Ch. 17
Chapter 17: The Troublesome Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape
Malformed Demon Apes were the most common low-tier demonic fiends in the Qingcang Mountains.
Over these past several decades on the escort road, this was the kind of demonic fiend they had killed the most.
According to escort-road experience, when one encountered a low-tier fiend blocking the way, it had to be killed with thunderous swiftness. One absolutely could not allow it to let out a cry for help and summon its companions.
Li Fei noticed that Luo Li had poked her head out from the carriage, and his eyes shifted at once.
This was the perfect opportunity to put on a good show before her and win back some face for the older generation.
The spear in Li Fei’s hand shot out like a venomous serpent leaving its hole, stabbing straight toward the demon ape’s throat in a clean and ruthless strike that fully displayed the vicious efficiency of a veteran escort master.
At the rear of the convoy, Chen Guan was also examining that demon ape.
He felt that something was wrong.
Although the beast looked exactly like a Malformed Demon Ape, when it drew back and gathered strength, the grain of muscle in its thighs gave off a strange reddish tint.
More importantly, its eyes lacked the mindless savagery of an ordinary demon ape. Instead, they held the icy chill of a death-sworn killer.
With a thought, Chen Guan opened the system and immediately pulled up the 【Demonic Fiend Bestiary】 for comparison.
“Damn it, that’s a Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape!”
His face changed at once, and he immediately shouted a warning.
“Stop! Don’t shatter its chest!”
But Li Fei’s spear was too fast.
Or rather, he had no intention of stopping in the first place.
That Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape was not especially strong to begin with, merely at the Xiantian Realm.
Against Li Fei, who stood in the Profound Passage Realm, it had no power to resist at all.
Splurt!
The spear pierced cleanly through the demon ape’s chest.
Its withered body suddenly swelled like an inflated bladder, and with a thunderous boom, it exploded on the spot!
A cloud of blood mist and shredded flesh rose into the air and, carried by the mountain wind, came sweeping straight toward Luo Li’s carriage.
“Ah!”
Luo Li had just pushed aside the curtain to look outside. The first thing she saw was that bloody, bursting scene, and when she realized the foul-smelling blood was about to splash onto her face, she screamed in fright.
A figure flashed past.
Chen Guan raised a hand and swept it outward. An invisible force burst forth, scattering the oncoming rain of blood and flesh in all directions.
Even so, one single drop still landed squarely on the back of Luo Li’s hand.
“Hah! You still wanted to blow yourself up? You overestimate yourself!”
Up ahead, Li Fei withdrew his spear and let out another scornful laugh, deliberately flaunting his own strength.
“Chen Guan, what nonsense were you shouting just now?!”
Among the convoy, one fair-faced escort master rode back over, his expression stern as he barked at Chen Guan, who had just landed.
“It was only one of the most common low-tier demon apes. Li Fei acted according to the rules and killed it with lightning speed to avoid alarming the greater fiends hidden in the deep mountains. What fault was there in that?”
“If your shout had drawn out something even more vicious, could you have borne the responsibility?”
It was not that they were deliberately picking a fight.
The escort trade had iron laws of its own.
In the eyes of these seasoned veterans, Chen Guan’s startled outburst just now was the true taboo of the trade.
Li Fei also withdrew his spear and, in the moonlight, wiped the blood from the tip. His tone turned hard and cold.
“Chen Guan, I know you have a great reputation back in Sanhua Town, but here in the Qingcang Mountains, I’ve killed no fewer than eight hundred of these things, if not a thousand.”
“If you’re too nervous, then go sit in the middle of the convoy. Don’t make a fuss over nothing here.”
Chen Guan said nothing.
He merely turned his head slowly and let his gaze fall upon Li Fei.
That look was as calm as a stagnant pool, yet it made Li Fei’s heart turn cold for no reason at all, and even the motion of wiping his spear froze for the briefest instant.
“What are you looking at?” Li Fei forced himself to glare back.
The corner of Chen Guan’s mouth lifted slightly, revealing a smile whose meaning was impossible to read.
“Nothing. I only wanted to confirm whether that thrust of yours was an accident... or deliberate.”
“What do you mean by that?” Li Fei’s face changed at once.
Chen Guan ignored him, turned, and walked toward the carriage, leaving behind only one airy sentence.
“The next time, I’ll cut off your hand before you even thrust. Remember this—my escort admits not the slightest room for ‘accidents.’”
The veins on Li Fei’s hand bulged as he gripped his spear, but Luo Tong stopped him from the side.
Several of the nearby escort masters exchanged glances, suddenly feeling that the night wind had grown much colder.
Meanwhile, among the group, a middle-aged escort master named Liu Shuo traded looks with the others, and anger immediately appeared on his face.
He had walked the escort road for thirty years and was also ranked ninth on the Pingyang Commandery Escort Master Rankings. His strength had long since reached the middle stage of the Profound Passage Realm.
Since his debut, he had never seen anyone show him such disregard.
And yet this brat from some mountain hollow not only ignored them, he even dared throw out such harsh words. If this got out, where would men like them put their faces?
“Stop right there!”
Liu Shuo rode forward directly and shouted in a deep voice, “Explain yourself. What Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape? We’ve been walking the escort road for decades and have never heard of such a thing!”
Li Fei had also come back to himself by then. Forcing down the unease in his heart, he added,
“That’s right!”
“If you can’t explain yourself clearly, then don’t blame us for showing you no face—the rules of the escort trade treat alarmist talk and the disruption of morale as grave taboos!”
Chen Guan paused in his steps and turned his head slightly, his gaze sweeping over the faces of the two men.
That look was not exactly fierce, yet it still made Liu Shuo and Li Fei feel their hearts tighten at the same time.
“You’ve never heard of it?” Chen Guan said flatly. “That only means you are ignorant and poorly informed.”
“You—!” Liu Shuo’s expression darkened.
Seeing that both sides were on the verge of drawing swords, and that the atmosphere had turned wrong, Luo Li hurriedly climbed out of the carriage and immediately tried to stop them.
“Escort Masters—”
“Don’t come out!” Chen Guan barked at once.
The low shout startled Luo Li so badly that she shrank back, but she still could not help asking,
“Chen Guan, can this one mere Malformed Demon Ape really have something so extraordinary about it?”
Chen Guan did not hide anything and explained directly to her,
“This is a rare kind of demonic fiend called a Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape. It is a pack-dwelling demonic fiend.”
“If the danger of the marsh demon wolves is only one star, then the danger of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape is three stars.”
Luo Li frowned. “Then doesn’t that mean this kind of demonic fiend is three times stronger than a demon wolf?”
“That isn’t the main point,” Chen Guan continued.
“The real point is that once a Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape self-destructs, it produces Blood of Resentment. Anyone stained by it will be branded with a tracking mark and hunted down by its entire race.”
He paused, looked toward Li Fei and the others, and his voice turned colder.
“As for whom that drop of blood landed on just now, you all know perfectly well.”
At those words, everyone instinctively looked toward Luo Li.
When she heard that, Luo Li’s pretty face turned slightly pale.
Luo Tong and the others lowered their brows and thought it over, then exchanged glances with one another. From each other’s eyes, they all saw the same confusion.
Clearly, none of them had ever heard of this kind of demonic fiend.
Nor had they ever heard of such a tracking mark.
Chen Guan was not surprised in the slightest by their reaction.
Even he himself had failed to recognize it immediately. There was no way these people would know what it was.
He guessed that the Grudge-Bearing Demon Ape was probably a newly emerged species that had recently migrated out from the Ten Directions Marsh.
Normally, the demonic fiends within the Ten Directions Marsh did not lightly leave the marsh.
Once they did appear, it was no trivial matter. And when that happened, the scene would no longer be a small one.
A three-star danger-class demonic fiend was enough to blood-wash an entire commandery city in a single night.
That was also the reason he had not cut Li Fei down on the spot—because if he had, then Li Fei would only have been able to “die in the line of duty” afterward.
Chen Guan walked over to the carriage and tied his own horse to the rear. Then, with a single shove, he pushed the still-dazed Luo Li back into the carriage, leaped upward, and climbed in after her, saying gravely to the escort master driving it,
“If you don’t want to die, leave this place immediately.”
That escort master froze for a moment, then instinctively looked toward Luo Tong.
Luo Tong cast a dark glance toward Luo Li, remained silent for several seconds, and in the end still nodded.
“Listen to him. Move out.”
It was not that he trusted Chen Guan.
He trusted fifty years of his own escort-road experience—that strange aura that had erupted when the demon ape blew itself apart had indeed not felt like anything ordinary.
He had always conducted himself by preferring to believe it existed rather than dismiss it as false.
To leave no factor unaddressed that might bring danger—this was the very foundation that had allowed him to walk the escort road safely for fifty years.
The others looked toward the carriage. They had truly not expected this young fellow to show so little regard for others’ dignity.
Though they were simmering with anger inside, the chief escort had already spoken, so they could not very well say anything more.
One after another, they mounted their horses, surrounded the carriage in the center, and continued onward toward the heart of the mountains.
Inside the carriage, Chen Guan did not waste a single word. He directly grabbed Luo Li’s small jade-white hand.
“You... what are you doing?”
Luo Li jumped in fright, thinking he was about to use the opportunity to do something improper. She was just about to struggle—
when she realized that Chen Guan was only frowning as he wiped away the demon ape’s blood from the back of her hand.
Chen Guan rubbed hard at it, but although the blood itself was wiped away, a faint red mark still remained on the back of her hand.
He immediately took a waterskin from his robes, twisted off the stopper, and handed it over.
“Wash it yourself with water.”