Chen Wentian had to explain several more times for Bei Yingluo to finally accept that Chen Mo wasn’t going to be her master.

She nodded in agreement and after a few moments, finally remembered where they were. She quickly became downcast and hesitant, like she wanted to say something.

He guessed what she was thinking so he gave her a gentle nudge, “Hey, do you have any family or relatives also being held prisoner here? I will take them out with you.”

“Mast… sorry, elder! My mother is here and…” She trailed off.

“Okay, no problem. Anyone else?”

“She… I…”

She tried to hold it in but the memories came rushing back and so did the emotions and the tears. He hugged her to him instinctively and comforted her. In the past, he would not have known what to do but he was a bit more experienced with women now.

He left the snow monkey room while still holding onto her with his spiritual energy. The gorilla led the way in front and out of sight. He made sure there were no stray monkeys that could see the strange sight of two humans walking freely in their lair.

They went up the tunnels and arrived at Bei Yingluo’s original chamber. All the monkeys that lived in this dwelling had already been slain by her. No other monkey dared approach this place based on General Sun’s original order. Only the human prisoners were left. Inside were ten or so naked women, sleeping or otherwise in a daze. They did not dare step outside as there was nowhere they could escape to.

Bei Yingluo recognized someone and squirmed out of his arms.

“Mother!” She cried out and rushed forward.

Her mother was still alive and in good condition but there were obvious signs of abuse. She awoke and the pair shared a tender moment of reunion.

“Where is Ning’er?” Her mother asked.

“I…”

Bei Yingluo looked around, unsure and visibly afraid.

Chen Wentian scanned the chamber with his spiritual energy and found a young girl with a similar spiritual energy signature. She laid against a far corner, unconscious. There was a gash on the back of her head like she had been knocked back hard into the rocks.

He pulled her over and examined her body. She was alive and thankfully, the monkeys had not done anything to her. Besides the head wound, there wasn’t much else wrong with her except for a few cuts and bruises.

“She’ll be fine. Just knocked out. Don’t worry.” He said and handed the younger sister over.

The mother and sister pair started another crying session which quite noisy and woke some of the other women.

Chen Wentian clicked his tongue softly from impatience. He didn’t have time for this. There was still a war going on and he was deep in beast territory.

“It’s still dangerous. We have to go.” He said and lifted all three of them into the air.

He turned to leave but several cries stopped him.

“Immortal, save me!”

“Save us!”

“Please!”

The other prisoners who had been in a daze finally figured out what was happening. They wanted to be saved as well and were begging pitifully.

Bei Yingluo also tugged on his arm, “Elder… dear Elder… Please save them! I beg you; disciple is willing to do anything!”

It was good that she had compassion. He liked his disciples to have good qualities while they were in the mortal realms. That way, at least, he can ensure that his disciples would still be good immortals when they ascended.

He wasn’t planning on rescuing anyone else but he acquiesced because of his new disciple. She certainly had a special air about her when she begged him earnestly…

“Alright, alright. But only the ones in this chamber. I may be an immortal but there is a limit to how many people I can carry into the air.”

This was partly true and partly false. It indeed cost more spiritual energy to expand the spiritual aura to support more weight during flight. This was a problem for immortals with low reserves of energy. It wasn’t a problem for him because of the soul realm but he wasn’t one to go around broadcasting his special abilities for everyone to see.

“Elder, I understand.” Bei Yingluo nodded quickly, “You are unable to save everyone here because it’s impossible to do for thousands of them. But also, the monkeys will simply find more women to prey on after we are gone. But these women are from my clan so please save them!”

“Smart girl.” Chen Wentian said approvingly and patted her shoulder.

“Thank you…”

He wrapped all of the women in his spiritual energy and quickly exited the mountain. There were eleven in total and they were all rather squished closer together in order to fit within his spiritual aura. It was an interesting sight, one that was hard to reproduce under normal circumstances.

His eyes wandered idly while they headed westward, the closest direction towards human territory. Chen Mo was destitute with not a single piece of gold to his name. However, the gorilla soul had discretely left a piece of red spiritual crystal along his way out. With it, he would be able to pay for teleportation costs at least.

Chen Wentian, as the gorilla general, stayed in the mountain and cleaned up the remaining mess. He destroyed the snow monkey’s room even more to wipe away the signs of the previous immortal duel. He killed the snow monkey’s slaves without hesitation. He even killed a few more monkey underlings for good measure. This was all to make sure there was absolutely no chance of witnesses.

The one taking the fall for everything would of course be General Sun. The story was that the snow monkey caught a never-before-seen disease from a prisoner during sex. This caused it to go crazy and abandon the mountain and the monkey kingdom. The disease would also be why many other monkeys died and an entire chamber of prisoners was cleaned out.

It wasn’t a very believable story and the king would no doubt be furious. However, it was believable enough for the steel-furred gorilla not to suffer much punishment or suspicion. He was still a monkey general and the king wouldn’t kill him over this.

It was also impossible for it to suspect that there was anything wrong with him, like how he no longer had the same soul. The idea was so preposterous that it would be the least likely scenario out of a million scenarios. 

Chen Wentian left the mountain soon after and headed south-west and full speed. He had wasted a bit too much time recruiting his eleventh disciple.

He passed through forests and rivers until the greenery decreased and eventually faded away into yellow sand. What lay beyond was a vast desert that stretched for many provinces. It seemed devoid of life but it was actually filled with all kinds of unique beasts and valuable cultivation resources. This was the southern front and it was commanded by the last and strongest monkey general, the camouflaging sasquatch General Jiao.

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