Chapter 1002: Mystic Valley
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Bao'er sat upon a branch of the tree with a fruit in her hands. Then, she took a big bite. A lot of juice flowed out of the fruit, and it emitted a pleasant fragrance.
Bao'er ate the fruit whole in a few more bites. Then she licked her lips and immediately went for another.
She climbed further up the tree and collected as many as she could carry. She stuffed her face with the fruit, all the while saying, "Daddy, come and eat the fruit!"
Dismally, Han Sen thought to himself, "If only I could be so carefree. Unfortunately for me, I have monkeys to deal with first."
Han Sen was not currently in the mood to eat, and there were at least a thousand monkeys with their eyes fixed upon Bao'er as she munched their food.
The monkey king made an appearance, and after it noticed her, and it yelled at her in its simian tongue. All the monkeys began hopping and jumping about in excitement.
The monkey king was glowing blue, and it jumped towards Bao'er.
Han Sen immediately grabbed Bao'er away from the tree and activated his Dongxuan Aura. But this time, the monkey king seemed immune to the seventh sense-stifling effects. It came directly towards Han Sen, without pause or confusion.
Needing an extra kick, Han Sen activated Jade-Sun Force and Long Live to speed up and evade the incoming attack.
The monkey king was incredibly powerful, and if Han Sen didn't use his super king spirit mode, he wasn't sure if he'd emerge victorious.
Han Sen was far slower than the ape, as had already been established. But he was fortunate to have the geno trees all around. They were basically sacred to the monkeys, and the last thing the monkey king wanted to do was destroy those trees in a rampage. Acknowledging this, Han Sen was able to use the trees for protection.
Bao'er swallowed the last morsel of fruit she had collected, and she looked bloated. She reclined in Han Sen's arms, satisfied, without concern for the horde of furious monkeys.
Ducking and weaving, Han Sen was getting chased all over the place by the monkey king.
They ran across the valley for a long time, but then, Han Sen stumbled across a wine jug that had been crafted from jade.
Half of the pot was in the soil, and only its rim and lid were exposed above the earth.
The reason it stood out to Han Sen, and why the wine jug was most curious, was the fact that it was ten meters tall. He could not fathom what sort of being would use it to pour wine for themselves.
"Do humans or spirits reside here, I wonder?" If he had to take a guess, Han Sen thought it would most likely belong to a spirit. He didn't think humans could make use of a ten-meter-tall wine jug.
Before he could admire it more, though, the monkey king was closing in. In the nick of time, Han Sen evaded the attack. But when he did so, he took notice of a giant stone bowl in the ground.
This shocked Han Sen, as well. They were curious items, and yet, they were all half-sunk into the ground.
There was a forty-meter-tall cauldron in the area, too. It was all rusted, but there were several dings in the area, also.
It was strange. Everything in the area was significantly larger than they should have been, and even the smallest cup was a few meters tall.
Han Sen wondered how long they had been here, but signs pointed to it being a long time. All the wares there were caked in dust.
The items had also been crafted either out of jade or copper. And whereas the jade items were doing perfectly fine with the advance of time, the copper wasn't faring so well. The copper wares had rusted, and were clearly in a state of decay.
Han Sen ran the length of the valley, from end to end. He could not detect the presence of a single human or spirit there, but now, he had been trapped. He had backed himself into a corner, which proved to be a dead end, and he had no way out.
The monkey king was still in pursuit, and it was drawing near. It came for Han Sen with blistering speed, gleaming with a blue light all the while.
Han Sen jumped into the air, wishing to fly up and above the rabid ape.
But the monkey king jumped and tried to attack Han Sen. Fortunately for Han Sen, he was adept with airborne maneuvers, and he was able to sidestep in the air to evade the monkey's fist. As he did so, he called out to the monkey, "Haha, Chunky Kong! I can fly; I bet you can't do that."
The monkey king did not look angry, though. It looked happy, and a grin formed on its face. It seemed as if it was the monkey was now laughing at Han Sen.
There was clearly something amiss, and Han Sen felt it. But even with his Dongxuan Aura active, he could not sense what had brought on the aura of unease.
Having almost exited the valley in flight, Han Sen felt as if he hit a wall. Brought to a sudden stop, he fell back down with Bao'er.
He reactivated his flight and dodged the monkey king, who had come over for a follow-up attack.
Han Sen maintained his position, but could not see what had brought his earlier flight to a sudden stop.
Looking up, there was no wall or fogged-object that he might have accidentally bumped into.
Han Sen flew up to where he hit something solid, but this time, he went slowly. He felt as if he was coming into contact with an invisible wall, and when he reached out to touch it, it bounced him away.
"What sort of power has created this invisible, skyborne hurdle?" Han Sen tried exiting the valley from another portion of the sky, but he was met with the same results there.
All the while, the monkey king continued attacking while Han Sen dodged. It had been going on for some time now, though, and he knew he could not keep it up much longer.
Han Sen decided to fall back to the tunnel he had entered the valley from, but strangely, it had disappeared.
He punched where he believed the cave had once been, and the power of his strike was deflected back into him. There was a lot of power in that fist, and Han Sen ended up making himself bleed.
"Holy sh*t! Where the h*ll have I ended up? What is this place?!"
Chapter 1003: The Fruit
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The blue monkey king came swiftly from behind, and Han Sen decided he'd had enough of this ordeal. He stopped dodging and simply activated his super king spirit mode.
Boom!
Han Sen punched the monkey king with tremendous force, which knocked it backwards into a roll. Unexpectedly, it landed perfectly. The strike had hit the monkey's fist, and the only damage the strike did was to cause the creature's hand to bruise and swell.
This was an unpleasant surprise. His super king spirit mode had opened its first gene lock, but his fitness level was much higher than a sacred-blood creature's. For the monkey king to be nearly unfazed by Han Sen's strike, he couldn't imagine how many gene locks of its own it had opened.
Han Sen's super king spirit mode was always on a short fuse. If he stood a chance, he couldn't waste a single second. He had to take his opponent out before the timer expired. But weirdly, the monkey king was starting to run off again, and Han Sen was unable to catch up.
"How many gene locks has this guy opened?" Han Sen deactivated his super king spirit mode.
Han Sen knew he wouldn't be able to catch up with the ape, so he thought it best if he saved some strength.
The monkey king looked scared of Han Sen, surprisingly. It stopped, then simply watched him from afar.
The monkey king commanded the other monkeys to follow it, which made them back away from Han Sen. The worst they did was give a mean stare to the intruders of the valley, as they heeded their king's order.
It was fortunate for Han Sen that the monkey king was somewhat of a wimp. Being unable to beat the monkey king with his ten seconds of super king spirit mode would have left Han Sen in a dire predicament.
With the valley now mostly clear of monkeys, Han Sen decided to explore the area a bit. The only things of note there, aside from the trees, were the oversized dishes and cooking implements. None of them were particularly special or fancy in appearance, and they looked fairly practical and crude. Whatever they were, they were made by hand, that was for sure.
Han Sen didn't want to spare too much time thinking about those items right now, though. After the fight, he noticed he was feeling rather hungry. He ate some of the red fruits Bao'er had consumed, to fill his empty tummy. They tasted sweet and refreshing.
"It's no wonder she loves these things. They taste much better than the seedless fruit you can buy back in the Alliance." Han Sen ate a whole fruit.
"Super King Self Spirit Gene +1."
Han Sen was shocked, learning that a single one of those fruits could provide one self geno point.
Yaksha had only managed to grow one Devil King Tree, the fruit of which also provided one self geno point.
"Is it possible that all these trees can be as bountiful as the Devil King Tree's fruit?" Han Sen, not sparing any time, raced to grab another fruit.
"Super King Self Spirit Gene +1."
After Han Sen ate the next, he heard the same announcement. He had rarely been this happy.
"What about this fruit here? Can they provide the same?" Han Sen picked up a yellow fruit, which he had seen a few monkeys consume earlier.
When Han Sen ate this fruit, he heard the announcement play again. He was giddy like a schoolgirl.
"If I eat them all, how many self geno points might I receive in total? I'd wager a fraction of this valley would be enough to cap off my self geno point needs!" Han Sen, reveling in excitement, began munching all the fruit he could.
Unfortunately for him, he was not a super creature and his belly had a limit. After ten of the fruit, he was stuffed and could eat no more.
What disappointed Han Sen the most, though, was that after eating three of the red fruits, his points did not increase any more. It seemed as if by consuming the same fruit three times, and by receiving a self geno point each time, he couldn't get any more.
"Still, there's a wide variety of fruit here in the valley. Even if I took three from each, I could still earn myself a few hundred geno points." Han Sen was not at all disappointed, as there was still plenty to get.
After Han Sen was full, he decided to look around for a way in which he might exit the area. The sides of the valley were tall and steep, and the sky was blocked by an invisible force. He had been trapped.
The monkey king and the monkeys were still in the region, but they did not dare provoke him. In fact, it seemed as if the monkeys themselves were looking for an exit, as well.
After the monkeys had eaten the fruit, their bodies seemed to morph and become stronger. Even the mangy, lanky monkeys were starting to buff-up and look similar to the king.
Han Sen's face became dire when he noticed this. What's more, it seemed the monkey king had only just found this place instead of living there, as Han Sen had initially suspected. If they did not know how to leave, then he was stuck there with them.
And by further observation of their behavior, his suspicions were confirmed.
The monkeys had gotten bigger. They weren't king-sized yet, but it was clear they had opened a few gene locks.
Han Sen made sure to eat as much fruit as he could, whenever space was reclaimed inside his stomach. Before long, he had reached the third tier of super king spirit mode.
His power had not greatly increased, but there was an improvement to the length of the talent.
Han Sen summoned his Disloyal Knight, Meowth, and Golden Growler, and got them to dine on what they could. Following their consumption of the fruit, they each experienced some changes.
After this, though, Han Sen was determined to find a way out. There had to be a way to escape the valley, he just had to find it. But the mystic force that shielded the place proved to be too formidable, and it protected the land there. Han Sen could not even create a cleft in a rock with a mighty strike.
Han Sen realized time itself was rather stiff in the valley, too. It felt as if time was standing still there.
The trees had stopped growing. The ripe fruit did not fall to the ground, and the unripened fruit stayed as they were.
"This valley is a strange place." Han Sen was a little bewildered by the place he had found himself. But it seemed that, until the cave revealed itself again, he wasn't going anywhere.
He also realized he couldn't get in touch with Moment Queen. It was as if such connections were interrupted by the powers of the valley, isolating him.