Chapter 5 Awakening

Consciousness faded.

Xu Yuan felt as though he had come to an endless void, enveloped by boundless darkness and cold.

He lost all his senses.

There was no passage of time.

After an indeterminate amount of time, loneliness and despair filled him completely.

Had he died?

Xu Yuan felt that he must have died.

Being taken care of by Big Ice Lump, clueless of common sense, under hypothermia and fever, there was no way he could have survived.

No matter how much he feared death when he was alive, when it truly came, only a sense of relief remained.

At this moment, Xu Yuan even thought the sensation of death wasn't too bad.

He could feel a warm touch continuously flowing past his lips, a little even entering his mouth.

It was a liquid.

Somewhat fishy, yet somewhat sweet.

It tasted good.

Like cracked soil long deprived, now moistened by welcome rain, the impulse to swallow and savor took over all instinct.

With the intake of the warm, sweet, fishy liquid, waves of warmth began to spread through his limbs and bones, dispelling the chill.

Huh?

Wait a moment.

If he was dead, why could he still drink?

As this odd thought surfaced, his lost senses began to return bit by bit to consciousness, and finally, he clearly heard the sound of "gulp, gulp, gulp" as he swallowed.

He slowly opened his eyes, his unfocused pupils making the vision before him somewhat blurred and distorted.

Accompanying the "gulp, gulp" swallowing sounds, the scene that Xu Yuan's unfocused eyes saw gradually became clear.

He saw those... faint eyes.

His muddled consciousness made Xu Yuan somewhat unclear about his current situation, and he watched the other for two seconds before unconsciously tilting his head.

The moment he moved, an ice-cold hand pressed his head firmly, preventing any movement.

It was Ran Qingmo.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth to speak and noticed a water bag's nozzle in it, with warm liquid continuously flowing into his throat.

As his awareness became clearer, Xu Yuan slowly clenched his fists tighter, beginning to struggle, but the other's strength was too great.

The feeling of being forcibly watered was not pleasant, not to mention that the nozzle of the water bag was quite long, with liquid continuously pouring down his throat.

Their gazes met.

Xu Yuan tried hard to swallow while blinking forcefully.

Ran Qingmo also blinked, then nodded at him.

"...." Xu Yuan.

After several seconds of silence, his face gradually turned red, and the sound of the water pouring became the sole noise in the cave.

In this moment,

Xu Yuan finally understood why his girlfriends from a past life had hit him so hard on the thigh.

As the liquid emptied, Ran Qingmo put away the water bag and silently got up to leave.

After the other left, the restraint was gone.

The sensation of nearly suffocating made Xu Yuan gasp for air as if reborn, and he slowly sat up, wanting to curse in anger, but before he could speak, he was startled and looked at his own body.

With the pouring of that liquid, his body, which had been cold to the bone, was gradually warming up. The heat dispersed quickly, visibly spreading from his stomach to his limbs and bones at an incredible rate, and the accumulated chill within his body gradually vanished.

It was an unprecedented experience, hundreds of times faster than the special medicine from his previous life.

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

Xu Yuan's voice was still a bit hoarse, but he was no longer as weak as before.

As he spoke, Xu Yuan looked towards Ran Qingmo's retreating back, only to suddenly discover that the cave had warmed up considerably, and a faint mist filled the air.

Just as confusion sprouted in his heart,

Xu Yuan's gaze swept across, and the scene before his eyes almost made him pass out.

Since transmigrating, every time he woke up, it had been almost a challenge to the limits of Xu Yuan's psychological and physiological endurance.

The entrance of the cave was an oval shape with a radius of two meters,

and it was such an unremarkable cave entrance that was now almost completely blocked by a huge head.

It was a giant python.

Two fangs protruded from its mouth, and a pair of slit eyes stared ominously into the cave. Its body was covered in fire-red scales, as if they were ablaze, with a horn on its head casting a faint golden glow, and huge fleshy wings on either side of its head gently writhing with its breath.

Rain poured down on this python... or rather, demon snake, and the high temperature on its scales immediately gave off clouds of steam.

The mist spread, turning the cave into something akin to a realm of immortals.

What is this....?

Xu Yuan struggled to stand up and began to retreat slowly backwards.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of a giant python lying close by, staring at him.

His views from his previous life made it hard for him to accept this at the moment.

Transmigration... shouldn't there be a beginner's village to get used to things?

Was this giant python something one could encounter in a beginner's village?

While Xu Yuan was in a state of shock, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the figure in black already leaping onto the massive head of the demon snake.

Through the hazy rain and the dim light filtering through it,

Xu Yuan followed the movements of the black figure and saw a crystal-clear ice spike behind the python's head, looking as transparent as a crystal.

One massive ice spike had impaled the huge python's vulnerable spot, pinning it to the ground outside the cave!

Ran Qingmo directed the mouth of the water bladder towards the sharp horn on top of the demon snake's head and knocked on its hard scales with her scabbard.

The python, as if resigned to its fate, closed its eyes. Little by little, droplets of golden liquid seeped out from its horn and dripped into the water bladder.

As the bladder filled up, the aura of the demon snake visibly weakened a great deal.

Ran Qingmo jumped down from the snake and handed the water bladder to Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan received it with a placid expression, partly because he was still not quite back to reality.

After passing the water bladder to Xu Yuan, Ran Qingmo looked around the cave for a moment, blinked twice as if remembering something, then turned and ran silently back into the curtain of rain.

Staring blankly in the direction she had gone, Xu Yuan's thoughts began to work stiffly.

Looking at the giant python blocking the entrance, Xu Yuan realized that in order to save him, Big Ice Lump had beaten this creature half to death and dragged it back.

The rain continued to fall steadily, and the woman's figure completely disappeared into the rain.

About a minute later,

Ran Qingmo came back from the rain, her arms full of a large bundle of wet wood, which scattered droplets of water as they hit the dry ground.

Ignoring Xu Yuan's surprised gaze, Ran Qingmo set the bundle of wood down about two meters away from Xu Yuan, quietly arranging them into a bonfire shape.

It looked as though she was preparing to light a fire with the damp wood.

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

But at this moment, Ran Qingmo had already flashed to the side of the python's head, her eyes serene, as she knocked against its skull with her scabbard.

The python, apparently frightened, gave Ran Qingmo a wary glance, opened its mouth and extended its long, slender tongue. Suddenly, a scorching heat filled the cave.

The bundle of drenched wood dried visibly fast, and then with just a light touch from the slender tongue to the pile of sticks,

A spark lit up, brightening the cold stone walls of the cave.

Xu Yuan opened his mouth, then silently swallowed the words he was about to say.