Chapter 295: Awakening

"Is this all right?"

Under the Witch Doctor's command, the female beastman forced the female Snow Wolf to expel water, but even with such effort, the Snow Wolf she was holding still didn't wake; instead, its breathing grew ever weaker.

The female beastman couldn't help but raise a concern.

Hearing that, the Witch Doctor shook his head. "Let's take her back first. Falling into water at a time like this, it's thanks that this female has cultivated; otherwise, if she were ordinary, she'd have died long ago."

Hearing this, the female beastman finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, we'll take her back right now."

"Mm."

The Witch Doctor gave a faint reply, stroking his eight‑cornered beard as he walked ahead.

Seeing that they were about to leave, the females who had stayed back for fear of disturbing his rescue work called out one by one, "Wait, we also want to go back!"

"That's right! That's right!"

They want to see what this newly arrived female looks like as a human, whether her temperament is good; if so, perhaps they can befriend her.

As for whether the Snow Wolf, once awakened, would think of leaving here, these ones who have lived here all their lives, never having known a female who left her homeland, would never consider that.

So when Yun Li finally woke, she saw several females gathered around her, endlessly discussing.

"It's already the fifth day, right? Why hasn't she woken up yet?"

"I haven't even gone to dig my favorite wild greens just to see what this female looks like as a person, and she's still sleeping?"

"Could it be that we spilled her medicine earlier, so she took less, and that's why she's still not awake so late?"

"No way, right? Didn't Axiang brew her another bowl later?"

The chatter around her was noisy, but it finally pulled Yun Li out of the fog of consciousness; she had truly survived by luck.

She was still very tired; the Snow Wolf's eyelashes fluttered several times, then finally returned to their original state.

Meanwhile, the few females standing nearby hadn't even noticed that Yun Li had briefly awakened.

Two days later, Yun Li could stay conscious most of the time, but for some reason her body seemed completely unresponsive to her commands.

She could hear, could feel beasts coming and going around her, yet she still couldn't open her eyes.

Seeing that the cold season had arrived, the female beastwoman Axiang, who was in charge of caring for her, noticed the Snow Wolf still appeared unconscious; she couldn't help but stroke its somewhat stiff yet smooth fur and whispered:

"I have no idea when you'll wake up. Your fur is clean, and your beastly body is a bit larger than a typical female wolf; I can tell you must have lived well before, otherwise I wouldn't have raised you so well."

"I just don't know what happened to you, that you fell into water right as the cold season was about to arrive, … We've asked the beastmen of our tribe nearby, and none of them have any female Snow Wolves."

"So where exactly did you come from? Like Lord Gong said, are you a female who came from far away?"

"Then… what was your original tribe like?"

"It was a very good place!"

Deep in her heart, Yun Li silently answered that last question: her tribe had the Beast Husband she liked and the cubs, though there were also potential external enemies, countless petty affairs she always had to handle, and some beastmen who clashed with her and disliked her; yet that was her home, the tribe gave her a place to settle, so it was the best tribe.

But she couldn't return immediately; now she couldn't even move.

Yun Li had a desperate thought: perhaps she had become a plant beastman. After all, jumping from such a high cliff waterfall, with two toxins in her body, even as a Green‑rank beastman, she would pay a heavy price.

If that were true, shouldn't she have never jumped? At least staying by Canglang, she could move, have a hope of returning home, even if the road was rough; at least there was some hope, right?

No one knew Yun Li's regret; after Axiang talked at length to the female Snow Wolf, she then, per the Witch Doctor's request, began checking the Snow Wolf's condition for the day.

"The Witch Doctor says you probably drank too much water; although we helped you expel water from your belly, there may still be some we couldn't get out, which is why you remain unconscious."

"But don't be sad; we won't reject you. At least this cold season we'll definitely take good care of you, after all we happened to find you—if we hadn't saved you, the Great Beast God would probably blame us."

Axiang, being a beastman who cared for Yun Li and felt a bit lonely, said many more words during the examination.

Yun Li listened; although she was still anxious and worried about her current state, Axiang's words somewhat distracted her.

After all, she truly needed them to nurture her; otherwise, when she had no self‑preservation ability, if they abandoned the possibly plant‑beastman she, she would truly be doomed.

Fortunately, they were still willing to keep her for another cold season, and after that season passes, if she remains like this, even if they still want to care for her, Yun Li thinks she might just want to die outright.

……

More than half a month passed; originally the tribe would pour bowl after bowl of medicine into Yun Li, claiming to help expel water from her body, but later they gradually stopped.

It wasn't out of stinginess; the tribe's annual harvest of herbs was limited, and the cold season was when the tribe's beastmen suffered the fewest injuries but the most illnesses. At such times, the tribe couldn't neglect its own beastmen for an outsider female whose awakening time was unknown.

That would be unrealistic.

Only Yun Li, still in a "coma", would occasionally be brought up by the tribe's beastmen, all expressing doubt and questioning her prolonged unconsciousness.

"How long has this been, why hasn't she woken? Could it be that she'll never wake up in her lifetime?"

"If so, then next year's tide season we'll have to send her away, right?"

"Send away? Send where?"

Yun Li didn't know who had said she should be sent away; in her heart she thought it would be best to die like this, but when the time to die actually came, she was startled into a cold sweat.

Because when they said "send away", it couldn't mean sending her to a tribe or beastmen that could care for her; undoubtedly, it meant sending her back to her original place, to quietly wait for death.

"Ah‑hoo~ Ah‑hoo~"

In the skin tent where only Axiang and Yun Li, two beastmen, lived, another heavy breathing sound suddenly came from beyond Axiang.

As a member of the tribe's Patrol Team, Axiang was instantly startled awake; she stared blankly at the female whose forehead was beaded with cold sweat, breathing heavily, and for a moment didn't dare even blink.

Until Yun Li, curled up sharply from the cold wind seeping through the tent, Axiang, as if waking from a dream, hurriedly grabbed the thick beast hide covering her and clumsily draped it over Yun Li.