CHAPTER 290: CHAPTER 193: THE DAYS WHEN KING KONG APPEARS (REQUESTING MONTHLY VOTES, SEEKING REWARDS)

"Squeak..."

A gap opened in the water fortress, and the bamboo boat drifted along the current into it.

Passing through the Beast Bone Fortress, Qin Shou’s vision suddenly widened.

The world inside the Beast Bone Fortress was far more vast than Qin Shou imagined. A large river stretched through the entire mountain valley, with wooden huts built on both sides of the riverbank.

Naked children played in the shallow river, women beat laundry on the riverside, and travelers maneuvered bamboo boats back and forth, exchanging fish, meat, and vegetables carried onboard.

Qin Shou shared a boat with the Monkey Avatar, and along the way, the locals warmly greeted the Monkey Avatar and even offered fruits and vegetables.

"Mr. Mei, thank you for slaying the giant monster yesterday and saving our lives. Please accept these tokens of gratitude..."

"Mr. Mei, these are eggs freshly laid by our hen, still warm. Please, take them..."

"Mr. Mei, you’ve come..."

Seeing the enthusiastic response of the locals, Qin Shou couldn’t help but feel curious.

"Brother Monkey, what did you do yesterday?"

The Monkey Avatar waved his hand with a laugh, "Yesterday, while searching for King Kong, I accidentally encountered a giant squid attacking the fortress, so I took care of it casually."

Qin Shou stroked his chin, "What’s the situation here? They can’t even deal with a giant squid—how have these people survived until now?"

"Also, I remember hundreds of years ago this place was still in the tribal era. How come now it’s..."

The Monkey Avatar chuckled and pointed to a Divine Temple at the end of the river.

"Look, what’s that?"

Qin Shou looked over and saw a Divine Temple made of beast bones towering at the river’s end.

"That’s... Erlang Temple!"

His eyes narrowed slightly, "It’s the Heavenly Eye Divine Race. They’ve extended their reach even here."

The Monkey Avatar nodded, "That’s right. From what I speculate, this place should have been discovered accidentally by the Heavenly Eye Divine Race.

Because Skull Island is home to Godzilla and King Kong, they only passed down some ancient techniques and left a Godlike statue behind without daring to modify these humans extensively."

Qin Shou nodded, "So these monster carcasses—are they what the Heavenly Eye Divine Race obtained after arriving via the Transmission Array and slaying the monsters here?"

"More or less, but the Heavenly Eye Divine Race has long been wiped out and hasn’t appeared here for ages.

Through the Transmission Array in the temple, we should be able to return to the human world."

Qin Shou gestured dismissively, "No rush. Muto’s corpse and Manda Dragon Beast’s corpse are still in Godzilla’s cave. Let’s retrieve them first."

"By the way, you mentioned Godzilla and King Kong live here. Have you found traces of King Kong?"

The Monkey Avatar flashed a subtle smile, occasionally waving at enthusiastic locals onshore, and replied.

"I did. King Kong lives close by in this canyon. I’ve already gotten familiar with them. I’ll take you there shortly."

Qin Shou’s cheek twitched, "You’ve warmed up to them this quickly? Truly living up to your reputation as the monkey socialite."

"Haha, just ordinary skills."

As they chatted, a slightly larger boat floated by. An elderly white-haired man cupped his hands and greeted them.

"This humble elder pays respect to the Qilin Genius."

Qin Shou raised an eyebrow and looked at the Monkey Avatar.

"Qilin Genius? You couldn’t resist claiming this title too?"

The Monkey Avatar replied calmly, "Of course. Otherwise, what do you think I borrowed the Fire Qilin for?"

Qin Shou: "..."

Qilin Genius—a metaphor for someone with great talent. But you, you actually got yourself a Fire Qilin to play the role? That’s way too simple and crude!

The white-haired elder turned out to be the Clan Leader of the area and showed profound respect toward the Monkey Avatar.

As for Qin Shou, being the "Qilin Genius’s" friend naturally earned him the appropriate honor.

Qin Shou never imagined that one day he’d benefit from the Beast Cultivation association...

...

Not long after, Qin Shou followed the Monkey Avatar as they sailed downstream. Their boat quickly passed through the river’s end, entering another fortress made of beast bones.

Beyond the fortress, Qin Shou immediately spotted a giant footprint left on the shore.

"Is this King Kong?"

"Sort of!"

After the Monkey Avatar finished speaking, he leaped off the boat.

The Space Stone in his body ignited, producing fiery light. Several Monkey Avatars merged into his form, and his size suddenly expanded dozens of times, transforming into a golden-furred giant ape standing thirty meters high.

"Boom!"

Brother Monkey landed with a thunderous crash, throwing his head back and letting out a long, loud howl.

"Roar..."

Suddenly, several distant beastly roars echoed in response to Brother Monkey’s cry.

Soon, three massive figures emerged from behind a small hill, pounding their chests excitedly and stomping toward Brother Monkey.

"Ooo ooo ooo..."

Watching the three fifty-meter-tall giant apes, Qin Shou was dumbstruck.

"Three King Kongs!"

Brother Monkey chuckled deeply, "Not King Kongs."

As he spoke, he stood upright, beat his chest for a while, and approached the three giant apes.

"Ooo ooo..."

"Ooo..."

The three apes danced around Brother Monkey, who casually tossed several hundred Earth Core Energy Crystals, splitting them among the trio.

After receiving the crystals, the three apes became overjoyed, swallowing them in one go before enthusiastically helping Brother Monkey groom for lice.

Qin Shou: "..."

So this so-called monkey socialite was just throwing money to pave the way.

No, how many of my Earth Core Energy Crystals has this dead monkey stolen?

Qin Shou’s expression darkened—no wonder he’d noticed the stockpile of Earth Core Energy Crystals dwindling recently. It turned out they’d been used to feed the apes.

Beast Cultivation without frugality—no matter how much he earned, he remained poor.

"Roar..."

At that moment, Brother Monkey pushed aside the three apes, walked up to Qin Shou, lifted him off the ground, and roared twice.

"Ooo ooo..."

This is my boss. Show some respect.

The three apes surrounded Qin Shou, gingerly poking him with their massive fingers, taking care not to accidentally crush him.

"Roar..."

Qin Shou took out the monster translator and saw the apes looking puzzled.

"Your boss is so tiny. How can he be your boss?"

Brother Monkey roared a few times, "If you recognize him as your boss, there’ll be tasty treats every day."

The three apes instantly grew ecstatic, circling around Qin Shou.

"Boss, boss..."

"You’re our boss. Give us shiny things..."

"Boss, boss..."

Qin Shou: "..."

He glanced at the three big dummies, feeling a headache.

With their size, how many Earth Core Energy Crystals would it take to feed them daily?

This damn monkey is dragging me down!

But then he reconsidered—if Earth Core Energy Crystals could buy off these three big apes after all, wouldn’t it be worth it?

Don’t let their silly demeanor fool you; they were authentic Nightmare-level Monsters!

With that thought, Qin Shou reluctantly produced several hundred Earth Core Energy Crystals, painfully tossing them to the three apes.

"Ooo ooo ooo..."

The three apes gleefully grabbed the Earth Core Energy Crystals, their gazes toward Qin Shou becoming increasingly fawning.

"Thud thud..."

Suddenly, the ground trembled. The sunlight was obscured by a massive shadow, and heavy breathing gusted over Qin Shou like a gale.

Qin Shou’s heart tightened as he slowly looked up, spotting the giant black head of a towering gorilla blocking his vision.

A colossal black gorilla over two hundred meters tall!

Brother Monkey commented softly, "This is King Kong, the legendary super beast known for battling Godzilla in the war against Mecha-Godzilla!"

Qin Shou stared at the gargantuan King Kong towering before him, instinctively swallowing hard.

"You’ve got to be kidding me—how does it get so big? What’s it been eating..."

At that moment, an enormous hand stretched out from behind a hill. The hand, large enough to cover half the mountain, belonged to another gorilla, matching King Kong in size. It was a mother gorilla.

"Wait... Is that King Kong’s wife?"

The former Skull Island bachelor, who would once rage and destroy warplanes, now had a family.

Where did he even find such a massive mate?

Looking at this gorilla family of five, Qin Shou couldn’t help feeling a pang of trepidation.

This bunch—Aotu Man wouldn’t stand a chance against them.

"Don’t worry, they mean no harm," Brother Monkey assured.

"I’m not worried. When have you seen me panic?" Qin Shou retorted stubbornly.

"But stop shaking!"

"I’m not shaking."

"You clearly are."

"Damn it, I said I’m not!"

"... Fine, you’re not shaking. Look, King Kong is inviting us to its home."

"Invite my ass! With how big it is, how much do I have to bring as a gift? Let’s leave now."

"Why don’t you tell them yourself?"

"Uh... It’s true we’ve stumbled onto Skull Island—proper manners would be to pay a visit."

Brother Monkey: "..."

...

"Thud thud..."

As the ground quaked, King Kong led his family of five forward, with Brother Monkey tagging closely behind.

Qin Shou stood on Brother Monkey’s shoulder when suddenly King Kong turned and roared toward them, then shifted direction to head toward the nearby river.

"Where’s it going?"

"It said it’s going to hunt something to treat us."

"Uh, it’s not planning to catch a Skeleton Giant Lizard to serve us, is it?"

"Relax, it won’t. King Kong doesn’t eat those kinds of monsters."

Qin Shou sighed in relief, "Alright, that’s good. By the way, did you ask why King Kong and Godzilla are living here together on Skull Island?"

Brother Monkey replied, "I actually heard this from King Kong’s third. A few hundred years ago, the only threat on Skull Island was the Skeleton Giant Lizard tribe.

But with Earth’s drastic changes and the outbreak of Earth Core Energy, numerous space channels inexplicably appeared underground on Skull Island.

The monsters emerging from these space channels were none other than terrifying Titan Giant Beasts and ancient exotic monsters.

After Godzilla defeated Mecha-King Ghidorah and became the King of Monsters, it sensed the Titan Giant Beast aura coming from Skull Island’s underground space channels and returned to Skull Island with King Kong.

Since then, Godzilla took charge of guarding the left side of Skull Island’s space channels, while King Kong guarded the right."

Upon hearing this, Qin Shou stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Two monsters actually decided to coexist. Could it be they developed a sense of camaraderie after their battles?"

...

Soon, Qin Shou followed King Kong’s family to the base of a towering mountain over a thousand meters high.

At the foot of the mountain, a massive cave with a diameter of several hundred meters came into view.

Qin Shou’s mouth twitched at the sight—they’d emptied out an entire mountain.

Terrifyingly impressive!

"Roar..."

Suddenly, beastly growls sounded from the distance. King Kong was approaching, carrying a giant squid.

"Bang!!"

King Kong flung the entire squid before Qin Shou and crouched down, staring at him with a toothy smile.

All-you-can-eat dinner—isn’t that touching?

Qin Shou forced a stiff smile, internally debating whether dressing up as a woman might make King Kong nicer to him.

...

For three consecutive days, Qin Shou lived a cohabitating life with King Kong.

"Thud thud..."

"Roar..."

Not far away, Brother Monkey was happily playing with the three apes while teaching them combat techniques.

Watching Brother Monkey use a move called the Baji Iron Mountain Lean to barely knock down one of the smaller King Kongs, Qin Shou fell into thought.

Though Qin Shou had casually pieced together a few fragmented ancient martial techniques, Brother Monkey was able to recreate them with his combat talent—it was truly extraordinary.

In the past, Qin Shou had never paid much attention to Brother Monkey’s battle skills.

It seemed from now on, he’d need Brother Monkey to curate a set of ancient martial tactics suited for human combat to incorporate into armor design—it might significantly improve capabilities.

While human physical size might not compare to towering monsters, there’s no saying Qin Shou couldn’t someday acquire a device capable of enlarging the body.

Just like Aotu Man fighting small monsters, sometimes it’s the flashy beams; other times, it’s a simple smack that finishes the job.