Winter Departs, Spring Arrives, Snow Melts

If you found a dime on the ground in the morning, you might dismiss it with a shrug; but if you found a hundred-dollar bill, you would surely pick it up with a grin, tuck it into your pocket, and then, while ordering lunch, say excitedly: "Boss! One rice bowl! Give me a big scoop of ribs! Oh! And add two chicken legs!" The fast-food restaurant owner would ask curiously: "What's this? No greens today? Did you strike it rich or get a promotion?"

"How could that be! With my level of skill, neither of those is ever coming my way! I'm just in a good mood today, treating myself to something better!"

"Pfft! You think I don't know you?! You little rascal! Found some money, didn't you?" You would walk away with your lunch box, chuckling at having your thoughts guessed correctly.

Chen Jinyang now felt exactly like those young office workers who had found a hundred dollars in the morning. He smiled as he hoisted the carcass of the Hell Hound and secured it to a wooden frame, a facility the village had specifically built for slaughtering livestock or wild beasts. The hide of a Hell Hound is incredibly tough—even the fur of a Winter Wolf is slightly inferior—and the wooden stakes that had pierced its body had barely scratched the surface; only the one that had driven deep through its eyebrow had been the cause of its death. Chen Jinyang tried to make an incision under its neck with a dagger, but it felt as awkward as trying to cut rubber with a dull blade. After a long struggle, he had only managed to open a cut the size of half a palm, and his wrist was so sore that he had to give up on the conventional skinning method.

"Phinia! Lend me your axe!" Chen Jinyang called back to the giantess, who was busy clearing away ice shards with the two little ones.

With the Frost Giant Axe in hand, Chen Jinyang stood with his legs slightly apart, steadied his breath, and silently recited the Blade Control Technique. He brought the axe down as if it were a blade, the white light of the edge flashing as fast as lightning. Yet, the movement appeared distinct and layered, smooth and fluid, as gentle as water without a hint of violence. With a soft "shhh" sound, the incredibly tough hide of the Hell Hound was sliced open from the jaw down, leaving a cut over half a foot long and an inch deep. Chen Jinyang let out a long breath. Although the weapon was not ideal, he realized that while his mind held high-level techniques and experience, his body—having been swapped—could not perfectly execute them without extensive training. If he had used his previous life's body to wield the giant axe, even with slightly less absolute physical strength, the cut would certainly have been over a foot long.

Chen Jinyang made several more strokes, stopping between each, until a three-foot-long, thin incision ran from the Hell Hound's jaw to its lower abdomen. He inserted his fingers into the slit and pulled outward with all his might. The connection between the hide and the muscle at the incision point separated in large swaths; although the Hell Hound's hide was tough, the bond between its skin and flesh was far inferior and could not withstand Chen Jinyang's astonishing strength. He called over Phinia, who was equally strong. The two of them grabbed the hide and the exposed flesh respectively and pulled in opposite directions. The Hell Hound's skin was peeled off completely, like a tight garment being turned inside out. However, the meat of the Hell Hound was foul-smelling, so Chen Jinyang dragged it outside the village to bury it; his past experiences had taught him never to leave corpses lying around, as one never knew when they might attract dangerous monsters.

Although he was happy to accept the windfall, Chen Jinyang remained suspicious and uneasy about the matter. When he had first seen the Hell Hound from afar, its intelligence seemed no less than that of a Winter Wolf; it was impossible for it to have stupidly run into a wall to commit suicide. While Chen Jinyang scratched his head in confusion, the culprit behind the incident was currently curled up in a tree hollow near a hot spring deep in the forest. A hideous little beast, covered in scales and armor and shaped like a lizard (guess what kind of monster this is? First, let me state it is not a dragon, nor some random primordial beast), was fast asleep with its eyes closed. Within dozens of feet of the creature, the silence was absolute, and an evil, eerie aura permeated the air.

Winter had not yet departed, but spring was approaching. Several consecutive days of bright sunshine caused the snow to melt slowly, making the earth feel even colder—almost more unbearable than when it was snowing. The frost-covered houses and trees shimmered with colorful, scale-like light under the sun, and patches of green began to emerge beneath the snow. The little ones stayed in the cellar, barely stepping outside. Chen Jinyang and Phinia spent several days clearing the ice and debris from the entrance before beginning to tidy up the messy village.

The last goat in the stable had been slaughtered yesterday, but the manure from the livestock and wild beasts that had accumulated throughout the winter had yet to be cleared. There were also leftover animal bones from stews, unused deer antlers, and defensive traps set to ward off monster attacks. With the villagers about to return, these eyesores had to be discarded, dismantled, or stored away. However, the giantess had been restless for the past few days, often frowning and drifting into a daze, which deeply worried Chen Jinyang, who had become almost inseparable from her and somewhat infatuated.

"Phinia, what are your plans for the future?" Chen Jinyang asked the giantess, who was working beside him with a wooden shovel to clear the manure.

Phinia raised her heroic face, her well-proportioned and muscular body pausing slightly: "Are your human kin returning? Don't worry, I (my pronunciation is finally getting better) will leave before they discover me." The young half-giantess, who was still just a little girl by the standards of a Frost Giant, felt the wall of hope collapsing around her. Her long, nimble hands trembled as she gripped the relatively small shovel. She had never felt such pain before—not even the death of her Uthgardt barbarian father, her exile from the tribe, or the cold rejection of the Frost Giant tribe could compare to this. She even felt a desire and impulse to destroy everything, but a winter of mutual support had taught the giantess to control her emotions. Phinia tried to force a smile—a "special skill" she had painstakingly learned from Mishaer—but her dejected and desperate mood only resulted in a lonely, tearful expression. This simple barbarian warrior would never learn how to hide her feelings.

Chen Jinyang, who was not unintelligent, did not understand Phinia's current mood, but he understood the meaning behind her words. He asked: "Leave? Why do you have to leave? Do you still prefer to wander the wilderness alone?" Although Phinia was too tall for him to feel entirely comfortable as a man, and her strength was enough to make most men feel inferior, she lacked the gentle, considerate side one might expect. Yet, setting aside the giantess's role in influencing his bloodline during his cultivation, her figure—beautiful and sexy by any race's standards, strong and wild enough to make one commit crimes (it seemed someone had already committed rape and abduction)—was captivating. Above all, Phinia's simplicity and innocence were what Chen Jinyang, who had experienced countless storms in his previous life, cherished most. He never had to worry about schemes or betrayal from the giantess.

"I don't like it!" Phinia was quite honest. "But your kin will fear me and drive me away! You will be implicated too!"

"No! I won't let anyone bully you! If anyone dares to hurt you, they will have to step over my dead body first!" Chen Jinyang felt very manly, heroic, and loving right now!

Unfortunately, these passionate declarations were wasted on the blind. Phinia was not blind, but the simple giantess could not understand such profound metaphors. She asked, confused: "Oh! You will die first if someone hits me! What does that have to do with me leaving?"

The man, whose grand declaration had been misinterpreted and ignored, felt an urge to faint. He roared in a fit of rage: "I absolutely will not allow you to leave! You silly woman! Do you hear me clearly?!!"

"Can I really stay here and not leave?" the giant-sized little girl asked in a soft voice, looking at the burning man with the hopeful eyes of a child who had just been told she was about to get candy.

Chen Jinyang, his nameless anger instantly extinguished as he looked into Phinia's eyes—as innocent and simple as Mishaer's—replied weakly: "Yes. You don't have to leave."

"Oh—! I don't have to leave! I don't have to sleep alone in the dark forest anymore! It was so scary!" The giantess, laughing and crying at the same time, grabbed Chen Jinyang and pulled him into her embrace, completely ignoring the poor man who was struggling weakly and nearly suffocating under her hug.