novelThe Golden Ape Swears Allegiance, Bomb Fruit Tree
| ← Ch.454 | Ch.456 → |
Skull Island was a former grotto-heaven like the Water Curtain Cave of Mount Flowers and Fruit, hidden in thin air away from the world.
According to the golden ape, the owner of grotto-heaven who might be a daemonic superior being was dead long ago, leaving some beasts and daemons that flourished... since Skull Island was almost a thousand kilometers wide and not that small, it was enough for those beings to live upon, especially with the concentrated Spirit Qi from the grotto-heaven.
The only drawback was that the grotto-heaven has been damaged, causing its Spirit Qi to flow out and be lost to the air. The daemonic cultivators therefore had a great obstacle when cultivating, and basically hit the ceiling at True Child-realm.
And the golden ape was one such daemon from the grotto-heaven.
When it was born four hundred years ago, it was perfectly ordinary and was nothing special aside from being a little lucky... it then stumbled through its path of cultivation, spending almost three hundred years to finally reach True Child and the sovereign of the grotto-haven.
And yet...
It left the grotto-heaven and reached Skull Island.
At the time, the island was only dozens of kilometers wide and hardly the scale it was now.
As it hid and cultivated on the island, it was found by American troops during the second world war and a huge battle followed. It was only ten years ago during the Revival of Qi that the broken grotto-heaven manifested itself as the damage overcame it, and the nine-floored daemon tower that the powerful daemon left slowly revealed itself despite being constantly obscured beneath an array.
It hence appeared in the skies above Skull Island.
Therefore, the original Skull Island was directly crushed and sank to the bottom of the ocean, replaced by the giant island spanning a thousand kilometers right now.
After that, the golden ape made it inside the daemonic tower by chance and altered its own bloodlines, hence acquiring the daemonic superior being's legacy. It hence improved by leaps and bounds, conquering all of Skull Island and thousands of miles of oceans around it.
The golden ape became rather lively at that, even saying that the time when it rose to prominence had been an unforgettable moment of its ape life.
Listening to an ape bragging...
One way or another, Jiang He could not be bothered.
He waved him off, gesturing for the golden ape to skip the nonsense.
Even so, the ape seemed not to notice it, even continuing to blabber and brag away.
"Hmmm?"
Jiang He snorted coldly as his gaze grew darker. As his killing intent instantly erupted, the golden ape was left trembling in fright and it promptly shut up, afraid to speak any further.
"I don't have time for your nonsense."
He said flatly, his tone then changing to add, "Your providence is not bad."
"And could you stop trembling?"
"I told you, I may have killed countless beings, but I do not kill the innocent... logically speaking, I should have killed you after you killed countless people with your Feral Swarms and attacks on western cities."
"Don't kill me!"
The golden ape dropped to its knees and started bawling as it begged for mercy.
"Get up!"
Jiang He kicked it and sent it flying, even scolding, "I didn't say I'm going to kill you. What are you crying for?"
The golden ape crashed and shattered mountain boulders, rolling a few times and skidding several hundred meters into the distance. Still, Jiang He had controlled his strength perfectly so that he did not cause actually damage, and in its panic, the ape ran back to him and kneeled before Jiang He again.
Jiang He was dumbstruck.
He actually found the ape that possessed ancient divine beast bloodline similar to Dumbo.
Ignoring the beast, Jiang He's divine mind swept out and scanned Skull Island, hence finding the core of the grotto-heaven—in other words, the nine-floored daemon tower. It was over a hundred meters tall and shrouded beneath thick daemonic clouds, with a faint Blood Qi emanating.
"Oh?"
Jiang He was quite surprised and exclaimed, "An acquired soul treasure?"
"It seems that the daemonic superior being that left behind this grotto-heaven is not weak and would at least have been a Grand Luo, and his opponent would not be weak since he managed to kill the daemon... it seems that the shockwaves from their battle had caused the damage to the grotto-heaven."
Once the golden ape heard Jiang He mention the nine-floored daemon tower, he quickly said, "My lord, take the daemon tower if you like it. I'm giving it to you."
It could not control an acquired soul treasure at all, and could only control a fraction of its power to manipulate the array over Skull Island. Moreover, the ape naturally knew what to choose between staying alive or a treasure he could not fully control.
Jiang He, however, sneered and said, "Do I look like I want that broken tower of yours? An acquired soul treasure and an inferior-grade one at that? Not even my cat or dog would want it."
Indeed, Jiang He was telling the truth and not boasting at all.
The greatest gains he had from destroying the legion of the Hundred Races Alliance were treasures.
He had secured untold troves of immortal items and soul treasures, including inferior-grade, mediocre-grade, and superior-grade.
In his possession, the hundred over premium-grade immortal items just need to be planted to become inferior-grade acquired soul treasure. In fact, even Dumbo's collar bell and Trumbo's rice bowl were inferior-grade acquired soul treasure.
Ultimately...
Neither Jiang He nor Wang Hou attacked the ape.
For one, it was unnecessary.
Secondly... so what if they did?
More Ferals and daemons would rise eventually, inciting Feral Swarms and plaguing all corners of the world. To the truth, both Jiang He and Wang Hou could actually put in great effort to destroy all Ferals on Earth... but that was not needed.
The entire globe was developing in martial arts.
As such, aside from providing resources, Ferals were also the best opponent for martial arts training.
And should all Ferals be gone from Earth, the world would soon be caught in internal strife... even now, there were flocks of Ferals lurking in the ancient forests and wildlands of the Hua Nation.
It was better to have the golden ape manage the Ferals under its rule.
"By the way, wasn't there the rule that Feral Kings and human elites are not to fight on a whim, Minister Wang? This little ape is quite good and rules a large bunch of Feral Kings and Feral Emperors here on Skull Island, so we could try to discuss another agreement."
"That might work."
Wang Hou said with a nod, "Feral Kings and divine-tier martial artist are fine, but Void-tier elites and Feral Emperors are too powerful and could cause serious destruction. Moreover, some of the secluded daemons and elites are now surfacing amidst the Second Revival of Qi. If there was no regulation, dozens of millions of people would be killed if they fought at densely populated locations."
Wang Hou and the golden ape hence discussed and set the rules.
The rules were not all that different from before, though it now applied to higher-ranked beings.
Before this, Feral Kings were regulated, but now those above that rank were regulated as well.
After they were done talking, the golden ape hesitated for seconds before saying, "Lord Jiang He, Minister Wang, the truth is that I could control the Feral Emperor, Feral Kings, and high-ranked Ferals on Skull Island and the seas three thousand kilometers around it. Even so, Earth is too large and there are inestimable ranks of Ferals across the world and a handful of Feral Emperors... add some daemonic cultivators awakening to the mix, and I could never hope to control them."
"You don't have to worry about that."
Jiang He laughed."There are plenty of immortals who have returned to the Hua Nation, and I could tell they have so much free time it hurts them. When the time comes, we can simply send a hundred over immortals around Earth on a search, and every secluded untitled cultivator or daemonic cultivator would be found."
His words, however, left the golden ape's heart pounding wildly.
What did that mean?
The returned immortals?
They had returned to Earth?
The ape was naturally aware of Earth's history after receiving the legacy from the nine-floored daemon tower, hence learning about the magnificent era of Qi Refinists, as well as of the countless elites who journeyed across the stars to fight in the celestial battlefield...
That being said...
From how Jiang He had put it, did that mean he had the returning immortals under his beck and call?
Despite his doubt, the golden ape smiled and said, "I would naturally follow the agreement to control my Ferals if you could accomplish that, Lord Jiang He. In fact, I might lead them to conquer various seas to bring more Feral Kings and Feral Emperors under my rule to make things easier to manage."
"That's not a bad idea."
Jiang He smiled after some thought."Minister Wang, I thing we could support this one and crown it Daemon King of Earth to rule all daemons."
Wang Hou appeared pensive, while the golden ape was celebrating inwardly.
Nonetheless, Jiang He then added, "Oh, when I get home, I'll make a Spirit Animal Ring for you to control this beast, Minister Wang. It's easier to manage it like this too."
The golden ape's face dropped, and was just about to refuse when Jiang He smiled at him."Say no and I'll kill you right here... and don't even think about running, since there is no place on Earth for you to hide if I want to hunt you down, no matter how spacious it is."
"Moreover, don't think about going to outer space... sure, you could survive there as a Mahayana, but you are still lacking if you want to journey across the stars. Minister Wang Hou also has control of the Star Map and is monitoring most of the solar system. Where could you run?"
The golden ape's body turned to jelly, and he had a 'might as well enjoy this' look.
After settling things with the golden ape, neither Jiang He nor Wang Hou were in a hurry to return. They strolled around various nations, meeting their nations and slaying some Ferals that were plaguing them, and of course...
Jiang He's greatest gain was finding a powerful Floral Spirit in the rainforests of the American continent.
It was a calabash tree that had grown to an enormous several hundred meters tall, gaining sentience and evolving into a floral spirit. In fact, it was so strong that it was a match for Feral Emperors.
No Feral dared to approach within ten thousand meters of it.
Beyond it were craters caused by massive explosions, leaving a mess of the dense rainforest.
The fruit of calabash trees, otherwise known as bomb trees, dangled on the tip of their branches and became golden when they were ripe. It already blew up upon contact with the force of a hand grenade before the tree itself evolved into a floral spirit, and as for after it evolved
Having caused the ground and mountains to quake after detonating several bomb fruits, Jiang He exclaimed in delight, "This could blow up even Feral Kings..."
Wang Hou could not help chuckling at that."This sort of power is not worth mentioning for you and I, Jiang He."
"You don't get it."
Jiang he carefully plucked every fruit from the bomb tree while using Immortal Yuan Strength to suppress them and preventing them from exploding.
He then laughed, "You know that I'm good at making bombs, Minister Wang. A little improvement and these bomb fruits could change dramatically in explosive force!"
| ← Ch. 454 | Ch. 456 → |