Chapter 154: Spirit Stones Truly Smell Amazing!

Radiance burst forth from the rune formation.
The next moment, the pitch-black turret, along with its barrel, emitted a low, buzzing roar.
Immediately following this, Lu Chen felt his consciousness merge with the entire Psionic Spear-Cannon, instantly granting him a full understanding of how to operate it.
Powered by a spirit stone formation and guided and directed by conscious energy—in simple terms, it involved locking onto a target with one's mind and then triggering the launch of the Psionic Spear-Cannon, operating on a principle similar to a missile.
Filled with anticipation, Lu Chen aimed at a small hill some twenty-odd miles outside the city.
In truth, he could not actually see the hill with his beastly eyes. However, having previously marked that location to prevent getting lost, he could now clearly sense it through the magnetic field.
As Lu Chen’s consciousness transmitted the command to attack, a terrifying beam of light erupted from within the barrel.
This beam of light, fully as thick as a water barrel and radiating an overwhelming aura of destruction, flashed and vanished into the distance.
So fast was its speed that even Lu Chen failed to catch a glimpse of the spear itself.
Only a burning trail stretched across the sky, cleaving the thick fog in two.
Rumble!
It was only then that the nearby air exploded violently, forming a visible vortex that rapidly spread in all directions.
Even from a distance of over twenty miles, Lu Chen could sense the majestic energy fluctuations erupting amidst the fog, accompanied by a deafening roar.
Looking far into the distance, the center of the explosion had formed a massive vacuum zone. Following that, several gigantic supersonic shockwave rings soared straight into the sky, piercing even the thick fog in a truly spectacular display!
Brimming with high expectations, Lu Chen leaped into the air and flew at top speed toward the blast site.
Good grief!
Upon arriving at close range, Lu Chen was utterly stunned.
The hill, originally dozens of meters high, had been completely reduced to nothingness.
All vegetation and rocks within a radius of a thousand meters had been utterly vaporized to dust.
Even the fog seemed to have been bitten away in a huge chunk by a ferocious beast, refusing to close back up for a long time.
Farther away, utter devastation reigned.
The area struck by the giant spear bore a massive crater spanning thousands of square feet and plunging dozens of yards deep, where all matter had been pulverized.
It took more than ten seconds for Lu Chen to recover his senses.
Within his beastly eyes, a trace of fear now lingered.
While the Psionic Spear-Cannon could not match the range of human modern weaponry, its sheer destructive power was by no means inferior.
Aside from nuclear weapons, humanity likely possessed no armament of such terrifying magnitude.
Caught off guard, even he would probably be unable to withstand it.
If this contraption were used to attack ferocious beasts, a single shot would likely leave not even a trace of bone fragments behind.
However, it consumed far too many spirit stones.
A single firing consumed over a hundred spirit stones—which, translated to current human market prices, was roughly equivalent to a small fortune.
The most expensive conventional tactical missiles from the pre-apocalyptic era in the eagle-land cost no more than six million dollars apiece.
Of course, the destructive power of the two could not be mentioned in the same breath.
For Lu Chen, it was simply unaffordable and temporarily unnecessary.
For humanity, however, the situation was vastly different. If the Psionic Spear-Cannon were brought into the human world, it would undoubtedly be a supreme pillar of the nation, utterly priceless.
Had they possessed this device a few days ago, Dong Mingjun's crisis response team during their battle against the Kaiju would never have found themselves in such a wretched and overwhelmed state.
A single shot would likely have easily decapitated that Kaiju King.
Naturally, the issue of blood contamination was a separate matter.
Thus, if he were to sell the Psionic Spear-Cannon to humanity, what price should he demand... at the very least, tens of thousands of tier-one spirit stones.
Yet Lu Chen hesitated slightly as to whether he should sell it.
Tens of thousands of spirit stones still held a considerable temptation for him.
It meant that his accumulated energy points would reach seventy million, pushing his evolutionary completion rate past seventy percent.
With a little more effort, he might well become a tier-seven fierce beast by next month.
The two ancient sages of his past life were right: "With twenty percent profit, capital becomes eager; with fifty percent profit, it becomes audacious; with three hundred percent profit, it tramples every human law."
"For the sake of profit, capitalists would willingly sell the rope to hang themselves."
Lu Chen was fully aware that the appearance of the Psionic Spear-Cannon in human hands would undoubtedly pose a grave threat to the fierce beasts of the Blue Planet.
However... spirit stones were truly too tempting!
And he was in desperate need of them.
Lu Chen was far from foolish... he believed he had carefully weighed the power of the Psionic Spear-Cannon.
First, he possessed a sharp instinctive sense of crisis, allowing him to anticipate external threats in advance. The moment anything felt amiss, he would immediately flee.
Rather than foolishly lingering in place and allowing the opponent to lock onto him.
Even with an attack speed ten times the speed of sound, he could fully evade it when prepared.
At worst, he could rely on his physical body to endure the blow.
Previously, his scale armor defense value of just over three thousand points was enough to easily resist thirty-millimeter machine gun fire. Now, with a value approaching six thousand points, his theoretical defense had doubled, making ordinary missile strikes manageable as well.
Furthermore, he could instantly activate the "Marsh of Earth" protection.
Therefore, after much deliberation, Lu Chen ultimately decided to sell this Psionic Spear-Cannon.
As for the price... he would set it at thirty thousand tier-one spirit stones, roughly equivalent to thirty billion Xia currency.
While the asking price seemed exorbitant, considering the current predicament facing humanity, Lu Chen considered himself a most conscientious merchant. After all, this gadget was undeniably a supreme national strategic asset, and its practicality even surpassed that of a nuclear weapon.
After all, it only required recharging with spirit stones to fire, possessed immense destructive power, and caused zero pollution.
Lu Chen believed that once he sent the recorded video to Dong Mingjun, the man would undoubtedly be hooked.
Suppressing the joy welling up in his heart, Lu Chen continued to wander around the plaza.
Before long, he discovered another enormous platform at the edge of the plaza, crafted from an equally unknown material.
It was circular overall, its periphery carved with numerous profound and complex runes, along with many recesses.
Stylistically, it shared the exact same lineage as the Psionic Spear-Cannon, belonging to the remnants left behind by the humans of another dimension, though its purpose remained a mystery.
As usual, Lu Chen turned on his communicator to record a video before placing spirit stones into the recesses.
Having made all preparations, he braced himself with intense vigilance, wrapping his body in a thick layer of muddy armor formed from swamp black mud.
Then, he infused energy to activate the rune formation.
Boom!
"Crack, snap..."
An invisible, colossal explosion suddenly resounded beside Lu Chen.
The sound seemed to contain countless laws of energy, as well as binding imprints, completely enveloping his body within its grasp.
Instinctively, Lu Chen sensed the presence of danger.
He hurriedly moved his body, attempting to break free and escape, only to find that he was completely unable to move.
The void shattered.
Various chaotic auras surged, and a hazy blur filled his vision. Countless stars seemed to flicker, while simultaneously nothingness seemed to prevail...
Bang, bang, bang... The alloy-hardened black mud shields shattered violently.
Lu Chen's pride—his scale armor—tore open with bloody gashes as swiftly as if made of paper.
His muscles, limbs, and bones felt as though a crushing mountain of ten thousand jun had slammed down upon them, threatening to grind him into a pulp of flesh.
Simultaneously, an unseen, ultra-sharp force sliced through the air, sending countless strips of flesh and blood flying.