Not bothering to dwell on these thoughts, Jiang Tian simply tossed the Heavenly Court sword to Huo Qingtian. He thought to himself that if he could erase the spiritual imprint on it and refine it into his own flying sword, his combat power would definitely double—he would even be able to easily slay Half-Step Divine Realm experts!
Huo Qingtian was immediately moved to tears of gratitude and quickly said, “Thank you, Jiang DaShi, for bestowing this treasure upon me!”
“You sure know how to seize an opportunity!”
Jiang Tian shot him a glare and said calmly, “I never said I was giving it to you. This sword is useless to you anyway! Just hold on to it for me for now!”
“Oh, my apologies, Jiang DaShi…”
Huo Qingtian broke out in a cold sweat, utterly embarrassed. If only you’d made that clear earlier—you got my hopes up for nothing.
After that, Jiang Tian also removed the iron staff and stripped off the golden armor.
The staff was forged from a rare metal called “Gengjin Iron Mother.”
Though its material wasn’t as fine as Immortal-Tears Black Gold, it was still far superior to any weapon material on Earth.
The golden armor was engraved with many defensive patterns and was also a magical artifact, but too much time had passed, and its magical power had faded as well.
However, the moment Jiang Tian removed the golden armor and iron staff, the Battle Sage Ape’s skeletal remains seemed to lose all support. It instantly collapsed, cracking apart and disintegrating into scattered bones and dried-up chunks of flesh.
Jiang Tian wasn’t surprised by this at all.
The demon ape immortal had relied on the residual magical power in its armor and staff to preserve its physical form. Without them, it would have crumbled to ash long ago.
Still, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly once more.
Not having a storage magic tool was such a hassle. There wasn’t even that much stuff, and yet Huo Qingtian could barely carry it all.
Jiang Tian and Huo Qingtian searched the area thoroughly once again.
But they found no concrete clues about the Celestial Ruins realm within the ancient cave or among the demon ape immortal’s remains.
At the very least, though, Jiang Tian had now basically confirmed the existence of the Celestial Ruins—it wasn’t just some ethereal legend.
“Time to catch a monkey!” Jiang Tian said casually.
“Right, but where’s this monkey you’re looking for?” Huo Qingtian asked, looking around in confusion.
“Patience!”
Jiang Tian lit the charcoal and set up the pressure cooker. Once the water boiled, he pitted the peaches and tossed them in along with the yak meat—skin, fat, and all.
Then, he added one medicinal herb after another, and the whole pot quickly turned into a bubbling, pitch-black stew.
“That looks absolutely disgusting. Are we supposed to eat this?” Huo Qingtian watched, completely baffled.
Everyone says Jiang DaShi dotes on his wife, but your cooking skills… seem a bit lacking, don’t they? Is this even edible?
Jiang Tian ignored him. But strangely enough, although the stew looked awful, an intense, mouthwatering aroma began to waft out, making Huo Qingtian’s mouth water and his appetite stir.
It was repulsive… yet he wanted to eat it! What a tormenting feeling!
Huo Qingtian couldn’t bear to look at it anymore.
“It’s not for us to eat. We’ll use it to lure the descendant of that demon ape first. It’ll be very useful later.”
Jiang Tian transmitted his voice through divine sense and pressed one talisman seal after another into the peach meat stew. Then he said, “Put on the golden armor and pretend to be asleep!”
“Ha, it has descendants…”
Huo Qingtian froze for a moment, feeling like he’d been set up. So I’m the bait, am I?
Sure enough, Jiang Tian concealed his aura, cast an invisibility talisman on himself, and vanished completely.
“Just as I thought… I’m the bait…”
Huo Qingtian felt like crying but had no tears. Still, he obediently put on the golden armor and half-closed his eyes.
The meat stew gave off wave after wave of fragrance. The ancient cave was deathly silent, save for the howling wind outside and Huo Qingtian’s own racing heartbeat.
Two hours passed. Then came the heavy, muffled sound of footsteps—thump! thump! thump!—like rolling thunder, accompanied by a wave of bloody, baleful aura washing over him.
Huo Qingtian’s senses screamed with alarm. He cracked his eyes open just a slit—and nearly screamed out loud, almost choking in terror.
There stood a massive red ape, over three meters tall, glaring at him with furious golden eyes. Its venomous gaze then swept over the stripped-bare corpse of the Battle Sage Ape before locking onto the armor Huo Qingtian was wearing and the iron staff in his hand.
The giant ape was like a demon god. Its eyes shot out sharp, piercing golden beams, and its entire body was wreathed in rolling, churning demonic aura that radiated dread. The aura was so dense that even a single drop of it could crush an internal energy expert.
Suddenly, its face twisted into a savage snarl, baring its fangs, and it let out a furious roar. Like a cat toying with a mouse, it stretched out its huge, red-furred, fan-like paw and swiped straight at Huo Qingtian.
“Jiang DaShi! Come out and fight this monster!”
Huo Qingtian kicked off the ground and shot backward, sliding along the floor, while screaming for help.
He could honestly say that even when fighting the Daquan expert Lin Zhenyu, he had never felt such a terrifying sense of crisis.
Screech!
Blinding sparks exploded as the ape’s claws scraped past Huo Qingtian’s belly, gouging deep furrows into the hard stone wall. If those claws had caught Huo Qingtian instead, even if he didn’t die on the spot, he would have been gravely wounded.
“Move!”
Jiang Tian suddenly appeared behind the ape’s descendant, and with a flick of his fingers, he swept a blade of demonic flame energy toward the ape like a knife cutting through water.
Boom! With a loud crash, the giant ape was sent spinning and tumbling backward by Jiang Tian’s single sword strike, shaking the ground as it landed flat on its back.
The ape scrambled to its feet and charged at Jiang Tian again.
“Try that again, and I’ll kill you!”
Jiang Tian snorted coldly and brought his palm down once more, slamming the ape’s dense, mountain-like body flat against the ground. Its knees smashed into the floor, shattering stone chips and leaving a crater a meter wide.
Even Jiang Tian was inwardly amazed.
This descendant of the battle ape, though not particularly large, was a true ancient demonic beast—a primordial mutant. It was nothing like the white ape Jiang Tian had killed back when he was searching for life crystals; in fact, it was ten or even a hundred times more powerful.
Knowing how tough its body was, Jiang Tian had used his full strength. That palm strike would have pulverized even a Transformation Realm master, yet it hadn’t harmed the ape in the slightest. Even the Lihuo Energy Blade he’d unleashed earlier hadn’t dealt it any serious injury.
Moreover, it had cultivated demonic arts, awakened its intelligence, could shapeshift, and possessed combat power equivalent to the Grandmaster realm in the martial world.
The ape howled and attacked again and again, unleashing devastating power and fierce killing intent, throwing punches and kicks that shattered stone tables and sent debris flying, shaking the very ground.
But it couldn’t touch Jiang Tian in the slightest. Each time, Jiang Tian deflected its attacks with ease, sending it crashing to its knees or tumbling away.
In the end, the ape was exhausted and panting, covered in injuries from Jiang Tian’s beatings, unable to get back up.
Realizing it was outmatched, it stopped fighting back. Instead, it sat on the ground, wiping its tears, looking utterly dejected and sorrowful as it gazed at the Battle Sage Ape’s skeletal remains.
Yes, it looked truly grief-stricken, its expression just as rich and moving as a human’s.
As it sobbed, it shuffled forward, hugged the Battle Sage Ape’s skull, kissed and stroked it, tears streaming down its face. Then it looked up at the sky, beat its chest, and let out a heart-wrenching, mournful howl.
“The monkey seems really upset…” Huo Qingtian walked over, still shaken, and said sympathetically.
“Yeah, probably because it thought its ancestor was still alive all this time…” Jiang Tian said with a faint smile.
This ape was probably around a hundred years old—not as old as the Red-Eyed White Ape they’d encountered before—but it had already awakened its intelligence.
Then Jiang Tian looked at the battle ape’s descendant and said calmly, “Your ancestor has been dead for a long time. What’s the point of you staying here guarding its remains?”
The ape just glanced at Jiang Tian, looking even sadder, and hugged the bones again, wailing loudly with its mouth wide open.
“Alright, alright. You look so hungry your belly’s all shriveled up. Here, have some yak meat!” Jiang Tian tossed a large chunk of yak meat over to it.
Sensing Jiang Tian’s goodwill, the ape took the meat and started eating, but tears still streamed down its face as it cried sorrowfully.
“Is there something inside your stomach?”
Jiang Tian noticed a bulge in its abdomen, along with stitched-up scars oozing foul, purulent fluid. He frowned and asked.
The ape pointed at the Battle Sage Ape’s corpse, then at its own belly, making a stitching motion with its hands.
“Oh, I see. Do you want me to take out whatever’s inside and treat that wound for you?”
Jiang Tian swept it with his divine sense and already had a fair understanding. He smiled and asked.
“Ooh ooh ooh ooh!”
The ape’s face lit up with gratitude and joy. It hooted happily, chattering away, and kept bowing and kowtowing to Jiang Tian, looking more than willing.
Jiang Tian stepped forward slowly, condensed an energy blade at his fingertip, and quickly cut open the wound.
Inside was a beast-hide scroll, but the writing on it was different from the Celestial Ruins fragments Jiang Tian had seen before.
“This is another map. I wonder where it leads…” Jiang Tian wasn’t in a hurry and had Huo Qingtian put it away first.
“It’s the tomb of… the Nine-Sword Immortal…” the ape suddenly uttered in a halting, raspy human voice.
“Whoa, you can talk!” Jiang Tian chuckled, and Huo Qingtian clicked his tongue in amazement.
“Not very fluent… There are very few Han people here…” the ape said again, struggling to form the words.
“Nine-Sword Immortal… Old Huo, have you heard of him?” Jiang Tian asked with a frown.
“Never heard of him! He must be an ancient figure. I’ll look into it when we get back…” Huo Qingtian shook his head.
“An enemy! The one who killed my ancestor. My father told me to dig up his grave and take revenge, but I don’t know where it is…” the ape said with a hint of resentment.
“Wow, you Battle Sage Apes really have guts! Fierce and full of grudges—I like that!”
Jiang Tian praised, then took out a detox pill, crushed it, mixed it with healing powder, and sprinkled it over the wound. Then he threaded a needle and stitched it up.
By now, he had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
It seemed that the Nine-Sword Immortal was likely someone from the Heavenly Court—and the one ultimately responsible for killing the Battle Sage Ape.
“You’re so kind!” the ape looked at Jiang Tian with tear-filled, grateful eyes—”all tender and affectionate.”
That ancient scroll in its belly had tormented it for far too long. Now that the pain was gone, it felt incredibly light and comfortable, and naturally held immense gratitude toward Jiang Tian.
“Don’t look at me with those loving eyes—it creeps me out!” Jiang Tian said with a sidelong glare.
The ape looked confused for a moment, then suddenly pointed at a certain reddish object and shook its head firmly.
“Hahaha!” Huo Qingtian laughed so hard tears almost shot out.
“Oh, come on!”
Jiang Tian’s face went dark.
After tending to the wound, Jiang Tian said slowly, “If you want to thank me, how about helping me get that Emperor’s Daughter Flower? Deal?”
The ape nodded repeatedly and bowed in agreement.
“You’ve just started learning demonic arts—you can shapeshift, right?” Jiang Tian asked.
The ape nodded again.
Jiang Tian took off his down jacket and said, “Shrink yourself down, put this on. It’s not right for you to be running around dangling your… you know… all day long!”
The ape cast a spell, and its body rapidly shrank until it became a little monkey no taller than an adult’s calf.
Wrapped in the red down jacket, it no longer looked fierce or menacing. Instead, it had a certain clever, adorable, and even comically endearing charm.
