Chapter 99 - A Head Sticking Out of the Cliff

The Purple Jade Condor circled twice in the sky, and confirmed that it was safe.

Zhang Che immediately ran to the foot of the cliff with long strides and looked up. The nearest tree was between thirty to forty meters above him, which the whip was fully capable of reaching.

Zhang Che recalled the Gluttony Monkey back into his spiritual sea first, and pointed the whip that was currently in its club form up towards the tree. With a thought, the club quickly extended, shooting upwards.

However, the whip deviated away from the tree by a dozen meters or so, and struck the cliff lightly. Its sharp barbs scraped a thin layer of powder off the cliff, floating down.

“Achoo!” Zhang Che couldn’t avoid the powder in time and took a whiff of it, sneezing violently.

-My aim is a little too crappy!-

One failure would naturally not lower Zhang Che’s confidence. He retracted the whip and took aim again, giving it another try.

The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ would never be wrong.

Zhang Che made another dozen or so attempts, and finally managed to hook the whip onto the tree’s branch. The barbs on the whip pierced deeply into the bark. He tried tugging at it and made sure that it was secured.

“Now, let’s take an elevator ride!”

Zhang Che took a deep breath, holding onto the whip’s handle with both hands. With a thought, he was pulled up, and ended up hanging directly under the tree.

A streak of bronze light shot out of Zhang Che’s spiritual sea. The Gluttony Monkey sat on the fruit tree with an excited look and pulled his master up. After that, he looked up and stared at the fist-sized, fresh yellow-colored exotic fruits shaped like pears.

“My freaking god! If I fell down, wouldn’t I turn into a mass of meat paste?”

Zhang Che hugged the branch tightly with both hands, stealing a glance down carefully. He immediately grew apprehensive, feeling as though the tree was shaking.

While Zhang Che was worrying, the frisky monkey successfully picked two fruit off the tree and devoured them. The fresh yellow juice of the fruit was smeared all over his face and chest.

“Damn, this glutton doesn’t care about others at all!” Zhang Che’s eyelids twitched in frustration. Although the fruits were hanging off the branches within his reach, he didn’t dare to let go for even a moment to pick one and try it.

They were dozens of meters off the ground, with only inches of foothold. Not only that, the tree was still gently swaying in the mountain breeze. He might fall if he was ever so slightly careless.

The Gluttony Monkey was devouring the fruits at blinding speed. Both his hands were moving quickly, finishing a fruit in the blink of an eye. After that, he spat out the seed and stuffed another fruit into his mouth.

This glutton ate a few dozen fruits in one go, before remembering that his owner was looking on from the side. He couldn’t resist turning his head to take a look, revealing an awkward smile on his ugly face, and brought a fruit over in front of Zhang Che.

Zhang Che was on the verge on weeping; this guy finally remembered him, what a miracle!

As the tree branch was a little too thin for his liking, Zhang Che didn’t dare to let go with his hand. He ignored the fruit the frisky monkey brought to him. He looked up, and his eyes lit up.

About a dozen meters away from where he was standing, the branch of another fruit tree was noticeably thicker than the one he was standing on, and had many more branches branching off of the stem. It would make Zhang Che feel much safer standing there without worrying about falling off.

What was there to wait for? Zhang Che slowly released both his grip from the branch and relied on his arm to hug it instead. After that, he used the barbed whip and extended it upwards once more.

This time, his aiming was much better. He managed to coil onto the thicker tree with only one try.

Zhang Che recalled the frisky monkey back to his spiritual sea, ignoring the latter’s reluctant cries, and took the ‘elevator ride’ again, quickly bringing himself further up.

“This didn’t come easy; I can finally let go with my hands and see what this fruit tastes like myself!”

Zhang Che sat down stably on a branch, extending his hand to pick a fist-sized fruit and brought it to his mouth, taking a bite of it. The sweet taste of the fruit juice, with a slight acidic taste, immediately filled his mouth, leaving him sighing in satisfaction.

“Xilvlv!” A long neigh rang out from below, scaring Zhang Che. He had thought that some exotic beast was attacking them, but when he looked down, he realized that Hanxue was looking up from the foot of the cliff, his gaze filled with anticipation.

“I mean, didn’t I just praise you not long ago? I didn’t think you were a glutton as well!”

Zhang Che was speechless. He could only pick another fresh yellow fruit and drop it down.

As the fruit quickly fell towards the ground, Hanxue reared up on his hind legs and opened his mouth wide, catching the fruit. He chewed on it a few times before swallowing it, together with the seed. After that, his gaze at Zhang Che grew even more intense.

-What kind of pets did I take in…-

Zhang Che drooped his head silently. He could only keep plucking the fruits around him and drop them towards Hanxue’s open mouth. It was fine if he missed; the horse would adjust himself accordingly and catch them with ease.

“Zhizhi!” The Gluttony Monkey suddenly let out a sharp cry.

Zhang Che turned his head to look at the monkey helplessly. “You little frisky monkey is even jealous now! It’s not like you’re-”

Zhang Che suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He saw the incredulous look on the Gluttony Monkey’s ugly face, and heard the ‘shasha’ sounds coming from the cliff wall behind him.

-Didn’t the Purple Jade Condor just scout things out and make sure that there weren’t any exotic beasts nearby?-

Zhang Che felt his scalp going numb, a layer of goosebumps rising out of the skin on his back. He quickly turned around to look, and saw the head of a huge tortoise sticking out of the cliff, leaving a bunch of tiny rocks falling down.

He wasn’t unable to accept this absurd reality all of a sudden. How could a head be sticking out of a cliff?

It looked like the opposite cliff’s surface had turned watery. Where the huge tortoise head was sticking out of the cliff, there were even ripples around it.

-What the heck is this!?-

The huge tortoise head, about a foot in diameter, extended out fully on its round neck almost instantly. Its grey and white eyes were wide open, staring blankly at Zhang Che standing on the tree.

=========

[Rock Tortoise]

Level: Four Star (Level 39)

Quality: Gold

Characteristics: The Defensive Strength of Its Shell Far Outclasses That of Steel, Its Skin is as Tough as Boulders

Weakness: Slow Movement Speed, Extremely Weak Internal Defenses

Innate Attribute: Rock Assimilation. Able to Traverse Freely Within Bodies of Rocks, Has a Pocket of Space of Within Its Body Usually Filled with Rocks, Shoots Them as Projectiles When Enraged to Overpower Its Enemies

Skill: Rock Bullet Gatling, Able to Spit All The Rocks Stored Within Its Body in One Go, Bringing a Strong and Sustained Destructive Force. Cooldown Time: 20 Minutes

Potential: D Rank

=========