The Shattered Peaks lived up to their name. It looked as though a god had taken a hammer to the earth's crust, leaving behind a chaotic jumble of jagged spires, floating islands connected by massive chains of rusted iron, and deep, mist-filled abysses that smelled of ozone and bad decisions.
The Twilight Stable, perched on the back of the Obsidian Tortoise, was currently clinging to the side of a sixty-degree incline. The Tortoise's massive claws dug into the rock with the sound of grinding tectonic plates. Inside the courtyard, gravity was becoming a suggestion rather than a rule.
"Master!" Gao Ming shrieked, sliding past Su Ye while hugging a support pillar. "We are tilted! My tea is defying the laws of physics!"
"Adjust your center of gravity, Gao Ming!" Su Ye shouted, leaning casually against the angled Star-Iron wall. "We need altitude. The air down in the valley is thick with Miasma. If we stay there, the pig will start hallucinating again."
Su Ye looked up. Through the purple mist, he spotted it. The perfect parking spot.
It was a flat-topped plateau atop one of the highest spires. It had natural springs, defensible cliffs, and was currently wreathed in crackling blue lightning.
[Target Identified: Thunder-Roost Peak]
[Occupants: Thunder-Clap Baboons (Tier-3 Horde) + Alpha King (Tier-5)]
[Difficulty: High Voltage]
"That's the one," Su Ye pointed. "Senior Tortoise, aim for the summit. We're evicting the tenants."
"It tingles," the Tortoise complained, its voice vibrating in the floorboards. "The rocks are spicy."
"That's the lightning ore," Su Ye said. "Think of it as a deep-tissue massage."
As the Tortoise lumbered upward, cresting the edge of the plateau, a screech tore through the air.
SKREEEEE!
A rock the size of a watermelon, wreathed in blue electricity, sailed through the air and smashed against the Tortoise's Spirit Shield. The orange barrier rippled but held.
On the plateau, hundreds of Thunder-Clap Baboons were jumping up and down. They were blue-furred, muscular nightmares with sparks jumping between their teeth. In the center sat their King—a massive, silver-backed ape holding a crude staff made of a lightning-struck tree branch.
The King beat his chest. BOOM-BOOM. The sound was like actual thunder.
"They don't look happy to see us," Luo Bing noted, drawing her sword. "They are territorial."
"They are squatters," Su Ye corrected. "And they are sitting on my lawn."
The Baboon King roared. At his command, a hundred baboons picked up electrified rocks and hurled them simultaneously. It was an artillery barrage of lightning.
"Shell mode!" Su Ye ordered.
The Tortoise didn't need to be told twice. It retracted its head and legs. The Spirit Barrier flared.
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH.
The rocks hammered the barrier. The stable shook violently. Sparks rained down like fireworks.
"We can't just sit here!" Lin Fan yelled, checking the barrier integrity. "The static charge is building up! If the shield overloads, the feedback will fry us!"
"We need to discharge the electricity," Su Ye said, looking around. His eyes landed on Zhu Zhu.
The Void Pig was currently hiding under a bench, his hair standing on end due to the static. He looked like a pink pufferfish.
"Zhu Zhu!" Su Ye grabbed the pig. "Are you hungry?"
Squeal? (No!)
"Too bad. You're the ground wire."
Su Ye ran to the edge of the barrier. "Lin Fan! Drop the shield for three seconds! Gao Ming, distract them!"
"Distract them? With what?"
"Interpretive dance! Just be flashy!"
Gao Ming sighed, the burden of his genius weighing heavy. He climbed onto the roof of the barn. He activated the Shroud of the Phantom Stag, but instead of turning invisible, he rapidly toggled it on and off, creating a strobe-light effect.
"BEHOLD!" Gao Ming screamed, throwing glitter (glass shards) into the air. "I AM THE DISCO WIZARD OF THE WEST!"
The Baboons paused. They had seen many predators, but they had never seen a strobing human throwing shiny dust.
"Now! Drop shield!"
Lin Fan cut the power. The orange barrier vanished.
"Zhu Zhu, fetch!" Su Ye threw the pig toward the incoming volley of lightning rocks.
Zhu Zhu screamed. But as the lightning drew near, his Void instincts kicked in. Energy was energy. And to a Void Beast, energy was just spicy noodles.
Zhu Zhu opened his mouth. The void suction activated.
SLURP.
The lightning arcing off the rocks was pulled away from the stones and sucked into the pig's mouth. The rocks, now just harmless stones, bounced off Zhu Zhu's rubbery hide.
The pig landed on the plateau, glowing bright blue. He burped, and a small thundercloud formed above his head, raining on him.
The Baboon King stared. His lightning attack had been... eaten?
"Little Sun! Air support!" Su Ye launched the chicken.
Little Sun didn't need encouragement. It saw the Baboons holding shiny lightning rocks. It wanted the rocks.
The golden chicken became a blur. It zipped between the confused apes, pecking their hands.
Peck. Ow! Peck. Drop!
The Baboons dropped their ammo as the chicken assaulted their fingers. Little Sun gobbled up the metallic ores inside the rocks, spitting out the gravel.
"Tortoise! Ramming speed!" Su Ye shouted.
The Obsidian Tortoise extended its legs. It was already on the edge of the plateau. It surged forward.
Imagine a tank driving into a frat party. That was the effect of the Twilight Stable hitting the Baboon line.
The Baboons scattered, screeching in terror as the Star-Iron fortress plowed through their camp. The Tortoise didn't stop until it reached the center of the plateau, right in front of the King's throne (a pile of bones and shiny junk).
The Baboon King did not run. He was a Tier-5 Alpha. He had dignity. He stood up, towering over Su Ye on the guard tower. He raised his lightning staff, channeling a massive bolt of electricity.
"He's going to nuke the stable!" Luo Bing cried. "Ice Phoenix!"
"No," Su Ye held up a hand. "Let me handle the monkey."
Su Ye didn't use a weapon. He pulled out a megaphone.
"HEY! SPARKY!" Su Ye's voice, amplified by the Echo Bone system Lin Fan had installed, blasted the King's eardrums.
The King flinched, his concentration breaking. The lightning bolt fizzled.
"Yeah, you!" Su Ye pointed. "Nice stick. Is that hickory? Listen, we can do this the hard way, or we can do this the banana way."
The King roared, baring his fangs. He didn't care about bananas. He wanted blood. He lunged at the guard tower, intending to rip Su Ye apart.
Zzzzt.
Su Ye didn't move. He just touched the Star-Iron railing of the tower.
"Connection Established."
Su Ye wasn't connecting to the Baboon. He was connecting to the Spirit of the Mountain itself—via the Concentration Stone that was now rooting the stable to the earth.
"HEAVY," the Earth Spirit groaned in Su Ye's mind. "GET THIS APE OFF ME. HE SCRATCHES."
"Gravity Spike," Su Ye muttered.
He channeled the Earth Spirit's annoyance through the stable's defensive array.
The gravity around the Baboon King suddenly increased tenfold.
SLAM.
The King was mid-leap when physics betrayed him. He was slammed face-first into the dirt as if a giant invisible hand had swatted him. His staff clattered away. He struggled to get up, but the earth held him down.
Su Ye walked down the ramp, stepping onto the plateau. Zhu Zhu trotted over, still glowing blue, and sneezed a spark at the King's nose.
The Baboon King looked up at Su Ye—the man who controlled gravity, commanded a lightning-eating pig, and lived on a giant turtle.
The King's eyes changed. The aggression faded, replaced by the primal recognition of a bigger predator.
He rolled over on his back, exposing his belly. The universal sign of surrender.
"Good monkey," Su Ye said, turning off the gravity.
He looked around at the shivering horde of baboons.
"I have a proposition," Su Ye announced. "You guys can stay. But you don't work for him anymore." He pointed at the defeated King. "You work for me."
The Baboons looked at each other. Then at the King. Then at the pig.
They slowly sat down.
[Mission Complete: Claim a Mountain.]
[Reward: Thunder-Roost Peak Secured.]
[Bonus: 100x Unpaid Interns (Baboons).]
"Excellent," Su Ye dusted off his hands. "Luo Bing, set up the perimeter. Lin Fan, get these monkeys to start hauling rocks. We need to expand the walls."
"What about the King?" Gao Ming asked, poking the massive ape with a stick.
"Him?" Su Ye looked at the sullen Alpha. "He's the new bouncer. Give him a hat."
That night, the Twilight Stable settled into its new home. The view from the Shattered Peaks was breathtaking—a sea of clouds lit by distant storms.
Su Ye sat on the edge of the cliff, dangling his legs. Little Sun was asleep on his lap. Zhu Zhu was chewing on a piece of lightning ore.
It was peaceful.
But peace in the cultivation world is just the loading screen for the next disaster.
Zzzzt.
The System pinged. But this time, the voice was different. It wasn't the robotic interface. It was a whisper, old and dusty.
"You found the door..."
Su Ye froze. He looked around. "Who's there?"
"Down..." the voice whispered. "Beneath the roots of the mountain. The Sky-Eater waits. And he is... lonely."
The ground beneath the stable vibrated. Not an earthquake. A heartbeat.
Su Ye looked down at the rock. He realized with a sudden chill that the "Shattered Peaks" weren't just mountains.
They were ribs.
He was parked on top of a ribcage the size of a continent.
"Guys," Su Ye called out to his disciples, his voice tight. "Don't dig too deep."
"Why?" Lin Fan shouted back from the forge.
"Because," Su Ye whispered to the wind. "I think this mountain is alive."