Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Desertion? One Sword
"Damn our luck. To actually run into a pack of Long-armed Demon Apes."
The expressions of everyone in the Zhou Family Guard Team turned grim. The most difficult thing about Long-armed Demon Apes was that they were social Demon Beasts, always moving in packs.
A pack of Long-armed Demon Apes typically numbered between twenty and forty.
The Zhou Family Medicine Collection Team had over thirty members in total, but only half were guards; the other half were medicine collectors.
To repel this pack of Long-armed Demon Apes, the Guard Team would have to pay a heavy price. Suffering heavy casualties was inevitable.
The thought that people would die weighed heavily on them, their expressions turning somber.
"Don’t panic! Prepare for battle!" Li Jie roared.
The members of the Guard Team swiftly drew their weapons—be it sabers, spears, or halberds, they were all heavy arms.
Their reactions were swift. Though their faces were grave, they didn’t fall into disarray, a clear sign that they were experienced individuals who had faced such sudden crises before.
"Chuchu, come here next to me. Don’t be afraid. Your sister and the Guard Team will protect you," Zhou Lingwei said, quickly pulling Zhou Chuchu to her side.
Zhou Chuchu’s face paled. It was the first time she had ever encountered something like this, and she was still very young.
"Kid, you’d better pull your weight in a minute. If you try to hide and be a burden, I’ll be the first to deal with you!" Li Jie snarled, glaring at Ning Jiang.
"AWOO! AWOO!"
From the woods surrounding the valley, the high-pitched cries of apes drew closer. The trees shook violently, creating a terrifying spectacle.
"They’re here."
In their line of sight, one Demon Ape after another appeared atop the surrounding trees.
These Demon Apes stood about two heads taller than an average person. They had burly bodies covered in black, needle-like fur, and a pair of long arms that stretched down to their knees. Their sharp nails were like small daggers.
Their claws were incredibly sharp, capable of tearing through steel with ease. If they so much as grazed a person’s body, it would mean certain injury, if not death.
"Over thirty of them, and half are Postnatal Realm Demon Beasts!"
Li Jie and the others looked grim. Half were at the Postnatal Realm. The other half, while slightly weaker, would still require a Martial Artist at the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer or higher to handle.
"AWOO."
With a piercing shriek, the horde of Long-armed Demon Apes leaped from the trees, pouncing from all directions.
"Hold the line! Don’t panic! If you’re injured, fall back immediately!"
The dozen or so guards formed a protective circle around Zhou Lingwei and the others, facing the Long-armed Demon Apes that were charging in from all sides.
"Kill!"
The battle erupted in an instant.
Li Jie, with his Postnatal Late Stage cultivation, was the strongest in the team. He immediately suppressed a Long-armed Demon Ape, and with his heavy, fierce saber techniques, he killed a Postnatal Realm Long-armed Demon Ape in just three strikes.
The other guards were not new to this kind of fight, so they suffered no casualties at the outset. Instead, they managed to kill several of the Long-armed Demon Apes.
However, the deaths of their comrades only served to incite the ferocity of the remaining Demon Apes.
"AH!"
A guard cried out in pain. He had been heavily wounded, his chest carelessly raked by a Long-armed Demon Ape’s claws, leaving five deep, bloody gashes.
He immediately retreated, but this only increased the pressure on the others.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch?" Zhou Lingwei demanded angrily, seeing that Ning Jiang had no intention of making a move.
"Coward."
The injured guard also cursed, his eyes filled with contempt.
"To catch the bandits, you must first catch the king. Killing these Demon Apes will only awaken their innate ferocity. What’s the use of that?" Ning Jiang said, completely unfazed by their opinions. "Only by killing the Ape King can we solve this problem once and for all."
"Easier said than done. Why don’t you go do it then?" Zhou Lingwei retorted, thinking Ning Jiang was just trying to sound tough.
"Now’s the time!"
Suddenly, Ning Jiang stomped his foot on the ground, cracking it. His body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
SWISH.
He charged into the forest in an instant, his figure disappearing within.
"He left?"
"Damn it, he’s deserting!"
"That bastard! Fleeing in the middle of a battle! The man is a disgrace."
The Zhou Family guards immediately started cursing him out.
"Chuchu, do you see now? That man is all talk and no substance. He kept talking about killing the Ape King, but what happened in the end?"
"If he had stayed to fight the Demon Beasts, I would have at least considered him a man of courage, his bravery commendable. But he abandoned us and ran away by himself. Such a craven coward is utterly despicable," Zhou Lingwei said with contempt in her eyes.
Zhou Chuchu was speechless. ’Is Ning Jiang really that kind of person?’
「In the forest.」
Ning Jiang stood on a tree branch, Wind Chasing Sword in hand, his gaze fixed on a shadow in another tree.
A massive figure was lying in ambush there.
’So it’s injured. No wonder it’s hiding in the shadows and hasn’t attacked, despite being the Ape King.’
Although it was nighttime, a Martial Artist who had reached the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer would have gone through Training the Seven Apertures. Their eyesight becomes as sharp as an eagle’s, allowing them to see clearly even in the dark.
This Ape King was a full size larger than the other Demon Apes, with a ferocious aura. However, there was a claw mark on its abdomen. While it was no longer bleeding, the wound was still far from fully healed.
Ning Jiang guessed that the Ape King had likely fought with another Demon Beast to have sustained such an injury.
Fights often broke out between Demon Beasts. The law of the jungle—the weak are prey for the strong, survival of the fittest—was cruel and bloody.
’Normally, an injured Ape King would definitely hide until it has fully recovered. But this one has shown itself and attacked the Zhou Family Guard Team. It seems the guards must have accidentally trespassed on its territory, forcing it to attack despite its injuries,’ Ning Jiang thought.
"AWOO."
Just as Ning Jiang was observing the Ape King, it let out a furious roar. It leaped from the branch with its hind legs, pouncing through the air like a tiger or leopard.
This was a Postnatal Late Stage Ape King. Even though its combat power was affected by its injury, it would still take a Martial Artist at the Postnatal Middle Stage to deal with it.
The aura Ning Jiang projected, however, was merely that of the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer. The Ape King naturally felt no fear and attacked without hesitation.
Ning Jiang’s expression was calm. He twisted his foot on the branch, and with a slight tremor, he floated backward as if he were a weightless piece of paper.
Seeing Ning Jiang seemingly about to flee, a ferocious light flared in the Ape King’s eyes.
It grabbed the tree trunk with its long arms, ready to push off and pursue Ning Jiang.
The greatest feature of Long-armed Demon Apes was their long arms, which they used to leap between trees with speed and agility.
When moving through the trees, they were even faster than tigers or leopards.
’You fell for it.’ But at that moment, a slight smile touched the corner of Ning Jiang’s mouth.
CRACK!
The moment the Ape King put force into its arms, the entire branch snapped. Instantly, the Ape King’s body was thrown into chaos as it lost its balance and fell downward.
At almost the same time, Ning Jiang’s feet touched the ground.
He tapped his toes.
WHOOSH.
Like a bird diving into a forest, or an Eagle Strikes the Sky, the Wind Chasing Sword thrust out, resembling a rainbow piercing the sun, a comet striking the moon.
This was a killing blow. Like an assassin who concentrates their spirit, seeks the perfect opportunity, and launches a fatal strike—one who doesn’t act lightly, but kills with every move.
PFFT.
The longsword pierced accurately through the Ape King’s throat, running it through.
The entire sequence was executed in a single, fluid motion.
"A Demon Beast is a Demon Beast, after all." Ning Jiang pulled out the Wind Chasing Sword and with a slight flick, shook off the blood.
In terms of cultivation, he was by no means the Ape King’s match in a head-on confrontation. But there are thousands of ways to fight, and a direct clash is the most foolish choice when facing a huge disparity in strength.
When you can’t win with force, you must know how to win with wits.
Earlier, when Ning Jiang had twisted his foot on the branch, that tiny movement had actually shattered the branch from the inside. That was why when the Ape King grabbed it and exerted force, the branch broke on the spot.
Then, when Ning Jiang struck with his sword, he aimed for a weak point like the throat.
Otherwise, with a Demon Beast’s thick skin and tough flesh, a strike anywhere else might not have been a fatal wound, given Ning Jiang’s cultivation.
To kill a Postnatal Late Stage Ape King with a single sword strike while at the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer—this was the source of his confidence in coming to the Demon Mist Mountain Range.
With the combat experience from his previous life, as long as he didn’t encounter an Innate Realm Demon Beast, there was basically nothing in the Demon Mist Mountain Range that could threaten him.
Slicing open the Ape King’s head with his sword, Ning Jiang retrieved a Demon Core from within.
Then, he grabbed the Ape King’s body and, hoisting it up, headed back the way he came.
The Ape King’s body weighed a thousand catties, but a Martial Artist at the Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer could unleash a force of ten thousand catties at full power, so a mere thousand was nothing.
「In the valley.」
Several of the Zhou Family guards had already been injured and had retreated, putting even more pressure on those who remained.
’Damn it. If this keeps up, someone’s going to die soon.’
Li Jie was bathed in blood; even he had sustained some injuries in the fierce battle.
’That coward.’
Zhou Lingwei looked at the wounded guards around her, then thought of Ning Jiang who had fled the battle, and her heart filled with both disappointment and anger.
"Sister, I heard an ape cry from the forest just now. Maybe Brother Ning really did go to deal with the Ape King," Zhou Chuchu couldn’t help but say.
"Silence! Don’t you dare mention him again." Zhou Lingwei’s face was ice-cold; she absolutely refused to believe Ning Jiang would go after the Ape King. "With his cultivation, he’d be courting death to face the Ape King. He obviously just ran away."
"My cultivation is indeed not high, but to look down on me and jump to conclusions based on that alone... Zhou Lingwei, your judgment is far too shallow," a clear voice suddenly drifted out from the forest.
"What is that?"
The guards all looked over and saw a massive black shadow being thrown out.
THUD.
The ground shook. All eyes focused on the object, and everyone’s pupils contracted violently.
The corpse of a Demon Ape!
"The Ape King?" a guard asked in disbelief.
Immediately after, the surrounding, aggressive Demon Apes let out mournful cries and scattered in all directions.
With the Ape King dead, the remaining Demon Apes had no intention of seeking revenge. It was like when a tree falls and the monkeys scatter.
Such are Demon Beasts—heartless and disloyal.
If the guards had initially doubted the identity of this Demon Ape, their doubts vanished completely when the others began to flee!
All eyes turned towards the forest.
The moonlight was cold and clear.
The night wind blew gently.
A youth in white robes whiter than snow, his hair as black as ink, walked out slowly. His eyes were as calm and profound as the vast, boundless night sky.
’He didn’t run away.’
Zhou Lingwei’s expression was incredibly complicated. Before this moment, everyone here, except for Zhou Chuchu, had believed Ning Jiang to be a craven coward who feared death.
But the reality before them was like a slap across their faces, leaving a burning sting.
Slaying the Ape King, repelling the demon horde.
This person.
Was Ning Jiang!
The clearing fell utterly silent.
