Chapter 24, Wild Monkey

Translator: Raznick

 

In Mist Province, Red Peach Ridge.

 

The Red Peach Ridge was located in the southern part of Jing Kingdom’s Mist Province, two hundred miles away from Nine Peaks where the Zhou Clan resided.

 

This mountain range stretched over sixty miles, with complex terrain inside, teeming with venomous creatures and wild animals, and frequently roamed by demon beasts and rogue cultivators on the hunt for treasures.

 

At this point, Zhou Chun, along with his cousin Zhou Zhengyong and Zhou Jiapeng from the Nine Peaks Zhou Clan, found themselves outside a valley nestled deep within the Red Peach Ridge.

 

“That’s the valley ahead. Redtail Monkeys usually gather there. There are many common wild animals living with them in the valley.”

 

Beneath a great tree with a spreading crown like a canopy, Zhou Zhengyong gestured towards the valley ahead, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides and had an opening about thirty feet wide. He quietly recounted what he had discovered during his earlier investigation.

 

But after hearing his words, the person next to him shook their head slightly and said, “Zhengyong, my dear nephew, what you mentioned was the situation a few days ago. It’s better to wait until I send Steel Plume Falcon to scout the area first before discussing it.”

 

Without waiting for Zhou Zhengyong to respond, he quickly tapped his spirit beast pouch, letting out his own spirit pet.

 

As a superior first-grade demon beast, the Steel Plume Falcon’s size was several times larger than the golden eagle Zhou Chun had seen in his previous life. Its wings spread out measuring nearly thirteen feet. Each feather was as strong and resilient as forged metal, radiating a metallic sheen.

 

It emerged from the spirit beast pouch, first scanning Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong with a sharp gaze, then opened its mouth and let out a low whistle at Zhou Jiapeng.

 

After Zhou Jiapeng communicated with it and issued instructions, it beat its wings once, generating a powerful gust of wind to propel itself forward several meters. Then it leapt into the air and soared aloft.

 

Upon seeing this, Zhou Zhengyong couldn’t help but express his obvious jealousy and said, “Uncle Peng, your Steel Plume Eage is truly a wondrous creature! If  it could one day bear offspring, I hope you’ll give me serious consideration—I would buy one myself and raise it, even if I had to sell our family’s china!”

 

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Jiapeng sighed with a depressed look on his face and said: “Alas, I would feel better if you didn’t mention this. As soon as I mentioned this, I felt very sad.

 

“Two years ago, I had originally found out that there was a female Steel Plume Falcon in a certain place of Feng Kingdom and wanted to take Tie Peng there to mate with it. But before we could even leave, an incident happened!

 

“Nowadays, trying to find another suitable mate would take heaven-knows how long!”

 

Zhou Zhengyong found himself at a loss for words.

 

Breeding spirit pets was indeed a major challenge that has long plagued beast-taming clans like Zhou Clan.

 

Apart from a few types of spirit pets, most of the Zhou Clan’s cultivators captured or purchased their pets either from the wilderness or from other cultivators.

 

These spirit pets, when grown up, finding a mate for them and ensuring their lineage continued was no easy task.

 

Generally, they inquired around to find cultivators who also bred such spirit beasts or paid a visit to them to negotiate breeding arrangements for a fee.

 

Or they would search for wild demon beasts of the same kind, entice them with their allure, or force them to mate.

 

In this situation, the rarer a spiritual pet was, the harder it was to find another of its kind as a mate for breeding.

 

Zhou Clan cultivators often had to try as much as possible to find a pair within broader categories when they couldn’t locate their own kind.

 

Like how lions and tigers could actually interbreed, the Steel Plume Falcon could also interbreed with certain types of raptor demon beasts.

 

However, offspring produced through such pairing couldn’t guarantee survival rates or potential.

 

Most of the time, because these two demon beasts’ inherent power attributes were incompatible, even if they produced offspring, those young ones would have a hard time surviving.

 

Or perhaps they survived, but their bodies had two conflicting bloodlines, which also lacked potential for breeding.

 

The cases where individuals perfectly inherit the strength of both parents and evolve into powerful bloodlines were extremely rare.

 

At this point, Zhou Zhengyong didn’t know how to console his uncle and could only remain silent to hide his awkwardness.

 

As for Zhou Chun beside him, he was even less inclined to speak.

 

He and Zhou Jiapeng had little interraction. It was only due to Zhou Zhengyong’s presence that he had come here together this time, making it inappropriate for him to venture to engage in such topics.

 

After waiting silently for about an hour, the falcon spiraled down to the treetops above them, communicating its findings.

 

After receiving the information from his spirit pet, Zhou Jiapeng quickly spoke up: “Good, Tie Peng has already confirmed. Within the valley, there are indeed only those Redtail Monkeys. Moreover, in the surrounding miles, no other demon beasts or cultivators have been spotted. We can proceed with confidence.”

 

Zhou Zhengyong, upon hearing this, immediately couldn’t conceal his excitement and bowed deeply to him, saying, “Please rest assured everything is in your hands, Uncle.”

 

Having said that, the three of them immediately entered the valley led by Zhou Jiapeng.

 

Zhou Chun looked around and noticed that the valley was quite extensive, covering several hundred acres. Fruit trees dotted the landscape, with numerous types of wild berries and fruits growing among them.

 

Besides the monkeys, this place was also inhabited by some small wild animals and birds that fed on wild fruits.

 

As the three cultivators walked into the valley, the monkeys and beasts that spotted them immediately raised shrill alarms to alert the others.

 

Some bold monkeys, with a fierce disposition, were even perched on the tree, snatching wild fruits and branches to hurl at the three individuals.

 

“Those wild monkeys!”

 

Zhou Jiapeng took the lead. His expression darkened and immediately clenched his hands into a seal and sweeping his hand to fling greenish needles at the monkeys.

 

Any unruly monkey struck by the greenish needles would immediately scream and fall from the tree branches, and in an instant, over ten monkeys were hit.

 

The sudden move immediately startled the remaining mischievous monkeys, who all screamed and fled deeper into the valley.

 

[That’s what they call making an example.]

 

Zhou Chun watched this scene unfold, secretly chuckling to himself.

 

After advancing into the valley for fifty meters, the group soon caught sight of a troop of Redtail Monkeys approaching.

 

The monkey group had already been stirred into action. Both parties met unexpectedly halfway along a narrow path.

 

Upon seeing three cultivators, the monkey king let out a roar and launched an attack.

 

One by one, fiery orbs and volleys of rocks sped towards them from all directions. The spectacle was nothing short of breathtaking.

 

The people saw this and either summoned artifacts to ward off the threat or pulled out talismans to activate protective barriers around themselves.

 

Meanwhile, both Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong reached for their spirit beast pouches and unleashed their spirit pets.

 

But actually, Zhou Chun’s Rock Turtle could barely do anything in this situation; it was essentially just acting as a meat shield to draw enemy fire.

 

After all, Rock Turtle’s primary attack skill couldn’t even reach the Redtail Monkeys that were merely jumping around on the tree branches.

 

Obviously, Redtail Monkeys would not be so foolish as to charge and engage in close combat.

 

However, while the Rock Turtle proved useless this time, Zhou Chun’s several flying artefacts faired much better.

 

With his spiritual power driving them, Zhou Chun sent the silver short sword and the pale golden flying dagger to strike out in tandem, each locking onto a red-haired monkey before streaking forward.

 

These red monkeys probably lacked experience fighting cultivators. Facing attacking artifacts, after hopping a few times without being able to dodge them, they suddenly went berserk and started swatting at them with their claws.

 

However, one of them had its claws severed by the radiance unleashed from Zhou Chun’s silver dagger. A single strike pierced its chest, and with that, the creature was instantly slain.

 

At the same time, Zhou Jiapeng’s falcon had descended from the skies and plunged directly upon the monkey king. Its sharp talons swished through the air, releasing black claw rays as it fought fiercely with the monkey king.

 

After about half an hour of combat, nearly half of the Redtail Monkeys were killed under the attack of the three.

 

This made the monkey king, who was still fighting with Steel Plume Falcon, furious.

 

It suddenly let out a shrill cry, and the remaining Redtail Monkeys immediately abandoned their attack. All of them scattered and fled in panic.

 

Then, it too spat out intense flames, forcing the falcon back, and quickly hopped toward the mountain forest outside the valley.

 

The Steel Plume Falcon, upon seeing this, had intended to pursue and slay.

 

At that moment, Zhou Jiapeng called out to halt it: “Don’t chase anymore; let them be.”

 

After finishing his words, he turned to Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong and cautioned them: “Our Zhou Clan was founded through beast-taming techniques. Our ancestors often said that wild demon beasts are hard to raise. If there’s no conflict of interests, one shouldn’t resort to wiping them all out, lest future generations find it hard to locate suitable spiritual pet contracts.

 

“Killing them won’t yield us much anyway, it might be better to keep them here to breed. Should nephew ever need these Redtail Monkeys for breeding purposes in the future, we may still require their services.”

 

Upon hearing this, both of them expressed a thoughtful expression and then retrieved their flying artifacts one by one.

 

Zhou Jiapeng, upon seeing this, nodded in satisfaction. He then waved his hand and said, “Let’s go. We wouldn’t want those monkeys to reach the treasure in the valley first.”