelbane warned An Jing not to approach them.

”Those are seals of the North Yin tradition. Before the cultivator’s divine sense emerges from the purple mansion at the seventh fold of cultivation, the seals will dazzle their souls and scatter them. Even after reaching sevenfold or more, a soul that has yet to reach the Foundation Building Realm would be destabilized to the point that it halves the amount of spirit energy a cultivator can muster at their full potential,” Yvelbane said. ”These types of seals are incredibly ancient. They probably date back to the time of the Dao Sect. I didn’t think that we’d see traces of them in Skysource too.”

”I guess it’s a safe way to do business. This way, trigger-happy buyers wouldn’t be able to whip out the weapon on the spot right after the transaction.” An Jing was sure that this was one of the many measures the black market had adopted, no doubt after witnessing many such incidents. The lessons were paid for in blood.

There were much fewer shoppers at the warehouse area. Most of them seemed to be in a rush, quickly leaving after they made their selection on the screen. An Jing, on the other hand, took his sweet time. He first went to a store with a logo of a single peak and the sun of dawn and turned on the screen there.

He was greeted by a whole series of weapons and equipment. An Jing already had a plan and filtered out all the weapons and selected the checkbox for ”drone.” The list of products quickly shrank.

The logo depicted Shouyang Mountain and was the symbol of one of the three corporations in Deepnight City, the Shouyang Group. When he had taken breaks within the cultivation room, he browsed through the history of Skysource. The Feng clan of Shouyang Mountain was a legacy passed down by one of the four great primordial deities. This faction eventually formed the Shouyang Group that had all sorts of goods and services under their umbrella, ranging from cultivation academies, military needs, food and beverage, entertainment and media, to industry and agriculture.

The Shouyang logo that was depicted there also had a dagger-axe marking beneath it, which meant that it was operated by one of the subsidiaries owned by the Shouyang Group, Golddagger Industries. They specialized in heavy, crude but reliable goods.

The options that showed up on the screen were mostly heavily armed. Even machine guns were considered child’s play compared to what could be fitted on them. The heavyweight classes had batteries that could fire ten guided rockets at once as well as five railguns, and these were only the drones that a non-member like An Jing could see.

The most impressive among them was a massive combat drone called the Flamedragon. It was twelve by eight meters in size and shaped like a formation disc. Uploaded with a Hexsun combat program, it was able to use solar blaze to reduce an area a few streets wide into melting wastes. The vilespawn fiend would be no different than a pile of roast meat before it.

”This thing is 34,000 merits? I guess real firepower does come with a huge price tag after all.” An Jing was stunned by the asking price. The other machine-gun-equipped drones only cost 175 merits, and those with explosives and mounted railguns only cost around 1500.

The Flamedragon, however, was no longer a mere artifact. Thanks to the Hexsun combat program, it could be considered the epitome of a spirit artifact that could be considered a family heirloom, hence the staggering price premium. It was a good piece of equipment, but not what An Jing needed on top of being out of his budget.

”If I can’t find any useful drones, I can just buy a few basic ones to use for scouting and distracting the vilespawn fiend.” He made a mental note of that and looked at another series, which was produced by a subsidiary of the Luofu Group, owned by the Chen clan of Luofu Mountain that inherited the legacy of another primordial deity. The company was called North Firmament, known for their tagline ”ride the winds with ease and dazzle like an illusion.”

The drones produced by North Firmament were mostly high-speed reconnaissance drones or ones that were capable of illusion cloaking. Most of them weren’t armed and were meant for espionage rather than combat, which fit An Jing’s needs rather well.

As long as he wasn’t being tracked down by a karmic ability, he could hide himself from the demonic cult and the heavenly fiend. But if his stealth skills weren’t good enough, heavenly fiends could still sniff him out, which rendered it pointless. He remembered it before moving on to the next company’s warehouse.

There was quite a huge variety for him to sift through. Crimson Burning Land specialized in manufacturing swarm-type self-destruct drones, while Trisource Jadevoid’s drones played a support role in combat, focusing on buffs, healing, detoxification and curse removal. Seven Jewels’ drones had many different functions that could be modularly swapped out, and Three-Nine’s drones could disrupt the soul.

When he saw the self-destruct drones, An Jing was stunned. He asked the staff member how in the world they were so cheap at fifty merits each. Wouldn’t gangs just buy them in bulk for assassinations?

”Dear customer, surely you jest. How would you be able to activate drones in safe zones without a special license? You won’t be able to activate weapons systems either.” The staff member explained everything to An Jing politely since he was a badlander. ”Armed drones are mostly made for use in the badlands to make up for combat power and other needs. You won’t be able to use them in safe zones like cities.

”We definitely recommend that you buy a few self-destruct drones for use in your tribal lands. They are really effective against the less intelligent feys and beasts. The crimsonflame blitz within them can pierce through the carapace of most feys. It’s much more effective than most armor-piercing spirit-beam cannons used in badlander tribes.”

It’s perfect for what I need. Just you wait, vilespawn fiend! An Jing added a few crimsonflame drones to his cart. ”Are there other drones that are good for scouting?”

”Scouting... May I ask if you are going to scout from a fixed position, or do you require a portable, mobile solution? Do you need one for smaller areas or larger ones? What about operation duration?”

An Jing listed all his requirements. Soon, the staff member found a drone that fitted his needs perfectly. It was called the Hexlotus Platform. Just like an actual lotus, the main unit was about two palms wide and it could release six smaller subunits to gather information from different locations.

Apart from that, the main unit could let out a powerful blast of air to send people flying away. The subunits could also resonate to create lots of noise to disrupt the hearing of a pursuer. It was perfect for scouting and distracting the heavenly fiends or demonic cults at crucial moments.

Most importantly, it was discounted! Normally, it cost 480 merits, but An Jing could get it for 320 and also get a set of spare subunits that was worth sixty merits! It was an irresistible deal.