If I had written it such that the main character stops Dumby and keeps him from killing the humans, would everyone have liked that instead? I fear, even more people would have ended up scolding me.
Main characters that decisively kill all their foes are liked by many. I like them too, because they are enjoyable to write about; little brainpower required, simple and violent. But with how the story has developed, I think it's unreasonable for Gao Peng to turn into such a character. It's just too sudden. Personality change is a process, and it requires time.
As a person ages, their personality and views on the world will change.
I will learn from this lesson. In the future, I will try my best to avoid such plotlines, and simply write about my little monsters.)
…
Standing by the river, hearing vague screaming sounds coming from behind him, Gao Peng's facial expression became calm again. Although he fought hard to look calm, at that moment, Gao Peng's heart was still beating very fast.
Standing by the river, Gao Peng lowered his head to look at the reflection in the water. The reddish-brown water dyed the reflection of his face blood red, making him look fierce, like some demon.
When he stretched out his hands, his palms looked blood red as well. As the water flowed and made ripples, his hands looked distorted.
Gao Peng suddenly realized.
From start to finish, he could not be considered a good person.
Earlier, he could have stopped Dumby from going back. He believed that if he had enforced an order, Dumby would have obeyed him.
But he hadn't stopped Dumby.
Because he was a person who would rather be on the side of those that he cared about than on the side of reason.
From behind him, he heard Dumby's footsteps. The plants along the river shook, and the reeds were pushed aside as Dumby approached with large strides.
There was no sign of blood on Dumby. He then knew that Dumby must have considered his feelings and not killed the men by his own hand.
Gao Peng let out a long sigh.
"The Zhou Family," Gao Peng thought with a distant look in his eyes.
The Zhou Family was the source of all this, but against the Zhou Family, he couldn't use plain violence to settle matters like he had just now. Causing a larger disturbance would result in greater consequences.
And besides, Dumby's precious daughter was not hurt either, just in shock. Thus, there was still room for less extreme measures.
Gao Peng gently patted the head of the small female ape placed on Stripey's back.
The female ape was not large, only 1.3 or 1.4 meters tall, with long slender arms and bright lustrous fur. She was still unconscious.
Dumby looked at his daughter, then he could not resist any longer and lifted her from Stripey's back. Throughout this process, he was extremely careful, as though he was carrying the world's most precious treasure.
After around an hour of waiting, a familiar ship came sailing down from upstream.
The old sailor anchored his ship along the riverside and pushed the wooden plank from the deck forward onto the shore.
Gao Peng, Dumby, and the rest quickly boarded the ship.
When all the familiars were on board, the ship slowly began to sail.
Sitting on the ship, Gao Peng gazed at the river's surface, allowing the strong winds blowing across the river to make a mess out of his hair.
After returning to Lizhou, Gao Peng told his grandpa about the whole affair regarding the Red Rive Apes and the Zhou Family. Gao Peng was simply lost in regards to how he should handle such a situation. He thought he might as well let his grandpa handle it, and learn how to handle such situations in the future.
Hearing the story, his grandpa immediately ordered for the group of Red River Apes to be captured and brought back to Yuzhou to be reared in captivity. After all, Dumby was concerned only for this one group of Red River Apes. With this, potential conflicts would be avoided, and Dumby's interests would be protected.
As for what happened with Captain Li, Grandpa's opinions were simple. "Do you regret it?"
Gao Peng shook his head, then nodded his head. "I don't know."
Grandpa did not mind at all, and laughed brightly instead. "Then let's change the question. If you could do this over again, would you stop your familiars?"
This time, Gao Peng answered very decisively. "I wouldn't."
In Gao Peng's heart, Dumby was not just his familiar; he was a friend, a companion.
When his friend's loved ones were in mortal danger, he found it hard to say things like, "Put down that weapon in your hand."
"Isn't that your answer right there?" Grandpa laughed "Boy, you are such a faker."
Gao Peng was at a loss for words. Is that a word you use to describe your own grandson?
"Stick true to your beliefs, and do what you wish to do. In the outside world, you won't lose out by being a bit more ruthless. I'd rather others lose than have you losing to them!" Ji Hanwu earnestly offered advice to educate his grandson.
Hearing his grandpa's words, Gao Peng suddenly understood where he got his personality from.
Putting down the phone, Ji Hanwu smiled at Uncle Liu who was sitting next to him. "This grandson of mine is a chip off the old block."
Uncle Liu rolled his eyes. "Look at that smile on your face. You're speaking as though you've got such a great temperament."
"What do you know? It's good that he's like me. He won't lose out no matter where he goes." Ji Hanwu laughed happily.
…
With Dumby's matters resolved, Gao Peng was supposed to prepare to head back to Yuzhou. But the King Red Carp that the old sailor described to him had piqued his interest.
Coincidentally, the sacrificial ceremony for the King Red Carp was only a few days away. Hence, Gao Peng continued to stay in Lizhou to take a look at this legendary King Red Carp. And to see if it looked anything like the monsters in a particular anime.
In the room, the small female ape slowly regained consciousness.
Groggily opening her eyes, she found herself in a completely foreign environment. Her first reaction was to cry out loud in panic.
Then, hearing the noise, Dumby entered the room. She saw Dumby and her voice gradually grew softer.
Dumby sat next to the small female ape, and spoke softly to his daughter in Red River Ape speak, comforting her. She panicked at first, finding it hard to believe. Then that slowly changed to doubt, and then belief.
For the next few days, the small female ape followed Dumby around as though she were his shadow. She was with him no matter where he went, her arms wrapped around Dumby's neck, swinging around.
Within those few days, Zhao Jialiang also came to look for Gao Peng. He kept trying to take Gao Peng to look for women. But sadly, Gao Peng had no interest in such things and simply refused him.
In the morning, after a change of clothes, Gao Peng rode on Stripey and took the rest of his familiars to head downstream along the Red Sand River. As they moved downstream, the Red Sand River became broader and flowed more slowly. Of course, the waters were much deeper as well.
Along the river banks, there was a good number of large buses and cars. Some of the people were tourists who simply wanted to take a look at the King Red Carp, but even more of them were there to prepare sacrificial offerings.
All the sacrifices were sorted and recorded by specialized personnel. The sacrificial monster's level and grade were used to determine the level of contribution.
Finally, the scales would be distributed according to the number of scales awarded by the King Red Carp and the level of an individual's contribution. This seemed like a rather fair way of managing the event. After all, the King Red Carp could not possibly act as a vendor and exchange its scales one by one for its sacrifices.
As a Lord tier monster, it would not have the time to do so, and more importantly, it would not have the patience.
Very soon, it was the promised time for the sacrifice. A giant whirlpool appeared in the middle of the river. In the middle of the whirlpool, a giant red figure slowly emerged.
Its red back was like a small hill. Its dark red dorsal fin broke through the surface, revealing bright red scales, smooth and shiny like mirrors. The whole scene was as though a tiny island had emerged in the middle of the river…
[Monster Name]: Dragonblood Red Sand Carp (Red Sand River Lord)
[Monster Level]: 44 (Lord tier)
[Monster Grade]: Perfect
[Monster Attribute]: Water
[Monster Skills]: Water Mastery Lv3, Hardened Scales Lv2
The eyes of the Dragonblood Red Sand Carp were very bright. The first thing it did after rising to the surface was to look at the river banks. Its mouth made "gulu gulu" bubbling sounds.
The people on the banks hurriedly displayed the prepared sacrifices.
Seeing the sacrifices, the Dragonblood Red Sand Carp's eyes shone even brighter, like two spotlights.
It opened its mouth wide. River waters burst out of the surface to form two columns of water that wrapped around the sacrifices. Just like that, the sacrifices were dragged into the river waters.
This was the first time Gao Peng had witnessed a seasoned Lord displaying its monster skills. The level of control over the water shocked Gao Peng to the core. It was just like demons in fairy tales.
The mouth opened wide, (the Dragonblood Red Sand Carp's mouth could open really wide), and it swallowed all of the sacrifices into its belly.
As though very satisfied with the sacrifices this time, the Dragonblood Red Sand Carp nodded in a very human-like manner.
It spat out a large bubble from its mouth and then slowly descended into the depths of the river. The bubble floated to the surface, and slowly drifted to the riverbank before finally bursting with a loud pop. Rows of pale red scales were stacked neatly on the riverbank.
From the happy, smiling faces on the sailors and businessmen, it seemed as though the returns this time were pretty good.
So that was a Lord tier monster.
Seeing the fear and respect that these people had for the Dragonblood Red Sand Carp, as well as the looks of delight that they had now, Gao Peng finally had a deeper understanding of Lord tier monsters.
So what kind of familiar is Grandpa's Lord tier monster? Gao Peng wanted to hurry back to Yuzhou right now.
A wild Lord could not be observed up close, but he should be able to at least touch one that belonged to the family, right?