Why can't humans do it too?

“That’s wonderful,” Suer said with a slight sigh of relief. “Could you please ask the great Miss Nirbalian to conjure up some food with your magic? I’m really starving.”

It was as if he had met a living deity. Suer stood up straight, put his hands together, and bowed to Xinke, making the ritual as ritualistic as possible.

Devout, extremely devout.

"..."

Chapter Fifty-Five: Unpredictable Weather

“If this were a place where the Forest God’s blessing could be used, it would take less than a blink of an eye to ripen such a plant, but here we can only take it slowly,” Xin Ke explained in a low voice, watching the tender shoots slowly growing upwards from the slightly damp soil in front of her.

The two had returned to the outer perimeter of the building they had previously discovered, which was specifically used to dispose of the corpses of the forest elves. In the entire goblin city, only here could the presence of some traces of forest elf magic not trigger the goblins' nerves—after all, these corpses had all struggled to some extent before they died.

Sul's prayer to the great god Xinke was granted. Not only did he need to eat, but the forest elves were also a race that needed to consume food.

"How long will it take?" he urged anxiously. As he spoke, Suer heard his own stomach rumbling. Slightly curious, he glanced at Xinke's stomach on the other side... Do the forest elves' stomachs also rumble when they're hungry?

To be honest, he had never communicated so peacefully with any race other than humans before. In particular, the long-eared forest elves, which only existed in comics in his previous life, truly aroused his curiosity.

"After losing one of your hearings, does Mr. Monkey want to lose both of your eyes as well?" However, Suer's eerie gaze had barely lingered when he was met with Xinke's death threat.

"I'm sorry," he apologized at lightning speed, reaching out to touch the tender shoots and soil that were still growing in front of him. He had brought this soil with him, carrying it in his clothes.

"Speaking of which, I just remembered some knowledge that Mr. Monkey might be interested in... A method to increase yield by simply taking some readily available plants and mixing them into fertilizer, without even needing any elves in the whole process?" Xin Ke said with a smile.

There's no doubt she's fishing.

But Suer took the bait.

"Great Miss Nirvalen!!!" With his hands clasped together once more, Sur bowed three times, "Please be sure to teach me this method!"

"Oh? Mr. Monkey can hear sounds again now?" Xin Ke asked with a smile, tilting her head.

……what?

Staring blankly back, it wasn't until more than ten seconds later that Suer belatedly realized something... Was this revenge for what he had said earlier?

Hey, isn't this going a bit too far?

But Xin Ke showed no sign of backing down.

As the two were talking, a strange plant gradually grew from the otherwise ordinary soil. It grew, sprouted, branched out, grew leaves, blossomed, and bore fruit. What finally appeared before Suer and Xinke were four heavy white fruits that bent the branches. After the four fruits were picked, the plant withered quickly and crumbled into ashes in the blink of an eye.

"Not bad, this is all the fruit the soil has been contaminated by the elves that the groundhogs have been spreading for so long can produce," although Suer was already marveling at the miracle in his heart, Xinke was not very satisfied.

Click, click.

There was no reply. When Xin Ke turned her head, she saw that Su Er had already opened his mouth and was biting into the fruit in his hand. It was slightly sweet and very juicy. Swallowing it seemed to expand, providing a visible feeling of fullness.

"Hmm?" Su Er looked back with an ambiguous expression, her voice distorted by her stuffed mouth. "Isn't this how you eat it?"

“…It’s nothing, he really is Mr. Monkey,” Xin Ke sighed deeply.

"Uh, thank you?" Su'er said somewhat uncertainly after swallowing the last bite. "Speaking of which, since there's a way to accelerate food growth, you shouldn't have lacked food when you were stranded in the desert, right? How did things turn out like that?"

"...Hehehe, has the instinct unique to wild beasts failed Mr. Monkey?" Xin Ke clenched her fist and laughed strangely. "You really dare to bring up what happened back then? Aren't you afraid I'll kill you right now?"

"You should have noticed, right? Your death is coming when you leave this nest of the moles... The only reason you're still alive is because I want to investigate why you weren't controlled by that magic before in a suitable environment. That was originally developed to bind advanced life forms like the Skywing and even the Fantasy species. Why did it fail on a mere monkey?"

Perhaps provoked by Suer's unbridled attitude and provocative questions, Xinke made no attempt to conceal the fact that Suer had always disregarded her, disdaining to hide anything, at least Suer wasn't worth Xinke's trouble of hiding anything.

His life was indeed entering its final countdown, and every minute and every second was time that Xin Ke was giving away from his fingertips.

All the friendly conversation was just a facade; Suer was already standing on the edge of a cliff, with loose rocks sliding down his feet.

It wasn't that she had magnanimously forgiven Suer's actions; in fact, all their lighthearted interactions so far had been based on Xinke's casual, almost carefree approach, like manipulating a ball of yarn. The pale-golden-haired forest elf had already decided Suer's fate in her heart.

In terms of sheer fickleness, the forest elf before him was the most unpredictable of all the people Suer had ever seen in his past and present lives; one could even call him a lunatic.

“…You’re really blunt,” Suer sighed deeply. “Couldn’t you leave a little room for imagination? Like, I moved the great Miss Nielbaren, and she’s going to kindly spare my life or something—after all, I’ve worked so hard to gather and translate this important information about the goblins for you? I’ll do my best to escape later, okay?”

"Pfft, Mr. Monkey, have you been reading too much of this kind of writing to pass the time? I didn't expect this kind of literature to be popular among monkeys," Xin Ke scoffed disdainfully. "Or are you hoping that something will happen between us? Would you have sex with a roadside stone? That's disgusting!"

To deny something from the perspective of species is no longer a matter of personality.

'I never expected to be scolded by people from another world for not believing in the plot of a novel,' Su Er thought with a wry smile.

"So you never thought that after being so bluntly told this, I would fight you to the death, even knowing I couldn't hurt you, I would still shout at the crucial moment to let the goblins find you?" Suer no longer concealed himself, staring intently into Xin Ke's eyes as he stated each word clearly.

Either kill him here and give up on exploring the monkey's secrets, or die with him in this deep underground, even having your precious soul stone stolen by your most hated enemy... Suer suddenly wondered what Xin Ke's considerations were in revealing this matter directly at this time.

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Attack

After all, it had already been proven that she couldn't use magic to control Suer, and Xin Ke couldn't possibly ignore that.

Even after witnessing the mass slaughter and plunder of his fellow countrymen, he never lost his mind in anger. Sull simply did not believe that this forest elf would place his life on the same level as him... So, what happened silently?

"Ah~~ that's true~, but ah~, Mr. Monkey, why don't you try doing this once first?" Xin Ke said lightly, even smiling somewhat seductively, "Come on~, just like you said, shout it out loud, and perish together with the noble me here... Shout it out~ Mr. Monkey?"

As if performing in some kind of opera, Xin Ke urged him on with an impatient air, each note ending with a slightly fluttering tail.

"..."

But Suer didn't make a sound at all.

It's not that I don't want to, but that I can't.

In fact, the moment Xin Ke urged him, he made a decisive decision in his heart: he wanted to show this forest elf his determination to perish together with her. However, nothing unusual happened—or rather, that was the biggest abnormality.

Suer could clearly feel the presence of his body and muscles, but he failed when he tried to command them to do anything.

He tried to raise his hand but couldn't move it; he wanted to speak but couldn't open his jaw. His teeth and muscles were as hard as rock. He knew his body was here, but it felt as if it had become someone else's body, completely out of his control.

Suer's mind was free, but that was all he had left with.

"Ah~, can't shout it out, can you? Mr. Monkey~", Xin Ke walked over to Su Er's side and slowly circled around him, who was still sitting motionless.

Even his eyeballs couldn't move, and his eyelids, which hadn't blinked for a long time, made Su'er's eyes uncontrollably sting. He could clearly feel Xin Ke's slightly cold fingers brushing across his cheek, past his ear, and stopping at the edge of his fragile Adam's apple. She even playfully pinched and pressed it... His sense of touch was normal.

“My guess has been proven right~~~” Standing behind Suer, Xinke suddenly bent down and looked at Suer from front to back with a gentle smile on her face. “Mr. Monkey should still be able to think now, right? But this time he can’t break free from my magic like last time.”

Unsurprisingly, no answer was received.

“From the very beginning, I’ve been thinking about one question: why did my magic fail?” Xin Ke said as she continued to slowly pace around Suer. “That was a spell developed by the forest elves and fairies together. It’s not just for lower-level creatures; its goal is to bind and control the highest-level life forms. How could a mere monkey possibly have the power to break free from that level of spell?”

"So I made another assumption—what I couldn't control was Mr. Monkey's soul, or his body... Now it seems to be the former?"

Xin Ke squatted down in front of Su Er, curiously looking into Su Er's unblinking eyes. Then she reached out her finger and wiped away the tears that were streaming down his face because he couldn't blink. The next moment, Su Er felt the joy of his eyelids moving again after a long time.

"The spell I used in that moment of desperation to help Mr. Monkey escape the pressure of the high-speed submarine gave me a great idea. Since then, I've been carefully controlling the number of Pokémon I've been feeding into Mr. Monkey, and you haven't noticed at all," Xin Ke shrugged, seemingly helplessly, before continuing, "It's been a little difficult. Mr. Monkey doesn't retain many Pokémon in his body, so even a slight increase in the amount he ingests will cause him discomfort. Maintaining this balance in such a short journey has been an interesting challenge for me. By the way, I also know Mr. Monkey's body very well now~"

Ignoring the forest elf's lewd remarks, Suer was still slowly digesting everything Xinke had said. He gradually understood—in other words, this forest elf had been secretly trying all along?

Just when he thought he was safe for the time being.

"But it was ultimately successful," the forest elf with light golden hair smiled even more brightly. "After bypassing Mr. Monkey's soul, I have just successfully re-established an independent control system in your body. I'm sure Mr. Monkey didn't notice before, did he? His fingers sometimes lifted and lowered uncontrollably."

……Yeah?

Suer suddenly felt like laughing.

Therefore, the forest elf in front of her never entrusted her safety to a monkey; she only ever trusted herself. As for the monkey's claim that the two of them were in the same boat trying to survive, it was just nonsense that would disappear as soon as it passed through her ear.

We really lost completely this time...

The chips he held didn't even cause a ripple, nor did they pose the slightest threat. Suer never possessed the power he thought he could use to control this elf, or the power to perish together with her.

However, manipulating a monkey did not bring Xinke any sense of accomplishment; in fact, there was another reason for her intense reaction.

“Compared to these trivial matters, there is something else that I care about more…” The smile on Xin Ke’s face gradually disappeared as she squatted in front of Su Er. Her serious tone and fierce eyes undoubtedly confirmed her seriousness at this moment. “What magic did you use on me, monkey?”

What he said was a question that Suer could not understand at all.

With an irresistible force in her slender palm, Xin Ke grasped Su Er's face, as if she would crush his skull in the next second.

“It took me so long to gradually feel a sense of unease, and then, after a deep period of self-reflection, I realized something was wrong.” The hand gripping Sul’s jaw tightened, as if he could hear his bones cracking. “You have silently affected my ability to think and judge, monkey. Is that why you asked what it feels like to use magic?”

"Is it magic that can be used without elves? Or is it magic composed of a small amount of elves that is powerful enough to affect high-sequence races?" Xin Ke kept listing, "Is it a completely new type of magic? Or is it a new power that evolved independently from beasts?"

"Speak, tell me everything. You don't want to see me go to your kind to verify it myself, do you?" Xin Ke pressed, her words carrying a cruel implication.

Chapter 57 Stress Response

Is that how it is?

Suer stood there, stunned, forgetting even to blink.

This is truly... one wrong step leads to another...

Xin Ke observed all the behaviors that Su Er displayed under the influence of his losing emotions. Unlike Su Er, who knew he was going to die, Xin Ke was not troubled by such thoughts at all. Even so, Su Er still could not understand or accept that he had used magic.

Realizing this, Suer began blinking frantically, which was the only thing he could do at the moment.

"Oh dear~, I almost forgot, Mr. Monkey can't speak yet." Seeing the rapidly blinking eyes on the face she had pinched out of shape, Xin Ke belatedly realized this and immediately let go of Su Er's hand.

"Mr. Monkey wouldn't be planning to yell at me before I can react, would he?" With her back to Suer, Xin Ke confidently turned around, walked to the wall, leaned against it, and looked at Suer, saying, "I don't think Mr. Monkey is smart enough to do something like that... Have you thought about how to explain this?"

"To secretly use this mind-altering magic to interfere with my judgment, and to shamelessly use this magic to talk to me and obtain information, what audacity... Ha," Xin Ke said, her arms crossed, each word dripping with a chilling heat that seemed to plunge her into hell. By the end, Su Er was almost suffocating under the pressure. "Not to mention the crimes she committed against me, a member of the Nielbaren family..."

Unable to see the elves, Suer had no way of knowing whether the suffocating feeling he was experiencing came from the pressure of the elves in the air or from the feeling of his body being manipulated by Xinke as she was driven by her anger. It was as if the air was being compressed into a ball, almost causing him to lose consciousness.

"No, cough, no..." Suer struggled to squeeze out the words from his throat, and then, as if granted the privilege of breathing, the oppressive feeling vanished into thin air.

"...I really don't know what kind of magic it is!" Finally able to lower his voice and shout, Suer collapsed forward onto the ground, clutching his lungs and gasping for breath, as if he were dehydrated, his back already covered in sweat.

"...Still won't tell the truth?" Although Su Er looked very miserable at the moment, Xin Ke was almost amused by his answer.

"I really don't know! If I really knew, would I have asked you that? That would just be giving myself away! Right!! Don't forest elves have mind-reading magic? Then use it quickly! Come and see me!" Her mind had never worked so fast before. As she spoke, Suer saw Xinke's arm raised.

"...Mr. Monkey, have you grasped this point?", Suer asked the forest elf opposite him in a complicated tone as he lowered his raised arm.

"Huff, huff... Wh, what?" Sur asked in confusion, barely managing to calm his instinctive reaction.

“The mind-reading magic doesn’t work on Mr. Monkey,” Xin Ke answered crisply, shaking her head as she continued, “We already tried it on the submarine, but we couldn’t hear anything in Mr. Monkey’s mind. It was like a stone thrown into the ocean, completely silent, sinking endlessly.”

"Huh?" Completely unexpected to hear such an answer, Suer even began to doubt whether the seemingly powerful guy Xinke was talking about was actually herself.

Wait a minute, you already used mind-reading magic back then?

So, was that disdainful attitude towards using magic just an act...?

Suer looked at Xinke with a complicated expression, seemingly embarrassed by his strange gaze. Xinke shook her head and said, "Then this is a bit difficult... How about this, I'll write Mr. Monkey's matter in a secret letter and invoking the protection of the Forest God before sending it out. Of course, if I leave here alive, it will have roughly the same effect. Perhaps this will make Mr. Monkey change his mind and loosen his grip a little?"