blueteamnovel Chapter 427 - 336: The Immortal Body
Chapter 427 - 336: The Immortal Body
Black Bear was startled and took several steps back in succession.
His round, glossy eyes fixed on the red glow, sensing no danger but feeling a cozy comfort instead.
An inchoate spirit intelligence told Black Bear that this red glow seemed to be a treasure.
Clearing away the debris, Black Bear discovered that the source of the flickering red light was a stone that fit snugly in his embrace, so he joyfully roared a few times before crawling into the tree hollow to sleep.
This winter wasn’t too cold!
Black Bear fell into a deep slumber, yet instead of depleting, the fat in his body actually made him gradually grow in size.
Winter passed and spring came.
Roar—
Upon awaking, Black Bear issued a long howl from the tree hollow and realized that the entrance had shrunk.@@@@
Standing up, Black Bear found himself taller than the top of the hollow; with only a slight flex of his arms, a thunderous noise ensued, and the hollow along with the centuries-old tree trunk splintered apart.
"Have I grown stronger?"
Black Bear looked around in bewilderment, his intelligence having grown from that of a child to that of a teenager, and he looked down at his bear paws, large as millstones.
"What am I? Who am I? Where do I come from..."
Bewildered by a jumble of questions and feeling somewhat of a headache, he decided not to think about anything and, clutching the Red Stone Egg under his armpit, he thundered off in search of food.
The reminder, standing two to three stories tall, was extremely conspicuous in the mountains and soon alerted the monkey tribe.
Chatter chatter chatter...
The monkeys had never seen a monster so large and were frightened into incessant shrieking, not wishing to provoke it.
Having not eaten all winter, Black Bear, though not hungry, instinctively wanted to feed. He swung his paws and killed a few monkeys, stuffing them into his mouth and chewing before swallowing them.
His blood pulsed faintly, and the long-missed warmth returned, bringing with it a slight increase in strength.
Roar!
Black Bear let out a mighty howl to the sky and charged toward the monkey troop, about to feast heartily.
Chatter chatter chatter...
Years swiftly passed by, and Monkey Mountain had benefitted from the Stone Egg for over a century.
On this day.
The monkey horde performed their ritual.
The chieftain was now aged, with white brows and a beard three or four chi long, wearing a Daoist robe from unknown origins. He stood there like an old grandpa with a height of a zhang and two chi and muscles built strong through age.
Chatter chatter!
To humans, these calls might have sounded indistinguishable from any other, but for the monkey that guarded the temple, it was a clear command from the chieftain.
"Begin the ceremony!"
The temple guard monkeys immediately opened the four doors of the temple, leaving only four stone pillars and a roof, ensuring the totem’s light could shine in all directions and bathe all tribesmen in the divine glow.
On the summit, in every direction, myriad monkeys knelt densely packed, approximately forty to fifty thousand of them.
There were old and young, large and small.
They all shared red pupils, and a tuft of red fur between their brows.
The chieftain said, "Present the offerings!"
One by one, monkeys brought up exotic flowers and fruits, as well as tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves, reverently stacking them around the Stone Egg.
"Bathe in divine grace!"
After saying this, the chieftain sat down cross-legged at the peak, and the other monkeys did the same, silent as if Zen monks in meditation.
Usually, the ritual ended when the moon was high in the sky, after basking in the divine grace.
But today, something unexpected happened. The Stone Egg perched atop the high platform suddenly started to vibrate with a humming sound, no longer emitting divine light.
Chatter chatter chatter...
The monkey horde became restless, but the chieftain gestured for calm and, upon inspection, found that the surface of the Stone Egg had developed cracks, like an egg about to hatch.
"Could it be that our tribal totem is about to give birth?"
Before the chieftain could ponder further, the Stone Egg burst open with a crash, and out leaped a monkey about two chi long.
The monkey swelled up as it met the wind, growing to three or four chi, and stood on the stone platform just taller than the monkey chieftain.