Chapter 379 – Strange Tree

Inside the tree hole were compartments filled with hay. And it was obvious that it wasn’t just there naturally, it looks like an ape’s bedroom. Moreover, the compartment wasn’t unsightly; it was very clean.

This compartment might not be very big, maybe only 20 square meters. But all around the tree hole were numerous compartments that belonged to apes. Inside some of those compartments were some small black monkeys as well as female ones.

The place looked like an upscaled ant’s nest, it was just that ants weren’t the ones living in it but instead apes. Zhao Hai calculated that inside this tree hole alone, there should be around a thousand apes. It was a very terrifying magic beast tribe.

Zhao Hai looked upwards and was shocked about the sheer space inside the tree hole. It was about a hundred meters high with compartments all around it, the scene was extremely spectacular.

Laura saw the scene and couldn’t help but be in awe, “This is really quite breathtaking. Brother Hai, couldn’t you see? This place looks like a small city.”

This statement wasn’t an exaggeration that Laura just threw out. The place was truly magnificent, the tree could be considered as the capital of Little Jin’s kingdom. His constituents should be these apes while the entire island might be their territory.

Little Jin gave a few shrieks, then some apes came to take away the hay on the ground. The revealed surface was very clean, Zhao Hai could even faintly see the wood grains on the floor.

Little Jin jumped down from Zhao Hai’s body, then it gave another few shrieks to have the gorillas carrying Zhao Hai’s group place them on the ground. Then the apes walked out of the hole while leaving some small apes on the ground, some were even crawling all over the place.

To be honest, these small apes weren’t as cute as Little Jin, but they’re still quite attractive. This made Laura’s, Meg’s, and Nier’s eyes shine. Women generally have little tolerance towards adorable creatures.

Little Jin didn’t care about those small apes, he just left those young ones to their own. Zhao Hai didn’t understand what Little Jin was intending to do.

At this time, some silver apes came while holding some breadfruit in their hands. When they arrived, they presented those fruits in front of Zhao Hai. There were also some apes that held shells with some sort of liquid inside of them. What surprised Zhao Hai was that the liquid in those shells gave off a scent of liquor.

Little Jin gave a few shrieks as he took a breadfruit and gave it directly to Zhao Hai who understood what the little monkey meant. Little Jin wanted Zhao Hai to eat the fruit.

Zhao Hai received the basketball sized fruit. Currently, the skin of the fruit was very hard, so he made an effort to knock it down on the ground before peeling the fruit and revealing the white pulp inside.

What surprised Zhao Hai was when the pulp came in contact with the air, it quickly expanded and exhibited the scent of bread.

Zhao Hai stared for a moment before placing the fruit near his mouth and took a single bite. The fruit’s flesh was very fluffy and it tasted just like bread. This surprised Zhao Hai even more.

Zhao Hai had heard of the monkey bread tree on earth, he heard that it was a type of tree with high yield. For their fruits to be eaten, they needed to be roasted. But this bread fruit that he just ate unexpectedly didn’t need roasting. It just inflated itself and gave the appearance of bread, and a big one at that. Zhao Hai feared the he would need to eat for an entire day before he could finish the entire fruit.

Laura and the others looked at Zhao Hai’s actions. It was the first time that they had seen such a fruit. At this time, Little Jin also shrieked a few times while pointing towards the shells on the ground.

Zhao Hai curiously took the shell and drunk the liquid it held inside. Upon entering his stomach, Zhao Hai felt an acidic taste, what made it strange was that the liquor inside those shells had the same flavor as beer.

Zhao Hai didn’t make beer, nobody in the continent did. Originally, Zhao Hai thought that he would be able to get the process of fermenting beer after a lot of experiments. But who would’ve thought that on such an isolated island, a few apes took out a beer-tasting liquid for him to drink. This gave Zhao Hai a surprise.

He curiously looked at the liquid, the liquid truly did have a beer’s flavor, although it was not very pure, it was genuinely beer. Zhao Hai couldn’t help himself and took another drink.

Looking at Zhao Hai’s expression, Laura and the others became curious. They also opened a fruit and ate some before drinking the beer, they felt very good.

Zhao Hai placed the shell down and turned to look at Little Jin. He couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Little Jin, Little Jin, you really are my lucky star. Hahaha. Fantastic, this thing is fantastic.”

Seeing Zhao Hai getting excited about the beer, Little Jin also gave a few excited shrieks. On the other hand, Laura and the others were more interested in the bread, not quite so on the beer.

Zhao Hai and the others were still hungry, so they continued to eat bread and sip some beer. At the same time, Zhao Hai took out a lot of apples for Little Jin. The small ape was very excited as he distributed the apples to the other apes.

However, it became apparent that even though Zhao Hai’s apples were quite big, they were insufficient for the hulking apes. When the gorillas opened their mouths and tossed an apple inside, the fruit immediately vanished after only a few chews.

Zhao Hai shook his head and felt helpless, then he gave Little Jin more apples. This time, he took out a lot more apples, about ten thousand jins worth. Little Jin became incomparably excited as he continued to distribute the apples to the apes.

Before long, the ten thousand jins of apples disappeared into the mouths of the apes. With an excited face, each and every one of those apes looked at Zhao Hai, clearly expecting more food.

Zhao Hai shook his head and smiled bitterly. He turned his head to Little Jin and said, “Little Jin, we’ll have to eat later. I want to take a look at the entire island.” Little Jin probably understood Zhao Hai’s words since he gave a set of shrieks to make the group of apes disperse, only leaving a several few.

Zhao Hai and the others climbed to the back of the gorillas. Then Little Jin lead the group all around the island. When they were coming down from the mountain, Little Jin pointed at some bread trees and gave a few shrieks as the apes climbed the trees.

At this time, Zhao Hai could faintly smell the scent of beer coming from those trees. He couldn’t believe that there was actually beer inside those bread trees.

The apes took Zhao Hai and the others to climb one of the trees. The tree had a hole in it that was blocked tightly by a piece of bark that seemed like cork. The gorilla that Zhao Hai was riding on went forward and turned the wooden cork that was blocking the hole to reveal that there was indeed beer inside.

After seeing this, Zhao Hai nodded, then they continued on to their journey. About halfway down the mountain, they saw a small pool with a spring acting as its source. Obviously this was a place where the apes would get some drinking water.

Zhao Hai and the others walked towards other places. The island wasn’t that large, only about ten thousand mu. The most common tree present were those bread trees while other types of fauna were quite few.

When Zhao Hai thought that there weren’t any more interesting places to visit, Little Jin suddenly brought them to a root cavern. This cavern was blocked by a bread tree. If not for Little Jin guiding the group, Zhao Hai wouldn’t have been able to find this place easily.

As soon as the group entered the cavern, they were shocked. This was because the cavern was not in line with their expectations of a moist and narrow cave. This one was unexpectedly quite dry, moreover it was very big, about a football field’s worth of floor area. The space inside was also about 20 meters high. There was also the passage in front which was 6 meters wide and 20 meters high, which seemed to become higher and higher as they go through.

Zhao Hai was curious as he made Little Jin lead the group inside. After crossing the passage, they were met with an even bigger cavern. The cavern was very big and also quite dark, even though light couldn’t reach this part of the cave, the surface of the cave wasn’t cold; it instead was very warm. The most important thing about this cavern was the tree growing at the very center, the tree gave off a faint golden radiance.

The reason why this cavern was quite dark with only a little bit of light inside was this tree. Although this tree looked like a normal bread tree, it was very short and wasn’t very stout. There were also fruits present that were like breadfruit, but these fruits were smaller and were gold colored; it also seem to exude a faint light.

While Zhao Hai curiously examined the tree, Little Jin jumped down and went directly to the plant. He examined the fruits before picking some from the center of the tree and handed the fruits to Zhao Hai.

Zhao Hai received the fruit and carefully looked at it. The fruit looks like a miniaturized version of the breadfruit, it didn’t have any other redeeming quality. The fruit was only the same size as Zhao Hai’s fist, with the familiar hard skin surrounding it. When Zhao Hai was about to bite into the fruit, Little Jin screamed and seized Zhao Hai’s hand with enough strength that Zhao Hai couldn’t get it loose

Zhao Hai looked confused at Little Jin, he didn’t know why the little monkey gave him the fruit only to prohibit him from eating it. Little Jin looks at Zhao Hai and quickly made some movements, the little ape held its hand and made a blossoming action.

Zhao Hai understood the signal, it was possible that Little Jin wasn’t describing blossoming but was instead referring to an explosion. Zhao Hai held the fruit and said, “You’re saying that this fruit can explode?”

Little Jin shook its head, he pointed to the fruit and then to his mouth, then made an explosive expression. Zhao Hai said, “You’re saying that the human who eats this fruit will explode?”

Little Jin excitedly nodded. He pointed to himself, grasping his fur, then pointed to the other apes’ fur, then to the fruit, and lastly back to himself.

This made Zhao Hai stare for a while. Seeing Zhao Hai unable to understand, Little Jin gestured a few more times. Finally, Zhao Hai seemed to understand, he looked at Little Jin and said, “You’re saying that if they eat this fruit, then eventually they are going to look like you?” He said as he pointed to the gorillas then to Little Jin.

..

Note: I think this should be my 100th chapter… weeee