Chapter 1648: Chapter 1648
The two of them ate enough fruit as quickly as possible and then used True Qi to transform these sugars and other elements into energy. Likewise, they also polluted a large piece of land. However, they believed that in the near future, this land would become even more fertile...
Xu Shanshan held two bright green fruits in her hand. These fruits weren’t very sweet, but they had a pleasant aroma, a natural fragrance. After eating them, her mouth was filled with that scent. Xu Shanshan really liked it, so she held one in each hand, ready to take them with her.
With food in their bellies, both were in high spirits. Xu Shanshan looked at Li Yifei with a smile, but her expression soon froze. She stared ahead and, with some urgency, said to Li Yifei, "Look ahead, there’s... something."
Li Yifei also sensed something was amiss. He quickly turned his head and saw something moving in the woods dozens of meters away. The shape was enormous, and it was coming toward them, so Li Yifei immediately pulled Xu Shanshan back to hide in the hollow of a large tree, both of them collecting their breath to conceal themselves.
Two minutes later, that massive creature reached the fruit pile. The two could see clearly now — it was an incredibly huge monkey, not a gorilla, but a monkey. This monkey stood at two meters tall, far exceeding any monkey they had ever seen.
The monkey walked on two hind legs, using one hand for support, while the other hand dragged something from over its shoulder. When it turned around, the two could see that the monkey’s hand was holding onto an object, a huge bundle made of leaves. The monkey threw the bundle next to the fruit pile, the leaf bundle opened, revealing many fruits inside.
The fruits in the bundle weighed a good forty or fifty pounds. The monkey placed them on the fruit pile and stared at the accumulated fruits with satisfaction, tilting its head from side to side. A gust of wind blew, and the monkey sniffed the air, suddenly showing a look of disgust. It then launched itself with a spring of its legs toward the spot where Li Yifei had just relieved himself. Roaring soon echoed through the woods, clearly indicating the monkey’s anger.
Rapidly, a swarm of little monkeys, about twenty or thirty in number, bounced out of the woods. They gathered around the big monkey, also jumping up and down. After the big monkey yelled a few times, the little monkeys rushed out, and soon after, the big monkey also charged ahead, causing the large trees to sway as it passed.
Only after the monkeys had run far away did the two people hidden in the depressed area finally exhale in relief. They exchanged glances and couldn’t help but chuckle. Not only did they eat the food that the monkeys had collected, but they also polluted their home.
"Speaking of which, we really owe them an apology," Li Yifei said wistfully, and Xu Shanshan covered her mouth and giggled, then said, "Let’s get out of here quickly, so those guys don’t come back to make trouble for us."
Li Yifei nodded, took Xu Shanshan’s hand, and the two emerged from the tree hollow and approached the fruit pile. Li Yifei picked up the large leaf, tugged at it, and discovered it was quite tough, yet it felt somewhat soft, though he didn’t know which tree it came from. Looking back at Xu Shanshan, Li Yifei began to tear it open, then went to the side to pull some vines, threading the leaves together to quickly form a makeshift piece of clothing, which could also be called a skirt.
Trying it against Xu Shanshan, Li Yifei said, "Here, put it on, just in case there are people around, so you won’t be exposed."
Xu Shanshan rolled her eyes at him, took the skirt, and while putting it over her head, said, "There might not be people, but there’s definitely many monkeys."
"I’m even jealous of monkeys!" Li Yifei said earnestly.
Xu Shanshan burst into laughter and tied the vine around her waist. The clothing fit surprisingly well. With it covering her, Xu Shanshan didn’t feel as self-conscious anymore.
Li Yifei held a few fruits in his hand and, together with Xu Shanshan, circled around, heading deeper into the forest. The forest was relatively flat and not as dangerous as the earlier jungle. Nevertheless, Li Yifei remained very cautious, leading the way with Xu Shanshan following behind. As they walked for a while, they heard roaring and shouting coming from the eastern side of the forest, clearly the voice of the big monkey from earlier. Then, there were successive cries.
After the monkey calls, a series of chirps arose in the forest, some sharp, others deep, and the sounds echoed through the woods.
The two stopped in their tracks, and Xu Shanshan curiously said, "Should we go over and take a look? It seems like there are other animals in the forest."
"We can go, but we have to be careful. It won’t be fun if we’re discovered," Li Yifei raised an eyebrow and said.
Driven by curiosity, they slowly crept over and discovered the monkeys had gathered under a rock wall. This wasn’t a cliff, just a protruding rock face. The area around the rock face was smooth, about a hundred meters long and wide, with some recessed holes. The lower recesses were about twenty or thirty meters high, while the higher ones were forty or fifty. Inside these holes stood some large birds that looked unlike hawks. Although they were as large as a hawk, these creatures had vibrant colors on their bodies, with huge crests atop their heads. At this moment, the monkeys were standing below, the big monkey looking up and calling out to the big birds, while the other little monkeys chirped excitedly, rushing about.
The big birds stood tall in the recesses, looking down at the monkeys with a seemingly disdainful expression, their calls sounded mocking, which made the monkeys below even angrier.
As Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan stealthily approached, the big monkey finally couldn’t stand it anymore. It could tolerate its gathered food being stolen, but having its home polluted was unacceptable. So, in a fit of rage, the big monkey picked up a ten-pound rock from the ground, held it in both hands, and with all its might, hurled it at one of the big birds.
The stone flew at incredible speed, hitting a recess with a bang. Fortunately, the big bird reacted quickly, retreating inside; otherwise, it would have been crushed to a pulp. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel※fire.net
With the big monkey leading the charge, the little monkeys below followed with excited calls, jumping up and down, picking up rocks from the ground, and throwing them toward the big birds.
These monkeys’ intelligence... is not low at all. Human civilization began with writing, but the road of human evolution actually started with the use of tools. From the initial use of wooden sticks to beat animals, to using stones, discovering metals, and then creating various complex tools to help humanity achieve labor liberation.
These monkeys actually know how to use stones to smash large birds in the hollow—this is definitely progress.
The sound of stones being thrown continually echoed, those large birds huddled in the hollows, while the birds above, not worried about being hit, continued to mock, seeming extremely carefree.
Even monkeys can’t climb such cliffs, so they can only stay below. The big monkey couldn’t stand the mockery, picked up a smaller stone, this time grabbing it with one hand, and threw it out angrily. The stone flew swiftly, hitting a large bird mocking with its neck stretched out, knocking down a feather.
Finally, one was hit, and the monkey group erupted in laughter, each one throwing with more zest.
The large birds above were angry this time; they flew out of the hollows and launched a counterattack.
However, this counterattack... was a bit gross—they started defecating, piles of various colored feces fell down. Because it was so dense, the monkeys found it hard to defend against. The big monkey was especially targeted, soon covered in bird feces all over, hopping mad.
Witnessing the battle between monkeys and large birds, Xu Shanshan and Li Yifei hiding in the shadows couldn’t help but laugh. The big monkey blamed these large birds, came over ready to confront them, but... didn’t get much benefit.
Under the attack of the bird feces rain, the big monkey quickly fled, emitting even angrier cries, while the small monkeys swiftly followed and ran away.
Li Yifei shook his head and said, "I’m afraid not."
Sure enough, it wasn’t over. The monkeys who ran away quickly returned, with many leaves in their hands, exactly the same leaves Xu Shanshan was wearing, incredibly huge, some with a diameter of two meters. The big monkey held two leaves, tops them over its head, and ran back again. It gradually became smaller while catching them in its hands, other small monkeys didn’t waste efforts throwing stones. Instead, they used leaves to shield the feces rain and began picking stones for the big monkey to throw.
Their roles were clear, and they even knew how to use leaves to block the bird feces rain—this intelligence is... truly unrivaled.
Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan both felt a bit of admiration.
The lightweight small stones could be thrown higher, and their speed was faster. A few large birds were accidentally hit on the body, screamed as they fell from above, immediately pounced on by small monkeys and captured.
Unexpectedly, the large birds thought to be shredded into pieces by the monkeys; instead, they did not do so but pulled the birds with leaves wrapped around them. Others came and plucked the most dazzling feathers from the birds’ tails, resembling peacock feathers, extremely vibrant, some as long as half a meter.
The large birds, having had their feathers plucked, gave out a miserable cry, stopping the mockery from those above, stretching their necks to watch their companions below in terrible plight.
While those plucked feathers were collected, several small monkeys respectfully handed the feathers to the big monkey. The big monkey, with one hand holding the ’umbrella’, accepted the feathers with the other, its eyes revealing joy and letting out sounds of excitement, waving the feathers, wanting to insert the feathers onto its body.
It’s clear; this creature really likes these radiant feathers, even to the point of being inseparable. With the feathers in hand, it no longer threw stones at the birds, but carefully held the feathers, topped by the ’umbrella’, and turned toward the woods.
Those small monkeys also let go of the few large birds stripped of tail feathers, making noises as they arrogantly left.
The two people hiding in the shadows opened their mouths wide at this point, both thinking of one name simultaneously.
Xu Shanshan looked at Li Yifei and murmured, "This big monkey... could it be Sun Wukong? The intelligence is just too high, and even likes feathers..."
"It’s possible." Li Yifei chuckled, after such a big commotion, just to get some feathers, and these feathers happen to resemble the head feathers of the Great Sage Equalling Heaven in the novels.