"How do you feel?" Yang Qing softly and warmly asked the cicada once he saw that she was fully awake.
Would it have killed you to keep the spell running longer? the cicada inwardly grumbled. My body has never felt this relaxed. W-wait!... Am I dead?
In a panic, the cicada immediately shot up and began checking herself. All the rest and tranquility Yang Qing's spell had given her were instantly washed away by heavy panic.
"You're not dead," said Yang Qing when he saw her reaction. Not that his words had any effect—she still continued with her "dead-not-dead" check, which mostly involved using her limbs to touch her body and confirm it wasn't incorporeal. When that didn't seem enough, she moved on to nibbling one of the cones from the cypress tree she inhabited.
Disgusting as always, she thought as she spat out the cone she'd bitten.
The cone tasted like cold sawdust, but at least it helped her confirm she was still alive and kicking.
