Melded Ape

After discovering the bloodstains of a second-tier magical beast, Xiao Yan and Xu Yang did not hesitate. They plucked the huge Blood-Coagulation Grass and quickly led Li Peng back toward where the main group was resting.

However, they seemed to have arrived a step too late. The atmosphere within the group was clearly different from when they had left. Looking carefully, Xiao Yan noticed several unfamiliar figures in bedraggled condition among the party.

"Xiao Yan, you're back. I was just about to look for you!" Vice Captain Cheng Dadao came over to greet them.

"Uncle Cheng, what happened?" Xiao Yan asked.

"It's like this. A team ahead of us encountered a second-tier magical beast—a wounded Melded Ape." Cheng Dadao said, "By the way, why did you come back so quickly? Did something happen?"

"It's like this. While gathering Blood-Coagulation Grass, we found a patch of fresh blood from a second-tier magical beast. We were worried one might be prowling nearby, so we returned first to report it. Looking at things now, it should have been the Melded Ape's blood." Xiao Yan said, "But why would an already injured Melded Ape attack a human team?"

"Who knows? Melded Apes are naturally lustful creatures. Maybe some little beauty in that team ahead attracted it. Come to think of it, that seemed to be Ten Thousand Medicine Hall's team. I heard they happened to have a pretty young girl with them. Maybe it was her."

"Ten Thousand Medicine Hall? A young girl?" Xiao Yan was startled. Could it be Little Fairy Doctor? "Uncle Cheng, what's that girl's name? How old is she?"

"No idea how old she is. Her name, though... I think it was Little Fairy Doctor." Cheng Dadao thought for a moment, then revealed a teasing grin. "What, kid? Got women on your mind? That little girl may be a few years younger than you—you say you're seventeen—but in two years, she'll be grown up. What a pity. She ran into a second-tier Melded Ape. There's an eighty-percent chance she's been defiled, and no one even knows whether she can come back alive. Stop thinking about her, kid."

Ignoring Cheng Dadao's teasing, Xiao Yan turned and walked over to the few people who had escaped from the team ahead.

According to them, the team ahead had been scattered after encountering the Melded Ape. Everyone had fled in different directions, and no one knew where they were now.

Captain Fei Lei was preparing to have Vice Captain Cheng Dadao lead the main group back to Green Mountain Town while he gathered a few high-level fighters to conduct a rescue. Xiao Yan felt that since Little Fairy Doctor had met Xiao Yan safely three years later in the original story, nothing should have happened to her. But he had transmigrated into this world twelve years ago. What if some butterfly effect had carried over? Thus, he also applied to join Fei Lei's rescue party.

Since Ten Thousand Medicine Hall's team had already scattered and the Melded Ape was injured, reports suggested it no longer possessed second-tier combat strength and was only at the peak of the first tier. Therefore, Fei Lei decided to split up for the rescue. He would take one route, several upper-ranking members of the mercenary groups would take another, and since Xiao Yan had secretly displayed some of his strength to Fei Lei, he too would go alone. Each group received Cloud-Piercing Arrows to transmit signals; if they encountered danger, they could use one to call for help.

The situation was urgent. Before long, everyone scattered toward Ten Thousand Medicine Hall's direction.

Night fell, and bright moonlight spilled across the forest, becoming the only source of illumination.

On a tree dozens of meters tall, a slender, supple figure was curled up in the fork of a branch. Many leaf-covered branches had been pulled over to conceal the girl's body. Not only that, she had mixed the medicinal herbs she had gathered into a crude sachet to mask her scent and avoid being discovered by magical beasts.

"This should be enough, right?" the girl murmured. Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and fell upon her lovely face, revealing a fresh, ethereal countenance. A pale white long dress wrapped around her delicate body, concealing her alluring curves beneath the cloth. Only her willow-slim waist, cinched by a thin belt, inadvertently revealed the beauty of her figure.

Unfortunately, her somewhat disheveled hair and dress showed that she was not in a good situation. She was precisely the Little Fairy Doctor whom Xiao Yan was searching for.

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle." Having only just escaped and settled down, her stomach, which had been hungry for nearly a day, could not help protesting. Fortunately, no one else was around, or the girl would have blushed furiously.

Rubbing her empty little belly, Little Fairy Doctor had no good solution. That second-tier Melded Ape was still wandering somewhere nearby! If she left this hard-won hiding place to find food, she would probably be discovered before long. But if she did nothing, the rumbling sounds might attract the magical beast as well.

Boom! Just as Little Fairy Doctor worried over what to do, a huge explosion suddenly erupted in the distance, accompanied by crimson firelight and the shriek of an ape-like magical beast.

Elsewhere, Xiao Yan was growing impatient after night had fallen and he still had not found any trace of Little Fairy Doctor. He simply shifted his target to the Melded Ape. Using personal clothing he had borrowed earlier from female members of the mercenary group, he quickly lured the Melded Ape over.

Roar! In the pitch-black forest, a huge ape over five meters tall slowly emerged. It seemed to realize that this human before it had toyed with it, and it let out an angry roar.

"You're too damn loud, you perverted monkey! What the hell are you screaming for in the middle of the night?" The instant Xiao Yan saw the Melded Ape appear, he condensed a crimson fireball the size of a human head in his hand and hurled it fiercely toward the beast.

Because he had acted too quickly, the fireball did not contain much power. Yet by its light, Xiao Yan clearly saw the Melded Ape's entire form.

Its five-meter-tall brown body had massive arms long enough to touch the ground. Its powerful chest muscles bulged high, containing explosive strength. A clearly visible bite wound marked its somewhat thinner waist and hips, gleaming with a dark green luster. It had obviously been poisoned. Apart from that, the Melded Ape bore various other wounds, both large and small. It was clearly severely injured.

"This should be the main reason for the Melded Ape's weakness." Xiao Yan studied the wound on its waist.

The Melded Ape did not dodge. It watched as Xiao Yan's fireball engulfed it without defending itself, leaving Xiao Yan somewhat stunned. He thought the poison had damaged its brain. But in the next instant, the Melded Ape used Xiao Yan's flames as cover and charged out at high speed. Its thick right arm rose high and smashed down with the force of Mount Tai bearing down.

"Fuck!" Xiao Yan could not help cursing. Unable to dodge, he activated Eight Extremes Collapse with all his strength and stepped forward. In an instant, the power of his waist, back, and arm was mobilized. The Dou Qi in his dantian and the Volcanic Rock Flame rapidly converged in his right hand, forming layers upon layers of hidden force.

Boom! The thick brown giant arm collided violently with Xiao Yan's arm wrapped in Heavenly Flame, and the tremendous force blasted both Xiao Yan and the Melded Ape backward.

Xiao Yan's feet dug fiercely into the ground, scraping backward several meters before he stopped. The Melded Ape opposite him was the same. They were evenly matched! After being tempered repeatedly by the Heavenly Flame, Xiao Yan's body was now no weaker than that of an ordinary second-tier magical beast.

"Still, I'm the more skilled one." Xiao Yan's lips curled upward as he shouted, "Explode!"

The moment his words fell, crimson light rapidly swelled inside the Melded Ape's right arm, where it had just collided with Xiao Yan.

Bang!

With an explosion, a huge wound suddenly appeared on the Melded Ape's right arm. Great amounts of flame surged forth, charring both the wound and blood black.

Roar! The Melded Ape howled in pain, but the ferocity innate to magical beasts soon took over again.

Wielding its remaining left arm, the Melded Ape charged rapidly at Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan assumed his stance, intending to cripple the Melded Ape's other arm and end the battle completely.

However, the Melded Ape had clearly learned its lesson this time. Rather than clash directly with Xiao Yan, it punched the ground beneath Xiao Yan's feet. Caught unprepared, Xiao Yan was blasted off the ground. Immediately afterward, the Melded Ape swept its arm across and sent Xiao Yan flying.

His body shot away like a cannonball, smashing through more than a dozen large trees before finally stopping. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. Xiao Yan struggled to rise, but how could the Melded Ape possibly give him that chance?

Its massive fist hammered down continuously from above, punch after punch crashing onto Xiao Yan's body. If this continued, even Xiao Yan's physical body would be beaten into pulp!

But Xiao Yan would not be brought down so easily.

Another punch descended, then rose. Xiao Yan seized that opening and used Fire-Blowing Palm beneath his feet. Combined with the power of the Volcanic Rock Flame, it propelled his body away at high speed.

Blocked by the sudden eruption of Heavenly Flame, the Melded Ape lost its chance to continue pursuing Xiao Yan. It could only watch as Xiao Yan regained his footing and let out a helpless roar.

"Cough!" Spitting out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, Xiao Yan forced his body, which had suffered fractures in many places, to remain standing as he faced the Melded Ape.

The Melded Ape did not attack again either, merely watching Xiao Yan cautiously.

Both sides were now seriously injured. If either was struck once more by the other, they would basically lose the ability to resist. The next attack would determine life and death!

Feeling the pain radiating from his bones and flesh, Xiao Yan experienced the scent of death for the first time since transmigrating. Yet strangely, he did not feel fear. Instead, an indescribable excitement rose faintly within him, as though a battle-hungry gene had awakened in his bloodline!

At this moment, Xiao Yan felt that his mind had never been so sharp. Questions about Dou techniques that he had never understood before now unraveled as easily as one plus one equaling two.

Slowly closing his eyes, Xiao Yan thought of Fire-Blowing Palm, of Eight Extremes Collapse, of the Dou Technique Compendium, of...

Whoosh!

Flames wrapped around his entire body.

Boom!!!

With a deafening explosion, Xiao Yan vanished from where he stood.

The Melded Ape stared in shock at the spot where Xiao Yan had disappeared. Every hair on its body stood on end in terror.

Before it could react, however, a fist struck its chest.

"Volcanic! Eight! Extremes! Collapse!"

Bang!

A surging pillar of fire pierced directly through the Melded Ape's chest. Before it could scream, the follow-up attack arrived.

"Explode!"

With Xiao Yan's explosive shout, six streams of hidden force carrying the Volcanic Rock Flame detonated simultaneously at the Melded Ape's heart.

In an instant, they shredded its internal organs and burned them to ash! A massive pillar of fire erupted from the Melded Ape's mouth and wounds, illuminating the surrounding night sky.

Watching the final massive pillar of fire rise in the distance, Little Fairy Doctor sensed that the Melded Ape's aura seemed to vanish along with it.

"Could the Melded Ape have been killed?" Little Fairy Doctor wondered. "But when did Green Mountain Town gain such a powerful expert?"

Though she had some doubts, looking at her current situation, it seemed she had no way to return to Green Mountain Town alone if she remained here.

Biting her silver teeth lightly, Little Fairy Doctor decided to take a gamble.

She carefully climbed down from the tree, vigilantly watching the movements around her as she walked step by step toward where the pillar of fire had risen.

The magical beasts nearby had all been frightened away by the earlier commotion, so the journey was relatively peaceful and nothing happened.

Passing through dense clusters of trees, Little Fairy Doctor finally saw the battlefield between Xiao Yan and the Melded Ape.

In the center of the ground scorched black by the Heavenly Flame lay a huge charred corpse.

Sitting atop that charred corpse was a figure whose body looked somewhat battered.

On the other side, Xiao Yan also turned toward the sound. The instant he saw Little Fairy Doctor, his tired eyes lit up.

In the moonlit forest, a graceful young girl supported herself against a tree with both hands, her body turned sideways as she looked toward him. Her slender willow waist seemed delicate enough to be held in one hand, while her bright, watery eyes seemed to reflect the stars in the sky, sparkling in the night. Her waist-length hair and dress fluttered in the breeze, and the fragrance unique to a young girl drifted into Xiao Yan's nose with the wind.

Though this was their first meeting, Xiao Yan was certain that the person before him was Little Fairy Doctor.

"You..."

Meeting for the first time, neither of them knew what to say. In the end, Little Fairy Doctor broke the silence first and asked the question the two of them would remember for the rest of their lives.

"Why don't you have eyebrows?"