Chapter 38: Discussing Monsters Over Venison

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Chapter 38: Discussing Monsters over Venison
(Third Update)

A man, a monkey, and a pig sat beneath the night sky, eating venison and warming themselves by the fire. Before they knew it, the night had deepened. Yet the chill of early winter had done nothing to diminish Fatty’s enthusiasm.

Sweat covered Fatty’s head as he said, “Actually, every circumstance is greatly in our favor right now. The Demon Emperor White Bone Cry took most of the subordinates loyal to her with her to the human side, leaving the demon territory with the weakest defenses it has ever had. Moreover, she has favored the five great clans for years while ruling the smaller clans with bloodshed, so their resentment has long since reached a boiling point.”

After taking a sip of water, Fatty continued, “We are currently in the northern part of the demon territory. Other than the Leopard Clan and the Eagle Clan, all the surrounding clans are small ones. If we handle things properly, we should be able to bring them under our control. Meanwhile, White Bone Cry is locked in a bitter struggle with the humans and has no spare strength to deal with us. This is the best opportunity we could ask for.”

Zhou Yu and the Lustful Monkey nodded repeatedly. While Fatty was drinking, Zhou Yu said, “I think you should have been surnamed Zhuge.”

“I am a pig, but I am not surnamed Zhuge,” Fatty explained earnestly.

Zhou Yu took a bite of venison and asked, “Do you know anything about the Fox Clan?”

“The Fox Clan? They are an utterly unusual presence among the demon clans. It is said that they once lived beneath Mist Mountain, but because they grew too close to the humans, the Demon Emperor of that era forcibly drove them here. They nearly went extinct. It was not until this generation produced a Demon King that they began to recover. The Fox Clan’s current Demon King is also an extraordinary figure among the Demon Kings. Somehow, she learned a demon art that had been lost for countless years. Even the five great Demon Kings give her considerable leeway.”

Fatty was clearly a walking encyclopedia.

Zhou Yu asked, “Has anything unusual happened among the Fox Clan lately?”

“I haven’t heard anything recently. But if you want to know, I can find out,” Fatty replied.

Zhou Yu thought for a moment. “Then I’ll leave it to you.”

The Lustful Monkey looked at Zhou Yu with some concern. “Are you really planning to take that woman in?”

Fatty stared at Zhou Yu in confusion.

Zhou Yu spread his hands and told Fatty about Little Qing.

When Fatty finished listening, he furrowed his brows. His plump pig face immediately took on an oddly endearing expression.

“This is troublesome. I was wondering why the Fox Clan had suddenly been acting strangely these past few days. They sent out so many silver foxes because they were searching for their princess.”

Fatty set down the venison in his hand, rubbed his palms together, and continued, “If my guess is right, the expert who broke into the Fox Clan was probably the mysterious expert who originally lived on this mountain.”

“Really?” Zhou Yu asked.

Fatty chuckled. “It’s only a guess. Everyone knows that a mysterious expert resides on Flower-Fruit Mountain, but after we came up here, we found no trace of one. Coincidentally, an expert no weaker than the five great Demon Kings appeared among the Fox Clan recently. And although they sent out so many silver foxes, they never came here to search. The most reasonable explanation is that the expert came from this place.”

“It is only speculation, so we cannot treat it as fact,” Fatty added.

The Lustful Monkey pulled over a hind leg and began gnawing on it. He kicked a piece of wood into the fire with his foot, swallowed a few mouthfuls of meat, and said, “If you have a good plan, then spit it out.”

When Fatty remained silent, Zhou Yu understood that the matter would be difficult. After all, if they provoked an expert no weaker than the five great Demon Kings, Flower-Fruit Mountain’s forces would be utterly inadequate.

He glanced back at the cave in the cliff wall and sighed. “I will never give up Little Qing.”

Fatty smiled without expressing an opinion and lowered his head to continue eating. For a moment, the atmosphere grew awkward.

The Lustful Monkey suddenly cursed. “Damn it! It’s not as though we’ve never killed a Demon King before. At worst, we find that fellow and fight him.”

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Zhou Yu waved a hand. “Actually, I have an idea. I just don’t know whether it will work.”

Before the Lustful Monkey and Fatty could ask, Zhou Yu continued, “According to what Little Qing said, the Fox Queen only promised Little Qing to that expert because she had no other choice. I think we can make use of that. We can join forces with the Fox Queen, set a trap for the expert, and then combine all our strength to subdue him.”

The Lustful Monkey spat out a piece of bone. “Sounds good to me!”

Fatty said, “I can help you contact the Fox Queen.”

Zhou Yu thanked him. As for how Fatty would contact the Fox Queen or how he knew so much, neither Zhou Yu nor the Lustful Monkey asked. Those secrets were Fatty’s capital.

The three of them then discussed in detail how they might annex and recruit the surrounding small clans, as well as whether such plans were feasible. When the subject turned to the nearby great clans—the Leopard Clan and the Eagle Clan—the Lustful Monkey told Fatty about Bison Valley.

Fatty immediately clapped his hands in delight and exclaimed toward the heavens, “The heavens truly favor us!”

“You may not know this, but the conflict between the Leopard Clan and the Eagle Clan runs far deeper than it appears. They have long been utterly irreconcilable. Now that the matter of Bison Valley has arisen, neither side has any reason to yield. I estimate that they will fight until both sides suffer heavy losses. The two of you are both at the level of Demon Generals. If you go and challenge them, they will accept the challenge even if they have to crawl there, all for the sake of winning the respect of their clansmen. And your combat strength is far beyond that of ordinary Demon Generals, so your chances of victory are very high.”

Fatty spoke with complete confidence.

Zhou Yu rubbed his nose. “Why do I feel that you are making it sound far too easy?”

Fatty extended a finger and picked a strand of meat from between his teeth. With a flick, he sent it into the fire. It landed with a sharp hiss, and a wisp of foul-smelling white smoke rose into the air.

Watching the smoke drift upward before slowly dispersing, Fatty said solemnly, “Many things are simple by nature. We only make them difficult by overthinking them. Once you take the first step, those difficulties will resolve themselves.”

It was nearly dawn when Zhou Yu finally returned to the cliff cave. The faint morning light was like a veil, shrouding the entire earth in a hazy whiteness.

Darkness still filled the cave. By the dim light of dawn, Zhou Yu looked at Little Qing, who was fast asleep.

She lay curled up on the dried grass, seemingly afraid of the chill of early winter. Her eyelids trembled faintly, as though she were dreaming of something unknown.

Zhou Yu leaned against a stone beside the cave entrance and watched the stars gradually fade from the sky as dawn broke. For a long time, he could not fall asleep.

It had been a long time since he had suffered from insomnia. Ever since arriving at the Rakshasa Path, Zhou Yu had cultivated desperately, exhausting himself almost every day before falling into a deep sleep as quickly as possible.

He looked again at Little Qing, sleeping peacefully. The corners of his mouth lifted unconsciously into a smile. He picked up a withered branch and casually scribbled aimlessly across the ground.

His mind was a tangled mess, leaping from one thought to another.

Only in the end did Zhou Yu realize that he had actually developed the resolve to confront an expert on the level of one of the five great Demon Kings for the sake of a little fox. The realization left him drenched in cold sweat.

Yet when he thought of Little Qing, he had to admit that he truly liked her. Perhaps it was because of her exquisite features and graceful figure. Perhaps it was because she was the first woman he had encountered in this world. Whatever the reason, she belonged to him, and he would never allow anyone else to lay a hand on her.

An expert as powerful as one of the five great Demon Kings?

Zhou Yu placed a strand of dried grass between his teeth and chewed.

If Lady Du were still here, and if he and the Lustful Monkey used their combined technique, with the Fox Queen’s assistance as well, Zhou Yu believed they had a good chance of capturing that expert.

He turned his wrist over and looked at the green mole. At some point, it had grown considerably larger, and its green color had deepened. In the cold wind and morning light, it even seemed to glow faintly.

Zhou Yu’s heart jolted. He called out with his mind, “Lady Du, is that you?”

But hope was like the starlight of the previous night. As time passed and the sun rose, it gradually vanished without a trace.

Zhou Yu let out a heavy sigh. The white vapor from his breath slowly condensed into mist in the air, drifting away as it constantly changed shape.

Little Qing stirred, apparently disturbed by the chill of the early winter morning. She curled herself up more tightly, hugging her body.

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Zhou Yu closed his eyes and pondered for a while. Then he rose, walked over to Little Qing, leaned forward, and gently drew her into his arms.

Little Qing opened her eyes and looked at Zhou Yu in a daze, letting out a faint murmur.

Zhou Yu placed a light kiss on her forehead, then held her more tightly and whispered, “Sleep well. This will keep you warmer.”

Little Qing nodded gently, burrowed a little deeper into Zhou Yu’s embrace, and closed her eyes to continue sleeping.

Once the Fox Clan reached adulthood, its members transformed into human form, a process that consumed an enormous amount of life energy. However, the Fox Clan’s royal family possessed a secret art that allowed them to absorb the essence of life from nature during the transformation, reducing the danger of failure caused by insufficient energy.

On the night Little Qing transformed, however, the absorption of the vegetation’s essence on Flower-Fruit Mountain had been interrupted. It was then that Zhou Yu had intercourse with Little Qing, replenishing her with powerful life energy and enabling her to complete the transformation successfully.

He had, in effect, saved her life. That was why Little Qing had followed Zhou Yu the next day without putting up much of a struggle. Having only just transformed, her body was extremely weak, and she needed a long period of sleep to consolidate the results of the transformation.

Zhou Yu gazed at Little Qing with affection, then closed his eyes as well.

Outside the cliff cave, the wind howled. Winter came especially early and swiftly to Flower-Fruit Mountain, which lay close to the Far Northern Glacier.

It seemed to arrive overnight. That morning, the cold wind roared beneath a sky packed with dark clouds, as though snow were about to fall.

Fatty had not slept all night, yet he remained full of energy as he directed the wild boar soldiers in carrying supplies and gathering fruit.

He accepted a bowl of hot soup from one of his subordinates and drained it in a single gulp. After wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked up at the increasingly heavy storm clouds, handed his work over to one of the others, and walked away.

In a dense forest far from the others, Fatty was giving instructions to a sturdy wild boar soldier.

When he had finished, Fatty dragged out a large sack from one side and handed it to the powerful soldier. “The fruit in this sack was carefully selected by me. Apart from what I just told you, deliver it to the Fox Queen and tell her that Fatty presents it as a humble offering.”

The sturdy wild boar soldier opened his mouth, revealing white teeth and half of a tongue that had been severed. A few indistinct sounds came from his throat.

Fatty nodded. “Don’t worry. Our new king is someone capable of accomplishing great things. We no longer need to skulk around as we did before. Still, we must remain cautious this time.”

The mute wild boar soldier nodded, slung the large sack of fruit over his back, turned, and leaped away. With a single bound, he covered more than thirty feet.

This mute wild boar soldier was astonishingly a Demon General-level expert.

Fatty himself was only at the level of a Demon Soldier. Yet in this world, where strength ruled all, he had somehow made a Demon General obey his every command. The extent of his ability was obvious.

Watching the mute wild boar soldier disappear into the forest, Fatty let out a long breath and murmured to himself, “Little Eight, you will never have to live in darkness again. I will make you the most famous warrior among the Wild Boar Clan and see that you receive the respect you deserve.”

At noon, snow finally began to fall from the sky. It drifted thickly and steadily, while the wind had died down.

Beneath the cliff wall, the Lustful Monkey shouted loudly, “Zhou Yu! Come out of the cave!”

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