Chapter 93 - 59: Hard-to-Grind Rewards

Chapter 93: Chapter 59: Hard-to-Grind Rewards

"Is it really worth climbing a mountain just for a fruit that sounds delicious?" Mu Xiaoyu wondered, her face etched with conflict.

Seeing her hesitation, the young Cultivator from Huang Bamboo Temple assumed that while she might have some wealth, she wasn’t rich enough to casually spend a hundred talismanic coins on a mere novelty. After all, the young disciples working in ordinary Daoist Temples only earned about five or six hundred talismanic coins a month. No matter how wealthy Mu Xiaoyu was, she surely wouldn’t throw away a hundred talismanic coins just for a taste, would she?

However, he didn’t care either way. The money from selling the Cultivation Fruit wouldn’t end up in his pockets; he had just mentioned it in passing. Whether Mu Xiaoyu bought it or not was of no concern to him.

Just as he was planning to find some shade to meditate for a while, Mu Xiaoyu’s eyebrows shot up. Reaching back, she drew a gleaming Magic Sword from her Qiankun Bag and unleashed a strike. Ten streaks of Sword Light shot right past his face!

The young man’s heart lurched in shock. In the blink of an eye, the ten streaks of Sword Light brushed past him and vanished into the canopy of a large tree several yards away. A series of dull THUDS rang out as the canopy violently shook, and a dark green figure plummeted to the ground.

"A demon!" The young man reacted instantly, spinning around to face the creature.

It was an ape about five or six feet tall, with deep green fur and eyes. Only its protruding fangs were white, speckled with yellow spots.

"A Green Velvet Monkey?" The young man felt a headache coming on. The fur color of this type of demon was closely tied to its Cultivation. The more powerful a Green Velvet Monkey was, the greener its fur became. Judging by the shade of this one, it likely had twenty or thirty years of Cultivation. To think it had been hiding in the canopy all this time, even knowing how to conceal its aura.

"You have incredibly sharp instincts, Junior Sister Mu!" The young man cast a grateful glance at Mu Xiaoyu. Despite the monkey being only five feet tall, its Cultivation was far superior to his own. If he had been ambushed, he would have had to send out an immediate distress signal.

This was only the first day the Cultivation Fruits had ripened, so not many demons had been attracted yet. A creature with twenty or thirty years of Cultivation was probably among the strongest in the mountains right now. Most of the time, they expected to encounter demons with only about ten years of Cultivation, or even less. Furthermore, it stood to reason that the demon-seeking Compass in his hand should have detected it. While a demon with thirty years of Cultivation was dangerous, it shouldn’t have been able to evade the Compass entirely.

With no time to overthink it, he pulled a Magical Artifact from his Qiankun Bag, preparing to seize the initiative while the Green Velvet Monkey was vulnerable. However, he quickly realized something was wrong.

The Green Velvet Monkey, known for its agility, hadn’t even tried to get up after its fall. It just lay sprawled on the ground, a massive pool of blood rapidly expanding beneath it. The creature’s body was riddled with five or six gaping holes from the Sword Light, and it was visibly on the verge of death, exhaling more than it inhaled.

Overcome with shock, he stared at Mu Xiaoyu. Did Junior Sister Mu really just kill a demon with thirty years of Cultivation in a single strike?!

Wu Mingke and Lu Kuan, who had hurried over from the shade, couldn’t discern the Green Velvet Monkey’s Cultivation. From a distance, they only saw Mu Xiaoyu suddenly draw her sword, and where her Sword Light struck, a half-dead demon plummeted to the ground. ℴℴ𝘮

"Junior Sister Mu is so strong!" Wu Mingke marveled.

"What a brilliant Sword Technique!" Lu Kuan added, equally astonished.

Facing their shocked and admiring gazes, Mu Xiaoyu showed no hint of pride. Instead, she took a deep breath and shouted, "Senior—Brother—is that you?!"

While the other three exchanged completely bewildered looks, the air beside the now-cold corpse of the Green Velvet Monkey rippled like water, revealing a figure clad in a pitch-black Daoist Robe.

"Oh? Junior Sister, how did you sense me?" Li Yinsheng didn’t even spare a glance at the monkey as he smiled and walked toward Mu Xiaoyu. He had only just mastered this Shadow Concealment Array, but surely it wasn’t that easy to see through?

"Intuition!" Mu Xiaoyu sheathed her Cold Bright Sword and puffed out her cheeks. "This isn’t the first time you’ve used a demon to prank me, Senior Brother!"

"Last time was to train your practical combat skills," Li Yinsheng replied, his expression unchanging.

"And this time?" Mu Xiaoyu demanded.

"This time was purely to mess with you," Li Yinsheng admitted.

Mu Xiaoyu puffed her cheeks out even further, glaring up at him.

"Alright, alright." He patted Mu Xiaoyu’s head and chuckled. "This monkey had thirty years of Cultivation. If you had actually encountered it on your own, you might not have even been able to escape with your life."

Of course, under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for Mu Xiaoyu to run into this monkey. The creature hadn’t even belonged to Bamboo Forest Peak; it had just been waiting for an opportunity nearby. As a demonic creature evolved from an ape, it likely possessed a modicum of intelligence. It was probably waiting for more, and stronger, demons to arrive in the coming days so it could slip in during the chaos.

When Li Yinsheng came down the mountain, his Divine Sense had swept over it. Noting that there were no demons with higher Cultivation nearby, he conveniently captured it, beat it half to death, and then strung it up in the tree. That was why his Junior Sister’s Sword Light had so effortlessly pierced the demon’s body just now. Under normal circumstances, this monkey would have had Demonic Power protecting its body. Unless his Junior Sister used her Profound Evil Sword, she would have found it nearly impossible to break through its defenses.

However...

Glancing at the monkey that had already grown cold from massive blood loss, Li Yinsheng focused his attention on the Golden Characters, which had slightly changed. In the final line, under the tribulation reward section, [Current Magic Cultivation Time: None] had changed to [Current Magic Cultivation Time: Ten Days].

Wait... was that right?

The good news was that slaying demons did indeed yield rewards. The bad news was that the rewards were far too paltry. Even if killing a demon with thirty years of Cultivation didn’t grant ten years of Magic Cultivation time, it surely shouldn’t just give ten days, right? What was this? Did this mean that slaying a century-old demon would only grant three months of Magic Cultivation time?

Li Yinsheng was deeply dissatisfied with the Grotto Heaven’s evaluation criteria. Was it because he had already beaten the monkey to the brink of death, and his Junior Sister had merely stolen the kill, that the reward was so meager?

Why? Wasn’t kill-stealing a skill in its own right?! His Junior Sister had stolen that kill fair and square—on what grounds did the Grotto Heaven have the right to skimp on the rewards?!