Chapter 10 Symptoms
Several seconds later, Ran Qingmo landed heavily on the ground, holding a white giant tiger in her hand.
The two-zhang long body of the white tiger was just like an oversized housecat in Ran Qingmo's grasp, pinned down by the neck and unable to move.
Ran Qingmo let go, pointed at the white tiger lying on the ground, and walked towards Xu Yuan, asking softly,
"Will this one do?"
Xu Yuan did not speak.
He saw that as soon as Ran Qingmo released her hand, the large tiger quietly lifted its head, its vertical pupils sinisterly fixed on Ran Qingmo's back.
The next moment,
the great white tiger attempted to demonstrate in front of Ran Qingmo what it meant to choose death over a life without freedom.
The white giant tiger fiercely pounced towards the woman's delicate silhouette, only to be immediately struck on the head by Ran Qingmo's sword sheath swung in a backhanded motion.
In that instant,
Xu Yuan faintly saw the white giant tiger's dazed eyes, looking like it was about to ascend to heaven mid-air.
"Boom!"
The massive body of the white tiger became a blur as it flew backward, crashing heavily into the roots of a towering tree a hundred meters away.
Ran Qingmo's steps towards Xu Yuan halted, she glanced back at the tiger, murmuring with some disappointment,
"It seems it still won't do..."
She then said softly to Xu Yuan, "Wait a moment," and with sword in hand, she walked towards the place where dust was billowing.
Following a moment of silence, a white silhouette burst out of the cloud of dust, but instead of charging at Ran Qingmo again, it took off, scrambling towards the depths of the distant forest.
The human woman is terrifying, it must flee.
Ran Qingmo stomped her foot, and her figure vanished from the spot.
"Thump!"
A muffled sound pierced the silent forest, startling a flock of birds.
Ran Qingmo landed steadily, looking at the large tiger with its head buried in the soil, motionless. She silently reached out to grab the fur on the tiger's head and started dragging it slowly back toward Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan twitched at the corner of his eyes as he watched the scene unfold before him.
Standing still, Ran Qingmo nodded towards Xu Yuan,
"Now, it should be fine. You can try getting on."
Xu Yuan opened his mouth but merely glanced at the white tiger lying motionless on the ground.
The white tiger was half-closing its eyes, clearly playing dead, its gaze carrying a slight warning as it watched Xu Yuan.
Demonic beasts all possess some level of intelligence, varying in degree, and by this moment, the great white tiger had realized that the terrifying human woman wanted to make it a mount for the human man before it.
Xu Yuan was slightly silent but, trusting in Ran Qingmo's strength, he still stepped towards the tiger lying on the ground.
Just as he approached,
the white tiger's half-closed eyes opened and stared at Xu Yuan, its head slightly raised, issuing a warning growl,
"Roar..."
A man can be killed, but not insulted.
"Thump!"
Standing to the side, the woman heard the noise and immediately swung her sword sheath down.
"Aow..." The white tiger involuntary lowered its head even more.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan grabbed onto the white tiger's fur and climbed onto its back.
The white tiger's fur was soft and fluffy, very comfortable to touch, reminiscent of petting a cat in a past life.
Xu Yuan tried patting the white tiger on the head a few times, only to feel several large bumps.
"Roar..." the white tiger growled with bared teeth.
"Thump!" Another bump formed.
"Whimper..." The white tiger obediently laid its head down again.
Ran Qingmo slowly retracted her sword sheath, whispering,
"Let's go."
As she spoke, she cast a sidelong glance at the white tiger.
Ran Qingmo's glance made Xu Yuan feel the big white tiger beneath him shake, but he didn't rush to get up. Instead, he first rubbed his head against the hem of Ran Qingmo's black dress.
Seeing this scene, Xu Yuan almost laughed, his lips had just begun to curve upward when a feeling of chest tightness mixed with a slight itchy sensation suddenly spread across his heart.
"...."
His smile halted, and Xu Yuan furrowed his brows.
He had experienced this itchy sensation several times these past two days.
It generally came from the original body's "drug use" causing addiction, and as long as he could endure for half a quarter of an hour, the sensation would naturally fade away.
Just as the thought flashed through his mind, Xu Yuan prepared to speak to delay moving forward. Yet before the words could leave his mouth, the itchy sensation inside his chest suddenly spread wildly as if it had mutated, transforming into an infuriating "craving" in a matter of seconds.
An intense feeling of suffocation blacked out Xu Yuan's vision instantly.
Xu Yuan clenched the smooth fur of the white tiger beneath him instinctively to steady himself, but waves of dizziness kept assaulting him. His previously straight spine bent little by little, and the hand gripping the fur slowly loosened its force, his body uncontrollably tilting to the side and falling over.
Ran Qingmo noticed Xu Yuan's abnormality immediately. With a flash, she supported Xu Yuan, who was about to fall, her brows slightly knit together.
"You.. what's wrong?"
Xu Yuan's vision darkened, he opened his mouth to speak, but a sweet, fishy taste surged from his throat abruptly.
"Ugh...."
A mouthful of fresh blood spilled onto the brown ground, the discomfort pushing Xu Yuan to instinctively shove Ran Qingmo away from his side, letting himself kneel on the ground.
His consciousness blurred, Xu Yuan's fingers dug deeply into the soil, overwhelmed by pain and the suffocating craving.
There was something wrong with this body.
Such pain that seemed to emanate from the depths of the soul could not possibly be caused by drug addiction.
Xu Yuan rapidly recalled information related to the original Xu Changtian in his mind, but even after pondering again and again, he still had no clue.
Formulas, game plots, related novels – none of these had ever recorded such a symptom in the original body, let alone identifying the cause.
Was it... the world's auto-correction?
A thought flashed through Xu Yuan's mind.
Even though "Cangyuan Chronicles" spanned millions of words, it was still too little for an entire world. The parts not described by text would naturally be auto-filled and perfected.
But why would the world's auto-completion cause this original body to have such a symptom?!
Xu Yuan attempted to find clues in his mind to analyze, but his consciousness was already sinking into drowsiness, the heaviness of his eyelids causing him to close his eyes in agony....
...
...
Time passed, unknown how long, until he awoke to a changed sky, the sunrise long gone.
Through his fingers, Xu Yuan vaguely saw a bright moon and stars scattered across the sky above the tree canopy, staring blankly at the night sky for a long time, with memories of before his blackout flooding back.
With a slight frown, Xu Yuan immediately sat up, his heart racing as he touched his chest, but the source of pain that had plagued his heart had vanished.
"Awake?"
The woman's light voice drew Xu Yuan's attention. Turning his gaze, Xu Yuan immediately saw the black-robed woman sitting by the tree in a familiar pose, eyes closed in meditation.
Xu Yuan looked around the area.
The environment around him had changed drastically compared to before his blackout, with the towering trees reminiscent of Pandora forest in Avatar world gone, replaced by a barren snow-capped mountain.
It seemed that Ran Qingmo had taken him far away while he was unconscious.
Xu Yuan rubbed his temples and asked softly, "How long... have I been unconscious?"
"Four days," Ran Qingmo replied.
Xu Yuan was somewhat astonished, "I've been out for that long?"
After a pause, Xu Yuan still reined in his surprise. Remembering his symptoms before the blackout, his eyes shadowed.
Now fully awake and recalling that bone-deep terror and suffocation, Xu Yuan was more certain than ever that taking drugs likely wouldn't cause such conditions.
With the personality of his original father, no one would dare to give the original body such deadly drugs, or else his entire family would be eradicated.
Could it be his constitution?
As a classical fantasy Xianxia game, "Cangyuan Chronicles" had several naturally gifted constitutions like Sword Embryo Spiritual Body or Dao Soul Divine Bones, but after thinking it through, none seemed to fit his current condition.
Xu Yuan frowned, deep in thought about the cause.
While he pondered, the woman next to him opened her serene eyes at some point, a faint voice quietly coming from beside Xu Yuan:
"Has your rejection syndrome ended?"