Why can't humans do it too?

At this point, Suer's gaze involuntarily drifted to Xinke's palms—before looking away as they clenched into fists.

"Whether we like it or not, survival always urges humanity forward. We pack our bags, set off, trek, settle down, and wherever we stop, a fire will be lit..."

"Are all monkeys as talkative as you?" Xin Ke interrupted Su Er with a forced smile, cleverly using a quote someone had once said.

"Isn't it strange? It's always quiet when you're alone, but it gets noisy when there's another person, and then it becomes quiet again when there are a few more people," Su'er said, ignoring Xin Ke's words, and handed the grilled fish to Xin Ke. "Here, taste the original flavor of the ingredients."

Actually, it just lacked seasoning; there wasn't even salt.

“No, I want to eat something else,” Xin Ke unexpectedly refused, her gaze falling on a string of small, cube-like pieces of meat that Su Er had stuck on the side of the campfire.

"...Are you sure?" Su'er's expression suddenly turned strange. "I personally suggest you eat fish...for both you and me."

"Heh, so there really is some secret hidden here?" With a sneer, Xin Ke suddenly leaned over and took a skewer of meat from next to Su Er.

"..."

Unable to find fault with the forest elf's sudden outburst, Sue simply sat further away from her, to prevent any potential misplacement of anger—or rather, any impending misplacement.

She regretted it as soon as she put it in her mouth. Before, she could only smell a slightly pungent smell, but in her mouth, the smell was amplified infinitely, as if she had swallowed a stink bug. The strange oily smell was even somewhat like... Xin Ke's chewing movements became slower and slower, and her face turned ashen in the blink of an eye. She wanted to hold it in, but she really couldn't help it—vomit!

He turned his head and vomited on the other side.

"What the hell is this?!" Enraged, Xin Ke turned her head and glared at Su Er, her murderous gaze flashing red.

"So I told you to eat fish," Su'er complained weakly, glancing regretfully at the pieces of meat Xin Ke had spat out... No, even he wouldn't eat someone else's spit-out food, so don't get the wrong idea.

Turning his gaze away, Su'er saw that Xin Ke still showed no sign of relaxing, persisting until he heard an answer. After a moment's thought, Su'er said frankly, "It's just rat meat. To prevent you from having any bad associations, I even cut the meat this way. I didn't expect you to insist..."

vomit!

Before Suer could finish speaking, Xinke started gagging again, but fortunately, her stomach was empty and she couldn't vomit anything.

Seeing Xinke still patting her chest and occasionally gagging softly, Suer didn't say anything more, just shrugged helplessly—he didn't mean to mock Xinke's reaction.

In fact, he was no better off than the forest elves when he first ate this food, but he swallowed all the meat because of his hunger. Now he can eat these uniquely flavored pieces of meat as if it were normal.

Even during this war that lasted for countless years, these rodents survived without any signs of extinction.

Stopping thinking about his previous disheveled state, Suer picked up the thoroughly cooked meat skewers and, to be considerate of Xinke's feelings, turned his back and sat further away.

I don’t know if it was because of the rat meat, but the meal was very quiet, except for the occasional sound of someone gagging.

“…Please rinse your mouth,” Xin Ke said, even using the word “please” respectfully, pointing to the dark river on the other side, as if she would rather be shot dead by the goblins here if Su Er refused this request.

"Okay, okay, actually rinsing my mouth isn't very helpful, there's no toothpaste or salt or anything... Ouch!" Su'er's mutterings were interrupted by the small stone that Xin Ke threw hard at his head.

Grinning and rubbing his head, Su Er still rinsed his mouth with the water from the dark river.

"Speaking of which, did you use magic?" After putting Xinke back on his back, and with some warm food filling his stomach again, Suer felt his legs were stronger. He casually asked, "I deliberately changed directions several times but still ran into you... Are you sure you would run into me? You weren't even surprised when you saw me."

"Why be surprised?" Xin Ke countered. "Heh, compared to when we first met, Mr. Monkey seems like a completely different person now. Has he found his true self again?"

“…I guess so?” As he walked forward, Suer sighed. “After all, only you and Okan know that I’m from another world. If we can talk happily, who would want to be bitter and resentful all the time?”

Suer chuckled self-deprecatingly: "From this perspective, I was actually the most abnormal person over the past few years... Who can really say for sure about such things?"

He has simply been freed from certain constraints at this moment.

"is it?"

"Yes."

Although there was no sun, the weather was still fortunately clear. Infected by the atmosphere of this land, Suer and Xinke also fell silent. In this monotonous and tedious walking, they finally arrived at the huge fissure that tore this land apart.

From the crevice beneath our feet to the farthest point of our vision, this fissure, clearly not formed by natural continental plate movement, seems to extend infinitely. Its name is—the Strait.

This is how Riku taught Sur.

No matter how many times he looked down from above, Sull was always terrified by the spectacular sight that seemed to stretch to the horizon.

"This shouldn't be a naturally formed landform, right?" Suer asked Xinke behind him, feigning ignorance. "Does the Nierbalian family have any records of this?"

Chapter Ninety-Four: Awareness

“That was before I was even born…the text that is only preserved in the history of our tribe,” Xin Ke said, seemingly equally shocked by this power. She lay on Su Er’s back and looked down. “About 15,000 years ago, the God of War Artesius and the final dragon Hatirem fought here. The strongest god and the strongest dragon spirit.”

"No one knows how long that battle lasted. Even the entire planet wept because of their battle. In the end, the highest peak overlooking the world, where the Dragon King had lived, was destroyed by the aftershocks of the battle, turning into the world's largest crater. He himself died at the hands of the God of War... That's how it's recorded in the book," Xin Ke recalled the records in the books she had read. Only by witnessing this magnificent scene with her own eyes could she understand how pale the history recorded in words really was.

“Really? That’s quite lucky,” Suer said, carefully jumping down the steps as he listened to Xinke’s story. “If they were fighting in this day and age, the aftershocks alone would probably be enough to kill 80 or 90 percent of life today.”

These battlefield marks, forged by extraordinary power, do not resemble the naturally eroded canyons that Suer remembered. Instead, they are like giant quartz columns, neatly hexagonal in shape. Except for the edges, which have been worn down over the long years, they still stand here, uneven in layers, one after another.

"Who knows?" Sul swayed on his back. As their position gradually decreased, the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks from the bottom of the strait grew louder and louder. Xin Ke kept looking down. "The dead won't come back to life. There's no point in saying such things."

“…I told you not to sway back and forth like that,” Su Er suddenly stopped and turned his head away speechlessly, because Xin Ke’s restless movements had almost caused him to lose his balance and fall.

“Ah~, definitely next time,” Xin Ke replied with a smile. “Speaking of which, it’s quite surprising that the monkeys built a safe spot in such a dangerous place.”

"It can't really be called construction; it's just a lucky discovery," Su'er replied, panting, after struggling to push Xinke up. He then climbed up himself.

Downhill is always easier than uphill. Carrying Xinke on his back, Suer quickly descended to about halfway down the strait. He only needed to climb onto this platform to enter a naturally formed underground cavern through the crevice.

It is a very well hidden little crack, protected by natural formations. If you look directly at it from the front, you will only see that it is a continuous stone wall. Only when you look at it from the side at close range can you see a black hole.

This safe house was specifically found in this environment, where there are countless crevices in the rocks, large and small, on Suer's previous advice.

Suer retrieved a piece of ore from the crack in the cave entrance to use as a light source. He then dripped some water he carried onto it. Although the light was not as bright as when it was directly immersed in water and did not last long, it was enough to see.

"I almost forgot," Suer suddenly remembered something, turned around and walked back to the cave entrance. He used his dagger to make a white mark on the corner of the edge of the platform where the two of them had just climbed up, indicating that their own people had used the safe house once. This way, Riku would not have any bad associations or panic later.

Some dried meat, as hard as a rock after drying, and plant root cakes that, after being ground into powder and mixed with water, clump together. Holding these prepared supplies in his hands, Suer was filled with nostalgia... Even though it had only been a few weeks, holding these familiar foods again made his eyes well up with tears.

Beside him, Xin Ke was curiously looking around at everything under the light, and everything was new and exciting to her.

He took out the nearly full book from his pocket, stared at it for a moment, added a few more lines, and then placed it on top of the stone bed next to him.

Hopefully, this notebook, which records a lot of information that was previously impossible to obtain, can be successfully retrieved by Riku.

Suer prayed silently in his heart.

"Let's go," Suer said briefly, after fetching two brand-new robes and helping Xinke put them on.

With goblin pursuers possibly still lurking behind them, it was best for the two of them not to linger in one place for too long. Suer was quite worried that the steel contraption on Xinke's ankles would be detected by the goblin spirit armor, as well as Xinke's elves...

They weren't dispersed into the air; instead, they were gathered together. These dazzling elves were like beacons to the predatory races. The only way for them was to desperately move westward before anything bad happened, until they found a second forest elf.

With the burqas protecting them, the two of them, unless they were unlucky enough to not find a cave to hide in when the storm of death came, did not have to worry about the black ash falling from the sky, and their time to move around was greatly extended.

Previously, all he had to do was jump down lightly, but on the way back, Suer found himself in trouble. He had to support Xinke on his back with both hands. His legs had not yet evolved to the point where he could jump several meters high while carrying a heavy load. He could only push Xinke up first and then climb upwards with great difficulty. There were just too many pillars. To be honest, just looking up made Suer feel dizzy.

“…I really should have put you up there before coming down,” Su Er said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, as he sat on the ground, panting heavily. If he were alone, he could have quickly grabbed the things and climbed back up. The only problem was that Xin Ke, who had lost her mobility, might have been reduced to a mangled wreck by the time he came up.

Somewhat strangely, Suer heard Suer's disdainful words. Based on Suer's understanding of Xin Ke, this Flower Crown Lady should have returned with a smile and sarcastic remarks, but at this moment she was silent, frowning and constantly observing her surroundings.

Suer wouldn't think that Xinke had a problem; he would only think that Xinke had noticed something he hadn't.

"What's wrong? Are there enemies?" Suer asked in a low voice, quickly rolling over on the ground and looking alert.

“…Something’s not right,” Xin Ke thought seriously, and replied in a low voice, “Do you remember how far you climbed?”

Unable to use her spirit powers, Xin Ke could only rely on her experience and eyesight to judge. She vaguely sensed that something had been changed, but she couldn't see the truth.

Chapter Ninety-Five Manifestation

How far did you climb?

Suer paused for a moment, then turned back to look at the safe spot and compared it with the distance above the strait—something was wrong.

A sudden chill ran down his back. Su Er clearly remembered that he and Xin Ke should have climbed at least seven stone pillars, so why was he still on the second stone pillar outside the safe zone?

The most incomprehensible thing is—why didn't either Xin Ke or him notice this before? It's as if they were forced to deliberately ignore it.

"...Can you tell me what race they are?" Suer swallowed and asked Xin Ke in a low voice.

“I don’t know. Many races can do this. After all, I’m too easily deceived in my current state,” Xin Ke took a deep breath and reached out her hand to Su Er. “Let’s try to go up again.”

Does that mean we need to observe more?

Nodding seriously, this time, Suer deliberately slowed down his movements and gently sent Xinke up, while constantly turning his head to scan the distance between himself and the safe point.

Nothing has changed, nothing has changed, nothing has changed, nothing... Hmm?

Surprisingly, he realized that although he had been far away from the crevice and the distance was indeed increasing, when he climbed up the stone pillar above, he found himself still on the edge of the second stone pillar, as if the space at the edge of this stone pillar was connected end to end, forming a never-ending circle.

A sudden chill ran through her, and Su Er hesitated before asking Xin Ke, "Should we continue? My stamina can't handle too many more attempts."

If this is truly an infinite loop, then with the physical exertion from constantly climbing, even if Xin Ke eventually discovers the problem, he probably won't have enough strength to help the two of them escape.

Knowing this as well, Xin Ke bit her lower lip and did not give an answer immediately. Instead, she tried to prop herself up and swayed as she looked around, while Su Er took the opportunity to rest.

The stones thrown in all directions flew freely outward along parabolic trajectories, and the stones thrown upward also successfully reached the top of another stone pillar. There was no situation where a stone thrown forward flew back from behind and hit you.

This contradicts the previous assumption that it's a cyclical space. Or did the person who trapped them here release the stone separately, just to confuse them further?

Or perhaps it's all just a hallucination for both of them?

He pinched his thigh hard, and the pain didn't linger for a moment. Su Er quickly thought to himself, then suddenly stood up and started climbing again. Now that he didn't have to carry Xin Ke up with him, his movements were much faster.

After a brief run-up, he jumped and grabbed the edge, but when Suer managed to push himself up, his expression and all his movements froze—Xin Ke, who should have been on the stone pillar behind him, was sitting on the stone pillar in front of him, watching him.

Despite his efforts to suppress it, the panic and tension inevitably rose within him. Su Er pursed his lips and climbed up without saying a word. Undoubtedly, his attempt had failed.

"Have you found anything?" Su'er's voice grew even lower.