The Six Immortals Chapter 35

The Fierce Ape (Part A)

(Mustang: This is Friday’s regular release.)

Bi Fan had barely left the scene and soon after, five humans arrived at the scene of the explosion.

These five humans were covered with dust. It seemed that these people were trying very hard to camouflage themselves according to their environment, probably not having the courage of fighting their way out of the devil’s territory.

“Well, there is snake skin here and dead bodies of humans as well. It appears that the snake was killed by the explosion and one of the humans too, looks like he was killed in the explosion. However, the other two humans seemed to have been killed by a human only. It could be that there was a crystal nucleus within this python’s body and the people responsible for its death started fighting over it, amongst themselves.”

One of the human, a rather handsome one, was checking the perimeter of the explosion and analyzing the situation.

Another man, a slightly older one added: “Your analysis sounds fairly correct, but there is another possibility. Maybe there were two different groups involved here, and one of the two could have left alive, and certainly with a solid reward.”

If Bi Fan had overheard their analysis, then he would have definitely been very impressed.

By just looking at the scene, these people were able to identify exactly what had happened, so it was rather obvious that these men weren’t amateurs, in fact, it would be fair to assume that these men were very experienced.

“Let’s not waste our time analyzing this; Jiang Sheng was insulted by somebody. We must find the boy responsible and kill him, Jiang Wen has personally requested it, we cannot return empty handed.”

The speaker was wearing a jade colored hat, and had a very fair complexion. He was also a disciple of the ‘rising sun’ school. His name was Gu Yu and was the leader of this group.

“Gu Yu, are we going to let go of this opportunity? There could be a very serious reward if we track these people down!” The handsome looking man insisted.

“No, the ‘rising sun’ has rolled out this order to every disciple in their network, so we need to find and kill that boy.” Gu Yu shook his head: “Jiang Sheng has a lot of influence in the school and this is a big thing, a lot of our superiors are eagerly waiting to see what happens next and we must make sure that we succeed at this task.”

….  ….

Bi Fan on the other hand, had finished his recovery and had set out on a new journey, completely unaware of the fact that the ‘rising sun’ school had asked its huge network to find and kill him. Traps were being laid down for him and his life was in more danger than it had ever been.

Bi Fan had been keeping a watch on an ape, this ape was around the ‘brave’ layer, and Bi Fan hadn’t attacked him yet.

This ape was almost thirty feet in height, was mighty in stature, and his body was visibly as strong as iron itself. He was extremely violent in nature and wasn’t going to be easy to deal with.

He had been watching this ape for some time now and as soon as he saw an opening, he took his chance and tried to advantage of the situation.

This time, Bi Fan decided that he’s not going to use his sword, keeping in mind the physicality of the ape’s skin. Using his light-ray sword on such a tough skin wouldn’t yield much benefit, so he decided to practice his boxing skills against this one.

Wan Zu boxing.

Bi Fan attacked the ape with his best boxing combinations.

Even though Wan Zu boxing was only an entry level technique, but at Bi Fan’s level of expertise and strength, it would still prove out to be a very powerful weapon.

“Boom!” He landed a punch. The ape’s towering body remained fixed in its place, Bi Fan’s on the contrary shook, and he fell back a few steps before he could stabilize himself again.

“Amazing power and strength!” Bi Fan patronized his opponent in a gloomy undertone and charged at the ape again.

The ape snarled loudly and swept his forearms to catch Bi Fan.

Bi Fan with aid of his mystical footwork managed to get out of the way, side stepped the ape and readied to attack the ape again.

He was considering this ape to be a punching bag and was using him to practice his boxing.

The ape had a very strong body but his strong and mighty body wasn’t as flexible or fast as Bi Fan’s, and he was failing to catch Bi Fan, repeatedly.

Bi Fan was fighting with more and more vigor. He even started using techniques like ‘prancing tiger’ and ‘the immortal finger’, but even then, it appeared that he saw causing no harm to the ape.

Soon, he could feel that he had used up almost half of his energy, so he decided to immediately escape.

The ape chased him for a while, but since he figured that there is no point chasing such a quick target, he decided to give up.

Bi Fan found a place where he could safely restore his energy, and recover his strength.

Soon, after he was done, he decided to go out again. A thought came into his head, that fighting is the best way to increase strength and practicing his boxing has always given the best results.

“I should go after the ape again, such an amazing ‘sandbag’ is very difficult to find.”

Bi Fan went out searching for the ape again, and found him sleeping in his nest.

Bi Fan suddenly sprung up. This woke up the ape, and as soon as he saw Bi Fan, his eyes suddenly changed colors and were now, red with fury.

“Boom!” The ape hit out again. He was aiming for Bi Fan, who got out of the way, so he only managed to break off a part of the tree that stood next to him.

“Wow, what amazing strength. I wish I could kill him and peel off his amazing skin.” Bi Fan secretly smacked his lips with greed.

This time, Bi Fan was fighting even more violently and the battle was becoming increasingly fierce by every passing minute.

His attacks landed on the ape’s body like rain drops, but even then were unable to do any harm to him. On the other hand, the ape’s temper was becoming more and more explosive.

But Bi Fan didn’t care even the slightest bit; he had found himself an excellent punching bag. It was time for some serious practice.

The idea was to learn and practice, Bi Fan was learning a lot about using his boxing skills against a taller opponent. He even tried ‘prancing tiger’ boxing technique later.

‘The immortal finger’ had also seen some improvement; his attacks were more powerful now.

Bi Fan was employing every technique he knew, and every move he had was becoming more and more powerful, thanks to his new punching bag.

However, ‘the immortal finger’ used up a lot of energy, so Bi Fan was using it very judiciously.

If only Bi Fan ever managed to reach the magical powers category, then he would be able to use the ‘the immortal finger’ at will, and the power, impossible to even imagine for him right now.

Not only that, Bi Fan was paying special attention to his ‘dance of mist’ foot work and was learning a lot, perhaps at this rate, it wouldn’t be very long before he would be able to practice other, more sophisticated moves.

This was a rare encounter, and this ape was so beneficial for Bi Fan, and he naturally didn’t want to miss this opportunity and was ready to maximize the benefits.

The ape was extremely strong and his body was almost invincible, to an opponent like Bi Fan. But then again, he was too slow compared to Bi Fan, and Bi Fan was easily able to toy around with him.

The ape’s eyes were purple with rage; he was beginning to realize that he was destined to become a punching bag for Bi Fan.

Perhaps one day, if Bi Fan became really strong and managed to make a big name for himself, he would tell people about this ape, his ‘punching bag’ and maybe, it would make for a very funny and popular tale.

For five consecutive days, Bi Fan made the ape drain his strength as he trained on him.

In these five days, Bi Fan’s physical strength had increased to almost three Yun Shi (stones used to measure strength, first mention since chapter 1). His inner energy had also seen a massive increase, and at full capacity was around five Yun Shi, which meant that at the combined strength of eight Yun Shi, Bi Fan had nearly reached the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer.

This wasn’t the only good news, due to the increase in strength; Bi Fan would now be able to practice the second technique of the ‘prancing tiger’. ‘The immortal finger’ was even more devastating than ever before, and at this rate, soon, Bi Fan would be able to practice some of the more complicated steps from the ‘dance of mist’.

“Thank you my friend. Now, I’d like to say good bye to you.” Bi said as he walked away.

As the ape realized that Bi Fan was finally leaving, and hopefully not returning, the ape shouted out, venting his frustration while his eyes indicated a hint of joy.

Bi Fan had tortured the poor soul to such an extent that he had wondered if Bi Fan would ever leave him alone.

The devil’s territory was a place to practice and gain experience, and Bi Fan wasn’t willing to leave without some.

In these five days of battling the ape, Bi Fan had already gained enough strength to kill the ape, but decided not to, just for the sake of it, so he could practice more.

Bi Fan’s whims were as transient as the clouds.

The Yin Yang pouch that he had procured from the three teenagers had proven to be more valuable than expected. Not only had he gained the nuclei which he had stolen from their kill, their bag also contained a dark, spherical capsule-ish object.

He hadn’t expected their pouch to contain another one of those formidable bombs, but then he remembered the look in the eyes of their leader, as he killed the boy, regret, probably from not being able to use the weapon against Bi Fan as well.

Having personally experienced the might of the five sounds of thunder, Bi Fan was sure that it could have easily killed him.

Bi Fan hid the bomb in his inventory; this one could prove out to be a lifesaving entity, an insurance policy.

Bi Fan was much faster now, and accompanied by the massive increase in strength, he felt that he was almost flying.

As he felt his majestic strength rush throughout his body, he roared. He was now on the lookout for his next target.

While the demons and animals were difficult to deal with, humans were still better for practice, as they often had very unique sets of skills which, was always good for gaining more experience.

Suddenly, Bi Fan heard sounds of fighting coming from up ahead, amongst these were screams of humans as well, there was definitely a fierce battle taking place somewhere nearby.

Without the slightest hesitation, Bi Fan quickened up his pace and disappeared into the forest that lay ahead of him, looking for more trouble.

There was a river, and this gurgling stream had wide open stretches of land on both its banks.

On one side, there was a bonfire that looked like it was semi extinguished. This was definitely being used to roast meat for meals, but the items on the grill seemed burnt.

It appeared that a bunch a humans were probably having a little picnic party along the river and were most likely attacked by wild animals. Everything smelt of a skirmish.

Bi Fan kept looking around and finally saw it.

A little further in the clearing, six humans were huddled together in a circle and were surrounded by about twelve bears. Three of these bears were in the ‘inner organs’ layer whereas their leader was in the ‘brave’ layer.

Out of the six humans, one was around the ‘brave’ layer whereas all the others were around the ‘inner organs’ layer, which made this team a very strong one, but unfortunately for them, their opponents were even stronger.

Bears are gifted with skins as strong as apes and on top of that, their bodies are a lot more agile in comparison.

The fight seemed to have just started, so neither side had seen any casualties so far.

Bi Fan climbed up a tree so he could get a complete view of the battlefield.

The six humans were fighting in a style which he was very familiar with. It didn’t take him long to realize that these humans were from ‘the rising sun’ school.

“They are probably looking for me!” Bi Fan thanked his fortunes, seeing the plight of his enemies.

An evil smirk widened his face as he formulated a plan of action.

Out of the six, five were Gu Yu and his party, and seemed to have been joined by another member.

Gu Yu was the strongest of them, with his strength in the ‘brave’ layer, but he wasn’t just strong, he was also a very wise man, and thus was leading this party.

The bears had ambushed these disciples in an organized manner, and if it wasn’t for the capable command of Gu Yu, the six of them would already be dead.

If the six of them would have scattered and fled, they would have most certainly been dead by now, their best chance was to gather their strength and make a stand, even if they were marginally weaker or at a disadvantage.

Gu Yu and his party were not as strong as the bears, but they weren’t very far behind either. Gu Yu had already sent a signal, a special signal that only ‘rising sun’ disciples used, asking for urgent help. So, if these guys were able to hold their own for some time then they might be able to survive if their reinforcements arrived on time.

In order to kill Bi Fan, many of the ‘rising sun’ disciples had entered the devil’s territory, and many of them might be willing to extend a helping hand to Gu Yu and his comrades in this hour of need.

“Brothers, hold on, our reinforcements will be arriving soon.” Gu Yu shouted, in an attempt to raise the morale of his comrades.

The bears were very well organized, and were good at combat. They advanced and retreated in unionized fashion, defended each other, and were suppressing their opponents with easy, leaving them no room to breathe.

Moreover, considering that they were being led by a beast that was in the ‘brave’ layer, made matters even force for the youngsters, as even Gu Yu wouldn’t dare go head-on against them as he would be at a disadvantaged position.

Bi Fan was relishing this opportunity, Gu Yu was fairly strong and the others were almost as strong as Jiang Sheng.

He was getting an excellent chance to understand and memorize their fighting style.

Once he had understood their fighting style, it would be a lot easier to deal with them later on.

“Ah!” one of the ‘rising sun’ disciples managed to stab a bear with his sword and another bear quickly slapped him on the arm.

With his arm injured and bloodied, the disciple wouldn’t be able to fight for till be bandaged himself.

Gu Yu was quick to respond, and promptly put the boy in the middle of their circle to protect him. But with only five members of the crew fighting against the bears, their odds of winning were even lesser.

“We do not aim for a kill, because if we get them, they also get us. So we don’t hurt them, because we can’t afford any more injuries. If one more person gets injured, we might not be able to stand up to them.” Gu Yu ordered his men.

These bears were very intelligent, especially their leader, none of them were trying to fight Gu Yu, and were concentrating their efforts on the other four.

The leader of this bear pack was so strong, that only Gu Yu could hope to contend against him, the other stood no chance whatsoever.

The leader of the bears attacked in full force, leaving Gu Yu no option but to face him, and the formation of the humans suddenly became very chaotic.

The other bears quickly seized the opportunity and launched a fierce attack at the other, leaving the others in a state of compete panic and desperation.

Fortunately, they weren’t very weak either, and were strong enough to hold their own, considering that most of them weren’t injured very seriously. In fact, even if they lost a couple of men, they were all still good enough to continue fighting for a while.

“Follow me, we need to make our way to that big rock over there.”

Gu Yu, even in such a desperate state had the vision to form a plan, impressive.

The other five, fighting the bears cautiously to avoid any injuries, started making their way to the rock by the river.

Gu Yu’s intentions were intercepted by the head bear, and he increased the intensity of his attacks.

Gu Yu applied one trick after another, and managed to zig zag his way through the battle field and found his way to the front of the boulder and re united with his fellow disciples.

Backs against the boulder, Gu Yu seemed relived, after all, now he only had to deal with attacks from three sides, not four.

They had just started to relax a bit, when the bears launched a ballistic attack, in full force, backed by their powerful bodies, not something that Gu Yu and his men had foreseen.

The impact of the attack caused a rush in the ranks of Gu Yu and his men, as they suddenly realized that they were at a greater disadvantage now.

Now, they had nowhere to run, no place to fall back to, and would now be forced to deal with the bears head on.

After all said and done, the physical prowess of a human’s body was no match for that of a bear’s.

Chapter end