-So… Cold.

Wu Niu found himself naked and floating in an unfamiliar lightless void.

-It's dark… and… so very cold. Where… am I?

All was dark and mute except for Wu Niu's body and voice.

-Am I… dead?

The cold sensation was quickly replaced by one that was warm and soothing.

-Hmm… It’s kind of nice.

-I feel her—mother.

Wu Niu's mouth shifted into an acceptant smile, as his material body began to dissolve away into nothingness.

-Yes. This feels… right.

Wu Niu's body and mind had almost faded away completely. With a few more seconds, his consciousness would be lost forever.

-No.

A new burgeoning feeling emerged.

-No… No, I can’t die. Not yet.

Wu Niu began to struggle as he fought to maintain existence. His fight for control was visualized by the rapidly fluctuating opacity of his material body.

Looking down, Wu Niu saw an odd-looking incorporeal fire by where his heart would be. One side of the flame was bright enough to blind a person, whereas the other was too dark to be visible in the dark enclosure.

Wu Niu didn't think too hard about it as his primary focus was not fading away.

-No! No! I’m not dead yet!

Wu Niu's mind battled with the jaws of death to retain conscious thought.

A white portal appeared in front of Wu Niu, beckoning him to enter and be rebirthed. It slowly dragged him toward the portal against his will. In reaction, he tried with all his might to resist its gravitational pull.

“COME. COME. COME. COME.”

Trillions of voices began chanting in unison.

The intensity of the unified voices was so loud that they would most likely deafen everyone within the radius of many multiple miles. Fortunately, in the form Wu Niu found himself in, that wasn’t a problem.

-No! No! No! No! Noooooooo!

Black tendril hands shot out of the portal and wrapped around Wu Niu’s soul, pulling him ever closer to the portal.

“COME. COME. COME. COME.”

-Noooooooooooooooooooooo!

Wu Niu’s Soul agonized and struggled as more and more hands shot out and grabbed ahold of him.

-I WILL NEVER DIE!

The flames comprising Wu Niu’s soul began to spin and struggle to escape the grip of the black tendril hands. Meanwhile, the chanting portal kept calling out to Wu Niu.

“COME. COME. COME. COME.”

-NEVER!!!

Thump…

There was an abrupt thumping sound. It sounded like the beat of a large drum.

With the resounding thumping sound, the hands let go of Wu Niu's soul and slowly withdrew back into the milky white portal.

Thump.

Then another thump sounded.

Thump-thump.

Then two.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump—

As the portal closed, the sound of thumping intensified and soon became a rhythmic pattern.

-A heartbeat. My heartbeat.

The feeling of cold reemerged within Wu Niu’s senses, but this time the cold feeling was followed by excruciating pain.

-It’s cold again. Freezing cold.

Opening his eyes, Wu Niu sat up, gasping for breath. He was lying along a river’s bank, freezing wet in the dead of night, pain-stricken all over his body with a sensation that could only be described as icy hot.

-I need fire, Or I’ll die again!

Slowly and painfully lifting himself off the ground, Wu Niu began to undress. However, as he tried to sink his fingers under the sleeve of his frigid clothing, he found that he was incapable of moving his fingers. They were completely frozen and unresponsive. What's more, his body felt utterly exhausted and fatigued—to the point that made him feel on the precipice of vomiting.

Wu Niu pulled the armhole of his robe back with his chattering teeth and rammed his entire hand through. Bending over, he then shook his robes the rest of the way off.

Wu Niu was stuck in his freezing robes no more, but there was still his soaked pants and shoes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for him to take those off. He needed to make a fire and quickly. Otherwise, he’d soon die (again.)

Dashing over to a pile of dead bramble, Wu Niu concentrated every ounce of qi in his body into a tiny droplet of “Null Qi”.

"Null Qi" is the qi that everyone is born with—Formless in nature and practically useless, but in this case, it is what can and will save Wu Niu’s life.

-A chemical fire.

The tiny qi droplet condensed on the tip of Wu Niu’s finger, painfully burning away the skin touching it. Dripping off, it fell into the bramble and onto a twig, with just enough heat to scorch it. Then with a light blow, it caught ablaze.

Slowly at first, but then gradually more and more so the fire grew greater and greater.

“Yes!”

Clearing out the surrounding space as to not start a forest fire, Wu Niu’s tiny flame began to take the form of a campfire.

-This fire will soon die out if I don’t get something to stoke it.

Looking around, Wu Niu spotted a patch tree sapling, conveniently placed on the other side of the fire. Dashing over to them, he bent down and tugged them up by their roots.

Wu Niu tossed some of the saplings into the fire while leaving more for later.

Sitting down in front of the fire, Wu Niu pulled his shoes off, revealing the peeling skin of his wrinkly water-soaked feet. His toes were black and vestigial.

-Not good.

At the sight of his blackened toes, the pain finally began to set in. It was a pain that felt oddly warm and yet so cold.

Wu Niu knew he was going to have to amputate his toes, but he couldn’t do it as of this moment. First, he would need proper preparations (a blade and bandages). He had the bandages, but the blade would require some time to produce.

Sliding his pants off and peeling away his loincloth, he threw them to the side and let the heat of the fire warm his bare-naked body.

-for what it’s worth, I'm still alive.

-Somehow.