Chapter 549: Chapter 549: The Terms of a Predator

The colossal Troop Leader stood in the center of the blood-soaked clearing, its crimson eyes locked onto Ethan. Around them, the atmosphere grew suffocatingly dense. One by one, the five massive Monkey Commanders leaped onto the surrounding lower branches, forming a perfect tactical crescent arc that completely cut off any path of retreat. Above them, the ancient canopy began to shake violently as hundreds of lesser scouts and dozens of wire-furred warrior monkeys materialized through the azure fog, their bared teeth gleaming in the dim light.

They were completely surrounded by an army of primates.

The three-meter alpha let out a low, rumbling chuckle that sounded like grinding boulders. It pounded its massive, scarred chest with its fists, the heavy, flesh-on-flesh thuds echoing through the clearing like war drums. It looked down at Ethan with an overtly mocking, arrogant sneer, fully expecting the tiny human to break down into tears or fall to his knees like the mercenaries before him.

Yet, as the seconds ticked by, Ethan didn’t move a single muscle. His posture remained completely relaxed, his face an unreadable mask of absolute indifference.

The giant alpha’s laughter gradually died down. A remarkably human expression of confusion and surprise flashed across its brutal features. It tilted its massive, scarred head to the side, its red eyes blinking as if trying to comprehend why this hairless ape wasn’t trembling in terror. Why do you not fear me? the gesture clearly demanded.

Ethan casually rolled his shoulders, a faint, amused smile playing on his lips as he broke the silence. "Hey, monkey-boy. I’ve got a proposition for you."

The beast’s expression instantly twisted into pure rage. It slammed its massive fists into the dirt, tearing up chunks of mud and moss as it opened its cavernous maw, unleashing a deafening roar that bared its four massive, silver fangs. While the beast couldn’t speak human tongue, its advanced intelligence had allowed it to develop a basic consciousness—it understood the tone of absolute disrespect, and it knew that being addressed as a mere beast was a direct insult to its reign.

Ethan merely laughed, his amethyst eyes flashing with a cold, mocking light. "Calm down, little chimp. I know you understand me well enough. Look, I need a small favor from your pack. To verify my hunting quota back at the town, I need some tokens. I require the bottom-right fang from every single one of your regular warrior monkeys. For your five commanders, I’ll need both of their lower fangs. And as for you... I’m going to need all four of yours."

Ethan casually rested his palm on the hilt of his plain iron sword. "If you hand them over right now, I’ll leave this mountain peacefully. But if you don’t... hehe."

The giant alpha stared at Ethan, completely incredulous. For a long moment, the beast looked entirely dumbfounded, as if genuinely wondering: Is this puny human completely brain-dead?

The massive Leader actually turned its head, looking around at the hundreds of warrior monkeys lining the branches and the ground, as if to visually double-check the reality of the situation. It then turned back to Ethan, gesturing wildly with its massive arms toward its army before pointing a single, thick finger at Ethan and Mary. The expression on its face was utterly comical in its disbelief, clearly saying: Are you blind? Do you not see that there are hundreds of us and only two of you? You are both as tiny and pathetic as our newborn runts, yet you dare to demand my fangs?

The lesser monkeys in the trees caught onto their leader’s gesture, unleashing a collective wave of screeching, mocking chatter that filled the eastern ridge, thoroughly amused by the suicidal arrogance of the crimson-clad youth.

Ethan let out a soft, amused chuckle, his grip tightening around the leather-wrapped hilt at his waist. "Well, I suppose we’ll have to do this the hard way then." He glanced slightly over his shoulder, his voice dropping into a calm, reassuring tone. "Sister Mary, take a few steps back into the brush and don’t interfere. Just watch."

Mary, still paralyzed with fear but trusting his absolute calm, slowly detaches herself from his back and retreats toward the thick roots of an ancient tree, her wide eyes locked onto his crimson armor.

With a fluid, whisper quiet metallic hiss, Ethan drew the plain iron straight sword from its scabbard. The cheap steel didn’t hum with divine energy, nor did it glow, but in his hands, it looked perfectly steady.

The three-meter alpha sneered, thoroughly bored by the human’s posturing. It turned its massive head toward the largest of the five Monkey Commanders standing on a thick branch to its left. The Leader unleashed a low, dismissive grunt, tilting its jaw forward to point at the hairless ape in crimson.

The selected Commander pounded its chest once, letting out a series of high-pitched, mocking barks that sounded like distorted human laughter. It dropped from the branch, landing heavily in the dirt, and strolled toward Ethan with an incredibly lazy, arrogant gait. It completely bared its fangs, shaking its head as if it couldn’t believe it actually had to waste its time squashing such a pathetic worm.

Stopping barely two meters away, the Commander suddenly lunged forward. It roared, raising its massive, muscular arms high into the air and driving them downward like twin iron clubs, aiming to flatten Ethan into a bloody paste.

Ethan didn’t retreat. He simply tilted his upper body a fraction of an inch to the right.

The heavy, wire-furred fists tore through the empty air where his shoulder had been a second prior, slamming into the mud with enough force to shatter the ground. But before the beast could even register the miss, Ethan’s wrist flicked.

The blade flash with bright light; it was nothing more than a momentary, silver blink in the azure fog.

SLICE.

The Commander’s mocking laughter choked out instantly. A thin, perfectly horizontal red line materialized across its thick, muscular neck. A split second later, a massive fountain of dark blood erupted skyward, and the beast’s heavy, hair-covered head slid cleanly off its shoulders, bouncing twice in the dirt before rolling directly to the feet of the giant Troop Leader. The massive, headless torso collapsed forward into the mud with a hollow thud.

The entire clearing went dead silent. The mocking chatter in the high canopy cut off instantly, replaced by the heavy, suffocating sound of dripping blood.

Ethan casually rolled his shoulders, a sharp crack echoing from his neck as he stretched his muscles. He didn’t even bother to wipe the drop of black blood from his cheap iron blade. Instead, he raised his amethyst eyes, locking a piercing, predatory gaze directly onto the dumbfounded Troop Leader.

"One down," Ethan said, his voice entirely flat, yet echoing with a terrifying intensity through the silent forest. "Let it never be said that I abuse the weak. I gave you a perfectly fair choice, and you threw it away. Now, you can either swallow your pride and hand them over, or I’ll spill every single drop of your blood right here... little chimp."

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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??