Even Flower Fox, usually so steady, could not help flying into a rage at this. "Charging us once is enough, but you're charging us twice! You're inventing pretexts to fleece us!"
The ape demon drew the blade from his chest, its gleaming edge dazzling the eyes. He laughed. "You don't have to get off the bridge. It's not like I have to collect your bridge-exit fee. Cut the crap—either pay up, or stick your heads out and let me chop them off!"
Behind Su Yun and the others, the ape demon who had collected the bridge-entry fee said leisurely, "Kids, ever since we started building bridges and roads and charging tolls, we haven't done murder-and-robbery business anymore. Don't force us back into our old trade."
Su Yun glanced at the village on the hillside, then at the two ape demons before and behind them. "Charging for crossing onto the bridge is reasonable. Naturally, charging for getting off it is reasonable too."
He stepped forward and counted ten Five Zhu Coins from his money pouch. The ape demon snatched them away, then glanced at his pouch again and laughed. "There's plenty more in there. Where are you planning to go?"
Hu Buping said, "Into the city..."
Su Yun hurriedly covered his mouth and smiled. "We're going to visit relatives in the village ahead."
Getting the hint, Hu Buping changed his words. "Visiting relatives in the village ahead!"
"Visiting relatives on a snowy day—that's rare indeed."
The ape demon's eyes flickered. He saw Su Yun put the money pouch back into his bundle, only for more than a dozen Green Rainbow Coins to tumble out of it.
Flower Fox hurried forward and stuffed the Green Rainbow Coins back into the bundle.
Su Yun and the others tied up their bundles and hurried onward.
The ape demon watched them disappear into the distance, then suddenly said, "Sixth Brother, business has come to me!"
The ape demon on the other side frowned and advised, "They're just a few children. Leave them a way to live. Yuan Wu, let them go. When they return, we can collect two more payments."
Yuan Wu laughed. "They're going into the city! These little brats, not even fully feathered, already want to enter the city. They definitely won't make it to the relay station alive—they'll die halfway there! They have quite a bit of money on them. Rather than letting someone else benefit from it, why not let me benefit?"
Yuan Sixth was about to speak, but Yuan Wu had already strode away.
"Killing even children. A fellow with no accumulated hidden virtue." Yuan Sixth shook his head, but he did not call Yuan Wu back.
Su Yun, Flower Fox, and the others hurried forward. Su Yun said in a low voice, "Let's go a little farther."
Flower Fox and the others understood. One human and four little demon children raced ahead. The snow piled deep on either side of the road, and before they knew it, they had reached a bend. Suddenly, Flower Fox and the others leaped into the snowbanks beside the road and vanished.
With his saber in hand, Yuan Wu bounded along like an ape and monkey, incredibly fast. When he reached the bend, he saw Su Yun standing ahead.
The youth had his back to him. He had actually taken off his shirt and folded it neatly to one side, exposing his back, its muscles smoothly defined.
Yuan Wu was surprised, then laughed. "This kid really knows what he's doing. Is he afraid the blood will stain his clothes? That works too. I'll send in a white blade and pull out a red one. If I pierce the clothes and stain them with blood, they won't be worth anything."
Just then, he suddenly saw Su Yun's back swell, as though twelve more ribs had grown from it. The muscles across his back seemed to double in an instant!
The great tendons on Su Yun's back tightened one after another. Twenty-four ribs joined his spine, while massive back muscles connected to it, tendons linking muscle and rib.
"So strong!" Yuan Wu's heart jolted.
A Flood Dragon suddenly moved across Su Yun's body. It came to his back and merged with his back muscles, forming an image of a dragon coiling around the heavens.
The Flood Dragon formed from qi and blood had streaming whiskers. It poked its head out from Su Yun's back, opened its jaws at Yuan Wu, and roared.
"Moo-roar—"
Snow fell in flurries from the pine forest on both sides of the road, rustling down to the ground.
Struck by Su Yun's qi and blood, Yuan Wu could not help letting out a long howl. Vast vital qi mixed with blood surged from within his body, making the long fur all over him whip and flutter!
"Sixth level Foundation Establishment? So am I!"
Clang, clang, clang!
The long saber in his hand gave a crisp cry. It could not withstand his violent qi and blood, which battered it harder and harder. Like a thin sheet of iron trembling ever more violently, it suddenly tore apart!
His violent qi and blood formed the manifestation of a brawny ape man behind him. The ape man's fur shone golden, his fangs fierce and ugly. Four of those fangs were five or six inches long, and he stood more than twice as tall as Yuan Wu.
Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter.
This cultivation method had been a qi cultivation and Foundation Establishment art from the era of the Old Sage Classics. However, it had not been implemented in the official schools of the Northern Frontier; instead, it was a Foundation Establishment art used in the official schools of other prefectures and counties.
Different prefectures and counties often had different qi cultivation and Foundation Establishment arts. The Northern Frontier, for example, used the Bifang Divine Movement Qi Cultivation Chapter.
The ape demons of Yuanjia Ridge should have come from another prefecture or county and learned the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter.
The greatest difference between the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter and other Foundation Establishment arts was that cultivating it could improve the marrow's blood-forming ability, increase bone density, strengthen tendons and toughen membranes, temper every muscle in the body, and vastly increase one's strength!
The lower volume of this art was called the Ape Master's Art. It likewise had six moves, all exceedingly violent techniques.
Compared with humans, the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter was even more suited to the ape race. When ape demons cultivated this Foundation Establishment art, they could achieve twice the result with half the effort, and its power became even greater!
Yuan Wu's qi and blood turned violent. In an instant, his body grew another foot taller, his arms and legs thickening, his eyes turning blood-red. Suddenly, he crouched and sprang into the air.
Su Yun stood around four zhang away from him. Yet in a single leap, Yuan Wu landed only a little over one zhang from Su Yun.
The violent ape took a cushioning step after landing. His right shoulder pulled back, his waist and stance merged as one. The Golden Ape behind him made the same movement, drawing its right shoulder back and uniting waist and stance as it threw a punch!
The wind from the fist howled. Snow on both sides of the road was swept up by the gusts and blown slantwise into the air, scattering everywhere.
Su Yun turned. The dragon image on his back flowed through his entire body. Raising his hand, he unleashed the first move of Flood Dragon's Chant—Flood Dragon Emerging from the Abyss!
Muscles and great tendons all over his body trembled, passing power from the earth into his legs and feet, from his legs and feet into his waist. The muscles at his waist jumped, his spine crawling like a Flood Dragon as it sent that power into his fist!
The blow tipped his body forward. Dragon claws and a dragon tail formed from qi and blood surged from within him. The claws gripped the ground, and four dragon legs exerted force, driving the power of this strike to its utmost limit as it met Yuan Wu head-on!
Since Dragon Taming the dragon bones at Dragon Burial Mound, his comprehension and understanding of Flood Dragon's Chant had reached an extremely high level. He used the dragon's form to circulate his qi and blood and strengthen himself.
This was his first battle since Dragon Taming the dragon bones!
He wanted to test the results of all his recent Investigating Things to Gain Knowledge!
Yuan Wu's fist was like a wine jar, several times larger than Su Yun's. In the time it took for sparks to fly from flint, their fists collided.
The snow on both sides of the road seemed to suffer an invisible impact. Snowflakes blasted into the air, and Yuan Wu's expression changed sharply as he heard the vibration of his hand bones.
The sound was crisp—the sound of his middle finger bone cracking, like a sharp axe splitting into dry firewood.
The sound traveled from his bones to his eardrums, much faster than sound traveling through the air to his ears.
Then came the crisp explosions of his index and ring fingers shattering, followed by the sound of the tendons and membranes at his wrist tearing. That fierce force traveled from the ulna and radius of his forearm into the humerus and shoulder blade of his upper arm.
His head snapped violently to one side, as though a bull that had transformed into a great demon had rammed it. His mind turned muddled and dazed.
The remaining force scattered from his shoulder blade into his thirty-three vertebrae and twelve ribs. His momentum was abruptly halted, and his brawny body flew backward!
Before he hit the ground, the snowbanks on both sides of the road suddenly exploded. Four adorable children of ice and snow burst out, seized his hands and feet, and executed Crocodile Dragon's Roll and Flood Dragon's Roll in midair!
Crack! Crack!
Four crisp cracks rang out. Yuan Wu saw his limbs twist, wrung into the shape of twisted hemp rope, and his heart sank. A lifetime of hunting geese, only to have my eyes pecked blind by sparrows. These little brats set me up!
He immediately understood. Su Yun had exposed his wealth to use his greed to lure him over. If he had not been greedy, nothing would have happened. But if greed made him chase after them to murder and seize their wealth, Su Yun and the others would eliminate him!
Flower Fox and the others landed on one foot. Yuan Wu hit the ground on his back with a thud, his limbs twisted.
"This is Yuanjia Ridge! Who would dare kill me?"
Yuan Wu roared. "My Yuan family ancestor watches over this ridge. He is the tyrant of this place! If you kill me, none of you will ever think of—"
Whoosh—
Su Yun's right leg swept sideways. The force in that leg surged, its blood vessels filled with violent qi and blood. Like a Flood Dragon's Tail Sweep, it smashed viciously into Yuan Wu's neck!
The great tendons in Yuan Wu's neck snapped with popping sounds. His neck bones twisted, and Su Yun's leg drove his head viciously into the ground!
The ground shook violently.
Su Yun withdrew his right leg and quickly searched Yuan Wu's body. He found a small pouch of Five Zhu Coins, opened it, and took out ten coins.
There was plenty more money in the pouch, but he did not take any extra.
"Brother Xiaoyun, he took twenty coins from us!" Hu Buping adjusted his dog-ear hat and reminded him.
"Those ten coins were the bridge toll and should have been paid. He wanted to kill us, and we killed him in return. That is the proper path. Killing him means fewer people will die."
Su Yun pulled a thin booklet from Yuan Wu's clothes. He lowered his head to inspect it, froze slightly, then tossed the ten coins back onto Yuan Wu's corpse. "I'm taking this book. Ten coins to buy it from you, and neither of us owes the other anything."
He stood up, and the four little children quickly followed him. Flower Fox asked, "Xiaoyun, what book is worth ten coins? Mister Shuijing only charges us one coin to teach us."
"This book is called the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter."
Su Yun flipped through it as he walked. "The mental method in the upper volume subdues the heart ape and reins in the will horse. The violent ape sits in the dantian—it is quite extraordinary. The lower volume, the Ape Master's Art, has the Ape Master's Six Forms, and those moves are extraordinary too."
Qingqiu Yue shook her rabbit ears. "Even so, it isn't worth ten coins."
Su Yun said regretfully, "He was beaten to death by us, so we couldn't bargain. If I'd known, I would have agreed on the price before beating him to death."
As the only human in No-Man's Land, his way of handling matters had long been tainted by the ways of the demons and monsters here.
Money that should be paid had to be paid in full, not a single cent short. Fair trade.
Even if the other party was dead, it still had to be paid.
Money that belonged to him had to be recovered. If it was taken from him, he would seize it back. He would never submit.
If it was not his money, then even if it lay right before him, he would not take a single coin.
His principles were just that simple and clear.
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