Chapter 38: A Monkey Falls from the Sky

"Several hundred years have passed; it should be about time." Tian Yuan stood upon the clouds, looking toward the distant Eastern Land.

It was still an endless expanse of mountains, with no sign of the majestic East Sea.

The Wu Clan tribes in the vicinity were much sparser, and there were fewer clansmen; he had likely reached the outer periphery of the radiation.

He carried several million Wu clansmen on his person, all of them efficient laborers; it was time to return and use them to clear the Earth Veins.

As Tian Yuan turned to fly toward Mount Buzhou, he felt a sense of doubt in his heart.

He had already captured the Great Witches Kuafu and Houyi, and he had been extremely cautious during this period, fearing the appearance of an Ancestral Witch.

Yet, he had swept through almost the entire Houtu Tribe, and the legendary Ancestral Witches still had not appeared.

He remembered that in the descriptions of the Primordial World, only Houtu and Xuanming had entered the Purple Heaven Palace; Xuanming had left halfway through because she could not understand, showing no respect to Hongjun, and Houtu had not attended the second sermon either.

As for the other ten Ancestral Witches, they had not appeared in the Purple Heaven Palace during the first sermon.

Now that three thousand years were approaching and the Purple Heaven Palace sermon was about to begin, could it be that these Ancestral Witches were all holed up in the Pangu Temple, cultivating in seclusion?

After much thought, Tian Yuan still felt this was the most likely possibility.

Otherwise, with such a major event occurring in the Houtu Tribe, surely some Wu clansmen would have gone to report it to the Ancestral Witches.

With the Ancestral Witches in closed-door cultivation, even the Great Witches likely dared not disturb them easily.

If that were truly the case, then he could still make plans at the foot of Mount Buzhou.

Although the tribes under the twelve Ancestral Witches all belonged to the Wu Clan, each Ancestral Witch was different, and the tribal architecture still had its distinctions.

The tribes under Houtu were almost all located in valleys or plains, and they were generally built of piled boulders.

In the northern direction, Tian Yuan discovered some tribes living by the water, where the buildings were mostly made of wood.

If the Ancestral Witches were indeed in seclusion, he wouldn't dare speak for those too far away, but he could certainly scour the entire perimeter at the foot of Mount Buzhou.

Having captured over ten million Wu clansmen, it was only a matter of time before he attracted the attention of the Ancestral Witches.

With this in mind, Tian Yuan dove into the earth and quickly tunneled toward Mount Buzhou.

Only by clearing more Earth Veins could he rapidly increase his strength; once he reached a level where he could ignore the Ancestral Witches, why would he need to be so cautious?

Just thinking about the situation within the Earth Veins left Tian Yuan feeling depressed.

In these several hundred years, he had only managed to clear three Branch Veins, and one of those had been purified by the Blood Dragon and the other Demons.

After tunneling with all his might for over two hundred years, Tian Yuan finally caught sight of the foot of Mount Buzhou.

Thinking of the densely packed Wu clansmen inside the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil at this moment, he could not help but feel a surge of heat in his heart.

With a few leaps, just as Tian Yuan was about to burrow into Mount Buzhou, a scream rang out from the sky to his right, and a petite figure fell from the air, kicking up a cloud of dust.

As his gaze swept over, Tian Yuan was stunned for a moment, then strode forward.

A demon monkey covered in yellow fur lay motionless on the ground.

On both sides of the messy fur behind its head, three ears drooped on each side, with wisps of fresh blood flowing from them.

With such a unique mark, how could Tian Yuan not know who had arrived?

The Six-Eared Macaque, formed from one-quarter of the Chaos Demon Ape, was also a wretched fellow of the Primordial World.

From the saying "the Dharma is not transmitted to the six-eared," he had survived from the Purple Heaven Palace sermon until the Journey to the West Great Calamity, yet he remained a small fry.

Tian Yuan looked up at the firmament and muttered, "Time really flies; the Purple Heaven Palace sermon has actually begun."

Glancing down at the Six-Eared Macaque, who was only at the Golden Immortal stage, Tian Yuan infused a strand of magic power into its body and strode toward Mount Buzhou.

Since they had met so coincidentally, Tian Yuan did not mind helping this pitiful fellow.

As for bringing it into that space, that was absolutely out of the question; he did not want to attract the attention of that person in the Purple Heaven Palace so soon.

Moreover, the current Six-Eared Macaque was only in the early stage of the Golden Immortal realm; its cultivation was truly too weak.

The Six-Eared Macaque, which had been lying on the ground, slowly opened its eyes, and a yellowish figure flashed past its vision.

Within the Consciousness Space, Tian Yuan stood tall on the divine mountain, his gaze directed downward. He had completely cleared and purified forty Branch Veins, and figures were surging within most of the remaining veins; only the twenty-four veins at the end of the Main Vein were quiet.

Purifying forty-four Branch Veins simultaneously was another reason for the slow speed.

Under the reflection of the gray firmament, those twenty-four Branch Veins gradually grew dark, and the last few were almost indistinguishable from the world itself.

"Let's synchronize the purification of all the Branch Veins; that way, I can just throw people into them directly in the future." Muttering softly, Tian Yuan slowly settled his mind.

Under the shroud of Mount Buzhou's powerful will, many Wu clansmen at the Taiyi Golden Immortal stage appeared within the new Earth Veins.

The Blood Dragon and his two brothers, who were working hard in the Earth Vein, were filled with confusion as they looked at the Mysterious Yellow Qi enveloping them.

They had only just begun to clear this current Earth Vein; why had the senior let them leave?

As a rosy light flashed, the three demons scanned their surroundings, and a strange look immediately crossed their eyes.

It was a new Earth Vein, and it looked even more severely blocked than the previous ones.

Before they could step forward to investigate, they saw one wretched figure after another falling from the air, many of them wailing and begging for mercy.

Just by taking one look, the three demons already understood the meaning.

"We, the small demons, shall not fail the senior's trust!" The three bowed respectfully toward the direction of the divine mountain.

One figure after another was scattered into the many Earth Veins, with nearly ten million Wu clansmen divided equally among them, while the numerous Demons were cast into the vein where the Blood Dragon was located.

After finishing all this, Tian Yuan appeared within the Main Vein in the very center.

With earth-shattering roars echoing continuously, Kuafu and Houyi were dancing within it.

Pieces of Strange Stone shattered, turning into fragments that scattered in all directions, only to be annihilated by them with a casual wave.

The moment Tian Yuan appeared, the two stopped their movements.

"Tian Yuan!" Kuafu panted heavily, his eyes burning with fighting spirit.

In these nearly thousand years, he had gained much, and his physical body had become much tougher.

But just thinking of the white stone man he had fought back then, Kuafu felt a bit discouraged.

How could anyone possibly refine the Law of Force to such a pure state? At least he had not managed it yet.

Yet Tian Yuan, this stone man, was able to command them.

Meeting the gazes of the two, Tian Yuan grinned: "I've brought you a little companion!"

Having said that, he waved his large hand, and a figure tumbled out in a sorry state.

Aside from Kuafu and Houyi, this was the last Great Witch of the Great Luo Golden Immortal Essence Refining Stage in the Houtu Tribe.

"Roar!"

The leopard-headed, human-bodied Great Witch had just appeared when he let out an angry roar.

Seeing Tian Yuan, this stone man, he was about to pounce forward, but he sensed two familiar auras nearby.

Turning to look, his face was instantly filled with joy, and he shouted aloud: "Two brothers, this stone man bullied our clansmen; we must capture him."

The stone man's magic treasure was too powerful; when he had rashly rushed into it earlier, he had absolutely no power to fight back.

Now that Kuafu and Houyi were here, what was there to worry about? The captured clansmen would also be saved.

Kuafu, already feeling vexed, backhanded his wooden staff and smashed it over.

The Great Witch, who had rushed forward, hadn't even reacted before he was knocked to the ground by the wooden staff.

With his tough physical body, he rubbed his head and climbed up, groaning.

He cast his gaze toward Houyi at his side, but to his surprise, the other ignored him and raised his fist to strike at the surrounding stones.

With a rumbling sound, the Great Witch looked at Tian Yuan, who had vanished behind him, then looked at his two brothers, his heart full of confusion.

(End of this chapter)