Holy Beast Saintess 25 The Plan

She looked towards the figure that appeared silently. "So you have come."

"Mm.." The old monkey replied as he carried a large sack full of items on his shoulder.

"Okay then let's get to work, I wonder what you have brought me?" Shadow asked with carefully hiding her excitement.

The monkey opened the bag and took out everything revealing lots of weapons, beast cores, a few herbs and fruits. "I don't know what some of the items are to be used for so I brought them too. I don't know if they will be of use though."

"Mm good" Shadows eyes scanned through everything and landed on a couple of items which sparked her interest.

'So he actually has some storage bags, it seems this monkey has run into some humans in his past but didn't know the use of these items.' She glanced at the monkey.

With the combination of item making and inscriptions, a bag or ring can be made to store items within a much larger s.p.a.ce making it easier for martial artists to carry lots of items with them on their travels.

Although rings are considered rare in this world, storage bags are quite commonly used by those that can afford to purchase one, the owner drops their blood into the inscription connecting themselves to it until either their death or they remove their connection.

After dropping the blood onto the inscription, the owner can freely take out or store items instantly.

Shadow pondered for a little while more. 'These bags aren't connected to an owner so my guess is that they have already died since this monkey didn't know what they were.'

"Okay we have a deal." Shadow nodded as she turned to the monkey again, kicking aside a large pole arm and long flexible spear. "Pack up everything besides these weapons and attach the bag to my horns for now."

The monkey was puzzled why she took everything but the two weapons but decided to proceed as instructed. "So you said there will be trouble soon?"

"Yes, although you hold influence here as of now that can change at any moment. You may have high strength on your own but I believe you have an old injury yes? Not to mention it is just you and your son, when out against the numbers of the other two clans can you say for sure you can beat them all without losing the life of your son and even your own?" Shadow began to ask.

"I… No I don't think I could handle them all on my own." The monkey looked agitated as he clenched his fists.

"I'm glad you understand, the main problem is when such a thing would happen. You can stay on guard as much as you want but by the time it happens you may have not made enough preparations. So I have a suggestion… Why don't we create a chance for to push their plans into motion?" Shadow smiled playfully as she looked towards the more populated part of the mountain.

The eyes of the old monkey focussed as he began to grow interested. "And how would we do that exactly?"

"There is a human tradition or rite of pa.s.sage for martial cultivator families, they gather up their younger generation between a set age limit to compete in a compet.i.tion every few months or years. Some have compet.i.tions among themselves but others send their young into the beasts domain and test their strength through life and death." She looked at the monkey. "These things may seem silly but it is good at identifying who will shoulder their families future and their future accomplishments through their merits. For example their survival in an unknown environment, use of resources and people around them, how many beasts they can kill and what resources they can gather."

"I can see what you are getting at but what do you mean exactly?" The monkey scratched his head.

"Once the younger generation leave, the adults must stay behind and not interfere. Meaning there are no rules stating you cannot kill or rob the others who take part, to be the winner some parties may resort to such means to bring back the most achievements, it may seem cruel but often the winner is king in this world." She sighed as she continued to speak. "If we announce a compet.i.tion like this, since we are constantly invaded we can use this to temper the younger generation against the beasts outside the mountain with the temptation of a prize of some sort."

"So what's the point in this exactly?" The monkey stroked his chin in thought.

"If someone wanted to strike at your child and anyone who could opposed them… they would not let that opportunity slip during this compet.i.tion, they may even use this chance to seize your position. Not only do we draw out any traitors but we also have an opportunity to strengthen ourselves." She spoke profoundly. "As your child is away from the adults, it is more beneficial if they attack you during this event too. If you are busy defending your child from attacks, you cannot display your full strength leading to your defeat."

The old monkey gazed upon the deer as he was deeply conflicted. "So you are telling me to put my sons future in your hands?"

"If you put your trust in me, I will do the same for you. If you do decide to go ahead with the plan please set it for a month from now." Shadow turned her back to the monkey as she spoke once more before leaving. "This is a fight for survival but also a chance so do remember that this pressure we face can also push us all to temper and strengthen ourselves further. Tell me? If we weren't under threat of invasion how else would the younger generation have produced so many talents? Under times of peace perhaps those talents would not have had such accomplishments."

A yell followed shortly after from the direction she left. "Almost forgot! Take a vial of the powder for training your son, those two weapons I left should come in handy too! Familiarise yourselves with them as they may work better against other beasts better than brute force!"

The monkey sat in contemplation for a while until he finally came to an understanding. 'Smelly brat, here I was panicking over the idea of such a thing happening and you had already made such big plans.'

As he picked up the weapons and a small vial of powder he smiled to himself. "Pressure huh? Well we certainly have a difficult task on our hands! I will have to put my trust in you, don't let me down brat."

As he returned home he immediately beat up his son once again when he noticed him sleeping again. "Brat you best get up now! Your training is being doubled! No, tripled and don't you dare think of getting out of it!"

The little monkey whined in pain as he complained. "What did I do this time?!"

"Humph you useless son, all you know is sleeping unless there is some sort of crisis. From today onwards you need to put more effort into your training, things will be getting dangerous very soon so you need to have enough strength to survive what is coming." He sent another punch toward his son before throwing a large halberd to his son.

"What is this for?" The son looked puzzled.

"I want you to gain experience in using this weapon during this month, there will be an important announcement tomorrow so during this month you need to make great improvements." The old monkey picked up the spear as he began making straight thrusts into the air over and over. "Mm… What a very flexible and sharp piercing tool. Although it should take some time to got the hang of it, it will definitely come in handy if I am in trouble. Kid do your best!"

The little monkey frowned as he picked up halberd. "This is heavy!"

The night went by as the father practiced his spear thrusts and his son began adjusting to his new weapon with every thrust and slash.