Chapter 1971: The Monkey

The chaos stone was three feet long, and it emanated a dense chaos aura.

Upon closer inspection, there was a living creature sealed inside!

It was a curled-up monkey that seemed to be a youngling. Its limbs were long and thin, it had a long, curled tail, and its entire body was covered in soft gray fur.

“Don’t tell me this is a variant beast that's yet to be born?” Su Yi exclaimed.

The Divine Replenishment Furnace said, “I found this chaos stone in the divine son’s belongings, and its aura is quite strange. When I saw the lifeform in the stone, I felt an inexplicable hint of danger."

Su Yi mulled that over, then inserted a strand of his divine sense into the chaos stone.

Boom!

His divine sense shook. He felt as if he’d entered a world of as-of-yet unparted chaos, swathed in churning currents and shrouded in darkness.

The curled, monkey-like lifeform was at the center of it all, eyes closed. With every breath, it drew in chaos power.

Most striking of all, the creature had a natural chaos marking on its forehead in the shape of a vertical eye. The eye was shut.

When Su Yi’s divine sense took this in, the juvenile beast’s ears quivered, and it suddenly opened its eyes. It was as if twin golden lanterns had lit amidst the chaos, firing beams of soul-stirring, resplendent light. An indescribable, terrifying power erupted from the unborn beast’s body.

Boom!

Su Yi’s strand of divine sense broke, and everything he sensed vanished.

When he looked down at the chaos stone, he saw cracks appear on its surface. Then, it split with a bang, and a streak of golden light shot into the heavens.

The monkey-like lifeform shook, then expanded until it was ten thousand feet tall. Its formerly thin limbs were now as thick as mountains. Its muscles bulged, and its fur surged with chaos mist. Its glittering golden eyes shone like twin suns.

“Roar——!” The monkey threw back its head and roared. Monstrous power swept outward, shattering the clouds and sending ripples through the sky.

Even the surrounding mountains swayed. Its imposing presence was just too terrifying! It wasn’t one whit inferior to the demigod-level natural variant species!

Su Yi’s pupils constricted.

The monkey was only just born, but it’s already this terrifying!

“This guy… is quite fierce!” Even the Divine Replenishment Furnace couldn’t help but cluck its “tongue.”

But a moment later, the ten-thousand-foot beast deflated like a popped balloon, rapidly shrinking. In the end, when it was just about a foot tall, it thudded to the ground.

All of its former ferocity went up in smoke. Its golden eyes gazed pitifully at Su Yi, and it let out chittered at him, like an ordinary baby animal suffering from gnawing hunger pangs. ṝà₦𝙤𝖇Ès̈

“This…” The Divine Replenishment Furnace was stunned.

Su Yi was surprised too.

It was so fierce a moment ago, but it seems it couldn’t sustain it for more than a second!

Meanwhile, the little monkey climbed up Su Yi’s leg. It wrapped its arms around his calf, clung to him with its soft, fluffy hands, and babbled at him.

Su Yi took out an immortal pill and tossed it to the monkey. The monkey immediately stuffed the pill into its mouth, only to spit it back out a moment later. Then, it frantically raised its hands into the air and gestured at Su Yi.

“Tch tch, it actually disdains to eat Great Profound Stage immortal pills!” exclaimed the Divine Replenishment Furnace. “Don’t tell me it wants… to drink milk?”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead, took out a divine medicinal herb, and tossed it over. The monkey snatched it in both hands and swallowed it whole. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

The monkey was already giving him puppy dog eyes again.

It was Su Yi’s turn to be surprised. That stalk of herbal medicine was far more precious than a Great Profound Stage pill. It was a wondrous elixir born of the Immortal Realm’s chaos source, a true divine medicine.

Not even a Great Profound Stage cultivator would dare consume it casually. If they did, its tyrannical medicinal power would inevitably damage their cultivation base.

Yet this little monkey was completely fine. Moreover, eating the divine medicine didn’t seem to have affected it at all. On the contrary, its tummy was still rumbling.

This was far too unbelievable.

Su Yi thought for a moment, then tossed a variant beast's corpse to the ground.

The monkey’s golden eyes lit up. It gashed over and crouched beside the corpse. Its tiny, frail body instantly expanded, its fur coursing with chaos energy that silently enveloped the corpse. Then, the chaos marking shaped like a vertical eye on the little monkey’s forehead silently cracked open.

Boom!

A beam of gray light shot forth like lightning, striking the corpse. An unbelievable scene followed: the variant beast’s corpse dried up, inch by inch, as a rain of chaos brimming with life force was extracted from it.

The little monkey opened its mouth and inhaled.

Whoosh!

The bundle of chaos light was sucked into its stomach. Its blood and qi visibly churned, and its vital energy soared. Every inch of its skin undulated with explosive vitality, and its dull gray fur lit up.

Even its little belly was round and distended.

As for the variant beast corpse? It was now no more than a hollowed-out skin, and when the next wind blew past, even that crumbled to ash and dissipated.

“It devoured a natural variant beast comparable to a Great Profound Stage expert in a single gulp? Where on earth did this little guy come from?” Su Yi was stunned, and increasingly aware of how extraordinary the little monkey was. It was completely different from the natural variant beasts he’d seen thus far.

The monkey burped, rested its little hands on its distended stomach, and snuggled up against Su Yi, resting its head on his calf.

The vertical eye chaos marking on its forehead had already shut, and there was no longer anything outwardly mystical about it, but Su Yi knew that the seemingly lively and obedient little monkey was no weakling.

“Right, I should try taking out a living natural variant beast to see what happens.” Something occurred to Su Yi, and he flipped his palm.

A silver centipede floated into view, then expanded until it was one thousand feet long. It looked as if it had been forged out of molten silver, and its eyes were bright and intimidating.

This was the first variant beast that Su Yi had subdued in the Epoch Battlefield, and its strength was comparable to a peak Great Profound Stage powerhouse.

Su Yi was just about to order the centipede to try to scare the little monkey when the ferocious beast let out a mournful wail. It was so shocked that all of its innumerable legs quivered, and it immediately prostrated itself on the ground.

When its eerie green eyes looked at the little monkey, they were wide with terror and unease.

“When a fierce tiger walks the land, all other beasts avoid it. When a true dragon enters the world, all other life forms submit. The little monkey was only just born, but it’s already mighty enough to turn the silver centipede’s legs to jelly. That’s incredible!” exclaimed the Divine Replenishment Furnace. “Don’t tell me the little guy’s a top-class natural variant beast, an existence akin to a king?”

Su Yi nodded. The Divine Replenishment Furnace’s hypothesis seemed reasonable.

He could tell that the little monkey’s strength was far from the silver centipede’s. However, the bloodline power emanating from it created an utterly terrifying pressure that suppressed the silver centipede’s bloodline!

This was its innate power. It was much like how even a young tiger could intimidate other beasts.

It seemed that the little monkey had already eaten its fill; its bright golden eyes merely glanced over the centipede before it looked away, nestled against Su Yi’s leg, and fell fast asleep.

Even so, the silver centipede prostrated itself on the ground, not daring to move.

The sight left Su Yi speechless. He’d originally planned to bring the centipede back to the Immortal Realm as a guardian divine beast.

But now, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed useless.

Su Yi thought for a moment, then put the centipede away and took out a demigod-level natural variant beast instead. It was a terrifying, massive fowl reminiscent of a vermillion bird, except that its feathers were pitch-black and it had three heads.

As soon as the bird appeared, the slumbering monkey rose, turned to face the bird, and roared, revealing its glistening white teeth.

The black bird instantly stood in mid-air, staring intently at the little monkey. It wasn’t scared out of its wits like the centipede.

But Su Yi could tell that, although it maintained its composure, the massive black bird was scared of the monkey too. It dared not move recklessly!

“Even a demigod variant beast is afraid of the little guy?” This discovery left Su Yi stunned.

Just what kind of extraordinary creature did I find? And how terrifying will the little critter be once it grows up?

When I next see Xi Ning, I’ll have to ask her about the little monkey. Maybe she knows something.

As Su Yi pondered, he put the black bird away, then picked the little monkey up by the scruff of its neck. The monkey didn’t struggle; it just meekly rubbed Su Yi’s hand.

Su Yi placed the monkey into the Divine Replenishment Furnace. “I’ll leave the little guy to you for now.”

The furnace hurriedly agreed. The monkey was a bit unwilling, but it seemed to be quite clever; once it understood Su Yi’s intentions, it didn’t object.

“Your Excellency, this time, our spoils include six divine medicines, thirteen divine materials, and…” the furnace then proceeded to list the spoils.

Su Yi listened, until suddenly, he sensed something and took out a talisman. It was the one he used to keep in touch with Xi Ning, and now, it quivered. Wisps of divine light flowed across its surface.

“Miss Xi Ning’s coming my way. What for?” Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. Not long after he entered the Epoch Battlefield, he warned Xi Ning that she shouldn’t come looking for him to avoid getting swept into his problems. He said that if she needed to get in touch, she should use a talisman.

Yet now, Xi Ning was headed his way without a word! Su Yi couldn’t help but suspect she’d run into difficulties she couldn’t resolve on her own.

He was just pondering this when he heard someone whooshing over from afar. A group was headed his way.

It was Xi Ning, Luo Tiandu, and some of their attendants.

But a moment later, Su Yi’s pupils constricted. Xi Ning and Luo Tiandu were each accompanied by an utterly strange and terrifying figure far beyond the others!