Li He opened his eyes.
But what he saw was not the cold chamber or the churning Blood Pool.
It was a cave.
The cave was damp, and the air was thick with a pungent, musky stench.
Burning torches had been stuck into the cave walls.
Through their wavering light, Li He could just make out the figures around him, sitting or lying down. They weren't human. They were hulking Fire-Fierce Apes, their muscles knotted and their fangs bared.
He was held in the arms of a female ape.
Her body was hot, and she carried a scent that made him feel safe, yet inexplicably afraid. "Roar..." She lowered her head and let out a gentle rumble in her throat.
She reached out a hand covered in thick calluses and softly stroked his head.
"I... am... a Fire-Fierce Ape?"
But when Li He lowered his head, he saw not a pair of small, furry ape paws, but the hands of a human child.
"I'm not a Fire-Fierce Ape. I'm a human who was found by apes?"
A vague thought surfaced, then was overwhelmed by a primal, innocent sense of belonging.
His consciousness was hazy and confused.
Time lost all meaning.
He drank the Fire-Fierce Ape's milk. He didn't need to train; the moment he was weaned, he gained strength far beyond that of humans.
He ran through the mountains and forests with the Ape Demons, hunting, biting, and living off raw flesh and blood.
He felt his strength grow, his body grow stronger, and the savage, violent nature deep in his blood grow more powerful by the day.
Until that day.
The Fire-Fierce Apes attacked a human village.
"Why are there humans here?" The moment the question crossed Li He's mind, the inherited memories of the Fire-Fierce Apes answered it.