Body Mutation

The stiffness grew increasingly intense. Yi Yun could no longer move either arm or either foot, and the sensation was spreading toward his chest, abdomen, and head. He could not speak, could not hear, and his vision had grown blurry.

He could only feel tears pattering down onto his face. They were Jiang Xiaorou's tears.

She was shouting something desperately, but Yi Yun could only vaguely see her lips moving. Her voice seemed stretched out, and he could no longer make out a single word!

Yi Yun was filled with overwhelming unwillingness. Summoning all his perseverance, he struggled to move his stiff tongue and spoke with difficulty. "Lian... Lian Chengyu..."

Yi Yun's voice was unclear, but Jiang Xiaorou still made it out. "Lian Chengyu? Lian Chengyu harmed you?"

Yi Yun could no longer speak at all. He only felt that the stiff, corpse-like chill had spread to his chest and was converging toward his heart.

Once his heart also lost all sensation and stopped beating, his life would end!

Yi Yun felt like a fish that was about to be dried to death. He could not move or breathe and could only wait for death. Yet unexpectedly, just as the numbness spread to his chest, a wave of icy coolness followed in its wake.

That coolness was so clear, so familiar. It was like a spring of pure water washing his body clean!

Purple Crystal!

Yi Yun was overjoyed. This sensation came from Purple Crystal. Even at the worst of times, he could still sense Purple Crystal!

The stiffness had originally been spreading throughout his body, but when it reached his chest, it encountered its nemesis—Purple Crystal, which had always rested against his chest inside his clothes.

The instant Purple Crystal activated, Yi Yun felt as if a tiny vortex had appeared in his chest.

The tiny vortex was utterly inconspicuous, but—

Whoosh!

With a soft sound, without struggle or suspense, Yi Yun suddenly felt his entire body lighten. All the energy spread through his meridians was absorbed by Purple Crystal, and the stiffness vanished with it.

Yi Yun's senses had completely recovered. He moved his arms and legs, finding nothing abnormal. It was only because of the tension just now that he was drenched in sweat.

Was it over?

Yi Yun found it unbelievable. After Purple Crystal had been stirred, it had taken only an instant—not even a second—for him to recover!

This...

Yi Yun touched Purple Crystal at his chest and stood there in a daze, speechless. What exactly was Purple Crystal?

"Yun'er, how are you? Don't scare Sister!"

Jiang Xiaorou saw Yi Yun's stiff body move, but he still looked dazed and foolish, which filled her with anxiety.

"I'm fine now, Sister Xiaorou. I... I'm completely fine..." As Yi Yun spoke, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. Just after he finished the last few words, his stomach lurched violently.

"Urgh!"

Without warning, an intense wave of nausea struck, and Yi Yun opened his mouth and vomited.

In the past, Yi Yun had nothing in his stomach when he vomited, so all that came out was sour water. This time was different. What he vomited was clotted black blood, accompanied by a foul, rotten stench!

This frightened Jiang Xiaorou so badly that her face went pale. In this otherworld, when an ordinary commoner vomited blood, it was practically the same as being sentenced to death.

Yi Yun vomited violently without stopping. Not only did he spit vomit from his mouth, but a layer of foul sweat also broke out over his body, sticky and resembling blackened mud.

Seeing Yi Yun sweating and vomiting, Jiang Xiaorou forgot all about the stench filling the room. In a fluster, she wiped his mouth and patted his back.

"Yun'er, Yun'er, don't scare Sister. What happened to you? What happened?"

Jiang Xiaorou's voice trembled.

How could Yi Yun answer? He had vomited out all the black blood in his body, but strangely, he did not feel extremely weak. Instead, his spirits had improved greatly. Apart from having an empty stomach and being ravenously hungry, he felt wonderful from head to toe.

I'm starving.

Yi Yun felt that if a whole roasted lamb and a roasted pig were placed before him, he could devour them both.

"Sister... I'm fine. I'm just hungry, and... I want to take a bath."

The foul sweat clung to his body like a sticky shell of mud. It was unbearably uncomfortable.

"Yun'er, you're hungry?"

Hearing Yi Yun's words, Jiang Xiaorou was delighted. In ancient times, an important standard for judging whether someone was healthy was whether they could eat.

Whether it was the saying, "Though Lian Po is old, can he still eat?" or Zhuge Liang eating from the "Kongming Bowl," which looked extraordinarily large on the outside but was actually flat-bottomed and had a tiny capacity, both demonstrated this point.

This standard of judgment was quite meaningful.

Jiang Xiaorou wiped the tears from her eyes and hurried to cook. While the coarse-grain porridge boiled, she also prepared bathwater for Yi Yun, then cleaned up the filth he had vomited.

Yi Yun took a thoroughly comfortable bath and felt more refreshed than ever before.

Strangely enough, after bathing, Yi Yun felt that his eyes seemed much brighter. He could clearly see the veins on leaves seven or eight meters away.

Huh?

Yi Yun was slightly stunned. Before he could think further, he heard Jiang Xiaorou call, "The porridge is ready! Yun'er, come eat!"

"Coming!"

Yi Yun also caught the fragrance of the coarse-grain porridge.

Strangely, the coarse-grain porridge that Yi Yun had previously found difficult to swallow now tasted faintly sweet.

Yi Yun wolfed down two large bowls of coarse-grain porridge. He felt that the moment the porridge entered his stomach, it was digested completely. Even after finishing two bowls, he still felt hungry, but much of his strength had finally returned, and he felt as vigorous as a dragon and tiger.

"Yun'er, are you feeling better?"

Beside Yi Yun, Jiang Xiaorou had not eaten a single bite. She had been watching Yi Yun the entire time. Seeing his excellent appetite, she felt a glimmer of hope rise in her heart. Perhaps Yun'er really had recovered!

Although Jiang Xiaorou was not a doctor, she knew that treating illness involved restoring the flow of blood and qi.

Thinking about it carefully, although the sight of Yi Yun vomiting blood had been frightening, what he had vomited was not fresh blood but black blood.

Perhaps it had all been stagnant blood stored in Yi Yun's abdomen. Vomiting out stagnant blood might not be a bad thing.

Moreover, the layer of sweat that had emerged over Yi Yun's body had been incredibly filthy. Vomiting stagnant blood and sweating out filth—could Yun'er have turned a disaster into a blessing?

"Sister, I'm fine. I've never felt this good in my life..."

Before Yi Yun could finish speaking, a soft body suddenly embraced him tightly.

"As long as you're all right, that's all that matters. You scared Sister to death..." Jiang Xiaorou's voice was soft. In the Great Wilderness, a place filled with slaughter, bullying, and death, the two siblings were the only people they had to rely on.

She held Yi Yun tightly, as if afraid that she would lose him the moment she let go.

After holding him for quite some time, Jiang Xiaorou wiped away her tears and carefully examined Yi Yun from head to toe. After confirming that he was fine, she asked, "You mentioned Lian Chengyu's name earlier. Was Lian Chengyu the one who harmed you?"

Yi Yun hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Sister Xiaorou, I think Lian Chengyu has designs on you!"

Yi Yun's words made Jiang Xiaorou's face flush. "You little child, what nonsense are you spouting?"

It was rather strange for an eleven- or twelve-year-old child to say something like "has designs on you."

"That Lian Chengyu is awful!"

Jiang Xiaorou said through gritted teeth. Lian Chengyu had treated her younger brother that way, yet she had no way to do anything to him. Lian Chengyu was too powerful, and the entire Warrior Reserve Camp answered to him.

Bang!

A sudden crash made Jiang Xiaorou jump. When she turned around, she saw that the courtyard gate had been kicked open, and a burly man had stormed inside.

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