Besides their silicon-based composition, the human statues also contained some organic fibers, making them somewhat similar to coral polyps, or perhaps even honeycomb briquettes.
This was why they were combustible.
Once burned, they turned into silica powder.
The Brain Apes had gathered large quantities of degraded fuel from the city, pouring it over the statues to act as an accelerant.
Although this fuel was no longer suitable for running a vehicle's Internal Combustion Engine, it had no trouble igniting. It just produced a lot of black smoke.
Tens of thousands of human statues were piled together, forming a colossal bonfire. It blazed furiously, and the many statues within were already burned cherry-red, like chunks of charcoal.
The black smoke billowed upward, surging toward the starry sky, as if it were the souls of these petrified humans, finally breaking free from their stone prisons to achieve true liberation.
Beside the bonfire, a massive platform had been erected—built entirely out of paper books!
There were over a hundred thousand of them, as if they had emptied the entire Huicheng City Library.
The Brain Apes sat in a circle around the fire, each holding a thick book. Though it was impossible to see the titles, they were all, without exception, large, hardcover volumes with gilt-stamped covers.
One of the Brain Apes stepped out from the crowd and stood atop the platform made of books.
Shen Feng took out his binoculars and looked over, immediately recognizing the figure as the bespectacled Brain Ape, Kuafu!
Kuafu also held a book in his hands, his expression solemn as he addressed the assembly of Brain Apes.
Then, he sat down cross-legged and spoke a few more words aloud.
Over a thousand Brain Apes responded in unison. Their voices, carried on the wind, allowed Shen Feng to make out the words:
"The Human Race was steeped in sin and destroyed by fate! Earth Civilization has withered, and only the Ape Race prospers! We are the chosen apes, the fire of civilization, continued through us! The world belongs to us! The future belongs to the Ape Race!"
The Brain Apes roared, chanting the words over and over, their eyes filled with madness. Their gazes toward Kuafu were brimming with fanatical devotion.
Shen Feng, too, was shaken by the Brain Apes' actions.
These highly intelligent Brain Apes already saw themselves as the successors to human civilization, the masters of Earth!
No wonder they had hunted him so relentlessly after seeing him, as if they had seen the most heinous evil imaginable.
Shen Feng's very existence was a negation of their status as inheritors of civilization. It would shake their confidence and undermine their entire reason for being!
Deep down, they were afraid. They feared that humanity would one day reawaken and strip them of their position as the successors of civilization!
But after reviewing a vast amount of data, Shen Feng understood that these Brain Apes had no future.
The intelligence they possessed could not be passed down through reproduction. Their offspring would be nothing more than ordinary apes.
Therefore, once these Brain Apes died, the Ape Race would also plunge into a dark age. The entirety of Earth Civilization would fall into a long night lasting hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years, until a new batch of primates or other species evolved highly advanced intelligence.
Understanding this, Shen Feng's gaze toward Kuafu gained a new layer of admiration.
'Perhaps the leader of the Brain Apes already understands this,' Shen Feng thought. 'If so, everything he's doing has a deeper meaning.'
After their chanting concluded, the Brain Apes sat down quietly, opened the books in their hands, and actually began to read aloud by the fire!
The books they held were a motley collection, but as they read, expressions of joy and serenity appeared on their ape faces, as if they were approaching some supreme Truth.
'What a studious bunch of apes…' Shen Feng marveled to himself.
Just then, roars echoed from the darkness beyond the firelight. Thousands upon thousands of Skinners swarmed toward the Brain Apes, lurking in the shadows and letting out frenzied cries.
Although they didn't know what these apes were doing, the chaotic consciousness of the Skinners held an extreme aversion to them.
An aversion even greater than their hatred for Shen Feng, a human!
The Skinners gathered in ever-increasing numbers. Though they feared the searing heat of the fire, they were at the edge of their tolerance, ready to pounce at any moment.
Kuafu, who had been reading with his head bowed, slowly looked up. He gazed at the Skinners nearby, his bright eyes dancing with excitement.
Tossing his book aside, Kuafu stood up and drew a curved Long Saber. The polished blade glinted in the firelight as he roared:
"HOO-RAH! Warriors of the Ape Race! The phantoms of the old humans still wander! Civilization needs the protection of the Ape Race! Draw your blades, bury these old human phantoms, and defend the glory of the inheritors of civilization!"
The reading Brain Apes all dropped their books, drew their Battle Blades, and turned to face the Skinners prowling in the firelight. They bared their fangs, unable to hide their excitement.
"Purge them!" Kuafu commanded with a swing of his blade. The Brain Apes immediately swarmed forward, lunging at the roaring Skinners!
The Skinners, in turn, shrieked madly and charged at the creatures they detested!
The two sides crashed into each other like a pair of tidal waves beside the great bonfire of statues, kicking up a rain of blood!
The Brain Apes were incredibly strong, and with the advantage of their Battle Blades, their fight against the unarmed Skinners was a complete one-sided slaughter!
"We are… the inheritors of civilization!"
"Humanity… is extinct! The future belongs to… the Ape Race!"
"Kill… kill all the humans! Purge this world!"
Fueled by bloodlust, the Brain Apes grew even more excited. They roared madly as they hacked off the Skinners' limbs, smearing their faces crimson.
Their deep-seated patricidal urges and their hatred for the memory of their former enslavement were completely unleashed here!
So what if humans were once their creators?
They were nothing but a passing cloud, nothing but a pile of lifeless statues!
The Skinners fell like wheat before a scythe. Although their frenzy inflicted some injuries on the Brain Apes, to these former beasts, such wounds were trivial. They only served to further ignite their ferocity!
The bodies of the Skinners piled up in a circle around the blazing pyre of human statues. Kuafu cut down a Skinner with a single slash, a gleeful smile on his face.
There were nearly ten thousand Skinners in all of Huicheng, and now they had already slaughtered more than half of them!
This city was about to be purged. Finding the last human would not be difficult.
He looked up at the disease control center building in the distance, his heart filled with anticipation.
Most of the Skinners in the building had already been lured out. Once the purge was complete, they could enter the still-powered disease control center and find what he was looking for.
Except for him, the entire Ape Race was unaware that the human was not his most important target on this trip to Huicheng. He had another objective...
Skinners continued to pour in from every corner of the city. The Ape Race's steel blades had become so dull they were bent, and eventually, out of exhaustion, they simply started shooting.
Gunshots rang out everywhere. The Skinners stood no chance at all and were soon reduced to a scattered few, nearly all of them lying in pools of blood.
Tossing aside his battered Long Saber, Kuafu beat his chest with both fists, THUMP-THUMP-THUMP, and tilted his head back to roar at the sky: "HOO-RAH—"
"HOO-RAH—"
"HOO-RAH—"
"HOO-RAH—"
Over a thousand apes echoed his cry in unison, reveling in the glory of the Ape Race amidst the circle of Skinner corpses.
They were the chosen apes, the inheritors of civilization, the masters of this planet!
Kuafu stood atop the platform of books, turned, and pointed toward the disease control center building, shouting:
"Take that building!"