Chapter 328: Chapter 328
Fire Monkey.
The name meant “burning monkey,” but in practice, it referred to a monkey that had absorbed the spiritual vein’s energy and become saturated with yang qi.
The Fire Monkey’s Inner Core was counted among the finest of all Spiritual Medicines—one that could supply a martial artist, especially a male martial artist brimming with yang qi, with boundless power.
Considering that Murong Sang-won, Young Clan Head of the Murong Clan, had clung to the Fire Monkey’s Inner Core above all else even at death’s door—
‘You can imagine how highly it’s prized in the murim.’
Moreover, the Fire Monkey’s Inner Core commanded an even steeper price because it was nearly impossible to obtain, not just for its effects.
Who could possibly catch an agile monkey wreathed in endless flame? A martial artist? A hunter?
Because of all this, even though the Fire Monkey was listed in the Murim Compendium of Spiritual Medicines, I’d never given its existence a second thought.
Acquiring a Spiritual Medicine that sat still was already a monumental task—chasing a Fire Monkey’s rear end by myself?
I’d dismissed it as fundamentally impossible.
OOOOOOH!
And yet, here I was……
A massive ape with a burly frame, baring fangs the size of thumbs and roaring savagely.
No—could this even be called a monkey? Its sheer mass exceeded that of most grown men.
FLARE!
And the searing heat pouring from that fur.
It was unmistakably a different class of existence from any Demonic Beast I’d encountered in the Black Forest.
“……So you’re what Sir Yang called the Solar Monkey?”
OOOOOOOOH!
As if answering, it roared and radiated killing intent.
“……Now I see why he said hunting was impossible.”
Hunt this thing?
Were they out of their minds?
Its killing intent rivaled that of any Demonic Practitioner.
The spiritual vein energy radiating from within its body was easily ten times that of any Demonic Beast I’d seen.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
Its chest bore exposed black skin instead of fur, and each time it pounded its fists there, the air rang as though iron were being struck.
I couldn’t begin to fathom how one might hunt this creature.
“……Hah, this is insane.”
I faltered and began backing away, but the Solar Monkey bared its fangs wider and surged forward a step.
In an instant, my escape routes were sealed.
The kind of domain qi that only those who’d reached a high level of mastery could use.
‘Is this really an animal?’
Even for a Spiritual Creature, it had surely started out as an animal.
Yet somehow, it had blocked off the entire space like a martial artist.
As if it would never let a single opening go unexploited.
Damn, but this was infuriating.
“Fuck…… can’t you just let me go? I’m a completely different person from them.”
GRRRR.
“Shit…… figured as much.”
True to its brutish appearance, words didn’t get through.
My options had run out.
Praying that the Solar Monkey’s legs weren’t faster than the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art, I shifted my weight slightly.
“Well then…… next ti—hm?”
But something felt off.
I’d been about to bolt, yet the Solar Monkey’s behavior nagged at me.
Every other Demonic Beast had attacked on sight.
The Solar Monkey clearly wanted to attack too, but for some reason, it seemed to be hesitating.
No—it felt more like it was posturing, hoping I’d back off.
OOOOOOOOH!
FLARE!
A thunderous roar accompanied a blast of heat so fierce it felt like it would cook his skin, spreading in every direction.
And through the gaps in the spreading flames, something was visible.
‘Wounds……’
From shin to thigh, a long wound was crusted over with hardened clots of blood, and the fist that beat its chest was missing fingers, leaving gaps.
These weren’t old scars, long healed and faded.
They were fresh—barely beginning to fester.
The clean cross-sections meant they weren’t from an animal’s bite.
And no Demonic Beast of the Black Forest could have inflicted them in the first place.
Every fragment of information I’d gathered since entering the Black Forest assembled into a single picture.
‘This is what the instructors and Academy students were chasing?’
The Divine Spirit that had fought the Academy students day and night for the past several days was the Solar Monkey.
And this Solar Monkey, having escaped them, had stumbled into me by chance.
“Hmm, so that’s how it is.”
GRAAAH!
I halted the inner arts gathering in my legs.
“I don’t know where you learned it, but that killing intent……”
More precisely, I began channeling the Taeul True Scripture in a different manner.
From my legs to my entire body.
And the point where the greatest concentration of inner arts gathered was—
SHING.
—the Red Radiance Sword in my right hand.
“I’m no slouch in that department either.”
SCREEEEECH!
A horrific killing intent erupted from the crimson Red Radiance Sword.
The Solar Monkey, which had been beating its chest, faltered back a step and bared its fangs in a snarl.
No matter what, I couldn’t resist the finishing blow.
***
The instant I assumed an offensive stance, the Solar Monkey charged first.
As though it knew exactly how advantageous a preemptive strike was.
GRAAH!
The flames dancing across its mane flowed into its arm, and it threw a punch just like that.
BOOM—!
I’d raised the Red Radiance Sword to block, yet the impact wasn’t absorbed.
My body was launched off the ground and slammed into a tree.
CRASH—!
What the hell was that destructive force?
A single hit, and my insides were shaking violently.
“Urrk.”
That sturdy Black Forest tree was nearly shattered.
I scrambled up and fled the spot. The tree, its trunk snapped, toppled over and kicked up a cloud of dust.
THOOM.
Fortunately, the shock was less severe than expected.
No—perhaps it was more accurate to say the pain was slightly muted.
Even with inner arts, pain couldn’t be fully dispersed…… Was it thanks to the Diamond Honey?
While pondering this, I searched for the Solar Monkey, but it had long since left its original position.
“Damn, it ran—hm?”
CRASH—!
A blazing red fist punched through the dust cloud.
THUD! THWACK!
Bouncing off rock and slamming into wood, I was an instant from having my ribs shattered—I clenched my jaw, twisted my body, and steadied myself.
SCRAAAPE.
I barely managed to halt my slide across the ground and lifted my head, only to find the Solar Monkey had already closed in, its foot thrust toward me.
Where the fuck did you learn to fight like this!
I caught its ankle and deployed the Flowing Cloud Divine Art’s Lotus, slamming the creature into the ground.
OOOOH!
The impact seemed to barely faze it—it braced itself with its tail and sprang back up from the ground.
Phew, it’d been a while since I’d gotten a proper workout.
“My turn now.”
WHOOOOSH.
The Illusion Sword launched from the Great Heaven Sword Art sealed off the creature’s front, then encircled its flanks.
TAP, TAP.
TAP, TAP.
It dodged the blade with nimble movements, but soon realized it was trapped in a cage of swords and bared its teeth in frustration.
I didn’t waste the opening.
I immediately shifted from the Great Heaven Sword Art into the Twin Heaven Sword Formula, tightening the pressure.
SLASH, SLASH, SLASH.
No matter how quick it was, there were limits to evading a barrage of attacks.
Nicks began appearing across its body, one by one.
‘Thick skin, too.’
I was clearly cutting flesh, yet the blade refused to bite deep—like trying to carve through hardened paulownia wood.
I abandoned every shred of complacency and began drawing Sword Force.
Where before the only light had come from the creature’s blazing mane, now blue Sword Force rippled in every direction, targeting its vital points with lethal precision.
Just as the Sword Force closed in to sever its neck and arms without a single gap—
The entirety of its mane flared a deeper red, and it charged forward.
SCRAPE, SCRAPE, SCRAPE.
I’d expected the creature to soon collapse, gushing blood.
Instead, it ignored the minor wounds and narrowly dodged the major ones, closing the distance step by step.
As though it knew exactly how to handle Illusion Sword and Variation Sword—like a seasoned martial artist.
“……The fuck is up with you!”
Even as disbelief gutted my composure, heat was gathering in its arms again, leaving no room to let my guard down.
“If you telegraph it that obviously, I can’t not see it!”
I reached out to slam the creature down with the Snowflower technique—
THUD!
—but a savage impact struck my abdomen, and bitter fluid surged up to my throat.
‘Wha—it used a feint?’
My body floated into the air, and there was no time to wonder how a mere ape could fight like a human.
Because the creature had already wound up its power-loaded fist.
CRASH—!
A tremendous impact sent my body shooting backward like an arrow.
“Kugh!”
After heaving out a mouthful of blood, my insides felt a bit clearer.
I pulled the Flying Dragon Claw and arrested my momentum before hitting a tree.
“So…… this is why they call them Divine Spirits.”
The Solar Monkey dropped to all fours, arms dangling, and fixed its glare on me.
I spat out a wad of bloody phlegm.
“But…… now that I’ve come this far, I’ve got no intention of turning back.”
I packed both legs with every ounce of strength—
BOOM—!
—and exploded forward, tearing up the ground.
If the creature was confident in its power, I’d just win with speed.
SCRAPE.
Sure enough, for the first time, I dealt meaningful damage.
SCREEEEECH!
The Solar Monkey looked down at its severed finger and shrieked.
I flicked the blood from the Red Radiance Sword and charged again.
The Minor Heaven Sword Art, honed to its peak, drove Sword Force into the creature’s vital points.
“Let’s see you block this!”
Flames erupted across every strand of its mane, and the Sword Force’s edge dulled once more.
‘What kind of sorcery is this?’
Sword Force could slice through the hardest steel like tofu.
Yet this creature’s skin, ablaze with flame, might as well have been diamond—utterly impenetrable.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t cut you!”
SCRAPE, SCRAPE, SCRAPE.
The mane seemed to grant some degree of defensive capability.
But on its own, it couldn’t fully block Sword Force. To block Sword Force entirely, it had to concentrate Fire Qi the way it did when throwing punches.
Each time it funneled more energy toward the vital points I relentlessly targeted, I tenaciously carved away another strip of flesh. And another.
At last, blood began streaming from the countless large and small wounds covering its body, and the creature broke into a run.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Its movement through the trees was astonishingly agile, but not enough to outrun the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art.
‘Got nervous over nothing.’
I chased the trail of sparks the creature left behind—and then the Solar Monkey’s body suddenly seemed to boil over before it—
FLASH!
—unleashed a burst of light so enormous it blinded my vision entirely.
The searing flash stripped away my sight in an instant, and by the time it faded and I raised my head, all traces of the creature had vanished.
“What the hell……”
How was this possible? Hiding its body out of nowhere?
It hadn’t launched into the sky or sunk into the earth.
I immediately began reading the spiritual vein.
No matter how well it hid, it couldn’t conceal the spiritual vein energy housed within its body.
“Hah…… it even knows how to use the Natural Formations?”
The Solar Monkey was crouched not far away.
Hiding its form deep within a Natural Formation.
I made a show of looking around.
“Ah, where’d it go? Can’t find it anywhere. Guess I should head back……”
And saying that—Sword Qi, fire!
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
EEKEEEK!
For the first time, it let out a properly simian shriek as it burst from the undergrowth.
I resumed the chase, and watching its antics as I ran left me speechless.
Every time it snatched up a branch and tossed it, its form vanished or my course was thrown off.
What was this, Sun Wukong?
Was it going to start using clone techniques next?
‘It knows every path in the Black Forest and uses the Natural Formations to evade pursuit?’
Had I not been someone who could read the spiritual vein, I would’ve lost the Solar Monkey long ago.
They said there was almost nothing in the world that couldn’t be overwhelmed by sheer numbers—but no matter how he thought about it, there was simply no way to catch the Solar Monkey inside the Black Forest without reading the spiritual vein.
And even if you could read it, you still had to withstand this overwhelming power.
“In other words, you’re just unlucky.”
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
Sword Qi ripped through the creature’s mane and blazed, and it screamed in agony.
EEKEEEEK!
“Because I happen to read the spiritual vein too.”
A long gash opened across its foot, and the Solar Monkey tumbled to the ground.
To finish it off completely, I brought Sword Force down in a clean strike.
CRASH—!
For the first time, the Solar Monkey went flying.
Not quite as fast as I’d been launched earlier, but still.
The instant it hit a tree, it leapt up and pressed itself flat against the ground, eyes locked on me.
GRRRR.
What a ridiculous situation.
Just as it had sealed my escape, I’d now sealed its escape.
Every avenue was locked down—one wrong twitch and its head would come off.
And yet this ape refused to budge.
As though it could see every angle I’d blocked.
“Haha……”
I genuinely couldn’t tell whether I was fighting an animal or a human.
“Of course, that doesn’t change anything.”
I stamped out the Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps, creating three afterimages to seize its attention.
EEEK!
The moment its blazing fist struck an afterimage and whiffed—I brought the blade down on its skull.
Its hastily raised hand blazed bright across the mane, but—
“HAAH!”
This time, it was too late.
BOOM, BOOM, CRASH—!
A massive explosion sent the Solar Monkey sprawling.
GRRRR.
It tried to rise on a broken arm and wounded foot, but its body refused to obey, and it collapsed again and again.
The fighting spirit it clung to until the very end proved it was indeed a Spiritual Creature through and through.
Yet the pang of regret wouldn’t fade.
“If only it could talk, I wouldn’t have needed to take its Inner Core.”
As I admired the creature, I couldn’t help thinking this could’ve been an outrageously lucrative business opportunity.
Touring just one city at a steady pace could probably earn the equivalent of the Great Heaven Merchant Guild’s annual revenue.
But then—as if it had understood even that—the Solar Monkey’s mouth began opening and closing, as if trying to speak.
The sight sent a chill down my spine, and I quickly gripped the sword.
“I’ll enjoy the Inner Core.”
I reversed my grip on the Red Radiance Sword and drove it down into the creature’s heart.
THUNK.
The sound of stone cracking accompanied the Solar Monkey’s eyes bulging wide.
SLIDE.
As I withdrew the Red Radiance Sword, blood fountained through the small wound.
And then.
From the Solar Monkey’s gaping mouth came—
“Hea…… Heavenly Demon……”
Human words. And I froze on the spot.
“……”
H-how did it do that?