“Kill that Flaming Hairy Ape!” Ears shouted as he took on one of the three gorillas on his own. 

“We’re trying!” The Wolfeng Gang took on the second gorilla while the rest supported them. 

“Commander! Do you need any help?!” Ears yelled. 

“Focus on your own battle Vice Commander. Don’t get distracted! These apes can’t be underestimated!” 

  Ears had multiple leaves revolving around his figure. Two of his daggers were made out of nothing but leaves infused with his qi, enhancing its sharpness a small amount. He couldn’t coat the blades for long, he mainly enhanced it for defending or attacking critical spots. If he strengthened it with his qi during the entire battle, his qi would be drained faster than ever. And if his qi runs out, it was death without a doubt. 

“Alright, you monkey bastard. I haven’t really had the chance to go all out ever since I got this shitty lotus on my head. You won’t mind if I don’t hold back, do you?” He asked before immediately dashing towards the spirit beast. 

  The gorilla wasn’t some mindless animal. It has long since realized that it couldn’t match the shiny headed human in speed. Once it saw that the human was coming towards it, it smashed its large fists against the ground to disrupt his movement. The ground creaked and groaned as it split apart into multiple pieces. 

  Ears was forced to jump into the air unless he wanted to be consumed by the earth itself and buried beneath the rocks. He braced himself as he saw the bastard coming towards him. It looks like it could think a bit more than your average gorilla if it could set him up like this so perfectly. The gorilla reached out with its large hand to grab him. 

  The Leaf headed young man stabbed one of his daggers into the monkey’s palm and tried to stab the other into its throat but the ape countered in the craziest way. Ears watched as the ape bit down on his leafy dagger and chewed it whole. His arm was grabbed and subsequently crushed by the gorilla’s powerful strength. He tried gritting his teeth so hard it felt like that were cracking to stop himself from letting out a pain-filled scream. 

‘I’m going to be made fun of for months for that one...’ Ears thought somewhat ashamed. 

  His shame was quickly replaced with anger as he formed another dagger out of leaves into his only good hand. The ape dropped his broken arm and tried to punch him but he wasn’t as quick as Ears was. Ears rapidly stabbed his dagger into the primate’s arm, forcing it to release him. He wanted to get some distance but there wouldn’t be a better chance than now to get in a good hit. 

  The injured baldy coated his leaf daggers with his qi without holding anything back. Ears moved forward with his entire 9th stage Qi Gathering energy flowing through his body and weapon. It was being drained at a rapid rate but if he didn’t take this monkey out now, there was no one else who could. Those other bastards already have their hands full. How could he call himself their vice commander if he couldn’t even take care of a dumb animal? 

“You gave me a lot of trouble you ape bastard.” Ears stood in front of the hairy beast. “Don’t curse me after you’re dead.” 

  Ears’s swirling leaves turned into sharp knives that sliced anything they came in contact with, even themselves. The sliced leaves only created more deadly projectiles to control. Wenling’s right-hand man controlled the leaves and sent them stabbing right into the body of the gorilla. An uncountable amount of leaves pierced into the skin of the spirit beast. It gave a great roar of pain and raised its arms to crush down on Ear’s small figure. 

“About damn time...” Ears silently struck forward with his single leaf dagger. 

  He cursed as his arm violently thumped with pain while the gorilla fell backwards with a clean hole right through the middle of its wide neck. 

“I hope Jing has some more of those healing spells on hand, I’m fucked up badly...” Ears murmured as he was completely out of qi. 

---

“Put me the fuck out!” Scars cried while patting the fire out on his clothes. 

“Put yourself out retard! We’re kind of busy here!” Zian laughed even though he wasn’t in the position to laugh. 

  He was fiercely holding hands with the Flaming Hairy Ape. With his strong physique, he was the only one capable of standing up to the spirit beast directly. But his strong body had its limits, he could feel the flesh on his hand burning. If this continued, his hands would definitely melt to the bone! 

“Zihao! Cut this furry bastard up already!” Zian yelled gritting his teeth. 

“I’m trying you ugly bastard!” Zihao lunged towards the ape’s wide back to plunge his lightning sword through. 

  Only to see the monkey turning its head towards him after hearing the crackling of his blade and unleashing a powerful wave of fire from the fur on its back straight towards Zihao.  

“Son of a bitch!” He cried out as his body was engulfed in flames. 

“You owe me big for this asshole.” Scars told him as his monster plant enlarged itself and grabbed Zihao with its mouth. It swallowed him whole and smothered the fire out with its digestive juices before spitting him back out on the ground. 

“Son of a fucking bitch that was gross as hell! I think I would’ve preferred dying instead of experiencing that!” Zihao lied as he was covered in sticky green smelly plant saliva. 

“Now’s not the time guys! We gotta help Zian!” Du Lin interrupted the two and dashed towards the flaming monkey with his mortal-ranked spear. 

  He stabbed his weapon through the side of the ape’s abdominal, giving Zian freedom to blow on his badly burnt hands and the other bandits to attack while the beast was roaring in pain.  

“Thanks, Du Lin. I would’ve lost my hands for good if you didn’t help me out there.” Zian continued to blow on his burning hands. 

“No problem big guy. You wouldn’t have an extra spirit weapon on you, would you?” He asked as his spear was still lodged in the gorilla’s side. 

“Here, take this.” He gestured towards his ass cheeks. 

“Uh...” He wasn’t sure what he wanted. 

“It's in my pocket. Reach in there and grab that silver needle looking thing.” He told him. 

  Du Lin did as he said and pulled out a small silvery staff. He infused his qi into the tiny object and nearly poked his eye out after it grew nearly ten times bigger!  

“A spear without a point on the end?” He questioned. 

“I found it in the treasure room and thought it would be a good present to give to Yang Mei. But if we don’t kill this thing, I won’t be able to make it back to her! Use it as you like bastard! Happy Birthday!” 

“Thanks! I’ll be sure to pay you back!” Du Lin ran off to help the other guys. 

  He arrived just in time to save Scars from being crushed to death by the fiery ape. The staff wielding bandit shoved his staff into Scar’s side, knocking him away as he took his place. His staff didn’t crumble under the beast’s strong arms but he sure did. Du Lin’s feet sank deep into the ground from its power along with breaking most of the bones in his arms. 

“Haha holy shit man, just how strong are you?!” Zihao and 4 others stabbed their blades into the gorillia’s undefended back before quickly jumping away with their weapons inside its flesh. 

  Another ally of theirs dragged Du Lin away before he was roasted alive by the beast’s fiery explosive wave. The Wolfeng Gang surrounded the seriously wounded beast on its last legs. They could clearly see from its dripping blood and shaking body that it was on death door. But they also understood that a beast is most dangerous when its cornered. They calmly and patiently waited instead of attacking.  

“It's a dumb animal. Let it make the first move and then kill it dead!” 

“I never ate a gorilla before...” 

“He doesn’t look that tasty.” 

“Maybe his meat will be spicy!” 

  The Flaming Hairy Ape spat blood from its mouth and fainted out of angry after hearing the unbelievable comments of the Wolfeng Gang. It couldn’t believe its killers would desecrate its body by eating it after its death! What foe would eat their opponent after a hard-fought battle!? It’s simply insane!  

“Guess we’re eating good tonight boys. This was a big fella.” 

“Gotta eat what you can. My momma raised me to not waste a single drop of food!” 

---

  Wenling glared at Song and Chuan. This was definitely thought of by the two of them. Sending all three gorillas towards their side of the wall as a way of weakening them or to kill them. The gorillas wouldn’t be interested in their loot at all. The biggest risk was some of their magical treasures being broken in the fight with the apes but that was negligible when thinking of the many others treasures that would be left on their corpses. 

  The dirty scumbags innocently smiled as a response to her glare. Wenling dodged the heavy fist of the gorilla as it believed she was distracted. She immediately countered by slicing its stomach with her glaive. Unfortunately, the cut wasn’t deep enough to finish it but that didn’t stop her from continuing her attack. She swung her glaive with deadly precision and speed. The gorilla was forced to block and cover its vital areas. 

  The gorilla realized this human wasn’t so weak! If he wasn’t careful, he could easily lose his life in just a single moment! Even when he faced off against both his younger brothers, he didn’t feel this pressured. It was the first time in its life that it has ever been pushed onto the defensive! 

  This unfamiliar feeling made its chest feel stuffy. The gorilla wanted nothing more than to get rid of that feeling and the only way it could see that happening was to somehow stop this human female! He gathered all his qi into his arms before smashing the ground underneath him. The human managed to cut across his eye before backflipping away and out of the range of the cracking earth. 

“Why do I feel stronger than before?” Wenling questioned.  

  It wasn’t as if she had a breakthrough in her cultivation or martial art techniques lately. There was no reason why she should feel this good. Wenling thought about what has happened to her lately and could only think of one reason why she feels more powerful. It was the many life-threatening battles she survived while looking for Jing. 

“I don’t regret looking for you in the slightest Jing...” Wenling’s qi shrunk in quantity. 

  Proud Commander of the Wolfeng Gang, Wenling, sharpened her internal energy and concentrated it into one point. The tip of her glaive. She grinned a confident grin as the gorilla beat on its chest and hollered from fear. She knew it could sense how dangerous this technique was. If it got hit by this polearm of hers, it was dead without a shred of hope for survival. 

“You were a good opponent for me to find out my current limits with. I can see myself breaking into the Qi Consolidation stage without a problem now.” And Wenling vanished. 

  By the time she reappeared, her glaive was sticking through the chest of the large spirit beast and out of its back. Its heart was hooked onto the tip of her halberd. Most of her weapon was inside the ape’s body. She looked into the eyes of the qi constructed animal and marveled at how realistic it was. The Great Tower was such a fantastical and mysterious spirit tool that she doubted that anything could come close to rivaling it. Wenling closed the eyes of the fallen gorilla as respect for being a wonderful creation and helping her get used to her new power. 

‘Maybe I've come a bit closer to reaching Jianyu’s strength...’ 

---