The white steam quickly dissipated, revealing the figure's true form!
Veins bulged on his forehead, and the muscles all over his body were swollen and pronounced. He radiated the savage aura of a wild beast!
Even his hair had grown much longer in just a few short minutes. The gale from the dissipating steam whipped his iron-black hair about like a nest of writhing snakes!
Sharp claws extended from his fingertips. Fangs reflected a cold, white light. His crimson eyes had pupils contracted like a feline's.
His skin had taken on a grayish-white hue, as if what stood there was not a human, but a marble statue.
A low growl, like a tiger's roar, rumbled from his throat!
"The... The King of Beasts..." Kuafu stared, wide-eyed, at the creature standing in the light and muttered.
This young man was none other than Shen Feng!
Stone Eye's body twitched. A flash of shock and terror crossed his eyes before the last vestiges of life faded away completely.
He never would have dreamed that his killer wouldn't be Kuafu, the one he considered his fated nemesis, but that weak human!
"Stone Eye is dead!"
"Stone Eye... he's been killed!"
"He killed him... that human... that monster!"
"Shoot, shoot! What the hell is that thing!?"
The apes, who had been tied up in the fight, shouted. Forgetting everything else, they raised their guns and fired at Shen Feng.
RAT-TAT-TAT... A volley of gunfire erupted. Shen Feng lifted Stone Eye's corpse to use as a shield and, without dodging or weaving, accelerated toward his enemies!
Before Kuafu's shocked eyes, the skin on the side of the human boy facing the enemy rapidly transformed into a stone-like state, like a thick layer of armor!
Stray bullets occasionally struck his body, but most of them ricocheted off. Only high-powered rifle rounds could manage to chip out a small crater, but that was the extent of the damage!
For the moment, the bullets couldn't penetrate the boy's body at all, merely chipping off a few fragments!
"Fire! Aim for his eyes and joints!"
Stone Eye's second-in-command roared. 'It doesn't matter that Stone Eye is dead,' he thought. 'As long as we kill this human and Kuafu, we can still fix this. We can still survive among our clan!'
The words had barely left his mouth when Stone Eye's body came flying, smashing heavily into the group of apes. The immense force sent them staggering and stumbling.
Shen Feng suddenly lunged forward, appearing before the ape at the very front. He threw an uppercut, savagely striking the creature's jaw.
With a sickening CRACK, the ape's jaw shattered. Its head snapped back, and its cervical spine was instantly severed!
Shen Feng's face was impassive. Without a hint of hesitation, he snatched the dagger from the dead ape's waist, slit the throats of two others beside him in a flash, and then threw the blade, piercing the eye socket of another.
"Stop him! Stop him!"
"Use your knives!"
"No, use your guns!"
"..."
The apes kept trying to aim their guns but found they couldn't track his movements at all. The man was like a gecko, somehow able to run directly on the walls before lunging into their midst!
The apes' initial fury slowly gave way to terror. They huddled together, backing away step by step.
There was nothing they could do but watch helplessly as their comrades at the front were slaughtered by the frenzied beast!
A snapped neck, a pierced brain, a punctured heart—every blow was a killing strike. Yet the knives and guns in their own hands were completely useless against him.
"Don't... Don't come any closer!" Stone Eye's second-in-command, Sharp Teeth, screamed as he watched the heads of his last two subordinates get crushed.
He was like a white Demon!
BANG! BANG! BANG! Sharp Teeth frantically pulled the trigger, but his shots were perfectly evaded. A hand seized his gun-wielding arm.
Immense strength pulsed from the grip. Sharp Teeth tried to flee, but the white Demon's other hand clamped viciously around his neck.
To Sharp Teeth's horror, his own gun hand was slowly twisted around, the barrel now pointing at his temple.
"No, spare... me! It was all... Stone Eye!" Sharp Teeth begged desperately, his gaze meeting a pair of eyes completely devoid of emotion.
The next instant, his finger was forced down, pulling the trigger.
BANG! The bullet tore through the ape's head, putting an end to his terror forever.
The last ape fell. The flickering lights illuminated Shen Feng's bestial form as he stood amidst the corpses of dozens of apes and shattered human statues, like a Demon King from the Abyss.
This was a life form far more perfect than either humans or apes.
Kuafu leaned against a corner of the hallway, gazing at the scene before him, and muttered:
"How beautiful... Could it be... that this is the true purpose of the Stone Statue Virus?"
Billows of steam rose as Shen Feng's body gradually returned to its normal human form.
He turned around, his clothes soaked in blood.
Although his partially petrified skin could block bullets, it could still be damaged, leaving shallow wounds from the impacts.
Fortunately, none of them were fatal.
Bending over, Shen Feng rummaged through the dead apes' gear. He found a few bottles of water, immediately opened one, and began to drink deeply.
The injection burned through his body's water reserves more than anything, and he desperately needed to rehydrate.
After finishing one bottle, Shen Feng immediately opened another, rushed to Golden Fur's side, and held him up to give him some water bit by bit.
The fight with Stone Eye had left Golden Fur with serious injuries, including a gash across its back.
After drinking half the bottle, Golden Fur let out a whimper, wagged its tail, and limped to its feet.
Shen Feng couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. 'It's not in any mortal danger for now.'
"Could you spare some for me... to drink?" Kuafu asked from the side.
Shen Feng tossed him a bottle of water and gave Kuafu a deep look. "That wasn't easy," he said.
'If it hadn't been for Kuafu and Golden Fur desperately holding them off outside, he never would have had the chance to inject the vaccine and the serum. He'd be the one lying on the ground with a snapped neck right now.'
Kuafu chugged the water, then waved a hand and said in a hoarse voice:
"It was mutually beneficial... I just want to ask, human... sir, are you still going to honor our agreement? If you have other plans, I hope you'll give me a quick end."
The foundation of his cooperation with Shen Feng had been a balance of mutual deterrence and mutual benefit.
But now, the other party had completely achieved his goal. It wouldn't matter if he killed him now.
Kuafu never thought that his clan of one or two thousand intelligent apes could be of much help to him anyway.
But after witnessing the scene just now, his tone toward Shen Feng had become much more respectful.
Shen Feng was taken aback. 'This Kuafu is surprisingly straightforward,' he thought.
He then said with a serious expression:
"The agreement still stands. If you and your clan want to continue to exist, if you want to live to see tomorrow, you will submit to me! My name is Shen Feng."
Hearing this, Kuafu let out a long sigh of relief and said:
"That's good, Mr. Shen. You are truly a noble human worthy of respect. To be honest, I've always been rather pessimistic about the moral character of us primates."
Then, he looked at Shen Feng through his shattered glasses and said solemnly:
"In that case, please, dig out my left eye."