White Ape Blood

"Maybe we won't have to search far and wide for that brat after all."

Watching Zhou Tong grit his teeth in hatred, Chun Niang seemed to think of something and suddenly spoke.

"Oh? What do you mean? Could it be that you have some way, Chun Niang?"

Zhou Tong immediately perked up at this and hurriedly pressed for an answer.

"I smeared Fish Fat Grass juice on Liu Ergou. The things on him must have been contaminated as well. If the person who acted that night took anything from him, there should be some traces left behind."

"You mean...?"

Zhou Tong's eyes lit up as he understood.

"That's right. It may be troublesome, but if we spend some time, as long as that person is still in Lin'an County City, we will definitely find him."

Chun Niang spoke slowly.

"Good. As long as we can find that brat, we can finally vent this resentment."

Zhou Tong said viciously.

Chun Niang did not continue the conversation. Instead, she rummaged through the vegetable basket in her hand and pulled out several unknown leaves that had yellowed somewhat.

"These are Summer Cold Tree leaves. They can't heal your shoulder injury, but they can dull the pain somewhat. They should be of some help to you."

As she spoke, she placed the leaves on the stone table beside them.

"Wuwu..."

At that moment, a disturbance came from a room on one side of the courtyard, drawing both their gazes over.

"How should these people be dealt with?"

Chun Niang said flatly.

"How else? Get rid of them sooner rather than later. Keeping them around will only be trouble."

Zhou Tong replied indifferently, picked up the leaves on the table, and entered the room on the other side.

"Fine."

Chun Niang murmured, then stepped toward the room where the sounds had come from.

Inside, three people—two adults and a child—were tied up. Dressed in coarse cloth, they all watched Chun Niang approach with terror in their eyes.

Clearly, these three had been the original owners of this residence.

"If you want to blame someone, blame your bad luck."

Ignoring their terrified gazes, Chun Niang flicked her hand. A cold gleam flashed, and blood gushed from all three of their necks.

Before long, they fell completely silent.

"Squeak, squeak..."

A weasel poked its head out from Chun Niang's shoulder, sniffing the air. A disturbingly humanlike greed appeared in its lively eyes before it shot from the woman's shoulder and landed atop the corpses.

Not long after, a strangely heart-chilling sucking sound echoed through the room.

At the Tooth Gang's grounds on Crock Street, Liu Yuanshan stood in the courtyard. He darted and shifted like a nimble monkey, displaying an agility wholly at odds with his build.

From time to time, his fists and kicks lashed out, bursting with sharp cracks.

Only after a while did he stop. He returned to the stone table in the courtyard, picked up the teapot on it, and took a fierce gulp.

Footsteps sounded outside the courtyard as several Tooth Gang members hurried in.

"Well? Any news?"

Without even raising his eyelids, Liu Yuanshan spoke coldly.

"R-Reporting to Boss, not yet. But following your orders, we've sent brothers to watch every apothecary and city gate in town. The moment anyone suspicious appears, we absolutely won't let them go."

Several trusted gang members trembled slightly as they hurriedly answered.

"What I want is results!"

Liu Yuanshan suddenly looked up, his icy gaze fixed on them.

Only after staring them into breaking out in cold sweats did the chill in his eyes fade somewhat.

He took a letter from his robes and tossed it to them.

"Take this letter to the eastern district and give it to the Axe Gang."

"The Axe Gang?"

The men took the letter. Hearing their Second Gang Leader's words, they froze for a moment, but quickly came to their senses and nodded frantically like chickens pecking grain.

"Yes, Boss. We'll go right away."

"Get lost."

Liu Yuanshan waved them off impatiently. The men let out sighs of relief, hurried to their feet, and left at a brisk pace.

The next day.

Lin Sheng got up early that morning. Since coming to this world, he had never once slept in; there was no helping it—the conditions did not allow it.

After washing up simply, he went out to the street and bought some breakfast. Only after eating did he head to the squad's base.

There were not many people at the base. After waiting a while longer, Zhang Ding walked in with a smile on his face, clearly in an excellent mood.

The moment he saw Lin Sheng, he walked over and spoke with a grin.

"Brother Lin, you came early enough. I've already received word. Since we exceeded the mission requirements this time, we get one more day off than usual, and each of us gets two taels of silver as a reward."

"Oh?"

Lin Sheng was taken aback.

Zhang Ding slapped his forehead as though he had suddenly remembered something.

"Didn't I tell you, Brother Lin? Every time we complete a mission objective, Beast Hunter Hall gives us one day off."

Lin Sheng immediately fell silent. Zhang Ding had naturally never mentioned this to him.

"It's fine, it's not too late to say it now. Come, follow your brother here and collect the reward money from the accounts office."

With that, Zhang Ding slung an arm around Lin Sheng without giving him a choice and headed toward Beast Hunter Hall's logistics and supply office.

By the time they returned, Lin Sheng had an additional two taels of silver in his hand.

He truly had not expected that completing missions for Beast Hunter Hall would come with reward money as well.

And it was two taels of silver in a single go. His monthly pay and benefits at Beast Hunter Hall only came to five or six taels altogether. Such compensation was indeed quite generous.

Zhang Ding had also explained this to him just now. In Beast Hunter Hall, monthly pay was merely the small portion; the true bulk of the earnings was the reward money in one's hand.

According to Zhang Ding, he could earn more than ten taels of silver in reward money alone each month. If luck favored him, even twenty taels was not out of the question.

For the poor people living on Crock Street, twenty taels of silver was absolutely an enormous fortune.

But Lin Sheng also understood that such generous reward money came at the price of one's life.

The reward money might be plentiful, but one had to survive to spend it. In the Horned Badger mission alone, four or five people had been killed or injured, nearly one-fifth of their squad.

Such a casualty rate was truly far too high.

For some dangerous missions in Yangping Mountain, the casualty rate was even higher than this. It was clear enough that this money was not so easily earned.

"Brother Lin, what are you planning to do these next two days? Want to come with your brother here and do something interesting?"

The two walked side by side down the street when Zhang Ding suddenly revealed a smile that every man understood.

"I wouldn't dare boast about anything else, but at the foot of Yangping Mountain, your brother here knows every fun place like the back of his hand."

As he spoke, Zhang Ding's gaze had already fallen upon an alley to one side of the street. Several women stood at its entrance, watching the street with enticing smiles on their faces. Their clothes were rather revealing, the exposed skin drawing extra glances from many passersby.

Lin Sheng swept his eyes over the women, then shook his head slightly.

"I'll pass. I plan to focus on training these next two days."

"Training, huh? Fair enough. When you're young, you need to seize your opportunities and treasure your time. You can't fritter away your best years like your brother here did."

Zhang Ding nodded in agreement, but quickly changed the subject.

"Still, burying your head in hard training all the time isn't the way either. When the time is right, you ought to balance work and rest, relax your mood a little. Maybe your martial arts will progress even faster, hehe..."

Even as he spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the women, and he muttered under his breath.

"How come I've never seen these ones before? Could they be new here? Tsk tsk... they're really fair..."

Seeing how Zhang Ding's eyes practically wanted to bore into the women at the alley entrance, Lin Sheng quickly changed the subject.

"Brother Zhang, do you know where I can find white apes?"

"White apes?"

Only then did Zhang Ding shift his attention back. He looked at Lin Sheng in surprise.

"Brother Lin, what do you want those things for? Aren't white apes just white-furred monkeys? They're rather rare, and even I've only seen them a few times."

"But if you really want to find one, it's not impossible. You can try Small Market Street to the west. You might find one there."

"Small Market Street?"

Lin Sheng remembered the name, then casually made up an excuse.

"I've heard of those white-furred monkeys before, but I've never seen one, so I was just curious."

"What's so interesting about those things? Women are much better."

Zhang Ding did not pay it much mind, and his gaze returned to the women.

The women at the alley entrance had noticed Zhang Ding and Lin Sheng by then, and they kept sending flirtatious glances their way.

Zhang Ding could no longer restrain himself. He weighed the silver in his hand and smiled at Lin Sheng.

"Brother Lin, since you have no taste for this, your brother here will test the waters for you first. If you get interested someday, just come find me."

Without waiting for Lin Sheng's reply, he strode over.

Watching Zhang Ding wrap an arm around each of two women and disappear into the alley, Lin Sheng withdrew his gaze without much concern.

He had not expected Zhang Ding to be a man who valued women as much as life itself, but on second thought, it was only natural. In an environment as high-pressure as Beast Hunter Hall, people had to relieve their stress somehow.

He did not linger. After asking several people on the street for the location of Small Market Street, he set off.

Small Market Street was not far from where he was. In less than the time it took to burn an incense stick, he arrived at the rather bustling street.

Small Market Street was extremely wide, more than twice as wide as any other street in Yangping Town. The instant he stepped onto it, Lin Sheng smelled the stench of animal droppings.

There were no shops on either side of the street. Instead, all manner of restrained beasts filled the place.

Animal roars rang out without end, mixed with the cries of stallholders hawking their wares.

Seeing Small Market Street in this state reminded Lin Sheng of the dog markets he had seen as a child in his previous life.

Just as filthy and disorderly, just as lively and noisy, yet equally brimming with the smoke and fire of everyday life.

He avoided a pile of animal dung in the road that looked like dog shit but was several times larger, then began weaving through the street.

"Rock sheep! Top-grade mutated rock sheep! Fat and strong, with atavistic bloodline! Only ten taels of silver... Don't miss it as you pass by..."

Lin Sheng's gaze landed on the loudest hawker beside him. The short stallholder stood next to several sturdy rock sheep, which did indeed look quite decent.

But there was not the slightest sign of anything extraordinary about them, much less any so-called atavistic bloodline.

He had slaughtered at least several hundred rock sheep, and personally handled more than several thousand. He knew this type of beast extremely well. At a glance, he could see that the short stallholder's rock sheep were merely ordinary ones that happened to be larger. As for the supposed atavistic bloodline, it was clearly a nonexistent gimmick, likely bait for some clueless fool.

He did not stop and continued onward. There were many stalls along both sides of the street and no shortage of beasts, though more than half were ordinary animals such as rock sheep and yaks. There were some ordinary mid-grade beasts like Horned Badgers as well, but their prices were outrageously high when asked about.

He asked a stallholder selling Horned Badgers, only to learn that one cost a full thirty taels of silver.

With his current wealth, he would struggle to afford even one.

After wandering around for half an hour, Lin Sheng finally found his target near the end of Small Market Street.

"Squeak... squeak..."

A monkey covered from head to toe in white fur, roughly one and a half meters tall, was confined in an iron cage. It kept squeaking outward, occasionally pounding the cage and producing dull, heavy bangs.

Lin Sheng's eyes lit up. Wasn't this fellow the white ape he had been looking for?

He immediately stepped forward. So long as he absorbed this white ape into his body, his cultivation of the White Ape Leg Technique would undoubtedly advance at a rapid pace.

"Boss, how much is this white ape?"

The stallholder was a thin, tall old man wearing a round cap, with a shrewd look written all over his face. He had been smoking from a pipe, but upon seeing a customer, he immediately put it down and smiled.

"Young man, you have a good eye. This white ape of mine is a genuine exotic beast, not comparable to the ordinary stock elsewhere on this street. Just one hundred taels of silver."

"One hundred taels?"

Lin Sheng raised his brow and drew a quiet breath.

He knew white apes were relatively rare in Yangping Mountain, but he had not expected such a sky-high price of one hundred taels of silver.

Even a complete third-rate cultivation technique only cost a few hundred taels of silver. Yet a single white ape was worth so much.

Though he understood that the stallholder's price certainly contained a great deal of water, he likely still could not afford this white ape in his current circumstances.

"A price of one hundred taels isn't expensive. White apes are quite rare, you know. Ape brains are precious ingredients, and White Ape Blood can also be used in medicine to refine pills and medicinal broths..."

The thin, tall stallholder seemed afraid Lin Sheng did not recognize quality and hurriedly began listing the white ape's many uses.

"Will you sell it for twenty taels?"

Before the stallholder could finish, Lin Sheng named his price, abruptly cutting off the man's endless pitch.

"Young brother, are you joking? Seventy taels minimum, and not one copper less."

The smile vanished from the thin, tall stallholder's face, and he looked at Lin Sheng with considerable hostility.

Seeing Lin Sheng dressed in Beast Hunter Hall's uniform, he had thought a major customer had come. He had not expected a pauper instead.

Lin Sheng did not respond. Twenty taels was all the wealth he currently possessed, and he could not possibly gather seventy taels anytime soon.

Then he suddenly realized that what he needed to absorb into his body was White Ape Blood. He did not necessarily need an actual white ape, so there was no need to spend a huge sum specifically to buy one and bring it home.

At this thought, a trace of a smile appeared on his face. He looked at the thin, tall stallholder before him and asked,

"Do you sell White Ape Blood?"

"White Ape Blood?"

The stallholder froze, but quickly reacted.

"Kid, what do you take this place for? You want to buy White Ape Blood? I think you're—"

He was about to bark a few words of reprimand when several loud clangs rang out.

Turning his head, he saw that the white ape in the iron cage behind him had, for some unknown reason, become increasingly enraged. It was crazily smashing its head against the iron bars before it.

Very soon, its head split open and streams of blood flowed out. At the sight, both Lin Sheng and the stallholder were stunned.