There was only silence from the darkness.
Qiu Yunru's stomach turned over once.
Had something happened? Judging by the thick, black blood everywhere and the sound of slicing, she must have killed the creature right away.
Had she been eaten whole at the same time?!
Hurriedly, Qiu Yunru relit his torch and clambered over the hot, sizzling body of the great worm. slipping and sliding.
"Lei-shijie! Are you there?"
Indeed, she was. She stood there, stock-still, her sword still extended and raised over the corpse. Her eyes were wide and white in the darkness, and her knuckles were white on the hilt.
"Lei-shijie...?"
Qiu Yunru's stomach turned over again, and a feeling of horror crept up his throat.
Though Lei Ruolan was largely uninjured, her arm was dripping blood. It wasn't thick or black, so it was most certainly her own blood. Sticking out of her forearm like an acupuncture needle was one of the worm's long, sharp silver teeth.
She had been bitten!
This was truly a complicated situation.
Though the poison from a Burrowing Groundworm wasn't lethal, it was designed to stun and temporarily paralyze its victims. They way it did so was this:
It was said that Burrowing Groundworms formed long ago in ancient times, deep under the earth, from the fertilizer created by buried bodies that had sunk down into the dirt. Since they had been born from the bodies of many spirits that went on to be unhappy about their deaths, their bodies coursed with a poison that had a unique power: to bring back one's worst memories for a few moments in order to paralyze them completely.
Qiu Yunru didn't necessarily believe this legend. He had read it in the Jade Clouds Sect library, but even for a fantastical xianxia setting, it seemed too xianhua. The worms had probably just come about over time like all other creatures.
However, what he had read about their poison was true.
Therefore, even though she wasn't in physical danger...
Lei Ruolan was likely recalling all of the worst moments in her life!
Qiu Yunru thought hard, dropping his pack to the ground and rummaging through it. He couldn't seem to recall a direct antidote. Perhaps if he took a closer look, he might be able to do something.
Hurriedly, he went and lightly touched the spot on Lei Ruolan's arm that was bleeding. He should at least examine this to make sure she wasn't losing too much blood.
Unexpectedly, however, as soon as his fingertip touched her skin....
The entire world seemed to spin!
Qiu Yunru felt as though he had just gotten onto a tire swing and spun around three hundred times until her couldn't tell the sky from the ground. He may have thrown up; he couldn't tell.
Among all of the hazily elongating and morphing shapes and colors surrounding him, he caught only a few things:
There was a small girl, pulling at the elaborately embroidered black robes of a man. Her hair was braided cutely, and her eyes were wide and watery.
"Baba! Baba, why won't you play with me? You play with Liang-gege!"
The man abruptly turned around and slapped her, sending her tumbling to the ground. A handmaid rushed forward to comfort and scold her as she cried, holding the red mark on her cheek.
Another thing he caught sight of was this:
That same little girl had grown up a few years and was training hard in sword work in a lavish courtyard. Sweat poured down her forehead and stung her eyes, but she still practiced.
That same handmaid from before hovered at the side, tittering:
"Guniang, you've been practicing too long! Come drink some water! Come, come!"
When the girl stubbornly refused to listen, the handmaid grew irritated:
"Stupid girl! Your father won't look at you just because you can use a sword!"
The girl faltered for a moment, her eyes widening. But in the end, she only gripped her sword harder and began to swing it more wildly, even as her eyes overflowed with tears.
Lastly, Qiu Yunru saw this:
The girl, now a young woman, stepped into her father's study and gave a courtesy. Her face was determined, and her jaw was set.
"Father. I vow to become the star disciple of the Jade Clouds Sect. When I have done so, I will return and ask for your approval. Even though Liang-ge can't inherit anymore, I will become great enough to do so."
Her father didn't even look up from the documents he was signing.
"Mm," was all he said.
Across from him, the young woman gripped her fists so hard that her skin broke beneath her nails, beginning to bleed.
In a flash of lights and sounds, Qiu Yunru was shoved back into his own body.
He found himself lying on the ground of the cavern, up against the stinking, slimy body of the groundworm. He clumsily dragged himself away from it, head spinning and head aching.
Not far away, it seemed Lei Ruolan had also fallen down.
She lay on the muddy cave floor, her eyes still closed, brow knit with discomfort. She opened her eyes then and saw him looking at her dazedly.
Quickly, her expression turned from confusion and sadness to anger. She scrambled to her feet, sheathing her sword and wiping dirt hastily off her face.
"What happened?" She muttered, seeming both lethargic and irritated. "What's this?"
"Don't do that!"
She promptly wrenched the groundworm's tooth out of the flesh of her arm. Blood spurted up out of her wound like water gushing forth from a fountain.
Qiu Yunru rushed forward, weeping internally.
The absolute worst thing to do in such a scenario was to yank out whatever object had impaled someone! At least with it still inside, the blood flow wasn't so free...
He wrapped her arm frantically in bandages, blood covering his hands and making them grow slippery. Taking a glance at her face, he was a little relieved. Though she was pale, she wasn't about to pass out. It wasn't a complete medical emergency.
He hadn't gotten through all of med school, after all!
In his panic, Qiu Yunru failed to notice Lei Ruolan's strange quietness.
When he finished wrapping her up and asked her to sit down while he went to check the groundworm head for ingredients, she finally spoke up.
Her voice was unusually quiet, though still irritated:
"Did you see something?"
Qiu Yunru continued carefully plucking teeth from the groundworm's mouth while turned away from her. He must absolutely keep working and not be suspicious!
How could he let her know he had seen some of her most vulnerable moments?
After all, it had most definitely been Lei Ruolan in those brief memories!
"What? When would I see something?" He said, coughing once.
Lei Ruolan's shoulders relaxed a little. "Never mind."
After a moment, she spoke up again with her usual impatience:
"Are you almost done? The sun's setting. I want Shizun to know we completed the mission within a day."
Not wanting to annoy her further, Qiu Yunru ran around quickly plucking off body parts from the worm and storying them in his pack.
"All right! Done!"