Peril

"Ugh... my head hurts so much... and it's so cold..." Awakening once more from the haze amid a bleak, chilly wind, a throbbing headache radiating from within and without made Xu Yuan unwilling to even open his eyes. His clothes were soaking wet. The piercing, icy wind blew against the damp fabric, continuously stripping away what little body heat he had left. Almost in an instant, Xu Yuan realized his body had developed hypothermia. Opening his eyes a fraction, memories from before he lost consciousness surged like a tide. The transmigration, the giant Buddha, and that blow to the back of his head from the woman in black. Having pieced together a rough understanding of his circumstances, Xu Yuan struggled through the pounding headache to shift his gaze and take in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a cave. It was not large, only four or five meters deep. Outside, dawn had already broken. The rain still pattered down, but without the bonfire from the temple hall, the interior of the cave was dreary and cold. The woman in black sat near the entrance with her eyes closed, resting. Her sword lay flat by her side, and right next to the blade rested a rather familiar wooden club. "......" Xu Yuan fell silent. Smacking his dry, pale lips, he shifted inch by inch until he leaned against the icy stone wall behind him. That simple movement alone left his frail body gasping for breath. In his previous life, a comfortable family background had granted him ample time and money to experience diverse ways of living, and wilderness survival expeditions were among them. Because of that past experience, Xu Yuan knew he was gravely ill. Hypothermia, a high fever, and even some dehydration. Xu Yuan looked toward the woman in black at the cave entrance, whose face remained concealed behind a thin veil. Her sleek black hair clung damply to her cheeks, and her clothes were soaked through, hugging the supple curves beneath. Taking in the sight, Xu Yuan felt not the slightest hint of romance. Instead, his blood pressure spiked so sharply he felt on the verge of a stroke. He suddenly understood why, across several storylines in *Cangyuan*, the Third Young Master, Xu Changtian, had died in such bizarre, absurd ways during his abduction. When he had recalled the plot earlier, Xu Yuan had wondered how a noble young master like Xu Changtian could die so absurdly with a master as formidable as Ran Qingmo by his side. Experiencing it firsthand gave him the answer. This idiot of a woman had actually dragged a concussed, sick patient through the freezing winter rain to this place, only to dump him on the ground and ignore him! A dreary, rainy winter night meant nothing to her, of course, but for an ordinary mortal, it was outright lethal. Silence enveloped the cave, broken only by the faint patter of rain drifting in from outside. Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan rasped in a feeble voice, "Ran Qingmo..." His voice, once as smooth and gentle as warm jade, had turned completely hoarse. Hearing him, the woman at the cave entrance slowly opened her eyes and gazed at him placidly. Panting, Xu Yuan squeezed out each word with what little strength he had: "Do... do you want me to just die here?" Behind her veil, Ran Qingmo blinked her lovely eyes slightly, then shook her head. On the matter of Xu Yuan's survival, she and Xu Yuan saw eye to eye. Enduring his body's agony, Xu Yuan pressed on: "If you don't want me to freeze to death... start a fire for me." Ran Qingmo stared at him for two seconds, blinked several times, and replied earnestly, "But I don't have a fire-striker anymore." Xu Yuan opened his mouth, then changed his question. "What about your qi?" The "qi" in this world was practically an all-purpose power source. Though this hadn't been shown in the game *Cangyuan*, in a supernatural realm where top-tier powerhouses could reduce the vast imperial capital to ruins, starting a fire ought to be child's play for the expert before him. Ran Qingmo blinked twice, rose from the ground, and walked over to Xu Yuan. She extended a slender, jade-white hand before him. A flicker of confusion crossed Xu Yuan's eyes. Soon, he saw a vortex of air quietly swirl across her palm. In the blink of an eye, a block of ice over a dozen centimeters across materialized in her hand. Holding the block of ice, Ran Qingmo seemed completely unaffected by the cold. She blinked and held it out toward him. "Will ice work?" "......" Looking at the large block of ice thrust before him, Xu Yuan instinctively wondered if she was mocking him. *What, are you trying to keep me fresh?* Yet seeing the earnest look in her eyes, Xu Yuan fought down the urge to scream in exasperation and drew a deep breath. "I am sick. I need a bonfire, hot water, and food." Hearing this, Ran Qingmo studied Xu Yuan's face for two seconds, seemingly assessing his condition. Two seconds later, she walked silently over to a travel pack set down in a corner of the cave. After rummaging through it, she pulled out a waterskin and a dry flatbread, walked back, and handed both to him. Xu Yuan looked at the food and water in his hands, then looked back at the woman. His pale, frozen lips trembled slightly. "What about the fire? Light a fire... What I need most right now is a heat source and hot water..." "But there is no fire-striker left." "......" Xu Yuan was speechless. His vision went dark for a moment. He let out a couple of bitter, breathless chuckles as a suffocating wave of dizziness rushed into his mind. The drowsiness and disorientation brought on by sickness urged him to fall into a deep slumber. Yet he knew full well that if he fell asleep now, he would probably never wake up. Quickly gathering his wits and fighting to keep his consciousness steady, Xu Yuan licked his dry lips and said, "Could you... could you channel your qi to heal my injuries?" The medical system in this world was quite primitive, yet thanks to the existence of qi, it was in some ways no worse than that of his previous life. Out here in the deep mountains and ancient woods, ordinary medicine was clearly out of the question. However, Xu Yuan remembered a clichéd scene from *Cangyuan*'s storyline where one character healed another by channeling qi. Hearing his request, Ran Qingmo tossed the ice block aside and sat down briskly before him. Disregarding any modesty between a man and a woman, she lifted his robe and pressed a long, slender finger against his lower abdomen. Feeling a cool sensation bore into his lower abdomen, Xu Yuan felt a surge of relief. Yet in the very next instant, the coolness vanished, and Ran Qingmo abruptly pulled her hand away. In the cave, the two stared at each other in silence. Xu Yuan rasped, "What's wrong?" Ran Qingmo blinked twice and whispered, "You have no qi. You will die." Xu Yuan looked down at himself. "Why?" "You have no qi." "......" Xu Yuan was at a loss for words. When a casual throwaway concept from a game became reality, the glossed-over details were naturally filled in by practical truth. Qi was indeed a miraculous substance capable of healing injuries. However, the essence of healing through qi transmission was using another person's qi to guide one's own, circulating it through opened meridians. Wherever it passed, the qi would gradually repair damaged tissue, and harmful substances would be consumed by it. Yet for an ordinary mortal who had never begun cultivation, the meridians remained completely blocked. Xu Yuan's passage was only that narrow. Ran Qingmo's qi could not enter naturally, and forcing it inside would cause him to burst. Quite literally burst open. Now understanding the mechanics, Xu Yuan sat in total silence. Leaning feebly against the freezing stone wall, he realized this body's condition was far worse than he had imagined. He lacked even the strength to peel off his wet clothes. Between the fever and the hypothermia, his thoughts were already drifting into a blur. The only thing keeping him from falling unconscious was sheer, stubborn will to survive. In his previous life, he had suffered hypothermia once during an expedition in Iceland. Fortunately, one of his companions had been a wilderness survival master on the level of Ed Stafford, and he had barely pulled through. As for now? Xu Yuan glanced at the woman beside him. Ran Qingmo sat quietly at his side, her delicate brows knitted slightly, seemingly troubled over how to solve the dilemma of her hostage dying of illness. Cared for by a frigid block of ice who knew nothing of the world, Xu Yuan did not believe he would ever wake again if he let himself drift off. He racked his brain for ways to start a fire in the wild, but ruled them out one by one. Either he lacked the tools, or he lacked the materials. Even basic friction fire was out of the question in this downpour; finding dry kindling and wood shavings was an impossible task. Amid the silence, time ticked away, minute by minute. The cave before Xu Yuan's eyes gradually dimmed. His body gave way, slumping uncontrollably toward the ground. The last image burned into his failing sight was the woman in black standing up and stepping out of the cave. *Where... is she going?* With that final thought, darkness swallowed everything.