Chapter 23: Mutual Pursuit

In the lush green valley, surrounded by green trees, judging from the size of these trees, each one was at least a hundred years old, but if calculated truly, each of these trees was at least ten thousand years old, because these trees were Iron Trees, a type of tree that is extremely difficult to encounter and extremely difficult to grow. Iron Trees have a saying: "Ten years to sprout, a hundred years to become a tree, a thousand years to become wood, ten thousand years to become material, and a hundred million years to become a forest." This type of tree needs ten years from planting the seed in the soil to sprouting, a hundred years from sprouting to growing into a small sapling, a thousand years from a small sapling to growing into wood that can be used, and ten thousand years to grow into material that can be used by a refiner. And only after ten thousand years of becoming material will it start to propagate, and it takes a hundred million years to propagate into a forest. Of course, when people use Iron Trees, it doesn't necessarily have to be an Iron Tree that has become material after ten thousand years. In fact, people often use Iron Trees that have only become trees after a hundred years, or at most Iron Trees that have become wood after a thousand years, because after a hundred years of becoming a tree, the trunk and branches of the Iron Tree will derive into iron, and it will become harder as the years increase. One only needs to remove the outer bark to make a weapon of the iron stick type. Because of this characteristic, Iron Trees are also the favorite refining material for refiners outside, and also the material refiners hate the most. It is said to be the favorite because as long as there is an Iron Tree of sufficient age involved in refining, the weapon will definitely be successful, and it can basically reach the maximum level that the refiner can refine, and it is even possible to break through the level, so refiners like it very much. But this age is ten thousand years, and the growth characteristics of the Iron Tree determine that it is almost impossible to exist in a large area. Moreover, an Iron Tree must be ten thousand years old before it starts to propagate, and ten thousand years is also when the Iron Tree becomes material. So when refiners encounter an Iron Tree, they are very conflicted. If it is an Iron Tree that has not become material, it is of no great use to them, but waiting for it to become material takes too long, and guarding it is meaningless. If it is an Iron Tree that has become material, then it is exactly the time for it to propagate, and cutting it down is a great pity, but not cutting it down means it cannot be refined. Moreover, you want to cut down a ten thousand-year-old Iron Tree, but it is very difficult to cut it down, because the degree to which it has derived into iron has reached a level that ordinary refiners cannot handle. Finally, there are some people who are not refiners. As long as they encounter an Iron Tree, as long as they can cut it down, they will basically cut down the Iron Tree to make weapons, because weapons made of Iron Trees, although not refined by refiners, are still much better than weapons made of ordinary materials, and can even be compared to treasures that can increase attack capabilities. This has led to fewer Iron Trees.

So when they first saw this stretch of Iron Trees, Zhuge Zhou and the others couldn't believe their eyes. After several people confirmed it three times, they finally believed that these were all Iron Trees. Then they were overjoyed. They had been worried because they had no weapons, but now that the weapons were right in front of them, how could they not be happy?

After Zhuge Zhou and the others confirmed that they were Iron Trees, they hurriedly selected suitable Iron Trees. It was a pity that their abilities could only obtain Iron Trees under five hundred years old. The best was Zhuge Zhou's five-hundred-year-old Iron Tree, and the rest were mostly three hundred and fifty to four hundred years old, among which Zhuge Nan and Zhuge Han's Iron Trees were relatively better, both being four hundred and fifty years old.

After obtaining the weapons, the ten people of Zhuge Tao rested in the Iron Wood Forest for a period of time, and finally continued forward to hunt when food was running low.

Just like this, they walked and stopped. About twenty hours later, during a rest, Zhuge Song suddenly heard a violent roar when he went to relieve himself, and then a monkey five times larger than an ordinary monkey jumped out of the grass not far from him and launched an attack on him. But Zhuge Song's reaction was also very sensitive; he directly jumped back with his pants in both hands, dodged the monkey's attack, and then ran back with his pants, finally running back to the place where they were resting and telling Zhuge Zhou and the others about the situation.

But when he was still telling the story, the monkey had already chased up and launched an attack directly toward Zhuge Nan, who was not far in front. Zhuge Nan saw this monkey attacking him, immediately grabbed his iron wood stick with both hands, pushed his iron wood stick forward, and directly collided with the monkey's fist, preventing the monkey's fist from hitting him. But Zhuge Nan was still knocked back, sliding five or six meters on the ground with his feet.

And only then did the crowd react, and they immediately raised their iron wood sticks and chased the monkey to launch an attack. And the monkey was also smart and very sensitive, jumping out of the crowd's attack range in a few jumps. Then it continued to launch attacks on the crowd. At the same time, it relied on its flexibility to dodge the attacks of Zhuge Zhou and the others.

But Zhuge Zhou and the others were not fools, and immediately understood that it was impossible to attack the monkey like this, so they immediately changed their strategy. Zhuge Zhou, Zhuge Nan, and Zhuge Han gradually separated during the fight, hiding in three directions, and the others also intentionally led the monkey toward the direction of the three of them. Finally, they successfully led the monkey toward Zhuge Han's direction.

Just when the monkey wanted to jump up again to dodge the attacks of others, Zhuge Han saw the timing, first jumped up from behind the monkey, and then directly smashed the iron wood stick in his hand from top to bottom onto the monkey's head, knocking the monkey down. Following closely, the others immediately followed up, attacking the monkey by knocking, smashing, or sweeping, beating the monkey to a pulp. Finally, amid the monkey's roar, the monkey endured the pain of being attacked and fled toward the depths of the forest, and Zhuge Tao and the others immediately chased after it.

Finally, they chased to a huge valley and started fighting with the monkey again. This time, because it was an active attack, Zhuge Zhou's people were well-prepared, especially since they were using iron wood sticks now, so it didn't take long for the monkey to start showing signs of defeat and slowly retreat toward the deepest part of the valley.

Zhuge Zhou and the others certainly wouldn't let the monkey run away like this, so they continued to walk forward.

But just when they were about to catch up, Zhuge Kai, who was running in front, was suddenly heavily blasted by something, directly knocked flying, and also vomited blood.

And this scene also stunned the others. They saw that the monkey at this time was also holding an iron wood stick and sweeping toward them. So they used the iron wood sticks in their hands to block, but discovered that their iron wood sticks were simply vulnerable, directly broken, and finally, people and sticks were swept away together. Three people in a row had the same result, until the monkey's iron wood stick swept to Zhuge Zhou's iron wood stick, and it didn't break.

But the monkey didn't fight Zhuge Zhou to the death, but turned its target to others. Changing direction, it repeated its old trick and swept toward others. Finally, three more people were swept and knocked flying. And at this moment, Zhuge Zhou saw that the situation was not good, and immediately let others cover each other and retreat from the valley. But the monkey still wouldn't let them go and chased out of the valley, wanting to kill Zhuge Tao and the others. But Zhuge Tao and the others covered each other and finally escaped the monkey's pursuit. ===== CHAPTER 24 =====