Chapter 783: The Evolution of (Monkey) Business
‘A literal jungle temple, filled with simian type aether beasts…why does that sound incredibly familiar?’
∆Probably because it sounds like something out of King Kong or Monkey King. Sounds like these ruins lean more towards the latter than the former though. Designwise, I mean.∆
=Given the variety of species, I’d have to agree…wait, it could also be one of the other Immortal Apes though…=
‘I…is this the part where you tell me that Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is real? Because y’all seem to be implying that he, and his fellow immortal apes, are real.’
∆=Kind of.=∆
‘Kind of, how?’
∆Well…your world had ‘Journey to the West’, where the Intelligent Stone Monkey, Sun Wukong, went to the literal West of China to find the sutras of Buddha, right?∆
‘Yeah…’
=We have records of the other three Immortal Apes having journeys to the other three cardinal directions. So it’s possible that this jungle temple could be related to any of them or…none of them, given the status of Bloodliners in this world.=
‘I…huh.’
∆=Either way, you’ll probably get more answers and loot if you explore the place yourself.=∆
‘Of course…’
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[Alright, place your bets. What kind of primate,ape, simian, monkey, whatever, do y’all think is the boss of that wandering ruin? I’m going with…an Asura Kong! All those arms, all those faces and it has just enough divinity to be considered a deity by most people. Anybody else got any guesses?]
[Something…giant…]
[Not exactly specific, but I’ll take it. Nepherage?]
[If I had to guess…Imperial Gold Baboon, or at least, the descendant of one. I remember reading that they their progenitor established a kingdom of apes a couple centuries back.]
[Historical, I dig it. Spring Brawler, Razorstella, Screamira? I’d ask Lacerage and Archanidame but they’re busy right now.]
[I’d rather not participate or speculate.]
[Opalescent Mandrill. Damn things have been recorded to control other ape type beasts with their pheromones, so it makes sense to me.]
[Scientific, I dig it! Now what about you, Screamira?]
[…]
[Screamira?]
[…]
[Screa-]
[Please be quiet, I am not used to having to manipulate these scrawny ass flesh legs that most mortal seem to use. Especially in these frilly ass dresses!]
[Ah.]
[And that’s why I don’t pretend to be a human wearing a dress. The shoes are fine, but I hate how restrictive the clothes get.]
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“Wait a minute…Zhen Liu, what happened to all your aether puppet accessories? You normally wear them all day everyday,” Zhen Tai pointed out.
“Eh, felt like walking light today.”
“You’re not worried about a possible-”
“Stop. Cease. Desist. If you finish that thought, there is a chance did you jinxing me,” Zhen Liu interrupted. “Now let me re-read to see if there’s a way to deal with the monkey giving us the literal evil eye.”
“Fair enough.”
While Zhen Liu was focusing on both the dossier in his hands and the voices in his head, the Zhen Clan scions did their absolute best to not stare into the eyes of the Three Eyed Nightmare Beast Ape, because it didn’t take a genius to realize that it was probably given a name like that for a reason.
It was surprisingly tricky to not stare at the Three Eyed Nightmare Beast Ape, especially when the damn thing started mimicking voices and sounds.
“Hello young masters! Sorry for taking so long, but help from you I need! Could one of you be a dear and try to carry this ape cage for me?”
“What the fuck?,” Zhen Hai said in shocked annoyance. “Was that supposed to be Miss Ara-”
“Hey! Don’t look it in the eyes, just…focus on the dossier,” Zhen Yue shouted while stopping her cousin from attempting to stare at the Three Eyed Night Beast Ape.
The moment she did, the Zhen Clan scions could literally hear the sound of an ape clicking their tongue in disappointment.
“Alright, why the fuck is that one of the aether beasts that were captured by the previous expeditions?,” Zhen Feng asked while focusing on the other apes.
“Because, Xiao Feng, Lady Aranea and Lady Lucille are convinced that if we can figure out a means to domesticate and train at least two to three of the species inside of the Jungle Temple wandering ruin, we’ll be opening up a whole new stream of revenue,” Zhen Yue explained. “You know, aside from the materials that can extracted from most aether beasts anyways.”
“Ah.”
Aranea(Arachnidame) and Lucille’s(Lacerage) thinking wasn’t exactly wrong in regards to the value the Zhen Clan could acquire from domesticating primate type aether beasts. While the general materials of meat, hide, core, etc. from the aforementioned type of beast were valuable, the real money in such creatures came in the form of companionship.
Thanks to a combination of the beasts being smarter than average, their ability to grasp and manipulate tools, and a famous Aether Deity who used a literal army of primates to take control of an island kingdom,being able to have a primate type aether beasts as a companion was considered a sign of being a good leader.
Granted, this particular belief was dominant to a region that was between Dozing Salamander and Roaring Tide, and a separate region found in the more humid regions of Stampeding Bison. This didn’t stop people from adopting such beasts as pets though.
Regardless of cultural peculiarities though, this expansion into raising and training their own “exclusive” aether beasts was a good way for the Zhen Clan to expand their existing business infrastructure.
They came to Stone Claw training, dismantling and caring for Aether Beasts, they were going to die doing this same thing…well, that was the original goal, anyways.
Thanks to some recent developments, the Zhen Clan started making money off of fight promotions.
More specifically, prize fights between eager volunteers from outside the clan, against the Zhen Clan’s specially trained beasts or Zhen Liu’s specially made “puppets”. Both type of fights drawed in crowds, but the latter moreso than the former for some reason.
None of the scions knew why this was the case, except for Zhen Liu himself, but they were going to find out soon.
“Soon” in this case meaning…now.
As the Zhen Clan scions continued to read over the materials and discuss what their plans involving the wandering ruins and it’s creatures were going to entail, a Zhen Clan servant arrived to deliver a message.
“Pardon me, young masters.”
“Huh? What’s up?”
“Lady Aranea and Lady Lucille sent me to tell you all that they will not able to meet with you today due to their meetings taking longer than anticipated. They have also informed me that you should all take this as a chance to go and visit the Stone Claw Arena, due to today being prize fight day. That and because there is a familial exclusive box that has the best view in the whole arena.”
“Oh yeah…alright then!”
Given the go-ahead to just do something more interesting, the Zhen Clan scions made sure to put away their dossiers in a neat pile before going to the arena.
“Well, this is mildly disappointing. I actually wanted to know what Aranea and Lucille figured out in regards to these apes,”Zhen Xing commented.
“Eh, we’ll learn about it later,” Zhen Guo replied.
“True.”
“Hey…is that maidservant one of the new hires?,” Zhen Feng asked. “I don’t remember seeing her here before…”
“Uh, maybe? A lot has happened and I can barely remember faces at this point,” Zhen Hai answered while scratching the back of his head.
“I guess, but I feel like we’d at least remember a body like hers…”
“Hey, miss! Remember not to look into that weird three eyed monkey in the eyes!,” Zhen Yue called back.
“Of course, ma’am.”
…
‘You gonna be okay?’
[I’ll be fine, manager. It’s just a single monkey.]
…
As the Zhen Clan scions left the room where they were keeping the captured apes, the maid servant that had delivered the message in the first place had decided to linger a moment longer in order to clean up.
As the maid went about her business, two of the three captured ape-like aether beasts, opted to simply go back to sleep because they had nothing better to do at this time. As for the third though, a rather sinister smile began to form on it’s face.
As the Three-Eyed Nightmare Beast Ape kept watching the working maid, it began to use its innate traits to construct a voice that would most definitely cause the maid to pause whatever she was doing in order to turn and face it.
His plan was, after the foolish maid lock eyes with it, then the ape could use it’s innate bloodline ability to create his opportunity to escape…or maybe do something a touch more vengeful. Regardless, this would all be for naught if the maid didn’t turn around and-
“Before you try anything stupid, you three eyed freak, I suggest you don’t.”
“Ook?!”
Evidently, the ape didn’t expect to be addressed directly.
