Chapter 175: Macaque Graveyard

This mountain was far larger than Chen Shicheng had imagined, covered with trees that showed no distinguishing features, forcing him to mark conspicuous symbols on some trees, and only then could he barely draw a map that looked like a child's doodle.

But aside from him, even Xu Xiake would have to shake his head at this map.

Moreover, he noticed that the macaques on the mountain, like a hyperactive patient, had no regular resting spots; they would simply find a place to nap when tired from playing, then squeak away.

Thus, even if he drew a map and simply marked where the macaques often appeared, it was useless; when he tried to retrace his steps, he would encounter a pair of monkeys who seemed eager to engage in a wild battle across the ground.

After reaching a dead end and turning back, encountering several macaque queens, Chen Shicheng simply stopped concealing his presence.

He let Hui Siye and La Tiao forge ahead; when they met macaques, if there were many they avoided them in advance, if few they eliminated them outright, also expelling a foul aura of hide‑and‑seek.

However, during the walk‑and‑kill process, Chen Shicheng discovered a hidden function of the "draw ground as prison" technique.

It can slightly block the instant teleport of Compress Earth to an Inch; although it cannot directly trap macaques within the skill's radius, if one is careless when activating the skill, the teleport can be intercepted within the outermost line.

Even though after realizing it, re‑activating Compress Earth to an Inch lets one break through, that brief moment is enough for Chen Shicheng to cleave off the macaques' heads.

With this discovery, Chen Shicheng slaughtered macaques even more recklessly, sometimes wiping out groups of seven or eight at once, easily annihilating the whole pack.

He kept the macaque heads, handed the bodies to Tai Sui to dispose of, and let La Tiao devour the exposed macaque meat, fully erasing the corpses without wasting a single macaque hair.

Since it was Chen Shicheng's first time here, he did not explore the mountain, which resulted in the slain macaques being of low level.

However, because of his ancient bloodline, Tai Sui grew like a balloon, its size increasing as it was fed, much to Chen Shicheng's delight, and the yield of Tai Sui Blood finally rose.

La Tiao also kept growing; it devoured all the exposed macaque meat, its attribute gains stopped after 10 points, and its movement speed reached the 10% cap.

Yet the meat was not wasted; the digested energy was added to its bloodline, and although the increase was not as large as that of the Golden Core Stage tiger demon, it raised its bloodline concentration to 41%, on the verge of awakening a second innate divine skill.

Chen Shicheng pressed on, probing in the direction with the most macaques, hoping for a one‑stroke solution.

But as he walked, he sensed something was off.

The direction he was heading now was the mountain's shady side; the macaques on the path indeed suddenly increased, and unlike the playful ones before, these macaques were all hidden in the trees. Though riddled with gaps compared to proper guards, any observant eye could see they were protecting something.

But after breaching a not‑very‑tight defensive circle, the macaques suddenly vanished, or rather, all nearby creatures disappeared together.

"Caught a big fish?"

Chen Shicheng's eyes lit up instantly, and Hui Siye's expression tightened, both watching the now‑quiet forest with anticipation.

After he skirted around some patrolling macaques and walked further inside, Hui Siye clearly grew a bit disappointed, while Chen Shicheng was utterly baffled.

In the forest, protrusions made of stacked stones appeared, distributed extremely evenly, with volumes increasing from the outside inward. "This is …"

Seeing the already rotted melons in front of the stone piles, a baffling thought sprang to Chen Shicheng's mind: "Are these the macaques' graves?"

The more he thought, the more convinced he became; these macaques' behavior was strikingly similar to humans—though they hadn't formed a civilization, mimicking human burial of their dead required no sophisticated technique.

With that in mind, Chen Shicheng hurried forward and kicked away the stone pile nearest to him.

Sure enough, within the stones lay a macaque corpse that had been dead for an unknown length of time; although its attribute could not be identified, its height—about a human's—and its lack of decay indicated it had been of high level in life.

After all, like the ancient turtle master, the higher a creature's realm in life, the slower its corpse decays after death.

Moreover, the half‑burnt side of the corpse indicated it likely died in battle with the Fire Crow Division; a macaque that heroically fell in that fight was buried on the outermost side. Chen Shicheng's eyes flickered, recalling the Yellow Turban Strongman Bean Seed he had never used.

Although this Relic was lost in battle at the turtle master's hands, that does not mean it is useless; with a suitable corpse, it can instantly showcase the Relic's true brilliance.

And those increasingly massive burial mounds inside would be the perfect choice, since macaques are an ancient exotic species that can thwart the Fire Crow Division! Chen Shicheng swallowed nervously, glancing around with a guilty thief's glance.

Although he was digging a macaque grave, this act fundamentally contradicted the authentic Chinese education he had received, and for a moment he felt a slight sense of guilt.

Of course, that guilt lasted less than a second before Chen Shicheng himself smothered it.

He then, excited, walked toward the depths of the burial ground, but after only a few steps he noticed La Tiao had not followed, standing before the freshly kicked tomb, looking eager.

Seeing La Tiao's expectant little eyes, Chen Shicheng quickly understood why.

All along, La Tiao had shown no interest in macaque corpses, but that was because after being killed, the game system condensed its ancient bloodline into macaque meat that burst out.

So a corpse devoid of nutrients cannot stir La Tiao's appetite; only something like Tai Sui, which cares little about raw or cold, can be consumed.

But this corpse before him was not slain by a player, so the game system did not intervene; thus, even though the ancient bloodline was dead, it still remained in the corpse, and despite lacking vitality, it still provided a nourishing effect for La Tiao's bloodline.

That is why La Tiao seemed eager, yet without his command it hesitated, though it did not want to leave.

Chen Shicheng glanced at the densely packed stone piles, then at the corpse waiting for him inside, and called Hui Siye out from behind his mask.

"Siye, stay behind to help La Tiao dig out the corpse; be careful not to disturb the patrolling macaques. I'll go inside to check and be right back."

(End of chapter)