Chapter 159: If You Have the Guts, Don't Launch Sneak Attacks

Cheng Zhi shook his head vigorously, conjuring several vines in his palm and hurling them out the instant the door opened, hoping at least to help Zhou Yi monitor the surroundings.

"Never encountered anything like this before. Could it have followed us here?"

At this moment, Zhou Yi was also retreating. Since it was impossible for him to maintain a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree defense, he needed to back up against a house to feel somewhat secure.

When he attacked Sophia just now, he hadn't seen much clearly, but he had caught a glimpse of the dark figure sporting a long tail.

Zhou Yi shouted into the darkness:

"If you have any guts, stop launching sneak attacks and come out to fight me head-on!"

Silence.

The surroundings plunged into stillness once again.

The dark figure remained motionless for a long while. Zhou Yi knew better than to think that creature would be scared off by his words; its refusal to emerge merely meant it was biding its time, searching for an opportunity to strike from the shadows.

Zhou Yi pushed his perception to its absolute limits. Behind a boulder diagonally across from him, he seemed to detect breathing and a very faint heartbeat. This was a living creature, not like the state of the tomb guardians inside the Five Elements Tomb.

At this rate, the creature's heart beat less than thirty times per minute, something ordinary species apparently could not achieve.

Something was wrong, terribly wrong. The crucial point was that this thing wasn't a living corpse like the black-robed State Preceptor; having a heartbeat meant it was at least alive.

Yet its speed was so fast that the naked eye could not track it. Zhou Yi called out to Stone Eggie, but received no response.

Ah, it seemed Stone Eggie was still fast asleep, presumably suffering from a food coma after overindulging in spirit stones last time. From now on, he had to rely entirely on himself.

Clutching an ice arrow, Zhou Yi stared fixedly at the back of that boulder.

Right at that moment, the creature moved, springing up onto the boulder and charging straight toward Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi flung ice arrows toward the top and sides of the creature's head, then shouted rapidly:

"From nothingness to existence, a mirage in the mirror, sleep!"

A wave-like ripple surged toward the dark shadow across from him at Zhou Yi's command, causing it to stall for merely a few seconds.

"Eat this, you bastard!"

These two actions happened almost simultaneously. Following the brief stall, Zhou Yi unleashed a torrential downpour of water needles from all directions. This was his first time combining their application in such a manner, and Zhou Yi felt far from confident, yet the consecutive movements left his breathing somewhat ragged.

The dark shadow shrieked as it was pierced by the needles. Zhou Yi finally got a clear look at it: the creature strongly resembled a monkey.

With a pitch-black face, human clothing, a height of less than one meter thirty, arms that nearly touched the ground, and long, flailing nails, it seemed the water needles had inflicted a painful blow.

Seeing that his tactic worked, Zhou Yi seized the moment, unleashing wave after wave of overwhelming water needles. However, this time without the accompanying sleep spell, the effect appeared negligible. The monkey-like creature waved its arms, executing gravity-defying leaps to dodge them entirely while charging straight up to Zhou Yi's face.

A protruding mouth, a sunken nose, upturned nostrils, sharp teeth, and a furry face closed in right before him.

A pair of yellow eyes locked directly onto Zhou Yi's gaze, sending a spine-chilling shudder through his entire body.

All of Zhou Yi's techniques were suited for ranged combat; whenever he was forced into close quarters, he was invariably beaten to a pulp. Yet at this juncture, whoever struck first still retained a chance at victory.

Zhou Yi brandished the ice arrows in both hands without any form or pattern, swinging them wildly. For a moment, the monkey creature was unable to close in, appearing intensely fearful of the chilling frost emanating from the ice arrows.

A flicker of joy crossed Zhou Yi's face. Just as he prepared to hurl a handful of ice arrows at the creature, he felt a dark flash as the thing leaped directly onto his arms and began climbing up.

He tried to yank his arm back and shake the monkey off, but before he could complete the motion, Zhou Yi felt a dizzying spin and was hurled straight through the air.

With a sharp thud, he was thrown against a boulder in the distance.

Coughing twice, Zhou Yi felt as though his internal organs had been dislodged. He struggled to push himself up, but no sooner had he rolled over than his arm was grabbed again and he was hurled once more. This time, he crashed directly into the building where the fatty and the others were hiding.

Zhou Yi spat out a mouthful of blood. The wall of the house was shattered, the door twisted out of shape, and Sophia and the others rushed out instantly.

Cheng Zhi's vines swept overwhelmingly toward the monkey creature, but the beast paid them no heed. With a single shudder, the vines wrapping around its body were violently shaken off.

Sophia's fireballs and the fatty's rocks rained down simultaneously.

With a mere wave of its hand, the monkey batted away these attacks. Having seemingly figured out their abilities, the beast couldn't even be bothered to dodge.

It dashed straight up to the trio, attacking left and right, repeatedly grabbing them and hurling them away. All three of them were smashed onto adjacent roofs or against walls, collapsing to the ground with severe injuries.

Zhou Yi knew it was over this time—truly, completely over. Before they even figured out what kind of creature this monkey thing was, their entire team was about to be wiped out. The crucial question was: what on earth had they done to provoke it?

Seeing the monkey charge toward him, he hurled a handful of ice arrows and shouted at the beast:

"Come on, monkey-boy, why don't you come over here and talk to me? If we intruded upon you, or did something to anger you, just spell it out! What's the meaning of flying into a rage and beating people up right off the bat?"

The monkey's figure paused, and waves of intense fury radiated palpably from it. It turned to glare at Zhou Yi, ignoring the three dying individuals entirely, and strode straight toward him.

"Monkey-boy? What did you say? Say that again?"

"......"

Zhou Yi froze. This thing could speak? No, wait, this wasn't a monkey—it was a human! But why did it have a tail behind it?

His gaze instantly dropped, landing on the area behind the monkey. Only now did he see clearly that this wasn't a tail at all, but rather something resembling a bow and arrow strapped to the creature's back, which bobbed up and down as it ran, making it look remarkably like a tail.

He had misunderstood. But why was this person's face covered in hair?

Atavism?

"Do we know each other?"

The monkey shook its head.

It straightened its posture and looked into Zhou Yi's eyes, though even with this stance, its height still barely exceeded one meter forty.

"Did we disturb you, or did we do something that upset you?"

The monkey shook its head again.

Zhou Yi sighed. There was simply no guessing this. What heaven-defying, public-outraging offense had they committed to make this monkey-like person attack them with such madness?

"Even if you want to fight, you at least have to let us know what we did to make you this angry. Is it because of the spirit stones? If you want them, just take them all! I have plenty more right here if you want them."

The monkey looked at Zhou Yi and took a step forward. Zhou Yi instinctively wanted to back away, but whether it was fractured bones or something else, the moment he tried to move, searing pain caused him to bare his teeth and grimace.

"Hmph, what are spirit stones?"

Zhou Yi thought about it. Since Cheng Zhi had never seen this creature before and all the mining operations were conducted normally, it meant this thing did not belong to this world.

According to the Black Panther's account, this world was still currently outside the control of the base.

Could it be that he had followed them here?

This thought gave Zhou Yi a start, and he narrowed his eyes at the monkey.

"Did you follow us into this world, or did you come through some other channel, or... are you from Wangqiu Mountain?"

Zhou Yi refrained from using the term "Hunter Clan," because from Zhang Lina's expression, that designation carried a derogatory nuance, much like certain slurs used against the Chinese.

The monkey raised an eyebrow—though its brow bone was covered in thick hair, that movement would have to pass for raising an eyebrow.

"You're not entirely stupid. You killed my older brother, and what else is there for you to justify? Killing you will do; today, I will avenge my older brother!"

With that, the monkey waved its hand, grabbed an iron rod, and slammed it forcefully into the ground. With a loud *dong*, the earth trembled.

Zhou Yi hurriedly raised his hand. While he didn't recognize anything else, that iron rod looked rather familiar.

"Wait! Your older brother—we didn't kill him! The four of us came to this mission world and indeed captured two low-level hunters sent by your Wangqiu Mountain, but they were both women: one named Meng Xiaojiao and the other Zhang Lina. I don't suppose your older brother was among them, right?"

Fury flared even brighter on the monkey's face as it bared its fangs and let out a beast-like roar.

"Ah! More excuses! You Chosen Ones only ever know how to make excuses! I don't care about any of that; killing you is enough! The one who killed my older brother was definitely a Chosen One—there was residual ice-attribute energy lingering on his body, and I can feel it. It was you!"

Zhou Yi raised a hand. This creature was truly a monkey in temperament—simple-minded and completely refusing to play by the rules.

"Don't get excited. I'm telling the truth. If you kill me, you'll truly never find out the truth about anything. Don't get angry, let me ask you this: did your older brother also use an iron rod like that one?"