The instant Chen Wuya fell, his throat tightened as poisonous mist pierced his nostrils like needles. He forcibly suppressed the urge to cough, clawing frantically through the air with his left hand until he finally caught hold of a protruding rock ledge. His body hung suspended in midair. Blood continually seeped from the wound on his right arm, while purple-black mist coiled around it, worming its way inward along his fingertips like some living thing.
He gritted his teeth and let out a muffled groan. Misaligned Force surged from his heart, forcibly blasting open a passage through his meridians. The agony made his vision whiten, yet at that very moment, the system in his sea of consciousness gave a faint tremble—not a warning, but a response of some kind.
The abyss below still exhaled and inhaled mist, its rhythm speeding up and slowing down as though it were breathing. He narrowed his eyes and surveyed the surrounding rock walls by the faint green glow. Deep within the cracks, several patches of dark moss clung to the stone, their edges gleaming with an oily sheen. This was something that should not have been able to grow here—yet it lived.
"Bai Zhi!" His voice was hoarse. "That slanted crack three feet away—there's something green there. Pick it!"
The light scrape of a sword tip against stone came from above. Bai Zhi clung to the rock wall with one hand while extending her flexible sword with the other, the sapphire on its tassel long since dimmed. With a flick of her wrist, she swept the moss, roots and mud alike, back into her palm. The moment it touched her skin, her fingertips burned and tingled—but she immediately sensed that pain being swiftly suppressed by a coolness.
"It's neutralizing the poison." She spoke softly