Looking at the ignited bonfire, Xu Yuan sighed softly and then chuckled.
Once upon a time, the plot of Cangyuan Chronicles, no matter how intricate, was still just a game; it was impossible to display every aspect of a complete world.
In this world with supernatural elements, much of what was once common knowledge could turn into the laughingstock for others.
Here, falling ill did not necessarily require medicine, nor did hypothermia in the wild necessarily need a bonfire for warmth.
Xu Yuan considered himself highly adaptable, but when faced with such a fundamental shift in the rules of the world, the habits he had formed over the past two decades temporarily still affected his thought patterns.
His mind wandering, Xu Yuan glanced at the python at the cave entrance.
The python had been lying there watching him ever since he woke up, as though it recognized his face.
Without much thought, although the switch from 2.5D pixel style to a first-person real perspective made a significant difference, Xu Yuan still roughly guessed the species of the python before him.
The Flame Spirit Python.
A relatively scarce elite fire attribute material monster, possessed of certain intelligence, it could be tamed to become a pet and then raised into a Flame Spirit Jiao.
Back in the game, taming this type of python was simple; you just had to beat it, a kind of Demonic Beast that was extremely lustful and afraid of death.
In the game, Xu Yuan had not favored such vulgar pets, but the Spiritual Liquid they produced was indeed valuable, as it was used in the concoction of certain Elixir Medicines that remained useful even in the later stages of the game.
Currently, he had no means to concoct Elixirs, but the Flame Spirit Liquid was a kind of heavenly treasure that could be directly utilized.
Upon recalling the description of the Flame Spirit Liquid from the formula book, Xu Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.
It could channel the power of the I Ching to nurture the marrow, remove cold diseases, nourish the Yin and bolster the Yang. Snakes are by nature lustful, with a mild stimulating... effect.
Thinking of this, Xu Yuan suddenly remembered that this substance was also one of the ingredients for the Joyful Powder, a treasured item in the heretical world of Cangyuan Chronicles.
He glanced down at the water bladder in his hand and instinctively looked over towards the other person in the cave.
After finishing everything she had been doing earlier, Ran Qingmo simply sat down cross-legged on the other side of the cave to rest with her eyes closed, her cool aura palpable even from a distance.
Xu Yuan shifted his gaze away and quietly placed the water bladder on the ground.
The Flame Spirit Liquid was indeed valuable, but given the current situation, he'd best drink less of it; otherwise, that Big Ice Lump might chop him up with nowhere to cry.
Amidst these random thoughts, Xu Yuan patted the damp brocade robe on his body and stood up, prepared to ask the python at the cave entrance to help him dry it.
The robe could be quickly dried without the need for fire, which was, in a sense, a hundred times more convenient than the dryers from his past life.
Xu Yuan's footsteps as he moved did not attract Ran Qingmo's attention; she continued to sit in quiet meditation.
Approaching the python, Xu Yuan found that his adaptability in certain aspects was really quite strong when he met the python's large vertical pupils.
At first sight, he had been scared, but now he could meet its gaze calmly.
During this eye contact between man and snake, Xu Yuan raised his hand to point at his robe.
The Flame Spirit Python simply lay there, quietly watching him, motionless.
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and pointed at Ran Qingmo next to him.
An almost human-like disdain appeared in the python's vertical pupils, and then it sincerely opened its mouth and stuck out its tongue.
As the tongue emerged, a dry and scorching sensation immediately enveloped him, and the moisture on the brocade robe evaporated at a visible speed.
The warm wave brought by the python's tongue felt quite comfortable on his body.
For a moment, the cave was steeped in silence.
Just as Xu Yuan's brocade robe was about to be thoroughly dried,
Suddenly, disaster struck!
The once docile and shrinking Flame Spirit Python's large vertical pupils flashed with a trace of insane murderous intent, and the tongue that had been sticking out turned into a shadow mixed with scorching heat, striking towards Xu Yuan's head!
If such an immense creature's attack hit, Xu Yuan's head would explode without any room for negotiation.
This time, Xu Yuan saw it, but an ordinary person's body simply had no means to dodge an attack at such speed.
The breath of death enshrouded him like a tide, and all he could do was watch as the snake's tongue, hammer-like, came smashing toward his head with a fierce wind.
In that life-and-death moment,
a blue sword light unexpectedly sliced through the space, and the spreading heat was instantly consumed by the relentless cold!
And that black silhouette had already positioned itself in front of him at an imperceptible speed.
"Crack—"
A crisp sound, and the long, hefty snake's tongue was severed, falling to the cold ground, where the remaining nerves caused it to continue to twitch.
The cave fell silent for an instant,
"Hssssss!!!"
A sharp, agonized scream resounded as the Flame Spirit Python's massive body began to struggle uncontrollably, shaking the cave to its core.
Standing in front of Xu Yuan, Ran Qingmo's pair of tranquil eyes calmly stared at the giant python, her hand gently resting on the hilt of her sword, as she nonchalantly swung her blade.
Without a sound, a slash that extended across the entire cave appeared on the inner wall of the entrance, and through this cut, the gloomy rainy weather outside was clearly visible.
And at the entrance, the previously thrashing Flame Spirit Python suddenly stiffened.
Ran Qingmo sheathed her sword and slowly turned to look at Xu Yuan:
"What.. are you doing?"
Following the woman's faint voice, the head of the Flame Spirit Python was diagonally slashed in two and quietly slid off...
"....."
Xu Yuan watched this scene before him, not making a reply, and bit his lip hard.
There was no sense of relief for having been rescued, instead, a bone-chilling coldness gradually rose in his heart.
Demonic beasts like the Flame Spirit Python are not low in intelligence, are lewd by nature and fear death, preferring to live even a moment longer rather than recklessly risking their lives.
Yet this Flame Spirit Python had just now attempted to kill him under Ran Qingmo's watchful eye.
Xu Yuan clenched his fists tighter and tighter.
Only something that it deeply feared could have forced it to act this way.
Looking at the massive body of the Flame Spirit Python, Xu Yuan suddenly felt a sense of fear.
If he had carelessly entered the attack range of the Flame Spirit Python when Ran Qingmo had gone out to pick up firewood, by the time she returned, he might have already become a corpse.
In the plot of "Cangyuan Chronicles," the Third Young Master of Xu Family faced nine separate deaths on the road after being kidnapped by Ran Qingmo, each different from the last.
Dying of hypothermia was just one of them because of Ran Qingmo's lack of common knowledge and negligence.
Drowning in a stream less than half a meter deep, falling off a cliff, getting knocked dead by a wooden stick...
The various unlucky deaths of the Third Young Master across different timelines were often joked about by players, but at this moment, Xu Yuan couldn't bring himself to laugh.
Upon close reflection, these abstract forms of death and his suicide by a gunshot in his past life were no different.
It wasn't an accident,
someone wanted him dead within the Wanxing Mountain Range.
The rain outside continued to fall, the sky dark and gloomy.
Xu Yuan let out a long breath, raised his eyes to look at the woman clad in black in front of him, and took a deep breath:
"Mr. Ran, we need to talk."