(Liang Yu's POV)
The shift in space felt like being swallowed whole. One breath, they were still beneath the ancient forest canopy; the next, light twisted, colors bled together, and the ground gave way beneath their feet.
When the world righted itself, Liang Yu staggered, clutching Feng Lian's sleeve. The air here was… wrong. It was thick with a cloying sweetness that burned in the lungs, carrying traces of damp soil and decay. Every inhalation felt like breathing in venom.
The landscape stretched out like a fever dream. Crimson mist drifted low across the ground; the trees were skeletal, their bark pulsing faintly with green bioluminescence. Petals of ghostly orchids glowed faintly under the twilight sky, dripping translucent dew that hissed as it hit the soil.
"Poison everywhere," Feng Lian murmured, crouching low to test the ground. His sword shimmered faintly in warning. "The realm is saturated with toxic mana. Every plant , insect,animal or creature here could kill—or worse."
Yu nodded, feeling a strange tremor inside. The atmosphere made his meridians prickle; the air here didn't just corrode—it tempted. The mana was potent, but unstable, heavy with the traces of long-dead alchemists.
They began their cautious journey deeper.
The first day passed in constant motion. Strange insects with jeweled wings and acid stingers flitted from vine to vine .Then continued walking suddenly a snake-like creature of pure vapor slithered between the roots, hissed as Lian's sword sliced it apart, its body bursting into a rain of emerald mist.
Yu gathered a few herbs, identifying fragments of what looked like Duskbane Petals and Nightroot Ferns—both useful in antidotes. Yet even as he harvested, he could feel the faint prickle of poisonous energy seeping through his gloves.
"Don't stray too far, focus on surroundings not only on spiritual plants." Lian warned, eyes scanning the terrain.
Yu smiled faintly. "You worry too much."
Lian's gaze flicked toward him—protective, frustrated, achingly fond. "You give me reason to."
Then their easy time ended , first attack came soundlessly.
A flicker of motion, a faint hiss — and the Venom-Spined Mantis burst from the canopy. Its chitin gleamed with deep green light, wings slicing through the mist with the sound of breaking silk.
Yu dodged backward, instinct taking over. Cyan wood mana coiled around his wrists, forming thorned tendrils that lashed forward. The vines met the mantis's strike with a hiss of burning venom.
"Lian!"
Thunder split the air — Feng Lian's blade flashing as arcs of lightning struck downward, illuminating the forest. The mantis shrieked, half its carapace splintered by raw thunder force, before collapsing with a hiss of smoke and acid.
Yu knelt beside the beast's corpse, gathering its venom sacs into a small crystal vial. "These will refine well into paralysis draughts."
Lian looked at him, lips quirking faintly.
Yu smiled. "Alchemy doesn't stop because danger starts."
----
As dusk bled across the venomous horizon, they made camp beside a stream that glowed faintly blue. The water looked pure but gave off an unnatural chill. They couldn't drink it. So they rested in silence, backs against the stone, listening to the cries of distant beasts.
Yu leaned his head on Lian's shoulder. "Do you think the seed of life could survive in such a place?"
Lian's arm brushed lightly against his. "If it's divine, it endures corruption. Just like you."
Yu laughed softly, warmth slipping through the fear that had settled in his chest. But beneath that warmth was something else—an itch at the edge of his senses. His body felt oddly heated, the rhythm of his breathing uneven. He assumed it was the dense mana—until the second day began.
---
They walked through a thicket of violet vines, their leaves wide and trembling as though they were breathing. The ground squelched underfoot, releasing a faintly floral aroma that grew thicker with every step.
Yu's head swam. The air tasted like honey, but it scorched his throat. He stumbled.
"Yu?"
Lian caught him before he fell, steadying him with both hands. Yu's pupils were dilating, a thin sheen of sweat tracing his temple.
"I think… something's wrong."
Lian's spiritual sense swept through him instantly—and what he found made his expression darken. "Aphrodisiac spores."
Yu blinked, trying to focus. "W-what?"
"That flower." Lian turned. The vines around them had bloomed—petals curling open to reveal a pulsating heart that released fine silver dust into the air. It shimmered like snowfall, too beautiful to be real.
The Phantom Orchid, a rare hallucinogenic plant. Its pollen carried potent aphrodisiac poison that infected both the mind and meridians, clouding the senses until reason burned away.
Lian covered his mouth with his sleeve and pulled Yu back. "Don't breathe. Hold your breath."
Too late. The warmth in Yu's veins was spreading—fast, molten. His pulse thundered; every breath came ragged, the world around him melting into color and sound.
"L-Lian…" His voice trembled, barely more than a whisper. "It hurts."
Lian's grip tightened. His gaze was sharp, but his jaw clenched in pain—not for himself, but for Yu.
"I'll find the antidote."
"You can't," Yu gasped, clutching at his chest. "It's… not curable by herbs. I've read about this before. It needs—"
Lian's expression froze. "Physical contact."
Yu's face flushed. He tried to turn away, ashamed of how his body trembled. "I can manage—just… give me a moment."
But Lian didn't move away. The air between them thickened, charged with heat and restraint.
"Idiot," Lian murmured, voice rough. "You think I'd let you suffer alone?"
He cupped Yu's cheek, thumb brushing away a bead of sweat. Yu's breath hitched, vision blurring under the haze of the poison.
Their gazes met—and the pull between them cracked something fragile.Then their lips meet , tongues intertwined tasting eachothers saliva.
The kiss was desperate, raw—a meeting of fire and frost. Yu's mind was chaos: the poison's pulse and the beating of his heart entwined, each breath catching against Lian's lips.
Lian's spiritual energy enveloped him like a storm barely restrained, burning through the poison's threads, forcing it out through sheer will. Their auras intertwined—cyan and thunder, life and blade, colliding, merging, searing through the oppressive miasma.
Yu's body trembled violently. Lian pulled him closer, whispering against his skin, "Breathe with me… focus."
"I—can't…"
"You can.Don't worry."
The forest seemed to hum around them, each breath tangled with the faint echo of their mana resonance. Slowly, Yu felt the fever ebb, the toxin's influence waning under Lian's steady spiritual energy.
Lian drew back finally, forehead resting against Yu's. Both were panting, their bodies trembling from effort, from tension, from what neither dared to name.
The silence between them was heavy—until a low growl broke through the quiet.
Both turned.
From the dense underbrush ahead, something moved.
The mist parted—revealing a hulking creature, scales glistening like molten obsidian, six legs digging into the ground. Venom dripped from its fanged maw, hissing where it struck the soil.
"A Venomfang Panther," Lian breathed. His blade hummed faintly, answering his killing intent.
Yu steadied himself, summoning what remained of his spiritual energy. But his limbs were still unsteady, his body not fully purged of the toxin.
"Stay back," Lian ordered, stepping in front of him.
"No," Yu said, voice soft but firm. "We fight together."
Their auras flared—the lightening of the sword cultivator and the cyan shimmer of the alchemist entwining once again.
The beast roared, lunging—
And in that instant, Yu felt it again: the faint pulse of the poison still lingering, the closeness of Lian's breath, and the danger surrounding them all at once.
"Before Lian could react, the shadow lunged — and Yu felt the poison's pull, the predator's presence, and something dangerously intoxicating between them all at once…"
To be continued.....