From his perch in the canopy, Lin Mu's dark eyes tracked the worker apes through the Far-Sight Gu without blinking.
As expected. Under the assault of that premium liquor's fragrance, the greedy apes could not hold themselves back for a moment longer.
They glanced around furtively in every direction, confirmed there was no danger, and then eagerly pried open the jar lids.
Chee chee chee!
Shrieking with excitement, they scooped up stone bowls and greedily gulped down the clean, uncontaminated liquor from the upper half of each jar.
This was exactly what Lin Mu had wanted to see.
Before long, all four jars had been sampled. Not a single ape showed any sign of discomfort.
On the contrary, flushed with alcohol and buzzing with energy, they leaped and scrambled about in a state of wild excitement.
Thoroughly pleased with themselves — as though they had just returned from some great triumph — the worker apes hoisted the four enormous jars and staggered their way back toward the colony's heart.
"Move."
Lin Mu raised a hand.
He and Lin Wuxie slipped after the apes like two shadows, keeping a deliberate distance far to the rear.
They even modulated their breathing to blend seamlessly into the wind, leaving not a single trace of their presence.
Lin Mu understood this well. A true hunter's greatest asset, before the prey had fallen, was patience — solid and immovable as bedrock.
Through the Far-Sight Gu's extended range, Lin Mu took in the full scene at the colony's central clearing.
The worker apes were welcomed back like returning heroes. The four great jars, heavy with their rich fragrance, were set down with ceremony at the very center of the gathering.
The entire colony erupted. Over fifty apes crowded around the jars, scratching their heads and drooling.
But the peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King — massive as a small hill, seated above the rest — did not immediately let greed override its senses.
A flicker of wariness and suspicion crossed its eyes. It leaned forward and sniffed the jars carefully.
The fragrance was irresistible, but a beast's instinct kept it faintly guarded against liquor that had appeared from nowhere.
This was precisely where Lin Mu's scheme delivered its killing blow.
The Hundred Beast King watched the worker apes crack open the jars in full view of the colony and drink themselves into a stupor — rolling around on the ground in drunken delight, without a single sign of poisoning.
Whatever remained of the beast's vigilance dissolved completely.
ROAR!
The Hundred Beast King let out an excited bellow, shoved aside the drooling subordinates crowding around it, seized one of the jars, and began drinking in deep, greedy pulls.
With the Hundred Beast King leading the way, the entire colony plunged headlong into revelry.
They scrambled over each other to reach the jars, fighting and snatching, pouring the liquor down their throats in great gulps.
In the frenzied scramble, the thin Red Mud seal at the midpoint of each jar was smashed through without a second thought.
The lethal Rank 2 stage viper venom hidden at the bottom mixed instantly and completely with the premium liquor above it.
Without knowing it, every ape that drank had welcomed death's scythe into its own throat — carried down on the sweetness of fine wine.
Watching from the canopy, Lin Mu's lips curved into a smile — cold and deeply contemptuous.
In his previous life on Earth, there had been a remarkable work of literature called Water Margin. Within it was one of the most celebrated stratagems in all of history — the Seizure of the Birthday Tribute.
Even sharp, experienced human escorts had been unable to see through that layered scheme.
Lin Mu had never believed for a moment that a pack of fur-covered apes could be clever enough to unravel it.
In truth, the two of them had already begun moving the moment the colony started drinking, slipping silently toward the edge of the apes' territory.
Now they only needed to wait.
To wait for the moment of harvest.
——
One hour later.
Driven by the alcohol into singing, dancing, and wild leaping, the apes' frenzied movement had pushed their blood circulation to its peak.
And that was precisely what made the Rank 2 viper's venom strike faster and more savagely than it ever would have otherwise.
Without warning, the curtain of hell was drawn back.
Urk— chee!
The strongest apes — the ones who had leaped highest and drunk the most — were the first to seize up.
Their eyes bulged.
Their hands flew to their own throats, clutching and clawing as though trying to crush their own windpipes. Their faces darkened to purple. Their tongues swelled grotesquely.
Black, poisoned blood welled from their mouths.
A few convulsions against the ground, and they went still.
The sudden horror shattered the colony's revelry in an instant.
Chee chee chee!
Screams of terror tore through the forest.
The apes that had not yet felt the poison watched their companions die in agony and scattered in blind, instinctive panic.
What they did not know was that they were already sealed inside a cage of death.
Running only accelerated their blood flow, driving the toxin into their hearts faster.
The harder they ran, the sooner they died.
Thud.
Crash.
One after another, apes collapsed mid-sprint — blood pouring from every orifice, bodies convulsing, then going still.
In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense —
The colony that had been alive with noise just moments before — over fifty powerful demon beasts, the kind that would make any Rank 2 Gu Master team take a wide detour — had become a silent graveyard.
Corpses with blackened, purple-tinged skin carpeted the ground. The nauseating stench of blood and alcohol hung thick in the air.
Only two things remained alive in the clearing.
The peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King — its body so formidable that the venom could not simply kill it outright — pounded its chest in a frenzy, fighting the poison with sheer physical might.
And a handful of the lowest-ranking apes, who had been too weak to claim much liquor in the scramble, now lay sprawled across the ground, clinging to the last threads of life.
ROOOAR——!!!
Faced with the annihilation of its entire colony, the peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King threw its head back and unleashed a shriek of pure, devastating fury — grief and rage and despair all torn out at once.
Its eyes wept blood. Every hair on its body stood rigid.
Its blood vitality erupted like a volcano, and the trees surrounding the clearing shook and shuddered from the force of it alone.
The Rank 2 viper's venom was potent, but limited by the dosage — and the Hundred Beast King's body had been forged through countless life-and-death battles. It was not enough to kill a peak Rank 2 beast outright.
But for Lin Mu, it was enough.
What he needed was exactly this — the chance for a clean, one-on-one fight against a peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King.
"Time to close the net."
Lin Mu rose from the shadows and gave the order in a flat, cold voice.
Lin Wuxie, still not fully recovered from his injuries, was in no condition to take on a Hundred Beast King burning with berserk rage.
Lin Mu sent him to clear the battlefield instead — cutting down the poisoned, helpless remnants one by one, as easily as chopping vegetables.
Lin Mu himself walked forward.
Wreathed in the drifting haze of dust and smoke churned up by the Dust Escape Gu, he stepped into the corpse-strewn clearing like a reaper making his rounds.
ROAR!
The Hundred Beast King stood alone at the center of the clearing, pounding its chest, howling at the sky.
The eyes weeping blood were filled with a hatred and killing intent that could not coexist under the same sky.
This fight — Rank 2 upper stage against Rank 2 peak.