CHAPTER 481: 481

Qin Feiyang said, "Leave the cave and wait for us outside."

"Impossible!" The Monkey King shook his head decisively.

Qin Feiyang sneered, "Do you think you still have the right to refuse now?"

"Regardless, this emperor will not leave the cave! If you really kill it, none of you will survive today either!" The Monkey King said coldly.

"This creature is quite troublesome." Qin Feiyang frowned and whispered, "Lu Xingchen, hurry and help get this monkey out."

Lu Xingchen nodded, took out a dagger, and began to cut the ice. CLANG! But it only left a white scratch!

"What’s going on?" Lu Xingchen was surprised.

Qin Feiyang was also a bit astonished.

WHOOSH! Just then, the Monkey King’s eyes glinted coldly as he suddenly lunged at Qin Feiyang and Lu Xingchen.

"Are you looking for death?" Qin Feiyang shouted sharply. He applied slight pressure to his arm, and with a crisp CRACK, the sharp edge of Blue Snow sank a little deeper.

"Don’t!" The Monkey King stopped abruptly, all eight of his eyes filled with panic.

"Step back!" Qin Feiyang ordered.

"Fine." The Monkey King retreated to his original position.

Lu Xingchen took out another battle sword and struck the ice with all his might. CLANG! However, the ice didn’t break; instead, the battle sword shattered!

"How can this be?" Lu Xingchen was somewhat stunned.

He gritted his teeth, took out a black broadsword whose blade glinted with a bone-chilling sharpness, and struck with all his might. The result was the same: the broadsword shattered instantly!

"Don’t waste your energy," Qin Feiyang said. "This ice is formed from this monkey’s Battle Intent. It has five heads; its strength must be unfathomable. It’s a pipe dream to think ordinary weapons can break this ice."

"Then what should we do?" Lu Xingchen asked. The Monkey King was watching them like a tiger eyeing its prey, ordinary weapons couldn’t break the ice, and trying to get this monkey away now seemed harder than ascending to the heavens.

"We must get it out now," Qin Feiyang said in a low voice, a thoughtful light flickering in his eyes.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He retrieved a rib bone and said, "See if this can shatter the ice!"

Lu Xingchen gripped it tightly and forcefully smashed it against the ice. CRACK! The ice immediately fractured.

"It works?" Lu Xingchen’s eyes lit up.

The Monkey King, however, turned pale with fright.

"Don’t move!" Qin Feiyang stared intently at him.

Lu Xingchen’s hands rose and fell, swiftly smashing the ice. The Monkey King grew increasingly anxious.

BOOM! Seeing that Lu Xingchen was about to smash the last piece of ice, the Monkey King could no longer hold back and released his dominant pressure with a roar!

"Do you want it to die?" Qin Feiyang’s gaze hardened. Blue Snow sank a few inches deeper, easily piercing the frozen monkey’s fur.

"Don’t!" The Monkey King hurriedly withdrew his dominant pressure, his eyes filled with panic. He was also furious to the extreme!

Qin Feiyang said, "Don’t worry, I won’t hurt it. Once we leave the canyon, I’ll give it back to you."

The Monkey King roared, "Can the words of humans be trusted?"

Qin Feiyang said, "I, Qin Feiyang, am a man of my word. But the condition is that you don’t do anything further to harm us."

The Monkey King’s eyes flickered. Finally, he gritted his teeth and nodded, "Fine, this emperor will believe you this once."

CRACK! The last piece of ice finally shattered.

Qin Feiyang waved his hand, sending the Snow Mountain Monkey directly to the ancient castle.

"Hm?" The Monkey King’s expression changed. He hastily asked, "Where did you send it?"

Qin Feiyang put away Blue Snow and said calmly, "It’s inside a hidden treasure of mine. If you dare make a move against us now, it will die instantly."

Lu Xingchen handed the rib bone back to Qin Feiyang and chuckled, "Move aside. Don’t block our path."

The Monkey King moved aside. Qin Feiyang and Lu Xingchen exchanged glances and carefully walked past him.

Surprisingly, the Monkey King didn’t attack them, but he followed closely behind them the entire way.

After leaving the cave, Qin Feiyang turned back to the Monkey King and said, "If I’m not wrong, there should be others here too!"

The Monkey King frowned and asked, "Who exactly are you looking for?"

Qin Feiyang waved his hand, and a phantom image of Ren Duxing materialized. "Has he ever been to this canyon?" Qin Feiyang asked.

The Monkey King looked up, his pupils contracting slightly. But immediately afterward, a hint of confusion appeared in his eight eyes.

He shook his head. "I haven’t seen him. Moreover, in the past 10,000 years, you are the only humans who have entered this canyon."

"Really haven’t seen him?" Qin Feiyang frowned.

The Monkey King nodded.

Lu Xingchen asked, "Did we guess wrong?"

"Let’s not jump to conclusions yet," Qin Feiyang said. "Although this is just a large canyon, it encircles the entire Land of Ruins, so one can imagine how long it must be. There are many places to hide."

He lowered his head in thought, feeling that something wasn’t right. Suddenly, it dawned on him. Unconsciously, he’d allowed the Monkey King to change the subject.

He looked at the Monkey King again and said in a deep voice, "If there’s no one else in the canyon, how were your monkeys’ arms and heads restored?"

The Monkey King replied, "We Black Rock Monkeys possess self-healing abilities."

"So, that’s how it is." Lu Xingchen suddenly understood.

However, Qin Feiyang said, "That’s not it."

"Hm?" Both the Monkey King and Lu Xingchen looked at him with surprise and doubt.

Qin Feiyang looked at the Monkey King, sneering, "You are lying."

The Monkey King roared angrily, "How am I lying?"

Qin Feiyang said, "Although I’ve never encountered Black Rock Monkeys before, I’m quite familiar with your kind. You don’t possess self-healing abilities at all."

"How do you know?" The Monkey King was filled with doubt and surprise.

"Never mind how I know," Qin Feiyang snapped. "I can now be certain that there is someone else here. Where exactly is he? Tell me, quickly!"

The Monkey King asserted, "There really aren’t any other humans here."

"Still not going to be honest, are you?" Qin Feiyang shouted angrily, his patience wearing thin.

"This emperor genuinely doesn’t know," the Monkey King said anxiously. "This emperor has always been in this area and knows nothing about other places. If you insist on believing there are other humans here, you can return it to this emperor first, then go look elsewhere. This emperor absolutely will not stop you."

Lu Xingchen whispered, "It seems he won’t talk."

"Then let’s go, don’t waste time." Qin Feiyang murmured, and they both sprung into the air, dashing forward.

The Monkey King hurried to keep up, trailing behind them.

Lu Xingchen glanced back and frowned, "Him following us like this doesn’t seem like a solution either."

"We can’t beat him, and we don’t dare kill him. What else can we do? We can only let him follow," Qin Feiyang said, quite resigned.

Suddenly, a gleam flashed in his eyes. "Is Ren Duxing an Alchemist?" he asked.

"Yes." Lu Xingchen nodded and added, "And Uncle Ren is a Top Grade Alchemist. In fact, he was the one who guided me when I first started learning Alchemy."

"What?" Qin Feiyang’s gaze flickered.

Lu Xingchen frowned, puzzled. "What are you thinking? Surely you don’t suspect Uncle Ren is concocting pills for these Fierce Beasts?"

Qin Feiyang replied, "It’s not impossible."

"Impossible," Lu Xingchen stated firmly. "When Uncle Ren left all those years ago, he didn’t possess an alchemic flame. He couldn’t perform Alchemy at all."

Qin Feiyang countered, "Many years have passed since then. He didn’t have an alchemic flame back then, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have it now."

"I still disagree." Lu Xingchen shook his head. "Because if the Alchemist truly is Uncle Ren, he would have definitely shown himself and met us when we fought the Black Rock Monkeys."

Qin Feiyang said, "This is just my speculation."

Below in the jungle, many Black Rock Monkeys were still watching the two of them like tigers eyeing their prey. Some even ran out to block their path but were all rebuked by the Monkey King.

An hour later, a desolate desert came into view.

Standing above the jungle, they surveyed the barren landscape, their eyes filled with surprise and suspicion. How could this be? Lush green land on one side, and a barren desert on the other—the contrast is too stark!

Qin Feiyang turned to the Monkey King, asking, "Why are there two different areas?"

The Monkey King shook his head. "This emperor doesn’t know either."

Lu Xingchen frowned, "You’ve been living here all this while and you don’t know?"

"That’s correct." The Monkey King admitted, "But as for how this place was formed, this emperor truly doesn’t know."

Qin Feiyang asked, "Then what’s in this desert?"

The Monkey King replied, "This emperor doesn’t know that either."

He doesn’t know anything he’s asked? The two exchanged glances, both unable to suppress their frowns.

After a brief moment, Qin Feiyang said, "Although the desert holds unknown risks, it also has an advantage: there’s no cover, visibility is excellent, and it’ll be easy to search."

Lu Xingchen nodded.

"Don’t stop; fly straight across," Qin Feiyang instructed. "Also, pay attention to the cliff faces on both sides. See if there are any caves." With that, he activated Phantom Step and shot forward without a backward glance.

Lu Xingchen also executed his own profound movement technique, keeping close behind Qin Feiyang.

"Damn it!" Stomping his feet in anger, the Monkey King looked at the desert hesitantly for a moment before finally following them.

After flying for less than an Hour and encountering no danger, Qin Feiyang and Lu Xingchen gradually relaxed their vigilance.

However, not long after, the yellow sand beneath them began to churn, as if something was moving within it.

"What’s going on?" Qin Feiyang and Lu Xingchen exchanged alarmed glances. Could it be a Sand Whale?

Qin Feiyang shouted, "Don’t look, quick, let’s go!"

The two of them shot forward like lightning. The churning yellow sand below also began to move, following them.

Eventually, it even whipped up sand waves hundreds of feet high, blotting out the sky and earth—an astonishing display of power!

Lu Xingchen said in a grave voice, "It seems there are many Fierce Beasts lurking in the desert, and they’ve already targeted us."

Qin Feiyang said, "Get ready to fight!"

With no cover, although visibility was excellent, flying high in the sky also made them conspicuous targets.

RUMBLE! Suddenly, a massive sand wave, thousands of feet high, erupted violently!

Immediately afterward, a colossal serpent shot out from the sand wave. It opened its cavernous, blood-red maw, revealing rows of gleaming white fangs as it lunged straight for Qin Feiyang and Lu Xingchen!

"What is this Fierce Beast?" Lu Xingchen’s eyes bulged.

The colossal serpent was a hundred meters long and as thick as a water barrel. Its entire body seemed to be cast from golden sand; if one didn’t look closely, it was indistinguishable from the surrounding desert! Most incredibly, it actually had a pair of wings on its back!