Yuan stood up and walked toward Lin Shengsheng with a lazy stride.
He lowered his head and gently, with a hint of ingratiation, rubbed his massive, furry head against Lin Shengsheng’s slender shoulder.
“Grrr… grrrrr…”
From deep within his throat came a low, prolonged, engine-like rumble.
The coarse fur brushing against Lin Shengsheng’s exposed skin sent a faint shiver through her.
Lin Shengsheng’s body froze instantly.
What… what was he doing?
Acting cute?
Before she could figure it out, Yuan nudged her hand gently with his damp, enormous nose.
His golden vertical pupils held a clear sense of anticipation and urgency.
As if saying:
That was delicious just now.
Another serving, please.
Lin Shengsheng looked into his eyes, which were practically screaming “Feed me,” then glanced at the antelope skeleton in the corner—now nothing but skin and bones—and forced a smile that looked even more pitiful than tears.
“Th-there’s… none left…”
She wanted to tell him that the ingredients were all gone, and today’s “service” was over.
But she didn’t even have the strength to speak.
An overwhelming sense of weakness washed over her like a tide.
The world began to spin and fade before her eyes.
All sounds rapidly drifted away, leaving only a deafening roar in her ears.
Thud.
Lin Shengsheng’s vision went dark, her body went limp, and she collapsed forward.
In the final second before her consciousness sank completely into darkness, her survival instinct made her reach out blindly, clutching desperately at the nearest, massive, warm source of heat.
Like a drowning person clinging to the only piece of driftwood.
Yuan was momentarily stunned by this sudden turn of events.
He had only wanted to urge her to grill a little more meat—why had this tiny creature suddenly collapsed?
A setup?
Just as he was about to shake her off impatiently, a strange, unfamiliar sensation began to flow from the point of contact between them.
He looked down.
There, this reckless female lay limp at his feet.
Her pitifully small, snow-white hand was clinging tightly to his right forepaw.
His paw was so large, its pads warm and thick, that her tiny palm couldn’t even wrap around it fully—she could only barely grasp the thickest of his digits.
Her skin was as cold as icy jade.
Yet a faint but incredibly pure stream of warmth was flowing steadily from her palm into his body.
This warmth was familiar to him.
It was this very power that had pulled him back from the eternal, curse-ridden madness.
As the warmth poured in, Yuan could clearly feel the Withering Curse—entrenched deep within his bloodline, tormenting him like a festering wound—being suppressed and weakened once more, as if it had met its nemesis.
The bone-deep, frenzied stinging sensation was instantly soothed.
An indescribable, soothing feeling spread throughout his entire body.
It felt… good.
Even better than basking in the sun after a full meal.
Yuan was so comfortable he almost let out another rumble.
But then, he felt an even more immense and purer energy flowing from his body, through their touching skin, and surging in reverse into the female’s body!
It was like… a cycle.
Her energy purified him, and his energy replenished her.
Yuan could sense that the violent life energy within him, belonging to the Ancient White Tiger Bloodline, was being “stolen” by her in an extremely gentle manner.
This feeling was wondrous.
Not only did he not feel offended, but…
Instead, he felt that the icy body temperature of the little creature in his arms was gradually warming up.
Her pale, almost translucent complexion slowly regained a hint of color.
Her tightly furrowed brows relaxed, her sleeping face peaceful and serene, like a young cub that had found the safest den, entrusting everything to him without any defenses.
Yuan’s heart, eroded by the curse for thousands of years—violent and lonely—softened inexplicably and without warning in that moment.
His massive paw, capable of shattering mountains, twitched slightly, as if he intended to pull it back.
But when he saw the small hand clutching him tightly, as if grasping a lifeline, the thought that was about to turn into action inexplicably halted.
Forget it.
Yuan irritably flicked his tail.
Let her hold on for a while.
After all, this “antidote” seemed quite warm.
He lay back down, resting his massive head on his other front paw, his golden vertical pupils quietly gazing at the tiny female under the firelight, who clung to his paw and slept soundly.
Outside the cave, the night grew deeper.
The wind and snow began to howl.
And in this warm cave isolated from the world, a walking calamity of the world and a tiny soul from another realm, for the first time, spent their first night together in a silent embrace.
Warmth.
That was Lin Shengsheng’s first sensation upon regaining consciousness.
Not the scorching, burning heat of flames, but a kind of… constant, gentle warmth that permeated her entire body from the inside out, as if soaking in a hot spring.
She moved her fingers, feeling no trace of weakness. Her body was filled with strength, as if the person who had been drained of all energy and could barely stand earlier was not her.
Then came the second sensation.
Softness.
What she was lying on was not the hard, cold rocky ground, nor the meager dry grass she had spread.
It was a kind of… highly elastic, furry texture.
With a steady and powerful, bellows-like rise and fall, her entire body was gently jostled.
“Exhale… inhale…”
A deep, resonating breath sounded right by her ear.
Lin Shengsheng’s eyelashes trembled violently, like startled butterfly wings.
Stiffly, inch by inch, she opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was a vast expanse of snowy white.
Endless, smooth, faintly silver-glowing white fur.
Her gaze shifted upward with difficulty.
Past the gently rising, smoothly muscled chest and abdomen, it finally settled on an enormous tiger head resting on its front paw, eyes closed in repose.
Lin Shengsheng: “…”
She was lying on this White Tiger’s… belly.
And by the looks of it, she had been sleeping there for quite some time.
Boom—
A surge of heat shot straight to the top of her head.
Lin Shengsheng’s cheeks visibly changed from pale to flushed, then spread all the way to the roots of her ears.
She practically scrambled off Yuan’s body, hands and feet flailing, tumbling and crawling away as if her backside were on fire.
Thud.