Plan

Gu Sheng took a deep look at the hot spring lake, then slowly retreated. With light steps, he left the area before darting toward the canyon where the Verdant Python was.

Gu Sheng moved quickly. Before long, he had returned to the canyon. In the cave, the Verdant Python lay motionless on the ground. From a distance, it looked blurry, almost as if two Verdant Pythons had overlapped.

It was shedding its skin to recover from its injuries. This was a unique recovery method of its kind. In fact, even without Gu Sheng's help cleaning its wounds, it could recover on its own. It would simply have to suffer more and shed its skin several times. However, this healing method had one drawback: while shedding, they became extremely weak and had difficulty moving. If attacked by other Demon Beasts, they could easily suffer secondary injuries.

"Roar~"

The Verdant Python sensed Gu Sheng's arrival. Lowering its head, it opened its enormous mouth and growled at him, displaying an unusual closeness.

"Don't rush!"

Gu Sheng grabbed the bundle from his back and untied it, revealing all kinds of colorful mountain fruits. The Verdant Python's eyes lit up at the sight. It shook its head and repeatedly nudged Gu Sheng, as if saying, Hurry up and give them to me.

"All right, all right! You're so impatient!"

Gu Sheng laughed and shook his head. He brought the bundle, which was nearly half the size of the Verdant Python's head, to its mouth and gave it a shake. More than a hundred mountain fruits were swallowed whole. The enormous creature narrowed its vertical pupils slightly, a trace of delight on its face.

"Roar~"

After swallowing the fruits, the Verdant Python suddenly opened its mouth and let out a roar. It seemed that something had changed.

By then, Gu Sheng had already stepped away from the spot. He watched from a distance as the Verdant Python struggled to shed its skin, a hint of anticipation flashing in his eyes. "After shedding once more today, Qing Ling's injuries should be completely healed. The Cinnabar Fruits by the hot spring lake are about to ripen, too. Everything really came together at the right time!"

Qing Ling was the name Gu Sheng had given this Verdant Python. After spending nearly half a month with him, the Verdant Python had essentially acknowledged him as its "master." In truth, Gu Sheng was merely flattering himself by calling it that. In Qing Ling's eyes, he was probably just the "poop-scooper" who took care of its daily life.

But regardless of which it was, at least one thing was certain: he could direct the Verdant Python's movements through communication.

"Roar~~"

After the Verdant Python's roar, a jade-green blur flashed before Gu Sheng. The nearly ten-zhang behemoth lowered its head and rubbed against him affectionately. In its original spot, it left behind an enormous dark-green snakeskin, with four tiny holes around its neck.

"Qing Ling! Don't move!"

Gu Sheng reached out and patted its huge nose. The extremely intelligent Verdant Python obediently held still. He walked around to its back and found that the four bloody holes had vanished. Only the patch of snakeskin there was lighter in color and somewhat softer to the touch.

"That'll do!"

Gu Sheng smiled and nodded. He went into the cave and packed the enormous snakeskin into his bundle. After returning to the Verdant Python, he expertly turned over and climbed onto its emerald-green body. Clutching its large head, he pointed ahead and said, "Go that way!"

"Whoosh~"

The Verdant Python followed Gu Sheng's command and transformed into a jade-green streak before vanishing into the canyon.

At the cave at the foot of Iron Arm Ape Mountain, several enormous gourds were spread out to dry on the ground. Chu Xin was watching the outside through a crack in the mountain. Although Gu Sheng and Liao Yuan had confirmed that this place was basically safe, for Chu Xin's safety, Gu Sheng still sealed the stone slab whenever he left.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

A rhythmic knocking came from outside. Chu Xin's expression relaxed, and she hurried over to move aside the boulder bracing the stone slab.

"You're back~ Ah~"

Chu Xin was about to welcome Gu Sheng, but besides that familiar figure, a huge snake head appeared in her view. The sight gave the girl a terrible fright, and she cried out repeatedly as she shrank back.

"Don't be afraid. This is Qing Ling, the one I told you about!"

Gu Sheng leaped into the cave. Since the Verdant Python, Qing Ling, had always been injured before, Gu Sheng had never brought it back to meet Chu Xin.

"Oh!"

Chu Xin nodded, but she still shrank behind Gu Sheng. Although Gu Sheng had mentioned Qing Ling to her, she had always been timid, and she was especially terrified of snakes and rats. Encountering such a huge creature without warning nearly stopped her little heart.

Gu Sheng smiled and led Chu Xin over to the Verdant Python, which wore a confused expression. He took her small hand and placed it against the Verdant Python's cold, smooth scales.

Chu Xin instinctively tried to pull her hand back. Only after seeing that the Verdant Python showed little reaction did she work up the courage to stroke it for a while. Gradually, she relaxed and was no longer so nervous.

"Let's go~"

Gu Sheng put an arm around Chu Xin's slender waist and walked to the cave entrance. They slid down to the foot of the mountain along the Verdant Python's "slide." After Gu Sheng descended, the Verdant Python, which had been coiled all the way up to the entrance, slid down as well. Its nearly twenty-five-meter body—one zhang in the Nine Cauldrons World was two and a half meters—curled into a huge circle around Gu Sheng and Chu Xin.

Gu Sheng carried Chu Xin and sat on the Verdant Python's soft back before spreading out the map he carried. On the map, every red dot representing Cinnabar Fruits and the Ape King Cave was connected by a winding line, and each line had one or two crossed-out locations.

"What is this~?"

Chu Xin leaned forward slightly and pointed to the location of the hot spring lake that Gu Sheng had marked that day. "Seventeen fruit seedlings and five nearly ripe Cinnabar Fruits. Gu Sheng, is this your target?"

"Xin'er is so clever!"

Gu Sheng smiled and pointed at the crossed-out locations on the map. "Over the past few days, I've seen the Iron-Arm Apes deal with ripened Cinnabar Fruits twice. Usually, a tall Iron-Arm Ape with silver fur, a Xiantian Demon Beast, comes to harvest them.

"The two of us are too weak. We wouldn't be able to defeat even a single Iron-Arm Ape. So before this, my actual target wasn't the freshly harvested Cinnabar Fruits. It was the treasure inside."

As he spoke, Gu Sheng pointed at the Ape King Cave. He had already investigated the general situation of this cave, which held a large amount of Cinnabar Fruit monkey wine. He had even secretly tried digging a small hole in the cliff behind the Ape King Cave.

"You... haven't you always said you were looking for Cinnabar Fruits?"

Although Chu Xin had noticed long ago that Gu Sheng was constantly studying the Ape King Cave, she had always thought he was calculating how long it would take for reinforcements from the Ape King Cave to arrive after they ambushed the Iron-Arm Apes and seized the Cinnabar Fruits. She had never imagined that he would be this crazy.

She had never been to the Ape King Cave, but she had heard Gu Sheng describe its situation. That place was the Iron-Arm Apes' lair.

There was a Golden-Eyed Silver Ape King whose strength was comparable to a Xiantian Golden Core expert, more than a dozen tall Iron-Arm Apes at the Xiantian Demon Beast level, and over a thousand ordinary Iron-Arm Apes comparable to the Earth Ranking. With such strength, it was several levels stronger than the current Gui Yuan Sect!

"Don't worry. I'm not reckless. Look!"

As he spoke, Gu Sheng spread out another sheet of paper. It detailed every aspect of the mountain where the Ape King Cave was located. Numerous small dots had been marked on it, each accompanied by lines of writing.

"You... can you find everything marked here?"

After examining the entire sheet, Chu Xin looked at Gu Sheng as if she had seen a ghost. She had never expected him to have such a plan, much less one that seemed to have a fairly high chance of success.

According to the plan, even without the Verdant Python, she and Gu Sheng could lure out the Silver Ape King and remain safely inside the Ape King Cave for some time.

"I can!"

Gu Sheng nodded. He had found the source of everything marked on the map in the surrounding area. Or rather, this plan had been formulated using materials located through searches in the database.