Truth be told, she had no strong connection to either the Xing Clan or the humans from the foot of the mountain. It was hard to say if they would be enemies or allies down the line, so she hadn’t gotten involved in their fight.
But seeing the boy about to finish them off, she couldn’t just stand by and watch.
After all, she was on good terms with Da Hua and Xiao Hua. Besides, the apes were all closely related; for all she knew, one of them could be their uncle, grand-uncle, or some other relative. She couldn’t just stand by and watch them die.
"You’re... human?"
The boy’s vision at night was clearly no match for Tang Mo’s. He could only make out her face as she drew closer. It was different from his own—much cleaner.
"You’re human. Why are you helping them?"
"And if I don’t? Why should I help you?" Tang Mo shot back.
"Don’t tell me you’re here to fight us for it?"
The boy’s question was interesting. Da Hua had told Tang Mo that the humans from the foot of the mountain believed there was some kind of treasure on this mountain.
Perhaps this "it" the boy was referring to was that very treasure.
"And what if I am?" Tang Mo shot back.
When it came to verbal sparring, these members of the Wildman Tribe, who had never experienced the darker side of human nature, were no match for Tang Mo.
Although Tang Mo was tall and slender, roughly the same height as the boy, she had grown up in a city. Compared to the members of the Wildman Tribe, she naturally looked soft and delicate.
The boy was accustomed to seeing his own tribespeople and the Xing Clan, so he naturally lumped Tang Mo into the category of people with no real combat ability. He didn’t consider her a threat at all.
As for the moment his dagger was knocked from his hand, he simply assumed the woman had used some kind of cheap trick.
Instead of answering Tang Mo’s question, the boy tried to catch her off guard, raising his wooden club and lunging at her.
Unfortunately for him, Tang Mo was no ape. The tactics that were effective against the Xing Clan were completely useless against her.
If the boy’s victory against the apes came from using his own agility and wits to overcome their Strength...
...then his fight against Tang Mo was a complete rout, as he was outmatched in agility, wits, and Strength.
Tang Mo didn’t pull a knife from her Space. She simply picked up a decent-sized club from the ground to face the boy.
To Tang Mo’s enhanced vision, the boy’s attack looked like it was in slow motion.
Tang Mo dodged the attack effortlessly, then brought her club down hard on the boy’s knee joint.
’And she hadn’t even used a spiritual power attack. If she’d added her specialty—a materialized spiritual power attack—the boy wouldn’t have even been able to get near her.’
THUD...
The joint of his knee struck hard, the boy couldn’t support himself and collapsed to the ground.
"I lose."
’He’s a sharp one,’ Tang Mo thought. ’He knows to admit defeat when he’s outmatched.’
"Talk. How did you knock them out?"
Tang Mo stood before the boy, club in hand, her expression as cold and indifferent as a school’s dean of discipline.
"A knockout drug, of course."
"Be more specific." Tang Mo smacked the club against the boy’s back. The blow wasn’t light, but she was still holding back compared to the killing strike the boy had originally aimed at her.
The boy couldn’t take the blow and fell flat on the ground.
The boy before her clearly had his share of secrets and petty cleverness, but Tang Mo had no patience for people who tried to be clever with her.
"I picked the seeds of the Mist Flower and ground them into a powder. Then I trained some bees, coated their feet with the powder, and had them fly up here to contaminate the food of the apes on guard duty."
Having learned his lesson, the boy was much more detailed this time.
"And the rest of the powder?"
’Being able to knock out these huge creatures with such a small amount of powder... this stuff must be potent.’
"Right here." The boy obediently took out a paper packet about a quarter the size of his palm and handed it to Tang Mo.
"It took me half a year to make this much."
Understanding that Tang Mo was taking all of it, the boy added one last, reluctant remark.
"How did you train the bees?"
Tang Mo put the knockout drug away and continued her questioning.
’Taming mutant beasts? That was no simple feat.’
But she had already checked; the boy had no spiritual power fluctuations. He wasn’t a Spirit Attribute Superpower User.
’So how did he manage to tame them?’
"Those bees have been raised by my tribe for generations. They only obey my people. I took a huge risk just to steal a few of them."
Tang Mo understood. It seemed the bees weren’t mutant beasts after all. If they had been domesticated for generations, it wasn’t so far-fetched.
"Then why did you come up the mountain?"
After all, Tang Mo was just bluffing about the mountain’s treasure; she didn’t actually know anything about it.
At Tang Mo’s question, the boy’s eyes darted around.