Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 240 - 231: The Broken Bridge Ends

Chapter 240: Chapter 231: The Broken Bridge Ends

Over a dozen Martial Artists from the True Core Realm rushed headlong toward the stone bridge across the lava pool.

Watching their speed, Zhang San couldn’t help but marvel, "How brave!"

"Do you all trust me that much?"

Just then, someone made it to nearly the center of the stone bridge, to be precise, to the one-third mark from the starting point to the endpoint.

Suddenly, a huge brownish-red fish leapt out from the magma.

The fish was covered in scales, its mouth wide open, revealing jagged, fierce-looking teeth.

Crack—

The head of the Martial Artist at the forefront was directly bitten off by the big fish before it plunged back into the magma.

The headless body surged forward for another three or four steps then slowly came to a halt and with a plop, fell to the ground, eventually rolling off the edge of the bridge into the lava.

As soon as the body hit the magma, numerous smaller fish swarmed over to tear at the corpse in a frenetic feast.

Zhang San, watching from afar, thought it was fortunate that the body belonged to a Martial Artist from the True Core Realm; it didn’t dissolve immediately in the magma, allowing the surrounding fish to nibble at it.

If it had been an ordinary person’s body, it would probably have been reduced to bones the moment it fell in.

Subsequently, the Martial Artists following behind also suffered attacks from the large fish leaping out of the magma.

These fish, each more than a man’s height, could perfectly snap off the heads of those on the stone bridge.

Many were so frightened that they knelt on the ground, only able to crawl forward shakily.

As a result, they managed to avoid the fish’s leaping attacks.

Apparently, the fish leaping out of the magma did so at a certain height.

And this height was just enough to perfectly target the heads of many Martial Artists.

But If they were any higher, they would jump over the heads.

And if any lower, they might end up on the bridge, where the Martial Artists could easily cut them in two.

The remaining Martial Artists on the bridge seemed to have caught on to this pattern, moving forward quickly while keeping low to the ground.

Of course, by now, everyone was more cautious, weapons at the ready, their faces etched with vigilance, their bodies tense with anxiety.

As they moved forward, hugging their bodies close to the ground, although creatures still surfaced in the magma on either side, none leaped out again.

Zhang San, seeing that only eleven people had reached the opposite shore and concluding that staying close to the ground ensured safe passage, finally relaxed.

"They’ve all made it across, aren’t you going to come out now?"

The Red Dragon Hammer had seen its share of cautious Martial Artists, but few were as scrupulously careful as Zhang San—he would easily rank in the top five of those he had seen.

However, Zhang San shook his head and countered, "Is it really safe once you cross to the other side of the bridge? Let’s see first."

The Red Dragon felt that Zhang San shouldn’t be in the top five of the most cautious Martial Artists he had seen, he was absolutely the first!

He was number one indeed!

Zhang San continued to observe and saw that the eleven Martial Artists, still shaken, breathed a sigh of relief after reaching the opposite shore.

That’s when someone noticed a stone platform nearby. Although the platform was empty, a small monkey, from where it came nobody knew, had scurried up onto it.

Even though the presence of a monkey in such a place seemed somewhat eerie.

But the monkey was so tiny, barely over a foot tall, and it didn’t look the least bit threatening.

"Let’s rest for a moment, and then continue moving forward," one of them said.

As he finished speaking, he turned his head to glance at the tiny monkey scratching its head and slowly inching closer on the stone platform.

No one paid much attention to the tiny creature; they all stood up ready to proceed.

But just as they walked past the tiny monkey, its stature abruptly expanded, swelling to a size of more than ten feet.

Reaching out, a large hand grasped a martial artist’s neck while the other hand simply flipped open his skull, drinking in his brain like a quick nutrition drink, gulp after gulp right on the spot.

Seeing this scene, the remaining ten people were incredibly panicked; some immediately took action, but others turned and ran frantically ahead.

The person about to take action saw his companion fleeing for his life and quickly retreated as well.

As a result, they were caught by the huge monkey, one by one, like opening bottles.

After leaving behind no fewer than three corpses, only eight people managed to escape in disarray.

The giant monkey then began to drag the remaining corpses behind the stone platform to eat leisurely.

It was at this time that Zhang San, from a distance, noticed a pile of fish bones and some human bones behind the stone platform by the shore.

Clearly, they were all this creature’s doing.

Not bad, even when eating humans it knows to spit out the bones, quite impressive for a monkey.

Zhang San, following the direction in which the eight people had fled, noticed that they had entered behind a huge stone door, and realized that he needed to start his journey, pursuing the exploration stone that had gone on ahead.

So Zhang San let Shadow carry him back to the ground.

Then, brandishing the Red Dragon Hammer and bending at the waist, he sprinted wildly across the stone bridge.

However, upon reaching the middle, Zhang San suddenly stood up.

As expected, as Zhang San stood up, a fish leapt out from the lava pool beside him, only to be smashed to the ground by Zhang San’s upward swing of the Red Dragon Hammer, its scales knocked off in abundance.

Clutching the scalding reddish-brown fish, Zhang San bolted towards the opposite shore.

Before he even arrived, he had already thrown the fish from his hands behind the stone platform.

At that moment, the little monkey was busy gnawing at the freshly acquired corpse of a martial artist, but to its delight, another favorite meal had arrived. So, it grabbed one in each hand, munching on both treats together.

Meanwhile, Zhang San took the opportunity to leap ashore, bypassing the stone platform and heading straight for the huge stone door.

Entering the stone door, Zhang San noticed that it led to a labyrinth constructed from tall stone walls.

Zhang San tried using the Wind Technique to fly up, but there seemed to be some kind of formation above that prevented him from flying up no matter what he tried.

However, since he couldn’t fly up, that meant neither could anyone else.

As for escaping the labyrinth, Zhang San had a unique trick of his own.

All planar labyrinths can be seen as two or more shapes joined together; the gaps where the two main bodies connect are the correct paths.

Therefore, as long as he kept moving along the left side, he would definitely find the way out.

Unless the labyrinth had no exit.

Thus, Zhang San kept to the left and moved forward; perhaps because the Secret Realm had been abandoned for too long, or maybe the little monkey had been guarding the labyrinth but later escaped.

Now, the labyrinth was empty, and Zhang San quickly found his way out.

After exiting the labyrinth, Zhang San took a moment to record the adjacent wall with Wind Chengying and then presented it to sustain enough Qi.

In this way, under the influence of Wind Chengying, the real exit looked just like another wall.

Unless someone touched it, they would not discover that this was the exit.

Red Dragon noticed Zhang San’s actions and thought that this man was really damn wicked!

Initially, it found the Vermilion Bird from the Town Martial Office despicable for even stewing and eating its physical body.

Comparatively, the Vermilion Bird’s wickedness was deep to the marrow, while Zhang San’s wickedness blossomed everywhere!

Zhang San continued forward and discovered that there was a broken bridge up ahead, with a pool of clear water beneath it; suspended above the bridge, floating in the air were various...

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[Note 74] Reference Explanation

This monster is referenced from Yang Fu’s "Catalogue of Marvels" from the Han Dynasty, named Shi Ju, originally designed to only eat monkey brains. However, due to plot requirements, its diet has been expanded here.