Lord Young was furious: “A team fight, huh?”

Chapter 3 Earth Spirit

Five golden lion tamarins appeared in total—four big, one small.

Samuel Young found it odd. Weren’t these creatures listed in the “IUCN Red List of Threatened Species” and the “CITES Endangered Species” back in 2008? How did he so easily come across a whole group?

Golden lion tamarins prefer to live in small groups, usually two to eight forming a family. The four big and one small he encountered was the standard family setup.

Clearly, to deal with him, the monkey family had brought along both the old and the young for a team battle.

Father and son on the battlefield.

Tamarins are timid alone, but as a family, it’s a different story.

As Lu Xun once said, “Alcohol emboldens cowards, and monkeys dare to take risks when they’re many.”

A few little tamarins tried to sneak over to suck the sap from the Tree of Life. Whenever Samuel Young stood up, they’d run away; when he sat down, they’d creep closer again...

After several rounds of this, it was already noon.

After outwitting the monkeys and being baked by the sun, Samuel Young was utterly exhausted.

But the golden lion tamarins were still full of energy—they could chew on grass shoots and roots to replenish their energy and water.

The sun was blazing, and Samuel Young grew restless. He warned himself silently, “Don’t get impatient, stay calm. The enemy is cunning. I need to outsmart them, not just outfight them!”

The smallest golden lion tamarin was also the naughtiest. Seeing him sit down again, the little monkey perked up, clamped a grass shoot in its mouth, crawled over, and flung monkey poop at him.

If poop can be tolerated, what can’t?

“To hell with outsmarting you—I'm going to kill you as a warning to the others!” Samuel Young roared, leaping up and chasing after it.

The little golden lion tamarin had short strides and poor explosive power. Once targeted, it couldn’t escape across the grass.

As he ran, Samuel Young stripped off his clothes, and when he caught up behind the little monkey, he dove and used his clothes to trap it.

The little monkey went wild inside, bouncing and howling. The other tamarins forgot about the tree sap, now both terrified and anxious, leaping up and down at a distance from Samuel Young, their cries shrill like whistles.

Samuel Young gave them a ferocious grin, then pounded his fist on the clothes with all his might.

But he was only hitting the ground.

The tamarins didn’t know that, though. Their wailing didn’t stop, and one even shed tears.

Golden lion tamarins are emotionally rich and among the few monkey species that can be tamed. That’s why some wealthy people in Europe and America buy baby monkeys from the black market as pets—they’re very expensive, and an average middle-class family couldn’t afford this group in a year.

After scaring them, Samuel Young carried the clothes toward the acacia grove, with the four big tamarins following behind.

Now, they didn’t dare act up. Each looked dejected, ready to collect the little monkey’s corpse.

But when he opened the clothes, the little tamarin was unharmed—just scared stiff. It squatted on the ground, hugging its belly, looking up at Samuel Young, trembling and shivering, living under his crotch.

Samuel Young sniffed his clothes—they stank, but thankfully the monkey had already finished its business, or it would have been even worse.

He backed away with the clothes, and the little monkey scrambled up the tree. The four big tamarins, seeing it alive, were overjoyed, and once up the tree, they hugged it tightly, squeaking away.

The little monkey shivered in the big monkey’s arms. Life was terrifying—damn, that was scary for a monkey.

Samuel Young roared at them, and the monkey troop, frightened, grabbed the branches and fled deeper into the woods.

Strike while the iron is hot—Samuel Young pushed through the thorns and followed, howling as he chased.

The tamarins finally climbed the tallest acacia tree. Samuel Young reached the base, looked up, and was about to shout again when he kicked something and nearly tripped.

He looked down in surprise and found half of a metal box at his feet—it looked like a safe.

How could there be a safe in the middle of nowhere, deep in the woods?

Curious, he dug out the safe and found the door a bit damaged. Peering through the crack, he saw flashes of red and green inside.

Those were the colors of South African rand banknotes—Samuel Young, being broke, recognized them instantly.

Delighted, he picked up the safe. Could this be the reward the tree spirit mentioned?

But the tree spirit’s reward didn’t stop there. As he lifted the safe, a crisp clinking sound came from inside.

Samuel Young pressed his face to the damaged door and looked inside—some beautiful, sparkling stones of various sizes rolled around...

Diamonds!

Lady Luck was winking at him!

Happiness was knocking at the door!

The safe’s door was open just a crack. After fiddling with it for a while and getting nowhere, Lord Young had to use the English-speaking skills he’d honed over the years—blowing and sucking—to finally fish out a few rand notes.

There were still more rand inside, and not a single diamond had fallen out.

South Africa’s weather during the rainy season is unpredictable—clear skies in the morning, overcast in the afternoon.

Now, without the torment of the blazing sun, Samuel Young leaned against the Tree of Life and worked on the safe with renewed energy.

Unfortunately, the safe was indestructible—he was just wasting his time.

When you’re fully absorbed in something, time flies.

Before he knew it, it was evening. The humidity in the air increased, and faint raindrops began to fall.