Night Feather didn’t dare to be lazy either; he found a relatively spacious spot beneath the cliff and stood on his head. Upon seeing this, all the monkeys immediately followed his example, and suddenly thousands of them stood upside down throughout the valley—a rather amusing sight indeed.
“How can one stand upright with just a single finger? Well, once I’ve mastered standing upside down with both palms, I’ll take my time—there’s no rush. As my master said, haste makes waste,” Ye Yu thought. Before he had even completed half an hour of standing upside down, the monkeys began clamoring to go hunting.
“Although practicing cultivation is essential, I need to eat properly too—otherwise how could I have the energy for training? I might as well go with them; these monkeys can’t defeat wild boars,” Ye Yu thought. Then he came up with a strange idea and began moving forward upside down.
This posed no challenge for him. From childhood onward, he had been lively and active, with a body even more agile than that of a monkey, coupled with exceptional martial prowess. Although initially somewhat unaccustomed, within half an hour he could walk with remarkable speed.
Over the past five days, he has become capable of leaping swiftly across the mountains on a single palm. However, at most he can perform an inverted position using only six fingers—his thumb, index finger, and middle finger from each hand; attempting to stand upside down with just one finger is virtually impossible.
“Unfortunately, if Master returns in a month and finds that I can’t even perform such a simple move, he’ll be utterly disappointed. Well, I really need to come up with a solution,” Ye Yu thought. With Master Xuan no longer supervising him, he took the initiative himself.
The monkey was instructed to tie its neck with a rope and hang upside down from a tree, while several strong monkeys held the other end of the rope and gradually released it.
The idea was good, but how could a monkey have the patience for that? Either it would use all its strength to suspend him in midair, or suddenly release him, causing his head to crash into the ground.
After half a day, Nightfeather’s finger nearly broke from repeated impacts, and the monkeys grew thoroughly bored with the ordeal, so they had no choice but to give up.
“I’m not going hunting anymore—I don’t want to disappoint my master, and I still need to fly using qi!” Ye Yu said fiercely.
Seeing his unwavering persistence, the monkeys ceased harassing him. Through years of hunting practice, they mastered techniques like setting traps and deploying decoys. Though their methods were rudimentary and limited to catching small animals such as rabbits and goats, they could still regularly obtain food for their meals.
“My master warned me not to enter the water. I’m highly skilled in martial arts—what danger could there be? Standing upside down in water would surely be fine. Never mind; since my master isn’t around, I might as well go in,” Ye Yu thought.
It turned out he possessed a unique ability to breathe through his pores in water. The mystic didn’t press further, and Ye Yu assumed everyone was capable of this, so he remained silent.
He ran to a deep pool, removed the rough tiger skin covering his body, casually discarded the black knife nearby, tied a large rock around his waist with a rope, and then entered the water.
The water was eerily dark. He had walked about four to five zhang (approximately 12–16 meters) deep when a small platform emerged from the depths; beneath it, the water was pitch-black and seemed bottomless. He couldn’t determine its exact depth either. Looking up, he saw the surface was utterly gloomy, making anything clearly visible impossible.
“This is enough,” Ye Yu thought. “The pressure is making my ears ache; I’ll go underwater later once I’ve adjusted. Ah, practicing here is far quieter than anywhere else—I might as well focus all my training here.” He then stood upside down in the water, and it proved much easier; he effortlessly balanced against the rock wall.
Most people would have been frightened away by the mere sight of the eerie water surface and the occasional water snakes swimming about. Nightfeather, however, was bold enough to disregard such concerns and even felt fortunate to have found an ideal place for cultivation.
The water remained utterly tranquil; he felt the flow of primordial energy within his body and the ripples of the water. His mind, which had previously required considerable time to calm down, now settled abruptly.
Even in water, performing a handstand with one finger while carrying a large rock is extremely challenging. Ye Yu constantly switched between his fingers, focusing his mind and breath on each fingertip, completely unaware of the passage of time—until he grew hungry and finally released the rock, placing it on the platform.
“I’ll be back tomorrow anyway; carrying this stone around all the time isn’t good,” he thought. By then it was already dark. He felt his way out of the water, put on his tiger-skin coat, picked up the black knife, and walked back with a sense of satisfaction.
The monkeys were quite helpful; they left him a roasted rabbit, which he consumed swiftly. Yet his hunger remained severe. For some reason, his appetite had recently increased significantly. Today, while practicing in the water, he did not sweat at all—and yet felt even more hungry than usual.
It turned out that practicing in water required even more physical effort—something Ye Yu had no idea about.
Seeing that he had eaten only one rabbit and still felt unsatisfied, the group of monkeys grew agitated. They gestured wildly, claiming: “Our prey was already scarce; yet you’re content with obtaining it without effort. Now there’s no meat left—only peaches remain. Fortunately today, but soon even those will be gone.”
“I am your king! Besides, I’ve already hunted down countless wild pigs and killed numerous wild cattle—don’t you think that’s enough?” Ye Yu said discontentedly.
After spending considerable time together, the monkeys no longer feared him. Hearing his defense, they grew even more agitated: some claimed they couldn’t recall anything and that past events were irrelevant; others argued that as a collective group, if he were right, then shouldn’ t young monkeys lacking ability be starved to death? With thousands of monkeys in turmoil, Ye Yu found himself powerless and could only promise to bring food back the next day—only then did the monkeys agree to let it go.
“Today I saw many swimming fish in the pond—some as large as four or five feet long, others about a foot. I really should have brought some back,” Ye Yu thought. After pacing around the cave for a while, he grew more determined: “Why not do it tonight? It would make for a pleasant evening treat. With stars and a moon in the sky anyway, I can just go and collect them.” He then got up, took out his black knife, and woke the four or five monkeys guarding the cave entrance. “I’ll be right back—don’t make a fuss,” he instructed them.
The monkeys were sleeping soundly when they were suddenly awakened by a tap. They flew into a rage, but seeing it was Ye Yu, they didn’t dare to make a fuss and certainly wouldn’t show him any favor. With a few hearty laughs, they remarked, “Go ahead if you want to—why bother disturbing me?”
“How come these monkeys are becoming increasingly disrespectful to me?” Ye Yu wondered curiously. It made sense—having spent so much time with them and never losing his temper, the monkeys’ fear of him had gradually diminished, and they naturally began treating him as an ordinary member.
The gentle evening breeze felt exceptionally soothing against my skin, causing every pore on Nightfeather’s body to expand as he absorbed the vital energy of the universe and experienced the transformation of his own primordial vitality.
“When one breathes in unison with heaven and earth, that is the state of unity between man and nature—it must be incredibly comfortable,” he thought as he walked. Soon he reached the pond’s edge, removed his tiger-skin coat, and plunged into the water naked, sword in hand.
The surroundings were pitch black. He drew his blade and focused his energy on it; immediately, the blade glowed with a blue light that illuminated the fish swimming nearby. “Heh heh—Saint-level warriors are truly remarkable,” he thought triumphantly. “Not to mention, they’re invaluable for fishing at night.”
Fish thrive in light; when suddenly illuminated, they swam toward him one after another. Ye Yu used the scabbard of his left hand to strike each fish’s head—one blow per fish—and in the blink of an eye knocked down three large blue fish, each about five feet long. The fish lay smooth and slippery on the water, barely able to hold onto it.
“This knife is left here; no one’s going to take it anyway. I’ll come and retrieve it tomorrow,” Ye Yu thought. He placed the knife on the small platform where he had practiced during the day, carefully pressing it down with a stone, then dragged three fish along it and floated it up cautiously.
“Haha, look how clever I am! Well, my master said it’s quieter at night for better cultivation results. I’ll come back after having the late-night snack. Ah, putting on and taking off these clothes is such a hassle—I might as well leave them here for now,” Ye Yu muttered to himself. He took a wooden stick, threaded three large fish onto it, and walked away with a smug expression.
Back inside the cave, they woke the five guard monkeys again. At the sight of Ye Yu bringing back three fish this size, their complaints vanished instantly. Each monkey hurried about, retrieving the fire seeds stored in the cave and immediately lighting a fire there.
Using crude stone knives, the monkeys cut the fish into pieces without needing Nightfeather’s help, and soon the fragrant fish meat was released outside the cave. At that moment, it started raining again, so the aroma failed to disturb the monkeys outside.
It was their first time eating grilled fish, and the taste was truly extraordinary. The five monkeys devoured it all, their bellies bulging with food; they had nearly finished a fish weighing nearly 50 kilograms. In reality, they hadn’t eaten much themselves—most of the meat ended up in Nightfeather’s stomach, who couldn’t even believe how his small belly could hold so much meat.
“Alright, I’ll share the remaining two fish with everyone tomorrow. From now on, I’ll bring a few fish back every day—that should be enough,” said Ye Yu. The monkeys were already sound asleep and had no idea what he was saying.
“My stomach is so bloated I can’t even breathe—I’ll just sleep for a while before continuing my training. It’s raining outside; surely it’s heaven’s way of letting me rest first,” Ye Yu said, making up an excuse as he immediately fell asleep.
He slept through the night until dawn. When he woke up, it was already light outside, and a torrential rain had begun falling with thunder and lightning in the sky.
“Bad news—if the water rises, it’ll be disastrous,” Ye Yu thought. He quickly got up and ran to the riverbank, where he indeed saw a flash flood had broken out; his tiger-skin garment had been swept away somewhere by the current.
“Alas, my precious sword!” Ye Yu let out asad and shrill, forlorn and bitter, biting, shrilling cry. Ignoring the raging waves, he jumped into the pond and began fumbling around wildly. With the water so murky, he could see nothing—and how could he possibly find it? He was so frantic that he nearly burst into tears.