After the ritual chastisement concluded, Xing'er sighed, hopped off the stone, and sat on the ground to resume playing knucklebones. Ahli, thoroughly shaken by the preceding scene, watched Yingzi retreat outside the cave, weeping while helplessly clutching a twig. She cautiously crouched beside Xing'er, her gaze tracking the stones rising and falling in the air. Lowering her voice, she whispered, "Didn't that hurt you just now?"

"What do you mean, hurt?" Xing'er replied casually, focused entirely on her game.

"Hurt is the feeling when a whip strikes your body. When you bit me, it hurt a lot." Ahli rolled her small eyes, filled with curiosity for the little demon, completely forgetting the painful lesson of being drained earlier. Perhaps forgetting pain once the wound heals was a common occurrence in children.

"Don't know what that feels like. Try biting me once?" Xing'er shook her head and extended her arm toward Ahli, genuinely inviting a bite.

Ahli was momentarily stunned by the sudden invitation, staring blankly at the offered arm. After a long pause, a single sentence managed to escape: "You really want me to bite you?"

"Nonsense, bite quickly!" Xing'er played knucklebones with one hand, clearly unconcerned by the prospect of being bitten.

"Okay, I'm biting now!" Ahli mimicked the polite tone of adults, letting out an "Ow-woof" as she sank her teeth into Xing'er's arm. She tightened her jaw, rolling her eyes upward to watch Xing'er's reaction. When there was no cry to stop her, Ahli released her mouth, pulled back, and then bit her own arm with the exact same pressure.

"Ouch..." She frowned, looking at Xing'er in disbelief. "You really don't feel any pain?"

Xing'er brought her arm up to her eyes, scrutinizing the fine twin rows of teeth marks, and said, "It feels quite pleasant. I just don't understand why my mother makes such a huge deal out of biting and bloodsucking."

Hearing this, Ahli, while not fully grasping the meaning, vaguely sensed that she and Xing'er were inhabitants of entirely different worlds, lacking common experience. Explaining pain or why bloodsucking was forbidden to him was like talking to a brick wall.

Yingzi, having finished her crying and about to re-enter the cave, overheard this exchange in detail. She wiped the tears clinging to her face and sat down heavily on the ground, as if waking from a deep sleep. Only then did she truly understand why Xiao Hao had asked her to make that choice yesterday. Indeed, they were not the same kind; lacking shared experience, neither could truly comprehend the feelings or thoughts of the other.

If it had been Xiao Shu, she wouldn't have needed to think twice to understand her current state of mind, she mused. Yet, during the period when her parents died in the car accident, Xiao Shu had been so distant, not only vanishing completely but also failing to entrust even a message to Uncle Li. If it hadn't been for that decisive coldness, she probably wouldn't be with Xiao Hao now. Everything was unpredictable, everything so painfully unavoidable.

While contemplating her situation with Xiao Shu, she suddenly heard a clamor of chatter from a nearby patch of woods, where a group of monkeys was fussing. Yingzi looked up to see a small monkey trapped, its leg entangled in a vine, left dangling upside down from a branch. Several larger monkeys were jumping and shrieking, seemingly directing the little one on how to free itself from the creepers, but the small monkey was too clumsy, only managing to squeal incessantly and completely ignoring the instructions of the elders. Finally, a strong monkey, nearly as tall as a person, climbed onto the branch, took hold of the vine, and slowly pulled the trapped one upward. Just as it neared the branch, the little monkey finally seemed to grasp the situation; it twisted its body upward with a hook of its leg, righted itself, grabbed the vine, and swiftly scrambled onto the branch. Once safe, it squatted down and used its teeth to sever the vine wrapped around its foot before finally being free.

Witnessing this, Yingzi’s eyes suddenly lit up; a thought struck her. She rushed into the cave, retrieved her close-fitting suit, and within moments, pulled it on before sprinting toward the Sea of Lost Souls.

Ahli and Xing'er watched her strange departure with curiosity. Seeing her run off in the suit, they started to follow, eager to see what was happening, but their path was blocked by Da Mao, who appeared mid-chase. Da Mao let out two sharp chirps, and instantly, several massive monkeys sprang out from the surrounding forest, effectively cornering the two children inside the cave. Da Mao then turned without a second glance and followed Yingzi's trail toward the Sea of Lost Souls.