Chapter 35 (Part B) – The Fierce Ape

(Mustang: I know I went absent without any prior explanations for a few days, but needed a break from things for a while. Sorry about that, I hope you guys understand. Back now, and this is the first release of this week, two more coming for sure this week.)

For five consecutive days, Bi Fan made the ape drain his strength as he trained on him.

This wasn’t the only good news, due to the increase in strength; Bi Fan would now be able to practice the second technique of the ‘prancing tiger’. ‘The immortal finger’ was even more devastating than ever before, and at this rate, soon, Bi Fan would be able to practice some of the more complicated steps from the ‘dance of mist’.

“Thank you my friend. Now, I’d like to say good bye to you.” Bi said as he walked away.

As the ape realized that Bi Fan was finally leaving, and hopefully not returning, the ape shouted out, venting his frustration while his eyes indicated a hint of joy.

Bi Fan had tortured the poor soul to such an extent that he had wondered if Bi Fan would ever leave him alone.

The devil’s territory was a place to practice and gain experience, and Bi Fan wasn’t willing to leave without some.

In these five days of battling the ape, Bi Fan had already gained enough strength to kill the ape, but decided not to, just for the sake of it, so he could practice more.

Bi Fan’s whims were as transient as the clouds.

The Yin Yang pouch that he had procured from the three teenagers had proven to be more valuable than expected. Not only had he gained the nuclei which he had stolen from their kill, their bag also contained a dark, spherical capsule-ish object.

He hadn’t expected their pouch to contain another one of those formidable bombs, but then he remembered the look in the eyes of their leader, as he killed the boy, regret, probably from not being able to use the weapon against Bi Fan as well.

Having personally experienced the might of the five sounds of thunder, Bi Fan was sure that it could have easily killed him.

Bi Fan hid the bomb in his inventory; this one could prove out to be a lifesaving entity, an insurance policy.

Bi Fan was much faster now, and accompanied by the massive increase in strength, he felt that he was almost flying.

As he felt his majestic strength rush throughout his body, he roared. He was now on the lookout for his next target.

While the demons and animals were difficult to deal with, humans were still better for practice, as they often had very unique sets of skills which, was always good for gaining more experience.

Suddenly, Bi Fan heard sounds of fighting coming from up ahead, amongst these were screams of humans as well, there was definitely a fierce battle taking place somewhere nearby.

Without the slightest hesitation, Bi Fan quickened up his pace and disappeared into the forest that lay ahead of him, looking for more trouble.

There was a river, and this gurgling stream had wide open stretches of land on both its banks.

On one side, there was a bonfire that looked like it was semi extinguished. This was definitely being used to roast meat for meals, but the items on the grill seemed burnt.

It appeared that a bunch a humans were probably having a little picnic party along the river and were most likely attacked by wild animals. Everything smelt of a skirmish.

Bi Fan kept looking around and finally saw it.

A little further in the clearing, six humans were huddled together in a circle and were surrounded by about twelve bears. Three of these bears were in the ‘inner organs’ layer whereas their leader was in the ‘brave’ layer.

Out of the six humans, one was around the ‘brave’ layer whereas all the others were around the ‘inner organs’ layer, which made this team a very strong one, but unfortunately for them, their opponents were even stronger.

Bears are gifted with skins as strong as apes and on top of that, their bodies are a lot more agile in comparison.

The fight seemed to have just started, so neither side had seen any casualties so far.

Bi Fan climbed up a tree so he could get a complete view of the battlefield.

The six humans were fighting in a style which he was very familiar with. It didn’t take him long to realize that these humans were from ‘the rising sun’ school.

“They are probably looking for me!” Bi Fan thanked his fortunes, seeing the plight of his enemies.

An evil smirk widened his face as he formulated a plan of action.

Out of the six, five were Gu Yu and his party, and seemed to have been joined by another member.

Gu Yu was the strongest of them, with his strength in the ‘brave’ layer, but he wasn’t just strong, he was also a very wise man, and thus was leading this party.

The bears had ambushed these disciples in an organized manner, and if it wasn’t for the capable command of Gu Yu, the six of them would already be dead.

If the six of them would have scattered and fled, they would have most certainly been dead by now, their best chance was to gather their strength and make a stand, even if they were marginally weaker or at a disadvantage.

Gu Yu and his party were not as strong as the bears, but they weren’t very far behind either. Gu Yu had already sent a signal, a special signal that only ‘rising sun’ disciples used, asking for urgent help. So, if these guys were able to hold their own for some time then they might be able to survive if their reinforcements arrived on time.

In order to kill Bi Fan, many of the ‘rising sun’ disciples had entered the devil’s territory, and many of them might be willing to extend a helping hand to Gu Yu and his comrades in this hour of need.

“Brothers, hold on, our reinforcements will be arriving soon.” Gu Yu shouted, in an attempt to raise the morale of his comrades.

The bears were very well organized, and were good at combat. They advanced and retreated in unionized fashion, defended each other, and were suppressing their opponents with easy, leaving them no room to breathe.

Moreover, considering that they were being led by a beast that was in the ‘brave’ layer, made matters even force for the youngsters, as even Gu Yu wouldn’t dare go head-on against them as he would be at a disadvantaged position.

Bi Fan was relishing this opportunity, Gu Yu was fairly strong and the others were almost as strong as Jiang Sheng.

He was getting an excellent chance to understand and memorize their fighting style.

Once he had understood their fighting style, it would be a lot easier to deal with them later on.

“Ah!” one of the ‘rising sun’ disciples managed to stab a bear with his sword and another bear quickly slapped him on the arm.

With his arm injured and bloodied, the disciple wouldn’t be able to fight for till be bandaged himself.

Gu Yu was quick to respond, and promptly put the boy in the middle of their circle to protect him. But with only five members of the crew fighting against the bears, their odds of winning were even lesser.

“We do not aim for a kill, because if we get them, they also get us. So we don’t hurt them, because we can’t afford any more injuries. If one more person gets injured, we might not be able to stand up to them.” Gu Yu ordered his men.

These bears were very intelligent, especially their leader, none of them were trying to fight Gu Yu, and were concentrating their efforts on the other four.

The leader of this bear pack was so strong, that only Gu Yu could hope to contend against him, the other stood no chance whatsoever.

The leader of the bears attacked in full force, leaving Gu Yu no option but to face him, and the formation of the humans suddenly became very chaotic.

The other bears quickly seized the opportunity and launched a fierce attack at the other, leaving the others in a state of compete panic and desperation.

Fortunately, they weren’t very weak either, and were strong enough to hold their own, considering that most of them weren’t injured very seriously. In fact, even if they lost a couple of men, they were all still good enough to continue fighting for a while.

“Follow me, we need to make our way to that big rock over there.”

Gu Yu, even in such a desperate state had the vision to form a plan, impressive.

The other five, fighting the bears cautiously to avoid any injuries, started making their way to the rock by the river.

Gu Yu’s intentions were intercepted by the head bear, and he increased the intensity of his attacks.

Gu Yu applied one trick after another, and managed to zig zag his way through the battle field and found his way to the front of the boulder and re united with his fellow disciples.

Backs against the boulder, Gu Yu seemed relived, after all, now he only had to deal with attacks from three sides, not four.

They had just started to relax a bit, when the bears launched a ballistic attack, in full force, backed by their powerful bodies, not something that Gu Yu and his men had foreseen.

The impact of the attack caused a rush in the ranks of Gu Yu and his men, as they suddenly realized that they were at a greater disadvantage now.

Now, they had nowhere to run, no place to fall back to, and would now be forced to deal with the bears head on.

After all said and done, the physical prowess of a human’s body was no match for that of a bear’s.