"This..pain..ugh..' A soft and weak groan escaped from her mouth when she opened her eyes. She could feel that she was lying on a hard ground, which was completely different from the soft materials of the bed she had lied on at the medicine chamber at the Cherry Blossom Pavilion.
Her heart suddenly felt uneasy when she felt the difference, but she did not rush to conclusion and decided to calm down first.
'Looks like I got transported to some place different when I was out cold.' She increased her alertness and tried to focus her eyes before her.
At first, all she could see was blurred out bubbles and grey background before her.
"Is my penalty time over?" Le Fangling rubbed her eyes and tried to ward off the sleep and exhaustion that was still lingering on her eyelids.
She blinked twice before her eyes could finally adapt to the environment. She was lying on what seemed to be a stony ground and facing a grey sky that was filled with dark and heavy clouds.
She regained most of her senses and looked sideways to see where she was.
"A dead forest?" She exclaimed in surprise looking at the dried and dead trees, shrubs and herbs.
Suddenly, she heard low hissing sounds coming from below her feet, followed by rustling of leaves as if something was slithering and rubbing against it.
Her eyes widened in fear when she realized what it was. She immediately panicked because she saw a shiny white snake coiling itself around her feet, eyes wide open and staring at her through the round black eyes.
"Snake!" She hurriedly stood up from the ground and shook her leg vigorously to throw off the snake off from her leg.
The strength was more than enough to throw off the snake from her leg and the snake flew a few meter away from her and landed on the ground with a thud.
"Owiee…" A tiny voice cried out at the exact moment when the snake hit the ground. The snake immediately straightened itself and coiled around twice and looked at Le Fangling baring it's tiny fangs at her.
"Who was that?" Le Fangling changed her stance to a defensive stance and looked around to see who the intruder was but except for her and the little white snake, there was not another creature in sight in this deserted and dead place.
"Were you the one who spoke right now?" Le Fangling asked feeling a little idiotic at herself for asking such a question.
However, she did not know why but she felt like she might get an answer out of the cute little thingy in front of her.
The snake was silent for a while, giving Le Fangling the sense of relief that she indeed had not lost her sanity due to the shock.
"Why are you so mean? Huhuhuhu?" In a familiar voice, someone cried again, the direction of the sound came from the direction where the snake was.
The voice was painstakingly familiar to Le Fangling making her almost freeze her on the spot. She was reminded of the cute little voice of the system but the thought of the same voice coming out of a living creature was a different thing.
"Y-You can't be..?" Before she even had time to complete her sentence, the little snake cut her off and spoke.
"Yes, Yess, yesss, you got that right.." The snake slithered towards her hissing lowly. The snake stopped at a short distance from her and looked at her with a pair of shiny pitch black eyes.
"System?!" Le Fangling felt stupid calling a snake her system but it was what it was.
The snake, presumably the system nodded its spherical head.
"Why and how? Why are you a snake now?" Le Fangling tottered around the snake, making a complete circle around it.
"I cultivated!" the system spoke smugly and flashed its beautiful shiny white scales in front of Le Fangling.
"And now I can manifest in to a physical form." Wiggling her shiny tail, the system spoke. "I was just a voice in your head but now, lalalala…I am here!!"
"Wait what?? You cultivated?" Le Fangling felt as if all of her knowledge was crumbling down when she heard a system; a code of data and information could actually cultivate to become a magical entity; a living being!!
'I am not exactly living but I am not exactly dead!' The snake corrected her.
"But like you and any other creatures on this twin star continent, I too can cultivate." The system said as if it was trying to confirm that it really did cultivate.
"Wait, let me process this first." Le Fangling herself had not started cultivating so hearing that the system assigned to her had already cultivated made her a little uncomfortable.
"I think if I accumulate enough qi and cultivate, I might able to take a humanoid form as well." The snake added.
Sensing the doubts and suspicion Le Fangling was holding towards it, the system decided to explain.
"Remember when I said that I am attached to your soul , so when your spiritual energy increased, I used it to cultivate myself. Pretty impressive huh?" The snake flashed a wink at her with smug smile that looked creepily cute.
"I do remember the surge of qi inside me when I was asleep… There was a slight pain and after that, I felt myself being flooded by warm energy." Le Fangling thought for a while.
"Despite the high energy, I did not die, meaning.." Her eyes flicked twice in excitement.
"Then that means, the procedure was successful?" Le Fangling asked with sparkly eyes which suddenly dimed down when she realized one very important thing.
"Wait, you used MY spiritual energy to cultivate? Huh?" Le Fangling crouched down and looked with a frown on her face.
"Er..hiss…I only used the excess remains.." The snake tried to shrink and averted it's gaze from the judging eyes of Le Fangling.
Le Fangling: "…..", I caught you lying little girl!
"Happy partnership host!" The system spoke in a cheerful voice.
"…"
"So what now?" The snake reached to her heels and started climbing up her legs and coiled itself around her arms and shoulders.
"Hey, what are you doing? Where do you think you are climbing?" Le Fangling was startled when she felt the snake..ahemm..the system slithering all over her leg.
"I can't just crawl with you now can I?" The snake made its point and settled comfortably on her arms. Since the snake was quite small and looked like a shiny ribbon, Le Fangling reluctantly agreed.
"Hey, since you are no longer a system in my head, let me give you a name." Le Fangling offered.
"Name? It's fine but well suits yourself. I am fine with whatever." The snake replied cozily.
"Then your name will be hmm..Nagina. It means a snake you know." Le fangling spoke after thinking for a while.
"Nagina? Well, not bad." Nagina nodded her small snake head and looked before them.
"Now what?" Nagina asked Le Fangling as she scoured the surrounding for miles but could only see dead trees and dead settlement area.
"What are we going to do here?" She raised her head to look at Le Fangling's face from below but decided it was a bad idea since she could see the amplified version of her nostrils.
"What? Didn't you bring us here?" Le Fangling gave a yelp of surprise and grabbed the snake and placed it in front of her.
"Huh? Why would I trouble myself to bring you to a dead place like this..You got to be kidding me." Wriggling on her hand, Nagina hissed out her tongue.
"I don't even know where we are!"
"If I did not bring us here and you also did not bring us here, how the hell are we here?" Le Fangling quivered in anxiety as she felt an uncomfortable feeling rising in her heart.
Right at the moment, tiny droplets fell from the sky and hit Le Fangling on her forehead. She stretched out her hands sideways and spread out her palm.
Meanwhile, Nagina quickly took shelter inside le Fangling's dress and made herself safe from the incoming rain.
"Rain?!" Le Fangling looked at the grey sky and saw the clouds gathering right above them looking incredibly ominous.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of lightning which struck the ground a few feet in in front of them followed by a loud peal of thunder.