The girl approached him at that moment, gingerly.
He hissed ferociously, sticking his tongue out at the girl to display his final bit of bluster. Humans were afraid of snakes, all the more so when a python lunged at their faces.
Liao Yue had already been prepared to see the girl panic and run away, perhaps returning later with others to hunt him, but to his astonishment, the girl pulled the sword from his body and applied herbal medicine to his wounds.
"I see a faint Demonic Qi on you. Have you just gained sentience?" the girl's voice was tender, "It's not easy for an animal to gain sentience. I saved you, so from now on, you should be a good snake and bring blessings to the people."
After recalling their first meeting, Liao Yue's memories skipped ahead to the time when he fortuitously stumbled upon a millennium-old tiger demon's inner pill. Upon consuming it, he successfully transformed into human shape and regained his full power from the inner pill, he saw the girl again.