Awakening

Consciousness faded. Xu Yuan felt as though he had drifted into a boundless void, enveloped in endless darkness and freezing cold. He had lost all five senses. Time ceased to flow. He had no idea how long it had been. Loneliness and despair saturated his entire being. Was he... dead? Xu Yuan thought he probably was. Suffering from both hypothermia and fever while being looked after by that senseless block of ice, there was no way he could have survived, no matter how one looked at it. Regardless of how much he had feared death while alive, now that it had actually arrived, all that remained was relief. At this moment, Xu Yuan even felt that death did not seem so bad. He could sense something warm trickling continuously against his lips; a little of it even slipped into his mouth. It was a liquid. Slightly metallic, yet faintly sweet. It tasted wonderful. Like parched, cracked earth nourished at long last by sweet rain, the instinct to swallow and suckle overtook everything else. As the warm, metallic-sweet liquid was steadily drawn in, waves of warmth began to spread through his limbs and bones, driving out the biting chill. Wait. If he was dead, why could he still drink? The moment this strange thought surfaced, his lost senses began trickling back into consciousness. Finally, he distinctly heard the sounds of swallowing—*gulp, gulp, gulp*. He slowly opened his eyes. His unfocused pupils rendered the scene before him a hazy, distorted blur. Accompanied by the steady *gulp, gulp* of his swallowing, the sight before his unfocused eyes gradually sharpened. He saw those calm, indifferent eyes. His muddled awareness left him unable to grasp the situation for a moment. After staring at her for two seconds, he instinctively tilted his head. The moment he moved, a small, cold hand pressed firmly down on his head, keeping him from moving. It was Ran Qingmo. Xu Yuan parted his lips to speak, only to realize that the spout of a waterskin was shoved into his mouth, its warm liquid steadily pouring down his throat. As his mind cleared further, Xu Yuan clenched his fists and began to struggle, but she was far too strong. Being force-fed liquid was never pleasant, let alone when the waterskin's spout was rather long, sending an unending stream gushing down his throat. Their eyes met. Xu Yuan swallowed desperately while blinking hard at her. Ran Qingmo blinked back, then gave him a nod. "......" Xu Yuan. After a dozen seconds of silence, his face grew redder and redder, the gurgling sound of forced drinking the only noise in the cave. At this moment, Xu Yuan finally understood why the girlfriends he had dated in his past life would slap his thigh so hard. Once the liquid ran dry, Ran Qingmo pulled the waterskin away and silently rose to leave. With her departure, the restraint vanished. The suffocating sensation broken, Xu Yuan gasped for air as if reborn. Slowly pushing himself upright, he wanted to lash out with a barrage of curses, but before the words could leave his mouth, he lifted his hands in shock to examine his body. Following the influx of that liquid, his bone-chillingly cold body was actually beginning to warm up. The heat spread rapidly, diffusing from his stomach through his limbs and bones at an astonishing speed, dispelling the accumulated chill within him bit by bit. It was an unprecedented sensation, more than a hundred times faster than any miracle cure from his past life. "What... what did you feed me?" Xu Yuan's voice was still raspy, but no longer nearly as weak as before. As he spoke, he looked toward Ran Qingmo's retreating back, only to suddenly notice that the cave had grown considerably warmer, and a faint mist hung in the air. No sooner had confusion stirred in his mind than his gaze swept past her, and the sight before him nearly made him faint on the spot. Ever since transmigrating here, every time he woke up, it practically pushed the limits of his psychological and physical endurance. The cave entrance was an oval roughly two meters in radius. And this completely unremarkable cave entrance was now almost entirely blocked by an enormous head. It was a giant python. Two fangs protruded from its mouth, and a pair of half-lidded, slit-pupiled serpent eyes glared ominously into the cave. Its scales were fiery crimson, resembling burning flames; a single horn atop its head gave off a faint golden light, and massive fleshy wings on either side of its skull gently rippled with its breathing. Rain cascaded down onto the body of this giant python—or rather, serpent demon—and the scorching heat from its scales instantly sent billows of steam rising into the air. As the mist drifted, the cave took on the appearance of an immortal realm. What in the world was this? Xu Yuan struggled to his feet, stepping backward inch by inch. Opening his eyes only to find such a giant python coiled nearby, staring right at him... The worldview of his past life made this impossible to accept all at once. Shouldn't a transmigration story come with a beginner village to ease you in? Was a door-blocking giant python the kind of thing you were supposed to meet in a beginner village? While Xu Yuan was reeling in shock, the corner of his eye caught sight of that graceful, black-clad figure leaping atop the serpent demon's massive head. Through the hazy drizzle and the faint light filtering through the curtain of rain, Xu Yuan followed her movements and spotted a crystal-clear icicle behind the python's head. A massive icicle that had pierced right through the colossal beast's seven-inch vital spot, pinning it to the ground outside the cave! Ran Qingmo aimed the spout of her waterskin at the sharp horn atop the demon's head and tapped its tough scales with her scabbard. As if resigning itself to fate, the python closed its eyes. Specks of golden liquid seeped from its horn, trickling down the spout into the waterskin drop by drop. Once the skin was filled, the serpent demon's aura withered noticeably. Ran Qingmo hopped down from the beast and extended the waterskin toward Xu Yuan. Xu Yuan accepted it with a blank look, simply because his mind had not yet caught up. After handing over the waterskin, Ran Qingmo glanced around the cave, blinked twice as if remembering something, and silently turned to dash into the rain. Staring blankly in the direction she had gone, Xu Yuan's frozen thoughts slowly began to turn. Looking at the giant python blocking the entrance, Xu Yuan realized that to save him, that block of ice had simply beaten this thing half to death and dragged it all the way back here. The rain drizzled on, and the woman's figure vanished completely into the curtain of water. About a minute later, Ran Qingmo returned from the rain cradling an armful of soaking wet firewood, water splashing onto the dry ground in an instant. Utterly oblivious to Xu Yuan's bewildered gaze, Ran Qingmo set the bundle of wood on the ground two meters away from him and silently arranged the branches into a campfire pyre. She looked as though she meant to build a fire with wet wood. Watching her actions, Xu Yuan smiled wryly, instinctively preparing to speak up and stop her. Yet by then, Ran Qingmo had already darted over to the python's head. Her gaze serene, she tapped its skull with her scabbard. The giant python, evidently terrified of her beatings, cast her a cowering glance. It opened its mouth and flicked out its long, slender tongue; an instant later, a wave of scorching heat surged through the cave. The bundle of waterlogged firewood was steamed dry at a visible speed, and then, with a light tap of that slender serpent tongue against the kindling, a spark of fire flared to life, illuminating the cold stone walls of the cave. Xu Yuan parted his lips, then silently swallowed back whatever he had been about to say.