Seeing that Pipi and Linda had walked away, Shi Tou jumped up in fright: "I, I'll help too."
Luo Pipi glanced at Shi Tou with disdain: "Alright, you can just stay here and watch, so you don't damage our tent."
“Okay…” Stone slumped to the side, dejected. Could she be blamed? In her past life, she was a homebody, not a travel enthusiast.
Actually, there was no need to set up a tent at all. Stone's ring had a lot of space, and even though she had divided it into several areas, it could still comfortably accommodate several people. However, because of Xue'er, Stone felt that she should have a backup plan.
So, the unfortunate group had no choice but to squeeze into a small tent every night, and take turns keeping watch.
According to the previously arranged watch roster, Stone was supposed to be on duty for the first half of the night, and Linda for the second half. After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Stone sat obediently in front of the campfire, while the others went into their tents to sleep.
Resting her chin on her hand, Shi Tou idly poked at the firewood. Night watch wasn't a big deal; she only had to stay until midnight, which was roughly 12:00 in her previous life. For her, who always slept after midnight in her past life, it didn't matter.
However, perhaps because he'd gotten used to going to bed early in this life, Stone still felt a little sleepy. Sigh, actually, it wasn't sleepiness, but pure boredom. Think about it, the reason he was used to staying up late in his past life was because of his adorable computer!
Waaah! Thinking of her cute little laptop from her past life, Shi Tou couldn't help but burst into tears. She wanted to go online, she wanted to play games, she wanted to read novels!
Well, these things are best left as thoughts; there's no need to have unrealistic expectations.
"Baozi, chat with me for a while." After confirming that everyone in the tent was asleep, Shi Tou summoned Baozi without hesitation.
Poor Baozi had just finished drawing the map that Stone had specified and was about to go to sleep when he was summoned again.
"Gah? It's getting dark, Master, why aren't you sleeping?" Although it was summoned, Baozi was still in its black diamond form. Ever since it was tormented by Stone several times, Baozi would never transform into its Baozi form to be bullied by Stone unless absolutely necessary.
"Baozi, this is called night watch."
Stone hadn't summoned Baozi during her night watch, so Baozi thought she was acting strangely again.
"Huh? Staying on night duty means not sleeping and playing with fire?" Baozi stared at the firewood in Shitou's hand, still puzzled.
"Forget it, you wouldn't understand such profound questions." Stone sighed, resting his chin on his hand. "I'm asking you, have you ever been to the Moon Goddess's Forest before?"
"Gah!!!" Baozi let out an extremely miserable cry, and then disappeared with a "whoosh," seemingly disappearing directly into the ring space.
Before long, the people sleeping inside the tent also peeked out sleepily and stared at Shi Tou.
☆, Chapter 216 The Horror of the Moon Goddess's Forest
"Actually, nothing happened just now. You guys are hard of hearing," Stone swallowed hard and explained with difficulty.
Luo Pipi gestured for the others to go back to sleep, then glared at Shi Tou resentfully: "Next time, please come up with a better excuse!"
Stone bowed his head in silent mourning. Seeing this, Luo Pipi didn't bother to say anything more and simply turned around to go back to sleep.
"Baozi, do you think fried buns are tastier? Or baked buns? Or should we chop the buns into small pieces and eat them with sauce?" After all, Shi Tou was Baozi's owner, so summoning it from the ring space was no problem. However, Baozi stubbornly maintained its black diamond form and refused to change back into its bun form.
Shi Tou sighed, "Forget it, eating steamed buns every day is boring. How about we have roast duck for supper tonight?"
"Quack quack! Master, you can't do this!" As soon as Baozi heard that Shitou had set his sights on the little yellow duck, he immediately became anxious: "Master, Baozi knows he was wrong. What do you want to know? Baozi will tell you everything!"
Stone, wearing a black diamond ring on his right hand, kept stroking the black diamond with the index finger of his left hand: "Baozi, do you want to hear the truth?"
"Huh? The truth? But Master, will you tell the truth?"
"Bastard!" He glared at Baozi through gritted teeth. "Actually, I just wanted to tell you that I never intended to interrogate you in the first place. You just couldn't stand it!"
"Gah!" Baozi let out a pitiful cry, but thankfully it controlled its volume this time so as not to startle the people inside the tent. "Master, Baozi knows it was wrong. Baozi didn't really know anything. Really!"
"If I believed you, I'd be a complete idiot!"
"Gah..."
Seeing that the campfire had shrunk a bit, Stone quickly turned around and picked up the firewood behind him: "Tell me, what does the Moon Goddess's Forest have?"
"Huh? Of course there are elves in the Moon Goddess's Forest!" Baozi's voice betrayed a hint of confusion, as if the question Shi Tou had asked was idiotic.
Stone pursed his lips and continued his interrogation: "And then? Do you have a grudge against the elves?"
"Giggle, no! Baozi is a good boy. How could he have a grudge against the elves?" Baozi's voice was frank and honest, and he didn't seem to be lying.
"So, it's because Irene harmed an elf before?" Stone had reason to say this. Luo Pipi had said before that Irene was an extremely cruel child. Since she could exterminate the orcs, it would be normal for her to harm an elf.
"Huh? You harmed a spirit? Master, didn't you say you'd forgotten all your past memories? How could you remember harming a spirit before?"
The stone crumbled instantly. He took a deep breath: "Fine, just tell me! What outrageous thing has Irene done this time, and why did you react so strongly to the mention of the Moon Goddess's Forest?"
Baozi fell silent instantly. Just when Stone thought it was going to pretend to be deaf and dumb forever, it finally spoke: "Giggle. Baozi has a question for its master first! Have you really forgotten everything from before?"
Stone's face twitched: "I've forgotten, but I still feel something's off when you lie." There was no way around it; this stubborn little dumpling's skin was just too thick. If it wasn't threatened, it simply wouldn't tell the truth.
"Gaga, alright, Baozi, tell Master! Master, you're jealous that the elves are prettier, more elegant, gentler, and more... (omitting a thousand words)" Just as the stone was about to explode, Baozi finally finished reciting all those adjectives: "So Master, you cursed the elves. You made them all turn into ugly monsters!"
Stone looked like he wanted to die, and it took him a long time to recover. He just mechanically poked at the campfire with firewood.
"Gaga, Master, Baozi promises this time that everything Baozi says is the truth!" Not hearing Shi Tou's voice, Baozi couldn't help but speak again: "If you don't believe me, you can go to the Moon Goddess's Forest to find evidence! The elves will definitely tell you that there was once an old witch who cursed them all to become ugly monsters!"
Old witch...
Stone slammed the firewood in his hand to the ground and jumped up: "Hmph, tonight's midnight snack is bonfire-baked buns!"
"Gah!!!" Baozi let out a blood-curdling scream, which this time did not wake the people in the tent, but directly attracted the wolves.
"Stone! Do you want to die? You can't even do a proper night watch when I tell you to!"
The wolf—Little Orc Xue'er—charged towards the rock, hands on her hips, and roared with great bravado, "Go in! I'll take the night watch!"
Stone guiltily touched his nose and obediently entered the tent. Well, one should always look on the bright side. See? Who can blame him when everyone loves him? Even the little beastman Xue'er couldn't resist wanting to be his protector…
With an extremely lewd smile, Stone lay down next to Linda, smacking his lips contentedly. "Tomorrow's breakfast is steamed buns, lunch is steamed buns, dinner is steamed buns, and midnight snack is steamed buns..."
"Miss, why didn't you wake me up last night?"
Stone, who was having a sweet dream, was woken up by Linda and was still a little confused: "Why did I wake you?"
"Miss, I was on night duty for the second half of yesterday!" Linda said with a look of exasperation, patting her forehead. "We were so lucky that nothing happened yesterday!"
"What could possibly happen? Xue'er is managing things outside; she's much more capable than you." Shi Tou took out his toiletries from his ring space and quickly tidied himself up.
Linda walked out of the tent, a little confused. When she saw Xue'er already sitting in front of the campfire, having prepared breakfast, she suddenly realized, "I see, Miss, you asked Xue'er to keep watch for you last night? Good heavens, Xue'er is so cute, how could you bear to bully her?"
Shi Tou rolled his eyes as he walked out of the tent. As soon as he saw the barbecue grill on the campfire, he pounced on it: "Hey, Xue'er, why are you being so polite? Come on, let's eat together!"
Linda silently wiped away her sweat. Well, even though she was working for such a master, she still firmly believed that she was a kind and principled servant.
Almost from that point on, when arranging the night watch schedule, everyone tried to exclude Shi Tou. There was no way around it; she was too startling when she was on night watch, and everyone was exhausted after a long day and really didn't want to have nightmares from her cries at night.
Stone was really wronged. It was Baozi's screams that were too pitiful. What did it have to do with her?
Fortunately, they had long since left the Crimson Forest, and the closer they got to the Moon Goddess Forest, the fewer threatening magical beasts there were.
"Huh? That's strange. Is it because the elves are all too ugly that even magical beasts disdain to eat them?"
This is really a problem...
Luo Pipi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked at the stone with a helpless expression: "Elves are close to nature. Because of the presence of elves, the Moon Goddess Forest is lush and peaceful."
Stone looked at Luo Pipi with a puzzled expression: "My question is, why don't magical beasts come to Moon Goddess Forest? What does that have to do with whether it's peaceful or not?"
“This…” Luo Pipi stared wide-eyed: “The Moon Goddess Forest is not without magical beasts, but they are all herbivorous magical beasts.”
"So, we're safe here?" Stone raised an eyebrow, a sly glint in his eyes.
Luo Pipi suddenly had a bad feeling and hesitated for a moment before saying, "I want to make it clear beforehand that we must abide by the rules in the Moon Goddess Forest. Especially you, Stone!"
"What rules?"
“The Moon Goddess Forest is the territory of the elves. We cannot light fires here.” Luo Pipi recalled carefully, “Also, we cannot eat meat.”
What?!
Stone looked at Luo Pipi in horror: "How is anyone supposed to live like this?"
"The Moon Goddess Forest is full of edible fruits, as well as various kinds of wheat and green shoots. You won't starve," Luo Pipi said, looking up and pointing to the round fruits on the tree.
Stone instinctively looked up, and just then, a fruit fell from the sky...
"Ah!" Stone ducked and quickly dodged to the side, and the fruit landed right at his feet.
Though called a fruit, Stone felt it was more like a coconut from her past life, though much smaller. Its shell was extremely hard; it had survived a fall from a tree branch tens of meters high without a scratch.
Staring at the orange-yellow weapon on the ground, Stone felt a wave of fear wash over him: "Luo Pipi, I almost got crushed to death!"
Luo Pipi was a little stunned. She never expected that her casual pointing would cause the fruit to fall. Um, if she said she really didn't do it on purpose, would anyone believe her?
"What is this?" Ever since entering the Moon Goddess Forest, Mi Fen'er had been looking around curiously. When she saw the murder weapon, she squatted down and reached out to touch it.
Stone patted his chest to calm himself down, not interested in paying attention to her for the time being. Although Luo Pipi was knowledgeable, all her knowledge came from books, and this was her first time conducting a field investigation. Linda was even more bewildered than Stone and naturally couldn't answer her either, while Xue'er walked around the murder weapon a few times with great interest.
"This is edible..." Xue'er looked at it for a long time before coming to this conclusion.
Who is MiFen'er? A foodie! Upon hearing Xue'er's words, she quickly shoved the weapon on the ground into her mouth. Although the weapon looked like a coconut, it was actually only about the size of an apple. MiFen'er opened her mouth and took a big bite.
"...But you definitely can't just bite into it." Xue'er finished speaking slowly, and Mi Fen'er opened her mouth, covering her cheek with a contorted expression.
Stone really wanted to spit blood in their faces, but before she could speak, a voice rang out from the tree above: "(*^__^*) Hehe... How silly, how silly humans are!"
Suddenly looking up, Shi Tou felt as if her blood rushed straight from the soles of her feet to her cerebral cortex, leaving her completely numb.
☆, Chapter 217: The Spirit of Boundless Springtime
"What...what is this thing?!" Stone asked, trembling as he pointed his index finger at the humanoid creature on a high branch.
The people below also looked up at the same time, and apart from Luo Pipi, the others all looked blank.
Luo Pipi pondered for a moment, then said uncertainly, "There are many magical beasts in the Moon God's Forest, but it seems that the only intelligent race that can talk is the Elf race."
An elf?!
Stone was horrified: "Luo Pipi, don't tell me that thing up there is an elf?"
"Maybe...maybe..." Luo Pipi was quite uncertain.