Chen An had been wandering around with the two kids for a while. Now that he saw a Long-Armed Ape, he looked at it like a man gazing at his lover, practically drooling.
After searching for most of the day, they'd finally come across such a high-quality Soul Beast.
"Rrrgh..."
The more it roared, the more excited Chen An became. This guy fit the requirements perfectly.
Not only was its age just right, but its kind was a close match too. They were both primates. No problem there.
"Disciples, get to it. You two go together and treat this as practice. I'll back you up from the side."
If there'd only been one of them, they might not have been able to win. But two kids against a monkey that hadn't reached a thousand years? It wouldn't be easy, but they could manage.
Seeing Chen An suddenly become so lazy, they accepted their fate. After possessing themselves with their Martial Souls, they pulled out their weapons and charged.
He watched the little brats fight seriously from the side. He had to admit, it was rather entertaining—almost like watching two shrews brawl.
"Looks like I'll have to speed up plans to build the Forge Hall."
Beast Martial Souls were different from tool Martial Souls. Having a handy weapon was pretty important.
For instance, Zhu Zhuqing used daggers, while Little Stone used a staff.
And if he recruited support-type Soul Masters in the future, he'd have to teach them some self-defense, too.
That would mean needing weapons as well.
"Eh, right. I remember Soul Spirits are a thing."
It suddenly came back to him that this world had something called Soul Spirits.
But on second thought, he decided to forget it. There was no need to go through all that trouble. This Long-Armed Ape was too young; the results wouldn't be good.
"Take this, you old bastard!"
"Yah!"
Luo Xiaoshi charged in with a shout and swung his staff. He was showing some promise.
The Long-Armed Ape took the blow head-on and was immediately staggered. It let out a bizarre cry.
"Hm? Something's off."
Just as the two kids were getting into the fight and had teamed up to suppress the Little Arm-Through Ape, Chen An sensed something.
He frowned, then his eyes widened and his pupils shrank. He hurriedly pulled the two little ones back.
"Boom!"
A towering giant ape dropped from the sky, bringing its arms down hard. It smashed a crater into the spot where the kids had just been standing.
Dust billowed straight up. If Gaia, Son of the Earth, had seen it, he'd have given it a perfect score.
Once the dust settled, they saw that the giant ape was clearly a larger version of the Long-Armed Ape.
"Roar! (Don't you dare hurt my son!)"
The Great Long-Armed Ape roared. The kids only knew that it was making a noise, and the sound gave them a headache.
Chen An was different. When he acquired the Library, he'd also gained a small ability: he could understand the languages of all kinds of intelligent beings.
So as long as he wanted to, he could understand Gojira and Kong.
But his first judgment, on seeing it, was the Soul Beast's age.
"An eighty-thousand-year-old Soul Beast?"
Good. It would take a bit of effort, but even if it tried to attack his disciples, it wouldn't be able to hurt them one bit.
"Roar! (Damn it!)"
The Great Long-Armed Ape roared, its voice sending a wave of sound straight at them.
Its hunt had been interrupted, and it had even tried to ambush his disciples. Chen An was already in a terrible mood. Now it was roaring at him, too. His temper was flaring.
"Whoom."
After shielding the kids and blocking the wave of sound, he couldn't hold back any longer.
He took a step forward. With a whoom, Myriad Silk appeared beside him, and all eight Soul Rings lit up without concealment.
A vast pressure rose around him. Chen An had mastered both the art of projecting an imposing presence and the art of controlling his aura. He directed them only at the Long-Armed Ape.
He didn't release them recklessly, so the few Soul Beasts in the forest and the crowd up in the sky wouldn't notice.
"Caw? (Huh?)"
With that pressure bearing down on it and those Soul Rings lighting up, anyone would've been stunned.
The Long-Armed Ape immediately realized it had picked a fight with someone it shouldn't have. Instinct made it retreat, but when it thought of its son, its face turned fierce again.
"Roar! (Come fight!)"
As the Long-Armed Ape charged at him, Chen An transformed Myriad Silk into a pair of gauntlets and met it head-on.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Luo Xiaoshi and Zhu Zhuqing were already dumbstruck.
When they'd first seen their master reveal his Martial Soul and Soul Rings, even Zhu Zhuqing, who'd seen it once before, had been shocked.
Now, seeing Chen An trade blows with the Long-Armed Ape, they were even more astonished.
Luo Xiaoshi swallowed hard, staring fixedly at Chen An and the movements of his hands.
"Senior Sister, is Master always this violent?"
"I've never seen this before either..."
The muffled thuds from the fight were loud. Just listening to them, you'd think the two sides were evenly matched in hand-to-hand combat.
But watching them made it clear that there was no such thing as an even match. Don't make Master Chen laugh. He was beating the Long-Armed Ape the entire time.
The Long-Armed Ape was getting pounded so badly that it wondered whether it was the Soul Beast or the human in front of it.
Was it the ape, or was this guy the ape?
The Long-Armed Ape could beat him by a few points in a straight exchange of punches.
But Chen An had to land four or five punches before it even got the chance to hit him once.
And as for actually hitting Chen An? That was even less likely. If it could hit him, why would it have to take so many punches just to trade one?
"Roar! (Stop hitting me! I give up, I give up!)"
There was such a thing as being too smart for your own good, and there was such a thing as not being able to hear.
"You still dare roar at your grandpa? You're asking for a beating."
As he spoke, he threw several more punches, right before the Long-Armed Ape's bewildered and astonished eyes.
It had never seen such a shameless human before. Today, it finally had.
It was beaten into submission.
"..."
It didn't dare speak. That was simply how its voice sounded. The more it said, the more it got hit.
Beaten down onto its knees, it curled up and whimpered. For the first time in its life as a beast, it felt so humiliated.
Its face looked pitiful, yet it still stood in front of its son.
Seeing this, Chen An fell silent. Few Soul Beasts at this stage were intelligent enough to understand people, and this one was a primate. In other words, it had the potential to become a great demon.
He wasn't the sort to play the saint. If he had to kill it, he could do so without changing his expression. He was just thinking that this Long-Armed Ape would make a pretty good fighter. If nothing else, it might be a good match for that kid Luo Xiaoshi. After all, a certain Monkey King had plenty of underlings too.
"Find me a nine-hundred-year-old monkey Soul Beast, and I'll spare both your lives. I know you can understand me, so don't pretend."
He naturally processed his words by hand. The Long-Armed Ape immediately perked up. Better another fellow die than oneself. If it had a chance to live, it would take it. Whether Chen An was lying didn't matter. It understood that if the man in front of it truly wanted to kill it, there was nothing it could do to stop him.
"Teacher! (Master!)"
The two kids came over while the Long-Armed Ape was away for the moment. It was easy to see that Luo Xiaoshi was a little frightened, his body trembling slightly. It was no wonder. That had been pretty violent. Chen An hadn't even used his Martial Soul Avatar to turn Myriad Silk into gauntlets before he started pounding the ape. He didn't usually do that much either.
That didn't mean he couldn't pretend to be a little stern.
"Am I really that scary?"
Luo Xiaoshi shook his head in fear. Terrifying! He didn't dare say much.
Chen An wanted to shake his head and sigh, but he couldn't do either. Once they got back, he'd have to find a way to build up this kid's courage.
"The giant ape will bring back a Soul Beast in a bit. You can absorb that one."
To Luo Xiaoshi, whatever his master said went. Even more so than before.
As they spoke, the Great Long-Armed Ape soon returned with a 988-year-old Long-Armed Ape. It would've been hard for him to find a suitable one outside. It was much easier to head back to the troop and get one there.
What's more, there was one right there in the troop. It was practically fate.
From the looks of it, this ape had done something wrong. It was half-dead, and its only redeeming feature was that it was still alive.
"Roar! (Great sir, this one meets your requirements.)"
The Long-Armed Ape looked like it hated this one. Chen An asked curiously,
"What did it do?"
The Long-Armed Ape replied indignantly,
"It destroyed half the resources in the troop, deflowered..."
It listed dozens of crimes, each one more outlandish than the last. If they were all true, this ape deserved to die ten thousand deaths.
Just listening to it made Chen An think this monkey was even more brutal than Hannibal Lecter. It had the sort of unspeakable depravity you heard about across the ocean.
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