Fifth Soul Skill, Monkey King Again

Lu Mingchuan had spent the past few days cultivating quietly at home. For some reason, ever since Ning Fengzhi had left unsuccessful after visiting him, no one else had come. That suited him just fine.

After cultivating from morning until noon, Lu Mingchuan opened his eyes and exhaled. He checked his panel and, as expected, had reached level fifty. He bought an Exclusive Spirit Ring from the shop and placed it on himself.

The spirit ring's color changed rapidly. Before long, it became black with faint traces of blood-red. He then opened his eyes and glanced at his panel. His level had already risen to 53.

Not only that, he had gained an outrageously powerful growth-type soul skill. Though, none of the soul skills he currently possessed could be called anything less than absurd: his first soul skill broke armor and increased damage; his second was an area attack with some support effects; his third restored his condition; and his fourth granted control immunity and increased speed.

His fourth soul skill was called Emperor Star Descends, Controls Qiongsang. Each enemy he killed granted one stack of Critical Insight. Every stack increased critical damage by 18%, could stack infinitely, and remained permanently. He could freely choose whether to use Critical Insight, but the enemies he killed had to be no more than five levels below him. That completely ruled out his idea of farming Critical Insight by slaughtering a bunch of Soft Bone Rabbits.

But to him, that restriction was practically nonexistent. Other than harvesting his leeks, when had he ever fought without challenging enemies above his level? And although this skill did not increase critical rate, his third soul skill guaranteed critical hits on attacks. The two were practically a perfect match.

Then he suddenly remembered something he had experienced long ago but forgotten about—the Aftermath of Battle. Ever since he had fought the Monkey King once when it had first opened, he seemed never to have activated it again. The rewards were quite generous, including a ten-pull for characters, but he was not a greedy person.

With his three wives by his side, he felt that was enough. Moderation was best. But he had suddenly realized that he had no one under his command he could use. Volberli was in Holy Soul Village, and he could not possibly make his three wives handle everything. After thinking it over, he decided to clear a couple of stages, get some ten-pulls, and draw something useful.

He acted as soon as he decided. "System, activate the Aftermath of Battle."

"Ding, activating."

His vision immediately became a field of white once more, and a familiar voice rang in his ears again. When he opened his eyes, he saw those two familiar yet unfamiliar doors.

"Door, I missed you." As he said this, he showed no hesitation in delivering a fierce blow to the door labeled Normal. Once it opened, he found himself in that familiar space again.

Mission: Kill the Monkey King
Reward: Character Ten-Pull ×1

"Seriously? I'm fighting monkeys again?"

Looking at the familiar forest, Lu Mingchuan felt somewhat speechless. Since arriving on Douluo Continent, he had only fought a few times in total. Other than harvesting leeks, it had always been this Monkey King. And now, it seemed like it would have to be the Monkey King again.

Thinking of the Titan Giant Ape's Soul Bone and spirit ring in the System Space, he felt that he really did have quite an affinity with monkeys.

"Forget it. Why think so much? Just do it." With that, he summoned the Imperial Bow and flashed onto a tree. This time, he would not stupidly bother with probing. He directly copied the method he had used to find the boss last time and went all out.

After wandering around blindly for a while, Lu Mingchuan almost laughed when he saw the little monkey blocking his path. He walked over and smacked it hard across the face, then flashed into hiding. After watching the monkey recover for a while and leave, he followed behind it. Before long, another familiar cave came into view.

Before he even entered, he saw the guide monkey fly backward out of the cave, its right cheek swollen high.

"Holy crap, turning up the difficulty really does make a difference. You came out before I even went in."

Lu Mingchuan did not enter upon seeing this. It was obvious that he had been discovered. If he went in now, he was afraid the monkey's fists would get their fill. Sure enough, after a while, a tall and burly ape walked out. It stood three to four meters at the shoulder, and its explosive muscles were even stronger and more powerful than the last one's.

Its eyes were blood-red the moment it emerged. It was clearly in a blood rage. As Lu Mingchuan sized it up, the Monkey King swept its gaze around and successfully spotted him crouching in the tree, watching the monkeys.

ROAR!!! After letting out a massive roar, it stomped violently on the ground. As the earth shattered, Lu Mingchuan watched the Monkey King rapidly enlarge in his vision. With a light, agile leap to the side, he avoided this Mount Tai Meteor Fall.

Then, as he watched the Monkey King fly past him, he drew the Imperial Bow and fired an armor-piercing light arrow straight into Monkey King 2.0's ass. As the light arrow sank in, the Monkey King's body visibly stiffened in midair for an instant.

Roar~ For some reason, Lu Mingchuan heard a trace of exquisite pain in that roar. Then he saw the Monkey King's eyes turn even redder after it landed. He suddenly got a good idea and directly activated his skill, Aggression.

As the infuriating symbol appeared above its head, the Monkey King's eyes became another shade redder. Its pupils were nearly invisible. It then tore up a huge chunk of earth and hurled it straight at Lu Mingchuan. Lu Mingchuan raised his hand and blasted it apart with an arrow. Then, as the Monkey King charged after it, he fired another basic attack straight into the monkey's head.

Lu Mingchuan did not lower his guard when he watched the corpse collapse limply to the ground, because it still had a second life. He just did not know whether it would have a third this time. As he thought, he formed a shield at the back of his head, resembling seven overlapping flower petals.

The next second, a crimson fist slammed into it. That was right—it was the Monkey King. At this moment, the Monkey King had successfully gone from Red Temperature on top to Red Temperature all over. Feeling the force behind that punch, Lu Mingchuan could not help clicking his tongue. This punch was far stronger than Tang San's Blue Silver Entanglement.

Then five black spirit rings appeared beneath his feet. The fourth flickered slightly, and the Monkey King's roar, filled with profound rage, reached his ears. Unfortunately, Lu Mingchuan was no longer the Lu Mingchuan of the past. This attack was ineffective!

He flipped through the air and kicked the Monkey King in the chest at a speed it could not hope to match, sending it off the tree. At the same time, he used the tremendous recoil to pull away. Although he could have beaten it to death with his bare hands, Lu Mingchuan always remembered that he was an archer. He needed to keep his distance from enemies, or else he feared he would rush in and start beating them up.

While he was thinking, a thick light arrow had already condensed on his bow. This was one of his basic attacks, though it had also gathered quite a bit of Imaginary Energy.

Twang! A soft vibration of the bowstring rang out from his hand. In an instant, the arrow had pierced through the Monkey King's chest. Amid its unwilling roar, Lu Mingchuan curled his lips into a faint smile.

"See ya~"

He then vanished from the spot. Within the Aftermath of Battle space, Lu Mingchuan looked at the ten-pull that had just arrived, along with one stack of Critical Insight, and chuckled twice. He had always believed in his luck, but to be safe, he should get a few more pulls. He could also take a look at the nightmare's information.

Hehe, just making my presence known.