The sight of his Commander’s severed head rolling to his feet shattered the Troop Leader’s mind. For a split second, its massive, scarred face went entirely blank with shock, but that disbelief immediately mutated into a blinding, apocalyptic fury.

The three-meter monster threw its head back and unleashed a screech so violent it tore the surrounding leaves from their branches. It violently beat its chest, its long arms pointing frantically at Ethan.

SCREEECH!

With that single command, the silence of the eastern ridge exploded. Hundreds of monkeys cascaded down from the high canopy like a tidal wave of wire-furred flesh and snapping jaws. Dozens of warrior monkeys charged along the muddy ground, while the scouts above loomed over the branches, raining down a torrential storm of spiritually infused rocks that whistled through the azure fog like cannon fire.

Ethan didn’t even blink. He looked at the incoming horde, a cold, pitying smirk spreading across his lips. "It seems you miserable pests still don’t understand the absolute gulf between our existences," he muttered.

The first wave of warrior monkeys leaped at him, their fingers curved into jagged hooks aimed at his throat.

Ethan moved. He didn’t use a flashy movement technique; he simply slid his front foot back, executing a textbook horizontal slice across the empty air.

SLASH!

The cheap iron blade cut through the first three warrior monkeys simultaneously, bisecting their chests with precision. Even as a heavy, fist-sized stone crashed down toward his skull from above, Ethan casually tilted his head to the left, letting the rock graze his hair before snapping his wrist forward into a precise thrust. The tip of his iron sword pierced cleanly through the jaw of a fourth monkey, skewering its brain.

"Come on, you brainless baboons!" Ethan taunted, his voice echoing smoothly over the wet, squelching sounds of butchery. "Is this the best the ’kings of the mountain’ can do? You’re nothing but overgrown targets!"

Another Monkey Commander, enraged by his words, lunged from his blind spot. Its heavily muscled, human-like arms reached out to crush Ethan’s waist.

Ethan didn’t even turn around. He leaned his torso forward, catching a heavy falling rock on the flat spine of his blade and redirecting its momentum into the face of a charging warrior monkey, crushing its skull. In the same fluid motion, he drove his elbow backward, shattering the Commander’s ribcage. As the massive beast gasped for air, Ethan spun on his heel and executed a flawless vertical strike.

CLEAVE!

The Commander was split perfectly in two, from the crown of its head down to its groin, pouring its viscera into the mud.

"Two down, little chimp!" Ethan shouted toward the back of the clearing, his eyes locking onto the giant alpha. "Who’s next? Send the rest of your inner circle! They make excellent practice!"

The remaining three Commanders hesitated, their advanced, near-human intelligence suddenly overriding their fury. Their eyes widened as they looked at the crimson-clad youth, who was casually stepping through a literal meat grinder without a single drop of blood touching his armor. He was mocking them, smiling, completely treating their life-or-death combat as an entertaining playground.

"What’s the matter?" Ethan sneered, deflecting three incoming stones with a lazy sweep of his iron steel. "Are the big, scary commanders afraid of a hairless runt? Get over here!"

Driven by sheer panic and the alpha’s frantic roars, the remaining three Commanders charged together.

Ethan’s smile vanished, replaced by an expression of pure boredom. His figure blurred.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Three precise silver lines blinked through the azure fog. The first Commander lost both of its legs at the knees, collapsing into its own blood. The second had its throat completely carved out mid-leap. The third managed to raise its arms to block, but Ethan’s cheap iron blade sliced through its forearms and its skull in a single, unyielding trajectory.

Around him, the rank-and-file warrior monkeys began to halt. Their aggressive screeches turned into terrified, high-pitched whimpers. They looked at the mountain of mangled, divided bodies littering the mud, and then they looked at Ethan, who was casually shaking the dark blood off his blade, his purple eyes gleaming with a terrifying, demonic light.

At the back of the clearing, the three-meter Troop Leader was no longer pounding its chest. Its massive, scarred body was shaking violently. The arrogant, intelligent grin it had flashed moments ago was entirely gone, replaced by an expression of raw, paralyzing panic. It looked at its decimated pack, and then its eyes locked onto Ethan, its massive fangs chattering in fear.

The king of the mountain had finally realized it wasn’t facing a human hunter. It was facing an absolute monster. With a desperate whimper, the giant alpha took a step back, its instincts screaming at it to abandon its pack and flee into the deepest, darkest depths of the inner peaks.

"Oh, no you don’t," Ethan purred, his gaze locking onto the alpha’s retreating form. "We haven’t settled the bill for those fangs yet, monkey-boy."

The three-meter alpha spun on its heel and bolted into the thickest part of the forest, its massive arms tearing through branches and bushes as it fled for its life. Fear lent the monster an incredible burst of speed, its massive frame blurring as it scrambled up a steep rocky incline to escape the nightmare below.

Ethan watched the retreating beast, his expression entirely unbothered. He could easily run the creature down with his physical speed, but doing so would completely expose his true power to Mary, who was still watching from the brush. To maintain his cover as a skilled swordsman relying on an inherited martial technique.

-------------------

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 ??