Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

“Master, there are only mountains outside, and we don’t even know the way. If the mountain spirit doesn’t lead us, where can we children go? A few days ago, some people wanted to go out, but they were crying loudly after less than half a day and were carried back by the mountain spirit.” Chu Sheng sighed. “I think that the mountain spirit will probably only take us away after it has rescued all the children in the village, so we can only wait here.”

"At least it's much better than that cellar. It provides shelter from the wind and rain, and there's still some hope."

“Okay…” Qiaoxia almost forgot that there was a forest outside. She sighed and said, “It’s really strange. Why would there be a wooden house in a place like this? Who would build a house here and live here?”

Zhuang Xing also found it strange. If the mountain demon was a servant kept by the villagers, how could it turn against them because of a child?

It was clearly terrified when it saw the Xuanhuo Talisman. It had a slave mark branded on its chest. If those human traffickers were its masters, why did it dare to fight the guard when it was burned by the fire tongs?

What's going on with this wooden house...?

It brought Chu Sheng directly here. Does it know this place very well?

It used to live here?

Zhuang Xing felt there were many inconsistencies. This mandrill shouldn't be kept by those people. He carefully scanned the wooden house, trying to find anything strange.

He actually found it; on an old table in the corner of the cabin, he saw a yellowed book.

The dust on the table had been wiped off considerably, and the book had probably been found by the children.

"Chu Sheng, have you read that book? What's written in it?" Zhuang Xing asked, pointing to the book.

“That book…” Chu Sheng glanced back. “When I was brought here, I wanted to see if there was anything useful, so I took that book out of the cabinet. But none of us can read. If you want to know what’s written in it, you’ll have to read it yourselves.”

Zhuang Xing then went over and picked up the book. It was a very old thread-bound book, made of fine paper, but it seemed that a long time had passed since the book was completed, and the pages were stuck together.

Zhuang Xing turned to the first page of the book, and the four of them crowded around.

This appears to be a diary; the first page reads:

“I recently discovered that mandrills are very intelligent creatures. When they hunt, they cooperate like humans and even use clever tricks to lure their prey. So I bought a young mandrill from a mine in the north to move ore. I came to a place where I won’t be disturbed and decided to live here with this little guy for a while.”

"It seemed very scared. Even after I opened the cage, it still refused to come out. It just huddled in the innermost part, trembling. It was also very afraid of fire, which is not a good habit. I need to correct this. In short, our first day was very difficult. I hope it will come out of the cage on its own within ten days."

Chapter 85 Past

"This looks like a diary of observations of mandrills." Zhuang Xing looked at the mandrill beside him.

The mandrill sat quietly on the floor, and Zhuang Xing then noticed a small, rusty iron cage next to it, which was probably the iron cage mentioned in the diary used to hold the baby mandrill.

“So it seems… this is the mandrill that was bought.” Linghui looked up at the wooden house. “It must have been a senior who wanted to study the habits of mandrills, so he bought a young mandrill and built this house in a remote forest.”

"Let's continue."

Linghui turned another page of the diary, and Zhuang Xing leaned closer to read it intently.

...

Forty years ago, inside the log cabin.

The morning sun was shining brightly, and the chirping of swallows and sparrows could be heard outside.

The man in the blue robe placed an iron cage on the floor.

Inside the iron cage was a small, thin mandrill. The little mandrill huddled in a corner of the cage, its back pressed tightly against the cold iron bars. It was a very defensive posture, pressing its back against the wall and looking straight ahead. This way, it only needed to be wary of what was in front of it, without worrying about any danger behind it.

"Little one, this is your home from now on. Don't worry, I won't burn you with the tongs." The man squatted down and used the key to open the iron cage door.

He waved from outside, but the little mandrill showed no intention of coming out.

After all, he had come to a completely unfamiliar environment, so its wariness was not surprising to the man. In his past life, he had studied many kinds of monsters, and he knew how to get along with such a little guy.

He put the pre-prepared chicken in a bowl, placed it in front of the iron cage, and then left it there.

However, late that night, he stood in front of the iron cage, looking at the little mandrill inside with a great headache.

It shows absolutely no intention of coming out. Why is that?

It should be very hungry now; its eyes are fixed on the meat in the bowl. Doesn't it want to eat?

The man pondered deeply and finally discovered the problem: the fire in the hearth. After he extinguished the flames, the little mandrill finally crawled shakily toward the bowl of chicken.

It still didn't leave the cage; it just stood at the cage opening, using its sharp claws to pick up meat and stuff it into its mouth.

During this time, its gaze kept glancing at the man. The man suddenly stood up, and it immediately stopped eating, curled up in the iron cage, and knelt down in the posture that its former owner had taught it.

When the man bought the mandrill, the seller told him that it was the most obedient and best-trained mandrill in their area, and that he would be very satisfied with it. He said that even if you burned the mandrill with hot tongs, it wouldn't make a sound. He also said that he could command the mandrill to do anything, even cut off its own head with a sword.

However, the man was not happy at all about the little mandrill's obedience. He sighed and wondered if it would be better to catch a young mandrill in the wild for research purposes.

Well, each individual has its own research value. Since we've already bought them, let's observe them first.

“But… the hairless parts of your body are really ugly. Mandrills are ugly to begin with, and you’re so ugly you might scare a child into wetting the bed.” The man squatted down and muttered, “You should find something to cover up that word on your chest.”

Twenty-six days passed after that, and the little mandrill kept avoiding him. It was well trained and could handle its own excrement, knowing to use the litter box in the iron cage. During these days, the man did not use any open flames in the wooden house and placed the meat that was supposed to be fed to it in front of the iron cage every day.

On the morning of the twenty-seventh day, he squatted down with his bowl in his hand, just like always.

The little mandrill looked up at the man and slowly stretched out its thin arm from the cage opening. The man watched it silently, and it cautiously crawled out of the cage, stood beside the wooden board, and ate next to the man.

The man reached out his hand to it, and after looking at it for a long time, it placed its paw in the man's palm.

When the man grasped the paw, he felt a connection between himself and the little mandrill.

When the man was about to leave, it seemed a little reluctant, carefully retracting its paws and returning to its cage.

Fifty-two days later, the mandrill stayed outside the cage except when it was sleeping.

The man used medicine and fine cloth to bandage it. It had many burns on its body. At first, it didn't cooperate, but when the dressing was changed, it knew to raise its arm on its own.

The man tried to teach it some things that only humans can do, such as speaking and writing, but without success.

The man gave up on those two things and instead tried to help it overcome its fear of fire. That night, he lit a candle in front of it, and the moment the flame ignited, it immediately lost its composure.

A mere flicker of flame, no bigger than a finger, transformed it back into that laborer, kneeling on the ground as if begging for the man's forgiveness.

All night long, the man simply sat cross-legged on the ground, with the burning candle and the terrified mandrill in front of him.

The cabin was extremely quiet, with a faint firelight dispelling the darkness. The little mandrill knelt for a long time before finally raising its head.

Under the man's gaze, it stood up. The man beckoned to it, and although it trembled all over, it still hunched over and came to the man's side.

The tiny flame was reflected in its dark eyes. The man stroked its head and said softly, "See? Fire isn't so scary after all."

From that day on, men could once again tend the fire in the hearth.

He led the mandrill out of the cabin. The little guy had lived in the mine since birth and had never hunted in the wild. He taught it to hunt in the human way, teaching it to use tools, such as an axe and a bow and arrow. It was good with the axe, but the bow and arrow were too difficult for it.

Three years later, the little mandrill had learned many things, and could even hunt prey and chop firewood on its own.

“You probably won’t grow any bigger in the future.” The man tied a chest protector to the mandrill’s chest. “Use this to cover your chest, otherwise it’s really unsightly.”

The man no longer spends all day in the cabin; he sometimes goes out for two or three months at a time, and he no longer spends as much time on the mandrill.

Seven years passed, and the man finally taught the mandrill how to use a sword, leaving his sword to the mandrill.

“You are free now. Go back to where you belong.” The man pointed to the mountains and said, “If you don’t want to go back, you can stay in this wooden house. I will never come back. In these ten years, you have taught me a lot. Consider this sword my farewell gift.”

...

“I lived with it for ten years, and now it is capable of surviving on its own. Perhaps it sensed something. On my last night before I left, it held my hand with its paw. I suddenly remembered when it was very small, it liked to do that back then.”

"Ten years have passed, and it still hasn't learned to speak or write. What is it trying to express? I've been with it for almost two-thirds of its life. Maybe it's expressing gratitude, maybe it's reluctant to part, or maybe it's saying goodbye to me."

"I don't want to interfere with its future anymore. Maybe I'll come back here many years later. Will it still recognize me then? Will it still be alive? Will it have found a mate and had cubs? There are all sorts of possibilities in the future, and I hope I'll have the chance to see one of them."

Zhuang Xing closed his diary and looked at the old mountain demon sitting quietly in front of the fire pit.

Its eyes were fixed on the opposite side of the fire pit, as if it were making eye contact with someone.

Many years ago, was there really such a person?

Inside the wooden hut, there were only the two of them. It gazed at the fire, learning about human things in a place where no other creatures existed.

Zhuang Xing suddenly recalled its thin silhouette walking through the forest. Had it been living this kind of life all these years since that person left?

In the quiet of the night, it sat alone in front of the fire pit, waiting for someone it might never see.

It still clutched the rusty breastplate in its hand, which seemed to be engraved with every day of its life. It had grown from a little mandrill in its diary to an old mandrill.

Many years ago, it had also been abused, which is why it reacted so strongly when it saw Chu Sheng's leg broken, because it knew how painful and terrifying that was.

It must have been at that time that it came to understand the true nature of those people.

It must have mistaken its senior brother for a bad guy, which is why it wanted to rescue Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling.

It originally came to save people, but when it saw Yunling activating the Xuanhuo Talisman, what did it remember?

What did it remember when Zhuang Xing bandaged it?

Zhuang Xing suddenly felt very sad. Looking at the mandrill's thin and old figure, a wave of loneliness surged up inside him.

Chapter 86 The Truth Revealed

After reading this diary, I finally understood the origins of the mandrill and the background of that village.

Linghui realized that he had been mistaken for a human trafficker by the mandrill. It was said that mandrills could distinguish people by their scent, so it was understandable that they could not tell the difference between people and could not recognize him as a righteous and handsome gentleman.

However, having figured out what happened, the question now returns to what to do next.

"Chu Sheng, do you know how many children are in that village?" Ling Hui asked.

“Besides the children here, there are at least twenty or thirty others,” Chu Sheng said.

"How did you calculate that?" Linghui asked.

Chu Sheng took out a ring of keys from his waist and said, "These are the keys I stole from the guards. There are thirteen of them. In the cell where I was imprisoned, there were three other people besides me. I remember very clearly when I escaped, there were three or four people in almost every cell."

"Senior brother, let's hurry and save them!" Qiaoxia was about to pull Linghui out.

Linghui shook her head and shook off Qiaoxia's hand: "Qiaoxia, you have exhausted your true qi. There are only four of us. We cannot act rashly."

He has always acted cautiously and steadily, and never sought credit or pleasure. It is precisely because of this that he often leads the Bai Sui disciples who come down the mountain to exorcise demons.

He only did what he was capable of. Since the teachers and elders had appointed him as the team leader, he was determined to bring Qiaoxia, Yunling, and Zhuang Xing back safely.

This may sound cold and heartless, but there are countless human traffickers in the world. Even if he rescues the children in that village today, there will still be people suffering in places he cannot see.

He is merely a disciple of Xuanqing Temple; how could he possibly save all the suffering people in the world?

Those children in the village had nothing to do with him; he had no obligation or duty to risk his life to rescue them.

Of course, this doesn't mean he didn't want to save those children.