As the freezing stream water poured into my nostrils, my final thought was that Xiao Longnü’s palm strike really pulled no punches.
When I came to, I was lying by the creek like a dead fish, the arrow wound on my chest burning with pain. Miraculously, my phone was still in my pants pocket; it was soaked, but amazingly it still powered on—thank goodness for the build quality of domestic phones!
"Dragon Girl! Yang Guo!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but only the valley echoes answered.
The sun was already slanting westward, and I was completely soaked, my teeth chattering from the cold. Xiao Longnü’s palm strike had sent me flying at least three miles, and now I couldn't even tell which direction the Ancient Tomb Sect was in.
"Fine. Wilderness survival mode activated," I muttered to myself, wringing out the hem of my clothes.
A Swiss Army knife, half a bottle of whiskey, and a lighter—that was my entire fortune. Oh, and that waterlogged phone, though the camera function still worked.
I first found a large tree and used the knife to whittle some dry branches. The lighter still miraculously worked, and soon I had a fire going. As I took off my shirt to dry it, I checked the wound on my chest—the white gauze bandaging had long been washed away by the stream, revealing a ferocious arrow hole with edges glowing an unnatural bluish hue.
"Infected?" I frowned, quickly pouring a bit of whiskey over it to disinfect.
"Hiss—" The agonizing burn of the alcohol on the wound almost made me bite my tongue off. But it actually felt much better afterward, and the true qi within my body began to circulate automatically, feeling as warm as a built-in electric blanket.
As the sky grew dim, my stomach began to protest. I made a makeshift spear and squatted by the stream to wait. When the true qi surged into my eyes, my vision suddenly became abnormally clear, allowing me to clearly see small fish swimming at the bottom of the stream!
"Even this works?" I blinked in surprise, raising the spear and bringing it down with pinpoint accuracy to strike a fat fish.
As the aroma of the roasted fish drifted up, I suddenly wondered if Xiao Longnü and Yang Guo had made it to safety. That crazy woman Li Mochou and the masked man were clearly after me, so they shouldn't give the Ancient Tomb Sect insiders a hard time... right?
Gnawing on the salt-free roasted fish, I opened my phone gallery to look at the Ancient Tomb murals I had photographed earlier. Zooming in on those strange patterns, the more I looked at them, the more they resembled blueprints for some kind of energy device. Even more bizarrely, when I traced those lines on the screen with my finger, the true qi inside my body actually began to flow along with them!
"What the hell..." I quickly closed the image, and the true qi returned to its calm state.
Late at night, I climbed up a tree and found a sturdy branch to sleep on—afraid of snakes on the ground. In my sleep, the true qi circulated on its own, and I unconsciously rolled over among the branches, ending up dropping lightly to the ground like a feather without making the slightest sound.
"Holy shit!" I jolted awake, looking at the branch three meters above the ground. "Did I... just learn Qinggong?"
Trying to recall the mental techniques Xiao Longnü had taught me, I leaped forward—and actually jumped onto a two-meter-high rock! Unfortunately, my landing was unsteady, and I fell flat on my face in the dirt.
"Looks like it's only semi-automatic..." I rubbed my knees with a wry smile.
Over the next three days, I lived the life of a primitive man. In the morning I caught fish with the spear, at noon I picked wild berries, and in the afternoon I tried different methods to purify water—using my t-shirt as a filter cloth, then boiling it for disinfection. My phone battery was down to 20%, so I grudgingly avoided using it, only turning it on for a few minutes each day to record some survival footage.
On the fourth morning, I found a trail of footprints by the creek—small, clearly a woman's. My heartbeat accelerated abruptly, and I tracked the footprints, eventually finding an arrow made of pebbles under a tree.
"Dragon Girl!" I was overjoyed and immediately sprinted in the direction the arrow pointed.
After running about two miles, a bamboo grove appeared before me. In the grove sat a flat, smooth boulder with a bamboo tube resting on top of it. Opening it, I found medicinal porridge that was still warm!
"This is... for me?" I cradled the bamboo tube and grinned stupidly, devouring the contents and licking the bottom clean.
Only after finishing did I notice a small character carved into the bottom of the bamboo tube: "An". It was Xiao Longnü’s handwriting! She was fine, and she even knew I was here!
I hopped around on the rock for a good while before deciding to leave a message of my own. Using my pocketknife, I carved into a piece of bamboo: "Alive, missing you. —Huanxi", and placed it in a prominent spot.
The days that followed became our "secret game." Every day I could find food or medicinal herbs at a fixed location, sometimes roasted wild chicken, sometimes herbs for healing. In return, I would leave little "gifts"—woven flower crowns, fireflies I caught (kept in a hollow bamboo segment), and even heart shapes made of wild berries.
On the tenth day, I finally couldn't help myself and hid near the food drop spot before dawn. In the morning mist, a white figure fluttered gracefully into view. Even from a hundred meters away, I instantly recognized that it was Xiao Longnü!
She set down the food box and saw my "masterpiece" from yesterday—two little figures sculpted from mud, one wearing a skirt, one wearing pants, holding hands. Although their shapes were as abstract as alien creatures, the sentiment was clear.
Xiao Longnü stared at the mud figures for a long time, then suddenly reached out and touched the hands of "her" and "me" joined together. The morning breeze stirred her veil, and I clearly saw the upward curve of the corners of her mouth.
At that moment, the arrow wound on my chest didn't hurt at all. Just as I was about to reveal myself, I instinctively dropped low to the ground, overcome by a sudden alertness—there was a third person!
Xiao Longnü clearly sensed it too, instantly wiping away her soft expression as her maiden's sword flashed from its scabbard: "Who goes there?"
An old man dressed as a woodcutter emerged from the bushes, but his eyes were far too bright; it was clearly a disguise.
"Don't be alarmed, miss," the old man said with a cupped-fist salute, "this old man is just a villager from down the mountain, up here gathering herbs..."
As if I'd believe that! I narrowed my eyes, my true qi automatically focusing my vision, and clearly saw the calluses on the old man's tiger claws—hands that had wielded a sword for years!
Xiao Longnü clearly didn't believe it either, her sword tip remaining utterly steady: "This is the forbidden ground of the Ancient Tomb. Leave at once."
The old man chuckled sheepishly and stepped back, but suddenly flicked his wrist to scatter a handful of powder! Xiao Longnü had been prepared; she flicked her sleeve to deflect it while her sword flashed like a rainbow straight for his throat.
The old man scrambled to dodge, but his disguise was still torn open, revealing black garments underneath—the exact same attire as Li Mochou's accomplices!
"What is your true purpose?" Xiao Longnü's sword moves were fierce, forcing the old man to retreat step after step.
"Hehe, why must the little lady fly into a rage..." the old man sneered, "We only want that transmigrator brat. Hand him over and it'll be good for everyone..."
My heart gave a jolt—how did they know I was a transmigrator?
Xiao Longnü sneered. "Wishful thinking." Her sword techniques shifted abruptly as she unleashed the Jade Maiden's Pure Heart Sword Technique to its full extent. The old man was soon unable to parry, taking a slash to the shoulder.
"Fall back!" He threw down a smoke bomb and used the opportunity to flee for his life.
As the smoke cleared, Xiao Longnü didn't give chase, instead scanning her surroundings vigilantly as if checking for other ambushes. Finally, she returned to the boulder, hesitated for a moment, and actually tucked the mud figures I had made carefully into her sleeve before drifting away.
I didn't show myself until noon, only to find today's food box exceptionally lavish—with meat, vegetables, and a small porcelain vial containing pills for treating internal injuries.
Carved into the bottom of the bamboo tube was a single word: "Cautious."
I stroked that character, grinning stupidly for quite a while. She cared about me! Even if it was just one word, this was Xiao Longnü's way of showing she cared!
That afternoon in the bamboo grove, I experimented with my newly discovered "semi-automatic qinggong." As the circulation of my true qi grew smoother and smoother, I was already able to easily leap to the five-meter-high tips of the bamboo stalks, then drift gently down like a feather.
"If I were back in the future, I'd at least win a high jump gold medal for this..." I thought smugly, when a sudden flash of inspiration struck me.
Using my pocketknife to cut down some bamboo, I spent an entire day making a makeshift glider. The next morning, I placed it at the food drop spot, accompanied by a bamboo slip with instructions: "Want to fly? —Huanxi"
The return gift I received that day was a white undershirt, clearly Xiao Longnü's own, as it carried her unique cool fragrance. Embroidered in red thread on the garment was a tiny character: "An".
I held the clothes like a lovesick fanatic, sniffing them over and over before finally deciding not to wear them, carefully wrapping them up to keep close to my heart.
This "pen pal" life continued for half a month. My wounds were mostly healed, and my qinggong had also improved immensely. But the appearance of Li Mochou's accomplices made me uneasy—they were clearly looking for me, and they knew I was a transmigrator.
On the morning of the twentieth day, I saw no food box at the food drop spot; instead, I found arrows drawn on the ground with tree branches, pointing toward the Ancient Tomb.
My heartbeat accelerated as I followed the markers all the way, finally spotting that white figure I had longed for by the waterfall behind the Ancient Tomb.
Xiao Longnü stood by the pool with her back to me, her long hair cascading like a waterfall. Hearing my footsteps, she didn't turn around, simply saying softly, "Wounds healed?"
Those three simple words made my nose sting. I slowly walked to her side, maintaining a half-step distance. "Yeah, thanks to someone sending meals every day."
She turned her profile toward her shoulder, sunlight filtering through the mist to hang tiny, delicate rainbows on her eyelashes. For the first time, I saw her eyes clearly up close—not pure black, but carrying a faint amber hue, like aged whiskey.
"Those people are still looking for you," she said, staring straight ahead. "They call you a 'transmigrator'."
I took a deep breath. "Dragon Girl, actually I..."
"No need to explain," she interrupted me. "Everyone has secrets."
The sound of the roaring water filled the air as we stood side by side. After a long silence, she suddenly asked, "Do you want to go back?"
"I..." I turned my head to look at her. "What if I said no?"
Finally, she turned her face to meet my gaze. Just as the atmosphere was turning wonderfully tender, my stomach suddenly let out a massive, rumbling growl.
The corners of Xiao Longnü's mouth twitched upward. "Hungry?"
"Super hungry!" I rubbed my stomach. "Eating nothing but wild game for half a month has me craving the Ancient Tomb's honey."
She nodded gently. "Follow me."
I walked behind her, watching her fluttering white robes, suddenly feeling that these twenty days of wilderness living had been completely worth it. As we walked, her steps paused slightly, and without turning her head, she murmured, "...The mud figures were ugly."
I grinned broadly. "But you liked them."
She didn't deny it.