"Huh? Uncle, you're awake?"
Yu Zhibo turned his head towards the voice. It was a scrawny little girl in ragged clothes, her thin arms looking like they would snap if bent too hard. She held a broken bowl of water. She was about eleven or twelve, with a sallow complexion, making her look more like a boy.
Seeing Yu Zhibo awake, the girl was overjoyed. She ran over with her dirty feet, accidentally spilling some water from the bowl. She then slowed down, walked carefully to Yu Zhibo's bedside, and asked,
"Are you okay, mister?"
Yu Zhibo couldn't speak, so he could only nod his head with difficulty, his eyelids half-closed, clearly looking very weak.
He was exhausted, yet unable to sleep. The searing pain continuously surged through his body like a tide.
"Tsk... how pathetic!"
He sighed inwardly, a self-mocking smile appearing in his eyes.
As a cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, he was accustomed to controlling his surroundings with his divine sense. Now, severely injured, he couldn't even project his spiritual power, let alone cover tens of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers. It was truly miserable.
As he was spacing out, he suddenly felt a coolness on his lips. It was the little girl holding the broken bowl to his mouth: "Drink some water, mister. I traded a sweet potato to Old Man Liu Yi from the village to boil this divine water. You'll be all better after drinking it."
Yu Zhibo lowered his gaze to the dirty, broken bowl, and the sediment in the water that looked like paper ash. He was filled with refusal.
Divine water, my foot!
This little girl was clearly swindled. This was clearly just water mixed with burnt paper ash.
But meeting the little girl's expectant gaze, he finally sighed and slightly parted his lips.
The cool, charmed water flowed down his throat and into his belly. Yu Zhibo drank a couple of mouthfuls and then closed his mouth, his eyes shutting again.
"Drink a couple more mouthfuls, mister. The essence is all in this ash!" the girl's clear voice came again.
Yu Zhibo's eyelids twitched, his thin lips pursing into a straight line.
The little girl sighed, "Mister, you're really not good!"
She placed the bowl aside, pulled over a short stool with a missing leg, sat by the bed, and propped her chin on her hands, looking at Yu Zhibo: "Mister, you're so handsome. Much more so than Scholar Zhang, who married into the county magistrate's family!"
Yu Zhibo flicked his eyelids open to glance at her, then closed them again, continuing to absorb the thin spiritual energy in the air.
As spiritual energy continuously flowed into his body, he felt like a human air conditioner, emitting a comfortable coolness that made the girl let out a soft "Huh?"
But her limited experience prevented her from thinking too much about it. She soon dismissed the anomaly, stared at Yu Zhibo for a while, a troubled expression on her face. After a short while, she stood up, and soon the sound of rummaging through things came from the small hut.
Yu Zhibo glanced over, realizing the girl was looking for rice to eat. He stopped paying attention and focused on absorbing spiritual energy.
Time slowly passed.
After an unknown amount of time, when he had plundered all the spiritual energy around him and found he couldn't absorb any from further away, he finally opened his eyes again.
"Hmph..."
The pain in his body had lessened slightly. He felt his throat move and realized he could speak, a flicker of joy appearing in his eyes. If things continued like this, he should be able to move freely within three days.
"Such thin spiritual power. The quality of the immortal energy is not high, but it can't be said to be zero."
Pursing his lips, Yu Zhibo twitched his nose and smelled the scent of food. He actually felt a long-lost hunger.
An illusion! It must be an illusion!
How could he, a mighty Nascent Soul cultivator, be hungry!
"Here's your porridge~"
The sound of slightly hurried footsteps reached his ears. Yu Zhibo turned his head to see a small, thin figure running in. It was the little girl from before.
She held a steaming broken bowl in her hands, her face smudged with dirt from tending the fire, making her look even more like a little beggar.
"Mister, you must be hungry. Let me help you sit up to eat porridge!"
As she spoke, she placed the bowl on the nearby table and walked to the bedside, exerting herself to help Yu Zhibo sit up...
After finishing, she panted, "Mister, you're so heavy! Luckily, Uncle Li Er helped carry you back, otherwise, I wouldn't know how to save you!"
Yu Zhibo couldn't help but fall into thought.
As a Nascent Soul cultivator who had cultivated a Yin-Yang Five Elements body space, a single finger of his could at least collapse a mountain, let alone crush stars.
Yet, now he had been carried back safely. This was preposterous.
Had he transmigrated?
This absurd thought flashed through his mind but was quickly dismissed.
"Mister, eat your porridge. You'll recover faster after eating!" the little girl's voice interrupted his thoughts again.
Yu Zhibo glanced at the bowl. The porridge was mixed with some unknown wild vegetables. Due to the high-temperature cooking, it had turned slightly yellow, and its appearance was truly unappealing.
But this was almost the most luxurious meal in the little girl's eyes: her drooling expression made that clear.
He smiled, looking at her gently, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm not hungry, you eat it!"
"Huh?" The little girl looked at him in surprise, then her gaze dimmed: "That's right, mister. You don't look like an ordinary person. You must usually eat refined white flour meals every day, so why would you fancy this little bit of food..."
Yu Zhibo's mouth twitched: "Give it here!"
At worst, he would repay her a hundredfold after recovering. He couldn't mistreat this little girl.
The little girl's spirits visibly lifted, and she brought the bowl to Yu Zhibo's lips.
The porridge, with the wild vegetables, looked quite thick, but the taste was somewhat indescribable. Yu Zhibo devoured it in a few large gulps and forced a smile, "I'm full!"
"Are you really full?" the little girl looked at him suspiciously.
Yu Zhibo was very tall, with his feet extending more than twenty centimeters beyond the bed. And he was full already?
Yu Zhibo managed a reluctant burp.
The little girl then nodded happily, sighing again, "I knew I should have only cooked one bowl. Sigh... Since that's the case, I'll reluctantly eat it then..."
It sounded reluctant, but her eyebrows were filled with the joy of eating the wild vegetable porridge. Happily, she ran out of the house again.
Yu Zhibo watched her cheerful back, a smile appearing in his eyes.
This little girl... she was quite interesting.
For the next few hours, Yu Zhibo repeatedly absorbed the spiritual energy that flowed back into his range, but unfortunately, the amount was too small.
The meager spiritual energy absorbed into his body was like pouring a cup of water into a cracked riverbed. However, even so, it began to slowly restore his vitality.
The little girl didn't bother him further, saying she was going to the woods to find food. As for what she was looking for, he didn't know.
He guessed it would be wild vegetables and fruits.
Thus, by repeatedly absorbing spiritual energy, by evening, he could slightly move his limbs.
As he closed his eyes once more, intending to sense the laws of this world, a rough male voice suddenly came from outside:
"Xiao Ku! Xiao Ku!"
Xiao Ku?
Yu Zhibo's brow twitched: Was that the girl's name?
The next second, the simple wooden door was pushed open, and a tall figure appeared.
It was a burly man dressed in a grey tunic, about 1.9 meters tall, carrying a wild rabbit in his hand. As soon as he opened the door, his gaze locked onto Yu Zhibo.
The moment his eyes met Yu Zhibo's calm gaze, his eyes widened like copper bells, as if... he was looking at a love rival.
He gritted his teeth and said, "You are Xiao Ku's father, lost for thirteen years?"
Yu Zhibo: "?"