Chapter Eighteen: Drawing

  The sun sets in the west, and the remaining sunlight casts a golden glow over the entire forest. Under Chen Xu's leadership, the hunting party, which has almost doubled in size, carries its loaded prey and quietly embarks on its return journey.

  Perhaps influenced by the previous few saber-toothed tigers, the jungle was quiet at this time, and the full-fed jungle overlords slightly raised their heads to feel the breath of the jungle.

  Sensing the faint aura left behind by the Tyrant Sword Toothed Tiger, these ferocious beasts couldn't help but let out a low whistle, their eyes revealing an extreme fear, and they shrank back into their old nest, quietly lying in wait, not daring to make any rash movements, silently waiting for this aura to dissipate.

  At least, before the aura of the saber-toothed tiger completely dissipated, there was no living creature in the jungle that dared to move around!

  Of course, this does not include the wise apes!

  Although the aura of the saber-toothed tiger also made them tremble all over, under the leadership of Chen Xu, this highly respected fire god, these apes still bravely set foot on their return journey.

  Relying on the majesty of these mysterious tigers, what was originally supposed to be a very dangerous return journey according to Chen Xu's calculations turned out to be extremely safe.

  All along the way, the whole dense forest was quiet, without even a bird's chirp.

  Chen Xu felt a momentary illusion, as if he had returned to the artificial afforestation of his previous life, rather than being deep in the vast primeval forest.

  However, the thick and soft rotten leaves under his feet, and the hairy companions around him, constantly reminded Chen Xu that the era was gone and would never return. At this moment, he was at least a million years away from that era.

  Perhaps by then he will have completely turned into a fossil!

  Steadying his mind, Chen Xuan quickly came to and realized the situation he was in. He knew that this was all thanks to the intimidating presence of those Sword Toothed Tigers, but how long this intimidation would last was hard to say!

  As the sky gradually darkened and a hint of murderous aura emerged in the air, Chen Xu's heart stirred, knowing that he couldn't miss this opportunity. If he didn't leave quickly, he feared that after nightfall, a great change would occur.

  At once, under his lead, the team no longer proceeded with caution but instead charged recklessly through this terrifying jungle, no longer following their original route but going wherever was closest.

  There have been several times when they directly rushed into the lair of the terrifying beast, if not for the aura of the Sword Toothed Tiger still being present, they would not have enough lives to die even with nine.

  Fortunately, after a lot of fuss, these apes who were terrified in their hearts finally entered familiar territory and came to the front of the small hill.

  Along the mountain road, they quickly marched on, and before long, the troops arrived at the top of a small hill. At this time, the sun had completely fallen below the horizon, and even the twilight glow had disappeared. A round moon rose from the edge of the sky, embedded in the dense cloud layer, looking somewhat hazy!

  It's nighttime!

  A gust of wind blew by, and the aura left behind by Bajiquan's sword-toothed tiger in this jungle was completely blown out. The overlords of the jungle shook off their unease and began to emerge from their dens, patrolling their respective territories.

  Under the faint moonlight, Chen Xu stood at the top of the mountain ridge. Although he couldn't see clearly into the vast forest below, he could distinctly feel a surge of vitality. He knew that the nightlife in the forest had begun, and this was a revelry belonging to the wild beasts, with which he had nothing to do.

  "Good grief, luckily the fox was intimidating for a moment, otherwise who knows if we would have had to spend the night in the jungle today. Whether or not we could see tomorrow's sun is still uncertain!"

  He let out a low sigh, Chen Xu took the lead in pulling the rope he had tied, his body swayed and jumped down the cliff, quickly climbing down, and soon came to the cave.

  Closely following his actions, the ten apemen who had just defected also carried their prey and grasped the thick rope under the supervision of other apemen, quickly swinging down.

  When they saw the flames that Chen Xu had rekindled in the cave and the gurgling stream in one corner, all of these apemen showed a look of surprise on their faces, each and every one of them letting out a low cry of astonishment.

  "Hmm, it seems their living environment isn't as good as ours after all!"

  Chen Xu had an idea and ordered ten apemen to enter the cave, bringing some firewood to make the bonfire bigger. After the other apemen brought in their prey, they began their feast.

  According to the rules, it was natural for the ten elderly and weak apes to eat cooked food. The other ten strong apes had just surrendered, so they also joined the ranks of those who ate roasted food.

  As for the four apes, they were holding bamboo spears and squatting on a nearby rock, quietly resting and recovering from their exhaustion after a day of rapid marching.

  Taking advantage of the memories still clear in his mind, Chen Xuan decided to start making a map.

  The deerskin pouch that originally held the bird eggs was opened, and the dozen or so remaining eggs were set aside. The deerskin was then taken to the fire pit and began to be roasted.

  After a while, the tendons and blood on the deerskin dried up, revealing a layer of firm thinness inside. Although it was still messy, it was much stronger than the original bloody blur.

  He stretched out his fingers and lightly stroked them twice, feeling a layer of flexibility in between. Chen Xu nodded in satisfaction and gave a wave to the somewhat uneasy gibbon captain beside him.

  The Ape Captain hastily handed over a piece of wood in his hand, on which the bright red flames were still burning, emitting a faint sweet aroma.

  Chen Xu took over the wood and measured it. Seeing that the top part had been carbonized, he directly extinguished the flames on the rocky ground.

  After the fire on top of it completely disappeared, he gathered the carbonized part of the wood to the rough scraped deerskin and began to draw a map according to his memory!

  After a while, many dark lines were drawn on a not-so-small piece of deerskin. Chen Xu took the small hill they had set up as the center and marked out all the areas between their current position and the riverbank where they hunted today, including the territories of various ferocious beasts.

  After waiting until all the memories in his mind were displayed on the map, Chen Xu threw away the half-burned wooden block in his hand and took the deerskin to the flame to take a look. With joy mixed with some helplessness, he said in a low voice, "It still doesn't look good, it seems that neither in my past life nor this life, I simply don't have the talent for painting."

  "However, I've marked all the geographical features that I know of on this map. In a way, this is also the world's first map, and it's already quite impressive to have reached this level. Who knows how much money this map would be worth if it were to be passed down to future generations?"

  A narcissistic man waved the scribble in his hand, which no one but him could recognize, and was clearly in a state of excited trembling.

  This scene was of extraordinary significance to the apes around them.

  Chen Xu is now dancing wildly in front of the flames, with a look of madness on his face, almost indistinguishable from the later generations' jumping gods. In the underdeveloped brain of the ape-man, this was the way the fire god and the flame communicated.

  As soon as they thought of Chen Xu's identity as the Fire God, the apes who were roasting food around them immediately fell to the ground, constantly kowtowing to Chen Xu. Even Ape 1 to 4, who had been resting on the side, rolled down from the rocks at this moment and knelt down, shouting continuously in their simple ape language to express their admiration for Chen Xu, the Fire God.

  "Uh! This..."

  Regaining his composure from the excitement, Chen Xu looked at the devout crowd in front of him with some speechlessness, feeling that their brains were almost not enough for the time being.

  "Am I going to become a godfather now?"

  He scolded a few words, letting the surrounding apemen continue to roast food. Chen Xu carefully took the deerskin to a corner of the cave and stored it away, lest these apemen ruin it.

  Then, Chen Xu turned around the cave twice, casually found a thin stone slab, put it on one side of the bonfire to heat it up. When the temperature of the stone slab was about right, he picked up more than a dozen bird eggs from the ground, lightly cracked open a small hole in each eggshell and poured the egg liquid onto the stone slab.

  As a tempting aroma wafted out, looking at the stone slab with a circle of objects resembling pan-fried eggs from past lives, Chen Xu's stomach growled and he couldn't help but feel a surge of hot tears welling up in his eyes!

  "Oh, fried eggs! I didn't think I'd still be able to eat fried eggs!"

  With a half-cooked bird egg in hand, Chen Xuan felt that this moment of life was so beautiful under the envious gaze of the apes around him.

  As the scrambled eggs entered his mouth, a soft and fragrant flavor came, bringing with it an immense sense of happiness that overwhelmed him. Chen Xu's entire body trembled, and he swallowed the eggs in just a few bites, almost swallowing his own tongue along with them.

  At this time, the apes around were staring at Chen Xu's movements with eager eyes. Their gaze towards the stone plate in Chen Xu's hand was filled with curiosity and longing. It was clear that the aroma of fried eggs and the ingenuity of the stone plate had taught these apes a vivid lesson.

  However, Chen Xu didn't have time to care about them at this moment. Immersed in the passion of reuniting with the fried eggs, he skillfully took over a dozen eggs and made them into fried eggs with his hands moving quickly. He stuffed all the eggs into his stomach, then let out a long sigh, as if he had just completed some kind of sacred ritual.

  He rubbed his belly, feeling the warmth in his stomach, Chen Xuan gestured to the other apemen to continue roasting food, while he himself came to what was originally his long stone.

  "Scrambled eggs are really delicious, when can we have a boiled egg?"

  Ideas swirled in his mind, Chen Xu sat down cross-legged, took out the newly acquired crystal from his neck, and then pulled out another crystal from his neck.

  "Crystal fusion, don't know if it's true or false, try it first!"

  As he brought the two crystals together, Chen Xu stared unblinkingly at the scene before him, afraid of missing any detail. With his arm exerting force, the two extremely hard crystals officially came into contact and, amazingly, slowly merged together like chewing gum.