69: Inside the cave

"Higher, higher..." "Widen this side a bit more..."

At the cliff face, Lin Chuan continuously directed Old Hei.

It wasn't until Old Hei was exhausted and spitting foam that Lin Chuan finally stopped.

Although impacting rocks caused no damage, using skills consumed a lot of stamina. Even with Old Hei's physique, he was almost drained.

Lin Chuan used Old Hei as an elevator to reach the Immortal Cave he had opened. He looked around and was very satisfied.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would spend the next month here.

As dusk fell, Lin Chuan decided to rest for the night and make plans tomorrow.

He set up a tent inside the cave, took out his phone, and enjoyed the movies he had downloaded... As for Old Hei, he enlarged his body to block the cave entrance, preventing anything from crawling in... The night passed without incident.

After Lin Chuan woke up, he washed up and then ate some dry rations.

There wasn't much to say about the taste; it was just enough to keep him from starving.

"Eating this stuff for a whole month? That's going to be tough."

Lin Chuan muttered.

It turned out that the biggest obstacle in his special training wasn't Yao Beasts, but the lack of delicious food.

"Too bad I can't order takeout..."

While complaining, Lin Chuan arrived at the Ghost-Faced Ape's cave.

Since he couldn't order takeout, he might as well quickly max out the advancement fruit and death fruit and end this boring special training!

Following the usual routine, Old Hei directly slammed into the cave entrance, openly provoking them.

Soon, a large group of monkeys rushed out. He wasn't sure if they were the same group from yesterday, but they all looked similar anyway.

This time, Lin Chuan didn't plan to waste any words with them.

"Old Hei, Taunt one, and kill it directly."

Taunt activated.

One Ape walked straight towards Old Hei, about to strike with its fist, when Old Hei delivered a direct headbutt, striking its heart.

It didn't require much speed; just the force of his head alone was enough to shatter its heart.

The entire area fell silent.

The monkey pack seemed to not have reacted yet. They first went over and kicked their companion's corpse. Only after realizing there was no movement did they completely erupt.

The enraged monkey pack surged out of the cave, wanting to tear Old Hei to shreds.

"Perfect! Old Hei, do as you please!"

Currently, Old Hei's offensive methods, besides the defensive counter-damage, only had one Rocket Headbutt that was presentable. The other, Mountain Press, was decent for sneak attacks but not particularly effective.

Therefore, the next Beast Tamer must choose an offensive type, preferably one focused on extreme offense.

Actually, Lin Chuan also really wanted a flying Beast. At that time, it would depend on what he encountered.

After Old Hei reached nine stars yesterday, Lin Chuan could still feed him energy fruits, but they could only be used to replenish stamina and no longer increase his star rank.

It seemed that advancement after nine stars was an iron rule in this world.

Otherwise, Lin Chuan could have directly created a 100-star Transcendent Rank Beast. What a pity.

As for how to advance, Old Hei was completely bewildered, and Lin Chuan was even more confused.

If it were a relatively common Beast, there would usually be public advancement routes, such as what Materials, what potions, how to train, and so on—a complete system.

Of course, these common Beasts generally had average potential and were quite common, but their upper limit wasn't high.

Others required the Beast Tamer and Beast to explore together, to see if there were any racial Legacy memories or similar things.

However, it seemed Old Hei had nothing. Although he bore the name of the Xuanwu Bloodline, he wasn't even a Yao Beast originally, just the most ordinary Turtle.

It made Lin Chuan wonder if all Turtle species had a bit of Xuanwu Bloodline.

After a brief complaint, Lin Chuan didn't dwell on it. Even if Old Hei knew how to naturally advance, Lin Chuan might not use it; he didn't have that much energy to collect Materials or train.

Since he already had the advancement fruit, Lin Chuan was too lazy to take the long way around... The battle continued.

The monkey pack had already figured out a way to deal with Old Hei: they wouldn't use normal attacks, only the "Charged Fist" skill.

Even if they were hit by Old Hei, as long as they had one breath left, they would die, but not before striking the Turtle once.

Gradually, although Apes were continuously killed, it was like a drop in the ocean for the entire species. However, more and more wounds appeared on Old Hei's body.

Especially now, almost all the Ghost-Faced Apes attacking Old Hei were Elite Rank eight or nine stars, who had maxed out "Charged Fist."

One punch, if it landed on other Elite Rank Yao Beasts, would shatter their heads and bones. But when it landed on Old Hei, it only dented his shell, not to the point of cracking.

Even so, with the accumulation of injuries, Old Hei was nearing his limit.

"So good..."

Waves of thoughts came from Old Hei's mind.

It seemed this guy hadn't been beaten so severely in a long time, and his skin was itching for it.

Finally, after Old Hei exchanged injuries again, sacrificing himself to kill an Elite Rank 9 Ape, Old Hei's carapace directly split open with a large crack, extending across his entire back.

"999..."

Without Old Hei needing to call out, Lin Chuan pulled him into the sea of consciousness space.

After feeding him a few energy fruits, Lin Chuan let him close his eyes and recover from his injuries on his own.

The monkey pack saw Lin Chuan but dared not pursue, only letting out angry howls that echoed throughout the valley.

One by one, the Ape corpses were dragged into the cave, their final fate self-evident.

Conservatively estimated, there must have been thirty or forty of them.

"Damn, these are all my spoils of war!" Lin Chuan's heart ached.

Thirty or forty of them—he didn't know if that would be enough to level all his current skills to Lv9, but it should be close.

After advancing to Silver Rank, there might be new changes, who knew.

"No, I can't just let this go." Lin Chuan hardened his resolve.

Subsequently, a gray aura drilled into an Ape corpse.

Almost all the dead Apes had died from shattered hearts, with almost no external injuries.

This Ape corpse struggled a few times, then swayed and stood up.

The surrounding Apes looked at it in shock: it was clearly stone cold, how did it come back to life?

Their limited brain capacity couldn't comprehend it, so they stopped thinking and called for this lucky fellow to quickly enter the cave for dinner.

If it was late, not even bone fragments would be left for it.

Lin Chuan had the Ape controlled by the Gray Snake enter the cave first, while he returned to his temporary base... Old Hei was severely injured this time. Besides the cracked shell, the force carried by each heavy punch was enough to shatter internal organs.

Fortunately, the shell had absorbed most of the impact, and the remaining accumulated force caused Old Hei significant internal injuries, but they weren't fatal.

He still had a few enhancement fruits left. After strengthening "Dormant Self-Healing" to Lv5, he let Old Hei sleep.

Lin Chuan, meanwhile, remotely controlled the Gray Snake... The Ghost-Faced Ape's cave had a world of its own inside. Although the entrance didn't look very large from the outside, it was a super-large karst cave, and at the bottom of the cave, there was an underground river.

On both sides of the river, many colorful, mushroom-like fungi grew, and Apes would occasionally go to pick and eat them.

No wonder such a large population of Apes lived here, yet they were rarely seen hunting outside.

At first, Lin Chuan had thought these Yao Beasts didn't eat food, or could survive by simply eating rocks. It seemed he had overthought things.

Lin Chuan observed the surrounding terrain while controlling the Puppet Ape, contemplating his next plan.