Witch Wind

Chapter 382 The Demonic Ape Shocks the World (Part 1)

Sanhu County, Moganshan.

The mountains are beautiful and gentle, with many streams and ravines. Countless exotic plum trees, over a hundred years old, grow wild in the mountains that stretch for thousands of miles. Their flowering period lasts from early winter to early summer, and they are as bright as clouds. They are also known as the 'Sea of ​​Fragrant Snow'.

Because of its stunning scenery, a nobleman from the Liuguang Prince's Mansion ordered that the entire Mogan Mountain be fenced off, turning it into a hunting and spring outing garden for the Winged People's nobles. Ordinary people who dared to step into it would be killed without mercy.

Twelve flying boats, each thirty feet long, flew slowly at a low altitude of less than twenty feet above the ground.

It was already late spring, and the Fragrant Snow Sea below seemed to know that this season's flowering period was coming to an end. All the old plum trees were struggling to send all their nutrients to the blossoms. These plum blossoms were more splendid and more beautiful than in the past few months, but they were also more fragile.

As the wind blew, countless plum blossom petals swirled and soared into the air like snowflakes. For a moment, as far as the eye could see, there were red and white petals everywhere. The fragrance of the flowers was carried by the wind for more than ten miles, making countless bees and butterflies dizzy and fly around in confusion.

On a flying boat, Sima Huo, the daughter of the governor of Sanhu County, was dressed in a black outfit with a long ponytail. She carried a heavy wolf-tooth hunting knife on her back, had four quivers hanging at her waist, and held a longbow in her hand, her fingers gently stroking the bowstring.

Sima Huo was undoubtedly a great beauty, with a refined and aloof demeanor. Her long, narrow phoenix eyes were extremely imposing, radiating a cold light with every glance, which had a fatal attraction for certain men.

However, both of her cheeks were a little red and swollen, and two handprints were faintly visible, neatly embedded on her face.

A little ahead, on a flying boat, several winged royals were standing at the bow, gesturing and shaking their heads as they looked down at the Fragrant Snow Sea, racking their brains to come up with some wonderful poems praising plum blossoms.

Several dashing young men from Kyushu, dressed in long gowns, stood beside them, carefully flattering them and playfully offering advice on word choice, much like an old teacher in a primary school diligently instructing children who were just learning to compose couplets on how to create perfect couplets.

"A bunch of uncultured and vulgar people." Sima Huo wore a sweet and peaceful smile, but her narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes were slightly narrowed, and her eyes flashed with a cold light, like sharp swords, constantly stabbing at the royal nobles.

"He's just a second-class noble among the winged people... King Liuguang, heh, what does he amount to in such a vast imperial dynasty?" Sima Huo's lips moved slightly.

Compared to the true, top-tier imperial families, the Liuguang King was merely a royal family. Based on the merits established by his ancestors, he inherited the title of king and obtained the fiefdom of Liuguang, which governed five provinces and forty-five prefectures.

Having been raised as a boy since childhood and learning countless skills in military campaigns and strategic planning, Sima Huo looked down on Prince Liuguang and his entire family from the bottom of his heart. In recent years, Prince Liuguang's mansion has not had a single member to lead troops into battle on the outer battlefield. Everyone is just living off the achievements of their ancestors and waiting to die.

According to the descendants of Kyushu, if a powerful family falls into such a situation, it is not far from the family's decline.

What's infuriating is that even though this was a second-class noble family that Sima Huo looked down upon, several of their concubine-born princesses came to Moganshan with servants and guards to appreciate plum blossoms, hold a poetry gathering, and also go hunting and have a banquet. They actually expected her, the eldest legitimate daughter of the governor of Sanhu County, to serve them like servants.

What infuriated Sima Huo even more was that these illegitimate daughters of the Prince of Liuguang had attracted the attention of the few frivolous scholars they kept simply because Sima Huo was too handsome. Those shameless scholars only lingered on Sima Huo's face for a fleeting moment...

The concubine's daughter named Luo Qingqing immediately became jealous and sour, so she brought Sima Huo in front of her and slapped him twice across the face, making her face swell and bleed on the spot.

Having been slapped twice for no reason, Sima Huo still had to kneel down and beg for forgiveness. He continued to lead his guards and servants, fearfully protecting these spoiled concubine daughters, treating them like ancestors, and following them as they wandered around Mogan Mountain.

Luo Qingqing suddenly shouted, "Bring me pen, ink, paper, and inkstone! I have a beautiful sentence here!"

"Mmm... The Heavenly Gate opens and the fragrant snow falls, a wisp of fragrance captivates the soul!" Luo Qingqing clapped excitedly, jumping and laughing like the purest and most innocent child.

Sima Huo squinted, almost spitting at the flying boat.

Ugh, what kind of crap is this?

Can this even be considered poetry?

Is the Heavenly Gate opening?

Where is Tianmen?

Moganshan is a gentle, winding hill, with a peak no more than 150 zhang high. Where is the Heavenly Gate? Which eye of yours saw the Heavenly Gate?
And "a wisp of fragrance can seduce the soul"? Ha, ha, what's underneath isn't an old plum tree, but rat poison, isn't it? You smelled this fragrance and your soul was sedated?
Uneducated, crude, and barbaric!

Sima Huo lightly pressed the bowstring, wishing he could draw the bow and release the arrow right now, killing Luo Qingqing, that lowly brat.

A mountain wind howled up.

The plum blossoms covering the mountain resembled long, red and white dragons, soaring straight into the sky.

A sharp whistling sound rang out as an arrow, eighteen feet long and three fingers thick, resembling a spear, tore through countless petals, pierced the air, and struck like lightning.

The arrow, which was eighteen feet long, had a three-sided, armor-piercing arrowhead that was two feet and three inches long.

The arrow, gleaming coldly and incredibly sharp, struck Luo Qingqing with a single shot. Luo Qingqing, with her peak Celestial Immortal cultivation, was as fragile as a piece of paper, her body pierced through by the arrow.

How terrifying, how vicious the arrow! The moment the arrowhead pierced Luo Qingqing's body, golden lightning bolts exploded on the arrowhead, and countless bolts of electricity instantly pierced through Luo Qingqing's entire body, causing her flesh and blood to fly everywhere. Dense thunderclaps exploded, and a rich aroma of roasted meat filled the air!

Luo Qingqing cultivates a heretical method passed down from the Wanfo Leiyin Temple, a wicked practice of the "Dual Absorption" lineage.

The lightning on the arrow was none other than the Buddhist technique of subduing demons with thunderous sound. Golden lightning has an absolute suppressive and restraining effect on all evil magic. The lightning scorched Luo Qingqing's body, and the celestial power she had gained by absorbing male concubines was completely powerless to resist and was shattered to pieces by the lightning.

The arrow was too powerful and too sharp, piercing through Luo Qingqing in one strike, and also piercing through the two winged guards standing behind her. A flash of golden light passed by, and the arrow, having pierced through the three, flew diagonally into the extremely high sky.

In the blink of an eye, the arrow swiftly swept across three thousand miles, a flash of golden light, and the arrow vanished in mid-air.

Sima Huo reacted extremely quickly, her voice a mixture of exhilaration and panic as she screamed, "Enemy attack... Protect these nobles... Do you even want your heads anymore?"

Sima Huo was overjoyed. Luo Qingqing, that lowly maid, had finally gotten her comeuppance.

Unfortunately, he took two slaps, while she only took one arrow.

What's devastating is that, in Moganshan's territory of Sanhu County, the daughter of a nobleman, even if she was an illegitimate daughter, was killed... Sima Huo's biological father is probably doomed.

Sima Huo gritted his teeth, leaped into the air, and charged toward the direction from which the arrow had just come.

My own father is probably dead.

Unless, of course, the murderer can be captured alive... if it's a wild murderer...

No, it couldn't be a wild killer.

how many years?

How many years have the three great dynasties ruled the Holy Cloud Continent? All the rebels, all the traitors, all the evil forces have been wiped out completely. There were once some Buddhist disciples who eked out a living in the wilderness, occasionally popping out and startling people.

But in the last hundred years or so, even these wild Buddhist disciples have disappeared without a trace, presumably all of them have died.
There couldn't possibly be a wild killer.

Therefore, we must catch the murderer and interrogate him to find out who was behind it.

If the mastermind was of low status, then Sima Huo's own father was also doomed.

The higher the status of the instigator, the better. Ideally, he should be a king of equal status to Liu Guangwang. In that case, the matter would become a feud between winged nobles, and would have little to do with Sima Huo's father.

He will likely lose his official position.

But it's better than losing his life—to be honest, Sima Huo didn't really care much about his own father's life. A greedy, lecherous old man, an extremely greasy middle-aged man, was just a waste of food to be alive. But Sima Huo couldn't just watch him die.

It doesn't matter if he dies; if he dies, Sima Huo and all his relatives and children will be reduced to slaves.

Sinners.

What a terrifying existence.

The men were one thing, they were simply sent to the outer battlefield to fight as cannon fodder. But the women, especially young and beautiful women like Sima Huo, suffered an even more tragic fate.

'Exiled to the outer battlefield, to be a slave to the armored generals!'
What does 'public slave' mean?
Public slaves!
What will become of a beautiful woman like her? Need I say more?
Leaping into the air, swooping down, the bowstring in his hand vibrated, and with a muffled sound, thirty-six exquisitely carved rune arrows whistled through the air, instantly enveloping the small plum grove from which the arrows had just been fired.

Behind them, angry shouts filled with shock and fury rang out continuously.

More than a hundred winged guards took to the air, creating a whirlwind, and followed Sima Huo down. A hail of arrows rained down, densely sealing off a plum grove.

A thick, bluish-gray arm, gleaming with a metallic sheen, suddenly burst forth from the shower of plum blossom petals. The hand, as large as a small door, swept lightly, unleashing a terrifying whirlwind that reduced all the petals within a hundred feet to dust. In an instant, the sky was filled with red and white, and a rich fragrance permeated the air.

All the arrows exploded simultaneously, shattering into countless fragments, which then hurtled towards Sima Huo and the others with a whistling sound.

Sima Huo curled up, and a finely carved jade piece at her waist suddenly exploded, a bright auspicious light rose up, and three clear auspicious clouds spun rapidly around her according to the three directions, gently pushing away the countless potentially fatal fragments.

Sima Huo was stunned.

If I remember correctly, this jade piece was a birthday gift from her to her seventh birthday. Her greedy, lustful, and uncultured father, who had climbed to the position of prefect by bribing and flattering his superiors, was, in Sima Huo's eyes, a completely incompetent and useless old man.

If she remembered correctly, she had personally witnessed her own father take a palm-sized piece of this jade from a piece of raw jade. Then, for a period of time, he would hold it in his hand all day, both at get off work and when he came home, and use a small carving knife to carve it little by little.

Because it was a gift made by her own father, the seven-year-old girl, being young and naive, treasured it and wore it close to her body every day.

As he grew older, Sima Huo learned that his biological father was actually a useless old man, a disgusting and greasy old man. He also developed a sense of disgust for the jade piece and wanted to throw it away several times.

Unfortunately, I got used to wearing it when I was a child, and although I almost threw it away several times, I ended up wearing it again.

How could this be?
Such a terrifying and violent attack was actually blocked by this small, thin jade piece that normally showed no magical fluctuations.
Behind me came a piercing, mournful howl.

Arrow fragments rained down from the sky, riddling over a hundred winged guards, including their leader who was at the Golden Immortal realm. Pale blue blood splattered as nearly seventy of the weakest guards exploded in mid-air. The remaining guards, also covered in wounds, were too weak to even flap their wings and plummeted from the sky like stones.

The Golden Immortal Guards were all severely injured?
Sima Huo stared in horror at the three rapidly swirling clouds around him. Didn't this mean that the unassuming jade piece possessed a defensive power far greater than that of the Golden Immortal-level winged leader?

However, if she remembered correctly, her own father, that greasy old man, was only a mere late-stage Celestial Immortal!

How could he possibly create such a powerful amulet?

Pollen was scattered by the whirlwind, and three four-armed apes, each about three zhang tall, with bulging muscles all over their bodies and sharp, angular muscle contours, as if cleaved by a knife or axe, and as majestic as metal statues, suddenly appeared in the flower forest.

Those ancient plum trees, some hundreds of years old, were only a little over three zhang tall. These three large monkeys stood out so abruptly and so ferociously in the flower grove... Their bodies were covered in steel needle-like bluish-gray fur that gleamed with a cold metallic light. They carried longbows and long arrows on their four arms, carried heavy ox-horn axes on their backs, and wore heavy armor...

On their ferocious faces, their brow bones protruded half a foot high, making their eye sockets appear even deeper and giving them an exceptionally fierce and menacing look.

Their lips were slightly upturned, and four fangs protruded from their upper and lower jaws, their pale silver color gleaming in the sunlight.

They stared intently at Sima Huo, their eyes clear and innocent, revealing a childlike naiveté and naive foolishness.

It's so pure, so clear.

Sima Huo had only ever seen such a look in the eyes of one type of person—in the public school classrooms of the prefecture city, in those little rascals around five years old who had just begun their education; that was the look in their eyes.

But how is it possible?

With bodies over three zhang tall and such imposing stature, it must have taken them at least a hundred years to grow to that size. How could their eyes be so pure? Like those of a newborn infant?
The three monkeys shouted in unison.

They seemed surprised that Sima Huo had actually dodged their attack.
They looked at Sima Huo and suddenly drew their longbows.

Sima Huo felt a chill run through her body, her heart suddenly clenched, and all the blood in her body seemed to rush to her head. Her vision turned slightly red, and she completely lost the ability to think. She suddenly realized that if she were hit by the arrows of these three giant creatures, she would die. She would definitely die.

It all sounds like a long story, but it's actually just a blink of an eye.

Sima Huo saw clearly what it looked like—a bluish-gray four-armed ape, it looked so familiar…

The three auspicious clouds around her suddenly converged inward, their light intensifying dramatically. Accompanied by an extremely piercing sound, Sima Huo was enveloped in the cloud light and instantly accelerated to an incredible speed.

With a 'whoosh', Sima Huo vanished from the spot.

When she came to her senses, she was horrified to find herself standing in a small pavilion in the backyard of the Sanhu County Prefectural Government Office. On the pavilion floor, what she had initially thought were just decorative auspicious cloud patterns were now shimmering with a blinding white light. As she looked down, the light from the cloud patterns was rapidly dimming.

A figure flashed by, and a gentle breeze stirred.

Sima Huo's biological father, a middle-aged greasy man who was only five feet two inches tall, with two tufts of rat whiskers, round and fat, and whose small yellow bean eyes always gleamed with a disgusting cunning and scheming light, appeared silently in front of Sima Huo.

He frowned, staring intently at Sima Huo, and said in a deep voice, "Something's happened?"

He reached out a hand, grabbed a handful of Sima Huo's body, brought it to his nose and sniffed lightly. His expression changed slightly, then he laughed again: "Heh, the blood of the Winged Human royal family... Some of those concubine's daughters, are they dead? Tsk, who did it? Hmm? No, this is the smell of a Primordial Spirit Ape... How is that possible?"

Sima Guang, the prefect of Sanhu Commandery, widened his eyes, straining to make his soybean-sized pupils appear as large as broad beans.

He hissed, “Innate Spirit Ape? Back then, the master of Wanfo Leiyin Temple… cough cough, those evil spirits, they wiped out all of these guys, and even used great supernatural powers to trace their bloodline and kill them all.”

"How is this possible? A primordial spirit ape has suddenly appeared?"

"This, this..." Sima Guang said in a deep voice, "Who died?"

Sima Huo stared at his own father with a look of utter shock and confusion... His father, whom he had known so well, now seemed so unfamiliar, yet strangely reassuring.

That five-foot-two-inch, bloated and obese man, who looked like the father of a giant frog, now seemed like a mountain, giving people an inexplicable sense of ultimate security.

"Luo Qingqing has been killed, killed by a single arrow. The arrowhead was covered in golden lightning, making it extremely lethal!" Sima Huo was, after all, an extremely shrewd and intelligent woman, who was sometimes even too arrogant because of her cleverness.

She quickly described the images she had seen. For her, even the drifting trajectory of a small petal on the battlefield was clearly etched in her memory.

She described even the golden hue of the arrow, the sound of the thunder, and even the faint chanting in the void when the thunder roared.

Sima Guang's expression changed drastically: "This is impossible!"

(End of this chapter)