Awakening

Consciousness vanished.

Xu Yuan felt as if he had arrived in an infinite void, where boundless darkness and cold enveloped him.

His five senses were lost.

There was no passage of time.

He did not know how long had passed, but loneliness and despair flooded his entire being.

Had he died?

Xu Yuan felt that he must be dead.

Being cared for by that block of ice with zero common sense while in a state of hypothermia and fever—no matter how he thought about it, there was no way he could have survived.

Regardless of how much he had feared death in his past life, when it truly arrived, only relief remained.

In this moment, Xu Yuan even felt that death didn't feel half bad.

He could feel a warm sensation continuously flowing against his lips, with a small amount even entering his mouth.

It was a liquid.

A bit metallic, yet somewhat sweet.

It tasted very good.

Like parched soil finally nourished by long-awaited rain, the urge to swallow and suckle consumed every instinct.

As the warm, metallic-sweet liquid was continuously ingested, waves of warmth began to spread through his limbs and bones, dispelling the biting cold.

Hm?

Wait.

If he were dead, why could he still drink?

As this strange thought emerged, his lost senses began to return to his consciousness bit by bit, and finally, he clearly heard the "gulp, gulp, gulp" sound of swallowing.

He slowly opened his eyes, his unfocused pupils making the scene before him appear somewhat distorted and blurry.

Accompanied by the sound of swallowing, the image seen by Xu Yuan's unconscious eyes gradually became clear.

He saw those indifferent eyes.

His muddled consciousness left Xu Yuan unable to grasp the current situation for a moment; he stared at the other person for two seconds before instinctively tilting his head.

The moment he moved, a small, icy hand pressed his head down, refusing to let him move.

It was Ran Qingmo.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth to speak, only to notice the nozzle of a waterskin inserted into it, with warm liquid continuously flowing from within into his throat.

As his consciousness gradually cleared, Xu Yuan clenched his fists and began to struggle, but the other party's strength was too great.

The feeling of being force-fed was not pleasant, not to mention that the nozzle of the waterskin was quite long, and the liquid surged into his throat in an endless stream.

Their gazes met.

While struggling to swallow, Xu Yuan blinked his eyes vigorously.

Ran Qingmo blinked back, then nodded at him.

"..." Xu Yuan.

After a dozen seconds of silence, his face began to flush red, and the sound of the water being poured became the only noise in the cave.

In this moment, Xu Yuan finally understood why the girlfriends he had in his past life would slap his thighs so hard.

Once the liquid was drained, Ran Qingmo put away the waterskin and silently stood up to leave.

After she left, the restraint vanished.

The sensation of suffocation made Xu Yuan gasp for air as if reborn; he slowly sat up, wanting to open his mouth to curse, but before the words could leave his lips, he looked at his own body in astonishment.

Following the ingestion of that liquid, his body, which had been bone-chillingly cold, actually began to heat up. The heat dissipated rapidly, spreading from his stomach to his limbs and bones at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the cold that had accumulated in his body gradually dissipated.

It was an unprecedented, brand-new experience, more than a hundred times faster than any special medicine from his past life.

"What... what did you feed me?"

Xu Yuan's voice remained somewhat hoarse as he spoke, but it was no longer as weak as before.

As he spoke, Xu Yuan looked toward Ran Qingmo's back, only to suddenly realize that the cave had become much warmer, and a faint mist permeated the air.

Just as the doubt arose in his heart, Xu Yuan's gaze swept across the scene, and the sight before him nearly caused him to pass out on the spot.

Ever since he transmigrated, every time he woke up, it seemed to challenge the limits of his psychological and physical endurance.

The entrance to the cave was an oval with a radius of two meters, And this unremarkable cave entrance was currently almost completely blocked by a massive head.

It was a giant python.

Two fangs protruded from its mouth, and a pair of half-lidded, serpentine eyes stared gloomily into the cave. Its entire body was covered in fire-red scales that looked like burning flames, a single horn atop its head emitted a faint golden light, and the massive fleshy wings on either side of its head rippled gently with every breath.

As the rain poured down onto the torso of this giant python—or rather, snake demon—the intense heat radiating from its scales immediately sent up clouds of steam.

The mist permeated the air, making the cave look like a fairyland.

What is this?

Xu Yuan struggled to his feet, inching backward.

The moment he opened his eyes, he had seen such a giant python lying not far away, staring right at him.

His worldview from his past life made it impossible for him to accept this for the time being.

In transmigrations, shouldn't there be a Novice Village to help one adapt?

Is this giant python blocking the door something one is supposed to encounter in a Novice Village?

While Xu Yuan's mind was reeling, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a slender figure in black leaping onto the giant head of the snake demon.

In the hazy, rain-drenched mist, aided by the faint light filtering through the downpour, Xu Yuan followed the movements of that black-clad figure and saw an ice spike, clear and transparent as crystal, embedded behind the giant python's head.

It was a massive ice spike that had pierced the seven-inch vital point of the behemoth outside the cave, pinning it firmly to the ground!

Ran Qingmo aimed the nozzle of a waterskin at the sharp horn atop the snake demon's head and tapped its hard scales with her scabbard.

The giant python closed its eyes in resignation, and droplets of golden liquid seeped from the base of its horn, trickling bit by bit through the nozzle and into the waterskin.

Once the waterskin was full, the aura emanating from the snake demon weakened significantly.

Ran Qingmo jumped down from the snake demon and handed the waterskin to Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan took it with a blank expression, still unable to fully process what was happening.

After handing the waterskin to Xu Yuan, Ran Qingmo scanned the cave, blinked her eyes as if remembering something, and then turned silently to run back into the curtain of rain.

Staring blankly in the direction she had left, Xu Yuan's rigid thoughts began to turn, bit by bit.

Looking at the giant python blocking the door, Xu Yuan realized that to save him, this block of ice had beaten this creature half to death and dragged it back here.

The rain pattered down, and the woman's figure vanished completely into the downpour.

About a minute later, Ran Qingmo returned from the rain, her arms cradling a large bundle of sodden firewood, which immediately dripped water onto the dry ground.

Ignoring Xu Yuan's surprised gaze, Ran Qingmo went about placing the bundle of wood on the ground two meters away from him, silently arranging them into the shape of a campfire.

It seemed she intended to start a fire with the wet wood.

Xu Yuan watched her actions and smiled, instinctively preparing to speak up and dissuade her.

But at that moment, Ran Qingmo had already flashed to the side of the python's head. With clear, cold eyes, she tapped its skull with her scabbard.

The giant python seemed terrified of her; it cast a cowering look at Ran Qingmo, opened its mouth, and extended its long, slender forked tongue. In an instant, a scorching heat rose within the cave.

The bundle of soaked firewood dried at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then, with a light touch from the snake's slender tongue, the wood caught fire.

A flicker of flame illuminated the cold stone walls of the cave.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth, then silently swallowed the words he had intended to say.