Intelligence

"Bear with it!"

Gu Sheng gently patted the Verdant Python's massive head. The huge creature seemed to understand his intentions and shook its head with remarkable humanity, as if agreeing.

Gu Sheng bent down and reached into one of the bloody holes, feeling around inside. The Iron-Arm Ape was tall and powerfully built. Teng Qinghu's (Gu Sheng's) figure was already exceptionally large among the people of the Nine Provinces, but beside the Iron-Arm Ape, he still looked small. Thus, although reaching his hand into the wound was somewhat troublesome, it was not particularly difficult.

The wound on the Verdant Python was quite deep, extending more than four inches beneath its scales. As Gu Sheng felt around, his fingers touched a "small stick" that had pierced even deeper and become lodged in the flesh.

"Up!"

Gu Sheng steeled himself, grabbed the object, and violently yanked it out.

"Shk~"

A stream of blood sprayed out, even forming a "little fountain" at the wound.

"Roar~"

The Verdant Python hissed belatedly. Gu Sheng's left hand, braced against its body, could feel it trembling all over. That tug had clearly touched the most sensitive part of the wound.

Gu Sheng looked at the blackened "little stick" in his hand. Its knuckles were thick, and its fingertip was sharp as a dagger. It was the finger of an Iron-Arm Ape, likely left behind when the Verdant Python and the Iron-Arm Ape fought the previous day.

Gu Sheng continued removing the other suspected contaminants, along with the Iron-Arm Ape's fur and fragments, from the wound. Only then did he discover how much the Iron-Arm Ape had left behind: beast claws, talons, hard horn fragments, monkey hair, and shattered bones. It was truly a "great mud pit."

"Roar! Roar! Roar-roar~"

After cleaning one wound, Gu Sheng moved on to another. One serious wound after another, each bubbling with blood, was cleaned out. The Verdant Python gradually began struggling, as if voicing and venting its pain.

Gu Sheng worked quickly. Before long, he had removed the foreign objects from several wounds, then squeezed out and cleaned away the blood and pus inside. Afterward, he took out a lump of medicinal paste. Although the paste restrained the Verdant Python's venom, it could also stop bleeding and heal wounds. The wonders of mutual restraint between all things were truly marvelous.

"Hiss~"

After Gu Sheng's treatment, the Verdant Python felt much better. It slightly opened its mouth and hissed docilely, its attitude toward Gu Sheng clearly becoming gentler.

Gu Sheng's eyes shifted. He noticed that there seemed to be something in the Verdant Python's mouth as well. Reaching out, he patted its enormous head and said, "Open your mouth!"

The Verdant Python seemed to know what he wanted to do. It turned its head toward Gu Sheng, opened its enormous mouth, and stayed perfectly still.

Snakes did not have many teeth, nor did they have grinding molars for chewing. They could only swallow their food whole. This had one advantage: food generally would not get stuck between their teeth. Although the Verdant Python was a Demon Beast, its habits were broadly similar to those of snakes, and it also swallowed its food whole.

However, it was accustomed to using venom to soften its food. Although this softened the food, it also created a problem: the food became loose and scattered, making certain hard bones prone to getting stuck between its teeth. That was exactly what had happened now.

When it swallowed the Iron-Arm Apes the previous day, two of them had already been shattered beyond recognition. As it gulped them down, some bones had lodged between its teeth. It had no hands or feet to remove them, and the wounds behind its neck had already begun festering. Naturally, it had been suffering.

"Hey! You're really something!"

After wrapping a layer of animal hide around his hand, Gu Sheng reached in and grabbed a broken arm of an Iron-Arm Ape. Bracing himself against the Verdant Python's head, he pulled hard. A blackened skeletal claw, bleached white and reduced to bone, was dragged out. Holding the humanoid claw felt strange, so Gu Sheng simply threw it onto the ground.

"Whoosh, whoosh~~"

As soon as the skeletal claw hit the ground, several drops of black liquid splashed onto the surrounding grassland, continuously releasing pungent white fumes that made people dizzy.

Suppressing his disgust, Gu Sheng quickly cleared the fragments of bone and other debris from between the Verdant Python's teeth. By the time he finished, the Verdant Python had also begun recovering its ability to move.

"Roar~"

The Verdant Python nudged Gu Sheng with its head, showing affection. It had acknowledged this "little monkey" who had helped it.

"Rest well here and heal. I'm leaving first!"

Gu Sheng also noticed that the Verdant Python had begun recovering its mobility. After patting its large nose and saying this, he turned and slowly left.

Although the Verdant Python had shown goodwill and affection toward Gu Sheng, that was merely instinctive behavior brought on by its weakness. Their relationship was only superficial, and Gu Sheng's earlier actions had also been somewhat excessive. It was better to leave for now. One could not become fat from eating a single meal; steady progress over time was the true path.

"Roar~"

The Verdant Python twisted its body and watched Gu Sheng leave. Its pair of vertical pupils seemed to hold an unusual warmth.

Gu Sheng left the valley where the Verdant Python was and continued the journey he had begun the previous day, searching Iron Arm Ape Mountain for traces of Iron-Arm Apes. The information he had obtained from the Myriad Manifestations Pavilion indicated that more than one adventuring martial artist had discovered Cinnabar Fruit on Iron Arm Ape Mountain. However, they had encountered Iron-Arm Apes blocking their way almost every time.

However, the information did not mention the hot spring lake where Cinnabar Fruit grew in abundance in the original story. It only stated that places where Cinnabar Fruit grew were all regions with extremely high temperatures, and that Iron-Arm Apes could be found in all of them.

This meant that the Cinnabar Fruit on Iron Arm Ape Mountain might not be limited to the single location from the original story.

That made sense. The Iron-Arm Ape population on Iron Arm Ape Mountain numbered over a thousand, while the hot spring lake had only a dozen or so Cinnabar Fruit plants. Even if they bloomed and bore fruit every year, the amount of wine they could produce would still be limited. How could it withstand so many Iron-Arm Apes drinking to their hearts' content, with enough left over to store in Ape King Cave?

Halfway up Iron Arm Ape Mountain was a nearly circular little lake, several dozen yards long. Steam rose from the lake, where many Iron-Arm Apes were bathing, while a few remained on the shore.

At the center of the hot spring lake grew more than a dozen slender, elongated stems breaking through the water's surface, each bearing clusters of green leaves. Among the green leaves of five plants hung a bright-red fruit apiece.

Of the remaining twelve plants, six also bore fruit. Three of those fruits were half green and half red, and somewhat smaller. The other three were even smaller and still completely green. The remaining plants had only leaves and no fruit.

"There are seventeen plants here, the most discovered so far. This should be the hot spring lake mentioned in the original story!"

In a corner of a small hill outside the hot spring lake, Gu Sheng lay crouched on the ground, occasionally lifting his head to observe the scene within the lake.

He held a sheepskin scroll and a charcoal pencil. A rough outline of Iron Arm Ape Mountain was drawn on it, along with seven or eight red dots marked with numbers. Most of the numbers were only two or three. The previous highest count had been ten, while the red dot representing this location halfway up the mountain had been marked with seventeen.

In addition, each red dot had lines extending toward another location near the mountaintop, marked with the name—Ape King Cave.

"Ya! Ya-ya!"

The Iron-Arm Apes splashed about in the lake, while the ones on shore called out as well. They were communicating about the Cinnabar Fruit.

"Five Cinnabar Fruits are nearly ripe. They'll probably mature within the next day or two. The other three should need nearly half a month before they're fully ripe."

Gu Sheng stared intently at the five bright-red fruits, a glint flashing through his eyes. "I've gathered almost all the information I need. It's time to act."