Xiao Cheng and Fang He exchanged a glance and cautiously stepped out of the forest.

Continuing forward, the original candy house had completely disappeared, leaving only the towering vine, which seemed to have become a little thicker than before.

The giant should have already climbed back. Bloodstains remained on the surface of the vines, and a few gold coins lay scattered on the ground, gleaming in the sunlight.

A large, snow-white bird circled around the vines, emitting sharp cries that sounded like a woman's shrill laughter.

Above the clouds, a muffled rumble suddenly sounded, followed by a giant hand reaching out, grabbing the white bird's neck, and snapping it with a crack.

Broken feathers mixed with blood fell to the ground. The large hand shook it violently, as if to confirm that the bird was really dead. Then, it gripped the bird's corpse tightly and retreated back behind the clouds. Soon after, a sickening chewing sound could be heard.

"That...what is that?" The second dwarf shrank into a ball in panic. "Did that thing eat our people? Just like it ate that bird?"

"My goodness, how could there be such a terrifying thing here?! I haven't seen anything like it in thirty years!" Snake Heart patted his chest with lingering fear.

Xiao Cheng and Fang He didn't intend to explain the giants to them, since judging from the current situation, they should have never left the Cursed Forest.

"That giant is still up there," Xiao Cheng said, frowning. "This is going to be difficult. Are we sure we want to climb up from here?"

“According to the original story, yes.” Fang He circled the vine, looking up at the thick clouds above. “The boy climbed up the vine to the giant’s house, and then stole its gold coins while it was asleep.”

As if to confirm his words, the chewing sound stopped not long afterward, and after a brief silence, thunderous snoring once again filled the sky.

It felt as if even the ground was shaking.

"The hint is quite obvious, hurry up and go up." Fang He saw Xiao Cheng's resistant expression, sighed helplessly, and patted her shoulder. "You have to be understanding. With her size, it's understandable that her breathing is a little loud."

Xiao Cheng: "You call that breathing sound?"

Even from this distance, my ears are already hurting from the noise; you can only imagine how deafening the snoring will be once I climb up there.

But you still have to climb.

She picked up the gold coins from the ground and put them together with the three she had started with. Then, she picked a spot on the vine that wasn't stained with blood, grabbed a hanging branch, and easily flipped herself up with a pull and a push.

The vines were even stronger than she had imagined; they didn't even sway.

The snake demon and scorpion demon, who had almost been thrown off, clung tightly to her sleeve, crying out in panic, "Slow down! Slow down!"

Xiao Cheng steadied herself and then remembered that the two of them were still perched on her shoulders. She smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "Sorry, it was too noisy, I forgot about you."

Fang He casually stuffed the three dwarfs into his pocket, and almost at the same time as her, he climbed up the vine, hanging from another leaf not far from her and swaying for a while. Then, he straightened up, reached out and pulled, and shot up a long distance.

For them, climbing the vines was not difficult, and they quickly reached the edge of the clouds.

As the surroundings gradually turned white, Xiao Cheng continued climbing higher until she completely broke through the clouds, and suddenly the view opened up before her.

This is a garden that is completely suspended in the air, filled with all kinds of trees, and each tree is hung with an exquisite birdcage, inside which are locked lifelike bird specimens.

In the center of the garden was a huge treehouse, where the giant lay asleep on the roof, a huge hand hanging down, holding half a bloody white bird wing in his palm.

At the entrance of the treehouse, there was a cloth bag that was as tall as two people. The bag had a hole in it, revealing heavy gold coins inside.

The giant's snoring wasn't as loud as it had been at first; at least it wasn't as jarring, and it was quite rhythmic, alternating between loud and soft snoring.

All the birdcages swayed with his snoring, and the feathers of the specimens trembled as if they had truly come to life.

"So? Are we going to steal his gold coins now?" Unsure if the giant could hear her, Xiao Cheng deliberately lowered her voice and even unconsciously slowed her breathing.

"Not sure, but it should be." Fang He found the ladder to climb up to the treehouse. "You wait here, I'll go up and check the situation first."

"Forget it, I'll go." Xiao Cheng stopped him, put the snake demon and scorpion demon on his shoulder, and said, "Go check those birdcages. We'll split up and search, maybe that will be faster."

"Alright, then be careful." Seeing that the giant wouldn't wake up anytime soon, Fang He nodded and turned to walk towards the birdcage next to him.

The treehouse ladder was very steep, and the intervals between each step were large, so Xiao Cheng had to practically stick his whole body to it.

As you get closer, you can smell the faint, pleasant fragrance emanating from the wood. This fragrance permeates the entire space, giving you a slightly dizzy feeling.

Xiao Cheng simply held her breath and climbed onto the platform in one go. When she landed, she made a slight noise, but fortunately it was drowned out by the giant's snoring.

Out of caution, she paused slightly, looked up with a hint of unease, and only felt slightly relieved when she saw that the giant still showed no signs of waking up. Then, she headed straight for the bag of gold coins with a clear objective.

That's why she volunteered to come up.

The gold coins in her pocket and the gold coins in her bag seemed to resonate subtly, and a very faint, indistinct sound rang directly in her mind.

"Help me... Hurry, anyone, come and save me..."

As Xiao Cheng got closer, the voice gradually became clearer, transforming from an initial, vague cry for help into a conversation with specific content.

"Is that you? I'm here! Come here! Come and take the gold coins! Please! Come here now!"

His tone grew increasingly urgent, and behind that voice, there seemed to be some background noise mixed in, making it impossible to discern what it was.

But most importantly...

The voice sounds familiar.

Xiao Cheng frowned almost imperceptibly.

She tried to walk as quietly as possible, carefully touching the opening in the bag, almost touching the edge of the outermost gold coin.

Suddenly, a violent tremor came from deep within the garden, followed by a series of explosions.

Thick smoke billowed out, and Xiao Cheng froze on the spot, staring at the cold, creepy feeling, before slowly raising her head.

They met the giant's sinister gaze.