Chapter 15: The Great Millennium Ape

Sila hastily circulated Intermediate Qi throughout his body as he was spotting many golden gorillas around the edges of the forest walking towards him. Finally, there were around fifty of them surrounding Sila.

From his previous fight, he knew that these Great Millennium Apes could move very quickly due to qinggong. With the distance between him and them becoming closer, the fight could have erupted anytime.

The other thing that Sila was curious was: ‘Are these apes as skillful as the one I fought before? If they are, I will be in damn trouble.’

The gap between the apes and Sila was becoming closer and closer. An ordinary player would run away by now, but Sila needed to beat the leader of the Great Millennium Apes first.

Sila himself was fully aware that he excelled in offensive abilities rather than defensive ones. If he waited for these apes to come even closer, he would only be forced to keep defending until death. Thus, he decided to be the one who performed a pre-emptive strike.

As soon as the gap between him and them became fourteen meters, he fired a knife towards an ape in front of him, and swiftly charged following that knife.

A knife stabbed deep into that Great Millennium Ape’s head, immediately causing it to disperse as a light. This was a signal for all the other Great Millennium Apes to go all out to attack.

Seeing his attack worked successfully, Sila felt joyful. He tightened two more knives in both hands. Although he had never fired two knives at the same time before, in this situation, he would just have to try his hardest.

Sila depended entirely on his hidden weapons since he got a glimpse of these apes’ ability. They were agile creature, but compared to him when using Qi of Little Fish, their ability to cope against long range attack wasn’t that great.

So, even though Sila couldn’t damage them with his bare hand combat, his hidden weapons could.

With his understanding in qi-strengthening hidden weapon usage, all his firing knives would fuse with the only minimum amount of Qi of Little Tiger that could send the apes to death if they were hit at the vital spot.

Both knives in his hands quickly flew towards two giant apes approaching him. Both of these apes were too focused on attacking Sila so they didn’t notice the knives at all. When they were finally aware of the knives’ presence, it was the same time that their life met its end.

Sila slightly frowned. Although it’s true that he had successfully killed both of them, the knife he had fired with the left hand missed by two inches from where he aimed at. f the one on the left hadn’t rushed towards him just now, his knife would have missed.

With two more of their comrades dying, the rest of the Great Millennium Apes were filled with anger, they were rushing toward Sila without caring for anything else.

Sila had no time to think. He kept firing the knives only from his right hand. When a knife was fired, another one would follow up immediately..

As for his left hand, he only used it to tighten one knife without firing it out. Knowing that it was less accurate, he planned to use this knife in emergency cases only.

Dozens of Great Millennium Apes were dying one after another. This was because their strength lied in qinggong. The more apes alive, the less space for them to utilize it. Thus, their number was declining sharply.

As Sila noticed this weakness of them, he accelerated his firing speed to kill as many as he could before they became aware of this weakness. If these apes were to change their fighting tactics to come at him one at a time, he would definitely die from exhaustion.

Sila depended only on his hidden weapons to get rid of them. The reason was; if he made an error in performing bare-handed combat, the backlash of power would damage himself badly, allowing these monkeys to besiege him later.

Despite Sila currently having an advantage, he was fully aware of his limited amount of qi. He also didn’t know whether these Great Millennium Apes would be the last for him to fight or not. Thus, he tried to look around to find the boss of these apes, as his quest was to take it down.

However, all of them looked exactly the same as though they had been copied and pasted. Sila didn’t have any other choice except to keep killing them one by one.

More than a dozen of the Great Millennium Apes had died. Now, their number declined to seven. Nevertheless, with them having more space to move around, it was harder for Sila to kill them.

Despite it conflicting with normal logic; the less amount of Great Millennium Apes Sila had to fight, the more disadvantageous Sila was.

Now, Sila’s knife finally missed the target. All the remaining Great Millennium Apes had learned from their comrade’s deaths so they could read the direction of the knife and be able to dodge it by simply tilting their head.

With them being able to dodge Sila’s attack, their liveliness increased. Then, they charged at Sila in unison.

Sila immediately realized his mistake. He had been always aiming at the head – the vital spot of the monkeys. Therefore, no matter how silly the monsters were, with him constantly attacking at the same spot, they would eventually notice his aim.

Sila fired another two qi-strengthening knives. This time, these knives didn’t aim at the head; they stabbed at two Great Millennium Apes’ heart instead.

And even before those two dispersed as lights, Sila made another move; he once again fired two knives toward another two monkeys that flinched, sending them to follow their comrades to the afterlife.

However, the remaining three apes were now very close to Sila. Their attacks were coming at Sila at full speed.

Sila calmly circulated Qi of Little Fish to agilely spin his body out of their attack’s range, and then slapped at the nape of the neck of the monkey closest to him.

Well, due to lack of time to put Qi of Little Tiger into his attack, that ape didn’t die.

Sila grabbed its body and started using Intermediate Qi as his inner force, which he normally used to fire hidden weapon, to fire the Great Millennium Ape away.

Of course, he knew that his inner force wasn’t strong enough to push its big body without him having to move like his usual hidden weapon; so, he added his arm strength to throw it forcefully.

Its body was thrown toward another Great Millennium Ape who was rushing at him. Sila quickly followed his thrown object while putting the full power of Qi of Little Tiger into his right hand.

At the same time that the rushing Great Millennium Ape was catching its friend’s body, Sila struck his palm at the thrown Great Millennium Ape with full force. His palm was so powerful that its impact was enough to affect the Great Millennium Ape in behind, killing both of them together.

Finally, there was only one Great Millennium Ape left.

Nevertheless, with Sila’s big movement to kill those two Great Millennium Apes previously, his back was wide open. The last Great Millennium Ape didn’t miss this chance and leaped forward. Both of its palms were intensely glowing in dark red aura.

Sila didn’t even have time to turn his head. But he somehow could sense the frightening power through the air from his back. So, he fired the knife backward without looking.

Sila’s qi was nearly depleted from his previous attack, so this knife wasn’t fused with qi. It was also not precise as he didn’t aim. However, it made the Great Millennium Ape have to dodge slightly and caused it to lose its tempo a little.

Sila turned his body back while circulating his nearly-exhausted Qi of Little Fish to evade its attack. Well, he was a bit too late; the palm was bound to hit him in the next second.

Sila followed his instinct. He flicked his hand to hit the opponent’s wrist from the side, making the palm to awry slightly.

Although this made him avoid being hit directly, it still slammed into his shoulder heavily.

The sound of bones cracking could be heard. It seemed like Sila’s right shoulder was totally done for. His right arm was falling to the ground without him being able to control it at all.

Sila grit his teeth while bearing great pain. He forced himself to fire a knife toward the head of the last Great Millennium Ape with his left hand.

The knife stabbed at its forehead precisely. The Great Millennium Ape staggered for a while before finally turning into a light and disappeared.

Sila opened his system window and picked up Large Health Potion to drink while circulating Recovering Qi to heal his bone fracture. The amount of qi he had used was also regenerating slowly.

However, the system sound alarmed again.

[You have defeated 50 Great Millennium Apes, Level 500 Squire Rank — achieving a certain condition.]

[Monster Great Millennium Ape, Level 200 Knight Rank, has appeared.]

After the end of the system sound, Sila immediately looked around to find his new enemy. Of course, he still didn’t stop circulating Recovering Qi as he wanted to prolong his healing time as much as he could.

“Screech!”

The howl of a monkey was coming from behind.

Sila turned his head. At the base of a peach tree in the middle of the field, there was one golden monkey standing.

This Great Millennium Ape was obviously different from previous ones. Its size was three times bigger. It was also wearing navy blue Wuxia’s clothing embroidered with gold thread. It was looking at Sila with great fury.

Sila continued to circulate Recovering Qi. and his bone began to slowly join back together. Meanwhile, Sila’s eyes were glued at the Great Millennium Ape’s muscles, preparing for its sudden movement.

Not waiting for Sila to be fully healed, the giant ape flashed forward like a shooting arrow.

Sila saw this as a good opportunity to strike. He instantly fired a knife toward its head.

However, the result was unexpected; when a knife flew closer to its head, the Great Millennium Ape flicked its hand to easily brush away the knife.

Sila was frightened. This was the first time that someone was able to sweep his hidden weapon away. That ape swept it as though doing so was child’s play!

When the gap between them got closer, the Great Millennium Ape accelerated by kicking the ground, its palm was focusing at Sila’s chest.

Sila hurriedly circulated Qi of Little Fish to evade.

Its palm completely missed, making Sila felt relieved to know that at least he could still depend on Qi of Little Fish.

But after its palm missed the target, the Great Millennium Ape immediately used its right foot as a fulcrum, spinning its body and thrusting its palm again.

Sila had no time to think, he turned around to evade its attack a second time.

With him dodging another hit, the Great Millennium Ape still didn’t quit attacking; it used its foot to strike anew.

Although it was a combat in very close range, Sila couldn’t find any chance to fire a hidden weapon as the Great Millennium Ape kept moving its vital spots.

Sila was only able to keep dodging, waiting for an opportunity to escape from the Great Millennium Ape’s series of attacks.

In a film, we usually see a fight between the hero and the villain take turns to offense and defense. But that’s for the audiences to enjoy watching. Sila, who had been raised in a dojo, fully knew that: in actual combat, the turnaround of the flow of the battle is something very strenuous to the combatants. Just from the tiny disadvantage at some point, as a fight drags on, it will gradually keep exhausting them until the disadvantageous one is defeated in the end.

In an actual fight, the result is usually clear from the start of the battle.

As if emphasizing this fact, the Great Millennium Ape’s attacks now started to scrape Sila. Its tail struck at Sila’s left leg. Although this attack of it wasn’t strengthened with qi, it decreased Sila’s speed.

With Sila’s injury at the leg, the Great Millennium Ape accelerated its attacks, wanting to get rid of him as soon as possible.

‘You’ll know the reason when you confront the Great Millennium Ape. Just be sure to give it your all. To tell you the truth, the current you is no match for it. You’ll need to use your wit.’

Words of his teacher echoed into Sila’s mind.

‘My wit...’

Looking at his own injured leg, Sila finally realized what his teacher’s words meant.

…How could he be such a fool before?

Sila tightened a hidden weapon. The Great Millennium Ape saw that action and sneered. It raised both of its hands to cover its forehead and its heart, while its foot still swinging toward Sila.

The sound of a dagger stabbing something could be heard. Sila had already fired his hidden weapon.

This time, its target wasn’t the vital spots like a head or a heart. It instead pierced at the Great Millennium Ape’s swinging leg.

With the success of this attack, the Great Millennium Ape halted for a brief period. Sila surely wouldn’t let this precious opportunity go. He instantly fired another three knives, aiming at the Great Millennium Ape’s other leg.

Just now, he had noticed that the Great Millennium Ape had tried to attack all over his body; whereas he was too naive, trying to wait for an opportunity to kill it in one hit like he had always done to his past opponents. Of course, it was a very effective method, but with him fighting against a skilled opponent, it was undoubtedly not an easy task to do.

The opportunity to win is something one has to create oneself, not just simply waiting for it to occur.

Not only were his three firing knives not fused with qi, but they were also fired in close range. Thus, the accuracy of the knives were topnotch. They pierced the Great Millennium Ape’s right leg in unison, causing the Great Millennium Ape to cry in pain. Its guard was slightly lowered.

Sila fired another three knives toward its chest, flank, and shoulder tip. Even though they weren’t fused with qi, they were enough to stop the Great Millennium Ape’s movement.

Conscious of the principle of fighting, Sila knew he mustn’t let go of this hard-earned chance of winning. He didn’t take a break and fired another four knives disregarding the preciseness.

The Great Millennium Ape raised its hand to brush away the knives. But it could sweep only one. The remaining three knives stabbed at its flank and lower abdomen. While it was still in pain, another series of knives were coming again, not letting it rest.

Its large body turned into a drawback. If disregarding the vital spots, with its massive body, Sila could hit this Great Millennium Ape with his knives even with his eyes closed.

All four of the daggers pierced its body. Its guard was completely broken. Thus, Sila immediately fired a qi-strengthened knife toward its wide-opened head.

Come to think of it, this was truly notable. From the tiny bit of the tempo he had gained from firing at its leg, Sila kept widening that tempo to reach this point.

The knife pinned down precisely in the middle of the Great Millennium Ape’s forehead. Well, it was still not dead yet. Now, it gritted its teeth to bear the pain and rushed at Sila as though it wanted the both of them to die together. It didn’t even care about defending anymore.

Sila jumped backward while continuously firing knives with both of his hands.

The Great Millennium Ape stopped. Its body was covered in so much blood, dyeing its clothes and fur in red.

It should be close to death already. But Sila didn’t want to be too careless. He fired one qi-strengthened knife to its head.

Its massive body began to totter. Sila kept firing knives nonstop. Now, the Great Millennium Ape looked almost like a hedgehog.

Finally, Sila stopped firing. The reason for that was because he had already ran out of knives.

The Great Millennium Ape’s body fell to the ground before turning into light and disappeared, this happened together with an alarming of the system sound.

[You have defeated the Great Millennium Ape, Level 200 Knight Rank. You have received 600,000 experience points, gotten 200 gold, the Great Millennium Ape Card, Cloud Roaming Hermit’s Clothing, and the Nameless Elder’s Secret Scroll.]

[Your Level has been risen to 580.]

[Territory of the Great Millennium Ape has been decayed. You can use Return Scroll from now on.]

At the end of this system notification, Sila ended up lying down on the ground in exhaustion. He let out a heavy sigh and began to circulate Recovering Qi.

Then, after quite a long time passed, Sila used Invitation Card to the Bamboo Hut to return to the place where his teacher was.