Chapter 75 Swallow
Although monkeys are matriarchal societies, female monkeys can inherit the power of ruling and managing the adult female monkeys in the group from their mothers. However, this power only applies to female monkeys, whose status in the group is equivalent to that of a "queen."
The Monkey King, who truly possesses the right to eat first and the right to eat, ascends to the throne based on force, not bloodline. The change of thrones is always accompanied by blood and tears. Delicious food and beautiful monkeys are only worthy of the strong. The logic of animals is always very simple and crude - if you win, you get everything, and if you lose, you either die or wander.
This monkey, commanding the attention of all, is clearly the king of this vast tribe, but its physical characteristics are female, which is really... interesting.
If Qingbai is a scholar studying monkeys, the title of his paper would probably have come up with by now.
Unfortunately, he was not, but that did not stop him from continuing to observe this rare female monkey king.
Surrounded by other monkeys, the Monkey King leaped into the dilapidated temple, placed the peach branch he held in his mouth neatly before the strange clay sculpture, then opened the plastic bag and dumped out the insects it contained. The tree where Qing Baijiunian had hidden was at the edge of the clearing, not far from the dilapidated temple. The only difference was the "rabble" lying on the ground and the inexplicably solemn monkeys. If they hadn't been sharp-eyed and observant, they would have missed the brief, faint chirping of cicadas—the plastic bag contained, surprisingly, cicadas, a rare species from Chushan.
After completing this ritual, which resembled an offering, the Monkey King suddenly extended his claws... perhaps wanting to touch the clay sculpture? Or perhaps to pull at the red ropes binding it?
No matter which one it was, it didn't make it to the end, and its claws were retracted at the last second before touching.
It looked up at the clay sculpture for a long time, and then gently clasped its two large black paws in front of its chest, a gesture of prayer.
Qing Bai actually saw the peaceful and tranquil Zen spirit in a monkey.
...But the next second it suddenly turned around, roared to the sky, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs, especially the two extremely long canine teeth, which flashed a cold white light in the dim light.
The Monkey King showed his sharpest weapon. The monkeys crouched down and roared in unison. Clusters of fangs bloomed like white bone flowers in the depths of Chu Mountain.
At this moment, Qing Bai finally felt like he had strayed into a group of wild beasts.
As for those on the ground, it was okay if they fainted early, but those who pretended to be fainted were in a miserable state. They were caught in a dilemma and could only tremble in the roar of beasts resounding through the mountains and forests. They didn't dare to tremble too loudly, for fear that they would be seen by some monkey with good eyesight and a bad temper, and if they bit them... Tsk.
Fortunately, the monkeys didn't take them seriously. The Monkey King circled around the cicada lying on the straw twice. The black shadow of the little monkey was still squatting on the cicada, and its two green eyeballs rolled around with the Monkey King's movements.
The strange thing is that it just watched and didn't make any other movements. It can be described as quiet and well-behaved.
After the Monkey King finished spinning around, he stared at the unconscious Ai Chan for a while. Just when Qing Bai suspected that it was looking at where to bite it, it suddenly took out a mineral water bottle from behind the door, unscrewed the cap very skillfully and quickly... and poured it into Ai Chan's face with a bang.
I don’t know where the water in the bottle came from, and there are green algae in it.
Qing Bai's heart was relieved, and his tone was a little complicated: "...You are quite smart. You know how to use plastic bags and plastic bottles."
What's that saying? The biggest difference between humans and animals is that humans can make and use tools.
Jiu Nian whispered, "Its intelligence has been awakened."
"What will happen if the intelligence is awakened? Will it become a spirit?" Qing Bai was quite curious. The little monkey could speak human language. This monkey king was a rare female monkey king who broke through gender constraints and the rules of nature. No matter how you looked at it, her future was bright. It would be a shame for her magnificent monkey life if she didn't become a spirit.
Jiunian said conservatively: "Maybe."
Seeing Qing Bai's puzzled look, Jiu Nian explained, "A creature with awakened intelligence is usually smarter and stronger than its kind, and may even live longer, but its essence is still beast. Spirits are actually another form of life. To break through that illusory boundary requires not only talent, understanding, time, location, but also fate."
Aptitude and understanding are more innate than acquired. The right time and place cannot be forced, and fate is probably the most unreasonable thing in the world. You can't tell when it will come, and even if it comes, it is not necessarily good fate.
Bad fate always keeps you going, but good fate is vulnerable.
Especially for good relationships on the path of spiritual practice, it is most taboo to be stained with human blood.
...After being splashed with a full bottle of water, Ai Chan finally opened his eyes, turned over and coughed violently, and several strands of algae and waterweed that were as tangled as sewer hair came out of his nostrils.
In fact, Qing Bai didn't know whether he was really dizzy or pretending to be dizzy before. After all, he didn't have much experience in dealing with this. Anyway, the last person Li Canglan who was trapped in his own memory illusion did not faint after coming out... Maybe monks have been fasting and chanting Buddha for many years and their bodies are weak.
The delicate cicada's face became visibly rosier after coughing, but her expression quickly changed when she saw where she was. Unfortunately, the Monkey King's patience had probably run out, and he directly dragged her to the clay sculpture. The delicate cicada had no power to resist. Her lower body knelt on the ground, and her upper body fell on the brick platform, with her neck lying horizontally, which was a good posture for beheading.
The Monkey King forced Ai Chan to raise its head, and then it bared its teeth and gestured at the clay sculpture through the air. Qing Bai didn't know what Ai Chan was like, but he couldn't understand its monkey language, he could only tell that it was very angry.
The cicada let him toss it around without any resistance, but its face changed from rosy to... red with white, white with blue, and blue with a little black.
At this point, Qing Bai was a little worried: "Will the Monkey King, in a fit of rage, kill the mourning cicada and sacrifice it to the heavens?"
Having said that, Qing Bai was worried. Before coming to Chushan, Ai Chan had said that the Monkey King here was very extraordinary, and was an "immortal" who enjoyed the worship of incense and offerings.
After witnessing this with his own eyes, he realized that the Monkey King was indeed extraordinary, but still a long way from being an immortal. And although Jiu Nian hadn't explicitly stated it, from his words and expressions, it seemed that while the Monkey King had developed intelligence, he wasn't yet at the level of a demon.
So, was Ai Chan exaggerating, or was the 'Monkey King' he was talking about...someone else?
What happened to his little monkey friend, and who were the clay sculptures enshrined in this temple?
Questions came one after another, and the situation was complicated. Qing Bai was just thinking of asking Jiu Nian to use his 'invisibility technique' to sneak into the temple and occupy a good position to watch closely, so that if the Monkey King really wanted to kill the monks to offer sacrifices to the gods, they could rescue them in time, when suddenly there was a sound of breaking air behind him.
The sound was very deliberate. It circled over their heads several times, as if saying hello: Be careful, a bird is about to land on this tree. Don't get scared if you're hiding in the branches... It was quite considerate.
Qing Bai looked over following the noise and saw a swallow with a black back and gray belly on the branch next door. Swallow, swallow, this is really a coincidence, which inevitably reminds people of the only swallow girl who is not down there.
As expected, the swallow did not disappoint Qing Bai. Standing on the branch, it gracefully adjusted its wings and then opened its pointed beak to speak in human language: "Aren't you going down to help your friend? It seems he can't hold on for much longer."
This monster is really hard to control. It just said a few words to Jiu Nian and it made a grand appearance.
Qing Bai calmed himself down, glancing at the progress below from the corner of his eye. Instead of answering, he asked, "Miss Yan should be more anxious than us, right? Your Mr. Tang's situation seems to be even worse."
The Monkey King didn't know what he wanted Ai Chan to do. Ai Chan might know or might not know like them, but his reaction obviously did not satisfy the Monkey King. The strange thing was that even though the Monkey King was so angry that he was baring his teeth and roaring, he had no intention of hurting Ai Chan. Instead, he jumped out of the temple gate and picked and chose among the mob that had fallen to the ground. No one knew what his selection criteria was, but in short, he picked out two unlucky guys and half dragged and half threw them into the temple gate. Coincidentally, Mr. Tang, who was wearing a Zhongshan suit, was one of the unlucky guys.
Just from the two loud bangs when they hit the ground, it was clear that the Monkey King was not as "gentle" to the two unlucky guys carefully selected from the crowd as he was to the cicada. In just a short while, he had pressed the people in front of the clay sculpture, gestured at the clay sculpture, and then pressed his sharp claws on the unlucky guys' necks as if he was ready to cut their throats and bleed them at any time.
Ai Chan's expression was very subtle. He made a bold judgment based on the Monkey King's body language - it seemed that the Monkey King really wanted someone to help him untie the thick red cloth rope tied to the clay sculpture.
But this action is not difficult for monkeys who have fingers and their fingers are quite flexible. At worst, they still have fangs. Why do they need people to do it?
...Is it impossible to do it, or cannot be done?
Mr. Tang was very patient. His fingers under his sleeves were shaking like Parkinson's disease, but he still kept his eyes tightly closed and pretended to be unconscious very conscientiously.
Seeing the Monkey King's sharp nails digging into Old Man Tang's neck, blood slowly oozing out, Miss Yan's dark eyes grew serious. She flapped her wings and swooped down into the temple like an arrow, leaving only a meaningful sentence lingering among the branches: "The 'friend' of yours I'm talking about isn't that monk..."
If it's not a mourning cicada, then what else could it be...
"Qi Xiaopang?!" Qing Bai finally remembered that there was a fat kid who had been left behind for a long time. "Nine years old, do you know where Qi Xiaopang is..."
"Hold on tight." Jiunian's voice was low. Before Qingbai could react, the two of them had already climbed from the tree outside the temple and entered the temple, even before Yan Zi, who had left first. "Don't worry, listen carefully, they are here."
Qing Bai closed his mouth after taking a breath of air, closed his eyes and listened hard... blocking out the noisy and disorderly screams of the monkeys and the intermittent groans of the mob. In the small, dilapidated temple, there were only breathing, heartbeats, and... the anxious whimpering of the little puppy.
It's coal! Qing Bai opened his eyes suddenly: "I heard it..."
Miss Yan had a clear goal. As soon as she entered the room, she went straight to Old Man Tang, the Monkey King's subordinate. In the first encounter, she relied on her petite body to exchange several moves with the Monkey King. For a while, monkey hair and bird feathers were flying all over the sky.
But Jiunian was much more low-key. He could sneak in silently with such a conspicuous white ball on his back. If he had not jumped onto the altar so blatantly, he would have built a new nest in the corner and no one or monkey would have discovered it.
And the first one to notice it was Ai Chan. When he saw Qing Bai and the other two... the two cats, he didn't look very surprised. Instead, he let out a short exclamation because of Jiu Nian's behavior of coming to the table. Perhaps he guessed what the two were going to do, and he immediately shut up. His expression was complicated and difficult to tell, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Qing Bai didn't have the heart to speculate on Ai Chan's thoughts at the moment. He stared at the clay sculpture before him, which, despite its non-compliance with the Basic Law, was barely a meter tall, with a solemn expression, "I heard... They're in here."
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