The party did not simply retreat from the nest.

Instead, they started circling around the perimeters of the nest to gather more information about the terrain.

And perhaps more importantly, they needed to find out the full scale of what they were dealing with here.

How big was the nest.

How many stick houses there were.

Where were they located.

How densely populated was the nest.

All of these were factors that influenced how they had to formulate the plan for tomorrow.

By the time they were done with the scouting, dusk had already fallen upon the forest.

The light from the half moon above could barely penetrate the thick canopy of trees, which made the surroundings exceedingly dark.

Such circumstances would make it difficult to react properly upon encountering danger. Out of prudence, most people would choose to avoid moving around in the forest at night.

But for the cultivators, this was actually an ideal situation as their senses far exceeded even those of the monkey monsters.

In a way, the darkness of the night had turned this region into their territory – a region where they possessed the absolute advantage in terms of scouting and detection abilities.

So how could they not seek to make full use of this opportunity?

After scouting out the area, Chu Han quickly came up with a plan for tomorrow.

And with that plan in mind, the party moved without hesitation as they combed through the forest with great speed, quickly setting up various traps and mechanisms as they did.

Zhao Yunxiao observed them closely to better understand the party’s habits and standards, slowly incorporating his own traps in a similar style to make sure that everything came together in a seamless and mutually complementary manner.

Armed with his existing knowledge of traps and arrays, this was not a difficult task by any measure.

Just like that, the party made their preparations with great care, fully prepared to spend the entire night doing so if they had to.

Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel impressed when he first heard the full plan – even he would not have been able to come up with anything that was much better than this.

Out of everything, there was only one point that he disagreed with.

“What about the possibility of there being other demons?” Zhao Yunxiao asked as they performed the preparatory work. “Isn’t it possible that there are other demons present as well? For example, the parents of the monkey demon.”

“Unlikely. After all, we didn’t see any of them just now,” Mo Mian explained. “Considering the situation earlier, they would have appeared when the rest of them were making such a big fuss.”

“Is that really enough of a reason?” Zhao Yunxiao could not help but frown. “Isn’t there a chance that they were not interested, or were simply not around at the point in time?”

“Demons are mostly territorial in nature, Junior Martial Brother Zhao. So, they tend to leave their offspring after they become adults,” Gui Longcan added. “We have been on various demon subduing missions before, and this happens almost every single time.”

“Do you think so as well, Senior Martial Brother Chu?” Zhao Yunxiao turned towards Chu Han.

“I understand your concerns. Your train of thought is definitely the safer way of approaching things,” Chu Han replied with a smile. “However, it would be never-ending if we had to consider every single possibility out there. Sometimes, we just have to look at the probabilities instead. Even if it is possible, how probable is it that there are other demons present, yet they have never acted in the past twenty years while the monkey demon was being kept in captivity?”

“While it is better to be safe than sorry, it is also not feasible to always act while taking into account the endless possibilities,” Mo Mian continued. “But don’t worry. If it really turns out as you said, we will retreat immediately.”

“Stop being a worrywart and believe in our senior martial brothers! They have never failed us so far!” Pu Feixiang patted Zhao Yunxiao on the back in assurance.

“...I understand,” Zhao Yunxiao nodded reluctantly.

He might have said that, but Zhao Yunxiao still did not agree with the party’s decision.

Yes, the probability might be low, just like Chu Han had said.

However, Zhao Yunxiao definitely did not believe that the probability was low enough to be ignored.

In his opinion, doing so would be nothing short of being negligent!

The problem here was that it did not seem as though he would be able to convince the party otherwise.

There was no other way around it.

In this case, he would just have to go along with the original plan while making his own preparations for the worst case scenario!

Without telling the others, Zhao Yunxiao secretly set up more preparations than planned. Of course, he only did whatever he could while making sure that these additional preparations would have no negative ramifications on the existing plan.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The monkeys’ nest took up a large area, so it took quite a while before the party was finally done setting things up around its perimeters.

And this was only the first part of their preparations.

The next part could be done further away from the monkeys’ nest so they were not as tense while doing so, but it was still a time-consuming process nevertheless.

By the time they were finally done, dawn was already almost upon them.

The group only managed to get about an hour of rest before the first rays of the sun could be seen penetrating through the thick canopy overhead.

However, that much was already plenty.

“Is everyone ready?” Mo Mian asked.

“Ready since yesterday,” Pu Feixiang cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

“Ready,” Gui Longcan replied.

“I’m ready as well,” Chu Han said. “Junior Martial Brother Zhao?”

“I’m ready too,” Zhao Yunxiao nodded.

“Well then, let’s begin,” Mo Mian stood up, followed by the rest of the party.

Their resting spot for the night was only about five kilometres away from the monkeys’ nest. This was not a long distance by any measure.

In fact, it could be considered rather close.

There were both pros and cons to choosing such a close location.

The downside was that this way, they would not be able to fully relax while resting, as there was always a chance that one of the monkeys could come across the resting spot.

But at the same time, they would also be able to better detect any changes in the situation, if any.

In the end, they would only be resting for about an hour, so it was decided that the pros outweighed the cons this time.

The party moved out upon hearing Mo Mian’s instructions, heading straight for the monkeys’ nest.

For cultivators like them, five kilometres was a distance that could be covered within mere minutes, and that was even when they had to conceal their presence while moving.

Before long, they arrived at the same cliff from which they had spied on the monkeys’ nest yesterday.

From their high point of vantage, the party did a quick scan of the surroundings.

There were no anomalies.

The monkeys were just as active as they had been the day before, completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

“Go.”

On Mo Mian’s cue, the party leapt out and rapidly descended into the monkeys’ nest below.

All of them had their eyes fixed on their target – the stick house that the monkey demon had entered the day before.

The cultivators moved extremely quickly.

They might not be able to fly just yet. But by imbuing their feet with essence energy, they had absolutely no issue literally running down the steep cliff walls.

This allowed them to move in a direct path towards their target, easily overcoming the rough terrain that would have proved challenging otherwise.

In fact, they moved so swiftly that, despite being completely in the open, the party was already halfway down the cliffs by the time the first monkeys noticed them.

Squeal-!

The first monkey that noticed them whistled in alarm, first drawing everyone’s attention towards it, then redirecting their attention towards the cultivators who had suddenly appeared in their nest.

Squeal-! Squeal-!

The monkeys immediately went into a furor once they spotted the Mystic Cavalry members.

Some yelled in the direction of the cultivators.

Some started charging towards them.

Some of the younger ones actually chose to hide instead.

Understanding that they had been discovered, the party no longer held back either.

Gui Longcan waved the treasure fan in his hands, and a huge streak of lightning flashed before everyone’s eyes.

It shot out from his treasure fan and reached its target in the blink of an eye.

Bang-!

A loud clap reverberated across the entire nest as the streak of lightning struck the tree that the monkey demon’s stick house was on.

Its thick trunk was ravaged in an instant, reduced to nothing but black chars.

As black smoke escaped from the burnt spot, the charred trunk could no longer hold the weight of the tree, causing it to tilt and fall.

Squeal-! Squeal-!

The monkeys started getting even more agitated upon seeing this, though it was unclear if it was out of anger or fear.

By now, a few of them had arrived before the cultivators as well, standing between them and their target.

Facing these harmless looking monkeys, Mo Mian no longer held back, drawing his sword without hesitation.

His sword was uniformly green in colour. Be it its hilt or its body, all the way till the end of its blade, the colour did not differ one bit.

It looked as though the sword had been carved out of a large piece of beautiful green-coloured precious jade.

But even if that was not truly the case, the sword definitely looked the part, especially considering the elegant aura that it was emitting.

At the base of the blade, near the handle, there was a word ‘Wind’ engraved on the sword.

With just a single glance, it was obvious that this was a valuable treasure sword.

Slash-!

Zhao Yunxiao could barely follow Mo Mian’s movements with his eyes as the latter struck.

His sword moved so fast that it turned into nothing but a blur of green.

What followed was a splash of red that spouted from the monkeys’ necks.

Whether they were actually monkey monsters or just regular monkeys, these few monkeys standing in their path never stood a chance against the leader of the Mystic Cavalry.

In fact, they were barely able to slow down the rapid advance of the party.

The rest of the party did not even slow down, displaying full confidence in their leader – believing that Mo Mian would be able to take care of the few monkeys in their path without issue.

None of the other monkeys were fast enough to even get close as the party directly descended upon the falling stick house.

Pu Feixiang was the next to act, immediately raising the spear that had appeared in his hands.

His essence energy flooded into the spear, and a domineering aura erupted from within the spear as the menacing tip of the spearhead glinted under the sun shining down from above.

It felt as though Pu Feixiang was not just a single person raising his spear, but the manifested avatar of a thousand-strong army brandishing their spears all at once.

Under this domineering aura, any weaker willed opponent would find their knees quivering in fear when forced to face him in combat.

“Die!” Pu Feixiang roared as he thrust his spear forward.

Bang-!

The spear struck the stick house in midair, not even giving it enough time to fall to the ground after its supporting tree had been destroyed by Gui Longcan earlier.

And at the moment of impact with the spear, the stick house exploded into countless pieces.

Its feeble structure did not stand a chance. It might have been good enough to keep out harsh weathers, but it was as good as meaningless when pitted against the sheer might behind Pu Feixiang’s spear thrust.

As the stick house crumbled, wooden pieces and broken sticks flew in all directions, right before everyone’s eyes.

Not even half a minute had passed since they appeared at the monkeys’ nest, yet that was already more than enough.

In this short span of time, the stick house belonging to the monkey demon had already been reduced to nothing but complete shambles.

Quick and effective.

This was the style of the Mystic Cavalry – a party that specialised in demon subduing missions!