Chapter 10: Illness

A few seconds later, Ran Qingmo descended from the sky, clutching a giant white tiger in his hands, and slammed it hard onto the ground.

The enormous body of the white tiger—stretching two zhang in length—was in Ran Qingmo’s grasp like a large cat, pinned down by the force of his hand pressing against its nape, motionless on the earth.

When he released his grip, he pointed at the white tiger lying on the ground and walked toward Xu Yuan, whispering softly:

"Can it, do you think?"

Xu Yuan said nothing.

As soon as Ran Qingmo let go, the massive tiger quietly lifted its head, its vertical pupils gleaming with a cold, unblinking hostility, fixed firmly upon the back of Ran Qingmo’s neck.

Then,

in that instant, the great white tiger surged forward, attempting to demonstrate in front of Ran Qingmo what it meant to have no freedom—only to die.

The giant white tiger lunged violently toward the delicate figure of the woman, only to be struck squarely on the skull by Ran Qingmo’s sword hilt in a swift, retaliatory motion.

In that moment,

Xu Yuan faintly saw the white giant tiger soaring in the sky, its eyes blurred and wounded, nearly lifting into the heavens.

"Boom!"

The colossal form of the white tiger dissolved into a blur, crashing backward and striking hard against the root of a towering tree hundreds of meters away, a tree stretching skyward over a hundred meters tall.

Ran Qingmo's steps toward Xu Yuan halted. She turned her gaze toward the tiger, her expression tinged with disappointment, whispering softly:

"It seems still not ready..."

She murmured to Xu Yuan, "Wait a moment," then picked up her sword and strode toward the rising dust.

A moment of silence passed. Then, from the swirling smoke, a white blur erupted violently—but it did not rush toward Ran Qingmo. Instead, it rolled and scrambled, fleeing desperately into the deep forest beyond.

A human woman—what a terror. It had to escape.

Ran Qingmo leapt forward with a single step, vanishing from her spot.

"Bang!"

A deep boom shattered the stillness of the forest, rousing a flurry of birds into flight.

Ran Qingmo landed steadily, glanced at the massive tiger whose head had been driven into the earth, motionless and still, and silently reached out, gripping the fur on its head. Pulling it gently, she moved forward, slow and deliberate, toward Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan watched the scene before him, a flicker of emotion crossing his eyes.

Standing still, Ran Qingmo nodded to Xu Yuan:

"It should be safe now. Try it."

Xu Yuan opened his mouth, glanced at the large white tiger lying motionless on the ground.

The tiger's eyes were half-closed, clearly feigning death, its gaze carrying a subtle warning toward Xu Yuan.

Beasts of the supernatural all possessed intelligence—some high, some low. By now, the great white tiger had clearly understood that this terrifying human woman intended to offer it as a mount to the man before him.

Xu Yuan remained silent for a moment, trusting Ran Qingmo's strength, and took one cautious step forward, then another, toward the tiger lying still upon the ground.

As he stepped within range—

The white tiger's half-closed eyes snapped open, fixing on Xu Yuan. Its head tilted slightly, and a low, warning growl rose from its throat:

"Roar..."

A man may be killed, but never humiliated.

"Bang!"

The woman standing beside him reacted instantly, drawing her sword from its scabbard.

"Oooww..." The white tiger lowered its head, deeply moved.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan reached up, grasping the fur and climbing onto its back.

The tiger's fur was soft, yielding, warm to the touch—a sensation reminiscent of petting a cat from a previous life.

Xu Yuan gently stroked the tiger's head twice, only to find several swollen lumps beneath the surface.

"Roar..." the tiger snapped its teeth and growled lowly.

"Boom!" Another bundle had been added.

"Woo..." Bai Hu quietly lowered his head.

Ran Qingmo slowly drew her sword back into its sheath, speaking softly:

"Let's go."

As she spoke, she glanced sideways at Bai Hu.

One glance from Ran Qingmo caused Xu Yuan to feel the great white tiger beneath him tremble. He didn't immediately rise, but instead gently nudged her black robe with his head.

Xu Yuan saw this and found himself wanting to smile, his lips just beginning to curve upward when a tightness in his chest, mixed with a faint itching sensation, suddenly spread through his mind.

"......."

The smile froze. Xu Yuan furrowed his brow.

Over the past few days, this itching sensation had already plagued him several times.

It was roughly the addictive effect of the original body's "drug use"—as long as one endured half a minute, the sensation would naturally fade away.

Just as Xu Yuan was about to open his mouth and delay his progress, the itching sensation deep within his chest suddenly erupted like a disease, spreading wildly and transforming within seconds into a feverish, uncontrollable craving.

A sharp wave of suffocation struck Xu Yuan instantly, and his vision turned black.

Without thinking, Xu Yuan clutched the soft fur of the white tiger beneath him to steady himself, but waves of dizziness surged upward, bending his once-straight spine gradually. His hands, tightly gripping the fur, slowly loosened, and his body slipped sideways, collapsing uncontrollably.

Ran Qingmo sensed Xu Yuan’s sudden change at once, darting forward to catch him just before he fell. Her dark brows furrowed slightly:

"Wh-what's wrong with you?"

Xu Yuan's vision blurred, his mouth opening to speak—only for a sudden, bitter sweetness to surge from his throat.

"Ah—!"

A large gush of blood splattered onto the brown ground. The agony made Xu Yuan instinctively push away Ran Qingmo, who was supporting him, and he half-sank to his knees on the earth.

His consciousness blurred. Pain and the suffocating craving overwhelmed him, driving his fingers deep into the soil.

This body... has a problem.

This pain, emanating from the very core of the soul, couldn't be caused by drug use.

Xu Yuan rapidly recalled every detail about the original body, Xu Changtian, but no matter how many times he strained his mind, he found himself utterly lost.

No formula books, no game narratives, no related novels mentioned such symptoms in the original body—let alone offered any explanation.

Could it be... the world's automatic completion?

A thought flashed through Xu Yuan's mind.

Even though "Cangyuan" contained millions of words, for an entire world, that still amounted to far too little. The unspoken gaps left by those words would naturally be filled in by the world's own logic.

But why would such world completion manifest as symptoms in the original body?!

Xu Yuan tried to trace a clue, analyze it logically, but his consciousness was already growing heavy, the weight of his eyelids pressing down with unbearable force—his eyes shut painfully, slowly...

...

...

It was unclear how long had passed before he awoke again—the stars had shifted, the morning sun no longer in sight.

Through the gaps between his fingers, Xu Yuan could still catch a glimpse of a full moon beyond the tree canopy, mingling with the endless expanse of stars. He stared blankly into the night sky for a long time, memories from before his unconsciousness rising like tides in his mind.

His brow furrowed slightly. Without hesitation, Xu Yuan sat up, instinctively touching his chest with a lingering sense of dread. Yet the painful presence that had once gripped his heart was now completely gone.

"Wake up?"

A soft, gentle voice caught his attention. Turning his gaze, Xu Yuan immediately saw the black-robed woman seated in her familiar posture beside the tree, eyes closed in stillness.

Xu Yuan glanced around.

The surroundings had changed utterly since he had last been unconscious. The towering, Avatar-like trees of Pandora’s forest were gone, replaced by a vast, barren snow-covered mountain range.

Clearly, during his unconscious state, Ran Qingmo had carried him far away.

Rubbing his temples gently, Xu Yuan murmured, "How long... was I unconscious?"

"Four days." Ran Qingmo said.

Xu Yuan was slightly surprised: "I've been unconscious for this long?"

Pausing briefly, Xu Yuan still managed to suppress his astonishment, recalling the symptoms before he lost consciousness, a shadow of gloom now flickering in his eyes.

Now awake, remembering the bone-deep terror and suffocating pain that had once gripped him, Xu Yuan was even more certain that drug ingestion could not have caused such a state.

With his original father's temperament, who would dare administer such a lethal substance to the original body? The entire family lineage would be erased, every clan wiped out.

Could it be his constitution?

As a wuxia-style fantasy rooted in Chinese tradition, "Cangyuan" features certain naturally gifted body types—such as sword-embryo bodies or Dao-soul divine bones—but after careful consideration, none of them seemed to match his current condition.

Xu Yuan furrowed his brows, pondering the cause.

As he thought, the woman beside him, whose eyes had been so quietly serene, slowly opened, her voice soft and delicate drifting from beside him:

"Your condition of abnormality—has it ended?"