Wukong’s body shrivels as my black jade drinks his blood, and his pristine white fur turns darker and then becomes gray. The red light in his central eye dims and fades, as his other remaining eye closes.

The monkeys howl triumphantly, and cheer. Some of the gorillas beat their chests. Orangutans are smacking bones against skulls. There is a general sense of revelry and joy that I cannot comprehend. What kind of intelligent creatures celebrates the death of one of their own? Especially one so important to their survival.

He becomes smaller, shrinking in size as his body evaporates into the black fog that seeps into my life-devouring core.

I do feel sadness, among many other things. I feel like it is a great waste of potential, to begin with. Now, without a demonic ape in the Foundation realm, the demonic ape society would likely disappear — devoured by other monstrous societies.

I feel alarm. Wukong, and there is no other explanation, could read my thoughts and must’ve known that I was planning on killing him and his entire clan. Still, he dutifully fed me and undertook ever-increasing risks in order to sate my hunger.

When I broke through my bottlenecks, Wukong dutifully held me steady. I am aware of the great improbability that I survived that episode, and now I cannot help but wonder if Wukong had somehow helped me survive too.

And yet, despite all of these things, he called me his friend.

Even now, as his central eye fades into black mist, he watches me carefully. I cannot comprehend his bestial expression, which looks no different than any other time; just an ape face with an ape nose and an ape mouth, staring dumbly at me.

Still, I allow myself to imagine that he is smiling.

[ Life consumed: +742 BP ]

[ Blood points: 4,126 ]

Despite my sadness, I cannot reciprocate his feelings. I am made of metal and blood. My sentient core may experience fluctuations, but beyond that I feel nothing. I do not feel camaraderie.

It is just a waste.

Wukong’s body collapses completely, disappearing into my black jade, and his core — a clear, pale white orb — drops onto the stone altar, right next to where I fall, and rolls onto my side.

Even now, he clings to me.

Perhaps, I was also a bad friend.

As ridiculous as this notion is — I am neither sentimental nor social — it stings. I cannot bring myself to devour his core for a few hundred measly Soul Points.

All right. I will bring you with me, I sing deep inside my sentient core and touch the Dimensional Storage Array with my spirit. It activates, and sucks in Wukong’s soul core.

I convince myself that I allow myself to do this to further my Dao; That there is no other reason. But I also feel pleased. It appeals to some sense of usefulness in me. I desire to be useful. I am a tool.

I shall grant his wish.

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After a while, the gathered monkeys disperse. Before they leave, they kowtow to me again. Some of them linger a bit longer, casting greedy glances at my now owner-less being. For whatever reason, they decide against obtaining me at the very moment.

I am somewhat relieved by their reluctance, even though I have no choice in the matter. Whether one of these weak primates claims me or a competitor-predator that wipes out this society makes no real difference to me.

In over a hundred days, I’ve only seen one creature that would know what to do with me, and it was dead.

I don’t have high hopes for coming into the possession of an intelligent creature that knows how to put me to use.

If only I could breakthrough to a higher Realm, perhaps opportunities would show themselves to me, but for now, I can only rely on the progression of my Dao. Perhaps a higher grade in the Dao of Essence would allow me to sprout legs or wings.

I chastise myself for even considering such a desperate and dumb idea. Maybe the monkeys are rubbing off on me. I am starting to think like a primate.

When I sense two monkeys return, after all the others are left, I already expect the least motivating course of events, but I allow myself to hope that they will be smarter owners than Wukong and actually allow me to help them.

I am surprised when I discover that they also carry another with them, and it is not a monkey.

It is a human.

She is pretty, I think. She has long black hair, held up in a bun via three hairpins. She wears a white dress, with a light blue sash — or at least, what is left of the dress. Most of the dress is torn and ruined, exposing most of her naked body, and dried blood mars the pristine silk of the dress.

And she is alive.

I feel a click of excitement at the prospect of a living cultivator — I haven’t yet devoured one of those — but am immediately disappointed by her shallow cultivation.

Late Qi Condensation realm. A realm below mine and that of the monkeys. The first realm on the path of Qi cultivation.

Pity.

I am surprised a second time when the monkeys deposit the unconscious cultivator on the slab and just leave.

I expect them to return at some point to finish the ritual, but I wait for a few minutes, and no one comes. Perhaps, I reason, they are choosing their new leader.

But as the minutes go by uneventfully, and then become hours, I have no choice but to conclude that Wukong was the only intelligent primate in this society.

What was I supposed to do? Stab her myself?

If I really was a God, I would punish the monkeys for this offense.

Well, I am still going to consume every one of them, no matter what.

Then, the female cultivator stirs and takes a deep breath.

As she begins to regain consciousness, and the prospect of my meal running away from me becomes a possibility, I begin to re-examine my plans.

Perhaps, this is the opportunity I have been waiting for. Perhaps, this is the sort of sentient, opposable thumb operator I need.

Sure, her cultivation is about as shallow as it gets, and she likely cannot kill anything in this forest — compared to her cultivation, everything must feel as vast and powerful as Wukong did to me — but she still has one thing that nothing else in this forest has: actual intelligence.

And a history of tool usage.

And agriculture.

And literature.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that a better opportunity will not appear in my lifetime, which is rather short.

She slowly opens her azure eyes and blankly stares off into the heavens.

I consider the development of my course of action one last time before I take action and conclude that this, in fact, is a gift from Heaven. Perhaps it is destiny.

For better or worse, I have decided that she will be my legs.

[ Exchanged 1,200 Blood Points to obtain: Telepathy (Trait - Earth) ]