"Apes?" Grey looked at the mountain curiously.

"Stone Apes to be precise. The leader of the Stone Apes is at the Peak of the Origin Plane. We've encountered it a few times, but it's too strong, so we tend to always escape," The man said, making the lady chuckle.

Apes are generally known for their strength, Stone Apes are regarded as one of the strongest in the Ape species due to the immense strength the earth element adds to their already great strength.

'I'd like to see how powerful their physical bodies are,' Grey thought.

His physical strength has grown slightly weaker compared to his cultivation strength.

Grey and Reynolds continued speaking with the couple who were telling them about some of their adventures and near death experiences. Grey listened intently to their stories, trying to gather knowledge from the stories.

The group soon got to the foot of the mountain. They immediately started the climb when they got there.

They climbed for only about three minutes before encountering the first Ape. These Apes usually move in hordes, so seeing one means more weren't far from it. The Ape stood at around three meters, with a dark brownish fur.

The group quickly made a move on the Stone Ape, killing it before it was able to call for others.

The leader of the expedition had advised that it would be better if they did not have a brawl with the Apes. Their numbers had reduced by over thirty from when they set off from the town.

The Apes would have the advantage in numbers, but there was only one Ape that's at the Peak of the Origin Plane, so the group had the advantages in terms of individual strength.

After they killed the first Ape, they extracted the beast core, before moving forward.

They walked for another twenty minutes, killing eight more Apes as they advanced. Grey felt astounded by the proficiency of the group. He watched on as they killed the Apes in a matter of seconds, not giving them even the chance to make as much as a single noise.

They soon got to the middle of the mountain, as they went higher, the frequency in encountering the Apes increased by a large margin. There are times they would encounter two or three as they went higher.

According to the couple, the leader of the Ape resided on the eastern part of the mountain, not at the mountain top, so they weren't worried about meeting it at the top.

By the time they got to three fourths of the mountain, they encountered a small horde of Apes. The horde contained about twelve Stone Apes, all in the Origin Plane. Four were in the Late stages, while the rest were in the Mid and Early stages.

The group was quick to attack. Grey, Reynolds and the couple were at the end of the moving group, so they didn't bother themselves with attacking with the others, instead, they looked around, making sure that their backs were safe.

Roar!

One of the Late stage Origin Plane Stone Apes roared, calling for backup from the others in the mountain.

Rumble!

A few seconds later, Grey suddenly felt the ground shaking, even some pebbles were bouncing on the ground.

He looked behind him, and his facial expression changed.

'Crap!' He complained about the sight before him.

Over fifty Stone Apes were charging towards them, and in front of the Stone Apes was a larger one, almost two times the size of the others.

Grey didn't need anyone to point it out to him, that was definitely the leader of the Apes.

They were at the back of the group, so naturally, they had to fight against the Apes that were running over from this direction.

"We'll hold off the leader, you two try to stay alive," The man said, stepping in front of Grey and Reynolds.

His wife joined him as well.

Grey seeing the situation didn't try to stop them. Even though he was powerful, there was no way he could fight against that Ape in his current state, unless he uses the Fusion State.

They stepped to the side, preparing to fight against the weaker ones, at least those in the Late stages of the Origin Plane.

Boom!

The couple attacked the Stone Ape simultaneously, surprisingly, both husband and wife were Water Elementalist.

The wife made a water snake that she sent towards the Ape, trying to halt its movement. While the husband created an Ice hammer that he slammed into the Ape.

Bang!

The Stone Ape threw out a punch, enforced with the earth element. When it's fist came in contact with the ice hammer, the hammer shattered on impact.

It tried to hold onto the tail of the snake, but since it's made of water, it's hand passed through it.

The water snake coiled around its legs, before turning into a semi solid state so that it would be powerful enough to hold it down.

The Ape was stopped for a few seconds by this, but after it forcefully moved its legs, the water snake was ripped into two.

With the couple holding off the leader of the Stone Apes, Grey and the others started fighting against the other Apes.

Grey was facing off against a Late stage Stone Ape, using the fire element, he sent multiple fireballs at it, which exploded in impact.

The Ape was forced back by the explosion, after taking a few steps back, it grabbed a huge boulder from the ground, and crushed it to smaller pieces. After crushing it, they floated into the air, before shooting straight for Grey and the people who were around him.

Grey looked around, and to his surprise, the Fire Elementalist who allowed the vines reach for him and Reynolds was just within the attack range of the stones the Ape sent.

He squinted his eyes, and a cunning smile appeared on his face.

With a light and swift movement, he took a step forward. As his feet touched the ground, an earth wall rose from the ground, blocking the pieces of stones that were shooting towards them.

He made the wall a little softer in the area where the Fire Elementalist was.

The Fire Elementalist was focused on fighting against the Stone Ape that charged at him, but he naturally had his eyes around the battlefield so as to be able to escape from sneak attacks.

He initially wanted to move out of the area of the attack since he was just at the end of the range. If he moved four or five meters forward, he would be able to go out of the attack range.

But on seeing the earth wall that sprang up, he decided against it. Moving forward would put him in the attack range of three more Apes, so he was glad he didn't have to move.

The Fire Elementalist didn't know who set up the earth wall, but for some reason, he felt uneasy. He swept the feeling of unease out of his mind as he focused on the Ape before him.

Crack! Pu-chi!

Multiple stones easily passed through the earth wall, piercing into the body of the Fire Elementalist.

He managed to react, but he was a little bit slow, so he was hit in his throat and on his back.

Blood started gushing out of his throat since the stone passed through it, leaving a hole in it.

He held onto his bleeding neck with one hand, as he turned around to look at the earth wall.

His eyes widened when he saw that only the part where he was located was breached through. He looked further back and noticed the one who created the wall.

Grey was looking at him with a small smirk. His eyes widened even further, his sockets almost popping out.

He tried to speak, but he spat out a mouthful of blood as he opened his mouth.

Bam!

The Stone Ape he was previously fighting against quickly capitalized on the time he used in turning and looking at Grey. The Ape smacked him to the ground with its huge hand, crushing his head in the process.

Grey removed the wall when he noticed the attack had stopped.

No one noticed the small exchange between Grey and the Fire Elementalist because everything happened in a matter of seconds.

From the time Grey created the earth wall, to the time the Fire Elementalist was killed by the Ape wasn't even close to ten seconds.

This was the second element Grey had used in front of the group. Although he previously used the wind element at the forest, he didn't make it known, only using it to enhance his speed.

If an Overlord Plane expert were to be around, they would naturally notice it, but since they were all in the Origin Plane, they would see the things he wanted them to see.

'That's how you do it,' Grey said inside, as if schooling the Fire Elementalist on how to secretly kill someone in the presence of others.

Unfortunately, there's no way for the Fire Elementalist to learn since he was already dead.