Chapter 32: The Cellar

After confirming several times that Li Ang was not experiencing any significant physical or mental issues, the task force returned to the temple courtyard, taking turns keeping watch. They made do with the cleaned-up bluestone floor for the night and didn't begin exploring the temple until the next morning.

"Is this the place?"

Li Ang looked up at the pagoda and muttered to himself.

A beautiful woman's head emerged from his neck and said, "Yes, the cellar beneath the pagoda is the spiritual energy node of the nearby mountains and rivers. Originally, the Mountain Demon took a fancy to this spot, impersonated Dao Zhi to become the head monk, and carved a bunch of Gathering Aura Formations onto the cellar walls, placing a pile of aged wines and fine liquors in the center of the formation.

These drinks contain spiritual energy, and even a legendary drinker who can hold their liquor would get drunk upon touching them. Demons who drink them would feel as if they were floating away into immortality. Every year around this time, the Mountain Demon would come here to host a banquet for a group of demons and personally go down to the cellar to fetch the alcoholic drinks.

If you want to ambush him, this is the best spot."

Li Ang nodded, walked straight into the temple, and according to Chai Cuiqiao's instructions, used a multifunctional infantry shovel he bought on Taobao to pry open a pile of floor tiles, sweep away the dust, and reveal a hinged wooden trapdoor buried under the tiles.

Li Ang lifted the trapdoor, waited 20 minutes for ventilation, then went down into the cellar with a candle, followed by his teammates.

The interior of the cellar was quite spacious and not as dirty and messy as expected, with no cobwebs or tiny insects to be seen.

Li Ang used the candle to light the oil lamps on the red brick walls of the cellar and could see clearly that some sundries were placed in the corners of the cellar. In the center, there was a pile of green ceramic wine jars, all sealed with red paper.

The teammates entered one by one, examining the cellar. Chai Cuiqiao reminded them softly, "Be careful not to wander and leave footprints. That Mountain Demon is extremely cunning. If he finds footprints left in the dust on the ground, he will certainly become alert."

"No problem," Li Ang said. "Portable motor—I'll modify it into a reverse vacuum cleaner later, and pump dust into the cellar to cover up the footprints."

Xing Hechou's eyes twitched. With limited inventory slots in the player's backpack, who would specifically bring a motor for a mission? And aren't your DIY skills a bit too strong? You're able to make a vacuum cleaner or whatever at the drop of a hat....

Li Ang walked boldly towards the center of the cellar, moved the wine jars aside, and revealed strange ink marks beneath, which looked like a heap of runes and talismans.

The others crowded around for a strong view. Xing Hechou quietly took out a professional-looking, bulky Sony digital camera, turned on the flash, and took a picture of the runes and talismans on the ground.

The ink was ordinary pine-soot ink, and the brush used to draw the Array was probably just an average wolf-hair brush.

The brushwork was loose without any vigor, making the runes and talismans look like a child's scribbling and not at all like the geometrically beautiful Arrays in Western Alchemy.

However, this roughly made Gathering Aura Array stirred up a tempest in the hearts of the task force members; through these scribbles, they seemed to see a systematic, complete, and modern science-analyzable cultivation system.

Li Ang stood in the center of the Array, carefully avoiding the ink marks, held his breath, and focused, trying to feel the energy.

Besides his body temperature inconspicuously increasing by about a quarter of a degree, he felt nothing.

No wonder the Mountain Demon needs to come back once a year to take the wine; the spiritual energy accumulated by this Array is like a water tap opened only a crack, emphasizing a slow and steady flow, offering little help to cultivation.

Li Ang walked out of the Array, rather disappointed, and let the others have a feel. After they finished taking photos, they moved the wine jars back exactly as they were.

"By the way."

He turned to his teammates and said, "Who brought mines? Doesn't matter if they are anti-infantry, anti-tank, fragmentation, steel ball, bounding, directional, pressure, or parent-child—all types are fine."

When Li Ang asked, Chai Cuiqiao's head had not yet retracted from around his neck. In the gloomy and dim cellar, a person and a ghost looked as if they were conjoined, a rather horrifying sight.

Though Li Ang posed the question to all his teammates, he was counting on a reply from only Xing Hechou, the broad-faced, middle-aged, sturdy man whose sharp and decisive actions betrayed a military bearing. It was highly probable that he was a player with official backing.

Having official backing meant easy access to modern weaponry.

Xing Hechou fell silent for a moment, then answered, "M18A1, 10 pieces."

Wow, are there really mines?

The others revealed looks of shock, but Li Ang simply chuckled,

The M18A1, also known as the Claymore mine, is an anti-infantry mine developed by the United States during the Vietnam War era in the 1960s. Its design features a rectangular casing with a convex face and corner brackets. It can be triggered by tripwire or controlled by cable, and upon detonation, it uses shrapnel and steel balls to inflict injury within a 60-degree fan-shaped range, with an optimal kill zone of 50 meters in front, and a maximum lethal range of up to 250 meters.

The lethality of modern weapons has long surpassed the endurance limits of flesh and blood; the anti-infantry mines from the Vietnam era and the latest models show no qualitative difference in killing power,

Moreover, a certain white-furred, red-eyed rabbit always took pleasure in imitating the American bald eagle's items. Utilizing American military gear in a scenario like the Killing Fields game, where one has to keep their identity hidden, really comes with zero psychological pressure.

"Can you set it up?"

"I can."

"Then let's start," Li Ang said as he took out an infantry shovel, and began digging up the cellar's floor tiles to set the mines with Xing Hechou.

As they laid the mines, Xing Hechou was particularly cautious and noticed that Li Ang's movements were expert and proficient. He knew exactly where to lay the bricks for cover and where to place the mine tripwires for maximum lethal efficiency—every detail was spot on.

He looked like someone who buried mines frequently.

Seeming to feel Xing Hechou's gaze, Li Ang turned and said with a smile, "Please don't look at me with the eyes you'd use for a dangerous element. Actually, I'm a law-abiding citizen."

Believe you? As if! Xing Hechou's expression stiffened as he made up his mind to find a dangerous person like Li Ang in the citizen data system under the index "has undergone professional militia training" once they got out.

"Back when I was a mercenary in West Africa, I was on a mission with a teammate nicknamed 'Master.'"

As Li Ang continued to set mines, he sighed and blabbered on, "Master buried the mines on a dirt road, and for some mad reason, to compact the surface, he stomped on the ground above it. That's when the mine exploded.

Dust and debris filled the air,

I was holding Master, and he told me his butt hurt. I said to him, 'Master, your butt's on that tree, so it shouldn't hurt anymore.'

I hope these mines will allow that Mountain Demon to hang its butt on a tree after entering the cellar."

For crying out loud, Master's butt hanging on a tree, do you think we haven't seen 'Let the Bullets Fly'?