Chapter 198: Hell Ape, Part III

Yu Qiang was sitting inside of the stronghold’s café, quietly taking sips of a very strong green tea. He had long ago perfected the art of tea making. He would dare say his tea making skills were on par with the most skilled geisha in the Shang Kingdom. Some people might consider this unmanly, but he loved the flavor of tea and felt like learning the art of tea making was the best way to show his respect for tea.

It’s been two days… I expected Jian Wu to have already arrived, at least.

He wasn’t worried, but he was curious to know what Jian Wu was doing. That young man’s strength was unfathomable. Even Yu Qiang did not know if he could defeat the man in a straight up fight. He had watched the spars between him and Her Highness and been astounded every time when he saw the strength that was put on display.

I can now see why Her Highness is so infatuated with him. He brings out the best in her.

Yu Qiang would admit to being jealous. Everyone in the Shang Kingdom Imperial Academy had a crush on Her Highness, including himself. He and others like him had worked hard to prove they could stand by her side, but none of them could match up. The Shang Kingdom’s first princess could not be won over with strength alone.

She’s already surpassed me in strength. Her cultivation method is one that allows her to grow stronger when she enjoys the fight… meaning she enjoys her spars with Jian Wu more than anything else.

Hou Jingshu had always worn a cold expression when she sparred with Yu Qiang and the other Core Disciples. He didn’t think her expression was a sign of disinterest. It was more like she just couldn’t bring herself to enjoy fighting against them. But she really enjoyed battling against Jian Wu. He had never seen Her Highness smile so widely during a spar before.

“Hmmm?”

One of the instructors walked into the room. He had gray hair, wrinkles around his eyes, and wore the hanfu of a Shang Kingdom’s Imperial Academy elder. Yu Qiang stood up and offered a polite bow.

“Head Elder Ma Zedong, a good day to you.” He came up from his bow to find the elder’s brow furrowed. “Is everything okay, elder?”

Head Elder Ma Zedong was one of the oldest elders within the Shang Kingdom Imperial Academy at 156 years of age. Perhaps that was why a lot of the kids made fun of him behind his back. Many would call him a crotchety old man when they thought he wasn’t around. Yet for however grumpy he acted, the man was loyal to his country, dedicated to preserving the peace, and passionate about training the next generation. He was a half-step Human Limit Realm cultivator, which also made him the strongest among the elders.

“I am unsure… I have this sense of foreboding that something bad is going to happen. I’m just not sure what…” Head Elder Ma Zedong said with a sigh.

“That doesn’t sound good. Can you tell where this feeling is coming from?”

Head Elder Ma Zedong was what people called a sensor. He was very good at detecting chi. Some elders of the academy had even speculated that his chi sensitivity was so powerful he could even sense the emotions infused within the chi. If it was true that he could sense such emotions, then no one with malicious intent could hide from him.

“I cannot, and that is what’s so vexing.” The elder sighed and shook his head. “It may be my imagination, but…”

At that very moment, a loud commotion erupted outside. Yu Qiang and Head Elder Ma Zedong turned as the doors burst open and another elder walked into the room. They looked younger than Ma Zedong by at least a hundred years, with black hair, green eyes, and pale skin.

“Elder Fu Wey, what is wrong? You look out of breath,” said Yu Qiang.

“Head Elder, Yu Qiang… there’s been an incident,” Elder Fu Wey said.

Neither of them knew what this man was talking about, but they couldn’t ignore what he said. Both stepped outside of the café and walked toward the entrance hall. It was just a large space with numerous doors and columns. A statue in the very center depicted a man, the first emperor of the Shang Kingdom, transforming into a dragonic being with wings jutting from his back and scales like steel. It was meant to be a symbol of the Shang Kingdom’s strength and connection to dragons.

Several students were present, including one that Yu Qiang recognized because of her association with Jian Wu. Many of the students were battered. Most of them also did not have both a yin and yang token, meaning they didn’t pass.

He frowned. “Xia Lin, what is going on here?”

“Yu Qiang…” Xia Lin quickly offered the older man a martial bow. “I apologize for bringing so many people. There was an incident in the forest. Several students were attacked by a Magical Beast. Jian Wu and I rescued them, but then he ran off when he heard a roar.”

“A roar…” Yu Qiang furrowed his brow.

“What kind of magical beast did they run into?” asked Head Elder Ma Zedong.

“Um… it was a Creeper Vine,” Xia Lin answered.

“A Creeper Vine, you say? And what section of the forest did they run afoul this beast?” the head elder continued his questioning.

“It was… roughly ten li west of here.”

“Strange. Creeper Vines are a rather common magical beast in this forest, but we take great pains to regularly cull them, especially during the exam. There should not be any Creeper Vines in that area…”

The head elder grew silent, a pensive frown drawing a tight line across his aged face as he stroked his beard. Yu Qiang and the others went silent. He could not help but wonder if this was the cause for the head elder’s foreboding feeling from before.

Whatever the case might have been, none of them were given the chance to figure it out, for at that moment, a loud roar caused the air to reverberate. Yu Qiang felt his bones rattling at the sound. The students weaker than him fainted dead away. Even the head elder groaned as though in great pain.

“W-what is that sound?!” asked Xia Lin.

“This… it can’t be!”

“Head Elder?! Where are you going?!” asked Yu Qiang as the head elder raced outside.

Yu Qiang followed the man outside. He was about to ask what the man was thinking, but the words died upon his lips before they could fully form. His eyes bulged. Sweat ran down his forehead. He felt fear down to the very marrow of his bones.

“What… the hell…?”

Though it was far in the distance, it towered over the tree tops so easily they couldn’t possibly miss it.

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A massive ape banging its fists against its chest in anger.

***

“Haaah… haaaa… Aaaaaaahhhhhh!”

Wu Jian’s breathing was heavy but measured as he leapt onto the gorilla’s outstretched fist. The massive magical beast had tried to do him in with a punch, but he’d simply dodged and landed on his fist. That punch was no joke, however. The entire area where Wu Jian had been standing was now just a massive crater. Even the trees that had been present were naught but splinters.

Running up the arm, Wu Jian was like a bolt of lightning. The gorilla glared as it tried to swat him off like he was a fly, but he just flipped around and ran upside down, channeling chi as he manipulated the space around his feet to keep him from falling.

“Get off me, you pest!!”

Despite trying its best, the gorilla was unable to actually swat him off, and so Wu Jian reached his shoulder soon enough. He didn’t hesitate to attack. Leaping into the air, Wu Jian twisted his body like a corkscrew. He packed all the power he had into his foot as he spun around and extended his leg. His kick slammed into the giant ape’s face.

And did nothing.

“Tch.”

Wu Jian was forced to retreat as the gorilla unleashed a roar infused with chi. The attack was bone-rattling. Not even covering his ears could protect him from it. He sank to a knee immediately after landing on the ground. Blood poured from his ears and stained his hands.

The magical beast roared again, but this was infused with intent rather than chi--killing intent. It raised a mighty fist and brought it down. The power of this swing was so fierce the wind was whipped into a frenzy. A punch like this would surely squash him flat.

“Yōuměi!!”

Before the fist could fully descend, a black panther leapt out of his shadow. Numerous black tendrils erupted from its body. They were much larger than he remembered them being. These tendrils wrapped around the gorilla’s fist. As Yōuměi landed on the ground, it dug in its claws and yanked, pulling the gorilla’s fist off course. The fist slammed into the ground not far from where Wu Jian knelt, creating another massive crater.

I might really die if that thing punches me even once.

While the gorilla was surprised by Yōuměi’s sudden appearance, that did not stop it from reacting. It jerked its hand back, tearing away the shadows that had latched onto it, and took a few steps back, eying the black panther who now stood protectively in front of Wu Jian.

“Hmph. A magical beast who has been tamed by a human is no better than a dog,” the gorilla snorted. The amount of hatred and derision dripping from its voice shocked Wu Jian. It felt like this creature was looking down on Yōuměi for being partners with a human.

I had no idea wild magical beasts thought this way. It seems they can’t stand the idea of being shackled to a human.

Yōuměi was far more than just a magical beast to him. She was a trusted companion and partner, but this gorilla didn’t seem to understand that, and Wu Jian had no desire to try and make it understand.

“Are you ready, Yōuměi?” he asked, standing up.

“Grrrr.”

“Then let’s do this!”

Wu Jian and Yōuměi rushed forward at the same time. The gorilla opened its mouth to release another one of those chi-infused roars, but he was having none of it.

“Oh, no, you don’t!”

Even though he was nowhere near the gorilla’s face, Wu Jian thrust his arm out and up in an uppercut. The space around his fist folded, and suddenly, he was slamming his fist into the underside of the creature’s jaw. His punch might not have been enough to truly hurt it. However, he stilled packed enough power to force its jaw closed.

As the creature stumbled back from the powerful attack, Yōuměi darted between its legs. She attached a shadow to one of its ankles, then began moving around it in figure eights, weaving darkness like a thread of rope. Multiple times she wove around its legs. Then, she ran back toward Wu Jian, and the thread binding the gorilla’s legs suddenly tightened.

The magical beast released a surprised scream as it was yanked off its feet. It crashed to the ground with an earth-shattering boom. Trees were felled like grass when it was tread upon by human feet. Their trunks snapped under the weight of this massive mountain of muscle and flesh.

Wu Jian raced forward and leapt into the air, his height boosted by the power of chi. As he ascended high above the gorilla, he raised his hand, channeling his will and intent into his next attack. He needed something big enough to squash this magical beast. Something big and powerful.

The first thing he imagined was a massive hammer. Space distorted around his hand. What appeared was a black hammer darker than even the night. It seemed to absorb everything around it, but it still wasn’t big enough. He channeled more chi into it. The hammer grew in size, becoming as large as Wu Jian’s body, then growing to be at least three times larger. Still not enough. He channeled more and more chi into his hammer, causing it to grow and grow and grow, until it was ten times larger than he was tall. Now the hammer was so massive that it looked above the forest.

Sweat poured down his brow as he struggled to maintain both the hammer and his consciousness. This technique consumed more chi than anything else he had ever used. He wouldn’t be able to maintain it for more than a few more seconds.

With a roar much like the magical beast he had been fighting, he swung the hammer down. Wu Jian thought this would be the end, that his attack would annihilate this creature’s head, but he was wrong.

The gorilla punched his hammer.

And the hammer exploded.

A massive eruption of power tore through the space where his hammer had been and slammed into him with the force of a one kiloton boulder. He flew backward at speeds that caused the air around him to blur. Pain arched through him as he struck several objects that had been in his flight’s path. When he finally struck the ground, he tore a gouge into the earth as he tumbled end over end, only coming to a stop after breaking through several more trees.

He lay there, gasping and panting as fragments from his mask fell off his face. He grimaced and wiped the mask remains away. As he lay there, a shadow loomed over him. It was the magical beast gorilla. It glared down at him with crimson eyes full of hate.

“I never expected a mere human at the Asura Realm to give me so much trouble. Consider yourself honored, human. You are one of only two people who have forced me to fight with all my strength. Die knowing you have accomplished something few are capable of.”

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