DLERB -Chapter 166 Blew Up Their Own Men? This Is Divine Power! Send It Back to Rome Immediately!

Deep within the mountain valley.

Torches burned the night sky crimson.

That monstrous machine stood in the center of the clearing.

It was enormous.

As large as two horse carriages combined.

Its surface was densely packed with gears, connecting rods, and dozens of thick bowstrings twisted from ox sinew.

Just looking at it made one’s scalp tingle.

The elderly Roman craftsman with graying hair clutched a hammer in trembling hands.

Whether from exhaustion or excitement, no one could tell.

“General…”

The old craftsman’s voice sounded as rough as though he had swallowed charcoal.

“It’s finished.”

Lucas stepped forward.

He reached out and touched the icy mechanism.

This was the power of the gods.

This was the fate of Great Qin, bought with five chests of gold.

“Test it.”

Lucas uttered a single command.

“But…”

The adjutant glanced nervously at the complicated structure and swallowed.

“General, this thing looks… unstable.”

“It hasn’t been calibrated yet. What if—”

“I said…”

Lucas suddenly turned around, his blue eyes bloodshot.

“Test it!”

No one dared speak again.

Four strong Roman soldiers stepped forward.

They grabbed the handles of the winding winch.

“Hah!”

The four exerted force together.

Creeeak—!

A teeth-grinding sound rang out.

It was the wail of ox sinew stretched to its absolute limit.

The gears inside the machine began turning, producing sharp clicking noises.

As though they might shatter at any moment.

“More force!”

The old craftsman roared from the side.

“The blueprint says it must be wound three full turns!”

The soldiers’ faces turned red-purple with strain.

Veins bulged across their foreheads.

Crack!

A sharp snap rang out.

One of the wooden connecting rods broke.

A fragment flew past the adjutant’s face, slicing a bloody line across his cheek.

The adjutant collapsed onto the ground in fright.

“Continue!”

Lucas did not even glance at him.

“Load the bolt!”

An iron spear as thick as a child’s arm was shoved into the firing groove.

Everyone held their breath.

The old craftsman shakily raised the triggering mallet.

He aimed at the red-colored mechanism.

The trigger of death.

“Fire!”

Lucas roared.

BANG!

The mallet struck down.

In that instant—

the entire surroundings fell into deathly silence.

There was no whistle of arrows tearing through the air.

No precise strike.

Only thunder.

BOOOOM—!!!

That gigantic machine exploded in that very moment.

Completely exploded.

Dozens of snapped ox sinews lashed wildly like whips.

Broken gears scattered in every direction like flying blades.

The massive wooden frame disintegrated outright, turning into countless splinters that blasted outward.

“AAAAHHH!!!”

The screams were heart-rending.

The four soldiers operating the winch suffered the worst of it.

Two were directly smashed away by flying debris, coughing blood in midair.

The other two rolled across the ground clutching their faces.

The old craftsman himself was overturned by the shockwave and thrown into the mud, dead or alive unknown.

Smoke and dust billowed everywhere.

The entire workshop had become a scene of devastation.

The adjutant crouched behind a rock, trembling uncontrollably.

It was over.

Everything was over.

What divine weapon?

This was clearly a murderous trap!

A bomb designed by the Qin people to slaughter them!

“Cough… cough…”

The adjutant waved away the dust before him, intending to check on the general.

The moment he raised his head—

he froze.

Lucas stood in the middle of the ruins.

His cape had been torn apart.

Blood streaked across his face.

Yet he stood perfectly straight.

He stared fixedly ahead.

Ten paces before him—

The giant boulder being used as the target—

had not been pierced by the iron spear.

Instead, the out-of-control spear, together with half of the shattered machine frame, had smashed directly into it and blown it apart!

The enormous rock split into pieces.

Stone fragments scattered everywhere.

“Ha…”

Lucas suddenly let out a strange sound.

The adjutant jumped in fright.

“General?”

“Hahahaha!”

Lucas burst into laughter.

The laughter grew louder.

Wilder.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Like a madman, he pointed first at the ruins, then at the shattered boulder.

“Do you see it?!”

He kicked aside a still-screaming soldier.

Then strode over to the pile of broken stone.

“Do you see it?!”

Lucas grabbed a fragment of rock and crushed it forcefully in his hand.

“This is power!”

“Power that mortals cannot control!”

The adjutant was dumbfounded.

He looked at the wounded soldiers scattered across the ground, then at the laughing general.

“But… General, it exploded…”

“It can’t even be used…”

“Idiot!”

Lucas suddenly turned and slapped him across the face.

Smack!

The adjutant spun in a circle from the blow.

“What do you understand?!”

Lucas’s eyes blazed with fanaticism, like a believer witnessing a true god.

“This is the Divine Mechanism Crossbow!”

“How could ordinary men possibly control the power of the gods on their very first attempt?”

“The reason it exploded is because its power is too great! So great that even ordinary wood cannot withstand it!”

He pointed at the shattered boulder.

“Look at this destructive force!”

“If this iron spear struck a city wall—or an enemy formation—”

“Can you imagine the result?”

“It would be slaughter!”

Lucas panted heavily.

He picked up the blueprint from the ground. Though stained with dust, it remained completely intact.

He slapped it loudly with the back of his hand.

“Treasure.”

“This is a true peerless treasure.”

“With this, the Roman legions will sweep aside everything before them!”

The adjutant covered his face, not daring to argue.

“But General, where will we build it?”

“The materials here are poor, and we don’t have enough craftsmen…”

Lucas interrupted him immediately.

He glanced around at the surroundings.

“This place won’t do.”

“Qin wood is inadequate. Qin iron is inadequate.”

“And besides…”

He lowered his voice and glanced in the direction of Xianyang.

“That Ninth Young Master is too sinister.”

“If we keep testing here, sooner or later he’ll discover us.”

Lucas quickly rolled the blueprint back up and carefully placed it into the brocade box again.

His movements were so cautious it was as if he were storing away his own heart.

“Pass down my orders.”

Lucas’s voice became cold and resolute.

“Prepare the ships.”

“We leave tonight.”

“You will personally lead the escort.”

He slammed the brocade box heavily into the adjutant’s arms.

“Take this back to Rome.”

“Deliver it to the Senate.”

“Tell them that I spared no cost to obtain the most terrifying divine weapon of the East.”

Lucas turned around and looked toward the pale white light beginning to appear in the eastern horizon.

A vicious sneer spread across his face.

“Have the finest craftsmen in the empire use the best steel and the best timber.”

“Build it for me!”

“Build a thousand of them! Ten thousand!”

“And when the army of Divine Mechanism Crossbows is complete…”

“I will personally return to Great Qin with them!”

“I’ll make that arrogant Ninth Young Master experience what it feels like to have divine thunder descend upon his head!”

The adjutant hugged the brocade box tightly.

He believed it now too.

If the general said it was a divine weapon, then it was a divine weapon.

“Yes!”

The adjutant stood ramrod straight.

“For Rome!”

Lucas waved his hand dismissively.

“Go.”

“The faster, the better.”

“Don’t let the Qin catch up.”

Watching the adjutant depart hurriedly into the night with several trusted men—

Lucas touched the bloody cut on his face left by a flying wood splinter.

It hurt.

But that pain only excited him more.

In his mind, he could already see Roman armies wielding Divine Mechanism Crossbows, blasting the iron cavalry of Great Qin into fragments.