Why can't humans do it too?

"Uh, thank you," Su'er said politely, unsure of what to say. He tried to scratch his head but found his hand covered in mud from playing with the soil. He could only awkwardly wave his hand in the air. "...Who are you?"

"Yuuka Kazami," she revealed her name directly. The green-haired banshee looked with great interest at the thriving vegetables and fruits around Suer, as well as the various flowers growing densely from the ridges of the field. With the tone of someone who had been there before, she continued, "If you use the corpses of flesh and blood as fertilizer, the plants that grow will generally be more vigorous than ordinary plants... I'm sure you've noticed that too, haven't you?"

"...Haha, that's true, you're a bit too energetic..."

The monster that suddenly appeared at his doorstep started talking about agriculture in a cryptic way, but Suer instantly knew what she was referring to—just a few days ago, when he woke up in the morning and took a stroll in the garden, he was dumbfounded to find that a huge, gaping mouth had appeared on the tomatoes he had planted. If you looked closely, you could even see a few sharp red teeth, which shocked Suer for the entire year.

Generally speaking, we call this phenomenon "spiritedness".

By the way, after living in this world for so long, Suer has discovered that the chances of all sorts of things becoming sentient are far too high. The grass in front of his house can suddenly become sentient, the bamboo outside can suddenly become sentient, potatoes can suddenly become sentient, and cabbages can suddenly become sentient. To be honest, Suer wouldn't be surprised at all if he woke up one day to find that his bamboo house had also become sentient.

What an interesting world.

"In lands where war has taken place, weeds grow more luxuriantly after the war ends, and plants nourished by blood and flesh are more vibrant than ordinary plants... These are plants I've never seen before. Would you like to know their names?"

"Uh, of course, I got the seeds from a friend... Anyway, this one's called a tomato, and this one's called a watermelon..."

It was like two old farmers discussing agricultural issues. Sul and the green-haired banshee were talking, one standing in the field and the other on a high slope not far away. The situation was extremely strange.

"...You're very interesting, at least much more interesting than that guy," Kazami Yuuka suddenly praised after a friendly exchange about growing fruits and vegetables. However, what Suer cared about more than her praise was the existence she mentioned.

"That guy?" he pressed, but Suer's question remained unanswered.

“That’s about enough for the pre-dinner snack… You did very well,” Yuuka Kazami repeated to herself as she stretched her body. Even from this distance, Sue could hear the bones in her body cracking. “…If you don’t die in the end—I will spare your life.”

"So it's like this again?" With a heavy sigh, Su Er was surprisingly unsurprised by the sudden shift in the situation from an agricultural association exchange to what felt like the world's number one martial arts tournament.

After all, they are monsters—being strong is the foundation for friendly conversation.

Even though he hasn't seen many high-level monsters yet, Su'er has already vaguely come to realize this truth.

“While I appreciate your kindness, I’m not like you,” Suer said in a cold voice, his smile turning cold. “I don’t know who sent you to cause me trouble, but if you can’t escape—then die here.”

Having no interest in any peace talks, Su'er intends to use his death to show those lurking in the shadows who are plotting against him that reaching out to him will result in death... He'll just cut off one arm for now.

When enough monsters have died here, and when the infamy of this place spreads, Suer's house will become a forbidden place among monsters, a place they dare not set foot in.

"Heh... Haha, pfft hahahahahahahahaha," Kazami Yuuka, who had been holding up her arm, suddenly relaxed it and stood there clutching her stomach, laughing heartily. Her words were broken and intermittent. "I... Hahahaha I really... like you more and more, hahahahahaha."

"—If it's possible—then let's give it a try," the green-haired banshee said, her previous smile vanishing completely. Her messy short hair couldn't conceal her ferocious and ruthless bloodlust. "To die in a battle against a strong opponent is also a kind of pleasure..."

The next second, she moved.

There was no great display of power, a complete contrast to the golden-haired banshee who had bared her fangs earlier. Not only was there no demonic aura that nearly blotted out the sky, but everything was just as normal as usual, without any unusual signs. However, Suer was certain that this was all just a false illusion.

There was no need for her to spread demonic energy to bolster her own power, nor to rely on the spectacular sight of shattered mountains and rivers to intimidate her opponent. Instead, she concentrated all her power into a single point, without wasting a single bit of it. Faster than the sound of the air being torn apart, the green-haired banshee had already rushed in front of Suer!

He felt neither panic nor fear. The green-haired banshee's every move was under Suer's control. In the blink of an eye, he even calmly drew a circle in the air with his index finger, sealing off his beloved vegetable garden.

When the sound of the air being pushed apart by Kazami Yuuka spread over, it didn't even knock down a single seedling; it just swayed slightly like a morning breeze.

Undoubtedly, this extraordinary courage and composure further enraged the green-haired banshee, as evidenced by the fact that this attack became even more unrestrained and unreserved.

No one can ignore her attacks. The arrogance that underestimates her power will inevitably bring this male to his death, just as all those who once underestimated her fists are now nothing but bones in the ground.

Chapter Twelve: Masters Clash

With his right fist raised high above his shoulder and his body slightly tilted to the side, he concentrated all his strength on one point, aiming directly at Suer's head. However, Suer had not made any extra movements so far. Even judging from Kazami Yuuka's professional eye, his muscles were still relaxed, without the slightest sign of tension.

She could almost see the male head in front of her gradually deforming, cracking, and bursting open under her fist... Just like countless times before, the impending blood made her pupils shrink with excitement, and her smile became even more ferocious.

Bang!

The sound was like striking glass, not the crisp sound of glass shattering, but a dull thud indicating failure. Kazami Yuuka's powerful attack was completely blocked by the emerald green light barrier that had appeared between her and Sue at some unknown time.

Even for a race like yokai, which defies common sense, the attack aimed at Kazami Yuuka's ribs was almost beyond their reaction time. Along with it came a sense of crisis throbbing in her veins, a stark warning to her.

Forcibly changing her movements, disregarding the harm this abrupt action would cause her, Kazami Yuuka twisted backward in an extremely strange posture, so that the attack aimed at her right ribs merely grazed her chest and abdomen.

Surprisingly, it didn't have much power, like brushing a leaf dipped in seasoning onto grilled meat. But it was precisely this soft attack that caused Kazami Yuuka's originally ferocious expression to suddenly change.

Unable to bear the fact that her seemingly certain strike had yielded no results, Kazami Yuuka forcibly maintained her form with her demonic power, twisting her body to avoid the suddenly appearing semi-transparent soul, whose appearance was entirely within her expectations.

Having temporarily evaded the attack of the spirit, Kazami Yuuka had truly broken through to Suer's front. Without any obstruction, her left fist had transformed into a blade, with deep blue demonic energy flashing on it like the sharpest blade. It would only take a touch to cut the male in front of her in two.

But the world has changed.

As if she were underwater, or as if the whole world was pressing down on her, this was a feeling that Kazami Yuuka had never experienced before. Without any skill or feint, the man simply changed his posture, clenched his fist, gathered his strength, and—simply punched her in the jaw.

The force came from below, unexpectedly heavy. If it weren't for the fact that Kazami Yuuka's body was far stronger than that of ordinary yokai, she even suspected that her head would be smashed like that, just like the other yokai she had smashed with her strength in the past.

Unable to block or dodge, it was as if everything around her was helping this man to trap her. In this brief moment of time, even though she tried every possible method, she could not break free from the predicament. Kazami Yuuka could only watch helplessly as she was violently knocked away by the force emanating from her chin, falling backward without being able to move.

It came and went quickly. The clash between the two was not particularly grand. Apart from the explosive sound when Kazami Yuuka burst through the air with her body, the sound hadn't even completely dissipated before the condensed battle was over, ending in a single touch.

It wasn't until her flying body crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up dust, that Kazami Yuuka felt the oppressive feeling of being suppressed by the entire world finally leave her. But more than this unknown question, what made her face turn pale as she got up was the terrible state of her abdomen.

The dark clothes, stained with bloodstains that could not be completely washed away, had become a nauseating mess around the abdomen. Ordinary clothing, which should be lifeless, had now become a tangled mess, indistinguishable from the flesh and blood beneath.

Like a rotten swamp that had been drenched in torrential rain for days, or like large chunks of oil paint being slapped onto a canvas and then stirred like cement—that was the horrific state of Kazami Yuuka's right side. A strange force had seamlessly fused her flesh and the clothes she wore with it. The flesh had taken on the color of the clothes, and the clothes were writhing like flesh, even sprouting fleshy buds that rose and fell with each breath of the green-haired banshee.

Even though she had forcibly changed her movements and suffered damage, the attack from the spirit that suddenly appeared and blocked her first attack and then counterattacked from a blind spot only lightly grazed her body at the end of its range. However, the damage she had suffered was still beyond Kazami Yuuka's imagination.

At the very least, if she had ignored her inner warning signs in that split second and continued attacking in the initial direction, her internal organs would probably be twisted into a bloody mess by now... and that punch...

"...This is different from what that Yukari Yakumo guy said..." Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, her jaw still throbbing with pain, Yuuka Kazami's voice was hoarse. "Didn't they say it was only protected by one spirit body? And that it didn't have much power itself..."

Her questions went unanswered. In fact, Suer and Xinke didn't listen to her at all. Like a two-dimensional ghost, Suer had already appeared in front of Kazami Yuuka like a phantom.

No matter how many ways to deal with it flashed through her mind in that instant, no matter how many stress-resistance instincts her body had developed through years of relentless fighting, when that man suddenly appeared in front of her, all Kazami Yuuka could feel was that same oppressive weight from the world that she had just experienced, which once again appeared on her body, annihilating all possibilities of retaliation.

Snap—Bang—

The sound of bones cracking, the dull thud of flesh being torn apart.

"Ah...it seems there's no core?"

Kazami Yuuka's vision had turned black, but she could still hear the man's puzzled voice.

"...Never mind, anyway, demon crystals and demon cores are just things from novels. If we don't have them, we don't have them."

As the sound faded, Kazami Yuuka felt the hand that had pierced through her chest and entered her body mercilessly crush her heart before being withdrawn.

"This is a bit disgusting, isn't it?" Frowning at his bloodied arm, Suer glanced at the green-haired banshee whose chest had been pierced through, her eyes still slightly open. "Let's not do this again next time. Are you going to use her corpse for experiments?"

“I’m not really interested,” Xin Ke even yawned boredly. “Anyway, doesn’t she share your love for farming? Let’s just put her in the fertile field.”

Hmm... that seems like a good idea?

Sur had no objection to throwing the green-haired banshee's corpse into the ground.

Chapter Thirteen: Born

Of all the monsters that Suer has seen so far, they usually have superhuman vitality. Thanks to this vitality, their corpses often twitch from time to time in Suer's pot, expressing their final unwillingness by splashing hot oil on Suer's face, but it is basically useless.

You still have to eat.

It is precisely because he summarized such a simple and straightforward rule that Suer could completely understand why the female demon—he meant the monster—was still twitching slightly after her death.

On a whim, I recalled the fierce and cool scene in a comic I had read in the past where the BOSS punched a character from the protagonist's team through the chest. However, I had to give a thumbs down to this attempt to imitate such a cool move.

The green-haired female monster had a hole punched through her chest. Even her hard bones couldn't stop Suer's iron fist. He didn't have the muscular build of a boss in a comic book, and his fist wasn't as big as a casserole dish. In fact, Suer looked more like the type who was slim when dressed.

Therefore, the final wound not only doesn't look cool, but it also looks like a hole in the chest of an Ultraman's energy lamp, which is very thoughtful for this female monster. Is there any possibility that she will get up from the ground in the next second and shoot a Cero from that hole?

Very scary.

Okay, okay, Cero was just a joke. What made Sull uncomfortable was the blood splattered on his face when his fist pierced through his chest and the warm, slippery feeling in his hand... which extended to his arm and felt a little chilly in the wind.

Compared to these feelings, the green-haired banshee's red, unseeing eyes were nothing to be afraid of.

"Whether it's the low-level monsters we killed before or the high-level monster we're killing now, we haven't found any demon crystals, demon cores, or demon pills in their corpses. There's nothing even remotely similar. So, can we rule out the existence of a legitimate demon cultivation system in this world?"

"Are you sure?", half-lying in mid-air, Xin Ke pointed her finger at the sky.

It was still daytime, and the warm sunlight had not yet faded, but Suer knew that she was referring to the Milky Way, which illuminated the entire world at night—a celestial phenomenon that was not naturally manifested by the stars in the universe, but Suer was still completely unaware of it.

"Okay, that makes sense. Let's continue our investigation slowly and cautiously, while ensuring our safety and security."

Shrugging, Suer spoke casually as he raised his index finger and slid it across the other side of the field. With that movement, a wide crack appeared in the middle of his most treasured vegetable garden, besides Xin Keke's, revealing the soil beneath, as if a box had been opened from the middle.

The smell was slightly pungent. Although most of the giant snake carcass that had been buried earlier had been decomposed and the snake bones inside were exposed, some flesh and blood still remained on it, with a whitish flesh color that was nauseating. In addition, a lot of blind monsters had been thrown in during this period, so the corpses mixed with soil under the vegetable garden were now somewhat...unseemly.

Frowning, he fanned the air in front of his nose and casually tossed the green-haired banshee's corpse into the field. Then, he quickly closed the field. Only when he smelled this stuff did he question whether his decision to use it as fertilizer was right. However, after seeing the thriving fruits and vegetables, he stopped worrying about it.

Completely OK, very eco-friendly, extremely green, perfect!

--------------

Leaving aside the green-haired banshee who disrupted Suer's peaceful life... well, saying she disrupted it isn't quite right, since in Suer and Xinke's eyes, she was just a 'rabbit' that appeared at their doorstep as usual in this world where monsters were quite numerous—although her kicking power was quite strong, she was just a rabbit.

The only thing that bothered them was the name the rabbit mentioned in its last words before it died—Yukari Yakumo.

To be honest, after several months, Suer had almost forgotten about the golden-haired monster's existence. Unexpectedly, his memory was suddenly awakened today.

From the green-haired banshee's words, there was little respect for Yakumo Yukari. Xin Ke judged that the relationship between the two was probably not very good, and that she was just a pitiful fellow who came to her out of curiosity or some other reason.

They didn't sense any significant threat from Yukari Yakumo. The only reason that Sue and Shinko never erased her from their memories was because of her strange abilities.

The Gap – what kind of ability is that? Its secrecy is so great that even Suer couldn't pinpoint its exact location. Suer even had a vague idea that the monster possessed some kind of ability rooted in a concept of illusion.

This ability is undoubtedly much more challenging than ordinary abilities such as controlling wind, fire, water, and mines.

To be honest, having such a sneaky guy around makes me feel uneasy, like I might get ambushed at any moment—so it's better to nip the danger in the bud.