Into Great Locust Mountain Again, the Ape Horde Swept Through!

In the dim cave, a bloody glow flickered and faded. When it finally fell completely still, Qingyang Huan reined in all his blood Qi.

"Jin Wei, do you think we brothers could sweep aside everyone of our generation if we went to the Ancient City of La Mountain?" His eyes brimmed with excitement, but Jin Wei's answer was a bewildered look.

In that instant, Qingyang Huan's excitement felt as though cold water had been poured over it. Jin Wei had always lived near a small tribe under Qingyang's rule; how could he know anything about the Ancient City of La Mountain?

"I heard there's a Tripod Contest Ranking in the Ancient City of La Mountain. Only youths can enter it, and only those in the Divine Repository Realm. Anyone who makes the ranking is among the strongest in that realm-though, of course, that's only within our Ancient Land of La Mountain."

At this point, Qingyang Huan paused, light flickering in his eyes.

"I also heard that anyone who makes it onto the ranking receives rewards from the Human Race Ancestral Land. The higher your rank, the more valuable the resources and treasures you receive. Bone runes, divine weapons-none of those are out of the question."

"These aren't rewards from our Lord Frontier Guardian of La Mountain. They're support provided specifically for young geniuses by the Human Race Ancestral Land. Do you know about the Human Race Ancestral Land? That place... that place..."

But here, Qingyang Huan also found himself at a loss for words.

Indeed, where was the Human Race Ancestral Land?

Not just to him, but even throughout the Ancient Land of La Mountain, the ancestral land was only a name passed from mouth to mouth. Rumor held that it was the heartland of the Human Race, guarded by powerful experts. It was because the ancestral land existed that the Human Race could survive in the wild, desolate lands where myriad races stood.

"Mm, the Human Race Ancestral Land is very far away. Once we're strong in the future, we'll go take a look..."

In the end, Qingyang Huan fell silent. The ancestral land was still too distant for him, so distant that it was nothing more than a simple term.

"Let's go. We'll head back to Great Locust Mountain and fill the Divine Repositories we've opened first."

As he spoke, Qingyang Huan's gaze fell on the purple marten. At this moment, however, it stayed far away from him, wariness glimmering in its two little eyes.

Qingyang Huan did his best to muster a smile and beckoned to the purple marten, only to have it back away repeatedly.

"Come here."

He was rather helpless about this. This little thing was already firmly in his grasp; was hiding any use? Back in the ancient forest, it had been full of schemes and ruthless in its attacks. Why had it changed now?

Faced with Qingyang Huan's call, the purple marten was unwilling, but it could not control itself at all and came toward him. Its entire body remained on alert, however.

"I refined your Blood Essence Fruit. How about I find some treasures in the ancient forest to compensate you?"

"Is that true?"

The purple marten squeaked, its eyes still not relaxing in the slightest.

"Of course it's true. Look, I didn't take any of that mineral marrow or those bone runes, did I? I only used the Blood Essence Fruit because I had no choice and needed to advance. I'll give you back everything else."

The purple marten's two little eyes looked somewhat uncomprehending. It blinked at Qingyang Huan, studying him as though trying to judge whether his words were true or false.

"Look, you used to search for treasures all by yourself. From now on, we'll go together. Whatever we see, we'll snatch, and everything we snatch will go to you." As his words fell, the purple marten's eyes suddenly lit up.

At once, a slight smile curled Qingyang Huan's lips. There's a chance.

"From now on, you can keep everything we snatch."

"Really?" The purple marten circled him several times.

It seemed this little thing was still in its infancy. Although its intelligence had blossomed and its attacks were ruthless, there were still twists and turns it could not discern.

The master-servant contract had already been established, and everything it possessed was firmly in his grasp. Besides, he did not have a storage bone rune, so he could simply let the purple marten hold things and take them whenever he needed them.

"Really!"

Qingyang Huan nodded solemnly, though inwardly, joy blossomed in his heart.

A little thing capable of driving ferocious beasts to attack others would absolutely be a great helper in Great Locust Mountain. Moreover, could a little thing capable of developing thunder bone runes and spatial bone runes be an ordinary exotic beast?

What a windfall!

At the thought, Qingyang Huan could not help grinning broadly, though he quickly restrained himself.

Deep within Great Locust Mountain.

A giant python spread its wings and swept through the air with a roar. Below it, the mountain forest teemed with White-Headed Red-Eyed Apes. Most of these mountain apes were only in the Body Forging Realm, but there were simply too many of them.

Not far away, caves covered the face of a three-hundred-meter cliff. The cliff was the red-eyed apes' habitat, home to this entire troop of White-Headed Red-Eyed Apes, numbering over a thousand.

In the largest cave at the center of the cliff dwelled a White-Headed Red-Eyed Ape fully fifteen meters in size. Its eyes had already turned blood-red, and the white ring on its forehead resembled a crown.

This White-Crowned Red-Eyed Ape was the king of the red-eyed apes. It carried a white bone several meters long on its back. Light shimmered in its blood-red eyes, with thoughts passing through them no differently than in the Human Race.

This was a true mutant terror, leading its troop in occupying this mountain forest. Even some of the powerful ferocious beasts nearby had to take a detour around it. One glance at the white bones piled beneath the cliff was enough to understand their might.

Moreover, among those piles of white bones, there was no shortage of bones belonging to the Human Race.

Now, someone had actually come to challenge its authority. But as king of the entire troop, it did not act itself, instead sending out the young apes below.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Over a thousand red-eyed apes scaled the rocks and cliff faces below, swung from branches and leaped between trees, howling as they hurled rough stones that could barely be called stone spears at the giant python in the sky.

Roar!

On the cliff face, the ape king suddenly roared, its savage presence surging like a tide. Behind it stood more than a dozen red-eyed apes ranging from nine to fifteen meters in size, and they roared as well.

The red-eyed apes behind the ape king were all in the Divine Treasure Realm, clearly the backbone of the entire red-flame ape troop.

With the ape king's roar, more than a dozen Divine Treasure Realm red-eyed apes leaped howling from the cliff and charged into the mountain forest. The Body Forging Realm red-eyed apes originally scattered throughout the ancient forest began gathering around these Divine Treasure Realm apes.

Soon, the scattered red-eyed apes formed more than a dozen torrents, their savage presence surging toward the giant python in the sky.

"Roar..."

The giant python roared and swooped down. Within its gaping, bloody maw, it was as though a river of blood flowed, and several White-Headed Red-Eyed Apes were bitten into bloody bones.

Yet under the leadership of their Divine Treasure Realm companions, over a thousand red-eyed apes attacked in wave after wave like a tide, leaving it struggling to cope.

These red-eyed apes seemed to have gone mad. They even leaped straight into the air, opening their mouths to bite the giant python. For a time, blood sprayed wildly. Blood Qi surged throughout the python's body as its enormous tail swept across, repeatedly smashing the leaping red-eyed apes into bloody bones.

"Roar...!"

Finally, the giant python roared and swept its tail like a heavenly whip, smashing several lunging red-eyed apes apart. Opening its great maw, it bit a Divine Treasure Realm red-eyed ape in half at the waist, blood spilling from the corners of its mouth.

Immediately afterward, its enormous fleshy wings beat, and it swept into the air, flying toward the distant mountain forest.

Ooh, ooh, ooh... ooh, ooh, ooh...

But the White-Headed Red-Eyed Apes below seemed unwilling to let it escape. Each shrieked wildly. Although they could not fly, they climbed rocks and swung through trees at no slow pace, pursuing the giant python like a torrent and constantly hurling the great clubs in their hands into the air.

The ape horde swept through like a surging tide, filling the mountain forest with a swell of bloodshed and leaving devastation in its wake. Without stopping, the giant python headed toward a low mountain five kilometers away.

"Senior brother, there are too many red-eyed apes, and that ape king's intelligence is no different from a human's. Killing it won't be easy."

Watching the giant python sweep back, its body drenched in blood and even its fleshy wings torn, with dust billowing constantly from the forest behind it, ancient trees toppling, and the ape horde shrieking wildly, Yun Caiyue's eyes flashed with helplessness.

Likewise, Qingyang Huan and Jin Wei, who had now returned to Great Locust Mountain, also saw this bloody scene of devastation. Even watching such bloody savagery from afar, they could not help drawing in sharp breaths.