Three days after the caravan left the village.
The mountain's stone forest was filled with an ominous red glow.
Huge pillars of stone hung from the cave ceiling like giant inverted trees, forming a majestic gray forest.
Fang Yuan fought and retreated through the stone forest.
Squeak, squeak, squeak…
A group of stone monkeys with round green eyes chased Fang Yuan relentlessly.
Moonblade Gu! Fang Yuan thought, his right hand chopping lightly towards the monkeys.
Whoosh.
A dark blue moonblade, as big as a washbasin, materialized out of thin air, cutting through the air and directly into the monkey group.
A jade-eyed stone monkey leaped in the air, with no leverage, and was struck dead-on by the blade.
Before it could even scream, its entire body was split in two, from head to toe, by the moonblade.
The breath of life had already left it; a pall of death settled over it.
In the blink of an eye, its lively eyes transformed into a pair of jade beads, and its falling body turned into a stone statue.
Bang.
With a crisp snap, the statue hit the ground and shattered into pieces.
The moonblade only dimmed slightly. After killing this stone monkey, its momentum undiminished, it struck the ones behind.
Crunch, crunch, crunch…
A few more crisp sounds, and five or six more stone monkeys were killed on the spot.
SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!
The brutal deaths of their companions enraged the other monkeys further. Shrieking loudly, their morale doubled, they surged towards Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan remained unruffled by the danger, his heart as cold as ice. He fought and retreated. Whenever the stone monkeys drew close, he counterattacked with a moonblade.
In the past, with the Moonlight Gu, even when boosted by the Little Light Gu, a single moonblade could only kill one or two stone monkeys. Now, with the Moonblade Gu, a single use easily reaped the lives of five or six.
However, there was a downside. The Moonblade Gu had a heavy consumption for Fang Yuan's current level.
Each moonblade burned through a tenth of his Scarlet Iron Primeval Essence. The Primeval Sea in Fang Yuan's aperture was only at forty-four percent at most.
This meant he could only unleash a total of four moonblades in a row.
If I could refine the Four Flavor Liquor Worm and refine my primeval essence, I would be able to unleash eight consecutive moonblades. What a pity. Though I've obtained the second Liquor Worm, and collected three of the four types of liquor—sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy—I'm stuck at the very last step, missing just one. Fang Yuan sighed to himself.
After three moonblades, only fourteen percent of the pale red primeval essence was left in his aperture.
Playing it safe, he stopped channeling the Moonblade Gu and activated the White Jade Gu instead.
The group of stone monkeys encircled him. The one in the lead leaped to Fang Yuan's feet, then unexpectedly sprang up, ramming its hard stone head against Fang Yuan's chin from below.
Fang Yuan sneered coldly, about to shatter the overconfident little monkey's head with a punch.
But he suddenly changed his mind and held back, using his chin to take the blow head-on.
Right before the impact, a cold white jade light glimmered on his chin.
Bang! A dull thud.
The force of the impact sent his head snapping back. The stone monkey, however, fell to the ground, clutching its head and rolling around with a pained shriek.
Without the White Jade Gu, his chin would surely have been shattered. But now, aside from a slight dizziness, Fang Yuan was completely unharmed.
Still, despite the defense offered by the White Jade Gu, the kinetic energy had to be fully absorbed.
Fang Yuan stumbled back a few steps to steady himself, his eyes sharpening.
He had purposely taken the stone monkey's headbutt just now to let his body get used to such attacks and adapt to the momentary disorientation.
In the future, if he suffered a similar attack in a life-or-death struggle, he would recover faster and stand a chance to turn the tables.
Fang Yuan had always been ruthless—a cruelty he directed not only at his enemies, but at himself as well!
He came here nearly every three days to hunt the stone monkeys.
His purpose was not only to obtain the power inheritance of the Flower Wine Traveler, but also to use the monkeys to temper his combat skills.
A Gu Master's physical fitness, martial skills, the primeval essence in their aperture, combat experience, and every single Gu worm—all of these factors influence their overall strength.
Only by tightly integrating all these factors could one exert their full potential.
The stone monkey horde was a hammer, and Fang Yuan was a freshly forged iron ingot. Each strike made the ingot harder, purer, and more condensed.
A quarter of an hour later, the battle was over.
The ground was littered with broken stones, among which were scattered countless jade pearls.