63: Chapter 63 Monkey, Persimmon, and Man (Combined Chapter)

The jungle was dark and the air pressure was low.

Roars of beasts echoed from the distance, causing the surrounding insect chirps to cease instantly.

“Are they fighting?!”

Ji Yebai tilted his head to listen.

He could hear two distinct beastly roars.

“Let's go take a look.”

With a sudden movement, Ji Yebai dashed toward the source of the sound.

Ji Yebai's speed was incredibly fast.

Even the dense foliage could not hinder him in the slightest.

Roar!

The beastly roar came again.

It sounded as if it were right next to his ear.

Ji Yebai abruptly quickened his pace and leaped onto the treetops in an instant.

“Eh!?”

Ji Yebai let out a surprised exclamation.

Not far away, two massive creatures were locked in combat.

One creature stood three meters tall, its body covered in golden fur that stood on end. It roared while standing upright, occasionally pounding the earth with its fists.

The other creature was clearly at a disadvantage.

However, its sleek two-meter-long body moved silently as it leaped about, making it a force not to be underestimated.

“This is...”

Ji Yebai was slightly surprised and identified them after a careful look: “A Golden Snub-nosed Monkey and a leopard?!”

That massive upright animal wasn't a gorilla, but an enlarged version of a Golden Snub-nosed Monkey.

Ji Yebai was absolutely certain of this.

“Roar!”

At that moment, the situation on the field changed.

The giant golden monkey was slightly slower. When one of its attacks was dodged by the leopard, it flew into a rage and roared furiously.

The leopard, true to its nature as a top predator, didn't miss the chance.

Seizing the moment while the monkey was roaring, it suddenly spun around, its bloody maw snapping directly at the golden monkey's thigh.

Its forest-white fangs were bared, and the scent of blood filled the air.

However...

Faced with the leopard's sneak attack, a flash of triumph crossed the eyes of the seemingly enraged golden monkey.

It suddenly leaped up.

This jump was extremely strange, as if the creature felt no weight at all.

This sudden change caused the leopard's bite to fall short.

As the saying goes, one wrong step leads to eternal regret.

The moment the leopard failed, it tried to retreat, but the golden monkey gave it no chance.

Its three-meter-tall body slammed down onto the leopard's back.

The slender body of the leopard collapsed instantly.

A wail rang out as the golden monkey suddenly turned and raised both hands to smash them down ruthlessly onto the leopard's head.

With a loud boom, the large beast's head was instantly crushed flat.

“This monkey!?”

Ji Yebai's gaze fell upon the golden monkey jumping excitedly, a hint of oddness flashing in his expression.

The golden monkey's leap to avoid the leopard's bite had been extremely light and agile.

It didn't seem like a creature three meters tall at all.

More importantly, that leap had vaguely mobilized the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

“It's almost capable of drawing in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi?!”

Watching this scene, a flash of surprise crossed Ji Yebai's eyes.

Drawing in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi—this meant it was almost stepping into the Realm of a Beast King!

When animals are bathed in Spiritual Qi, they naturally evolve.

Animal evolution is divided into three stages: wild beasts, Vicious Beasts, and Beast Kings.

A Vicious Beast is what a wild beast becomes after absorbing Spiritual Qi and beginning its advancement.

Once the advancement is complete, its body becomes powerful, and its size, speed, and other attributes increase significantly.

Furthermore, the strength of a Vicious Beast varies greatly depending on the species of the animal.

When a Vicious Beast's strength continues to grow and the Spiritual Qi within its body connects throughout its entire form, allowing it to mobilize Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, it promotes to a Beast King.

Becoming a Beast King makes it no weaker than a Second-rate Martial Artist.

In fact, with the advantage of a powerful physical body, it can even crush a Second-rate Martial Artist.

At the Beast King stage, the Vicious Beast's body becomes even stronger, naturally allowing it to store and mobilize more Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

A few exceptionally powerful Beast Kings can even rival a First-Class Martial Artist.

“To be able to evolve to this level at this period, this monkey is not simple!”

“I'm afraid there must be some Heaven And Earth Treasure nearby, right?”

Ji Yebai rubbed his chin, having already deduced the reason for the monkey's strength.

The evolution of beasts is easy in the early stages.

But the closer it gets to the Late Stage, the more difficult it becomes.

It can even be said to be a struggle to move a single step further.

This is all related to intelligence.

Humans possess intelligence and can easily give birth to Internal Energy through cultivation, subsequently opening the major acupoints of the body to enter the Second-rate Realm.

Beasts, on the other hand, only after accidentally starting their evolution, continuously and unconsciously absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, slowly letting their bodies be permeated by it to passively open the acupoints that communicate with Heaven and Earth.

The strongest Beast King born in his previous life was merely a Platinum Elephant, over seven meters tall with thick skin and tough flesh.

It could withstand the attacks of three First-Class Martial Artists simultaneously.

But even so, it ultimately became nothing more than the elephant pet of the Vishnu Church.

Whether through martial arts or technology,

humanity has already firmly occupied the top of the food chain on this planet.

Other creatures have no hope of turning the tables.

This point will not change simply because of the birth of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

After all, what established this status was intelligence, not brute force.

Intelligence is the most incredible existence in this world.

While Ji Yebai was lost in thought,

the giant golden monkey had already begun dragging the leopard's corpse forward.

Ji Yebai watched this scene with a calm gaze.

With a slight movement of his feet, he quietly followed.

To be able to evolve to this degree at this point in time...

He wanted to see what kind of Heaven And Earth Treasure this monkey had claimed.

Ahead, the golden monkey dragged the leopard with a cheerful expression, looking as smug as a mountain king returning in victory.

Ji Yebai followed its footsteps, going deeper and deeper.

But then his expression turned peculiar.

“It's not just one monkey!?”

Ahead was a valley. As he approached, the sounds of a troop of monkeys screeching reached his ears.

The rising and falling monkey cries reminded Ji Yebai of a trip he once took to Mount Emei.

Ji Yebai's gaze fell on the golden monkey ahead, slightly surprised: “Is this actually a Monkey King?!”

The animal world is quite simple.

The strong are respected.

Since this monkey was so strong and still within the troop, it could only be the Monkey King.

Unless there was an even stronger monkey.

What happened next confirmed Ji Yebai's suspicion.

The giant golden monkey entered the valley, and as soon as it appeared, it triggered a wave of monkey cries from all around.

Then, dozens of ordinary-sized golden monkeys rushed out.

“A monkey really has become a mountain king!” Ji Yebai muttered to himself.

Ji Yebai thought this, but his gaze didn't stay on the monkeys for long.

The monkeys were not his primary goal.

The Heaven And Earth Treasure was.

His gaze scanned the area and soon stopped at a certain spot.

“A persimmon tree!?”

Ji Yebai was slightly surprised.

He could see the extraordinary nature of this tree, but he hadn't expected it to be a persimmon tree.

In Ji Yebai's eyes, this persimmon tree was continuously absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, and each of the swaying persimmons emitted a faint golden glow.

“Let's go see!”

With a flash of his body, Ji Yebai landed beneath the tree in a few leaps.

It was a persimmon tree no more than five meters tall.

On it grew about twenty persimmons.

It was the first time Ji Yebai had seen such extraordinary persimmons.

They had golden skins, but what was truly amazing was that at the bottom of each persimmon, there was a shape resembling a lotus pedestal.

It was truly miraculous.

Just as he was about to reach out and pick one, the sound of wind came from behind his ear.

Ji Yebai tilted his body slightly, and a stone went flying past.

Ji Yebai turned around to see a bunch of monkeys screeching and howling at him in anger.

The entire monkey troop, led by that giant Monkey King, bared their teeth and charged toward Ji Yebai.

“Hmm!?”

“Their Aura is quite strong!”

Ji Yebai smiled slightly, circulated his Internal Energy, and pushed out a palm.

Instantly, a violent wind arose.

The charging monkey troop was immediately knocked topsy-turvy, falling to the ground one after another.

“Roar!”

The Monkey King flipped over, scrambled up from the ground, bared its teeth, and pounced again with a roar.

“Your strength is too low; you can't see the gap between us!”

Ji Yebai shook his head slightly.

This was the weakness of Vicious Beasts.

Their intelligence was low, and they couldn't read the situation.

Boom!!!

Ji Yebai took a step forward, and his terrifying Five Elements Internal Energy erupted, carrying the surrounding Spiritual Qi and causing the entire ground to crack.

A terrifying force struck the Monkey King horizontally.

With a bang!

The three-meter-tall golden Monkey King was instantly sent flying.

For a moment, the entire monkey troop was in an uproar.

Angry roars rose and fell as they bared their teeth and began throwing stones one after another.

“These monkeys!”

Ji Yebai was actually amused by their anger.

He stirred his Internal Energy and gave a sudden wave.

With a whoosh, a massive force swept out, and the stones in mid-air were all sent flying back.

The stones hit the group of monkeys, making them shriek and wail in chaos.

Then, the Monkey King, who had scrambled back up, let out a loud roar, and the entire troop fell silent.

Ji Yebai looked at the Monkey King with a hint of surprise.

He saw that the previously angry eyes had become clear, and its expression now carried a look of fawning.

Its intelligence isn't low!

Ji Yebai laughed in spite of himself.

Seeing the entire monkey troop huddling together, Ji Yebai stopped paying them any mind.

After all, they had backed down and hadn't actually done anything evil.

Under these circumstances, Ji Yebai didn't feel like being too hard on them, especially since these monkeys were all national first-class protected animals.

He picked a golden persimmon. The base, which looked like a lotus pedestal, still filled Ji Yebai with wonder.

He gave the persimmon a squeeze with his hand.

It was very hard.

He could only pierce the skin with his fingernail.

The hardness of this skin was no less than that of iron.

The flesh inside wasn't soft either.

Ji Yebai took a bite.

It was sweet and delicious.

Especially in this cold air, it felt as if it had been chilled.

The fruit flesh entered his stomach and immediately transformed into several small streams of energy, rushing into his flesh and blood.

This stream of energy was a special kind of spiritual power. As it drilled into his flesh, it seemed to vaguely strengthen his physical body.

As for why it was only 'vaguely'...

That was because the effect was too weak.

Or rather, for Ji Yebai, the effect was far too weak.

Ji Yebai's current body was simply too strong; it was far beyond what this kind of Heaven And Earth Treasure could temper.

This was also why the current Ji Yebai no longer collected common Heaven And Earth Treasures.

As a Martial Artist's cultivation and physical strength increase, common spiritual plants become useless to them.

Although quantity can lead to a qualitative change,

and continuously consuming low-level spiritual plants could theoretically lead to advancement,

in reality, it wasn't so.

Every medicine has its side effects. Using a large amount of spiritual plants might lead to the hidden toxins breaking one down before any qualitative change could occur.

“Good stuff, but unfortunately useless to me!”

Ji Yebai felt a slight sense of pity.

At his current level, common Heaven And Earth Treasures had lost their effectiveness.

He had seen how extraordinary the persimmon's appearance was and thought it might have miraculous effects.

As it turned out, it was just something that looked good but wasn't very practical.

Ji Yebai glanced at the terrified Monkey King behind him and smiled slightly.

While the Monkey King watched nervously, he turned into a black shadow and vanished in an instant.

Long after Ji Yebai had left, the golden Monkey King finally stepped forward with some suspicion.

It walked under the tree and looked in the direction Ji Yebai had departed.

It scratched its head, looking very confused.

Despite its lack of understanding,

the golden Monkey King deeply remembered that figure.

That kind of upright monkey is not to be messed with in the future!

...

Walking out of the valley,

Ji Yebai strolled through the mountain forest.

His direction was unclear.

His phone had long since run out of power and turned off.

Now, he was advancing purely based on randomly chosen directions.

As he moved forward, the trees in the forest became taller and taller.

His line of sight was blocked.

Although it was currently mid-winter, the weather here was still not freezing.

It was just a bit chilly.

This bit of chill was insignificant to the dense, dark jungle.

Winter had lost its dignity here.

With a light tap of his toes, he leaped upward.

As the Five Elements Internal Energy circulated within him, Ji Yebai's body spun and rose slowly.

Reaching a height of over ten meters, he stepped lightly on a cluster of leaves, and his body rose gracefully once more.

In just half a minute, he was standing steadily on the very top of the treetops.

Looking out, a chill arose, and a cold mist began to drift through the dark jungle.

The temperature in the sky dropped by about two degrees.

This was perhaps winter's last shred of dignity!

Ji Yebai gave a soft laugh.

With a movement of his toes, as the treetops swayed, he had already drifted forward.

His body was extremely light, tracing a graceful arc as he landed on the next treetop.

Across the treetops dozens of meters high, Ji Yebai strolled forward.

As his Divine Will grew stronger by the day, Ji Yebai's manipulation of the power of Heaven and Earth became more proficient.

When he only had the Divine Will of Water and Fire, he could also fly across treetops, but he certainly couldn't stroll as easily and casually as he did now.

Ji Yebai took one last look at the dense forest sinkhole behind him, smiled slightly, and floated toward the distance.

This journey, though only a month or so long,

had been a qualitative leap for Ji Yebai.

Not only had he given birth to the Divine Will of Earth, but he had also tempered his body and Internal Energy.

And because he had listened to the Pulse of the Earth, Ji Yebai's spirit had been baptized.

At this moment, his manipulation of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was becoming increasingly refined.

Even this kind of walking in the air could be done as easily as moving his own arm, showing just how great his harvest had been.

...

Deep in the mountains,

in Qingshui Village.

The quiet mountain village was currently being disturbed by a series of sputtering sounds.

A motorcycle came rushing out at high speed.

“Move aside! Move aside!”

A large man waved his arms with a face full of anxiety.

The people walking toward him in the alleyway were so startled that they pressed themselves tightly against the walls.

The motorcycle roared past.

The wind it kicked up made the pedestrians' hearts thud violently.

The pale-faced pedestrians were about to start cursing immediately,

but when they saw the situation on the motorcycle, their mouths opened and closed, and they finally let out a soft sigh.

The speeding motorcycle was carrying two people.

One was the anxious large man.

The other was an elderly, thin woman.

At this moment, the woman was being tied to the man's back with a bedsheet.

Looking closely, the elderly woman was completely limp; if not for the restraint of the bedsheet, she would have fallen off long ago.

“Mother, Mother, don't sleep, wake up...”

The man shouted anxiously, looking back from time to time.

He turned the throttle to the maximum, and the motorcycle roared as it charged out of the mountain village.

“Mother, I'm taking you to the hospital right now, it'll be very soon, very soon, don't sleep, please don't sleep, talk to me, talk to me...”

The man was extremely anxious, his hands gripping the handlebars tightly as he sped forward like the wind.

Fortunately, this newly built road was long enough!

Unfortunately, this newly built road was long enough!