The remaining men of the Shellfish Tribe watched with a mix of fascination and fear as the Jade Eye Stone Monkeys were released into their new habitat.
Fang Yuan had relocated them from the depths of Qing Mao Mountain into his Immortal Aperture. The monkeys were initially startled by the sudden change in environment much like the humans were, wondering how they had ended up in this area. They were not stupid, but at the same time such a change would've bewildered anyone. It would be the equivalent of humans being kidnapped by a UFO and suddenly dropped onto some alien world without any explanation or instructions whatsoever.
Inevitably, conflict broke out.
As the monkeys wandered near the human settlement, the tribesmen felt threatened. Although the monkeys held the advantage in raw numbers, the humans utilized their superior coordination and mastery of gu worms to deal with them. The Shellfish Tribe managed to drive the beasts back into the Stone Forest with minimal casualties.
Following the skirmish, the humans began harvesting the jade eyes from the fallen Jade Eye Stone Monkeys. This provided the Shellfish Tribe with a new, valuable resource they could either use for gu worm refinement or for bartering.
Fang Yuan observed this coldly.
While there was also a risk of the monkeys eventually overreaching and annihilating the humans, for now, the Jade Eye Stone Monkeys served as a vital buffer against the Green Hill Tribes and prevented further retaliation. It also provided the humans a means to sharpen their martial skills through constant struggle. They might even end up developing new martial arts techniques by observing the monkeys - there were examples of this happening back on Earth.
Fang Yuan considered moving other organisms, like the wolves or bears of Qing Mao Mountain, into his aperture. However, he quickly dismissed the thought.
To make a profit on Treasure Yellow Heaven, he would need tens of thousands - ideally a hundred thousand - to justify the cost of the Immortal Essence required for the transaction. It would take more time than it was worth to catch them.
Furthermore, introducing high-tier predators would have devastating effects on the human population he was currently nurturing.
On the Fang Yuan Continent humanity was beginning to flourish in the absence of overwhelming external threats. It was not like the Gu World at large where survival was a constant struggle. Animals that were capable of challenging humans for supremacy or wiping out entire tribes either did not exist or were kept in check via other alternatives.
The Jade Eye Stone Monkeys were not strong enough to pose a large threat to any major force. The wolves and the bears, however, could end up causing trouble for them. It would end up being a situation just like Gu Yue Village with humanity confined to small areas, which is not what Fang Yuan wanted.
On Fang Yuan Continent, the greatest threat to humanity was other humans, as evidenced by the Green Hill Tribe and the Shellfish Tribe.
The Shellfish Tribe was already considering renaming themselves the Jade Tribe based on their acquisition.
However, a significant problem loomed: the tribe consisted entirely of men. To propagate, they would eventually have to strike down neighboring tribes or find a way to merge.
The other tribes on Fang Yuan continent had developed in... interesting ways. Some of which Fang Yuan hadn't anticipated.
A group of humans had tamed a herd of wild horses and called themselves the Equestrian Tribe, wandering around the coastline like horseman raiders and attacking other tribes in nighttime raids before scurrying off and fleeing.
There was a tribe of humans who had become excellent spear-throwers and called themselves the Spear-Thrower Tribe.
There was another group which had forsaken the surface world and instead decided to live underground like dwarves, foraging on mushrooms and relying on an underground lake for hydration. They had not come up to the surface for months, and it seemed they were committed to living underground. Over time they would end up losing their ability to navigate things in daylight because they were too used to living underground. It was interesting to see how they would develop in the future - Fang Yuan wondered if they might mutate into some kind of strange mole people over time.
There were numerous primeval springs scattered throughout Fang Yuan Continent. These were not enough to service the needs of all the tribes, but there were also very large pockets of wild Hope Gu that grew throughout the continent which were used by the tribes instead. Fang Yuan wasn't sure why this was - perhaps it was simply a feature of having a Human Path Aperture. Many tribes relied upon them to make new Gu Masters.
Life for mortals, however, was far more egalitarian than it was in the wider Gu World at large. Part of this was because some potential Gu Masters couldn't find patches of Hope Gu to actually open their apertures so there were fewer of them, those that were there rarely reached Rank 3 so they weren't that much stronger than a large force of ordinary people, and because life in the aperture was not as dangerous as the outside world.
There was even a group of mortals who had coalesced together from six different tribes as they felt discriminated against by the Gu Masters, and had decided to form a group that would only consist of non-cultivators. They shunned Gu Master Cultivation entirely and anyone among them who awakened their aperture was kicked out of the group. If they happened to come across a lone wandering Gu Master, they would band together and attack that person.
This tribe was only about one-hundred and fifty people strong, but its mere existence was quite surprising to Fang Yuan. It was similar to a place developed by a mortal named Jiang Fan in his earlier life who had befriended a River Swallowing Toad.
How it would survive in the future, however, was a big question.
While this was intriguing, it was a bit of an issue for Fang Yuan. He naturally wanted more Gu Masters to develop within his aperture, not this kind of weird societal structure.
It was also a problem when it came to the Puppet Path gu worms. They also developed in his aperture much like the humans did, but rather than using them, the humans there had attacked them instead.
"Go! Attack them!"
"Those weird statues are still over there! I do not like them!"
"They look creepy!"
Most of these gu worms did nothing but flee, but also had no real combat capabilities and were killed by some of the humans.
'Are these humans stupid? They were supposed to use those gu worms, not kill them,' Fang Yuan thought to himself.
Fang Yuan sighed. That was a massive waste.
Fang Yuan chose not to intervene further for the time being. He had already added the Jade Eye Stone Monkey Forest, and would not dabble in their affairs any further.
The odd situation that his aperture was in did trouble him slightly.
Since there weren't any large threats, Gu Masters did not develop as they should. Because of this, primeval stones weren't as valued as they were in the outside world and some of the primeval springs remained unclaimed.
And due to this, the ordinary people did not fear Gu Masters and in some cases, the mortals were even able to suppress them! Such a scenario would be unthinkable in the wider world.