She was going to save that gray wolf, who had acted on his own. He had obviously casted a spell on her and led the predator away.
Although she was very weak, she could act as bait to attract the predator’s attention. She would do her best to avoid becoming a liability to him.
Ruan Qiuqiu’s thoughts were in a mess. Braving the heavy snow, she left the safety of the cave and went out into the dark night where countless dangerous creatures lurked with only a torch to light her way.
She searched for footprints in the snow that were gradually getting covered up. Her pace slowly increased into a run.
As a normal person with a mentally mature mind, she knew that it was irrational to risk going into a blizzard to look for a gray wolf that might have already encountered a mishap.
Even if that wolf demon was her husband in name, nothing had happened between them, and they had only known each other for a few days.
Her healing water ability was uncommon in this world, and she knew that her chances of survival were much stronger if she left him to seek shelter at the Fire Wolf Tribe or any other tribe. Rushing into the forest like this was a bad idea.
But…
Ruan Qiuqiu controlled her breathing so that she didn’t inhale too much cold air. The heavy snowfall blurred her vision, and her pace gradually slowed down. She clenched her jaw and continued walking against the wind and snow.
But…
He was her gray wolf Tianluo. Even though she knew this was dangerous, she couldn’t abandon him. The gray wolf might have already died by now in the original novel. However, since she had already changed the plot by coming to him, he might be able to survive.
He had to survive.
It felt as if countless eyes were hiding in the darkness and staring at her delicious human flesh.
Ruan Qiuqiu summoned up her courage and forced herself to calm down. She followed the footprints on the snow and did her best to walk through the heavy snow as fast as possible.
However, when she had been walking for over ten minutes, not only had the gray wolf’s footprints disappeared, the predator’s footprints disappeared too.
At the spot where the footprints had disappeared, only a trail of blood remained.
Ruan Qiuqiu looked at the blood. She felt extremely anxious. The torch didn’t give off enough light for her to see much.
Her voice trembled as she shouted, “Husband! Where are you?”
Ruan Qiuqiu knew that she could draw danger to herself by shouting, but she was more worried that the gray wolf would die without her knowing.
As she called out for him a few times, the cold wind blew into her throat, and Ruan Qiuqiu violently coughed.
When she walked past a giant tree, footprints appeared again. She smelled an extremely unpleasant stench. It smelled much worse than rotting food.
Ruan Qiuqiu carefully turned around the corner and almost fell down in the spot between the peaks.
She raised the torch and clearly saw a huge monster.
The monster had been swallowed up by the dark night. It was about three to four meters long. Its head had been severed from its body, and its body was cut open. What a miserable looking corpse.
Based on her fragmented memory, Ruan Qiuqiu immediately determined that this was a fiend.
She was terrified, but she couldn’t freak out. She carefully looked around the fiend and sighed in relief when she didn’t see the gray wolf’s corpse or his severed limbs.
Where did that stupid wolf go? He couldn’t have actually abandoned her, right?
He was a heavily injured blind wolf with a severed limb. Now that he had recently experienced a fight, he probably wouldn’t have been able to run far away.
He was someone that was prideful and cared about keeping his tough guy image. She hoped that he wouldn’t stubbornly stay in his human form in such heavy snow. He wouldn’t be able to keep warm in that form.
Ruan Qiuqiu was about to cry from worry. While holding up the torch, she clutched the bone knife and black animal skin clothing. Little by little, she checked for the gray wolf underneath the giant tree branches.
After passing by a few giant trees, she finally saw a figure propped underneath a tall pine tree.
Ruan Qiuqiu widened her eyes. Stepping on the snow, she approached the pine tree. Following the torch light, she got a clear look of his appearance.
It wasn’t dried up bones, it wasn’t someone else, the demon, whose body was about to be covered by snow, was her Mr. Food Reserve.
Translator Ramblings: I was confused when I first read this story because the usual Chinese mythology is that demons gain a human form after cultivating from an animal form. So following that logic, if Yuan Jue’s demon core is too damaged, he should be trapped in his wolf form. But, this author is deviating from that and saying he can’t maintain his full wolf form for long periods of time because of his damaged demon core, which Ruan Qiuqiu doesn’t know.