Chapter 814: Hide and Seek
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Heh, Senior Brother Kadin, if you become a Great Teacher, accept me as your Successor Disciple! I will be the most obedient Successor Disciple.” Helen’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning, and she had a lovestruck expression on her face.
“Don’t make fun of me. You all know how hard it is to reach the Heavenly Soul Stage. I have just fulfilled the basic requirements. This is just the start.” Kadin chuckled, appearing to be rather humble. “Okay, let’s proceed. This is just the first heart. Haha, we need to get quite a few of these today.”
Frankly speaking, Kadin’s performance really shocked everyone. As the commander of the team, it was important that every member had confidence in him. Tianqiong Musk and the others seemed to be br.i.m.m.i.n.g with fighting spirit, feeling honored that Kadin was their team commander. “Hey, the one at the back. Don’t just stand there. Clean things up.” Robben turned around and shouted hurriedly.
“Senior Brother Robben!” Laura frowned. w.a.n.g Zhong nodded while smiling. Since he was here to help, he would do it, no matter what task he was a.s.signed. Seeing that they had already decided on their respective roles, he didn’t rebut. w.a.n.g Zhong was a cultured individual who knew that protecting the environment was important.
Laura felt even worse for him. If she knew this was going to happen, she wouldn’t have asked w.a.n.g Zhong to come. Seeing how w.a.n.g Zhong was swallowing his pride, she felt even more miserable.
Perhaps it was just like what her grandfather said. Reality could force a person to change. It was a wise choice for w.a.n.g Zhong to choose to maintain a low profile in the Holy Land. However, she had mixed feelings: she was feeling worse after watching w.a.n.g Zhong clean up the dead bodies at the back, yet she didn’t have the power to raise objections.
Paradise Island was once considered a typical A-rank secret realm, and the Heart-Eating Ape was just a relatively weak Dimensional lifeform there. However, their hearts were capable of producing extraordinary effects. Ever since the Musk Family took over this secret realm, this indeed became a paradise for Heart-Eating Apes.
The team continued to advance deeper into the forest. Including the one they ran into just now, they had already encountered six packs of Heart-Eating Apes. Logically, they should have gotten at least six hearts by now, but because they caused huge commotions, three male apes were able to escape under the cover of the female apes. Furthermore, some male apes weren’t mature enough, and their hearts weren’t ready for use yet. The sky was darkening, yet they only had two hearts, making Laura worry.
“Brother, remember what you promised me. If there aren’t enough hearts for everyone later, you have to fight for one no matter what.” Laura had a hunch that they might not be able to gather enough hearts for everyone today. It was for sure that Tianqiong Musk would get one, and the other two Musk Family newcomers would be prioritized too. It would be fine if they could find more hearts; at worst, she could just give her share to w.a.n.g Zhong. However, if two hearts were all that they were going to get today, that was really…
That’s why she had to confirm the deal with her brother again, to make sure that w.a.n.g Zhong could get a precious Heart of the Heart-Eating Ape.
Molton could read some of the emotions in his sister’s eyes. He nodded with a smile. It seemed like everyone’s acting roles were working. One was a high-spirited and powerful leader, while the other was a freeloader who only knew how to pick up litter. Any woman would change her mind when presented with this stark contrast, and Laura wouldn’t be an exception.
Youngsters who believed in love were just inexperienced in life. When they came face-to-face with reality, their so-called love would be crushed into dust, to the extent that they couldn’t even recognize themselves.
All of them had agreed beforehand that the Musk Family members would be prioritized when it came to the hearts. Even Laura had to stand aside since they didn’t spend a single cent on the Pioneering Orders that took them here today. If they only managed to get two hearts today, Molton would probably need to pay a hefty price to get one more from Kadin. Nonetheless, Molton was willing to pay any price to change Laura’s childish and warped values toward love once and for all.
“Rest a.s.sured, that w.a.n.g Zhong will have his share,” Molton said.
Helen looked behind her with a condescending look on her face. Today, she tried very hard to converse with Kadin, yet she didn’t receive many replies. She was in a bad mood because of that and needed to vent her frustration somewhere. “What use is a man if he’s okay doing something so useless?”
Helen and Faye were walking somewhere in the middle of the team, more towards the back. The people in front couldn’t hear them, but w.a.n.g Zhong could.
“Shhh, stop it.” Faye nudged Helen, but obviously, it wasn’t out of concern for w.a.n.g Zhong. “I know you’re in a bad mood, but don’t mess with that girl. It can’t be helped that Kadin likes her. It’s just luck.”
“Sure, sure, you’re protecting her already. What a happy family!” Helen rolled her eyes sourly. “My best friend is going to change sides, huh?”
“Oh, please. What a liar.” Faye pinched her playfully.
“There’s some movement.” Kadin waved his hand for everyone to stop talking. He motioned for the trio at the forefront to stop proceeding forward. Kadin seemed to have discovered something, a frown forming on his face.
The entire team quieted down immediately. Throughout the whole journey today, no matter how big the pack of apes were, Kadin looked very calm and steady. For him to show such a cautious expression, everyone realized that something bad was about to happen. Didn’t he say there wouldn’t be any danger in Paradise Island?
Everyone looked at Kadin with doubt in their eyes, only to see Kadin and Molton’s expressions change suddenly.
A whizzing sound came from the banana forest ahead of them.
Swis.h.!.+
Bang!
Pa pa pa!
Tianqiong Musk, who was standing at the front of the three-man team, suddenly leaned backward unnaturally. A stream of blood shot out from his chest. Behind him, a small dark shadow zoomed past him at a speed too fast to be seen by the naked eye. Not only did it penetrate through Tianqiong Musk’s chest, but it also pierced through four or five gigantic trees behind him. Finally, when its power was used up, it lodged itself deeply into the bark of a huge tree.
When everyone could see it clearly, they discovered that the small dark shadow was just a small rock?!
Such terrifying power came from a small rock? This…
Kadin and Molton’s faces grew pale instantly. The stronger you were, the more you could sense how scary this force was. Based on their understanding of Paradise Island, this power could only come from one creature, the King of the Heart-Eating Apes!
Naturally, the heart of the Ape King had even more magical effects. It was an S-grade precious ingredient to the gourmets. As opposed to providing the Heart of the Heart-Eating Ape for people at the Heroic Soul Stage, cultivating this King of the Heart-Eating Apes was the real reason why Paradise Island existed!
Although the Musk Family would kill an Ape King every single time it appeared, it had to be discovered by them first before they could kill it. Ever since the Musk Family took control of this Paradise Island and for this period of a hundred years, there was a total of only six times when they killed an Ape King. Three of the Ape Kings were discovered during their regular maintenance clean-ups, while the other three were found by other aristocratic family members when they went to Paradise Island for training purposes.
The chance of them stumbling into an Ape King was extremely small, but it did exist. Kadin was excited and dejected at the same time. He was excited that this was a huge discovery, but he was dejected because he couldn’t deal with this Ape King.
The Ape King’s combat power was top-notch among all in the Heroic Soul Stage; there was no hope at all.
The others were still in a stunned state; all their attention was drawn by that small stone, while Molton and Kadin moved immediately.
Kadin’s left hand reached into his storage s.p.a.ce. In the blink of an eye, a red crystal had appeared in his hand. At the same time, Molton hurried forward and grabbed Tianqiong Musk, who had fallen to the ground, retreating as fast as he could.
“Gather around me!” Kadin shouted. The red crystal in his hand was already in position, ready to be activated anytime. It was a defense ward meant for emergency situations. Although Kadin’s heart was aching for his wallet, there was nothing else he could do. At their level of power, they definitely couldn’t take on the Ape King.
With the red crystal, Kadin still seemed fairly calm, but he didn’t dare to activate it just yet. He needed to wait for everyone to enter the defense range first. Otherwise, after the ward was activated, no one could enter from the outside.
The two Musk Family newcomers and Laura retreated quickly. Clearly, they knew what the crystal was used for. They entered the defense range at once. Behind them, Faye, Robben, and Helen were also scared and hurried toward them. They weren’t newbies. They could take on average Heart-Eating Apes, but if their opponent’s power was close to Warlord level, they would just be digging their own graves if they weren’t top notch Heroic Soul soldiers. It didn’t matter how many people there were; its combat power would totally dominate over them. That was why Robben and the others were more decisive than the newcomers and rushed towards them without any hesitation at all.
However, even though Molton’s speed was fast, he had to carry an additional person, and the Ape King was faster than him.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…
This time, there were four dark shadows!
Molton released a blast of Soul Power as his sword defended swiftly against the attacks, but his arms were already numb when a silver shadow reached him. Molton gritted his teeth and gathered all his energy into one attack.
Boom!
Molton seemed to have been hit by a strong force. He was sent flying along with Tianqiong. At the same time, Kadin started to attack too. A golden shadow was slas.h.i.+ng towards the white figure.
BANG…
With just a punch, the golden shadow was crushed, but the white figure stopped too. Everyone saw a gigantic Heart-Eating Ape with a silver glow surrounding it. Blood was leaking from the corners of its mouth. Legend had it that the King of the Heart-Eating Apes fed on its own kind; that was why it was able to increase its power so fast and even go beyond the limits of its species. However, there was a side effect too. The Ape King was genderless.
Kadin was also secretly surprised. He had long heard of the Heart-Eating Ape’s power, but it wasn’t a Dimensional lifeform that had reached the Heavenly Soul Stage, so Kadin thought that he might be able to stand a chance against it. He didn’t rush to attack out of habit, but now it appeared that even if there were more people, they wouldn’t have stood a chance against this monster. He knew that from his attack just now. This monster’s body was as hard as a diamond; even the sword attack that he concentrated all his power into didn’t have any effect on it.
If there was a battle, he could only run for his life.
However, this attack halted the Ape King’s movements. Molton braved his injuries and got up, dragging Tianqiong Musk, who was out cold, towards Kadin. Without hesitation, Kadin crushed the crystal in his left hand, and an egg-shaped defense ward appeared instantly, covering everyone.
The Ape King opened its b.l.o.o.d.y mouth, confused as to why the creatures in front of it a moment ago suddenly disappeared. However, it refused to leave just like that. Although it was a wild creature, it wasn’t dumb. A creature at the level of the Ape King was a powerful predator of humans, so once it was discovered, the Musk Family had to deal with it as soon as possible. The ordinary Heart-Eating Apes weren’t hard to deal with, but the Ape King was unusually sly and didn’t show itself easily.
The Ape King waved its muscular arm casually and produced a ma.s.sive destructive force, crus.h.i.+ng dozens of the huge trees beside it.
Roar roar roar!
It pounded on its chest and was extremely irritated; its roars rang in everyone’s ears. Everyone looked at each other in the ward. What kind of luck did they have to encounter this Ape King which only appeared once in a blue moon!
Faye started checking on Tianqiong Musk’s injuries right away. Perhaps Tianqiong Musk did something to save himself in this critical situation; the rock had pierced through him but didn’t hurt any of his important organs. Faye was a high-level pharmacist, and since she was there, this little injury wasn’t significant. She immediately got to healing Tianqiong.
This led Kadin to heave a sigh of relief. Tianqiong Musk was an important seedling that his family had just started to groom recently. If he was killed in his first mission with Kadin, that would be a heavy blow to Kadin’s reputation even if no one in the family said anything.
“We need to go back. I need to report this to my family.” Kadin felt a little regretful, but it was also an experience to be able to see this kind of monster in the flesh. However, they only managed to get two hearts which weren’t even enough to be divided among his own family. He looked at Laura apologetically. “Sorry, I won’t be able to help you accomplish your wish.”
He originally wanted to get a few more hearts today since they were here anyway, but who knew they would be so unlucky! Once an Ape King had its eyes on you, you had better run immediately.
Laura was obviously not satisfied. w.a.n.g Zhong had been doing all the dirty work today and was forced to listen to snide comments. This was not why she had asked w.a.n.g Zhong to come here. She looked at the surroundings and wanted to tell Molton something before she realized that there was a problem.
Something wasn’t right!
“Where’s w.a.n.g Zhong?” Laura exclaimed. She felt her brain go blank.
w.a.n.g Zhong wasn’t inside the ward.
Honestly, everyone had really forgotten about w.a.n.g Zhong at this point in time. At the start, they deliberately ignored him to humiliate him, but towards the end, they had really forgotten about him… That dude didn’t have any presence at all. The battle in front was in full swing, and the people behind were trying their best to fight. Who would care about a cleaner that was picking up trash at the back?
Kadin frowned. Frankly speaking, he didn’t care whether w.a.n.g Zhong lived or died, but since he was Laura’s crush, he didn’t want his love rival to be eliminated this way as this would just cause trauma to Laura. He knew women too well. Glancing further outside the ward, w.a.n.g Zhong was sashaying towards them from another side of the forest, seemingly left behind when he was cleaning up the aftermath of the previous battle.
Laura got anxious once she saw him. “w.a.n.g Zhong, don’t dawdle. Run!” Without thinking, she said loudly.
“You’re going to expose our location!” Helen was anxious too. She was already unhappy with this love rival, so she didn’t hold back.
“There’s no need to shout. Your voice can’t travel outside of the ward, and he wouldn’t be able to see us either,” Kadin said in a deep voice. “We can only hope that he is smart enough. The Ape King roared very loudly just now. He should have heard it.”
Right after he said that, w.a.n.g Zhong walked up to the ward and rubbed his hands together. He fell behind deliberately, as he couldn’t stand all the mockery and ridicule no matter how good his mindset was.
“Hey.” w.a.n.g Zhong waved to everyone in the ward, showing his pearly whites. “What are you guys doing?”