Chapter 10 - Mysterious Peach

Soon, there were no more peaches on the tree.

Leyvi looked at the peaches on the ground and he started to shout at the small monkey in a low voice.

"What are you doing? The owner of the peaches would kill us if they found out about this!"

While hugging a peach with his left hand, the small monkey was talking monkey again at Leyvi with his right hand pointing at the peaches on the ground and then pointing to Leyvi repetitively.

Leyvi soon realizes what the monkey is instructing him to do. He had no time to think anymore, so he touched all the peaches as fast as possible and sent them to the internal storage room.

After he was done, Leyvi ran away as fast as possible to the south. Stripey who started eating the peach in his hand just now also ran away by following Leyvi.

After he finished eating, Stripey immediately climbed the tree and quickly caught up to Leyvi who was frantically running.

While running, Leyvi looked behind him and saw Stripey was following him. This doesn't make sense. How was the small monkey able to follow him while running? A normal monkey won't be able to do that.

Don't tell me Stripey had succeeded in becoming a demonic beast? 

But how? He was just a normal monkey two weeks ago. Did he consume all the stuff he stole from the outer sect disciples? Is that how he managed to become a demonic beast in such a short time?

There were a lot of questions going on in Leyvi's head right now. He didn't know how far he had run already but he wouldn't stop until he ran out of energy. While fleeing for his life, Leyvi made a few stops to take a short break. 

A day later, he was finally out of the Triad Forest. Now that he was out, Leyvi let out a sigh of relief. At the same time, Stripey also appeared beside him.

"Why are you still following me?" Leyvi looked at the small monkey and asked.

Stripey replied in monkey language while making hand gestures but Leyvi did not understand. It looked like Stripey could already understand human language. Am I supposed to learn monkey language too?

Wait a second, did he want to follow me? If I asked him to be my spirit beast, he might agree.

"Stripey, do you want to follow me? If you want, we can sign a Spirit Beast contract."

To his surprise, Stripey immediately agreed by nodding a few times.

Seeing Stripey agree to his suggestion, Leyvi made a little cut to his index finger, obtained a drop of his blood, and left his qi imprint on it.

Leyvi gave it to Stripey, "Swallow this and don't resist the qi imprint when it enters the mind later."

Stripey acted as Leyvi instructed. He swallowed the blood drop and a few seconds later the imprint was successfully implanted in Stripey's spiritual awareness. The small monkey was now officially Leyvi's first spirit beast.

Leyvi smiled. He now has a demonic beast as a pet! 

Suddenly, Leyvi heard a little boy's voice in his mind.

"Um Boss, give me a peach!" Hearing this voice, Leyvi's expression immediately changed.

"Damn! So that's why you wanted to follow me all along. Don't think about the peaches for now. We need to find out what kind of peaches is this first, understand? And don't go stealing in the sect anymore!" 

Leyvi decided to be strict with Stripey to prevent unnecessary trouble. Stripey nodded obediently.

Afterwards, they head back to the sect. When they entered the north gate, Leyvi and Stripey were scanned and there was no problem since the small monkey was already Leyvi's spirit beast. 

Leyvi did not go to Anda's house right away. He brought the small monkey to his house first. There are some things he needed to find out.

After they arrived, Leyvi sat down and uttered the cursed words. A menu immediately appeared.

[Talent Bead |Level 2| EXP 345/500]

[Talent list: Sturdy, Chess]

[Recipient: Anda | Alchemy and Fragrant | 99/100]

[Recipient: Stripey | Steal and Stealth | 80/100]

[Host benefit: Fire Affinity, Tree Climbing Expert]

The Talent Bead's experience points have reached 345 points! Leyvi glanced at the small monkey. What Stripey used yesterday was probably the skill he got from his talent.

"Stripey, what ability did you use yesterday when you grabbed the peaches?" Asked Leyvi curiously.

"Eh? Boss didn't know? Isn't the boss the one who gave me the superpower?" Leyvi heard a little boy's voice in his mind again. 

The small monkey knew Leyvi gave him some superpowers because after meeting him that day, some sort of information started appearing in his mind and afterward, he instinctively knew how to use the superpower.

Stripey then started to use the superpower to steal from the outer sect disciples. As for how he was able to get away every time? It was related to another superpower he had. 

After consuming the stuff he stole, one day, he developed a beast core and became a demonic beast. He became stronger and faster than before! He was also quickly able to understand human language.

A few days ago, he saw Leyvi go out of the sect, so he followed him secretly. As a wild normal monkey that was born in the area of the sect, he was not able to go out of the sect due to the barrier of array formation.

However, the superpower he got from the boss allowed him to go past the gate unnoticed.

When he followed Leyvi, he saw that the boss could climb and move around the trees just like him! Maybe he transformed from a monkey to a human.

Later, he saw Leyvi kill a big boar with a heel kick and what surprised him was the big boar suddenly disappeared. Where did it go?

Stripey got more curious and continued to follow Leyvi from a distance. More and more things that Leyvi touched disappear. The mushrooms, the flowers, the fish, the stone and more!

By now, Stripey already knows that Leyvi can store a bunch of things. When they arrived near the peach tree, it was protected by multiple layers of formation, preventing anything from going near it.

Stripey knew it was time to take action and let Leyvi store the peaches for him.

"I can only give you talent, but I don't know what abilities you obtained. What is it?" 

"Um, the magical hand was called Dimension Crossing Hand, and the other superpower was Perfect Erasure," Stripey replied using telepathy.

Leyvi closed his eyes. Hearing these names, it must be some kind of heaven-defying abilities again. At first, he thought it would just raise their talent to a certain degree. Now, every single one of them almost made him pop his eye out. 

"Explain what they do in detail," Leyvi demanded.

"Um, I can grab anything with my hands even if there are walls in front of me. However, it only works within some range. But, if I can see it directly the distance didn't matter. Like when I took the peaches. Um Boss, when can I get a peach?" 

"Later," Leyvi replied. "What about the Perfect Erasure?" He continued asking.

"Um, that superpower, I can become invisible and hide my presence perfectly. But I become tired fast using this especially when moving." Stripey immediately activates Perfect Erasure.

The small monkey completely disappears from Leyvi's sight. He also couldn't sense him at all. Leyvi stretched his hand out and he could feel a furry thing in his hand. 

"So people can't see and sense but they can still touch you. Make sure not to be careless and let people touch you in the future when using this ability." Leyvi advised the small monkey. 

"Um, yes boss! Stripey remember." 

After hearing about Stripey's abilities, he was quite excited. When he entered a secret realm, abandoned ruin, or any treasured area later, he would definitely bring Stripey along and get all the treasures.

Leyvi also noticed from the menu that Stripey's feeling point had raised so much. It reached 80 points now. Must be because he is his spirit beast now.

"The peach." Leyvi suddenly muttered. He brought out a peach from the internal storage room. 

"Um Boss, I want a peach!" Stripey stretched out his small hands. 

Leyvi looked at the small monkey and got a bit soft-hearted. So he gave him the peach. Leyvi then took out another peach for himself.

Leyvi stared at the peach carefully. This bright pink-colored peach exudes some mysterious energy that he couldn't figure out. Should he eat this? Would it be harmful to him?

Stripey had already eaten one in the forest, but nothing happened to him. 

After staring at the peach in his hand for a while, he decided to consume it. 

"This peach is so delicious! I never ate something this good!" Leyvi gobbled it up. The peach was quickly consumed.

A few moments later, Leyvi started to shiver, followed by a spasm. His body was out of his control and his eyes were bloodshot. Soon, he fainted. 

Stripey who was watching this happen went panicky. 

...

While Leyvi fainted, something was happening in the Triad Forest.

A red-robed man was hovering above a wilted peach tree. A terrifying aura emanated from this person. His expression was dark. He was truly angry!

"I felt that there was something wrong with the vitality of the tree, so I came to check."

"I didn't expect that the peaches were gone, all of them."

"Nobody should be able to get near the tree, let alone take the peaches."

"Even though I don't have high attainment in array formations, it was still far beyond what this backward place can imagine."

"Mystical Array Valley." The red-robed man squinted his eyes while looking in the direction of Mystical Array Valley.