Under the sunlight, even hell becomes bright, let alone the small Tianshan Mountains. The clouds were at the mountainside—who could imagine that above the white clouds there could still be such magnificent earthly scenery?

Yuan Shoucheng allowed the butterflies to dance around him. He devoutly knelt down and kissed this land before him. His disciples did the same. The veteran soldiers also wanted to bow in worship, but they discovered that the commander was using a gauze net to catch butterflies, then placing them in small boxes one by one, seemingly showing no reverence for this land. So the veteran soldiers didn’t move either—since they were together, their manner of conduct should naturally be consistent.

Yun Ye sneezed violently twice. There was powder on the butterfly wings, and as long as they flapped their wings it would fly everywhere, naturally making his nose very uncomfortable. Better leave quickly—if he were allergic to this stuff it would be disastrous.

Treading on the soft grass carpet, the group continued forward. Before long, the grassland disappeared. The ground was covered entirely with small scattered stones. The large rocks on the mountain cliffs were all covered in dark green moss. Heaven Lake was behind the mountain.

The spiral mountain road—where there was sunlight was heaven, where there was no sunlight became hell. Creatures like monkeys also lived behind the mountain cliffs, their entire bodies covered in white fur. It seemed they had already adapted to the icy weather. Long fur covered their eyes, with only a black nose exposed outside, occasionally opening blood-red mouths to reveal yellow fangs while dozing.

Each one was curled up in dim corners. Right beside them was the spring-bright grassland, yet they turned a blind eye to it. It was said these creatures relied on their noses to make a living—their eyes had already degenerated. Looking at them now, the herdsmen’s legends were absolutely correct.

Even someone like Yuan Shoucheng couldn’t help but draw the ancient sword from his back upon seeing the monkeys. The rest of the people were already thinking about fleeing. These monkeys were too large. In the herdsmen’s legends, these things would snatch away men and could tear apart a horse. Yun Ye looked at these fellows’ arms and believed they absolutely had this capability.

The largest one was sitting on a large rock grooming the fur of the small monkey in its embrace. The little monkey mischievously held its mother’s nipple in its mouth, eating here and there, wanting to escape, but was caught by its mother’s large hand grabbing its short tail and pulled back.

“These creatures are incomparably fierce. With this poor Daoist’s skills, I can only handle two. I wonder how many Marquis Yun’s subordinate officers and soldiers can handle?” Yuan Shoucheng’s disciple asked Yun Ye with ill intent. Ever since Chengfeng’s death, they had shown extreme contempt for Yun Ye’s behavior of fleeing from battle.

“Hmph, my lord brought gunpowder and fire oil, as well as powerful crossbows. Under concentrated fire from thirty powerful crossbows, even immortals would find it difficult to survive. As long as we defend this position and lure the monkeys over, naturally we can kill them all clean,” Liu Jinbao retorted.

Except for those few words about immortals finding it difficult to survive, the rest of Liu Jinbao’s words were very much in line with Yuan Shoucheng’s thinking. Seeing that those veteran soldiers had already occupied advantageous terrain, he planned to make a whistling sound to lure the monkeys over.

Yun Ye stopped the old Daoist. He moistened his finger with saliva and held it up to feel the wind direction, then pulled out a bottle from his bosom and handed it to Liu Jinbao: “Use your slingshot to shoot this bottle out into the wind. Be careful, don’t get it on yourself.”

Liu Jinbao immediately took out his slingshot. With a whoosh, that bottle flew far away and shattered on a rock below the valley. But the monkeys still didn’t move—those nursing continued nursing, those drinking milk continued drinking, those catching lice continued catching lice. Yun Ye’s group stayed at the downwind position, smelling the rank odor and not daring to move.

Suddenly the largest mother monkey stood up, her nose constantly twitching. The little monkey also slipped down from her embrace and in one motion drilled into the cave.

That mother monkey picked up a massive rock and casually threw it into the valley. Watching this, Yun Ye’s heart trembled. Damn, this was a monkey that could throw stones. He only heard that monkey utter a cry, and two sturdy arms grabbed onto the rock wall and swiftly descended the cliff. Behind her followed a hundred-some large monkeys over five chi tall.

The monkeys climbed very fast, their two arms swinging alternately. In no time they descended to the valley, circling around that large rock and constantly sniffing, unwilling to leave for a long time.

Yun Ye pulled out another bottle from his bosom and indicated that Liu Jinbao should shoot this bottle to an even more distant place…

After the monkeys walked far away, Yun Ye led the team carefully through the monkeys’ territory. During this time, although two little monkeys poked their heads out from the cave and bared their teeth at Yun Ye, after Yun Ye threw a piece of dried meat into the cave, sounds of monkeys fighting came from inside.

“In the future, don’t keep talking about fighting and killing. This is their home. We’re just borrowing a path through, and moreover with ulterior motives. Since that’s the case, offering them a greeting gift is perfectly reasonable.”

“These monkeys don’t know how many years they’ve lived here. Look, they’ve already learned to use tools, and their tails have become very short, which means they’re close to becoming human. Everyone has it hard—when you can give them a break, give them a break.”

Only after passing the monkey den did Yun Ye begin lecturing Liu Jinbao. These ape-men who were about to evolve into humans—if in later generations, they would definitely be carefully observed by people all over the world, absolutely treasures among treasures. From the fact that the leader monkey was a female monkey, they had already nearly reached a matriarchal clan society. To have evolved to this state in the icy wilderness—this was a miracle.

“Marquis Yun, you say these things are monkeys? And they might become human?”

The old Daoist’s words sparked everyone’s interest. The veteran soldiers also widened their eyes looking at their own commander. The snow dragons in front being such monsters was already shocking enough, and now demons had appeared.

Yun Ye very much wanted to tell them that basically all people’s ancestors evolved from monkeys. This statement was too shocking to the world. Even when old Mr. Darwin said this, people mocked him for a century. If he said it himself, these people might very well have the impulse to kill him.

Tang people respected their own ancestors most of all. If they didn’t have a good ancestor, they would strive hard to claim kinship with one. For example, Li Er’s family—everyone knew they were of barbarian stock, yet no one dared say so. They used Old Master Laozi’s name to swagger and deceive, building Daoist temples all over the world. Now, Laozi had no choice but to be their ancestor.

Now if he told Liu Jinbao that his family’s ancestors actually evolved from monkeys, this fellow would either fight him to the death or commit suicide by disembowelment. If one’s ancestors had become monkeys, there’d be no face left to continue living. Only when cursing people did one say that someone’s ancestors eight generations back were all beasts.

“Look at these monkeys—they can already use tools. Just now they were throwing stones, and two strong monkeys were holding wooden clubs. Mister Yuan, when you fought the monkeys last time, they used wooden clubs, didn’t they?” Yun Ye chatted with Yuan Shoucheng as he walked.

Yuan Shoucheng didn’t answer. One of his disciples interjected: “Indeed so. Their strength was very great—they nearly knocked my sword flying. However, they only knew simple club swinging, just those same two moves back and forth.”

Yun Ye nodded and said: “This already makes them human. The difference between humans and wild beasts is the ability to use tools. Mister Xuan Ren from the Academy has a brilliant thesis on society. He believes that hierarchical distinctions of superior and inferior only arise when food becomes abundant. In eras when food is scarce, people should have no distinction of rank—at most there are different divisions of labor, that’s all.”

“Good heavens, this really is an immortal land. Even monkeys can transform into humans. This shows the primordial energy of heaven and earth here is abundant. If this old man could establish a cave dwelling here, what immense fortune that would be.”

Yuan Shoucheng always misinterpreted Yun Ye’s meaning. Now hearing him speak like this, Yun Ye could only sigh and let him imagine freely.

“Xiao Ye, can these monkeys really become human?” Wu She followed behind Yun Ye and asked quietly.

“There’s this possibility. Perhaps after several hundred thousand years, if they haven’t gone extinct yet, maybe they will—they’ll also have language, also have countries. This is the inevitable path of their development.”

“Any difficult transformation always requires time. Marquis Yun, once we discover the secret of longevity, we’ll be able to open another door on our path forward. Given time, the sky, the stars, the ocean—none will remain places of confusion for us.”

Yuan Shoucheng’s words always made a lot of sense. Yun Ye didn’t know whether to nod or shake his head, so he could only leave first. The great lake was ahead—let him see Heaven Lake sooner and give up hope sooner.

“What did you throw into the valley?” A Daoist asked Yun Ye curiously.

“Perfume. Any female likes it—how could those mother monkeys be an exception?” Answering him casually, Yun Ye saw a massive boulder. In later generations, this rock still had the two characters for Heaven Lake carved on it. Now there was nothing on it.

No time for nostalgic sentimentality. Struggling through the pile of scattered rocks, they climbed up the mountain ridge, and Heaven Lake once again appeared before Yun Ye. The water was deep blue, profound and serene like a woman of peerless beauty.

Yun Ye had little fondness for this beauty. His memories of coming here last time were definitely not pleasant, so even now, even though she was draped in thin misty gauze, he had no interest in looking even once. After walking for three days, hot springs were his greatest hope.

“Oh my heaven, oh my heaven!” From the first moment Yuan Shoucheng saw Heaven Lake, he couldn’t bear to close his eyes. He feared that if he closed his eyes, Heaven Lake would disappear. The Daoists had already changed into magnificent Daoist robes. In their hands they actually held ritual tablets, made of white jade no less. Yun Ye’s own ritual tablet was made of ivory—more impoverished ones like Wei Zheng’s ritual tablet was just a poplar wood board.

Old Yuan was devoutly worshiping. Incense, candles, songs and dances—nothing was lacking. Yuan Shoucheng and the Daoists were dancing, performing worship. Yun Ye was diligently searching for hot springs. At this time, only hot springs could comfort his weary body.

Heaven Lake never lacked hot springs. This place was originally a volcanic crater. The surrounding black rocks were products of volcanic eruptions. As for the red rocks, those were melted magma that after cooling still retained their appearance at that time. It seemed copper and iron were very abundant here.

It didn’t take long to find the hot springs. A thin stream of water flowed out from rock crevices. Yun Ye tested it—excellent, very suitable for bathing. Below this stream was a large pool giving off hot steam. Water overflowed the pool and continued flowing downward, finally flowing into Heaven Lake.