Chapter 406: Stealing Wine

In order to save time, Shang Xia had planned to charge straight into the depths of the forest. He was ready to take on the attacks of the monkey tribe, but he didn’t expect the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land to be waiting for him! After all, Qi Yunxiu had left and Lang Qingyun was dead. No one expected the disciple to not escape. He was even daring enough to try a sneak attack on Shang Xia! That wasn’t all. The timing he chose was almost perfect.

The thing about it that caught Shang Xia’s interest wasn’t the disciple’s courage. Instead, Shang Xia wanted to know how he managed to avoid detection to appear behind him.

One had to know that after Shang Xia comprehended his Man and Heaven Chapter Synergy, his divine sense could merge with the world around him and allow him to hide from Martial Extermination Realm experts. At the same time, it was much stronger than the divine sense from cultivators of the same level.

The disciple alone was definitely unable to avoid Shang Xia’s divine sense. That was the case earlier. Shang Xia and Shang Ke noticed him hiding in the forest but he disappeared all of a sudden, leading them to think that he had escaped. Neither of them expected the disciple to be ballsy enough to use some sort of treasure to hide in the surroundings to try fishing for some benefits.

Facing such a sudden attack from the disciple from the Changbai Holy Land while being pelted with weird objects from the Mutated Monkey Tribe, any other Martial Intent Realm cultivator would have no choice but to accept their fate.

It was too bad the person who was trapped in the situation was Shang Xia, anything was possible!

The tip of his Scarlet Star Spear might be damaged, but it was still usable. Surprisingly, Shang Xia held it with one hand and released a sword technique while swinging the long pole around.

His inner qi circulated quickly through his body and sword lights appeared around him.

Using a huge amount of inner qi, Shang Xia deployed his martial extremity intent, the Seven Laceration Sword Formation!

Seven pairs of sword qi were contained in the sword lights around him and they started to spin around at a frightening rate. The different types of sword qi separated and fused with each other from time to time and they destroyed any threat that dared to approach him.

Everything the monkeys threw at him turned to dust in the face of the sword formation. As for the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land, he could only retreat after breaking through four layers of sword lights and still failing to reach Shang Xia.

Turning his attention to the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land who tried to sneak attack him, Shang Xia wouldn’t allow him to get away so easily. Also, Shang Xia’s interest was piqued by the number of surprises the disciple was giving him. Not only was he able to avoid detection, but he also managed to break through four layers of sword lights! Evidently, the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land wasn’t some random nobody.

Replacing the spear in his hand with his Jade River Sword, the power contained in the formation increased by yet another level. The radius of his sword formation also extended outwards now that he was holding the appropriate weapon in his hand. He wanted to trap the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land completely.

Luckily for the disciple, he retreated the moment he failed to kill Shang Xia. With his speed, he managed to barely escape Shang Xia’s sword formation. The sword light chased closely behind him and the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land released a blade light to cover his back. It blocked off a portion of Shang Xia’s sword formation but two streaks of sword light still entered his body. Releasing a pained grunt, he pushed his speed to its limit and fled into the forest.

With a frown on his face, Shang Xia quickly estimated the strength of the disciple who just ran away and realized that he wasn’t any weaker than the direct disciples of the Changbai Holy Land who fell in his hands.

Glancing in the direction the disciple left, Shang Xia burned the feeling of the man’s aura into his mind before turning back to complete his mission. Looking at the monkeys in front of him, he noticed that there were close to a hundred of them. Their ranks varied from the first to third rank, but none of them were able to do a thing to Shang Xia.

Without the threat of the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land, Shang Xia could focus all his attention on those monkeys. However, he had to admit that those monkeys had above-average intelligence compared to other beasts. They were able to feel the threat and even without being commanded by the Mutated Monkey King, they started to run away from Shang Xia.

Those who were further away managed to escape into the forest, but those who were closer to Shang Xia were decimated instantly.

Looking at the monkeys who were running away desperately, Shang Xia didn’t plan on catching them one by one. Instead, he drew a horizontal arc through the air with his Jade River Sword and the radius of his sword formation extended yet again. The sword lights that surrounded him eventually extended to cover a fifty feet radius and any creature in there was killed before they could scream.

Those who were a little further away managed to keep their lives but their panicked cries didn’t stop. They tried to call out to their king while running away.

Dealing with the threat of the Mutated Monkey Tribe for the moment, Shang Xia retracted his sword qi and took a deep breath to calm himself.

The Seven Laceration Sword Formation was his martial extremity intent and but using it the way he did definitely tired him out.

Luckily, the power of the sword formation wasn’t something anyone could scoff at. Even at his current level, his sword formation was a useful tool in dealing with multiple enemies.

As Shang Xia tried to recover his inner qi, a sharp yell came from the other side of the forest. It seemed as though his actions of massacring the Mutated Monkey Tribe didn’t go unnoticed by the Mutated Monkey King.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

A roar from a rank four beast was enough to affect the flow of inner qi in lower-leveled cultivators. Those who were weaker would lose control of their cultivation and suffer heavy injuries.

Luckily, Shang Xia was only slightly affected and his heart pounded slightly.

The yell from the Mutated Monkey King gave Shang Xia a good reminder to move quickly. After all, the Mutated Monkey King might be much stronger than Shang Ke. With his mass killing of Mutated Monkeys, the Mutated Monkey King might go berserk and risk it all to kill him instead.

Rushing through the forest, Shang Xia quickly discovered the heart of the Mutated Monkey Tribe.

The area was a mess as random fruits lined the ground.

However, the faint smell of wine, fermented fruits, and several herbs seemed to tell Shang Xia that he had come to the right place.

His gaze quickly rested on a thick tree trunk. From his observations since he entered the Redwood Forest, the bark of the Redwood Trees was extremely dense. As long as the monkeys hollowed out a space in the trunk of the Redwood Trees and fermented their wine within, the liquid that was produced could be contained with no problems.

Shang Xia tried to extend his divine sense to ascertain if there was wine in the tree he had locked onto, but he discovered that his divine sense was being obstructed. It was difficult to peer into the situation within the trees.

The problem didn’t stump Shang Xia for long. He quickly made several rounds and quickly discovered several trees that had mud smeared on their surface.

Looking at the degree of which the mud had dried out, Shang Xia was able to estimate how long the wine had been fermenting. The time they had been fermenting for told Shang Xia if they were ready, or the grade the wine contained within was at.

Even though the Mutated Monkey King was at the fourth rank, it didn’t mean that the wine it fermented was of the fourth rank.

Jumping onto one of the trees in his surroundings, Shang Xia carefully peeled away the mud seal on it. A strong aroma assaulted his nose the instant he did.

Taking a light whiff, Shang Xia felt his head getting lighter as his heartbeat accelerated. The inner qi in his body also started to circulate a little quicker.

Focusing his senses, Shang Xia pushed his inner qi to rotate even quicker as he forced the effects of the wine out of his body.

“Hehe, my luck isn’t too bad! I found a batch of rank three Monkey Wine!” Shang Xia felt a burst of joy as he quickly identified the level of the wine in the tree trunk.

It was said that Mutated Monkeys used the wine they brewed to increase their cultivation. In some cases, they were even able to break through a bottleneck after drinking some of their wine.

Since the tree contained rank three Monkey Wine, Shang Xia estimated it was the reward given to rank two Mutated Monkeys for them to improve.

Of course, the wine couldn’t actually be a replacement for actual advancement medicine. It might be able to assist a break through, but it required long term use. Moreover, that specific effect could only benefit Mutated Monkeys. Cultivators of other species would only be able to increase their cultivation slightly when ingesting Monkey Wine.

Retrieving a spirit sealing bottle, Shang Xia shoved it through the mud seal. A stream of faint-red liquid poured into the bottle and it didn’t take long for him to empty the tree. The rank three Monkey Wine that had been sealed in the tree for god knew how long had been obtained by Shang Xia in the blink of an eye!

He quickly turned to look at another tree with a mud seal. When he repeated the process, the aroma of the liquid pouring out was a lot fainter than before. The heaven and earth qi contained in the liquid was far from the first bottle.

Clearly, the rank of Monkey Wine contained in the second tree couldn’t be compared to the first!

Originally, Shang Xia wanted to use a spirit sealing bottle to contain the liquid within. However, he felt that it would be a waste of a good bottle and changed it to a spirit restraining pouch. That was because he discovered that the Monkey Wine that was pouring out hadn’t even reached the second rank!

Disappointed, he quickly looked for more trees in his surroundings but after opening the next two, all he obtained was rank one Monkey Wine.

Only after he reached the fifth tree did he discover rank two Monkey Wine! Bringing out a spirit sealing bottle, he filled it up completely.

Before he could look for a sixth tree, a loud whistle tore through the air. Shang Xia could tell that it came from his Grandpa Ke, and his heart ran cold. That was a secret signal they decided on earlier. It meant that Shang Ke was reaching his limit and couldn’t hold the Mutated Monkey King down much longer and that Shang Xia was to retreat immediately.

Indeed… The Mutated Monkey King is a lot stronger than Grandpa Ke!

Shang Xia leaped over to the nearest tree and filled another bottle with rank two Monkey Wine.

The time it took to burn a stick of incense was running out, and Shang Xia knew that he had to go. Moreover, Shang Ke was close to his limit and there was no way they could stay any longer.

With other Martial Extermination Realm experts rushing over too, Shang Xia knew that it was time to go. He wasn’t too greedy. After draining six trees, he knew that he definitely got his fair share of the treasure. In fact, he might have taken a huge bulk of it!

Right as he started to make his leave, his gaze unintentionally landed on the core region of the Mutated Monkey Tribe. There, a massive tree grew alone. The trunk of the tree was so thick that two people were required to wrap their hands around it and the moment he saw the tree, he knew that it was good stuff. After all, it wasn’t too common to see such a huge tree growing around.

His pupils shrank as he noticed a small mud seal that was the size of his fist on the trunk of the tree.

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him and he quickly jumped onto the branch of the tree closest to him. Breaking the seal, a faint-red mist emerged and Shang Xia nearly lost his balance after smelling it slightly.

This… Rank four Monkey Wine?!