Tianjue Mountain Range – Giant Rock Valley.
If Black Dragon Pool is deep and dark, then Giant Rock Valley is raw and savage.
Massive rocks can be seen everywhere—some like small hills, others sculpted by time into bizarre shapes.
The air is thick with the scent of earth and stone.
Gu Han and Ink Scale had just appeared above Giant Rock Valley.
A deafening roar exploded from below!
'Roar—! Who dares trespass in this king's domain?!'
The sound rolled out, shaking the valley and sending gravel clattering down.
A colossal figure burst forth, leaping skyward and whipping up fierce winds.
It was a giant ape over ten zhang tall!
Its body was covered in thick ashen-brown fur, muscles coiled with explosive power.
Its bronze-bell eyes blazed with fury, and dense, heavy yellow Spiritual Qi surged around it.
This was none other than Fushan Ape King!
He had been admiring a newly acquired glowing stone and was in high spirits.
Then he sensed two powerful Auras brazenly appear above his territory.
'Old Ape! Mind your manners!'
Ink Scale stepped forward and barked, trying to defuse the tension.
'Ink Scale?! You!'
Fushan Ape King froze at the sight, then grew even angrier.
'Why'd you bring a human to my turf?! Looking for a fight?!'
Gu Han watched the thunderous, chest-beating ape, a flicker of amusement in her eyes.
This Fushan Ape King was clearly the blunt, honest-to-a-fault type.
Ink Scale started to speak, but Gu Han raised a hand to stop him.
She stepped forward and calmly regarded the mountain-like ape below.
'You are Fushan Ape King?'
Her voice was soft yet carried a strange power.
The ape's bronze eyes locked on her; he sensed she wasn't simple, and Ink Scale showed her utmost respect.
But his volatile temper, stoked by the intrusion, overrode caution.
'That's this king! Human, who are you?'
'And Ink Scale, when did you become a human's lackey?!'
'Insolence!'
Ink Scale's face darkened and he snapped.
'This is the Palace Mistress of the Jade Pool Immortal Palace—show respect!'
'Jade Pool what? Never heard of it!'
The giant ape snorted twin jets of steam.
'Bow? Hah! I was born of sky and earth—only fists matter!'
'Want my respect? Ask my fists if they agree!'
He smashed his fists together with a thunderous boom; a wild, primordial Aura erupted.
Late Stage Mahayana cultivation burst forth, thickening the air and making the ground tremble.
Ink Scale's face soured, but Gu Han merely smiled.
The laugh was soft, almost helpless.
'Only fists? Good.'
She nodded, seeming to approve.
The instant her words fell, she moved.
No earth-shaking blast, no dazzling arts.
She simply extended one pale, slender hand toward the mountain-like ape.
And clenched her fist in the Void Realm.
In that single, simple motion—
The world changed color!
The sky above Giant Rock Valley darkened, as if an unseen hand had blotted out all light.
Endless spatial power and Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi surged toward her delicate hand.
A sky-blotting hand-phantom appeared out of thin air!
It was immense, covering nearly the entire sky above the valley.
Five fingers clearly defined, palm-lines like Heavenly Dao meridians, radiating crushing might.
Time, space, light, sound—everything within its reach froze.
Fushan Ape King's raging Aura was snuffed out in an instant.
His ten-zhang body looked no bigger than a bug between a child's fingers.
'W-what is this?!'
His pupils shrank; terror drowned his fury and pride.
He tried to move, to flee, to roar!
But he couldn't budge.
He could only watch the Law-forged hand descend with crushing majesty to seize him.
'No—!!!'
In utter despair, the ape screamed from the depths of his Soul.
Yet the scream never left.
The sky-blotting hand came down.
No deafening crash, no world-shaking ruin.
With impossible gentleness,
It pinched the towering ape between thumb and forefinger like a tiny pebble.
Yes—pinched.
Not slapped, not grabbed—simply, casually lifted.
Against the backdrop of that sky-blotting hand, the ten-zhang frame of Fushan Ape King looked exactly like a toy pinched between a naughty child's fingers.
Comical, yet carrying a hair-raising terror.
Beside him, Ink Scale was already drenched in cold sweat, hands and feet icy.
Though he had long known the Palace Mistress's cultivation pierced the heavens, to see with his own eyes Fushan Ape King—whose strength rivaled his own—subdued by her without the least resistance… that twin assault on sight and Soul was a hundred times fiercer than when he himself had been cowed by her pressure.
He rejoiced that he had just made the smart choice; otherwise… he dared not imagine his fate.
Gu Han's expression remained unruffled, as though she had merely done something trivial.
She directed the giant hand, lifting the "little monkey" to eye level.
Fushan Ape King's body was rigid, his bell-sized eyes still blank with boundless terror.
His mind was empty; he could not comprehend what had happened.
Himself… a Late Stage Mahayana demon king… grabbed just like that?
Gu Han gazed into those fear-filled eyes, the corners of her lips curving in a faint smile.
She leaned closer, voice still calm, as if asking a misbehaving child:
"Now, can we speak properly?"
"…"
Fushan Ape King could neither speak nor nod.
But his eyes had already answered.
Where was the least trace of savage pride?
Only pure dread remained, and an instinctive plea for life he himself hardly noticed.
Gu Han seemed pleased by that look.
With a single thought, the sky-spanning illusion of the crystal hand slowly dissolved into motes of starlight that merged with Heaven and Earth.
The spatial shackles binding Fushan Ape King lifted at the same instant.
"Thud!"
The Ape King's huge frame abruptly regained freedom.
He tumbled awkwardly from mid-air, crashing to the ground with a dull boom that sent dust billowing sky-high.
"Cough… cough, cough…"
From the dust came his ragged coughing and heavy gasps.
After a long moment the dust thinned.
There sat the once-mighty Fushan Ape King, grimy and limp in the shallow crater he had made.
His massive body trembled as he stared at the figure in the sky, awe and lingering dread in his gaze.
He struggled to rise, but his legs felt weak.
That single "pinch" had crushed not only his Aura but every shred of pride and confidence.
Gu Han and Ink Scale descended slowly, landing before him.
Gu Han regarded him and spoke again, voice still flat:
"I am Gu Han, Palace Mistress of the Yaochi Immortal Palace."
"I invite you to join my palace—are you willing?"
The same question, the same invitation.
Yet to Fushan Ape King's ears it now sounded not like insult but like a stay of execution.
He jerked his head up, looked at Gu Han, then at Ink Scale—whose expression was complicated but clearly submissive.
Even Ink Scale had yielded… and with a Palace Mistress this terrifying… a Protector?
Sounded rather better than being a mere mount.
More importantly, refusal was not an option!
He never wanted to feel that fingertip grip, life and death beyond his control, ever again.
"I… I am willing!"
Without hesitation the Ape King lowered his massive head, voice deep and muffled.
It carried unprecedented respect—and a hint of grievance?
"Fu Shan is at your command!"
A deeper smile touched Gu Han's eyes.
She flicked a spark of spiritual light, sending the palace's information into Fushan Ape King's Sea of Consciousness.
"Since you've entered the palace you are one of us. Cultivate diligently hereafter and abide by the rules."
"Yes, Palace Mistress!"
Fushan Ape King answered loudly, feeling… it wasn't so hard to accept after all.
At least this Palace Mistress, fearsome though she was, seemed not difficult to get along with.
"Take human form first, then come with me."
Gu Han ordered.
Earth-yellow light flashed around Fushan Ape King; his ten-zhang body swiftly shrank and shifted.
He finally became an eight-foot, broad-shouldered, solidly built man.
Gu Han studied him and gave a slight nod.
In human shape Fu Shan looked every inch a fierce front-line warrior, his Aura utterly different from Ink Scale's.
"Only one remains."
Gu Han lifted her gaze toward the eastern mountains, where seven-colored mist drifted among the clouds, hazy and dreamlike.
"The Illusory Flower Sea, the Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly Emperor… I hope she proves a little more agreeable than you two."
Her teasing tone made Fushan Ape King's weathered face flush; Ink Scale kept eyes lowered, saying nothing.
"Let's go pay our respects."