The Mischievous Monkey

Chapter 24 The Mischievous Monkey

Lanzhou, Hongtao Ridge.

Hongtao Ridge is located in the southeast of Lanzhou, Jingguo, more than 700 li away from Jiufeng Ridge, where the Zhou family lived.

This mountain range stretches for over two hundred miles, with complex terrain, teeming with poisonous insects and ferocious beasts, and frequented by many monsters. It is a treasure-hunting and adventure destination for many independent cultivators from Lanzhou.

At this moment, Zhou Chun, Zhou Zhengyong, and Zhou Jiapeng, who had left the Zhou family in Jiufengling, were outside a valley deep in Hongtaoling.

"That's the valley ahead. The red-tailed monkeys usually live in that valley, along with many other beasts."

Beneath a large tree with a canopy like a canopy, Zhou Zhengyong pointed to a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only one entrance that was twenty or thirty feet wide, and softly recounted the situation he had previously explored.

However, after hearing his words, Zhou Jiapeng shook his head slightly and said, "Nephew Zhengyong, what you said is about the situation a few days ago. As for the current situation inside, let's wait for Uncle Tieyuying to investigate before we can talk about it."

Without waiting for Zhou Zhengyong's reply, he reached out and patted the spirit beast pouch, releasing his spirit pet, the Iron Feather Eagle.

As a first-tier high-grade demon beast, the Iron Feather Eagle is several times larger than the Golden Eagle that Zhou Chun had seen in his previous life. Its wingspan is a full 13 feet, and each feather is as if it were cast from refined iron, radiating a metallic luster.

After it emerged from the spirit beast pouch, it first gave Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong a sharp look, then opened its mouth and let out a low growl at Zhou Jiapeng.

Once Zhou Jiapeng's consciousness communicated with it and gave it a command, it immediately flapped its wings, creating a gust of wind that propelled it forward several feet before leaping into the sky.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Zhengyong couldn't help but say with envy, "Uncle Peng's Iron Feathered Eagle is truly magnificent! If it ever has offspring, you must consider giving it to me! I'd sell everything I own to buy one and raise it!"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Jiapeng sighed with a depressed expression, "Sigh, it would have been better if you hadn't brought this up. It makes me feel bad as soon as you do."

"More than two years ago, I had already found out that there was a female Iron-feathered Eagle in a certain place in Feng Kingdom. I originally planned to take Tie Peng there to find that female Iron-feathered Eagle for mating, but before we even set off, that incident happened!"

"Now, who knows when we'll be able to find a suitable female Ironfeather Eagle for breeding again!"

Uh……

Zhou Zhengyong was at a loss for words.

In fact, breeding spirit pets has long been a problem that has plagued beast-taming families like the Zhou family.

Apart from a few types of spirit pets, most of the spirit pets of the Zhou family cultivators were captured from the wild or bought from other cultivators.

Once these spirit pets grow up, breeding them and leaving offspring is no easy task.

Generally, they either inquire around to find other cultivators who also tame such spirit pets, and then approach them for a paid breeding service.

They either seek out wild monsters of the same species, or use seduction, or force them to mate.

In this situation, the rarer the spirit pet, the more difficult it is to find a suitable mate of its kind.

As a result, in many cases, when they could not find their own kind, the Zhou family cultivators could only try to find suitable partners for mating within the broader category.

Just as lions and tigers can breed, iron-feathered eagles can also breed with some falcon-like mythical beasts.

However, the offspring produced by such mating cannot guarantee survival rate and potential.

Most of the time, because the two types of monsters have incompatible power attributes, even if they produce offspring, it is difficult to raise them.

Or perhaps it was raised, but the two bloodlines within it clashed, and it had no potential for further development.

Such a breeding process, where the offspring perfectly inherit the strength of both parents and develop a powerful bloodline, is extremely rare.

So at this point, Zhou Zhengyong didn't know how to comfort his uncle Zhou Jiapeng, and could only remain silent to cover up his embarrassment.

As for Zhou Chun standing next to him, he didn't say anything more.

He wasn't familiar with his cousin Zhou Jiapeng, and he only came here because of Zhou Zhengyong, so it wasn't appropriate for him to get involved in this kind of conversation.

After waiting in silence for about fifteen minutes, the Iron Feathered Eagle that had flown away circled and landed on the treetop above them, relaying its reconnaissance findings to Zhou Jiapeng.

After receiving the information from the spirit pet, Zhou Jiapeng quickly said, "Alright, Tie Peng has confirmed that there are indeed only those red-tailed monkey demon beasts in the valley, and no other demon beasts or cultivators have been seen within several miles. We can proceed with peace of mind."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong could not hide his excitement and bowed deeply to him, saying, "I entrust everything to you, Uncle."

After saying that, the three of them, led by Zhou Jiapeng, immediately entered the valley together.

Upon entering the valley, Zhou Chun looked up and saw that the valley was quite large, probably two or three hundred acres in size, with fruit trees growing in abundance and many kinds of wild fruits.

Therefore, in addition to monkeys, this area is also home to some small mammals and birds that also feed on wild fruits.

As the three human cultivators entered, the monkeys and birds in the valley that had spotted them immediately let out piercing cries as a warning.

Some of the bolder and fiercer monkeys even stood on the treetops, grabbing wild fruits and branches to attack the three of them.

"Those mischievous monkeys!"

Zhou Jiapeng, who was leading the group, frowned and immediately formed a hand seal. With a wave of his hand, he sent out a series of thin, bluish-green needles that struck the mischievous monkeys.

Any monkey that was hit by the fine green needles screamed and fell from the treetops on the spot; in an instant, more than a dozen monkeys were hit.

This immediately frightened the remaining mischievous monkeys, who screamed and fled into the depths of the valley.

So this is called "killing the monkey to warn the monkey"?

Zhou Chun watched this scene and chuckled inwardly.

After venturing several dozen feet deeper into the valley, the group soon spotted the troop of red-tailed monkeys.

The monkey troop had already been alerted, and the two sides had essentially met by chance.

Upon seeing the three human cultivators, the monkey king in the troop roared and launched the first attack.

Fireballs and rockets rained down on the three of them from all directions, creating a truly astonishing spectacle.

Upon seeing this, the three either used their magical artifacts to defend themselves or took out their talismans to activate and form protective shields to protect themselves.

At the same time, Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong both reached out and patted their spirit beast pouches at their waists, releasing their respective spirit pets.

In reality, Zhou Chun's rock tortoise wouldn't be of much use in this situation; at most, it would just act as a meat shield to draw fire.

After all, the rock tortoise's main attack methods are simply not enough to reach the red-tailed monkey that only jumps around on the treetops.

The red-tailed monkey is obviously not foolish enough to rush up to it and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

However, although the rock tortoise was useless this time, Zhou Chun's magical artifacts came in very handy.

With his magical power activated, his silver short sword and pale gold throwing knife struck from the left and right, each locking onto a red-tailed monkey and flying away.

These red-tailed monkeys probably lacked experience fighting against cultivators. When faced with the attacking magical artifact, after jumping around several times without being able to dodge, they actually became ferocious and directly swung their claws to strike.

As a result, one of its claws was severed by the sword light bursting from the silver short sword, and the sword pierced its chest, killing it instantly.

A hand pierced by a pale gold throwing knife fell from the treetop.

At the same time, Zhou Jiapeng's Iron Feather Eagle also descended from the sky and pounced directly in front of the Monkey King, waving its sharp claws and releasing black claw light to fight fiercely with the Monkey King.

After fighting for about 15 minutes, nearly half of the dozen or so red-tailed monkeys died under the attack of the three members of the Zhou family.

This greatly alarmed and enraged the Monkey King, who was still locked in battle with the Iron Feather Eagle.

It suddenly let out a scream, and the remaining red-tailed monkeys immediately abandoned their attack and scattered in all directions.

Then it also spewed flames to force the Iron Feather Eagle back, and then leaped and quickly fled towards the forest outside the valley.

Upon seeing this, Iron Feather Eagle originally intended to give chase.

But Zhou Jiapeng then spoke up and stopped it: "Don't chase them, let them go."

After saying that, he warned Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong, who were standing to the side: "Our Zhou family has established itself through the art of beast taming. Our ancestors often said that wild beasts do not grow up easily. If there is no conflict of interest, we should not do the kind of thing of exterminating them, so that future generations will not have a chance to find a suitable spirit pet contract."

"These red-tailed macaques are useless if you kill them, so it's better to keep them here to breed. Who knows, my nephew Zhengyong might need them for breeding someday!"

Upon hearing this, both of them showed thoughtful expressions, and then they put away their magical artifacts.

Seeing this, Zhou Jiapeng nodded in satisfaction, then waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go see the treasure guarded by the monkeys in the valley, and make sure those mischievous monkeys don't get there first."

Some readers have commented that the plot is somewhat bland and lacks the thrill of intense conflict, which is quite true. However, this is a common problem in the early stages of most cultivation novels. Due to the slow build-up and progression, the pacing and excitement can't compare to books that create a sense of crisis and anticipation through intense conflict. But please be patient and keep reading. Trust me, I will definitely write a story worth reading. And if you settle down and read attentively, you will gradually become immersed in the story. I believe you can, like our protagonist, slowly enter this world of cultivation and look forward to tomorrow's changes! I'm really begging you, since it's free right now, you won't lose anything by reading it!

(End of this chapter)