Chapter 11657 — A Situation Even a Child Could Solve

It was dark comedy at its finest.

In the silence of the crowd, the seconds ticked by one after another.

More and more crimson apes came down through the spatial gate, and in the blink of an eye their number had reached double digits, trending toward triple.

Yet under the solution Wei Zhao had proposed, no one felt any real sense of crisis.

From beginning to end, all they had to do was move them together, two by two, facing each other.

Far from panicking, everyone even began observing them up close with keen interest.

Outer-realm demons were indeed a tremendous threat, but every appearance of theirs was a cataclysm that shook heaven and earth. Unless one possessed special means like the Heavenly Dao Academy's to track their traces, the chance for those present to encounter them was truly rare.

Especially creatures like these crimson apes before them—apart from the ancient text Zhang Tailing had mentioned, they had never been heard of anywhere else.

Every last person present immediately threw themselves into the study with relish.

After all, outer-realm demons belonged to an entirely different power system from theirs; any discovery at all might yield enormous inspiration for their future cultivation.

Harnessed properly, what lay before them was a stroke of fortune that could not be sought, only encountered.

Still, the scene of the tall elder having half his body gnawed away was, in the end, right before their eyes.

Even relaxed as they were, no one dared let down their guard completely.

Zhang Tailing raised his head to look upward and warned in a low voice: "Could there be other demons behind this spatial gate?"

That single sentence brought the goosebumps back to everyone's skin.

These crimson apes might have been solved by Wei Zhao's wildly imaginative approach, but their terror was very real.

For one thing, even knowing their weakness, if only the last one of them remained and came biting after them, every last person present would be haunted by it for a lifetime.

Who knew, after all, whether these crimson apes possessed other monstrous abilities besides invincibility through petrification?

Any other demon would surely be of no lesser tier.

If, when the time came, they could not find the weakness in time—or if the creature simply had no such obvious weakness at all—what then?

The crowd exchanged glances.

The short elder proposed: "We still have to find a way to shut the spatial gate!"

Wei Zhao studied it for a moment. "Easier said than done. It won't be so simple to close, will it?"

One sentence silenced them all again.

If the gate were easy to close, Zhang Tailing would have closed it long ago—why drag it out until now?

At this point, Qi Zhuiyun suggested: "Why don't we try a spatial seal?"

At those words, everyone's eyes lit up at once.

The ancestral hall was cut off from the world and could not be opened for three days—that was, in essence, a spatial seal of the highest order.

Only, everyone had previously been thinking of how to escape this place, of how to break the spatial seal—never of doing the reverse.

At least in theory, this line of thinking was somewhat feasible.

They put it into action at once.

"It's contracting! It really is contracting!"

Seeing the spatial gate begin to shrink at a visible rate, everyone was instantly elated.

Once the spatial gate closed, these crimson apes on the scene would be utterly useless—or rather, they would become a rare strategic resource.

After all, such ready-made and intact samples of outer-realm demons likely could not be found anywhere in the entire Inner Royal Court.

As long as they could be kept under control, every crimson ape present was a mysterious mine, and no one could predict how many treasures might be dug out of them!

The short elder immediately proposed: "Right now there are exactly sixty ape-demons here, no more, no less. We five are all witnesses, so let's split them evenly—twelve each. How about that?"

His abacus was clicking away furiously.

Counting himself, the thin elder, and Qi Zhuiyun, the Prince of Qi's Estate alone accounted for three people.

By his division, they alone would take thirty-six crimson apes, while Wei Zhao and Zhang Tailing together would get only twenty-four.

Zhang Tailing frowned. "Isn't it a bit early to be discussing this?"

The short elder chuckled. "A bit early, yes, but some things are better spelled out early than left hanging—otherwise, when the haggling starts later, it won't be any fun."

Wei Zhao said, his expression strange: "You'd better take another look at the spatial gate first."

The short elder started at that, looked up again, and was stunned to find that the spatial gate had actually stopped shrinking.

It had shrunk to an inner diameter of about two zhang and then stopped moving.

It was as if some powerful force were propping it open by force!

That was not all—before anyone could react, the shape of the spatial gate suddenly underwent some eerie change.

It turned into the shape of a face!

Looking closely, it closely resembled the crimson apes before them, yet was clearly different.

It was visibly more weathered and ancient.

Held under the gaze of those two pitch-black eyes, looking down from above, Wei Zhao and the others could not help but feel their blood run cold by instinct.

"What's going on?"

Though no one understood at once, they all had a vague sense.

This time, they had likely hoisted themselves with their own petard.

Their attempt to close the spatial gate with a spatial seal had clearly enraged some terrifying existence behind it.

The short elder pointed at Qi Zhuiyun and cursed: "Good for nothing but ruining things! Why does the Prince of Qi's Estate keep producing trash like you?"

"..."

Qi Zhuiyun pointed wordlessly at his own nose. This could be blamed on him too?

From beginning to end, he had only made a suggestion; the actual decision had been made by the others.

The way the blame was being flung around left him with no retort at all.

The others, however, had no mind to pay them any attention.

Gazing at the giant face overhead, even Wei Zhao felt a long-unfelt palpitation, and a shudder rising from the deepest part of his soul.

Wei Zhao understood in an instant.

This was an existence comparable to a god-tier powerhouse!

After all, for him as he was now, even a quasi-god powerhouse would not provoke such a violent instinctive tremor.

Zhang Tailing murmured, beside himself: "The Great Ape King! This is the Great Ape King of legend—one of the Seven Demon Sages, standing at the very apex of the outer-realm demons!"

Wei Zhao could not help glancing at him again.

This old Taoist really did know a great many things.

The crowd was once again seized by collective horror.

Outer-realm demons were already not to be trifled with; if the other party truly stood at the apex of the outer-realm demons, then there was no need to think—there was no point in their even entertaining the thought of resistance.

Because with a mere flick of their finger, these people would have to die ten thousand times over, tied together.

There was simply no comparison between them at all.

The thin elder said in a low voice: "If it really is an existence of that level, it cannot possibly descend here—the Inner Royal Court simply cannot withstand their power!"

At those words, everyone felt somewhat relieved.

Any existence that had reached god-tier could not easily appear in the Inner Royal Court, let alone a demon sage of the Great Ape King's level.

As long as the other side could not come through, they would still have a chance to linger on in their miserable existence.