Chapter 375: Chapter 211: Brother Pingtou: "Big Bro, Do Me a Favor, Let Me Down!

The late autumn night was biting cold, even more so halfway up the mountain.

Lu Yuan was crammed in a tent with his close confidant. The great, whistling wind made the tent canvas flap loudly, making it impossible for Lu Yuan to fall asleep.

With his mind wide awake, Lu Yuan thought of the heated bed in the Zhao Mansion back in Taiping City, layered with several mattresses and topped with a wool blanket.

He remembered sleeping at night with one arm under Su Liyan’s neck and his other hand resting on her, all under a silkworm-spun quilt.

It was so warm and toasty under the covers—as comfortable as could be.

Nothing like his current situation: a man snoring softly beside him, and a bitter, cold wind raging outside.

This close confidant of his really wasn’t picky. He could fall asleep anywhere.

Having grown accustomed to the lap of luxury, Lu Yuan was finding it a little hard to adjust.

Lu Yuan lay flat on his back, eyes open. ’I’m just making things hard for myself,’ he thought.

’Gu Gaochi is plump and weak. I could have just given him some Chinese medicine to recuperate and called it a day.’

’A dignified Fourth Grade Prefect, yet he never shows up for work. All he knows is how to wander around, like some street loiterer.’

A few bestial cries and roars tore through the sky, the sounds seeming to come from several miles away.

Lu Yuan didn’t think much of it. Demon Beasts often appeared in the deep mountains and old forests, and they were most active at night.

’Since I can’t sleep, I might as well go for a walk. I’ll just have to avoid those ugly Xingzi,’ Lu Yuan thought.

Lu Yuan wasn’t afraid of ordinary Demon Beasts like jackals, wolves, tigers, or leopards.

Lu Yuan threw on his cloak, pulled on his boots, and stepped out of the tent, grabbing an Automatic Rifle that was propped up outside.

Lu Yuan had plenty of weapons and equipment stored in his System Space, so he wasn’t short on rifles.

Lu Yuan had a fear of insufficient firepower that felt like it was etched into his very genes, so he always made sure to stuff some newly made weapons into his System Space.

The Flintlock Guns, Rifles, Automatic Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Mortars, and personal rocket launchers piled up in his System Space, an accumulation of several generations of products, were enough to equip an entire reinforced battalion.

The wind was desolate and cold, the moonlight bleak.

Lu Yuan ambled along at a leisurely pace with the Rifle slung over his back. In his hands, he kneaded a lump of iron as if it were modeling clay.

One moment, Lu Yuan would roll the iron into a ball; the next, he would stretch it into a long strip.

If one looked closely, they would see a Flame flickering in his palm; he was actually forging the iron lump in his hand.

With nothing better to do, Lu Yuan followed the sound of the bestial cries. A little late-night hunting wasn’t a bad way to pass the time.

After ten-odd minutes, Lu Yuan had kneaded the iron lump into a section of pipe. He then used his fingernail to carve a dozen or so rifling grooves into its inner wall.

Lu Yuan carved a dozen or so similar grooves onto the barrel of his Rifle.

He tried fitting the iron pipe onto the Rifle’s barrel. There were a few spots where it didn’t quite fit, so he made some fine adjustments.

The few Sniper Rifles he had were all equipped with suppressors, but none of them were compatible with the Rifle he was holding.

Lu Yuan looked at the suppressor and flash hider he had hand-forged, quite satisfied.

Reaching the edge of a cliff, Lu Yuan activated his infrared Celestial Eye and scanned the base. Aside from a mountain stream and a steep rock face, there was nothing else.

"Strange, the beast cries came from this direction. How did I end up at a cliff?" Lu Yuan deactivated his infrared Celestial Eye function, not wanting to waste too much energy, and muttered to himself.

Seeing the path ahead blocked, Lu Yuan turned to wander elsewhere. He had no other goal than to kill this one hour of time.

Lu Yuan looked at the moon and stars in the night sky, guessing the approximate time.

The sky was clear, unobscured by dust. The starry expanse was beautiful, filled with countless stars.

He estimated it was about half an hour until midnight.

"Who dares disturb my sweet dreams?" A tender, childish voice reached Lu Yuan’s ears.

Lu Yuan froze and scanned his surroundings. There was nothing. ’Maybe I’m hallucinating,’ he thought.

Before Lu Yuan had taken more than a few steps, he heard the voice again. "Hehehe, I’m talking to you, kid. You almost stepped on me."

Only then was Lu Yuan certain he hadn’t been hearing things. He looked down at his feet and found only a small animal.

Lu Yuan pinched it between two fingers and brought it closer to his face, getting a rough look at it in the moonlight.

It looked like a rabbit a few months old, or something of the sort.

’There’s no way this thing was talking,’ Lu Yuan thought to himself, then casually tossed it a dozen meters away.

"Oof!"

Lu Yuan stared at the spot a dozen meters away. ’Could that sound have really come from it?’

A disturbance rustled the grass, and the creature he had thrown came charging back toward him.

Lu Yuan stood his ground, not bothering to dodge.

The little fella ran up to Lu Yuan’s feet and started gnawing on his boot, letting out a low growl.

’Is this thing part dog? It loves chewing on people’s shoes.’

Lu Yuan flattened one hand into a palm and, using his powerful Inner Strength, telekinetically pulled the small animal from his feet into his grasp.

"Hehehe, be gentle!" The creature flailed its four paws, letting out an occasional whimper.

Lu Yuan held it and took another close look, then blurted out, "Brother Pingtou?"

"Kid, what ’Brother Pingtou’? I’m a honey badger! Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! The name’s Xiaotian!" The arrogant little creature shouted in human speech.

Lu Yuan held Brother Pingtou by the scruff and said, "Oh, so it really was you talking, little mutt. You’re not very big, but you’ve already learned to speak."

Brother Pingtou folded its two front paws across its chest and said, "My name is Xiaotian. Speaking your language is almost too easy."

Lu Yuan conjured a Flame in his left hand and shot it out five or six meters in front of him.