Tale of an Ordinary Cultivator

As what remained of the stick house collapsed to the ground along with the falling tree, a shadow could be seen leaping out from within.

What else could it be but the monkey demon?

It landed on the ground nearby and carefully placed its two companions on the ground, then turned its attention towards the Mystic Cavalry.

Despite being in the stick house earlier, it seemed to have gotten away completely unscathed from Pu Feixiang’s spear strike.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for its two companions, as could be seen from the numerous small wounds all over their bodies.

Snarl-!

The monkey demon roared in rage, baring its fangs in a menacing manner.

Its demon aura erupted, sending a shockwave out in all directions.

Trees rustled, while the fallen leaves in the area were directly blown away. Smaller creatures scurried away in fear.

The members of the Mystic Cavalry landed on the ground right in front of the monkey demon, but they were not at all intimidated by its demon aura.

On the contrary, they did not hesitate to continue with their offense!

Mo Mian rushed forward while Gui Longcan waved his treasure fan.

Two illusory red strings shot out from his fan, passing over Mo Mian to head straight towards the monkey demon.

The monkey demon glared at the two red strings and swiped its claws towards it.

With one smooth motion, its claws tore apart the illusory red strings, reducing them to red shimmers that slowly dissipated.

“Damn it!” Gui Longcan could not help but curse.

Logically, the illusory red strings were not material in nature, so they should not have been affected by the mere swipe of its claws.

However, the monkey demon’s claws were imbued with essence energy, allowing it to cut straight through the intangible red strings.

The next moment, two chains made of earth and rocks shot out from the ground and wrapped around one of the monkey demon’s feet.

[Unyielding Stone Bind]

Zhao Yunxiao was not overly ambitious.

He understood that his rather elementary level of understanding of the technique would never allow him to fully restrict the monkey demon, so he had only sought to bind a single leg.

Who knew that in the very next moment, the monkey demon would simply lift its leg to forcibly pull itself out, shattering the chains in the process.

Zhao Yunxiao: “...”

He could only hope that the rest of the party members did not notice this embarrassing attempt to restrain the monkey demon...

At this point, Chu Han turned his eight-trigram mirror towards the monkey demon. “Suppress!”

A ray of bright light shot out from the crystal in the centre of the mirror, forming into a golden emblem above the monkey demon.

From the golden emblem, an immense pressure descended upon the area beneath, directly weighing down on the monkey demon.

All around it, fallen branches and leaves snapped.

The grass was flattened, and even the ground itself compressed a little.

However, the monkey demon stood strong.

Snarl-!

The enraged monkey demon looked like it was about to leap at Chu Han, but it quickly turned around instead.

Behind him, Mo Mian had silently gotten into position, and was already in the midst of slashing out with his sword.

The monkey demon reacted immediately.

But instead of defending itself, the monkey demon completely ignored the oncoming sword and swiped its claws towards Mo Mian instead.

It moved so smoothly and easily that one could easily forget that it was currently under the suppression of the golden emblem.

Mo Mian narrowed his eyes upon seeing this, but did not change his course.

Instead, powerful winds seemed to gather behind him all of a sudden, giving him a push that sped up his movements multiple times.

Slash-!

Mo Mian’s accelerated sword slash connected with the monkey demon’s chest before the monkey demon’s claws could reach him.

Unfortunately, the thick hair on the monkey demon’s chest was far tougher than expected, greatly diminishing the impact of the slash.

By the time the sword got through the thick hair to reach its skin, it had already lost most of its momentum.

All it managed to do was create a small cut on the monkey demon’s chest.

While it did result in a wound, such an injury was something that even an ordinary adult man could shrug off as nothing much, not to mention a demon at the Essence Physique realm!

Mo Mian leapt back the moment he saw this, just in time to barely avoid the monkey demon’s arm.

“Retreat!” Mo Mian ordered.

With that, he quickly went around the monkey demon to rejoin the rest of the party.

After their first wave of attacks failed to deal any significant damage to the monkey demon, the party immediately turned around and retreated.

There was absolutely no hesitation involved.

After all, they were now deep in the enemy’s nest, and the numerous monkeys in the nest were quickly closing in on them.

The longer they lingered, the greater the chance of being surrounded.

These monkey monsters might not be much of a problem on their own, but dealing with them in such numbers would still prove tricky, especially when there was the monkey demon to deal with as well.

There was simply no reason for them to take such an unnecessary risk!

As the party escaped by running back up the cliff walls, the golden emblem above the monkey demon faded out.

The monkey demon first revealed a look of confusion, but that was quickly replaced by an intense level of rage.

Snarl-!

The monkey demon yelled after the party as it started to give chase.

Squeal-! Squeal-! Squeal-!

With the monkey demon taking the lead, the numerous monkeys in the nest naturally followed.

While they could not run up the cliff walls like the cultivators, they easily kept up by leaping from tree to tree, making full use of the trees that were growing on the cliff walls.

“It is following us!” Gui Longcan shouted as the party was making their escape.

“What about the other monkeys?” Chu Han asked.

“Most of them are, but there are a few that do not seem like they want to join in ever since the very start,” Zhao Yunxiao replied.

“That’s good enough,” Chu Han nodded. “Stick to the plan.”

“Go on ahead, I won’t let it pass me,” Mo Mian assured while sneaking a peek at the furious monkey demon that was hot on their tails.

Despite being more than capable of escaping the fastest, Mo Mian had chosen to stay at the back of the escaping party.

This was his responsibility as the leader of the party, as well as the strongest combatant.

The party moved fast, but the monkey demon was no slouch either.

Even though it had a late start, the monkey demon quickly caught up with the party just as they reached the top of the cliff and escaped into the main forest.

Snarl-!

With a roar, the monkey demon swiped at the nearest Mo Mian once again.

In fact, its eyes had been fixed on Mo Mian since the very start of the chase, probably instinctively aware that he posed the greatest threat among the five.

Clank-!

The sound of metal striking metal reverberated across the forest as Mo Mian blocked the monkey demon’s claws with his sword.

Mo Mian’s Jadewind Sword was a treasure sword made of extraordinary materials.

To be able to contest it in a direct clash, one could only imagine just how hard and sharp the monkey demon’s claws were!

“Tch!” Mo Mian gritted his teeth as he tried to endure the heavy impact coming from the monkey demon.

Indeed, this monkey demon should be at least at the Intermediate Essence Physique realm, if not the Advanced Essence Physique realm.

Not only were its claws almost on par with his treasure sword, but the monkey demon’s strength was also not to be underestimated either.

Mo Mian almost lost balance with just that one exchange, and had to quickly regain his footing or risk falling behind the rest of the party.

Swish-!

Gui Longcan waved his treasure fan, and a ray of blue light shot out.

This time, Gui Longcan’s target was Mo Mian.

Mo Mian did nothing to stop it either, allowing the blue light to hit his back.

Even though the blue light might appear ever so ordinary as it seemed to simply dissipate upon hitting Mo Mian, the effect was anything but so.

Mo Mian’s eyes started to give off a faint blue light as he felt his focus sharpening, as though he had been given some sort of concentration elixir.

Every leaf and grass in the surroundings suddenly became clear to him.

He could see every rustle of the trees and every breeze even before they happened.

This heightened concentration reached a level where it was almost as though he had gained the ability of foresight, able to predict what was going to happen two or three moves in advance!

Mo Mian started leaping around the trees in a strange manner, sometimes even using the underside of branches as footholds as he moved in a way that seemed to defy gravity.

Even the monkey demon that was used to the forest struggled to keep up with his unorthodox movements.

Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes at this sight.

He had already known that Gui Longcan was a support specialist capable of casting support buffs, but this was the first time he had seen him actually doing so.

The blue light from earlier came from a technique that Zhao Yunxiao recognised – True Vision.

This auxiliary technique that forcibly heightened the concentration level of its target worked best when used on someone who was agile and fast, allowing them to fully abuse their strengths in these traits by removing certain inhibitors.

In this case, Mo Mian was the best example.

His speed erupted all of a sudden to reach an almost unreal level, leaping around the trees like a phantom and rendering the monkey demon completely helpless.

As much as the monkey demon wanted to catch Mo Mian, the latter remained elusive to its touch.

Nevertheless, the monkey demon continued to swipe its claws at Mo Mian, each swipe strong enough to tear right through thick tree trunks like paper.

These unrestrained swipes might not be able to hit Mo Mian, but they did claim the nearby trees as casualties. Huge trees fell all around as they passed, turning the forest into a scene of wreckage.

Unable to hit its target despite its repeated attempts, the frustrated monkey demon only felt its anger grow more and more.

Unfortunately, all it could do was roar at the escaping cultivators.

Whoosh-!

Three daggers flew out at the same time, each heading for a different vital point on the monkey demon.

Preoccupied with Mo Mian, the monkey demon failed to notice the daggers until it was too late.

Thud-! Thud-! Thud-!

They struck the monkey demon exactly where Zhao Yunxiao had wanted.

However, the result was not what he had expected.

There was no blood, no roar of pain, and simply no reaction whatsoever.

These daggers that had been imbued with essence energy seemed to have been stopped by just the hair of the monkey demon, not even capable of reaching its skin.

Zhao Yunxiao frowned upon seeing this.

“Its hair is tough! We need a powerful strike instead of numerous small attacks!” Chu Han immediately yelled out the words that were running through Zhao Yunxiao’s mind.

“The other monkeys are catching up!” Gui Longcan cautioned.

“Wait a little more!” Mo Mian instructed.

“How far until the optimal point?!” Chu Han shouted.

“Reaching in five!” Pu Feixiang replied.

He was leading the escape from the front, which meant that he was the furthest away from the main threat that was the monkey demon.

His task during the escape was to not look back at all, focusing fully on making sure that their path ahead was clear.

After all, the last thing they wanted was to be caught in a two-pronged attack while they were dealing with the monkey demon.

Being in charge of leading the escape also meant that Pu Feixiang had full control over the direction and speed at which the party moved.

This made him the person who was most aware of their location at any given moment.

“Four!” Pu Feixiang started counting down.

“Everyone, get ready!” Chu Han reminded.

“Three!”

“Two!”

“One!”

“Activate the traps!” Mo Mian yelled.