Chapter 21: Monkey Wine

  Occupying an area of dozens of miles in circumference, all of it is within sight, this isn't a vast open space, it's clearly a mountain valley.

  In the depths of the valley, amidst the lush and towering ancient forest, came the chirping and chattering sounds, with countless iron-armed monkeys living there.

  The entire valley is surrounded by cliffs covered with vines of all kinds. It's easy to imagine that the monkeys climb up and down the valley through them.

  Squeak!

  Several urgent cries came over, and Li Chen looked down, suddenly feeling dizzy and disoriented, and it took a while to recover.

  But saw two black iron arm monkeys, a few meters below, grasping the vines, constantly waving at him.

  "Let me go?"

  Li Chen pointed at his nose and then at the lower part, his face full of fear.

  Squeak!

  Two iron-armed monkeys nodded vigorously and waved their arms quickly, as if urging.

  "It's all over!"

  Looking into the monkey's eyes, Li Chen only felt that they were mocking him. His blood surged to his head, he gritted his teeth, turned over and slid down, grabbing onto the vines as he went.

  At first, he was nervous and moved slowly, like a turtle crawling, but as he descended little by little, he found it wasn't as difficult as he had imagined. After testing the waters a few times, he finally plucked up the courage to climb down.

  Especially with his strong arm strength, and the fact that these vines were extremely tough, they could easily support the weight of a 14 or 15-year-old boy.

  In the time it took to drink a few cups of tea, Li Chen stood on the ground with the two iron-armed apes, shaking his slightly sore arms, and followed the two apes as they walked deeper.

  Perhaps due to the abundance of water vapor at the bottom of the valley, the ancient trees at the bottom of the valley are exceptionally lush, and looking up, not much sunlight can be seen.

  Before long, he arrived at a stone forest where countless iron-armed monkeys were jumping up and down, full of curiosity to size him up.

  Li Chen followed the two iron-armed monkeys with some trepidation and arrived in front of a small cave entrance.

  He slightly wrinkled his nose, and Li Chen's eyes lit up. The surrounding air was filled with a thick fragrance, but there were too many types, and he hesitated, still tense from the previous mistake.

  As the two monkeys entered the cave, Li Chen's eyes widened, and on a huge stone inside the cave, all kinds of rare and precious spiritual fruits were placed, from lower-grade to top-grade, everything was available.

  Seeing this, Li Chen's heart finally fell back into his stomach. The emotional group of seemingly ferocious monkeys were treating him to a feast!

  Thinking of this, Li Chen's courage grew, and he walked up to a huge rock, stretched out his hand and grabbed a fruit.

  Squeak!

  Before he could put the fruit into his mouth, two sharp whistling sounds suddenly came, startling him so much that his whole body shook, and the spiritual fruit fell to the ground.

  Li Chen reacted quickly, muttering a curse under his breath as he swiftly grabbed the Ling fruit and put it back on the stone pedestal.

  As I looked back, I saw a small and thin iron-armed monkey with a dull gray body, without any bright color, even holding a stick in its hand, walking out from one corner of the stone cave.

  By its side, a wounded golden eyelash monkey was following it with difficulty.

  Li Chen was originally not paying much attention, but when he noticed the warning calls of the two black iron-armed monkeys beside him, he was startled and looked at the gray iron-armed monkey's pupils, which suddenly shrunk to the size of a needle tip.

  This is not an ordinary gray iron arm monkey, look at its skin and bones, dull and messy hair color, even the turbid and dull eye sockets, holding a crutch in its hand, all indicating that it is an old monkey in its twilight years.

  Hehe!

  It seemed that the old monkey had noticed something unusual in Lichun's eyes, and it suddenly let out a strange cry as it moved closer. Its mouth was open, revealing its toothless gums, and even its dull eyes flashed with a hint of wisdom.

  Suddenly, Li Chen was startled by his own thoughts. Although he had heard that high-ranking demon beasts possessed spiritual intelligence, and some powerful demon beasts could even transform into human form, their spiritual intelligence was in no way inferior to that of humans.

  But Iron Arm Ape is just a first-class demon beast, how can it have such spiritual intelligence?

  But... he clearly saw the smile and wisdom in Lao Hou's eyes!

  "Could it be... has it really become a spirit?"

  As he thought so, Li Chen followed Lao Hou's gesture and sat down on a stone stool in front of the giant rock.

  Haha!

  The old monkey stuck out its tongue and repeatedly raised its hand to signal.

  Li Chen, facing this old monster that had become a spirit, felt uneasy and didn't know what to do. The little golden monkey used all its strength to climb up the giant rock, stumbled and grabbed a few spiritual fruits to hand over to the old monkey.

  But unexpectedly, the old monkey pushed it and pointed at Li Chen, meaning that the guests should eat first.

  Seeing the little monkey handing over the spiritual fruit in front of him, Li Chen awkwardly smiled and picked up the spiritual fruit to eat.

  These spiritual fruits are not ordinary objects, each has its own unique effect, although the taste is extremely good, Li Chen dare not eat too much.

  It's not that it's poisonous, but rather with his cultivation level, he is fundamentally unable to consume such a large amount of spiritual fruit imbued with the essence of heaven and earth. If he forces himself to eat it, he will undoubtedly die from having his meridians shattered by the dense primordial energy.

  "Uh... old master... Monkey Master, thank you for your hospitality, I still have things to attend to, so I won't bother you any further!"

  In his heart, seven up and eight down, he hadn't eaten much of the spiritual fruit. At dawn, Li Chen got up from his uneasy sitting and standing, and spoke out the words that had been brewing in his mind for a long time.

  Hehe!

  The old monkey's face was surprisingly filled with a smile, but looking at its aged appearance, there was an inexplicable sense of eeriness. It lightly patted the giant stone several times.

  Li Chen's sharp eyes caught the two black iron-armed monkeys exchanging a glance, revealing an unwilling expression. After the old monkey scowled and urged them several times, they finally left.

  When they came back, they were holding a bamboo tube about one foot long in their hands. Although the mouth was plugged with a wooden plug, they could smell a special wine fragrance from afar at dawn.

  Without a hint of intoxication from the strong liquor, it was even refreshing for both body and mind. At this moment, Li Chen felt that the inner energy in his meridians was also slightly stirring.

  Two black iron-armed monkeys placed the bamboo tube on the giant stone, and before leaving, they glared fiercely at Li Chen, as if he had taken away something extremely precious to the monkey group.

  Hehe!

  The old monkey pointed at the bamboo tube and then at Li Chen, grasped his paws and tilted his head as if drinking.

  "Give me a drink?"

  Li Chen's eyes lit up and he pointed at himself.

  The old monkey nodded again, and Li Chen couldn't hold back the wine worms in his stomach anymore. He grabbed the bamboo tube, pulled out the wooden plug, tilted his head and took a swig.

  A few drops leaked from the corner of his mouth, and he saw two iron-armed monkeys scratching their ears and cheeks, but the old monkey was on the side and didn't dare to make a move.

  "Good wine!"

  The entrance is sweet and spicy, but also extremely mellow, Li Chen couldn't help but praise.

  But immediately, his face suddenly turned red, and he felt a ball of hot fire surging up to his heart, as if the strong yuanqi was impacting him.

  Li Chen could never have imagined that the wine in this bamboo tube was the monkey wine brewed from 99 kinds of spiritual fruits, which had been passed down through generations of the Iron Arm Ape tribe, and it was a top-grade spiritual wine.

  Even the best Gathering Spirit Dan is less potent than a single sip of his wine, only the rarest and most exceptional Gathering Spirit Dan can slightly surpass it, but in terms of overall effects, it still falls short.

  The old monkey was shocked when he saw him drinking like that and wanted to stop him but it was too late.

  He thudded to the ground, Lei Chen strongly suppressing the boiling blood and violent yuanqi inside his body, desperately activating the "Rong Yang Jue" in an attempt to refine these ownerless yuanqi.