Feng Shui Chapter 109: Fierce Battle in the Fruit Grove

“Demon cultivator?!” Chen Xiao repeated in shock.

Tong Nuonuo suddenly pulled open his cloak, causing the white ling fruits inside to spill out. He reached into the mechanism box and glanced sideways at Chen Xiao. “Yes, it’s a demon cultivator. Things won’t end well here. Chen Xiao, prepare to fight!”

Chen Xiao’s heart tightened at those words. Without wasting time on questions, he drew his mechanism hand crossbow and thunder summoning talisman, quickly positioning himself to cover Tong Nuonuo from a supportive angle.

The Bat Monkey King’s unusual appearance immediately drew the attention of Shi Ming’s men. Unfortunately, a demon cultivator was far more powerful than an ordinary black-tailed bat monkey king, hundreds of times stronger. The defensive line built by the few Foundation Establishment stage cultivators soon began to crumble.

Chen Xiao grew tense and urgently asked, “What exactly is a demon cultivator? Is it an animal that has been cultivated to become sentient?”

The situation was critical, and Chen Xiao didn’t have time to filter his thoughts. He instinctively applied his previous life’s understanding of demons. Tong Nuonuo didn’t quite get what “becoming sentient” meant, but he still explained: “A demon cultivator is a non-human who cultivates the Dao. Luckily, this one hasn’t reached human transformation.” He paused, then added for Chen Xiao’s benefit, “Its cultivation level is the same as Sect Brother Xi, but instead of being called the Golden Core stage, it’s called the Demon Core stage.”

Chen Xiao’s face immediately darkened. “So, we’re facing an enemy at Golden Core level?”

Tong Nuonuo nodded. “Exactly. And worst of all, it has a whole army of followers.”

If it had been just one Golden Core cultivator, with their bombs, modified hand crossbows, and so many teammates, Tong Nuonuo was confident they could kill it. But the enemy’s forces far outnumbered theirs, and the battle would not be so simple.

The Bat Monkey King hadn’t reached the Nascent Soul stage to transform into human form, so its vocal cords couldn’t form words. Yet through its expressions, movements, and roars, its fury was clear.

This Bat Monkey King considered this white ling fruit forest its backyard. Now they were invaders stealing its fruit and attacking its followers. It was enraged, letting out a piercing roar while commanding a massive group of bat monkeys to encircle them.

This was serious. These black-tailed bat monkeys were each formidable cultivators at the Body Refining or Qi Gathering stages. The three Foundation Establishment cultivators had relied on their higher cultivation to hold them back, but now, with coordinated leadership, the bat monkeys launched relentless, coordinated attacks.

The three Foundation Establishment cultivators realized the severity of the situation. They had no choice but to pull out a magical tool they normally reserved for emergencies—it consumed too much spiritual energy to use lightly, meant for situations when the outer circle could no longer hold the beast away.

It was a small flute. The user pressed it to their lips and blew. A monotonous melody radiated out as wave-like sound ripples, spreading like an invisible giant hand slapping the bat monkey horde. The attackers screeched in pain as they were blasted backward.

Sweat quickly beaded on the player’s forehead; the flute drained spiritual energy rapidly. Just one blast used up a third of his reserves. He blew another note, scattering another wave of attackers, then passed the flute to another teammate and charged in to strike the temporarily disoriented bat monkeys.

The second Foundation Establishment cultivator took the flute and played two quick blasts, dispersing the main assault. The Bat Monkey King screamed furiously in response.

Chen Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. “They have killers. Looks like we don’t need to join the fight.”

He finally took time to look around. To his surprise, Shi Ming’s men didn’t seem to care about the battle. Instead, they were even more focused and faster at picking the white ling fruit.

Their faces were tense and pale, clearly anxious but sticking to the plan, undeterred by the danger just behind them.

Chen Xiao grew to admire Shi Ming and his disciplined team. With such rigor, extraordinary success was almost inevitable.

However, fate wasn’t on their side this day. Just as the flute wielder was about to pass the instrument to the next person, the Bat Monkey King launched a sudden assault. It struck head-on, its front claws bursting with overwhelming spiritual power.

It didn’t use any refined techniques—just brute force.

At that moment, the flute wielder had just used a lot of spiritual energy and hurriedly threw the flute to a third person. There wasn’t time to raise a shield. The Bat Monkey King ignored the flute, roaring as it lunged at the man before it.

The man barely managed to cast a spell, tearing off a large chunk of flesh and skin from the bat monkey king’s body. But the King retaliated with full force, slamming him until he was bloodied and mangled. With a pained scream, the man fell.

The Bat Monkey King bit down hard on its prey, falling with him, kicking fiercely in the stomach and viciously tearing with its jaws.

Following the king’s command, the bat monkey horde swarmed the third man recklessly, blood spraying and limbs flying. Like a tidal wave, they engulfed him.

The first flute player, face pale, snapped out of his shock and let out a sharp whistle, signaling a quick retreat. Then, gritting his teeth, he rushed toward the man being devoured. The one torn apart by the Bat Monkey King was beyond saving—but at least he aimed to retrieve that flute.

Hearing the warning from their side, the pickers finally abandoned their targets and quickly retreated along the path they had come.

Chen Xiao clenched his hand-arrow tightly and asked urgently, “What do we do now?”

Tong Nuonuo gritted his teeth, lowering his body as he raised the mechanism tube, aiming directly at the Bat Monkey King. “We go help him. Running is a dead end!”

In this grove of White Spirit Fruits, there was no way they could outrun the bats. Their best chance was to fight with all they had while the Foundation Establishment cultivators in Shi Ming’s team were still alive. That stood a much better chance than turning their backs and fleeing from the demon cultivator.

Chen Xiao nodded seriously. “Understood.” Then he sprang forward, leaping agilely from his tree onto a nearby branch. His legs moved quickly in a practiced rhythm, a product of intense training that made him as agile as the Black-Tailed Bat Monkeys themselves. He swiftly reached the frontline.

He pulled out several Lightning Summoning Talismans and rubbed them quickly, then hurled them forcefully into the swarming bats.

Without warning, streaks of white light flashed through the air, thunderous bolts of lightning exploding in the midst of the Bat Monkey horde. A wide gap opened among the attackers. The man in the front glanced gratefully at Chen Xiao but was too caught up in the chaos to say thanks before plunging back into the fray.

Chen Xiao dared not linger on the outskirts like him, occasionally tossing a talisman. Those talismans might not faze the Bat Monkey King, but they were devastating to the swarm. Soon, the bats surrounded Chen Xiao in a tight ring. But just in time, the struggling Foundation Establishment cultivator was rescued.

The man looked pitiful, with no patch of unscathed skin. His wounds were torn by claws and bitten raw. Chen Xiao caught a glimpse and shuddered. These bats were no joke—at the very least, they were carnivorous omnivores.

Once safe, the man spoke with lingering fear to his comrades: “Brother Li, I lost the bee flute. Sorry.” He hadn’t had the chance to catch it, getting surrounded by the relentless bats that left him no opening.

Brother Li pressed his lips tight, sternly saying, “We’ll find it.”

The three shared a close bond and had been entrusted with that bee flute because of their teamwork and frequent merits, earning them the highest rank under Shi Ming. No one expected this supposedly sure-fire mission to be shattered by a suddenly appeared demon cultivator—resulting not only in failure but in a death.

The Bat Monkey King savagely tore apart the enemy in front of him, then twisted to see another approaching. Killing the cultivator head-on only boosted his arrogance. His chest and claws were stained red with blood. He bared his teeth in a threatening snarl, flesh and blood still caught between his fangs—a truly bloodthirsty maw.

Amid his roar, the scattered Bat Monkey swarm regrouped rapidly.

Chen Xiao’s expression tightened as he aimed his hand-arrow at the advancing bats, ready to pull the trigger without hesitation if they dared come within range.

Both sides were now bloodshot-eyed, knowing no one would escape unscathed. The Bat Monkey King let out a sharp scream, splitting the bats into three groups: one wave climbed higher into the treetops, another descended to the ground to approach from below.

Brother Li cursed bitterly, “That demon cultivator is truly cunning—three-pronged attack, taking advantage of our numbers!”

The bats had wings and could glide from above to attack midair. Plus, standing on branches gave them little room to dodge. Some bats even descended on the tree where the three stood, trapping them like prisoners who couldn’t fly.

The Bat Monkey King grinned his bloody mouth, letting out a harsh, cackling laugh. Chen Xiao’s face was cold but calm—he wasn’t worried about the situation.

As the bats closed in, he pulled the trigger in an instant. The mechanism slid smoothly, releasing thousands of needle-like spirit energy darts that swarmed the faces, eyes, and bodies of the bats.

Tong Nuonuo had enhanced the power of the mechanism hand-arrow. Each dart punched a tiny blood hole when it struck a bat. One or two might be harmless, but being pierced by thousands at once was unbearable even for high-level cultivators, let alone these bats.

The bats screamed in agony and fell like raindrops. The Bat Monkey King flew into a rage, jumping and howling in a language no one understood.

Quickly, the bats above and below circled around Chen Xiao’s back, closing in from another direction.

The Bat Monkey King was clever—he had immediately spotted the blind spots of Chen Xiao’s hand-arrow. Chen Xiao could only shoot forward, unable to cover his back or sides.

Two Foundation Establishment cultivators were left—one badly wounded, the other exhausted. They formed a makeshift shield, struggling to hold their ground.

Confident, the Bat Monkey King moved with a smug expression, hopping between trees, unable to contain his joy.

Tong Nuonuo’s eyes were calm and steady. After waiting patiently, he finally saw the Bat Monkey King relax for a moment. Silently, he activated the mechanism tube.

A glowing orb, flickering with three colors, shot out like a cannonball, hurtling at the Bat Monkey King’s chest with lightning speed!