Chapter 261: Chapter 155: I Came Prepared This Time

On the way down the mountain, Gu Ziye gazed at the Snow Clams in the basket carried by a Mansion Guard.

The Snow Clams’ bodies were a snowy, almost translucent white. Their skin was smooth, and the muscles on their two hind legs were beautifully defined.

"Yuan~ So these are Snow Clams? What are they for?" Gu Ziye asked curiously.

"They’re an ingredient in a traditional medicine to help my wife and Aunt Zhao with their pregnancies," Lu Yuan answered truthfully.

"Yuan~ You’re such a good man, always taking care of the women in your life." Gu Ziye hopped in front of Lu Yuan and started walking backward, looking at him playfully.

Lu Yuan grabbed Gu Ziye and pulled her close. "Yue’Er, you need to watch where you’re going. This is a mountain path, not a flat road."

Gu Ziye muttered sullenly, "Oh..."

If Lu Yuan hadn’t pulled her back just now, she really might have tripped on a stone.

Lu Yuan entrusted the Snow Clams to the Mansion Guards for safekeeping. He felt at ease with them holding onto the creatures.

Lu Yuan, Gu Ziye, and the others retrieved their horses from the post station at the foot of the mountain and headed to a nearby county town.

After arriving at the Post House in the county town, Lu Yuan thought for a moment and decided to affix a few Talismans to the basket of Snow Clams.

These Talismans were not all the same. One of them provided concealment—not from people, but from Xingzi and other evil spirits.

Humans knew Snow Clams were a treasure, and so did the Xingzi.

If the Xingzi couldn’t catch Snow Clams themselves, they might covet those caught by humans.

Incidents of Xingzi snatching Snow Clams from people occurred from time to time each year, making the creatures all the more precious.

Corporeal Xingzi could strengthen their bodies by eating Snow Clams. Those with a Void Body could absorb the Snow Clams’ souls to increase their cultivation.

The Snow Clams of Buxian Mountain were said to be watched over by a Snow Clam King—a truly massive one at that.

It wasn’t a big deal for humans to capture a few.

In fact, one could say humans were benefiting from the Emperor’s grace.

The king of men possessed the Dragon Dao Fortune, so the Snow Clam King wouldn’t pick a fight with humanity over such a trivial matter and risk that bad luck.

The Xingzi, however, were a different story. This band of leaderless, undisciplined troublemakers was all over the place, and the Snow Clam King had no patience for their antics.

Of course, this was all just something Lu Yuan had later heard from the villagers at the foot of Buxian Mountain. There was no proof, so he just treated it as a story.

No one knew if it was true or not, and no one had ever seen what the Snow Clam King looked like.

Lu Yuan was worried the Xingzi might come to steal his Snow Clams, so in addition to the concealment Talisman, he also used Talismans to suppress their scent and keep them calm.

This way, the Xingzi and other evil spirits wouldn’t know he had caught Snow Clams and wouldn’t be able to track them.

He had learned about these Talismans from the *Celestial Master* manual and from Su Liyan.

Oh, right!

Lu Yuan took out Lu Ban’s Ink Pot from his robes and snapped several circles of ink lines around the basket.

’Now it’s truly foolproof.’

Lu Yuan’s meticulous preparations were because he planned to use his free time over the next few days in the county town.

He would sneak back up the mountain alone to find the Long Snake in the pool beneath the waterfall.

That was why he had to leave the Snow Clams with the Mansion Guards and couldn’t carry them with him.

Lu Yuan began preparing his things that night, intending to head up the mountain again after daybreak.

Sitting on his bed, Lu Yuan took stock of his supplies. "Realgar bullets, Balsamine..."

The next morning, Lu Yuan turned down Gu Ziye’s invitation to tour the town, using cultivation as an excuse.

Gu Ziye had no choice but to take her Personal Guards and go have fun in the county town on her own.

It was also the first time Gu Ziye had bought Lu Yuan so many local specialties, which she later gave to him.

Lu Yuan arranged for Mansion Guards to stand watch over his room and prevent anyone from approaching.

Then, Lu Yuan slipped into the mountains alone.

’It’s best if no one else knows about this hunt for the Long Snake.’

If he managed to capture such a valuable prize, he could keep it for himself.

Most importantly, he didn’t want others to know about his methods.

Lu Yuan remembered the path up the mountain and soon arrived above the ravine’s waterfall.

He was a good ten zhang vertically from the pool below.

’Even if the Long Snake leaps, it won’t be able to reach me from this distance.’

Lu Yuan laid out his equipment one by one.

Everything was taken out from his System Space.

Ever since he discovered the System Space could be used for storage...

...Lu Yuan had stored quite a few things inside it for emergencies.

Lu Yuan donned a suit of Golden Silk Armor, just in case.

He also carried some Balsamine in his robes, picked yesterday on Buxian Mountain.

There’s a saying: wherever a venomous snake is found, its antidote will be within ten paces.

’This Balsamine is supposed to repel snakes, but I don’t know if it works on a Long Snake. Still, no harm in carrying it.’

With his preparations complete, Lu Yuan slung an Automatic Rifle over his back.

He had several Thunder Bombs stuffed in his pants pockets.

On the ground, he set up a Sniper Rifle and also positioned an improved Mortar.

This improved Mortar could be handheld, and its power was greater than before.

It was more like an RPG-style Rocket Launcher, capable of being either mounted or handheld.

Lu Yuan had secretly tinkered with and created all this equipment himself.

The quantity was limited, so he prioritized his own use. He planned to slowly increase the number and store them in his System Space later.

Only a very few people knew a thing or two about these weapons; Lu Yuan wouldn’t tell just anyone.

This kind of stuff would be absolutely earth-shattering in the Divine Ling Empire.

No matter how strong an army’s fighting force was, or how many people could unleash Sword Qi...

...one shell landing in their midst would tear them to pieces.

Even the Court’s Red Coat Cannons were nothing compared to the gear in Lu Yuan’s hands.

Of course, Lu Yuan had also supplied a batch of Mortars to Aunt Song’s younger brother to help with suppressing bandits.

With that batch of Mortars, Aunt Song’s brother had even been promoted to the rank of General and was highly regarded by his superiors.

But the Mortars back then could only be called "mortar-like." Their range and power were far inferior to the one he had set up on the ground now.

Lu Yuan wanted to lure the Long Snake out of the pool, but there was no door to knock on, and shouting wouldn’t work. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The best method was to blast it out. Simple and direct.

Lu Yuan lit a hastily made realgar bomb and tossed it down from his high perch.

’The bomb itself already contained sulfur, and this time I’ve added extra realgar. Since they both repel snakes, it can’t hurt to add both.’

The realgar bomb entered the water without a sound.

The noise was completely masked by the roar of the waterfall.

He could only see the realgar bomb sink into the pool, sending up a stream of bubbles—GLUG GLUG GLUG—and causing ripples to spread across the water’s surface.

It sank for a good seven or eight seconds before exploding.

Lu Yuan had set the detonation time himself.

The pool was bottomless; an early explosion would have been useless.

The sound of the explosion wasn’t very loud, as it was absorbed by the water.

But its explosive power was not to be underestimated. The resulting column of water shot a full three to four zhang into the air.

Don’t look down on a small bomb; it all depends on where you use it.

Lu Yuan knew this from experience. Before he transmigrated, he had once used small firecrackers to blow up water-filled ponds and jars. Any container of even slightly poor quality would be blown to pieces.

After a short while, Lu Yuan saw the pool water turn yellow—the color of sulfur and realgar.

Immediately after, the same Long Snake he had seen yesterday crawled out.

It was clear the Long Snake had taken a heavy hit from the bomb. Its head was probably still reeling.

"Well now, this little guy is pretty arrogant. I flicked some Sword Qi at it yesterday, and it’s still lazing around in the same spot. It’s really looking down on me," Lu Yuan muttered to himself.

Even as he spoke, his hands were not idle for a second.

’While you’re dazed, I’ll take your life!’

Lu Yuan raised the Sniper Rifle and took aim at the Long Snake.

As the saying goes, to kill a snake, you strike seven inches from its head. But with a creature this massive, measuring seven inches down was unreliable.

The Long Snake’s head alone was several times seven inches long.

Still, it was easy enough to find the spot. It was just a regular snake scaled up proportionally. Lu Yuan could estimate where the Long Snake’s "seven-inch" weak spot was.

He was aiming for the point where the head connected to the torso—the location of its heart.

Lu Yuan fired a single shot.

The disoriented snake felt a sharp pain in its body; Lu Yuan’s sniper shot had hit its mark.

Unfortunately, the bullet didn’t penetrate to the heart as Lu Yuan had expected.

He could see that the bullet had just barely broken the skin of the Long Snake’s body and was now stuck there.

The pain from the shot, however, served to snap the Long Snake out of its stupor.

The Long Snake resorted to its old trick, letting out another series of roars.

It unleashed a deafening bellow!

Lu Yuan had already put in earplugs to mitigate the sonic attack.

"Bring it on, baby. I came prepared this time!"