Chapter Four: Break! When Man and Monkey Meet, It Is a Fight!

Chapter Four: Break! When Man Meets Monkey, It Is Battle!

"You-you-you're a monster!"

The monkey pointed at Zhou Yu with one hand and toppled backward onto the ground, his face full of terror.

Zhou Yu slowly opened his eyes and looked out. A monkey was shrieking and pointing at him.

"Eat him, eat him!"

When the monkey saw Zhou Yu open his eyes and noticed the black wisps rising from the crab shell that had been pried apart, Zhou Yu looked for all the world like some fiend crawled up from the netherworld. He instantly felt that the eyes Zhou Yu turned on him were eyes that wanted to devour him, and panic seized him.

Zhou Yu still had no idea what was going on. Hearing the monkey yell something about a monster, he looked around but saw nothing. Then, gathering his strength, he flipped himself down from the crab's mouth.

That only made the monkey even more terrified. Thinking Zhou Yu was coming to eat him, he hurriedly kicked out at Zhou Yu with one of his furry feet.

Zhou Yu had not the slightest expectation that this demon monkey, trembling and babbling nonsense about monsters, would suddenly attack him. He took the kick squarely in the chest, leaving a dark monkey-foot print there, and his body was sent flying backward into the crab.

With a thunderous crash, the red crab's shell turned out to be absurdly brittle. Struck by Zhou Yu, it shattered at once into a heap of fragments.

Among those fragments stood a black pillar driven into the ground. Zhou Yu, having smashed through the crab shell, lost no momentum and slammed straight into that black column.

The red crab shell was fragile, shattering at a touch, but the black pillar was astonishingly resilient. When Zhou Yu hit it, it bent under the force, then sprang back into shape and rebounded him away.

The monkey had just scrambled to his feet when he saw Zhou Yu hurtling toward him again, so he kicked once more. Still dazed, Zhou Yu took another blow, and a sharp pain flared in his chest.

Once again, he crashed into the black pillar and bounced back.

Just as the monkey turned to flee, he found that the monster behind him, the one that ate people, had flown back again. Shock flooded his heart. This monster was formidable indeed! It had taken two of his kicks and shown no sign of being harmed! No wonder it could swallow that crab that had looked so fearsome!

The monkey whirled to face Zhou Yu, who was flying in at great speed, and kicked out again.

After taking several kicks in a row, Zhou Yu gradually regained his senses. Seeing that hateful monkey baring its teeth at him as though mocking him, anger surged up in his chest. When it stretched out that filthy black leg to kick him again, Zhou Yu thrust out both hands and, at the very instant of contact, clamped tightly onto the leg.

The monkey had not expected his kick to be caught. Zhou Yu's charge was so fast that it sent the monkey sprawling at once.

Man and monkey rolled across the ground several times before Zhou Yu released his grip, and the two separated.

The monkey sprang up. Zhou Yu also climbed to his feet. Without a word, without even the slightest pause, man and monkey struck at each other almost simultaneously.

Narrowing his eyes, Zhou Yu watched the monkey's fist coming at him. Thanks to his practice of the Slow Sword, he caught the path of the attack and instinctively changed his fist into a claw, seizing the monkey's punch and blocking it.

Yet the monkey's other fist came smashing in as well. Zhou Yu extended his other hand and firmly caught that one too.

The monkey had fought countless battles and did not panic even with both hands held. Instead, using the chance Zhou Yu had given him, he stamped his feet against the ground, yanked with both arms, and sent his two legs flying toward Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu braced himself on one leg and swept the other across, deflecting the attack. But he had not counted on the monkey's tail.

That tail, stiff as an iron rod, seized the opening when Zhou Yu had just fended off the attack of his legs and could not change posture in time. It lashed Zhou Yu hard, sending him staggering to one side. But the monkey's hands were still locked in Zhou Yu's grip, so the monkey was dragged down to the ground as well.

The moment they hit the earth, the monkey kicked again. Zhou Yu raised one leg to pin down the foot coming at him, then used the other leg the same way to restrain the monkey's other leg. Yet there was no extra hand or foot to deal with the tail, and in an instant the monkey had whipped him several times with it, crack, crack, crack.

With no choice, Zhou Yu had to let go. Freed at last, the monkey rolled away with quick, nimble motions, then got to his feet.

Zhou Yu also rose and fixed him with a steady stare.

Man and monkey stood facing each other.

Though only an instant had passed, the monkey had already shaken off the fear that had gripped him at first. He began to reassess Zhou Yu's strength. From their brief exchange just now, the monkey realized Zhou Yu was not nearly as powerful as he had imagined. His courage swelled.

When had he, Monkey Lord, ever been knocked flat by anyone below the level of a demon king? His fighting spirit soared, and he bared his teeth at Zhou Yu, issuing a low growl.

Meanwhile, a fierce fire burned in Zhou Yu's chest. He had been inexplicably beaten around by a monkey, and this monkey did not even seem all that strong. How could he swallow that indignity? Besides, although the monkey had struck him many times, for reasons he could not explain his body seemed to have become far more powerful. The blows hurt, certainly, but they had not truly damaged him. So Zhou Yu was set on giving this monkey a proper beating.

Yet this monkey fought with hands, feet, and even a tail. Zhou Yu could track the monkey's attack lines thanks to his training in the Slow Sword, but he had no tail of his own; no matter how he blocked, it would still be hard to defend against every attack. So Zhou Yu decided to meet the monkey head-on.

Each harbored his own thoughts. A black bamboo leaf drifted quietly down between them, and the moment it touched the dust, two gusts of force lifted it again.

Zhou Yu and the monkey attacked at the same time. Zhou Yu threw out a single fist and no longer bothered with the monkey's attacks; his punch aimed for the monkey's head, and in his mind flashed the image of that skull bursting open. For reasons he could not fathom, Zhou Yu even felt a trace of excitement.

The monkey was the same. Raising his fist, he smashed forward with all his might.

A deafening boom rang out, and both figures were sent flying. Man and monkey crashed to the ground far apart, each smashing through several black bamboo stalks.

Zhou Yu clambered up from the earth, caked in dirt, and with both hands on his knees glared across at the monkey while panting.

The monkey was injured all over as well. He was certainly tough, but he was not invulnerable, and so long as his wounds were not too severe, they tended to rouse his ferocity even more. But this time was different. Their exchange had gone on too long, and even the monkey was beginning to struggle. His calves were already trembling.

Zhou Yu looked up at the sky, which was darkening fast, and thought that if night fell, he would be at a severe disadvantage if he could no longer see clearly.

Then he glanced at the many round pits they had blasted into the ground, large and small, and at the countless black bamboo stalks they had snapped in two. He coughed, cleared his throat, and said, "Demon monkey, if we keep going like this, I don't mind, but it seems a little too destructive to the environment. That's not very good."

The monkey did not understand a word Zhou Yu said about the environment, but when he heard Zhou Yu say that continuing the fight was not good, it suited him perfectly. He was tough, and he loved to fight, but driving each other back and forth like this with the simplest, most brutal blows had begun to bore him. More important, he was exhausted now and needed rest to recover his strength and injuries.

So the monkey also pretended to look up at the sky and said, "Hm, you make a fair point. I don't mind either, but night is coming, and the cute little birds are going home to sleep. Disturbing other people's sleep is a very bad thing."

Hearing this, Zhou Yu felt a great weight lift from his heart. He wanted nothing more than to sit down heavily and rest, but he did not dare let the monkey see that he was already at the end of his strength. He forced himself onward and walked step by step to a fallen black bamboo stalk before sitting down.

The monkey, for his part, paid no attention at all and simply flopped backward onto the ground. Reaching down, he began scooping up dirt and stuffing it into his mouth.

Watching the monkey eat dirt, Zhou Yu asked, "How does it taste?"

At first the monkey did not want to answer, fearing that if he angered Zhou Yu, Zhou Yu would drag him back into another fight. So he said, "It tastes like scallion pancakes."

Zhou Yu felt a chill of sweat run down his back. Scallion pancakes?

"You've eaten scallion pancakes?" Zhou Yu asked cautiously.

The monkey shoved another handful of dirt into his mouth and muttered, "No, but I've heard of them. I figured scallion pancakes ought to taste as good as dirt does."

"Your tastes are certainly unusual," Zhou Yu said. "Come to think of it, since you're this strong, you must be at demon-king level, right?"

After spending the whole day fighting this perverse monkey, Zhou Yu's initial excitement had long since faded, and he was thinking of building some rapport with him so he would not have to fight again tomorrow.

The monkey had also been worn down by battle, and he replied, "Of course! I am a genius that only appears once in ten thousand years among the demon race. I even escaped from the hands of the Demon Emperor White Bone Cry. Eighty percent of all demon kings in the demon race have fought me, and none of them could kill me. Tell me, am I not very strong?"

In truth, anyone who could escape from White Bone Cry and survive battles with eighty percent of the demon kings was no ordinary figure by any measure.

Just then, a rustling sound came from the forest.

The monkey and Zhou Yu both turned to look.

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