Reborn

At that moment, the little wooden box began to shake wildly in Bai Chuan's claws.

As the shaking began, the Ice Silkworm inside the box let out an extremely shrill scream.

This was a strange phenomenon unlike anything he had ever seen before. Even when a large group of humans had attacked it and worn it down to the point of exhaustion, the Ice Silkworm had never screamed so miserably.

No, it had never even made a sound.

But now, it had!

Bai Chuan started, then quickly reacted. Instinctively, he tried to hold the wooden box down with his claws and bring it over to Little Mouse.

But it was too late—or rather, it didn't work.

The wooden box shook more and more violently. Bai Chuan was startled and instinctively tightened his grip. As a result—

"Crack~"

With a slight squeeze from his sharp, blade-like claws, the already flimsy wooden box split apart completely.

A small, pale, tender worm appeared in midair.

Its pairs of tiny, soft feet and its tender, supple body, with eyes like two little black dots—

There was nothing fierce about it. It looked completely adorable.

Yet the sight made Bai Chuan's scalp go numb, and it seemed as if every scale on his body were about to stand on end.

Bai Chuan thought it was about to unleash that terrifying cold once more.

Instead, the Ice Silkworm let out another shrill scream, then floated in midair, its whole body twitching unnaturally.

As it twitched, tiny but dazzlingly bright white light particles began to emerge from its body, one after another.

The instant they appeared, wisps of bone-chilling cold began to rise from them.

In the space of a moment, the temperature here suddenly dropped several degrees, and it kept falling. The more light particles appeared, the faster it plummeted.

Just a few breaths later, the particles gathered together and turned into a streak of frost-white light that shot toward Bai Chuan.

The Ice Silkworm, meanwhile, fell out of the air with a splat.

What was that?

The sight startled Bai Chuan into action. In an instant, he raised his long neck and jerked backward, trying to retreat.

That unmistakable streak of light was the same white light that had frozen the humans to death!

Though this streak was much weaker and smaller, it was still more than he could easily withstand.

But before he could escape, the streak of light seemed to notice its target fleeing. It halted mid-flight, veered in another direction, and came for him again.

"What the hell, it can track me?!"

Seeing this, Bai Chuan swore—something he very rarely did. Then the streak of light struck him in the head.

The next moment, Bai Chuan stood frozen in place.

Of course, that didn't mean he was dead.

Bai Chuan had thought he was about to die, but to his astonishment, he was fine. What's more, the sensation he was experiencing was incredibly strange.

A flood of energy that should have felt bitterly cold was pouring into his body through his forehead, yet he couldn't feel the slightest chill.

Not a trace of cold. For a moment, confusion seized him, a clash between his body and his senses.

It was a bizarre feeling. His senses told him this was a cold current comparable to the waters of a lake frozen solid in midwinter, and that he should be freezing to death.

But his body was like a hungry wolf eyeing a slab of meat. Not only could it detect none of the deadly cold, it eagerly welcomed the current.

He even seemed to sense joy radiating from it, like a scholar who had returned home after traveling far away.

Without thinking, he narrowed his eyes and savored the wonderful sensation.

At the same time, as Bai Chuan stood there with his eyes half-closed, his body began to undergo an astonishing transformation.

A thin layer of frost slowly formed over the head where the streak of light had struck him. Wisps of bone-chilling cold began to spread from his head throughout his entire body.

Cold air kept pouring out of him.

And that wasn't all.

Before long, something even more astonishing happened.

As the frigid air streamed from his body, all sorts of tiny insects began to emerge from every part of him.

Some were as small as grains of rice, some were long and thin as threads, some were as big as peanuts, and others were broad and flat like pork tapeworms...

These parasites had been living inside him, feeding on his flesh and blood. Now they scrambled to get out, as if something unimaginably terrifying lurked within him and they were desperate to escape.

But before they could get away, many of them gradually lost the ability to move as they crawled. Their bodies stiffened, and with a series of little thuds, they fell to the ground like rain.

It was a horrifying and bizarre sight.

And the only one there to witness it was a little mouse.

Everything had happened so suddenly that Little Mouse hadn't even had time to react before it was over.

Then it saw the astonishing scene: all sorts of strange insects were emerging from the kind-hearted Great Serpent's body.

It recoiled a step in fright and wrapped its little paws tightly around itself. Then it suddenly realized—

If the Great Serpent had all those things in him, could it have them too?

Having spotted this alarming possibility, the little Rat lowered its head in terror and stared at its own body. Its once sleek, glossy fur now seemed glaringly sinister.

In its panic, it scratched and clawed at itself, as if it could dig the bugs out of its body that way.

When Bai Chuan finally came back to his senses from the incomparably comfortable feeling,

the first thing he saw was Little Mouse, looking utterly dejected. It had lost all its earlier excitement; its fur was disheveled, and it leaned weakly against the earthen wall with its head bowed, occasionally scratching at its fur with a little paw.

It looked as if someone had done a number on it.

What happened?

Bai Chuan was baffled. What was wrong with the mouse now?

Only when he lowered his head did he see all the different insects scattered across the ground. Some were even still clinging to his scales.

The sight made him queasy. He instinctively shook his whole body, trying to fling the insects off.

With a series of smacks, the few insects that had remained stuck to his scales were flung away. Some even hit the droopy-headed little mouse, making it squeak indignantly and dodge.

Only then did Bai Chuan suppress his disgust and take a careful look at the insects. They were all different, but they had one thing in common: they were all dead.

"Are these the parasites that were living inside me?" Bai Chuan thought for a moment, then understood what had happened.

That was it. No wonder that, when he came to from that comfortable feeling, his whole body felt so light and refreshed.

It was as if he had been carrying dozens of pounds on his back all this time, and now he had finally cast off the burden completely.

He felt so light that he could almost ascend to heaven.

Even breathing felt easier.

The power of ice inside him had cleaned out his body.