Chapter 57: A Great Victory, A Great Surplus

Monkeyhead Gang.

The corpses of the monkeys had all been laid together, arranged in a row.

The gang’s upper echelon was assembled, each gazing at the many monkey corpses on the ground with grim faces.

An elder knelt down, examined them, then formed a seal with his fingers, drawing out the toxins from the bodies.

The poison was pitch black, curling into the air like a plume of dark smoke. The atmosphere grew faintly stifling with heat.

“It’s fire poison.”

“That will be difficult to trace.”

Fire Persimmon Mountain was filled with endless geothermal energy, scarlet flames, and fire poison.

One could say fire poison was abundant. In the days before the mountain was sealed, any cultivator entering the Crimson Flame Monster Caverns could gather fire poison with ease.

With such plentiful raw materials, crafting fire poison was hardly a challenge for cultivators. This made it nearly impossible for the Monkeyhead Gang’s leaders to follow this clue in their investigation.

Yuan Er’s face was dark.

He had just rallied all the elders, laying out the gang’s grave crisis—at this critical moment, when they were in dire need of monkeys to prove their worth, a third of their monkey pets had suddenly died!

The elders all looked to Yuan Er.

Their gazes held worry, but also expectation and appraisal.

Compared to his father, Yuan Yi, Yuan Er had only recently come to power. He had achieved little and failed to win the crowd’s loyalty.

Now, with the whole gang facing disaster, could this young cultivator truly steer the ship?

“Chief, what do we do now?” an elder asked, testing him.

Yuan Er considered for a moment. “We can’t afford to have fewer monkey pets!”

“If we can’t demonstrate our value, the persimmon harvesting business will no longer be ours.”

“Quickly, go and search, purchase whatever monkeys you can find—restore our strength!”

The elders frowned.

“Even if we do that, in a short time we can’t train the new monkeys properly.”

“At best, it’s better than nothing.”

“No—I believe acting rashly will make things worse. If the monkeys aren’t trained well enough, and they fail during the Fire Persimmon Festival, causing the orchards to explode, the consequences will be disastrous for us!”

“Perhaps you don’t know—there are hardly any monkeys left on the market. Even the monkeys near Immortal City have been hunted in large numbers,” one elder said.

“There’s such a thing?” The others were surprised, and Yuan Er looked at him inquiringly.

The elder nodded. “Recently, the Monster Hunter Society has received a flood of orders for capturing wild monkeys alive.”

“Even the black market is buying monkey pets at high prices.”

Yuan Er’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s buying them?”

“Could it be that the ones poisoning our monkeys are the same people buying them up?”

The elders fell silent, frowning.

They all felt a chill in their hearts.

“Chief, someone is targeting us.”

“This is a trap—someone is plotting our downfall!”

“But who?”

An elder fixed his gaze on Yuan Er. “Chief, the enemy has pushed us this far—why hesitate?”

“Find them, and wipe them out!”

“If the old chief were still here, he’d never waver.”

Yuan Er’s face turned livid; he almost cursed aloud. “Nonsense!”

How could they fight?

By all evidence, the force behind the poisoning was most likely the Flying Disc Workshop.

The workshop’s master, Chen Cha, was precisely the craftsman who designed and manufactured the mechanical Explosive Fire Monkeys.

If the Monkeyhead Gang faltered during the Fire Persimmon Festival, Chen Cha’s mechanical monkeys would naturally seize the market and monopolize the persimmon picking business, reaping enormous profits.

But Chen Cha wasn’t the main issue—the real problem was Fei Si backing him.

Fei Si was a ruthless cultivator at the Gold Core stage. Anyone who’d survived in Immortal City long enough knew his reputation.

Yuan Er was deeply uneasy. If his investigation led directly to Chen Cha, he’d be in a bind.

He couldn’t retaliate, obviously.

But if he didn’t, he’d seem weak and disappoint everyone, and his position as chief would be severely threatened.

So he glared fiercely at the elder calling for war, feeling a strong urge to strangle him.

He knew this elder had always coveted the chief’s seat.

That was the nature of the gang.

It was not a family, nor a sect. No blood ties, no bonds of master and disciple—only interests mattered. The strong led, the one who could make everyone rich took charge.

The elders were skilled at political games; with a single push, they forced Yuan Er into a dilemma.

Yuan Er’s mind raced, but he maintained a contemplative façade. “That’s not our main concern right now.”

He looked at the many monkey corpses on the ground. “Many of these monkeys are Uncle Monkey’s kin. With such a disaster, we should consult him first.”

In an instant, the tense, coercive atmosphere vanished.

Though the old chief Yuan Yi was dead, he’d left behind his spirit beast—Yuan Dasheng!

This Fire-Fused Demon Ape had fought alongside Yuan Yi, building the Monkeyhead Gang from scratch—a pillar of the organization. Now, even more so, it was the backbone of the gang.

At the mere mention of Yuan Dasheng, all the elders were subdued.

Most felt a deep awe in their hearts.

Yuan Er quietly sighed in relief, then turned to leave. “Uncle Monkey is sleeping. I’ll go wake him.”

The crowd quickly protested, “Let the Grand Ape sleep till noon. Don’t disturb his sweet dreams.”

But Yuan Er insisted, “That’s for you. If I wake him, there’ll be no trouble. None of you come, or Uncle Monkey might get annoyed and beat you up.”

With an air of composure, Yuan Er left the assembly. None of the elders dared follow.

Yuan Er departed alone, his back radiating smug satisfaction.

Many elders couldn’t help but mutter inwardly, “He’s really riding on the ape’s coattails.”

Yuan Er slipped into a tent.

Inside, an old ape lay on its side, sleeping soundly.

It was massive, with a thick coat of deep red fur and a burly physique.

Its body was covered in scars of all sizes, lending the old ape a weathered, formidable presence.

Yuan Er instinctively lightened his steps, approaching and calling softly, “Uncle Dasheng, Uncle Dasheng.”

“Da Sheng… Da Sheng…”

Yuan Dasheng’s breathing was slow and deep. Amid the gentle calls, he dreamed faintly of his late master, Yuan Yi.

Yuan Yi, clothes ragged and hair disheveled, returned holding a wooden bucket, his face alight with joy. “Look what I brought back!”

“It’s leftover food from the Scarlet Pavilion. I got there at just the right time—they hadn’t thrown it out yet, so I grabbed a whole bucket!”

“We’re in luck, in luck!”

Yuan Yi hurried to the ape’s side and set down the bucket.

“I gave you a good name—Da Sheng, Da Sheng, ‘Big Leftovers.’ Every meal you get to eat so much leftover food—you’re truly blessed.”

When the ape was still growing, its appetite was enormous.

Having long since smelled the aroma, it impatiently dove headfirst into the bucket, devouring everything inside.

Soon, it polished off all the food.

Just as it sat down, it heard Yuan Yi’s stomach grumbling loudly.

The ape froze in surprise.

Yuan Yi grinned. “Heh, I’ve already eaten, I’ve already eaten!”

The ape’s cheeks bulged with its last mouthful, and its chewing slowed.