Chapter 399: A Test

Shi Mu’s left hand blurred as he threw a swift crimson jab into the black pillar.

Boom! The Dragon-subduing Pillar shattered into pieces.

Liu An was just finally exhaling a breath of relief when Shi Mu spun towards the fight in the eastern corner. Seeing that, Liu An shuffled his feet and followed.

Now that they had found out about the Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife’s strangely specific effect on these ghouls, the remaining two black ghouls did not take much of their faces with the joint attacks of Shi Mu and Liu An, these ghouls had not a single chance to retaliate before they were sliced and diced.

With another muffled boom, the last Dragon-subduing Pillar was destroyed as well.

On the iron cross, the final green nail on the Azure King’s body gave out.

The Azure Ape King heaved out a long bellow, his voice not unlike the roaring thunder of a tempest echoing all over the room. Resonating from the cry, the secret room started to vibrate as well. Awestruck, Shi Mu and Liu An could feel the floor quaking beneath their feet. They now had a better understanding of the powers the Azure Ape King may wield.

The Azure Ape King’s body blazed with brilliant green light, so blinding that one could not possibly look at it directly.

After the light faded, three green mirages held the Demonbound Nails on the Azure Ape King’s body before yanking them out.

The Azure Ape King’s aura became more powerful with every inch that the nails were pulled out.

Shi Mu and Liu An now flanked the cross. As they watched, shock coursed through their hearts.

At some point, Shi Mu had already withdrawn a Fire Attribute Spirit Stone in his hand to replenish the Real Qi in his body. Liu An instructed his two barbarian zombies to stand at either of his sides.

When the four Demonbound Nails were finally dragged out of the Azure Ape King, a terrifying oppressive pressure radiated from the body, making even the inanimate room seem to shudder.

“Hahahaha! At last, after three hundred years! Three hundred years, and I am finally free!”

The Azure Ape King’s gory mess of a body, now engulfed by a shroud of green light, plopped down from the cross as maniacal laughter escaped his mouth.

Shi Mu’s expression changed slightly. The energy this Azure Ape King radiated at this moment… was in no way less than that Wu Chen from before.

Now that the Azure Ape King had been released from his prison, nobody knew what to expect from here.

Shi Mu turned to give a sideways glance at Liu An, who was coincidentally turning to look at Shi Mu as well. Their eyes met and in an instant, each knew what the other was thinking.

Amidst the green light, cells on the Azure Ape King’s gory flesh-exposed body started to regenerate and grow at a speed noticeable even by the naked eye—a new layer of skin, hair and even facial organs slowly returned. It took only a while for the Azure Ape King to finally return to his original appearance—a towering ape with a full-body of green fur. His age was shown through the wrinkles on his skin, but the powerful green gleam in his pupils overtook the weathering effect of age, leaving only the impression of an indescribable regal bearing.

Shi Mu’s eyes twinkled as he looked at the Azure Ape King before him. The king may appear ancient but his face looked like one of the four demon followers of the white ape in his dream.

Not only that, Shi Mu could tell that despite his outward recovery, the king’s internal injuries still lingered beneath his newly-grown skin. Nevertheless, he knew he wouldn’t be able to take on the Azure Ape King alone.

Then, in a flash of green light, the Ape King shrunk at a rapid speed until he turned into an old man with white hair donning a green robe, his regal cheekbones giving him a sage-like appearance.

The white-haired elderly man moved his body a slightly, the sound of bones popping clearly audible.

“Congratulations, Elder Azure Ape King. You’re now free!” Liu An was the first to speak with a chuckle.

The Azure Ape King turned after hearing his words and looked at Shi Mu and Liu An.

Liu An was about to say more when the Ape King’s eyes suddenly flashed with a cold glint. The king lifted his arms and thrust each one towards Shi Mu and Liu An.

A green light flashed before them as the pulse of the attack arrived and abruptly turned into a green palm seven to eight yards wide.

Before the palms even reached them, they could already feel the attack’s pressure through the gust of wind it created.

The two men’s faces were aghast. Fortunately, they were no amateurs. Despite the attack being so sudden, they expected something like this would happen and were quick to react.

The zombies standing at Liu An’s two sides appeared before their master. With a bellow, grey lights shone from their bodies as they hurled their fists forward.

Four shimmering fists lunged toward the green palms, stopping them with a loud racket.

As the zombies stubbornly halted the palms from getting closer to their master, their feet sunk right into the ground. The force of the palms tore at the zombies’ arms, causing them to bleed a dark yellow sap.

The square-jawed zombie had it worse; his arms had only just regrown after taking Shi Mu’s attack, and now his new arms were being broken like twigs.

Despite that, the zombies showed no signs of budging. Grey light danced around them, and slowly they were being pushed backward by the large green palm.

Liu An used a flurry of handsigns and blood-red lights shimmered before him to form a large crimson streamer. The image of a golden skull was sewn onto the surface of the streamer—indeed, it was none other than the Heavenly Ghost Streamer.

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With a flash of red, the golden skull seemed to come alive as it opened its jaws wide and spouted a blood-red pillar of light from its mouth before colliding with the green palm.

Boom!

The gigantic green palm was shot right through by the red light beam. It flickered for a while before completely dissipating.

Liu An’s face was a little pale as he took two steps back from the resultant shockwave, but it didn’t take long for him to recover.

Another clap sounded from a distance. Shi Mu had retracted his reddened left hand, and as he did, the flames dancing on the hand’s surface were quickly snuffed out.

The flying green palm that was heading toward him had already vanished completely.

Shi Mu remained expressionless, his feet not even taking a single step back. It seemed that he had met the green flying palm head-on, and survived without injury.

A small twinkle of unknown sentiment flitted past Liu An’s eyes as he watched.

Liu An had to consume a pill before colors returned to his cheeks. He glowered at the Azure Ape king standing at a distance, “I demand an answer. Why have you gone back on your word?”

Shi Mu’s left hand dimmed as he produced a mid-range Fire Attribute Spirit Stone. As his body hungrily sucked the spiritual energy imbued in the stone, his eyes lingered on the Azure Ape King.

The king shot a look at Shi Mu’s left hand. For a split second, an expression of confusion darted through his eyes.

“Good. Since the two of you brats managed to take an attack from a king, you have shown yourselves at least be competent enough to work with a king,” the Azure Ape King said, withdrawing the terrifying aura surrounding himself.

“We saved you, and you reacted by sneaking an attack on us like a stab in a back. How do you expect us to believe that you’re truly going to cooperate with us now?!” Liu An retorted.

Anger was slowly surfacing in the Azure Ape King’s face. “Hmph! Are you questioning the Azure Ape King’s words, you insignificant brat?”

“Excuse me, elder. The trap spell hidden inside this room has long been triggered, so we shouldn’t stay here any longer. We hope that you do as you promised, be mindful of our current predicament, and help us escape,” Shi Mu finally spoke.

The Azure Ape King studied Shi Mu for a while and his anger subsided a little. “Hoho, at least this brat has a bit of sense left in him. Now, watch this!”

The next second, the Azure Ape King raised his arms and he once again glowed a blinding emerald light. With the sound of his bones cracking, his body grew in size.

The pressure of his aura spiked dangerously as the Azure Ape King’s curly beard straightened like a ruler, making him look incredibly sinister.

Shi Mu and Liu An’s expression shifted a little as they took a few steps back and assumed a defensive stance. Shi Mu held the Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife in front of him with his right hand, while Real Qi slowly flowed into his left hand. On the other side, Liu An summoned a small dark crimson streamer while commanding the two barbarian zombies to stand before him.

The Azure Ape King ignored their actions. His figure blurred and suddenly reappeared in the middle of the room as if he had teleported there. He raised his head, watching the ceiling above him.

Shi Mu’s heart skipped a beat as if he remembered something.

The dazzling green lights shining out of the Azure Ape King coursed toward his head like waves, and a little figure hovered above his head.

Shi Mu and Liu An both froze.

The figure ape with green fur, only about half a foot tall. It was very small yet lively, its eyes twinkling with sapience.

It was the Azure Ape King’s Primordial Spirit!

“Primordial Spirit Projection!” Shi Mu mumbled.

Now that his Primordial Spirit had left his body, the Azure Ape King’s real eyes dimmed, his arms hanging weakly at his sides as if a spell of languor had seized him.

The little ape did not address Shi Mu nor Liu An. Instead, it raised its neck and opened its mouth wide, baring its teeth.

Then, it let out a hair-raising shriek.

The ceiling of the secret room had been riddled with circles and circles of magical glyphs, but Shi Mu examined them with his magical eyes when he entered and knew that they were just standard restriction magic without much special purpose.

However, as if responding to the tiny ape soul’s scream, the glyphs lit up all of a sudden, weaving between each other to form a two or three yards-wide disc of pale green light. Like the surface of a quiet lake being disturbed by a spring breeze, ripples danced across the surface of the lake. Character after character of mystifying runic symbols surfaced like swarming fish. The runes then spread to all sides as the ripples pushed them.

In the span of a few seconds, the surface of the entire pale green disc of light was filled to the brim with these mystifying runes.

At the same time, the little ape spirit’s figure blurred and turned into a ray of green as it went into the Azure Ape King’s head and disappeared.

It took only a span of seconds from the point of the Azure Ape King’s Primordial Spirit Projection to the Primordial Spirit’s return, yet it was enough to stupefy both Shi Mu and Liu An.

After his Primordial Body had returned, the Azure Ape King’s eyes recovered their intelligent light. He quickly launched into a flurry of handsigns with both hands as green lightning appeared and encased his body in a tight web. With a shake, the lightning snaked up toward the pale green light disc on the ceiling like an uncontrollable flood.

Despite the powerful thrust, the green lightning seemed to have morphed seamlessly into the pale green disc the very moment they came into contact. The disc hardly produced any reaction, as if the lightning was nothing.