Scarface took a deep breath, struck a match, and lit the fuse. A thin wisp of green smoke rose from it as the spark quickly raced upward.
He spun around and took off, practically diving to roll behind the crowd of men.
BOOM! A deafening explosion ripped through the valley.
The ground beneath them trembled violently. Nearby treetops shook, showering down a flurry of leaves. In the distance, mountain birds shrieked in alarm and took flight with a panicked flapping of wings.
Debris flew and dust filled the air.
But the moment the dust billowed up, Lu Yun’s ears caught a shrill screech, almost completely drowned out by the explosion.
It was identical to the one he had heard at the Lu Family Mansion. A faint smile touched the corners of his lips.
’Just as I thought. There are some supernatural beasts here.’
From the pile of rubble where the ravine had collapsed, wisps of grayish-white, cold mist began to seep out.
This wasn’t ordinary mountain mist. It was too thick, too heavy, hugging the ground as it spread.
In the blink of an eye, the dense fog swallowed the cave entrance and the surrounding woods.
Scarface’s voice, filled with uncontrollable panic, came from within the fog. "Lord Lu, a fog’s rolled in! I can’t see!"
"Boss? Boss, where are you?" the other gunmen shouted in alarm.
The dense fog obscured their vision, making it impossible to see a person three steps away. The only sound was their own ragged breathing.
RUSTLE... RUSTLE RUSTLE...
Something was crawling across the leaf-littered ground—fast, and in great numbers.
Fortunately, Lu Yun’s perception of that cold, sinister aura was far clearer than any sight.
’Thirty feet to my left!’
Having found his target, he took a step forward, his right hand shooting into the fog.
He had firmly grasped the nape of an infant-sized yellow weasel!
It snapped its jaws, revealing rows of fine, sharp fangs as it frantically gnawed at the back of Lu Yun’s hand.
Its four paws thrashed, wildly kicking and clawing at his arm.
Then, the yellow weasel let out an utterly piercing shriek as its fangs shattered and its claws broke.
Lu Yun looked down at it. The next moment, his right fist filled with scorching Qi, and he mercilessly smashed it down.
The Fist Force passed through its body. The yellow weasel’s form suddenly stiffened in mid-air, and then, as if consumed by raging fire, it was burned into nothingness.
’Two big ones left.’
Without pausing, Lu Yun spun around and lunged straight for the source of the coldest, most sinister aura he could sense.
He threw another punch, and a pained howl echoed from the distance.
In the fog, Scarface strained his eyes wide, but he couldn’t see a thing. His ears were filled with the RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE of crawling.
His hand gripping the gun was covered in cold sweat, the muzzle wavering, yet he had no idea where to aim.
Scarface yelled at the top of his lungs, perhaps to reassure his men or himself, "Don’t be scared! Nobody fire! Stay calm! Don’t shoot our own people!"
Just then, as if sensing something, he turned to look.
A face—no, not a face. That was a fucking gaping, bloody maw.
A weasel the size of a human head had appeared, hovering just inches behind him.
It bared its ghastly white fangs, saliva stretching into thin threads from the corners of its mouth as it lunged to bite down on his throat!
Scarface’s mind went blank.
’Don’t be scared? Goddammit, *this* is supposed to be not scary?’
Then, a firm, powerful hand reached out from over his shoulder and pressed squarely down on the crown of the weasel’s head.
The yellow weasel’s open mouth seemed to freeze in place. Lu Yun’s expression was calm as he swung his right fist, wreathed in scorching Qi.
After letting out a few miserable cries, the yellow weasel struggled, kicking its hind legs a few times before dissolving into nothingness within the scorching Fist Force.
As this last weasel died, the dense fog began to dissipate.
The darkness receded, revealing the same bright afternoon, filled with the clear chirping of birds.
Scarface looked down at his still-trembling legs. He opened his mouth. "Lord Lu, thank you..."
After confirming there were no other threats, Lu Yun turned his attention inward.
[Extreme Blue Martial Arts Modifier]
Name: Lu Yun
Gender: Male
Realm: Grandmaster of Huajin (Late Stage)
Cultivation Techniques: Mountain-Breaking Inch Force Fist 3rd Floor (Initiate) (Modifiable), Hard Qigong 2nd Floor (Initiate) (Modifiable)
Modification Value: 117
’Fifty points. This trip to Jade Mushroom Mountain netted me 50 points of modified value, just like that. How many Ginseng Kings would I have had to eat to get that much?’
’Excellent.’
"Down the mountain."
Lu Yun wasted no more words. Tapping his Purple Vine Staff on the ground, he led the way down the mountain.
Behind him, Scarface and the nineteen gunmen scrambled to follow as if they had been granted a royal pardon.
Lu Yun’s group returned to the main path from a small trail overgrown with weeds. Just as they stepped onto the mountain road, they were met with a clamor of angry shouts.
"...Useless trash! Dawdling! If you can’t walk any faster, I’ll chop off one of your legs!"
A short, stocky, thuggish-looking man was beating a scrawny, stumbling young bandit behind him with a wooden stick.
"Boss, Boss, calm down!"
The young bandit shielded his head as he dodged. "I-I’m just so hungry my legs are weak..."
"Hungry? Hungry my ass!"
The big man whipped him again. "If we don’t rob a fat sheep on the main road today, I’ll sell all of you for grain!"
A sparse group of about thirty men straggled behind him, each one sallow, emaciated, and dressed in rags.
Some carried rusty machetes; others held old, single-shot rifles.
At a glance, they were the type of roving bandits who haunted the foot of the mountain, not even qualifying as a proper gang with a den.
The big man was still cursing, "Dammit, last time we dug up that big tomb, we got so much good stuff. Selling even one piece would have been enough for me to live on for a lifetime!"
"If it weren’t for that good-for-nothing Xiao Sanzi not coming back after he went to the city... I’d have gone to another provincial capital to live like a lord by now."
Just as he was getting into the swing of his tirade, he suddenly looked up. The two groups had run right into each other on the mountain path.
The big man froze. The thirty-odd bandits behind him also froze.
They stared dumbly at the twenty-one sturdy men opposite them, and at the ten dark, gleaming muzzles of the submachine guns.
The air fell silent.
Scarface leaned close to Lu Yun and said without any attempt to hide his words, "Lord Lu, should we take care of these petty mountain bandits while we’re at it? Leaving them around would just be a menace!"
Hearing this, the short, stocky bandit leader shivered. With almost no hesitation, he dropped to his knees with a THUD.
"My lords! Please, my lords, spare our lives!"
The thirty-odd bandits behind him reacted even faster. In an instant, they were all kneeling, their hands raised straighter than flagpoles.
"Spare us, spare us! We’re just trying to get by! We’ve never killed anyone!"
"It’s true! At most, we just take some toll money from travelers! We don’t take lives!"
"Good sirs! Kind sirs! We have things in our camp! It’s all yours! All of it!"
The short, stocky man knelt at the very front, kowtowing desperately, his forehead striking the gravel until it bled, not even bothering to wipe it away.
"A few months ago, we excavated a large tomb! There’s a lot of stuff inside! There are early Yin Court antiques and calligraphy, and also a few... a few items from the Zulong Dynasty!"
"It’s all yours! As long as you don’t kill us, you can take it all!"

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