Danger

"Tsk, my head hurts. My body is so cold."

Accompanied by the bleak, biting wind, Xu Yuan woke from the chaos once more. A headache, both internal and external, made him unwilling to even open his eyes.

His clothes were soaked through, and the freezing, bone-chilling wind blowing against the wet fabric continuously sapped away the little warmth he had left.

In an instant, Xu Yuan realized that his body was suffering from hypothermia.

Opening his eyes bit by bit, the memories from before he lost consciousness flooded back like a tide.

Transmigration, a giant Buddha, and that heavy blow from the woman in black.

Having roughly sorted out his situation, and accompanied by waves of throbbing pain, Xu Yuan moved his eyes with great difficulty to scan his surroundings.

It appeared to be a cave, not large, perhaps four or five meters deep.

The sky outside the cave had brightened, and the rain was still drizzling down, but without the bonfire from the Buddha hall, the cave felt damp and cold.

The woman in black was sitting at the entrance of the cave, eyes closed in meditation. Her sword lay flat beside her, and next to the blade sat a rather familiar wooden club.

"..." Xu Yuan.

Licking his dry, pale lips, Xu Yuan moved his body inch by inch until he leaned against the cold stone wall behind him.

This simple movement alone caused his frail body to start gasping for air.

His relatively affluent upbringing in his past life had given him ample time and money to experience various lifestyles, and wilderness exploration was one of them.

It was precisely because of this that his past experience told Xu Yuan he was now severely ill.

Hypothermia, high fever, and even some dehydration.

Xu Yuan looked toward the woman in black at the cave entrance, her face veiled by thin gauze.

Her soft black hair was plastered wetly against her cheeks, and her clothes were soaked through, clinging to her graceful curves.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan felt no sense of allure; instead, he suddenly felt like he was having a brain hemorrhage.

He suddenly understood why, in the game Cangyuan, the Third Young Master Xu Changtian died in such bizarre ways on the road while being kidnapped in so many different timelines.

When he recalled this plot point, Xu Yuan had wondered why a young master like Xu Changtian would die so abstractly when he had a top-tier expert like Ran Qingmo by his side.

His personal experience now gave him the answer directly.

This idiot woman actually dragged him, a knocked-out patient, through the winter rain to this place and then just left him there to fend for himself!

A cold, rainy winter night like this meant nothing to her, but it was potentially fatal for an ordinary person.

The cave was silent, the sound of the drizzling rain seeping in lightly from outside.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan spoke weakly:

"Ran Qingmo."

His once gentle, jade-like voice had become extremely hoarse.

The woman at the entrance slowly opened her eyes upon hearing him, looking toward him with a flat expression.

Xu Yuan panted, speaking weakly and word by word:

"Do... do you want me to just die here?"

Ran Qingmo's face was covered by a black veil, and the beautiful eyes revealed beneath it blinked slightly before she shook her head.

On the issue of Xu Yuan's life, her views were in perfect alignment with his.

Xu Yuan endured the discomfort in his body:

"If you don't want me to freeze to death, then... then help me start a fire."

Ran Qingmo stared at Xu Yuan for two seconds, her beautiful eyes blinking for a long time, before she replied earnestly:

"But, the fire starter is gone."

Xu Yuan opened his mouth, then changed his question: "What about your Qi?"

The "Qi" that existed in this world could almost be called a universal energy source.

Although the game Cangyuan didn't demonstrate this, in a supernatural world where top-tier combatants could reduce a massive Capital City to ruins, starting a fire should be a simple task that wouldn't stump this great expert before him.

Ran Qingmo blinked her beautiful eyes twice, climbed up from the ground, walked slowly to Xu Yuan, and extended a slender, jade-like hand toward him.

A flash of confusion crossed Xu Yuan's eyes.

Soon, he discovered a vortex of energy quietly condensing on her hand, and in an instant, a block of ice ten centimeters in diameter formed in her palm.

Holding the block of ice, Ran Qingmo seemed not to feel the cold at all. She blinked her eyes and held it out toward Xu Yuan:

"Ice, will this do?"

"..."

Looking at the large block of ice being offered, Xu Yuan subconsciously felt that this woman was joking with him.

Trying to keep me fresh with ice, are you?

But seeing the earnest look in her eyes, he suppressed the urge to have a brain hemorrhage and took a deep breath:

"I am sick. I need a campfire, hot water, and food."

Upon hearing this, Ran Qingmo stared at Xu Yuan's face for two seconds, seemingly confirming his condition.

Two seconds later, She walked silently to a knapsack in the corner of the cave, rummaged through it, retrieved a waterskin and a piece of dry flatbread, and walked back to Xu Yuan, handing them to him.

Xu Yuan looked at the food and water in his hands, then at the woman before him, his lips, already blanched from the cold, trembling slightly:

"What about the fire? A heat source and hot water are what I need most right now."

"But, the fire starter is gone."

"..." Xu Yuan.

His vision went black. Xu Yuan let out a soft, frustrated chuckle as a suffocating wave of dizziness surged into his mind.

The exhaustion and vertigo brought on by his illness constantly urged him to drift into a deep sleep, but he knew that if he fell asleep now, it would likely be for a lifetime.

Quickly gathering his focus and steadying his consciousness, Xu Yuan licked his pale lips and said:

"Can... can you help me by transferring your Qi to heal me?"

The medical system in this world was quite archaic, but due to the existence of Qi, it was, in some respects, no worse than that of his previous life.

However, in these deep mountains and old forests, it was clearly not something to rely on.

Yet, Xu Yuan remembered a cliché plot point involving Qi transfer for healing in the story of Cangyuan.

Upon hearing this, Ran Qingmo dropped the lump of ice in her hand and sat down directly in front of Xu Yuan without hesitation. Ignoring the boundaries between man and woman, she lifted his clothes and pressed a slender, jade-like finger against his lower abdomen.

Feeling a chill drill into his abdomen, Xu Yuan felt a surge of joy.

But the next moment, The cold sensation vanished instantly, and Ran Qingmo suddenly pulled her hand away.

In the cave, they stared at each other with wide eyes.

Xu Yuan asked in a hoarse voice:

"What's wrong?"

Ran Qingmo blinked twice and said in a low voice:

"You have no Qi. You will die."

Xu Yuan looked down at himself:

"Why?"

"You have no Qi."

"..." Xu Yuan.

When the settings that were glossed over in a game became reality, the omitted details were naturally and automatically filled in.

The miraculous substance known as Qi could indeed help people heal.

But the essence of transferring Qi for healing was to use another person's Qi to guide the Qi within one's own body, circulating it through the meridians that had been opened.

The areas passed through would be repaired bit by bit by the Qi, and harmful substances would be devoured by it.

However, for an ordinary person who had not begun cultivation, the meridians remained blocked.

Xu Yuan's entry point was so small that Ran Qingmo's Qi naturally could not enter; the result of forcing it in would be to tear him apart.

Literally, Tear him apart.

Understanding the principle, the cave fell into silence.

Weakly leaning against the cold stone wall, Xu Yuan found that the state of this body was unexpectedly poor; he didn't even have the strength to remove his wet clothes.

Due to the fever and hypothermia, his consciousness was beginning to blur, and he was only staying awake through sheer willpower.

In his past life, he had suffered from hypothermia once while exploring Iceland, but fortunately, he had been accompanied by a survival expert on the level of Bear Grylls, which was the only reason he had barely survived.

As for now?

Xu Yuan glanced at the woman beside him.

Ran Qingmo sat quietly by Xu Yuan's side, her dark brows slightly furrowed, seemingly troubled by how to solve the problem of her hostage dying of illness.

Being cared for by an oblivious block of ice, Xu Yuan did not believe he would wake up again if he fell asleep.

He searched his mind for ways to start a fire in the wild, but he rejected them one by one.

Either he lacked the tools, or the materials were insufficient; even the most basic friction fire-starting was impossible in this heavy rain, as he couldn't find suitable dry wood or shavings.

In the silence, Time ticked away, second by second.

The vision before Xu Yuan gradually dimmed, and his body tilted uncontrollably toward the ground.

The final image before his vision faded was that of the woman in black rising and walking out of the cave.

Where... was she going?

With that final thought, his world plunged into darkness.