Strange Tales: The Seventy-Two Arts of the Earthly Fiends

Chapter 72 Deep Mountain Monkey Sea

I heard a sound.

Song Quyou turned to look at the three nervous-looking people and said with a faint smile:

"Seeing how valiant you three were, and since there was nothing I could do, I explored the area."

He then used a branch to pick up a skull that he could hold in one hand. "That strange bird must be a monkey-eating owl. This forest is full of monkey bones that it has eaten."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a timely gust of wind swept through the forest, scattering fallen leaves and revealing a patch of pristine white on the ground.

Countless skeletons were densely packed together, layer upon layer, enough to leave behind countless monkeys. Some bones were as slender as an infant's, while others were as thick as an adult's. They were all white and hollow, with even the marrow sucked out.

"My goodness, how many monkeys did this guy eat?"

Lu Shusheng squatted down, used his iron fan to push aside some withered branches, revealing more skeletons. His expression gradually became serious, and he asked in confusion:

"I've seen monkey owls in Lingnan, but they only catch mountain rats and rabbits at most. Ordinary monkeys can just throw stones at them to drive them away. I've never heard of one that can eat all the monkeys in an entire mountain, leaving only bones everywhere."

Song Quyou threw the branch he was holding on the ground, clapped his hands, and said, "Perhaps only the depths of these mountains and forests can tell us."

Lu Shusheng closed his iron fan, stood up, and said:

"Now that we've come this far, there's no reason to give up halfway."

Let's go, let's keep exploring further in.

Liu Youxia took a sip of wine to bolster his courage.

Butcher Wang spat on the ground, took out his pig-slaughtering knife from his waist, chopped off the monkey-eating owl's head, used his belt as a rope to thread the owl's head through his waist, and followed after it, cursing all the while.

The deeper you go, the more twisted the trees become.

Under the moonlight, those bare branches looked like countless withered hands reaching towards the sky, trying to touch the moon.

The fallen leaves on the ground were getting thicker and thicker, and they felt soft and spongy underfoot, like stepping on rotten flesh.

A faint, sweet, rotten smell permeated the air, making one's head throb.

After walking for about half an hour, climbing and lying down, just as they reached the top of the slope, Liu Youxia, who was ahead, suddenly stopped and lowered his voice:

There's some noise ahead.

The four of them crouched down, parted a clump of withered bushes, and the scene before them was beyond everyone's expectations.

Ahead was a series of cliffs, covered with a dense mass of furry things, which from a distance looked like a brown turf covering the cliffs, stretching for miles and wriggling about.

Only after the thin clouds were blown away by the wind and the moonlight shone down could one see clearly what the grass was.

It turned out that the cliff was covered with monkeys!

Countless monkeys, like insects and ants, covered the entire cliff face, a cacophony of heads, young and old, male and female, squeaking and cacophoning a desolate clamor.

The four had never seen such a large troop of monkeys before, and were so terrified that they dared not make a sound.

They quietly retreated and circled around to another mountain peak, where they could overlook the cliff.

Looking down, on the cliff top, robust monkeys howled and scolded the monkeys trying to climb up the cliff.

Suddenly, a series of sharp screechs came from the horizon, and a dark mass of monkey-eating owls swooped down from the clouds, numbering as many as twenty or thirty.

Upon seeing this, the robust monkeys atop the cliff knelt down in worship, trembling and not daring to raise their heads even slightly.

These monkey-eating owls swooped down to the cliff and darted back and forth along the edge, seemingly picking through the prey.

Russian.

Several mournful monkey cries followed as the monkey-eating owl slowly rose into the air, startling the mountain monkeys, but they did not make any rash moves.

The owl, waiting to devour its prey, landed on the top of the cliff. The monkey it had caught was already silent and was neatly placed on a square stone at the top of the cliff.

On the square stone, more than twenty monkey corpses were neatly stacked, gushing blood, some still twitching slightly.

The monkey-eating owls landed on either side of the stone platform, simultaneously letting out a sharp screech. The robust monkeys on the cliff edge rose up and made "woo-woo-ah-ah" sounds towards the monkeys below, as if trying to convey something.

The sound echoed as the entire troop of monkeys climbed upwards. Some of the larger monkeys carried their smaller ones on their backs, while others helped each other up in twos and threes. They all knelt before the square stone, huddled together in a dense mass, heads bowed and silent.

Tens of thousands of monkeys crowded the top of the cliff, leaving no gaps.

The four men lay prone on another hilltop, their gazes sweeping over the monkey carcass on the rock before settling on the neatly arranged monkey-eating owls on either side.

Very strange.

The scholar Lu whispered:

"The monkey-eating owl is a strange bird that is solitary and never lives in groups."

It's rare to see three or five monkeys gathered together, but now there are twenty or thirty lined up in such a solemn formation, and the robust apes on the cliff tops are even kneeling before them. This bizarre order is something that creatures raised in the wild could never possess.

Before he finished speaking, a sharp chanting sound suddenly came from the top of the cliff opposite.

The scripture was spoken in a strange tone, unlike the Zhongtian accent. It didn't have a buzzing sound; instead, it was sharp and piercing.

The monkey-eating owl that was close to the square stone took a half step back, revealing a golden-winged eagle.

Song Quyou frowned slightly as he watched the golden-winged bird, dressed in a cassock, reciting Buddhist scriptures, standing demurely before the stone platform, pecking a small hole in the monkey's skull and sucking up the grayish-white, reddish brain matter.

Russian.

The golden-winged bird had sucked the brains out of twenty or thirty monkeys, and it looked on with lingering satisfaction at the tens of thousands of bowed monkeys before it. Finally, its gaze settled on a large, robust ape in front of it.

The monkey-eating owl, who seemed to understand immediately, stepped forward and dragged the fat ape up.

The monkey squeaked pitifully, completely losing the air of arrogance it had displayed a moment ago when it was atop the cliff, scolding the monkeys on the precipice.

The fat ape was dragged onto the stone platform, its limbs kicking wildly, its cries as sharp as iron scraping against the stone surface.

The golden-winged bird wasn't in a hurry. It tilted its head and examined the creature for a moment before suddenly extending a feather from the tip of its wing and gently brushing it across the fat ape's head.

As the feather flew past, a thin crack silently appeared in the skull, and white brain matter mixed with blood seeped out.

The fat ape's screams stopped abruptly, leaving only its limbs twitching unconsciously.

The golden-winged bird lowered its head, its beak probing into the crack, and began to peck at the food slowly and deliberately.

The slurping sound carried far across the silent cliffs. Tens of thousands of monkeys lay prostrate on the ground, trembling all over, but not one dared to move.

Having finished the monkey brains, the golden-winged bird licked the oil from its beak with satisfaction and said to the monkey in front of it:

"I come from the Western Paradise to spread my teachings, to enlighten all beings, and to guide them to Buddhahood..."

Before the golden-winged bird could finish speaking, a "gurgling" sound suddenly came from beside Song Quyou. It was the butcher Wang's round belly rumbling.

The sound wasn't loud, but in the deathly silence where all the monkeys bowed their heads, it was as crisp as if someone had been slapped in the face.

The golden-winged bird slowly turned its head, its amber eyes piercing through the cliff face and precisely locking onto the bushes where the four were hiding.

"Gurgle."

Butcher Wang's stomach growled again.

He clutched his stomach, his face flushed, and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I digest quickly, so I didn't eat much for dinner..."

Liu Youxia wanted nothing more than to smash his head with the hilt of his sword, and gritted his teeth as he forced out a sentence:

"Why the hell did you have to yell now of all times?!"

Lu Shusheng had half-opened his iron fan, his expression extremely solemn.

He had already seen the manners of that golden-winged bird; it was definitely not the kind of pomp and circumstance that ordinary demons could display.

Twenty or thirty monkey-eating owls lined up to protect the Dharma, and tens of thousands of monkeys bowed their heads in obedience. Coupled with its human-speaking appearance and its robes, this was clearly a powerful demon that had come of age.

"Those four benefactors."

The voice of the golden-winged bird drifted over from the other side of the cliff, its tone strange yet each word clear, like fingernails scratching an empty wooden board, making one feel irritated.

"Since you're here, why not come and listen to me recite some scriptures before you leave? How can you learn the true Dharma by hiding in the shadows and peeking?"

As soon as it finished speaking, the monkey-eating owls on both sides of the cliff flapped their wings in unison, and a dark mass of them took to the air, circling and whistling in mid-air. At the same time, twenty or thirty pairs of dark, pupil-less eyes looked in this direction.

The tens of thousands of monkeys lying on the ground also stirred, turning their heads one after another. Ten thousand monkey faces looked at the place where the four were hiding, their densely packed eyes gleaming with a faint green light under the moonlight.

Like a madman, like a tidal wave, they leaped off the cliff and swung on vines towards the four.

"run!"

Lu Shusheng waved his iron fan, and golden light flowed across the fan surface, creating a thin curtain of light behind him.

Without hesitation, the four turned around and hurriedly ran down the mountain.

A sharp, piercing laugh came from behind, followed by the loud flapping of wings.

Twenty or thirty monkey-eating owls, already in the air, shot down like arrows, their dark mass obscuring most of the moonlight.

Lu Shusheng's light barrier shattered after only three breaths, the fragments of light scattering and flickering like fireflies in summer.

Lu Shusheng frantically fanned his iron fan, sending golden light like arrows raining down on the monkey-eating owls chasing after him, but it only managed to slightly slow them down.

Those strange birds had thick skin and flesh; the golden light only scorched a few feathers on their bodies, which only made them cry out more fiercely and their swooping down even more aggressively.

The four fled in a sorry state. Butcher Wang, the heaviest of the group, was panting heavily as he ran. Suddenly, he stepped on a loose rock, stumbled, and pulled Liu Youxia along with him.

The two of them fell to the ground and rolled down the hillside for seven or eight feet before being stopped by an old tree.

In that short delay, the dark mass of monkey-eating owls overhead had already arrived.

Seven or eight strange birds folded their wings and swooped down, their sharp claws like iron hooks reaching for the four people.

Lu Shusheng waved his iron fan repeatedly, barely managing to block the two in front, but gaps had already appeared on the left and right sides.

Taking advantage of the moment, a monkey-eating owl pounced on the fallen butcher, its beak wide open, its tiny, sharp teeth aimed straight for his throat.

But one can hear the whistling of swords.

A flash of blue rainbow appeared in the night sky.

The monkey-eating owl that pounced on Butcher Wang missed Qinghong in mid-air, its body went limp, and its head fell off.

It landed on Butcher Wang's belly, leaving behind a cat-like head, its body soaked in foul-smelling black blood, accompanied by an inappropriate stench of urine.

Butcher Wang was terrified. He yanked the bird's head off its belly, scrambled to his feet, and his voice trembled as he spoke:

"Damn it, it's dead and it still peed on me!"

Liu Youxia rolled to his feet, his goose-feather saber held horizontally in front of him. He looked at the headless monkey-eating owl in the air, which was still flapping its wings and sliding down the mountain for seven or eight zhang before crashing to the ground.

He only saw a streak of blue light from that sword strike, so fast that even he, who considered himself a martial arts prodigy, could never wield a sword that fast in his entire life.

He underestimated the Taoist priest before him, and was also glad that he hadn't looked down on him when he went up the mountain because the priest hadn't taken action to kill the demon.

The monkey-eating owls flapped their wings and screeched, becoming even more agitated by the sword strike. Their cries were sharp and piercing. The remaining strange birds circled in the air, dark as a cloud, but dared not swoop down again. They just circled around the four people's heads and howled incessantly.

Song Quyou stood in front of Butcher Wang, glanced at the three of them, and said, "Hurry up, there are tens of thousands of monkeys behind us."

Upon hearing this, the three dared not delay any longer and immediately set off down the mountain.

The baby's cries grew more and more mournful behind them, as the pack of monkey-eating owls pursued relentlessly, a dark mass darting and swooping down from the treetops.

Even more terrifying was the howling of thousands of monkeys coming from the direction of the cliff, which shook the mountains and forests. The monkeys, which had been driven all over the mountains and fields, were rushing towards this side. The sound of dry branches breaking was as dense as a sudden rainstorm, and their pairs of oily green eyes were like clusters of will-o'-the-wisps.

Hearing the increasingly close calls of the monkeys, the four of them ran frantically down the mountain.

The withered branches on both sides lashed out like ghostly claws, stinging my cheeks.

Song Quyou walked last, streaks of blue light piercing the sky.

Before the monkey-eating owls that were about to launch a sneak attack could even scream, they plummeted to the ground, their black, foul-smelling sap leaving striking streaks in the silvery-white mountains.

The four of them ran for three miles in one breath, but they could not shake off the cries of the baby and the howls of the monkeys.

It followed steadily behind, sometimes veering to the left, sometimes to the right, like herding ducks.

suddenly.

The three people in front stopped, panting heavily, and crouched down to look down.

"Damn it, there's no way out."

Song Quyou stopped and looked ahead under the bright moonlight. There was a cliff in front of him.

The bottom of the cliff was pitch black, and the night wind howled and rushed up from the bottom, carrying moisture that seeped into the four people's clothes, causing them to shiver.

Looking back, the monkey troop had already swept across the mountain ridge, and the lush green eyes of the monkeys surged in like a tide, their cries of infants and howls mingling together, making the cliffs tremble slightly.

Butcher Wang peered over the edge of the cliff, his legs trembling.

"Damn it, it's at least several tens of feet deep. If you fall in, you won't even have a whole body left."

Liu Youxia gripped his goose-feather saber tightly and said in a hoarse voice:

"Rather than fall to my death, I'd rather turn around and fight those bastards. At least I can take a few of them down with me."

"Who are you going to drag down with you? Can you defeat that golden-winged bird? Or can you kill all those tens of thousands of monkeys?"

Wang the butcher was so anxious that he kept slapping his thigh, and then his stomach growled at an inopportune moment.

Song Quyou ignored the three panicked people and turned to look at the dozen or so monkey-eating owls that remained in the air.

Take out a stack of origami cranes, blow gently, and the cranes flutter their wings and slowly rise into the air.

The clever monkey-eating owl swooped and glided through the air like streaks of black lightning piercing the night sky, outrunning the paper crane.

Song Quyou remained expressionless. Suddenly, the paper crane in the sky spontaneously combusted, transforming into a crimson firebird that pierced the chest of the monkey-eating owl like an arrow.

In an instant.

Flames surged in the sky, and flaming monkey-eating owls plummeted like meteors into the nearby sea of ​​monkeys.

However, the purification talisman fire did not burn as brightly as expected.

After all, those monkeys were just ordinary wild animals, not man-eating demons, and the purification talisman could not harm them in the slightest.

"Brother, that's a good idea, but what about those tens of thousands of monkeys?"

As they spoke, the entire troop of monkeys surged to the cliff's edge, their dense, oily green eyes completely blocking any escape route.

The monkeys bared their teeth and squeaked, but only formed an arc around the perimeter of the area ten paces away, refusing to advance further, as if they were waiting for something.