Confirming the Second Soul Ring

Chen An searched for a while with the two children, and upon spotting a Little Arm-Through Ape, he began to drool as if he were looking at a lover.

After searching for the better part of the day, he had finally encountered such a high-quality spirit beast.

"Hiss-ah..."

The more the creature roared, the more excited Chen An became; this guy was just too perfect for his requirements.

Not only was its age a perfect match, but its species was also very close—both were primates, so there was no issue there.

"Disciples, make your move. Both of you go together; treat this as practice. I will stand by and guard."

If it were only one person, they might not be able to win, but with two of them taking on a monkey that hadn't yet broken through the thousand-year mark, while not easy, it was certainly winnable.

Seeing Chen An suddenly become inexplicably lazy, they resigned themselves to their fate, activated their spirit avatars, drew their weapons, and charged in.

Watching the little brats fight from the side, he had to admit, it was actually quite interesting—it was comparable to a street brawl.

"It seems I need to accelerate the construction of the Forge Hall."

Beast spirits are different from tool spirits; having a handy weapon is quite important.

For instance, Zhu Zhuqing uses daggers, and Little Stone uses a staff.

In the future, if he recruits support-type spirit masters, he would have to teach them self-defense techniques as well.

That would require even more weapons.

"Eh, right, I remember I could create spirit souls."

Suddenly, he remembered that this world also had the concept of spirit souls.

But after thinking about it carefully, he decided against it; there was no need to go through so much trouble, and this Little Arm-Through Ape's age was too low to yield good results.

"Eat your grandpa's staff!"

"Ya!"

Luo Xiaoshi shouted and swung his staff, showing some real spirit.

Taking the blow head-on, the Little Arm-Through Ape immediately had its defense broken and began to shriek and wail.

"Hm? Something's not right."

Just as the two children were getting into the rhythm and suppressing the Little Arm-Through Ape together, Chen An felt a premonition.

He frowned, then his eyes widened, his pupils constricting, and he hurriedly reached out to pull the two little ones back.

"Boom."

A somewhat towering great ape descended from the sky, slamming down with both arms and creating a crater where the two little ones had just been standing.

Dust rose straight up; if Gaia, Son of the Earth, saw this, he would surely give it a perfect score.

As the dust settled, it was clear that this great ape was simply a magnified version of the Little Arm-Through Ape.

"Roar! (Don't you dare hurt my son!)"

The great Arm-Through Ape roared; the little ones only knew it was roaring, which gave them a headache.

Chen An was different; when he acquired the Library, it came with a small ability—he could understand the languages of all kinds of intelligent creatures.

So, as long as he wanted to, he could understand Gojira and Kong.

But his first judgment upon seeing it was the age of this spirit beast.

"An eighty-thousand-year spirit beast?"

Fortunately, it would only take a bit of effort; even if the creature forcibly attacked his disciples, it wouldn't be able to harm them in the slightest.

"Roar! (Damn it!)"

The great Arm-Through Ape roared, the sound waves powerful enough to surge toward them.

His hunt had been interrupted, and the beast had tried to ambush his disciples; Chen An was already in a bad mood, and now that he was being roared at, his temper was flaring.

"Hum."

After shielding the children behind him to block the sound waves, he could no longer tolerate it.

He took a step forward, and with a hum, the Myriad Silk emerged, and eight spirit rings lit up without any attempt at concealment.

A massive pressure rose with him; Chen An had mastered the science of aura and presence, and he focused it specifically on the Arm-Through Ape.

He didn't release it wantonly, ensuring that the other spirit beasts in the forest and those fellows in the sky would know.

"Ga? (Huh?)"

Once this pressure was released and the spirit rings lit up, anyone would be stunned.

The Arm-Through Ape immediately realized it had provoked someone not to be trifled with and instinctively retreated, but then it thought of its son, and a fierce glint returned to its face.

"Roar! (Come and fight!)"

As the Arm-Through Ape charged at him, Chen An transformed the Myriad Silk into gauntlets and met it head-on.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Luo Xiaoshi and Zhu Zhuqing were already staring in a daze.

Even having seen it once before, Zhu Zhuqing was still shocked when she first saw their master reveal his martial soul and spirit rings.

Now, seeing Chen An engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Arm-Through Ape, she was even more shocked.

Luo Xiaoshi's throat bobbed as he swallowed, his eyes locked onto Chen An's figure and the movements of his hands.

"Senior Sister, is Master always this violent?"

"This is my first time seeing it too..."

The muffled thuds on the field were loud; listening alone, one would think the two sides were locked in an evenly matched brawl.

Only by actually watching could one realize there was no such thing as an even match—don't make Master Chen laugh. He was suppressing the Arm-Through Ape throughout the entire exchange.

At the very least, the Arm-Through Ape was left wondering whether it was the spirit beast or if the human before it was the spirit beast.

Whether it was the ape or if this fellow before it was the ape.

In terms of pure fist-to-fist exchanges, the Arm-Through Ape could still best him by a small margin.

However, Chen An would land at least four or five punches for every single chance it got to land one.

As for actually hitting Chen An, that was even more impossible. If it could hit him, would it really have to endure so many punches just to trade a single blow?

"Roar! (Stop hitting, stop hitting, I yield, I yield!)"

There is such a thing as selective hearing, just as there is such a thing as selective deafness.

"You still dare to roar at your grandfather? Asking for a beating."

As he spoke, he unleashed a flurry of punches before the Arm-Through Ape's stunned and shocked eyes.

It was the first time it had ever seen such a shameless human, and today, it had finally witnessed it.

It was thoroughly convinced.

"..."

It didn't dare to make a sound; its voice was like that—the more it spoke, the more it got beaten.

Beaten until it knelt on the ground, cowering and whimpering, it felt a level of humiliation it had never known in its life as a beast.

Though its face showed pity for its offspring, it still shielded the Little Arm-Through Ape behind it.

Seeing this, Chen An fell silent. At this stage, very few possessed human-like intelligence, especially among primate-type spirit beasts. In other words, this spirit beast had the potential to become a Great Demon.

He wasn't a saint; if he truly needed to strike, he could do so without a change in expression. It was just that Chen An was thinking that this Arm-Through Ape would make a decent henchman. If nothing else, it wouldn't be bad to give it to that kid Luo Xiaoshi; after all, a certain Monkey King had plenty of subordinates himself.

"Find me a 900-year-old monkey-type spirit beast, and I can spare both of your lives. I know you can understand me, don't play dumb."

His words were naturally handled with a bit of "manual processing." The Arm-Through Ape immediately perked up; better a fellow daoist die than oneself—if there was a chance to live, it would take it. As for whether he was lying, it didn't matter; it understood that if this man truly wanted to kill, it couldn't stop him.

"Teacher (Master)."

The two children approached as the Arm-Through Ape temporarily departed. It was clear that Luo Xiaoshi was somewhat afraid, his body trembling slightly. One couldn't blame them; this was indeed quite violent. He rarely resorted to throwing punches without even manifesting his martial soul avatar into gauntlets.

But that didn't mean he couldn't feign a bit of sternness.

"Am I that scary?"

Luo Xiaoshi shook his head frantically in fear, too terrified to say much more.

Seeing this, Chen An felt like shaking his head and sighing, but unfortunately, he couldn't do either. He would have to find a way to cultivate the child's temperament when they returned.

"In a moment, that big ape will bring back a spirit beast. You will absorb that one."

For Luo Xiaoshi, whatever Master said now was absolute, even more so than before.

No sooner said than done, it didn't take long for the large Arm-Through Ape to return, having captured a 988-year-old Arm-Through Ape. It would have been difficult to find one meeting the criteria out in the wild, but returning to its tribe was far more convenient.

What's more, having such a specimen within the tribe was practically divine providence.

This one looked like a troublemaker, half-dead, with its only defining feature being that it was still breathing.

"Roar! (My Lord, this fellow meets your requirements.)"

Seeing the way the Arm-Through Ape looked at this one with such hatred, Chen An asked curiously.

"What did it do?"

The Arm-Through Ape replied with resentment.

"It destroyed half the tribe's resources, committed lewd acts..."

It listed dozens of crimes, each one more exaggerated than the last. If they were all true, then it truly deserved death.

Just listening to it made one feel this monkey was even more vicious than Hannibal, with a touch of the unspeakable from the West.