CH 27

C27 – Dragon Locking Lake

The black shadow moved as quick as lightning; luckily, Liu Yuan was no longer that weak newbie.

Swoosh!

A cold light flashed past.

Liu Yuan instantly pulled out his sword and pointed it at the black shadow in front of him.

He let his instincts guide him and activated one of the skills he used to fight Yue Longzhang the other day — Windstorm Tyrannical Saber.

Activating a saber technique with a sword was not standard, but this particular technique featured large-scale attack with the flat side of the saber, so it didn’t make much difference whether to use a saber or a sword.

Usually, the larger the saber or sword, the better.

This was just the perfect technique to block attacks with unknown trajectories.

He could feel that the sword met with some resistance, which soon disappeared; the black shadow leaped onto the sword, made a strange cry, and vanished into thin air in an instant. It was unbelievably agile.

However, a quick glance was enough for Liu Yuan to recognize what it was.

“Psychic Monkey!”

The monkey, whose entire body was covered in black fur, landed on the treetop in the distance and grimaced, baring its fangs, its eyes filled with fur, and its sharp claws were threateningly spread open.

What made it distinctive from ordinary monkeys was the red fur on its forehead.

Liu Yuan’s gaze fell on its abdomen, where there was a long, bleeding cut made by his sword just now. But for the monkey’s swift evasion, it would have been sliced in half.

The Psychic Monkey was a common monster near the place where the Monkey Wine was buried, usually at the first or second level of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

It was more intelligent than ordinary monkeys and was proficient in martial arts and even cultivation techniques.

Those martial arts and cultivation techniques were just random ones.

Usually, those who knew cultivation techniques wouldn’t start a close combat in the beginning, and judging by its posture, the monkey probably only knew martial arts.

“I might not be a match for human martial experts, but a monkey? It should be easy.”

Liu Yuan snorted coldly and slashed forward.

In most cases, low-level wild monsters could be easily defeated, but still, one should fight with a smart strategy if he wanted to finish the fight efficiently.

All Psychic Monkeys were fire-attribute monsters with high dexterity. Hence, water-attribute skills with high accuracy would be the choice.

“Ten-mile Smoke Wave!”

Liu Yuan’s longsword moved swiftly in the air, and in an instant, it had created countless white shadows and flashes like smoke waves.

The profound Spiritual Energy mixed with the five elements transformed into thick mist, coiling around the sword, which completely concealed the trajectory of the sword.

The Psychic Monkey was stunned for an instant, and Liu Yuan immediately seized the opportunity to slash at its claws.

Swoosh!

The sword, enhanced by the Spiritual Energy, was extremely sharp, and it cut off one of the monkey’s palms.

Fresh blood immediately splashed about, and the monkey rolled on the ground in pain before staggering into the distance.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

Its sharp cry sounded miserable and even pitiful.

Liu Yuan paused, frowning. This was the first time he had harmed animals in real life, and he felt bad. While he had done this before in the game, the real-life experience was still a bit too much to take. But the monkey started this and he was just fighting back.

That being said, Liu Yuan still felt guilty. Maybe the monkey didn’t mean to hurt him.

The monkey was running fast and had soon disappeared into the dense forest.

Liu Yuan hesitated, debating whether to chase after it or just let it go.

The next minute, however, a group of monkeys rushed out screaming from afar.

“Damn! How could I forget that the monkeys are nearby!”

Liu Yuan muttered a curse.

He was now at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage and hadn’t acquired any effective AOE skills yet; it would be too risky if he were to confront such a large group of monkeys, and even the Flying Star Sword wouldn’t help.

“What the hell…”

Liu Yuan tried hard to calm down and thought about what to do next.

These monkeys were mostly at the first or second level of the Foundation Establishment Stage, and some were even at the fifth or sixth level, not to mention the leader of the group, which was at the ninth level of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

“Forget it. I’m not going to get myself killed.”

Liu Yuan decided to retreat for the moment. Luckily, he had excellent movement skills, or else he might not even outrun these monkeys.

Just like that, Liu Yuan was running while the monkeys were chasing after him.

Apparently, these monkeys were the forgiving type. During his escape, Liu Yuan managed to kill a few of them, only to infuriate them even more. The sharp shouting of the monkeys echoed in the valley, and it seemed that they were never going to give up.

Liu Yuan had made an enemy of the entire group of monkeys.

“Oh my god… I give in.”

Liu Yuan hid behind a rock, out of breath. It reminded him of the time when he was chased by dogs in his hometown when he was little.

Fortunately, these monkeys did not have the acute sense of smell like a dog.

While he had gotten rid of them for the time being, he had ended up deep into the forest. He was probably out of the Tiger Tooth Mountain and into the Jiuyuan Mountain Range.

“Fucking hell. I really must forget about the game and take things more seriously… Those wild monsters are far more difficult to deal with than I have imagined.”

“I’m such a fool to have thought that I could get away with it as easily as in the game.”

Liu Yuan thought to himself dejectedly. He then looked around to make sure that there were no monkeys after him before letting out a long sigh of relief.

Although he had had a much deeper understanding of this world by now, sometimes he still found it hard to tell the reality from game experiences.

Especially when it came to the Favorability System.

“Where am I anyway? I’m so lost.”

Very familiar with the Middle Continent as he was, he had no idea where he was now.

Liu Yuan looked up to check his surroundings. The trees around him were all old and huge. He reckoned that he had walked into the heart of the forest already.

The Jiuyuan Mountain Range stretched for thousands of miles, and the Tiger Tooth Mountain was the only place he was familiar with. As for the rest, players would seldom come and visit.

“Don’t tell me I’m going to die here just because I get lost. That would be a huge joke.”

Liu Yuan laughed bitterly. “I’ll go find a higher place first. I can’t get too far away.”

After a while, he saw a high hill from which he could get a better view of this place.

However, when he finally reached the hill, he saw a deep lake down below.

The lake was deep blue, and he could not see the bottom of it. A small waterfall flowed down from above, and the stones by the lakeside were covered with moss. Except the splash, the place was dead silent.

As soon as he got close, he immediately felt some kind of wet, icy chill enveloping him.

“Eh, the icy lake?”

Liu Yuan widened his eyes in surprise. As he pushed aside the bushes and walked closer to the lake, he thought of something.

“Hmm, Icy Lake… Is this an extremely cold place?”

However, after he put his hand into the water, he got disappointed. The lake was not that cold.

“Tsk, one can’t expect everything to go his way.”

Liu Yuan retracted his hand and sighed.

He stood up and was about to leave when something attracted his attention.

There was a shabby stone tablet behind the bushes a few steps away.

On it were three words written in blood —

[Dragon Locking Lake]