The Purgatory Calamity

"Yes, I know him,"

Pang Jian admitted softly.

The grey ape in the cage was the leader of a ape troop in the Solitude Mountain Range. Before it became the King Ape, it had fought and was seriously injured in a battle with a white bear. It was then saved by the young Pang Jian and his father.

His father had chosen to help because he saw the grey ape possessed a high level of spiritual intelligence.

Afterwards, the grey ape, with its ice-blue eyes, became his companion in the Solitude Mountain Range.

Since then, he never hunted the apes under the grey ape's leadership. Sometimes, when he was in danger during his hunts, the grey ape would come to his aid if it saw him.

Two years ago, after he had hunted a leopard on his own, he was maliciously targeted by other old hunters from Lingshan Town.

The old hunters took advantage of his youth and, seeing that his father had been missing for a long time, they tried to snatch the leopard he had caught.

He was desperately fighting back and was about to be overwhelmed when he received help from the grey ape and its troop.

After that conflict, three hunters with bad reputations in Lingshan Town permanently disappeared from the woods.

Seeing the grey ape imprisoned in an iron cage, reduced to a captive of the Shangguan Family, Pang Jian, who had been standing in the background, suddenly stepped forward.

"That grey ape?"

His movement startled Zhou Qingchen. Glancing at his serious expression, he asked in surprise, "Do you know him?"

"A friend," Pang Jian answered earnestly.

"A friend..."

Zhou Qingchen pondered thoughtfully.

Shangguan Qin, with a charming face full of intrigue, said carelessly, "This grey ape and its troop attacked us not long ago. Its troop didn't taint themselves with the sinister power of the Mysterious Fog and were quickly eradicated by us."

"As for this grey ape with ice-blue eyes..."

Shangguan Qin pursed her lips, looked at Pang Jian, then at Zhou Qingchen, and smiled, "It seems to have developed spiritual intelligence."

"It has developed spiritual intelligence?"

Zhou Qingchen was slightly moved.

Shangguan Qin nodded lightly, her eyes sparkling as she smiled and explained, "After we captured it, we tried various methods and are convinced that it has extremely high intelligence. You know, the intelligence of apes is already high, and this one is far above its ordinary kind."

Zhou Qingchen realized, "It seems to have evolved into a Spirit Beast."

Wild beasts in areas rich in nature's spiritual energy, or under the covering of the 'Mysterious Fog,' often experience transformation. There are many precedents for this.

Wild beasts that cannot cleanse themselves of the impurity within the spiritual energy, although extremely fierce and powerful, are defined as Ferocious Beasts since they cannot communicate and thus cannot be tamed.

Ferocious Beasts are hard to domesticate and train, and for cultivators, they hold no value in being kept alive.

Spirit Beasts are different.

Once tamed, a Spirit Beast can become a companion to a cultivator, able to assist in many tasks.

Since Shangguan Qin had captured the grey ape alive, she likely planned to completely tame it before taking it out, so that it could serve the Shangguan Family.

"A friend, huh..."

Zhou Qingchen stroked his chin, his gaze alternating between the grey ape in the cage and Pang Jian, weighing the value of each and considering whether he should redeem the grey ape from Shangguan Qin.

Falling into the hands of the Shangguan Family, and possessing spiritual intelligence, the grey ape naturally held high value, and it would not be easy to retrieve without paying a price.

And the ruthless determination of Pang Jian when he attempted to assassinate He Ziren, along with his knowledge of the Solitude Mountain Range, held certain value, and he was indeed interested in recruiting Pang Jian.

However, Pang Jian's talent for cultivation was truly mediocre, and unless he encountered some extraordinary fortune, his prospects remained limited.

After considering for a moment, Zhou Qingchen actually felt a sense of compassion due to the word "friend," and said, "Aunt Qin, could you part with the grey ape? You just heard, my young brother here said that the grey ape is his friend."

Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan, and others were puzzled, not understanding why Zhou Qingchen was suddenly looking at Pang Jian differently.

When Zhou Qingchen first saw him, he had not looked at Pang Jian properly, yet after the bloody incident at the pile of stones, he took the initiative to bring him food and granted him the Dragon Pattern Spear.

Now he was considering claiming the grey ape from the Shangguan Family for Pang Jian's sake?

Ning Yao and the others could not understand the reason behind this.

The grey ape in the cage seemed to truly understand human nature. After Pang Jian called it "friend," its pair of ice-blue eyes gazed at Pang Jian for a long time without movement.

"Who is he?" Shangguan Qin asked curiously.

"A hunter who is most familiar with the Solitude Mountain Range. All our future explorations of the Solitude Mountain Range will rely on him!" Zhou Qingchen replied.

"Just... a hunter?"

Shangguan Qin was taken aback and puzzled.

After thinking for a moment and looking at the bones near the Unstable Ferry and the Blood Moon insignia on the clothes, as well as the dark banners flying on the ferry, she suddenly changed the topic, "Qingchen, how long have you been here? And how did they die?"

"We just arrived not long ago, it was like this before we came. When we arrived, all their possessions were still on the corpses. I feel that they were also killed by wild beasts and had their flesh eaten by beasts," Han Duping said obsequiously.

"As you all know, our Shangguan Family and the Blood Moon have a relationship."

Shangguan Qin rubbed her forehead, making a troubled expression as she looked at the colossal Unstable Ferry.

"Let's do this: the items you've scavenged from the corpses of the Blood Moon, I hope you can sell them to our Shangguan Family after you leave the Solitude Mountain Range. Next, we will search the Unstable Ferry, and everything inside, including the ferry itself, we need to hand over to the Blood Moon," she proposed.

"How about that?"

Shangguan Qin looked at Zhou Qingchen for an answer.

Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, and Han Duping, along with others, felt disregarded as their opinions went unheard.

"How can this be?"

Han Duping couldn't bear it any longer, feeling that Shangguan Qin's terms were somewhat harsh.

The size of the Unstable Ferry was enormous, and people from the Lower Realm, without the Blood Moon's secret skills, would find it very difficult to get it to fly.

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This special ferry, the Zhou Family will probably have a hard time taking it, and even if they do, the ones from the Blood Moon side won't let it go easily.

But if there are gains within the cabin, since the Zhou Family are the firstcomers, they should naturally have a share of the spoils and can't let the Shangguan Family behind them take it all.

A newly spiritually awakened grey ape, with its potential not yet revealed and its value not very high, Shangguan Qin is really asking for the moon.

"Alright."

To everyone's surprise, Zhou Qingchen agreed on the spot, and immediately gestured towards the iron cage, indicating to Pang Jian, "It belongs to you now."

"Thank you."

The usually quiet Pang Jian sincerely expressed his gratitude this time, saying in a deep voice, "I will seriously consider what you said in the stone pile."

Moved by the fact that Zhou Qingchen was willing to give up such a huge advantage for the grey ape he cared about, Pang Jian was indeed touched.

After saying his thanks, Pang Jian dismounted and came to the cage under the curious gazes of the others.

The hulking man with muscles twisted like tower ropes, seeing Shangguan Qin nod in agreement, handed over the iron chain that was tied to the cage to Pang Jian, preparing to hand over the ape.

Pang Jian shook his head and did not take the chain. Instead, he looked at the grey ape from in front of the cage.

The grey ape with ice blue beastly pupils, which were also watching him from within the cage, revealed a touch of sorrow in its cold eyes, seemingly still grieving for the loss of its kind.

After making eye contact with the grey ape for a moment, Pang Jian unlocked the buckle on top of the cage and then lifted the cage cover.

"Hmm!"

The crowd of onlookers showed their amazement.

"Hide, and hide far away. Do not show up again for a while," Pang Jian whispered to the grey ape in the cage.

The grey ape seemed to understand his words, nodding human-like after he finished speaking, and then suddenly rushed out, heading towards the densely wooded hills.

It looked back from time to time at the cultivators from the Shangguan Family, its ice blue mystical eyes filled with ferocity.

"This grey ape is very dangerous, its spirituality has advanced very quickly, I'm having some regrets now."

Under its fierce gaze, Shangguan Qin felt an inexplicable chill, always feeling that letting this grey ape go so easily might bring trouble for her.

"It's done, you can now go and search the Unstable Ferry."

Zhou Qingchen, nevertheless, kept his promise and first allowed his loyal Zhou Family servants to leave the sailboat, then waved to Pang Jian, signaling him to come back to his side.

Pang Jian waited until there was no trace of the grey ape and confirmed that it would be difficult for the Shangguan Family to pursue before returning to Zhou Qingchen's side.

"Making friends with a spiritually awakened King Ape, quite shocking indeed," Zhou Qingchen said with a hearty laugh as Pang Jian approached, "Pang Jian, you are quite an interesting guy."

In his mind, Pang Jian, who had been hired by the Ning Family, was now one of Zhou Qingchen's own.

Ning Yao also noticed this.

Although it was she who had motivated Pang Jian with a bag of silver ingots, now that Zhou Qingchen had made such a gesture, it seemed Pang Jian was destined to side with Zhou Qingchen.

"You, you, and you few there!"

Shangguan Qin waved her snow-white jade arm, pointing at a few loyal to the Shangguan Family and ordered, "You go check inside the Unstable Ferry carefully, see what's inside."

They nodded in agreement and immediately set out, heading straight for the sailboat moored on the driftwood and sawdust.

Shangguan Qin, without a mount, had the others stay where they were, and she approached Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao.

At that moment, she seemed to finally notice Ning Yao, her gaze glancing at Ning Yao's slightly swollen chest with a pointed tone, "Yo, Ning, you've grown up too."

As Ning Yao was about to respond with a stern face, Shangguan Qin suddenly turned cold and said icily, "Ning Yuanshan, you're not dead yet?"

With a forced smile that didn't reach his eyes, Ning Yuanshan just laughed it off, avoiding any verbal dispute with her.

Everyone could see that Shangguan Qin had issues with the Ning Family; there must have been past grievances.

"Qingchen, did you find anything on your way here?"

Seeing Ning Yuanshan not playing along, Shangguan Qin didn't press further but casually started chatting with the young master of the Zhou Family.

As they chatted, the people from the Shangguan Family, Zhou Family, and Ning Family all kept an eye on the Unstable Ferry, watching the few loyal to the Shangguan Family climb up the wooden ladder to the deck and then down into the cabin.

Pang Jian also learned from their conversation that the Shangguan Family had entered from the eastern part of the Solitude Mountain Range and had encountered many wild beast attacks along the way.

Like them, the Shangguan Family had rushed over after seeing the towering colossal bones from afar.

"Bang! Bang! Bang bang!"

As they discussed the mysteries of the Phoenix Bone, horrific sounds of flesh and blood bursting came from inside the Unstable Ferry.

Shangguan Qin's face abruptly changed color, and the others were also startled.

Thick blood gushed from the cabin like blood arrows, infused with mystery and stench, each injecting into the blood moon pattern on the dark banner.

The crescent blood moon swayed in the wind, swallowing each stream of blood and slowly swelling within the banner.

The increasingly bright blood-red glow, released through the now-full moon, eerily directed toward everyone's location.

This transformation of the "Blood Moon" made everyone's skin crawl. Everyone looking at it felt a stinging in their eyes as if two steel nails were hammered into their temples.

"Branded Eye!"

After her initial shock, Shangguan Qin was the first to compose herself, raising her hand and shouting towards the black banner where the crescent had turned full from the absorbed blood.

She was beside herself with excitement, eyes filled with anticipation and yearning, as if waiting for the favor of an evil deity.

On the banner, the terrifying blood eye slowly rotated, searching for a target to fixate on.

Suddenly, Pang Jian felt a warmth in his chest, his pupils instantly dyed red with thick blood.

He immediately locked gazes with the sinister blood eye, and scenes began to flash through his mind as though memories were being forcibly infused.

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