Chapter 158: Shocking the Inner Palace
While the news on the dark web said that the sightings were unconfirmed, the author of the article still sounded confident in his presentation of all the information.
It was certainly clear that many more than just that white ape alone had been able to make the breakthrough.
There was a mystical tree in Mount Tai, and that tree had quite a few mystical fruits hanging from its branches, fruits that had never seemed to ripen.
However, a Spiritual Eye had also appeared at Mount Tai during the previous night’s Spiritual Tide, and it kept gushing with spirit qi. Over half of the spirit qi that flowed out had been absorbed by the tree, and those long-unripe mystical fruits ripened all at once during the night.
The mystical fragrance of the ripe fruits spread far and wide.
Several terrifying giant monsters had emerged from all corners before the army was able to take over the mountain. All of the monsters had been able to steal one fruit each behind the army’s back.
The army fought long and hard, yet they were only able to take two fruits back. All the rest were probably divided among the terrifying giant beasts.
Those beasts fled as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
The army tried to attack the beasts after that, but it ended with not a single one of those giant beasts being held back while the army suffered huge casualties, instead.
According to speculations, the giant beasts had probably mutated further on the spot, breaking through into Invincible Vajra levels, for as even Level Eight Deity-level monsters would have died all the same when subjected to heavy bombardment.
Only by becoming a Level Nine Invincible Vajra could a being withstand being bombarded by heavy weapons and survive.
The news shocked the entire dark web immediately.
There had been some sightings of such monsters before, but no one paid any attention to them. While there were indeed power differences among the monsters, none of them had ever actually been able to fight humans.
Even without human cultivators, a simple group of military units would have been able to take them out.
But things were different this time. The Huaxia military was actually unable to hold the great monsters at bay, which was a testament to just how terrifying those monsters truly were.
They obviously knew something; they must have even known when those fruits on the tree would become ripe. Otherwise, they would not have been able to ambush the military in time.
Such feats suggested that their intelligence had risen to the same level as humans, and that was a shock to many people.
The very reason that humans were the dominant species on the planet was that all the other animals had inferior intellectual capacity.
Yet those beasts that had been on the mountain had intelligence comparable to that of humans, and given how weak and frail humans were compared to other animals, such creatures were essentially walking disasters.
Lu Xuan read the news and was exasperated at just how much had happened during the previous night. The intelligence network of the dark web was indeed formidable. There were actually some users capable of simulating what had happened during the night, and they sounded convincing.
All those speculations were in fact not that far off from what Lu Xuan remembered from his past life.
Suddenly, while he was still looking at the news, his phone rang.
He took a look at the caller ID and saw that it was Ming Yueyao.
Her voice could be heard on the other end as soon as he picked up the phone.
“Thank goodness I’m finally able to reach you, Mr. Lu!”
“What happened?” Lu Xuan asked, sounding rather intrigued. “What is it that made you called me so urgently, Chief Ming?”
Ming Yueyao seemed rather shocked, and she asked, “Mr. Lu, didn’t you hear what happened last night?”
“Not quite. I was cultivating in isolation last night. That was quite a rare opportunity, as I’m sure you know,” Lu Xuan said plainly.
“So that’s what happened to you. I’ll keep it brief, then.”
Ming Yueyao began to elaborate.
“There were several attacks from monsters last night. A number of mystical fruits were taken, and they ate the fruits on the spot. All of them mutated right away.”
Lu Xuan nodded and said, “I know this. I was just checking the news, and they seemed to have fled.”
Lu Xuan did not find any of that to be out of the place because he knew every single one of those monsters personally. They were renowned monster kings back in his past life, with every single one of them reigning supreme over a region.
Not only were they more powerful than the rat king that Lu Xuan had taken out last night, but they were also even terrifying enough to threaten human societies.
Lu Xuan was not actually all that familiar with how those monsters had come to power, but he was at least able to recall something.
“Things wouldn’t have gotten so bad if they had just run away.”
Ming Yueyao sounded rather bitter when she said that.
“Those monsters rampaged all over Mount Tai last night. Our men from the Mount Tai branch fought the monsters and suffered severe casualties. In fact, even the branch chief died in combat.”
Lu Xuan had a severe expression on his face by then. It was obvious that being a member of the Special Task Force was not as glorious as it looked on the surface. They had to shoulder an untold number of threats and crises, and it was possible that they might die at the hands of powerful cultivators or monsters at any given moment.
Ming Yueyao explained the events of the previous night to Lu Xuan.
The monsters had overrun Mount Tai and clashed with the humans. Not only did the military participate in their extermination, but even the fighters from the Mount Tai branch of the Special Task Force joined the fight, too.
What shocked Lu Xuan most was how, from that point on, things developed differently from what he remembered happening in his past life.
The Huaxia military had been assaulted, and they were unable to react in time, which left them unable to do much of anything as the monsters fled by various different routes.
This had happened because the monsters were simply too cunning. They had countless beasts surrounding the entirety of Mount Tai before the assault, and there had been monsters of considerable training among those animals.
The military garrisoning at Mount Tai had clashed with those beasts right away. There had been loopholes in their defenses, which enabled the monsters to take advantage of the military.
Lu Xuan knew that in the world of such monsters, formidable ones became true alphas while the weaker ones were reduced to pawns of such alphas. These weaker pawns were so dominated that they were unable to resist, even if they were sent to their deaths.
The monsters last night had apparently been the best among them, so it was only reasonable for them to be able to command other beasts.
What differed from his past life was the fact that the Mount Tai branch of the Special Task Force had acquired methods of crafting runic ammunition from Lu Xuan.
As such, they had large amounts of such ammunition at hand. This gave them a decisive advantage against the Invincible Vajra level monsters, beings that the fighters would have otherwise been unable to beat. The runic ammunition enabled them to injure those monsters right away.
The white ape king’s injuries had been especially severe. Later, it fled in the chaos.
Things would not have been all that bad if that was all that had happened. But the white ape king had run amok after being injured, killing everything that got in its way.
Over 10,000 people were slaughtered in a single night. Its escape route was a path littered with blood.
That turn of events had shaken even the Inner Palace.