"Yes, I know him."
Pang Jian admitted softly.
The gray ape in the cage is the leader of a group of apes in the Cenji Mountains. Before it became the ape king, it fought with a white bear and was seriously injured. It was later rescued by the young Pang Jian and his father.
That time, his father was willing to help because he saw that the gray ape had a high level of spirituality.
After that, this gray ape with ice-blue eyes became his companion in the Silent Mountains.
In the years that followed, he never hunted the apes led by the gray ape. Sometimes when he was in danger while hunting, the gray ape would see him and come to the rescue.
Two years ago, after he hunted a mountain leopard alone, he was maliciously targeted by other veteran hunters in Linshan Town.
The old hunter took advantage of his young age and, seeing that his father had been missing for a long time, wanted to steal the leopard he had killed.
When he was fighting back desperately and was about to be defeated, he received help from the gray ape and his group of apes.
After that conflict, the three hunters who were notorious in Linshan Town disappeared into the forest forever.
Seeing the gray ape being imprisoned in an iron cage and becoming a prisoner of the Shangguan family, Pang Jian, who had been hiding behind some people, suddenly stepped out.
"The gray ape?"
Zhou Qingchen was also startled by his movement. He looked at the solemn expression on his face and asked curiously, "Do you recognize him?"
"Friend." Pang Jian answered seriously.
"friend… "
Zhou Qingchen seemed to be thinking about something.
Shangguan Qin came to the front of the crowd, with a strange look on her charming face. She said casually: "This gray ape and its subordinates attacked us not long ago. The apes under its command were not contaminated by the evil power in the strange fog, and we quickly eliminated them."
"As for this gray ape with ice-blue eyes..."
Shangguan Qin pursed her lips, looked at Pang Jian, then looked at Zhou Qingchen, and smiled: "It seems to have spirituality."
"Got spirituality?"
Zhou Qingchen was slightly moved.
Shangguan Qin nodded slightly, her eyes shining as she explained with a smile: "After we captured it, we tried many methods and confirmed that it has a very high level of intelligence. As you know, apes are very intelligent, and it is much more intelligent than ordinary apes."
Zhou Qingchen suddenly realized: "It seems that it has transformed into a spiritual beast."
There are many precedents of wild beasts undergoing transformation in places with rich spiritual energy or under the cover of "strange fog".
Beasts that cannot cleanse the filth within their spiritual energy, although extremely ferocious and powerful, are defined as vicious beasts because they cannot communicate.
It is a ferocious beast that is difficult to tame and discipline, and is not worth keeping alive for practitioners.
Spiritual beasts are different.
Once a spirit beast is tamed, it can become a practitioner's partner and can be driven to do many things.
Shangguan Qin captured the gray ape alive, probably intending to take it out and tame it completely so that it could be used by their Shangguan family.
"Friends..."
Zhou Qingchen touched his chin, sometimes looking at the gray ape in the iron cage, sometimes looking at Pang Jian, weighing the value of the two in his heart, wondering whether he should redeem the gray ape from Shangguan Qin.
The gray ape, which has spirituality and has fallen into the hands of the Shangguan family, is naturally of great value, and it is impossible to get it back without paying a price.
Pang Jian's ruthlessness in assassinating He Ziren and his familiarity with the Silent Mountains both have certain value, and he really wants to recruit Pang Jian.
It’s just that Pang Jian’s talent for cultivation is indeed not good. Unless he encounters a miraculous encounter in the future, his achievements will still be limited.
After thinking it over, Zhou Qingchen felt compassion for the word "friend" and said, "Aunt Qin, can you give up this gray ape? You just heard my little brother say that the gray ape is his friend."
Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan and others felt incomprehensible at this moment and didn't understand why Zhou Qingchen suddenly looked at Pang Jian differently.
When they first met, Zhou Qingchen clearly didn't look Pang Jian in the eye, but after the bloody incident in the pile of rocks, he took the initiative to go in and deliver meat and presented him with a dragon-patterned spear.
Now, for Pang Jian, he wants to ask the Shangguan family for the gray ape
Ning Yao and others didn't understand the reason.
The gray ape in the iron cage seemed to have really understood human nature. After Pang Jian said the word "friend", its pair of ice-blue eyes stared at Pang Jian for a long time without moving.
"Who is he?" Shangguan Qin asked curiously.
"A hunter who is most familiar with the Silent Mountains. All our future explorations of the Silent Mountains will depend on him!" Zhou Qingchen replied.
"Just... Hunter?"
Shangguan Qin was surprised and puzzled.
She thought for a moment, looking at the corpses near the Wuding Ferry, the blood moon logo on their clothes, and the black silk banners fluttering on the ferry, and suddenly changed the subject: "Qingchen, how long have you been here? How did they die?"
"We just arrived not long ago. It was like this before we came. All the objects on the corpses were still there when we arrived. I feel that they were also attacked and killed by wild beasts, and their flesh and blood were eaten by the wild beasts." Han Duping said flatteringly.
"You all know the relationship between our Shangguan family and Blood Moon."
Shangguan Qin rubbed his forehead, pretending to be embarrassed, and looked at the huge Wuding ferry.
"Let's put it this way. After we leave the Ceji Mountains, I hope you can sell the artifacts you found on Blood Moon's body to our Shangguan family. Next, we will search for this Wuding ferry. Our Shangguan family will hand over everything inside, including this ferry, to Blood Moon."
"how?"
Shangguan Qin just looked at Zhou Qingchen and asked.
She chose to ignore the opinions of Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, Han Duping and others.
"How can this be possible?"
Han Duping couldn't help it and felt that the conditions offered by Shangguan Qin were really harsh.
The Wuding Ferry is huge in size, and it is difficult for people in the lower world to control it to fly if they do not obtain the secret method of the Blood Moon.
It would probably be very difficult for the Zhou family to capture this special ferry, and Blood Moon would not give up even if they captured it.
But if there is a harvest in the cabin, since the Zhou family came first, they should of course get a share of it. They can't let the Shangguan family that comes later take all the benefits.
A gray ape that has just gained spirituality, with unrevealed potential and not much value, Shangguan Qin is asking for too much.
To everyone's surprise, Zhou Qingchen agreed immediately and pointed to the iron cage, signaling to Pang Jian: "It belongs to you now."
"Thanks."
The taciturn Pang Jian thanked him seriously this time and said in a deep voice: "I will think carefully about what you said in the pile of stones."
He was really touched that Zhou Qingchen was willing to give up such a huge benefit for the gray ape he cared about.
After expressing his gratitude, Pang Jian dismounted and walked to the iron cage under everyone's strange gazes.
The muscular man, as tall as a tower, saw Shangguan Qin nod in agreement, so he handed the iron chain tied to the cage to Pang Jian, preparing to hand over the cage.
Pang Jian shook his head and did not go to pick up the iron chain. Instead, he looked at the gray ape in front of the cage.
A gray ape with ice-blue pupils was also looking at him in the cage. There was a hint of sadness in its cold eyes, as if it was still grieving for the death of its own kind.
After Pang Jian and the gray ape looked at each other for a moment, they opened the lock on the top of the cage and lifted the lid.
“Hmm!”
Many onlookers looked surprised.
"Hide and stay away. Don't show up again in the near future." Pang Jian whispered to the gray ape in the cage.
The gray ape seemed to understand his words. When he finished speaking, it nodded in a humane way, then suddenly jumped out and rushed towards the densely wooded mountains.
It looked back from time to time and glanced at the practitioners of the Shangguan family, its ice-blue eyes filled with ferocity.
"This gray ape is very dangerous. Its spirituality is improving very quickly. I am a little regretful now."
Under its fierce gaze, Shangguan Qin felt an inexplicable chill in her heart. She always felt that letting the gray ape leave easily might bring trouble to herself.
"Okay, you can go search the Wuding Ferry now."
Zhou Qingchen kept his promise and first let the Zhou family servants who were loyal to him leave the sailboat. Then he waved to Pang Jian, signaling him to come back to his side.
Pang Jian waited until there was no trace of the gray ape and confirmed that the Shangguan family would find it difficult to pursue it, then he returned to Zhou Qingchen.
"I'm surprised that I can be friends with a spiritual ape king." When Pang Jian came over, Zhou Qingchen laughed heartily and said, "Pang Jian, you are quite interesting."
In his mind, Pang Jian, who was hired by the Ning family, was already his, Zhou Qingchen's, man.
Ning Yao also noticed this.
Although she was the one who bribed Pang Jian with a bag of silver bars, since Zhou Qingchen had such an attitude, Pang Jian was probably destined to be with Zhou Qingchen.
"You, you, and all of you!"
Shangguan Qin waved her snow-white jade arm, pointed at a few people who were loyal to the Shangguan family, and ordered: "Go to the Wuding ferry and check carefully to see what is inside."
A few people nodded in agreement and immediately took action, heading straight for the sailboat anchored on the dead branches and wood chips.
Shangguan Qin, who had no mount, asked the others to stay where they were, and she came to Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao.
At this moment, she seemed to have finally noticed Ning Yao. She glanced at Ning Yao's slightly raised breasts and said meaningfully, "Hey, Ning girl, you've grown up too."
When Ning Yao was about to respond with a stern face, her face suddenly turned cold and she said in a cold tone: "Ning Yuanshan, you are not dead yet?"
Ning Yuanshan smiled wryly and laughed it off, without arguing with her.
Everyone can see that Shangguan Qin and the Ning family don't get along, and they probably had some conflicts in the past.
"Qingchen, what did you find on the way?"
Seeing that Ning Yuanshan did not respond to her, Shangguan Qin did not act aggressively and started chatting casually with the young master of the Zhou family.
While they were chatting, the Shangguan, Zhou and Ning families were all paying attention to the movements of the Wuding ferry. They watched several people loyal to the Shangguan family climb the wooden ladder to the deck and then sneak into the cabin from the deck.
Pang Jian also learned from their conversation that the Shangguan family entered from the east of the Cenji Mountains and encountered many attacks from wild beasts along the way.
Like them, the Shangguan family also saw the huge upright bones from afar and hurried over.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
When they were talking about the mystery of the Phoenix Bone, a horrifying sound of flesh and blood exploding was heard from inside the cabin of the Wuding Ferry.
Shangguan Qin's expression suddenly changed, and the others were also shocked.
Soon, thick blood was seen shooting out from the cabin like blood arrows, with a weird and bloody feel, and injected into the blood moon pattern on the black silk banner one by one.
A blood-red crescent moon moved with the wind, swallowing up the streams of blood and then slowly swelled up inside the banner.
The blood-red light gradually became brighter as it was released through the crescent moon, which also turned into a full moon in a short time.
It looked like a strange blood-red eye embedded in a pitch-black silk banner, quietly looking towards where everyone was.
The strange change of this "blood moon" made everyone feel creepy. Everyone who looked at it felt a stinging pain in the eyes, and their temples felt as if two steel nails were piercing them.
"Eye of Brand!"
After the shock, Shangguan Qin was the first to calm down. She raised her hands and screamed towards the black silk banner that had turned from a crescent moon into a full moon due to being soaked in blood.
She was extremely excited, her eyes full of anticipation and desire, as if she was waiting for the favor of an evil god.
On the banner, the terrifying blood-stained eye slowly turned, searching for a target to freeze in.
Suddenly, Pang Jian felt a heat in his chest, and his pupils were instantly dyed red with thick blood.
He immediately looked into the weird blood eye, and scenes suddenly emerged in his mind, as if he was being forcibly infused with some kind of memory.
…
Two chapters have been posted. If you have any recommendation votes, please give them to Lao Ni~
(End of this chapter)