Zhou Haimai looked at Guan Shan, her expression unreadable, "Have you never felt pain?"
Guan Shan, still seemingly not understanding what Zhou Haimai meant by pain, simply nodded.
Losing the sense of pain was a matter of great or little consequence.
It would have been fine in peacetime.
But this was the apocalypse, an era where one had to fight for survival at the slightest provocation.
Without the sense of pain, you wouldn't know what hurt, and without understanding pain, you wouldn't feel fear.
Sometimes, a sense of awe was the guarantee of human survival.
Not all bravery and all forward momentum were worthy of praise.
It was like a safety catch on a firearm; once removed, the gun would face loss of control.
Seeing that Zhou Haimai had been silent, Guan Shan wrote on the ground again, "Where is Xu An? Is she dead?"
Zhou Haimai was taken aback by the words Guan Shan wrote.
She quickly shook her head.
"No, Xu An isn't dead, don't talk nonsense."
Guan Shan nodded obediently.
Lao Shu, watching from in front of the screen, also felt relieved.
At this moment, the viewers watching the livestream had switched to mocking mode.
"Zhou Haimai, don't talk so carelessly. That enormous monster, does Xu An have teleportation to vanish from the spot? Even if she wasn't crushed by the grizzly, she'd be flattened by its massive body. Still fine, who are you fooling!"
One had to admit that the viewer above had spoken the truth.
Among them were fans of Xu An. Seeing someone start to mock, they naturally couldn't sit still and began a keyboard war with the person.
"Don't be so sure. Hasn't our An An's comeback taught you a lesson? Be careful, I'll have An An show you up later!"
The fans' hearts had trembled when Xu An's livestream video went dark.
But when they saw Zhou Haimai's confident gaze, they solidified their belief.
After all, Zhou Haimai and Xu An had such a deep bond; Xu An must have some trump card that no one else knew about.
If Xu An had truly met with misfortune, they didn't believe Zhou Haimai could still be sitting here so leisurely, chatting with Guan Shan.
One had to admit that this generation of fans was truly worry-free.
Inside the cave.
Xu An, who had flashed into the space, collapsed onto the ground, utterly exhausted. She casually grabbed a bottle of water and began to gulp it down.
In that instant, Xu An had truly felt as though she would die at the hands of that bear.
Finally catching her breath, Xu An shouted, "Zeyuan?"
But after calling out several times, she received no reply from within.
She walked towards the tree, which had become exceptionally lush and dense, and saw a piece of paper hanging on its trunk.
"Asleep, don't worry!"
Xu An's anger flared after reading the note. That damned Zeyuan was asleep again.
Still not satisfied, she kicked the tree hard.
"Ah!"
She didn't know if it was her hallucination, but Xu An thought she heard a cry of pain.
Xu An rested for a while in the space and used her consciousness to check the bear's location.
The moment Xu An vanished from her spot, a flicker of confusion crossed the bear's eyes. It searched around but seemed unable to find the human who had dared to hack at it with a knife.
After an unsuccessful search, the giant bear ambled back into the depths of the cave.
Xu An had also seen the giant bear's hesitant demeanor at the cave entrance, daring not to approach further.
"Could it be that this bear is afraid of sunlight?"
Xu An made a hypothesis.
However, the cave was deep and long, and luring the giant bear outside into the sunlight would be a very difficult task.
The giant bear had no idea that Xu An's divine sense was actually attached to its back. As the bear moved deeper, Xu An gained a clearer view of the scene inside.
The further in she went, the more piled-up skeletons there were.
But gradually, the human skeletons became fewer, with most being animal remains.
Finally, at the very back, Xu An saw a nest of tender, white bear cubs, carefully tended to and hidden by the giant bear's body.
To Xu An's surprise, the giant bear gently picked up a cub it had been protecting beneath it, then extended its mouth, coughed up a piece of partially chewed meat, and fed it to the cub.
With Xu An's scattered confirmation, this bear was actually a mother bear.
However, the moment of tenderness Xu An felt was shattered when she saw the mother bear chew a human finger and feed it to her cubs.
Xu An felt like laughing at herself.
What was she feeling touched by? This bear in front of her was an enemy that wanted to kill her and make her its food.
How could she be moved by a scene of feeding?
The law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest, was the rule of life.
In a short while, Xu An had devised a method to make this mother bear leave the cave in a frenzy.
Her gaze fell upon the nest of cubs. Although it was somewhat cruel, this was a matter of life and death.
After feeding, the mother bear finally settled down beside the cubs, exhausted, and fell asleep.
Perhaps it was the great amount of stamina lost during her fight with Xu An, or perhaps she never expected anyone to follow her this far.
The mother bear slept peacefully, and soon, snores could be heard.
Xu An silently flashed out of the space and tiptoed to the center, surrounded by the bear cubs. She then gathered all the sleeping cubs into her space.
In what seemed like an instant, Xu An's eyes widened.
The moment the cubs were taken by Xu An, the mother bear sensed something was wrong. Before she even opened her eyes, her two massive paws had swiped towards Xu An's body.
Xu An, in the nick of time, flashed back into the space.
Looking at the cubs beneath her feet, Xu An could still feel a lingering fear listening to the mother bear's frantic roars outside.
"If we can't kill this bear now, we're all going to die here."
Xu An said, about to crouch down to touch the fluffy white balls.
Indeed, although the giant bear looked ferocious, its cubs were like little mice, incredibly cute.
If not for the fur on them, which was the same as their mother's, no one would suspect these little ones were the offspring of this giant bear, no matter where they were placed.
With a thought, Xu An appeared at the cave entrance.
However, the mother bear was still raging in the depths of the cave, and scattered remains were constantly being thrown out as they were affected by the mother bear.
Xu An stood at the cave exit but did not leave.
Her original plan was to make the cubs bleed and use them to lure the giant bear to the cave entrance.
Then, she would bury explosives at the cave entrance.
As soon as the giant bear reached the cave entrance, Xu An would blow up the entrance.
Even if the giant bear's hide was thick, the blown-open cave would allow sunlight to pour in.
This way, no matter what, the bear would die here today.
But now, looking at the cubs she held in her arms, Xu An felt a pang of mercy.