Recognizing the obvious disparity in strength, Er Sheng wisely chose to stop struggling, though her mood remained low.
The great snake coiled around her, letting her sit upon its scales. Its long body formed loose circles around her, like building an impenetrable wall around her. It closed its eyes to rest quietly.
After sitting for a while and seeing that it truly meant her no harm, Er Sheng thought carefully and realized that this snake demon had never shown any malice toward her. She gathered her courage to stand up and poked at its claw.
The great snake turned its head, opened one eye to give her a bland look, and seeing that she was just poking it out of boredom, dropped its head and went back to sleep.
Seeing no signs of displeasure, Er Sheng grew bolder. She reached out to touch its black scales—thin yet tough. Growing more daring, she climbed onto the great snake’s back and touched its dorsal fins. She became increasingly puzzled: what kind of creature was this? It had antlers like a deer, fins like a fish, and claws… it was exactly like the dragon from the legends her teacher had described.
Following its dorsal fins downward, Er Sheng suddenly noticed a spot where the flesh had been torn open. The scales looked as if they had been sliced by some sharp blade, with fresh blood still flowing. Curious, Er Sheng reached out to touch the lifted black scales. The snake’s body suddenly trembled violently, nearly throwing Er Sheng off its back.
Its tail curled around to bring Er Sheng before its face, golden eyes fixed upon her, making Er Sheng feel inexplicably guilty. “Does… does it hurt very much?”
Though the great snake didn’t speak or show any emotion in its eyes, Er Sheng knew that her touch had caused it pain. She said, “If… if you spit out Chang Yuan now, or eat me instead, I’ll blow on it to make it feel better.”
The great snake seemed somewhat helpless at Er Sheng’s persistence. After thinking for a moment, it used its claw to scratch several characters in the ground. Er Sheng stared at the marks for a long time: “What are you drawing?”
Er Sheng couldn’t read. As a girl and an orphan, the village teacher had never accepted her as a student. Sometimes she would sneak in to listen to lessons, but learning to read and write required books, which she couldn’t afford. So now, except for counting one-two-three, she couldn’t recognize a single character.
The great snake was truly at a loss this time. It could only stare at her steadily, blinking its eyes—each as large as Er Sheng’s head—and waiting for a long while until Er Sheng finally asked, “You really won’t eat me?”
It nodded.
“Then why did you eat Chang Yuan?”
It snorted out a breath and shook its head.
“You didn’t eat him?” Er Sheng froze. “You didn’t eat Chang Yuan, but Chang Yuan is gone… so Chang Yuan… Chang Yuan abandoned me…”
The great snake, who was Chang Yuan, suddenly realized that while he had finally cleared up one misunderstanding, he had fallen deeply into another. Looking at Er Sheng’s increasingly despairing expression, he felt utterly helpless for the first time.
Unfortunately, his injuries were too severe, forcing him back to his original form. He could neither return to human form nor use his divine power to speak. He could only curl his tail around her, using its soft fins to gently pat her head in comfort.
Er Sheng stared at her toes for a while, then suddenly sprang up with renewed spirit: “No! Chang Yuan promised he wouldn’t abandon me. He must have been kidnapped by bad people! He must be waiting for me to rescue him! I have to save him!” With that, she picked a random direction and prepared to dash off.
Chang Yuan’s heart softened slightly at her concern. Seeing her rush off, he quickly wrapped his tail around her and pulled her back to his side, making her stand properly beside him. The Return Dragon Valley was full of swamps—he couldn’t let her run around recklessly.
“Big Black, why are you stopping me?”
Hearing this nickname, Chang Yuan’s tail tightened slightly. If he had been holding the Star of Destiny now, she would have laughed and made a joke about his discomfort. But now he was holding Er Sheng, who only looked at him strangely. After a long while, her eyes suddenly lit up as if understanding something:
“Big Black, you know where Chang Yuan is, don’t you?”
Chang Yuan could only nod, and the light in Er Sheng’s eyes became almost blinding: “Then can you take me to find him?”
Chang Yuan turned his head to look at the torn flesh on his back, then silently stared at Er Sheng. She immediately understood his meaning, and the light in her eyes slowly faded. Then, looking concerned, she stroked his scales: “I forgot you’re so badly injured. How about I help you heal your wounds first, then we’ll go find Chang Yuan, okay?”
How could he say no? Chang Yuan thought. Once his wounds healed, he would transform back to human form without a moment’s delay.
Er Sheng’s nature was simple—when she let something go, she truly let it go. Naturally, when she said she would help Big Black heal, she put it into action immediately. She tore off a piece of cloth from her pants leg, washed it clean in the small river, and ran back to Chang Yuan, saying, “You’re bleeding so much, it must feel uncomfortable. Let me clean you up. Don’t worry, I’ll avoid your wounds.”
Chang Yuan nodded in agreement, thinking she would just give him a quick wipe…
Given permission, Er Sheng immediately got busy. To her, this “snake” was enormously oversized, and climbing up and down to clean it took considerable effort. But since this creature could lead her to Chang Yuan, Er Sheng thought, she absolutely couldn’t be careless about it.
So she cleaned very thoroughly. But if she had been more attentive, she might have noticed that when she meticulously cleaned certain areas, those beautiful golden eyes kept flickering with embarrassment and shock. The heart beneath Chang Yuan’s hard scales, which hadn’t been stirred for so long, started beating rapidly many times.
When he was imprisoned in the Celestial Void, Chang Yuan was only a young dragon, and while he understood dragon reproduction, he had no practical experience. After learning of the dragon race’s extinction, he had abandoned all thoughts of producing offspring—after all, as a male dragon, such matters were beyond his capability alone. For countless years after, he had guarded the Celestial Void alone, until the Star of Destiny came. She had been uninhabited for a female, but she was still female, and though she liked to tease him by rubbing against him, she knew which parts of Chang Yuan’s body to touchless, which to avoid if possible, and which must never be touched. Living together as a dragon and human, the Star of Destiny had maintained perfect boundaries, and Chang Yuan naturally had no other thoughts.
But Er Sheng was different. Without the Star of Destiny’s memories, she knew nothing about dragons, even daring to touch his reverse scale wound. And to clean those sensitive areas… so thoroughly…
Chang Yuan trembled all over trying to endure it, but she remained completely oblivious. He couldn’t blame her, so he could only grit his teeth and swallow his blood, desperately suppressing the tremors that Er Sheng’s touches were causing.
To make matters worse, Er Sheng’s curiosity was deadly strong…
“Eh?” Er Sheng asked curiously, “Big Black, you only have one leg here, and no claw. Did someone cut it off? Why isn’t it bleeding?” Without waiting for his reaction, Er Sheng poked at “that leg” and asked, “Does it hurt?”
Chang Yuan turned his head, his golden eyes showing a hint of pitiful moisture and some inexplicable light, his breathing becoming much heavier. Er Sheng immediately assumed he must be in extreme pain: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were injured there too. I’ll avoid it and won’t touch it again.”
Chang Yuan laid his head on the ground, glanced at Er Sheng once, and then dragged his gaze to stare into the distance.
Er Sheng pondered his earlier expression, thinking it looked a bit like… what was that word?
Resentful?
It took several hours to finally clean his entire body. Er Sheng happily snuggled up next to Chang Yuan’s head and stroked his whiskers. “Big Black, you must get better quickly, okay?”
Chang Yuan, having just endured their earlier “struggle,” seemed somewhat listless, giving only a snort in response to Er Sheng.
After all her work, Er Sheng felt tired and sat down beside Chang Yuan’s mouth, no longer worried at all about being eaten. After sitting for a while, drowsiness overtook her. Her head began nodding until her eyes closed, and soon her peaceful, even breathing indicated she had fallen fast asleep.
Chang Yuan carefully wrapped his tail around Er Sheng, coiled his body, and placed her in the middle. He studied her sleeping face for a moment, then rested his head against his body and closed his eyes to focus on healing.
Though the Return Dragon Valley was a sealed realm, it still had day and night. In the middle of the night, under a bright moon and scattered stars with a cool breeze blowing, Er Sheng woke up, half from cold and half from hunger.
Chang Yuan’s body was covered in hard black scales that provided no warmth. She hadn’t eaten all day and had exhausted herself with all that activity. Now, with an empty stomach, the cold was even more unbearable. By moonlight, Er Sheng crawled out of Chang Yuan’s coiled body. She had only taken two steps when she felt warm breath on the back of her neck. Before she could look back, Chang Yuan had caught her collar in his teeth and gently dragged her back.
“Big Black,” Er Sheng didn’t struggle, letting him pull her back. Once steady on her feet, she turned to face his golden eyes reflecting the moonlight. “I wasn’t trying to leave you. I’m just hungry and wanted to find something to eat.”
Chang Yuan blinked, suddenly remembering that the current Er Sheng was different from the former Star of Destiny—she was still mortal and needed food to survive. But in this Return Dragon Valley, there were no other living creatures. The only edible things might be the roots of the grass growing here.
Chang Yuan felt guilty, realizing he had only thought about escaping earlier, forgetting how a human would survive after entering this place.
He swished his tail to clear a patch of grassland behind him, then gestured for Er Sheng to go there. Er Sheng was puzzled: “Is there food here?”
Chang Yuan dug up two grassroots with his claw and nudged them toward Er Sheng with his nose.
“Are these good to eat?” Er Sheng picked up one and examined it in the moonlight. “Strange, why does this grassroots look like a radish? It looks pretty tasty—I’ll go wash it and try it.”
Er Sheng took a bite of the “radish,” and there was a cracking sound. Her expression instantly changed. Chang Yuan moved his head closer to look and saw Er Sheng covering her mouth with a devastated expression.
Chang Yuan was confused, wondering if the root was poisonous. Before he could think further, Er Sheng removed her hand from her mouth, revealing a broken tooth lying in her palm, mixed with bloody saliva.
Chang Yuan froze.
Er Sheng stared blankly: “My baby tooth… knocked out again… gone…”
This was terrible—both her front teeth had been knocked out in just two or three days. Er Sheng angrily threw the root to the ground and stomped on it furiously. But the root remained completely undamaged. Unable to exact her revenge, Er Sheng sadly threw herself at Chang Yuan’s face, hugging his nose and crying bitterly, mumbling through her tears: “No baby teeth, can’t eat radishes… I’ll starve before we find Chang Yuan!”
Without front teeth, she couldn’t eat radishes, and she’d starve before finding Chang Yuan. Chang Yuan understood her lisping speech perfectly. Though he now knew that losing baby teeth wasn’t fatal, hearing Er Sheng cry like this still convinced him it was a very serious matter.
The Star of Destiny often said: “Losing virtue is a small matter, but starving is a big one.” In the Return Dragon Valley, Er Sheng only had grassroots to eat, and these roots seemed to exceed what mortals could chew…
Chang Yuan thought for a moment, then suddenly dug up many grassroots. He moved Er Sheng aside with his tail, took several round roots in his mouth, and with a slight pressure from his sharp teeth, the roots cracked open, releasing a fragrant juice. Chang Yuan didn’t immediately give the broken roots to Er Sheng, but first swallowed some himself. After waiting a while and feeling no ill effects, he then crushed the hard shells of several more roots and placed them on the ground.
Er Sheng looked at the cracked roots, then examined Chang Yuan’s teeth, and finally had to admit that the world was unfair.
The inside of the roots was much softer than their shells. Er Sheng gently sucked at one, drinking the juice like porridge. “Eh?” She looked curiously at the grass around them and took another sip. “This… why does it taste like insects?”
At her words, Chang Yuan suddenly felt a warm energy rising in his stomach, similar to how he felt after eating the insects Er Sheng had brought him.
He calmed himself and slowly focused on the inner energy gradually growing within him, then happily discovered that these roots might be even more effective at healing than the forest insects.
Chang Yuan didn’t know that the Return Dragon Valley had been untouched by outsiders for thousands of years. The residual energy from the Dragon’s Tomb had filled this sealed land with spiritual energy, causing the flowers and grass to remain unwithered for centuries, their roots storing thousands of years of spiritual essence. The pool behind Er Sheng’s village was connected to the waters of the Return Dragon Valley, which explained its perpetual clarity. The forest vegetation, nourished by this water, also flourished eternally, and the insects that fed on these plants accumulated spiritual energy, becoming medicine for healing.
Now these roots, growing in the Return Dragon Valley itself, were naturally more effective at healing Chang Yuan’s wounds than the insects from the outside world.
Er Sheng didn’t eat much, but it was enough to fill her stomach and warm her body. She snuggled up against Chang Yuan’s neck where there was a ring of fluffy long fur, perfect for keeping warm. She said, “Big Black, I’m going to sleep. Don’t keep moving me around with your tail. I’ll just sleep here where it’s warm.”
Chang Yuan focused on cultivating his energy and didn’t respond, but he tilted his head slightly toward Er Sheng. From a distance, it looked like a dragon and a human snuggled together in mutual comfort.