CHAPTER 81: CHAPTER 81: SWORD MOUNTAIN

Chu Chen and the others had just left when the monkey horde rushed to the Monkey King’s side.

Looking at his injured subordinates, he let out an angry roar.

It was only then that the monkey horde realized their home had been robbed.

A moment later, a series of furious roars echoed from the dense forest.

After escaping the dense forest, Chu Chen and others saw that the Monkey King hadn’t chased after them, finally allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

They didn’t continue to flee but instead found a safe place to stop.

Through the contract, Chu Chen could sense Lei Yao’s location. While escaping, Lei Yao hadn’t followed them but had exited the dense forest from another side before regrouping with them here.

Soon Chu Chen discovered Lei Yao, who had fallen into a weakened state, moving very slowly.

Seeing this, Chu Chen couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache and quickly ran towards Lei Yao.

Lei Yao looked at his sprinting master, and there was a hint of wetness in his eyes.

A dozen breaths later, Chu Chen gasped as he arrived by Lei Yao’s side. He didn’t let Lei Yao return to the Soul Sea to rest, but instead took out Monkey Wine from the Space Necklace, removed the cork, and handed it to Lei Yao.

Lei Yao looked at the golden liquid before him and eagerly stepped forward, looking curiously at the Monkey Wine.

But as the sweet fragrance wafted over, the curiosity in his eyes instantly turned into yearning.

Seeing the change in Lei Yao’s expression, Chu Chen couldn’t help but smile.

He quickly took out a glass cup from the Space Necklace, poured the Monkey Wine into the cup, and handed it to Lei Yao.

Lei Yao received the glass cup and eagerly drank it down.

Half a pound of Monkey Wine was consumed in one gulp, leaving him with a lingering look of unease.

Soon, a blush climbed onto his ape face, and his body seemed to regain its strength.

Chu Chen urgently inquired about Lei Yao’s physical condition.

After a conversation, Chu Chen finally understood the effects of the Monkey Wine.

Monkey Wine not only has a rapid recovery effect but also contains extremely rich Star Power, which positively impacts cultivation and Star Power recovery speed.

Half a pound of Monkey Wine only restored four or five tenths of Lei Yao’s stamina, which implied that a full recovery would require at least one pound.

Chu Chen did not let Lei Yao continue drinking Monkey Wine, as there was no immediate danger and it wasn’t necessary to waste it.

After regrouping with Mu Chengxue, Chu Chen took out Monkey Wine to begin distribution.

However, just as he was about to distribute the Monkey Wine, Mu Chengxue stopped him.

"Wait a moment, this Monkey Wine seems very important to Lei Yao. How about you do me a favor, and I’ll give you my share of the Monkey Wine," Mu Chengxue said with a smile.

Chu Chen did not immediately agree, but instead asked solemnly, "What favor?"

"Help me to seize a stalk of Golden Sword Grass."

"What, Golden Sword Grass, Ninth-Grade Star Treasure?" Chu Chen said in surprise.

Mu Chengxue nodded and said, "Yes, that’s right, Golden Sword Grass. My Guardian Beast will soon break through to the War General Level, and I plan to enhance its qualities. This Golden Sword Grass is the core material of the Evolution Formula."

Xie Licheng asked quietly, "Are you planning to evolve the Golden Armored Bull into the Golden Sword War Bull?"

Mu Chengxue replied with some surprise, "How did you know?"

"I’ve seen the Evolution Formula for the Golden Sword War Bull on the exchange list at the Daoist School. It’s one of the transformation forms of the Golden Armored Bull, which can turn the defensive Golden Armored Bull into a purely offensive Guardian Beast. I didn’t expect you to choose the offensive evolution direction," Xie Licheng explained with a smile.

Hearing this, Chu Chen couldn’t help but be surprised, not expecting such Evolution Formulas to exist in the Five Great Daoist Schools.

It’s known that these Evolution Formulas are accumulated over generations, and they’re constantly being refined.

Because the success rate of these formulas isn’t high, it’s said that the highest success rate formula in the whole Alliance is evolving ordinary quality Earth Cockroach into Elite Quality Thick Armor Cockroach, which has a success rate of eighty percent.

Such an Evolution Formula with a high success rate only has one reason, and that is low cost.

Firstly, Earth Cockroaches have strong reproductive capabilities, making their population number extremely terrifying, thus reducing the cost as experimental materials.

Secondly, Earth Cockroaches possess strong vitality, capable of self-repair from many injuries unless instantly killed.

Finally, the materials needed for Earth Cockroach evolution are extremely inexpensive, with each set of evolution materials costing only twenty thousand Alliance Coins.

Through extensive experimentation and summarization, this allowed the Earth Cockroach Evolution Formula to continually be refined and eventually reach such a high success rate.

After a moment of silence, Chu Chen asked quietly, "Do you have information on Golden Sword Grass?"

Mu Chengxue nodded and took out a stack of materials from the Spatial Bracelet, handing it over.

Based on the information in the materials, Chu Chen learned that Golden Sword Grass grows in a central area of a metallic vein in the Secret Realm, where many gold attribute Star Beasts reside. Golden Sword Grass grows in the vein’s central area, seemingly guarded by a powerful Star Beast.

After reading the materials, Xie Licheng asked quietly, "Brother Chen, what do you think?"

Chu Chen replied solemnly, "Naturally this favor will be helped, but Mu Chengxue, why didn’t you mention this earlier?"

Mu Chengxue responded somewhat awkwardly, "I was initially chased by a Three-tailed Rock Dog and realized the Secret Realm’s dangers far exceeded my expectations, and there were only two of us then. Obtaining Golden Sword Grass was almost impossible, so I didn’t mention it at the time."

"Alright, time is limited, let’s set off now," said Chu Chen as he took the lead to leave.

Chu Chen agreed so quickly mainly for three reasons.

First, Monkey Wine greatly benefits Lei Yao, and Mu Chengxue is offering Monkey Wine as compensation, which naturally entices him.

Secondly, Mu Chengxue had even used Starburst Bomb to help him obtain Monkey Wine, and he naturally had to repay this favor.

Though promising to share half the Monkey Wine with her, the value between Monkey Wine and Starburst Bomb greatly differed.

Lastly, collecting Star Treasures—though the vein is extremely dangerous, it nurtures more gold attribute Star Treasures. Collecting more Star Treasures will help prepare for Lei Yao’s and Nirvana’s evolution.

The trio quietly rushed on, spending a full three hours to reach the metallic vein where Golden Sword Grass was located.

Along the way, they encountered multiple battles, choosing speed to escape when possible, and resorting to force when not.

Sometimes unexpectedly, after killing the Star Beasts, they found several Fifth and Sixth Grade Star Treasures in the beasts’ territories.

Mu Chengxue only wanted the Golden Sword Grass and generously chose to forgo these Star Treasures, making the two young men, Chu Chen and Xie Licheng, quite pleased.

The metallic vein was hidden in a majestic mountain, standing at a thousand zhang.

The vegetation on the mountain was sparse, but these were rare gold attribute plants, some already evolved into Star Treasures, with their leaves extremely sharp, even a blade of grass could have the killing power of ordinary knives.

This made Chu Chen marvel at whether this mountain was the legendary Sword Mountain itself.