White Ape Blood

"We might not be able to find that kid."

Seeing Zhou Tong gritting his teeth, Chun Niang suddenly thought of something and spoke.

"Oh? What do you mean? Do you have a way, Chun Niang?"

Hearing this, Zhou Tong's spirit immediately lifted, and he quickly pressed for details.

"I put Fish Fat Grass juice on Liu Ergou. Anything he had on him must have been tainted. If the person who attacked that night took something from him, there should be some trace."

"Are you saying...?"

Zhou Tong's eyes lit up; he understood now.

"That's right. Although it'll be troublesome, with some time, as long as that person is within Lin'an County City, we'll definitely find him."

Chun Niang said slowly.

"That's good. As long as we can find that kid, I can vent this anger."

Zhou Tong said fiercely.

Chun Niang didn't reply further. Instead, she rummaged through her vegetable basket and found a few yellowish, unknown leaves.

"These are Summer Cold Tree leaves. They won't heal your shoulder injury, but they have some pain-relieving properties and should help you somewhat."

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

"Wuwu..."

At that moment, a noise came from a room on one side of the courtyard, drawing their attention.

"How should we deal with these people?"

Chun Niang asked indifferently.

"How else? Get rid of them quickly. Keeping them is just trouble."

Zhou Tong replied dismissively, picked up the leaves from the table, and walked into another room.

"Alright."

Chun Niang murmured and walked towards the room where the sound had come from.

Inside, three people were tied up – two large and one small. They were dressed in coarse cloth, all looking at Chun Niang with terrified eyes.

It was clear these three were the original owners of this residence.

"You can only blame yourselves for having bad luck."

Chun Niang ignored their frightened gazes. A cold glint flashed in her hand, and a large amount of blood gushed from their necks.

After a while, they were completely silent.

"Squeak squeak..."

A weasel's head poked out from Chun Niang's shoulder, sniffing with its nose. A hint of human-like greed appeared in its intelligent eyes. It then shot out from her shoulder and landed on the corpses on the ground.

Before long, a chilling sucking sound filled the room.

At the Tooth Gang's location on Crock Street, Liu Yuanshan stood in the courtyard. His body moved like a nimble monkey, darting and weaving, displaying a flexibility that belied his build.

He threw punches and kicks intermittently, each landing with a crisp crack.

After a while, he stopped, sat back down at the stone table in the courtyard, and took a deep gulp from the teapot.

At this moment, footsteps sounded from outside the courtyard, and several Tooth Gang members hurried in.

"How is it? Any news?"

Liu Yuanshan asked coldly without even lifting his eyelids.

"Reporting to you, Boss, not yet. But we've already sent brothers to stake out all the pharmacies and city gates as you instructed. If we find anyone suspicious, we won't let them get away."

A few trusted subordinates trembled as they replied.

"I want results!"

Liu Yuanshan suddenly looked up, his gaze sharp as he stared at them.

Only after making them break out in a cold sweat did the sharpness in his eyes recede slightly.

He then took out a letter from his embrace and threw it to them.

"Take this letter to the East District and give it to the Axe Gang."

"Ah, the Axe Gang?"

The few men took the letter and were first stunned by their second boss's words, but quickly reacted, nodding eagerly like pecking chicks.

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

"Get lost."

Liu Yuanshan waved his hand impatiently. The men breathed a sigh of relief, quickly got up, and hurried away.

The next day.

Early in the morning, Lin Sheng woke up. Since arriving in this world, he had never slept in; there was simply no opportunity for it.

After a quick wash, he went out to buy some breakfast. Once he finished eating, he headed to the team's base.

There weren't many people at the base. After waiting for a bit, Zhang Ding walked in, a smile on his face, clearly in a good mood.

Seeing Lin Sheng, he immediately walked over and said with a grin, "Brother Lin, you're quite early. I've received word that because we exceeded our mission objectives, we've been granted an extra day of leave, and everyone gets two taels of silver as a reward."

"Oh!?"

Lin Sheng was taken aback.

Zhang Ding then smacked his forehead as if remembering something. "Did I not tell you, Brother Lin? Our Beast Hunter Hall grants a day of leave every time we successfully complete a mission objective."

Lin Sheng fell silent. Zhang Ding naturally hadn't mentioned this to him.

"It's fine, it's not too late to say it now. Come on, let's go with your brother here to collect the reward money from the accounts."

With that, Zhang Ding put an arm around Lin Sheng without waiting for a response and led him toward the Beast Hunter Hall's logistics and supply office.

When they returned, Lin Sheng found himself holding two taels of silver. He genuinely hadn't expected to receive reward money after completing a mission with the Beast Hunter Hall. And two taels at once! He earned only five or six taels a month at the Beast Hunter Hall, even with all his benefits included. This kind of remuneration was indeed quite generous.

Zhang Ding had also explained this to him earlier. At the Beast Hunter Hall, the monthly stipend was just a small part; the real earnings came from these rewards. According to Zhang Ding, he could earn over ten taels of silver in rewards each month, and sometimes, if he was lucky, even twenty taels. For the impoverished residents of Crock Street, twenty taels of silver was an astronomical sum.

However, Lin Sheng also understood that such generous rewards came at the cost of one's life. While the rewards were substantial, one had to survive first. The recent horned badger mission had resulted in four or five casualties, nearly a fifth of their team. This casualty rate was indeed too high. Some of the more dangerous missions in Yangping Mountain had even higher casualty rates, making it clear that this money wasn't easily earned.

"Brother Lin, what are your plans for these next couple of days? Want to do something fun with your brother?"

As they walked down the street side-by-side, Zhang Ding suddenly wore a knowing smile. "I wouldn't dare claim to know everything, but when it comes to fun around the foot of Yangping Mountain, your brother knows all the best spots."

As he spoke, Zhang Ding's gaze fell upon a small alley on the side of the street. At the entrance of the alley stood several women, their faces lit up with alluring smiles, their clothing rather revealing. The exposed skin drew the eyes of many passing pedestrians.

Lin Sheng glanced at the women and then shook his head slightly. "I'll pass on that. For these next couple of days, I plan to focus on practicing my martial arts."

"Practicing martial arts, that's right. Youth is a time to seize opportunities and cherish time; you can't waste it like your brother here, letting the prime years slip away." Zhang Ding nodded in agreement, but quickly changed the subject. "However, constantly training isn't the only way. You should also know when to balance work and rest. Perhaps relaxing your mind will even speed up your martial arts progress, hehe..."

As he spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the women in the alley, and he muttered softly, "I've never seen these ones before. Could they be new? Tsk tsk... so fair..."

Seeing Zhang Ding's eyes practically drilling into the women at the alley entrance, Lin Sheng quickly changed the subject. "Brother Zhang, do you know where I can find any White Apes?"

"White Apes?"

Hearing Lin Sheng's question, Zhang Ding's attention finally shifted back. He looked at him with some surprise. "Brother Lin, what are you looking for them for? White Apes are just white-haired monkeys, aren't they? They're quite rare; I've only seen them a few times. But if you really want to find one, you could try looking at Small Market Street to the west. You might find them there."

"Small Market Street?"

Lin Sheng noted the name and then made up a casual excuse. "I've heard of these white-haired monkeys, but I've never seen one, so I'm just curious."

"What's so interesting about those things? They're nothing compared to women." Zhang Ding didn't pay much attention, his gaze returning to the women. The women at the alley entrance had also noticed Zhang Ding and Lin Sheng, and were sending flirtatious glances their way. Zhang Ding could no longer hold back. He weighed the silver in his hand and smiled at Lin Sheng. "Younger brother Lin, since you're not in the mood, your brother will test the waters for you first. If you're ever interested, just find me."

Without waiting for Lin Sheng's reply, he strode forward. Watching Zhang Ding disappear into the alley, with a woman in each arm, Lin Sheng withdrew his gaze, unconcerned.

He hadn't expected Zhang Ding to be someone who valued lust as much as his life, but thinking about it, it made sense. After all, in a high-pressure environment like the Beast Hunter Hall, one always needed an outlet.

He didn't linger. After asking a few people on the street for the location of Small Market Street, he set off.

Small Market Street wasn't far from where he was. In less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he arrived at the bustling street.

Small Market Street was extremely wide, more than twice as wide as any other street in Yangping Town. As soon as he stepped onto the street, Lin Sheng smelled the foul odor of animal feces.

There were no shops on either side of the street; they were all occupied by various restrained wild beasts.

The roars of various beasts filled the air, interspersed with the calls of stall owners.

Seeing Small Market Street like this, Lin Sheng couldn't help but recall the dog markets he had seen in his childhood in his previous life.

Just as messy and noisy, yet also full of life.

He dodged a pile of animal feces on the road ahead, which looked like dog excrement but was several times larger, and made his way through the street.

"Rock sheep, top-grade mutated rock sheep, fat and strong, with ancestral bloodlines, only ten taels of silver... come one, come all, don't miss out..."

Lin Sheng's gaze fell upon the stall owner with the loudest calls beside him. The short stall owner had several strong rock sheep beside him, and they indeed looked good.

However, he couldn't discern any divine or extraordinary qualities about them, let alone any so-called ancestral bloodlines.

He had butchered hundreds of rock sheep, and handled thousands more personally. He could say he understood rock sheep extremely well. At this moment, he could tell at a glance that the short stall owner's rock sheep were merely ordinary rock sheep with slightly larger bodies. As for the so-called ancestral bloodlines, they were clearly just an unfounded gimmick, likely waiting for some clueless sucker.

He didn't stop, continuing forward. There were many stalls on both sides of the street, and quite a few wild beasts. However, most of them were ordinary beasts like rock sheep and yaks. There were also some mid-grade mortal beasts like horned badgers, but their prices were outrageously high.

He asked a stall owner selling horned badgers, and the price was a full thirty taels of silver per animal.

With his current wealth, he could barely afford one.

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

Squeak... squeak...

A monkey, about 1.6 meters tall with pure white fur, was caged and kept emitting squeaking sounds. It also repeatedly pounded the iron cage, producing dull thudding noises.

Lin Sheng's eyes lit up. This guy in front of him was the White Ape he was looking for.

He immediately stepped forward. Once this White Ape was integrated into him, his practice of the White Ape Leg Technique would undoubtedly advance by leaps and bounds.

"Boss, how much for this White Ape?"

The stall owner was a thin, tall old man wearing a round hat, his face full of a smooth, practiced smile. He was currently smoking his pipe. Seeing a customer approach, he immediately put down his pipe and put on a smile.

"Young man, you certainly have a good eye. This White Ape of mine is a genuine exotic beast, not comparable to those common goods on the street. It's only a hundred taels of silver."

"A hundred taels!?"

Lin Sheng raised an eyebrow and took a slight breath.

Although he knew White Apes were relatively rare in Yangping Mountain, he hadn't expected the price to be such a sky-high hundred taels.

After all, even a complete third-rate martial arts manual only cost a few hundred taels. This single White Ape was so valuable.

Even though he understood that the price quoted by the stall owner undoubtedly had a significant markup, he likely wouldn't be able to afford this White Ape in his current situation.

"100 taels isn't a high price. This White Ape is quite rare. You know, its brain is a very precious ingredient, and White Ape blood can also be used for medicine to refine pills and decoctions..."

The tall, thin stall owner seemed afraid Lin Sheng wouldn't recognize its value and quickly began listing the White Ape's various uses.

"Will you sell it for 20 taels of silver?"

Without waiting for the stall owner to finish, Lin Sheng threw out his price, causing the garrulous stall owner to abruptly stop speaking.

"Young man, are you joking? The lowest price is 70 taels, no bargaining."

The tall, thin stall owner's smile instantly vanished, and he looked at Lin Sheng with a rather displeased expression.

He had initially thought Lin Sheng, dressed in the Beast Hunter Hall uniform, would be a big customer, but it turned out he was just a pauper.

Hearing this, Lin Sheng didn't reply. Twenty taels was all his current savings, and he likely wouldn't be able to gather 70 taels anytime soon.

Suddenly, he had a realization. What he needed for integration was White Ape blood, not necessarily a live White Ape. There was no need to spend a large sum of money to buy a White Ape.

A smile appeared on his face as he thought of this. He looked at the tall, thin stall owner in front of him and asked.

"Do you sell White Ape blood?"

"White Ape blood!?"

The stall owner was taken aback, but quickly reacted.

"Kid, what do you think this place is, selling White Ape blood? I think you are..."

He was about to scold him when several loud clang clang sounds were heard.

He turned to look and saw that in the iron cage behind him, the White Ape, for some unknown reason, seemed to have become even more enraged and was repeatedly smashing its head against the iron cage.

Soon, its head was broken, and blood began to flow. Seeing this, both Lin Sheng and the stall owner were stunned.