Chapter 243: Chapter 146: Two Aunties, I’m Back

Lu Yuan could only shake his head with a wry smile and put a stop to the uncle and niece’s squabbling. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Lu Yuan continued, "Alright, since you’re already here, just stay with us. Don’t go running off."

Lu Yuan glanced at the four Personal Guards behind Gu Ziye, then thought for a moment.

He said to Gu Ziye, "Yue’Er, as it happens, we’re short on manpower. I’ll have to ask your Personal Guards to work with my Mansion Guards for this operation."

Gu Ziye’s pride swelled at his words. She lifted her chin and declared, "No problem! My four Personal Guards are supremely skilled, masters of all eighteen forms of martial arts."

However, martial arts weren’t what tonight’s operation required.

Lu Yuan replied, "Oh. In that case, I’ll have three of my Mansion Guards lead them."

Lu Yuan gave four extra firearms to his Mansion Guards, instructing them to wait for his signal before handing them over to Gu Ziye’s Personal Guards.

Then, Lu Yuan had the three Mansion Guards lead the four Personal Guards to the opposite mountain.

When Lu Yuan saw the signal from the mountain opposite him, he knew it had been secured.

This would allow them to form a pincer attack.

Once Gu Ziye’s Personal Guards were gone, Lu Yuan began assembling his own gun.

’Lu Yuan simply didn’t trust the four Personal Guards Gu Ziye brought with her. There was no reason he should.’

’He worried there might be a spy from the Court among them. It was a suspicion without proof, so it was best not to voice it—just sending them away was enough.’

’Lu Yuan didn’t want the Court to discover he could assemble such devastating weaponry. The Court’s knowledge of firearms was already the limit of what he was willing to reveal.’

Under the watchful eyes of the others, he quickly assembled a long rifle.

The Zhao Family Guards had seen Lu Yuan’s automatic rifle before, but this was different.

The weapon he was assembling now was even longer than an automatic rifle.

Gu Ziye asked curiously, "What in the world is that?"

Gu Gaoxu had certainly never seen anything like it. Lu Yuan could feel his burning gaze and could have sworn the man was about to start drooling.

Gu Gaoxu used to love the sound of battle cries, but now he loved the roar of firearms and cannons.

The sound of gunfire was powerful. Some people found it invigorating and exciting, and Gu Gaoxu was one of them.

As he began assembling a second gun, Lu Yuan explained, "This is a sniper rifle."

Gu Gaoxu snatched one and cradled it in his arms, lifting the sniper rifle to inspect it. "A fine piece, a fine piece..." he said excitedly.

’Lu Yuan wasn’t worried about Gu Gaoxu hurting anyone with it. The rifle had no bullets or powder; it couldn’t fire.’

"Brother Lu, when are we making our move? I can hardly wait," Gu Gaoxu said, his eyes shining with excitement.

’There was no need to be soft on this bunch of bandits.’

Gu Gaoxu wanted to kill two birds with one stone—use the mission against the bandits as an excuse to play with Lu Yuan’s new guns.

"Alright, alright." As he spoke, Lu Yuan finished assembling the third sniper rifle.

Lu Yuan only had the components for three sniper rifles; assembling a fourth was impossible.

’I’ll take one, and the last one can go to one of my Mansion Guards,’ Lu Yuan thought, then remembered that Gu Gaoxu had already snatched one.

"I want one, too! Yuan~" Gu Ziye said, looking at Lu Yuan. "Aren’t you going to give one to me? Let me play with it!"

"Alright, you can have it. Just don’t get so scared you start crying later."

"Hmph! You all look down on me! I’ll show you! I’m an expert who can kill without batting an eye!" Gu Ziye retorted, refusing to back down.

Lu Yuan didn’t respond to Gu Ziye. He turned to the seven remaining Mansion Guards behind him and said, "Do not act until you receive my command."

He then turned back to Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye. "Alright, we’re just about ready. I’ll teach you two how to use these sniper rifles."

Lu Yuan lay prone and set up his sniper rifle, observing the situation at the house on the middle mountain through the scope.

Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye did their best to copy his posture.

"Wow, this is amazing! It feels like they’re right in front of me! How does it do that?" Gu Ziye exclaimed in surprise.

Gu Gaoxu, on the other hand, said nothing. He had probably come to believe that Lu Yuan could produce anything, no matter how miraculous.

After a grueling night, Lu Yuan and his party were utterly exhausted.

The well-established bandit group had been silently exterminated by Lu Yuan’s party. At the very least, no one was left alive, which could be considered an indirect favor to the local Government Office’s bandit-suppression efforts.

Fortunately, they had Lu Yuan’s invention—the silent sniper rifles.

Lu Yuan and Gu Gaoxu had specifically targeted lone bandits, picking them off one by one...

On the road back to the inn at dawn, Gu Ziye was sniffling, her eyes red. "You’re all too brutal," she muttered. "It scared me to death... I couldn’t look, I just couldn’t look."

Gu Gaoxu roared with laughter. "And the expert gets a runny nose!"

After returning to the inn, Lu Yuan tossed his weapons and equipment aside and dusted off his hands.

Lu Yuan muttered, "The gunpowder smell from this stuff is still too strong."

Lu Yuan didn’t exchange many words with Gu Gaoxu and Gu Ziye, simply bidding them a brief farewell before heading to his room.

They had all agreed to sleep until noon, have a meal together, and then get back on the road.

Everyone had been through a grueling night and was utterly drained, both mentally and physically. It was time for some proper sleep.

When Lu Yuan returned to his room, he found that Su Liyan was already awake.

It was already morning, after all.

"Dear, you’re back," Su Liyan said, getting out of bed in her flower-embroidered sleeping robes. "How did it go? Were the bandits on the mountain easy to handle?"

"It went fine," Lu Yuan replied to his wife. "With the gear I put together, even someone with the highest level of martial arts could be blasted to bits."

Su Liyan knew what her husband was capable of. She nodded and said, "That’s good, that’s good. You’ve been busy all night. I warmed some water for you to wash up."