Mom's Back. The Villain Triplets Are in Trouble.

Chapter 73: Chapter 72: Humanoid Monkey

The native creature looked strange. Its silhouette was humanoid, but it was covered in long hair.

’Hmm...’ Gu Qingyin was reminded of a certain monkey that had just burst from a stone. ’It looked pretty much like this.’

’They’re both not human, but that Monkey was clearly much braver than this native. And the Monkey didn’t eat people; it liked peaches.’

The native across from her was also sizing Gu Qingyin up.

It had been watching from the sidelines when this human fought the Candle Dragon. It knew this human was incredibly strong and that it was no match for her.

The native glanced at Huo Xinghai on the ground with a look of pity, then swiftly grabbed Lin Xiaoyun and the cameraman and made to run.

The native was undeniably fast, and it moved without any warning.

By the time Gu Qingyin reacted to give chase, it was already too late. But she remained unhurried. She even walked calmly over to Huo Xinghai’s side, checked him for injuries, and only then woke him.

Huo Xinghai’s eyes fluttered open. He paused for two seconds, a flicker of terror in his eyes, then shot up and yelled, "The Candle Dragon!"

Before Gu Qingyin could say a word, he grabbed her hand and scanned their surroundings warily. "Mom, we have to get out of here, now!" ’This god-forsaken place actually has an Ancient Fierce Beast,’ he thought. ’If I’d known, I never would have let Mom come back in here.’

A warmth spread through Gu Qingyin’s heart. She smiled. "Don’t worry, the Candle Dragon already ran off."

Huo Xinghai looked back at her, stunned. "The Candle Dragon? It ran away?"

Gu Qingyin nodded. "I disappeared for twenty years because I was hunting that very Candle Dragon. I thought I’d killed it, but it seems it tricked me." ’I’ll have to make a trip to the Mystic Association in the next few days,’ she thought. ’The fact that the Candle Dragon is still alive needs to be reported.’

Huo Xinghai stared blankly at Gu Qingyin, a complex mix of emotions swirling within him: shock, pride, disbelief... He knew she was a Heavenly Master, but he never imagined she was *this* powerful. A Heavenly Master who could make a Candle Dragon run for its life! ’She’s just too strong!’

’Compared to his mom, the other Heavenly Masters he’d met were a joke. They were so weak it was like they were still apprentices.’

In that instant, the pedestal he’d put Gu Qingyin on grew ten miles high. He couldn’t suppress his overwhelming adoration.

"Mom, you’re just too incredible!"

Huo Xinghai repeated this over and over, leaving Gu Qingyin at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. But strangely enough, she really did feel a swell of pride.

’She’d been hearing praise her whole life, to the point she was sick of it. "A natural-born Heavenly Master," "a once-in-a-century genius," "the future pillar of the Mystical World"... She’d heard every exaggeration in the book. A simple "incredible" was utterly ordinary by comparison.’

And yet, all that over-the-top praise had never moved her. Only this simple "incredible" stirred something different within her.

Gu Qingyin looked at Huo Xinghai’s shining eyes. ’I guess the same words just hit differently coming from different people,’ she thought.

’If it had been Lin Xiaoyun calling her incredible, she probably would have just rolled her eyes and shot back, "You think I need you to tell me that?"’

Gu Qingyin couldn’t help but laugh. ’Sigh, and here I thought I was so fair-minded. Turns out I have a glaring double standard.’

After a moment, Huo Xinghai calmed down and remembered to ask, "What about Lin Xiaoyun and her crew? And Huo Zhao Hua?"

Gu Qingyin replied, "Lin Xiaoyun and the cameraman were carried off. They should be back in a bit. Huo Zhao Hua’s group is farther away, but they’re carrying talismans, so they won’t be in any danger."

"The Candle Dragon took them when it fled?!"

Gu Qingyin was speechless. "Just wait. You’ll see in a minute."

Huo Xinghai obediently shut his mouth.

Less than two minutes later, a hairy, humanoid creature returned, carrying one person on its shoulder and another tucked under its arm.

It was actually running, but so quickly that its legs were a blur, giving the illusion of low-altitude flight.

The moment the native saw Gu Qingyin, it screeched to a halt, nearly face-planting. As soon as it stopped, it stumbled back two steps in terror. ’How is this human here again?! I just ran so far and so fast!’

"Back so soon?" Gu Qingyin’s smile was perfectly pleasant. "Why the rush? Wouldn’t it be better to have a nice chat?" She paused, then asked, "You can talk, can’t you?"

The native didn’t move a muscle.

Gu Qingyin frowned, lowering her expectations. "Can you understand what I’m saying? Nod if you can."

The native remained motionless.

Gu Qingyin grew concerned and muttered, "No intelligence, huh? Then I guess there’s no negotiating. I might as well just kill it."

The native was horrified. It frantically shook its head and waved its hands, not even noticing when its quarry fell to the ground.

Gu Qingyin arched an eyebrow. "So you *can* understand me."

The native raised a hand and gestured. "Ah, ah, ah!"

Gu Qingyin had a flash of insight. ’Ah, so it just can’t speak.’ She pointed to the person on the ground and the one still on its shoulder. "You can’t eat these two. I’m taking them."

The native froze, looking deeply wronged. But it was also afraid Gu Qingyin would hit it, so it took a step back and reluctantly nudged Lin Xiaoyun in her direction.

Like a discarded toy, Lin Xiaoyun rolled once on the ground.

A vein throbbed in Gu Qingyin’s temple. "Nope," she said with a sigh. "I need both."

The native seemed to be getting angry. It hopped on the spot twice to show its displeasure.

’This is amusing,’ Gu Qingyin thought. ’This native doesn’t seem evil at all. It’s more like a new species that developed in this strange environment, a simple creature that only knows to eat when it’s hungry and sleep when it’s full.’

"What do you normally eat?" Gu Qingyin asked.

The native raised its hand and snatched at the empty air. A ball of Yin Sha Qi condensed into a pitch-black orb, which the creature tossed into its mouth and crunched down on like a piece of hard candy. CRUNCH.

Gu Qingyin’s pupils shrank. She instantly forgot what she was about to say.

’Just what on earth *is* this thing? It compressed Yin Sha Qi with a casual wave of its hand! And the most important part is... it ate it!’

’How is that possible?!’

’Forget Yin Qi for a second—Evil Qi affects any sentient being. Prolonged exposure makes one irritable and quick to anger, eventually leading to a loss of reason, turning them into a monster that knows only slaughter.’

’But this thing lives in this environment year-round and is unaffected... let’s just chalk that up to a species-specific trait. But to eat Yin Sha Qi like candy and *still* be unaffected? Isn’t that just absurdly unnatural?’

A sudden impulse struck Gu Qingyin. She wanted to take this creature with her. But would it even be able to survive outside this unique environment?

"Do you want to get out of here?"

The native clearly didn’t understand. It just stared at her blankly.

Gu Qingyin clicked her tongue. After a few seconds of thought, she tried again. "Come with me. You work for me, and I’ll feed you. Understand?"

It didn’t get the first part, but the native understood the second part perfectly. This human said she’d feed it!

It glanced at the cameraman still on its shoulder, then shrugged him off with a look of disgust, tossing the man to the ground. It then scampered over to Gu Qingyin, squatted down, and looked up at her like a big dog waiting for dinner.

Gu Qingyin began rummaging through her shoulder bag again. After some digging, she pulled out a Gathering Evil Talisman and a Gathering Yin Talisman. As their names implied, one absorbed Evil Qi, and the other absorbed Yin Qi.

Each could clear a two-square-meter space in seconds.

Once they were full, she held one talisman in each hand and offered them to the native.

The native sniffed the one in her left hand, then the one in her right. It took the Gathering Evil Talisman first, glanced at Gu Qingyin, then snatched the other talisman as well.

’I see,’ Gu Qingyin thought. ’It prefers Evil Qi, but it can eat Yin Qi too.’

It was just a simple test, but it made Gu Qingyin’s eyes sparkle.

’From that moment on, the little native Monkey had a new name—a walking air purifier!’

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