"Yuan Liang, Yuan Liang, wake up!"
A slightly cool palm patted the unconscious youth's cheek.
After struggling several times, the young man's will finally stirred him awake. The moment he opened his eyes, golden rays filtering through the canopy of towering trees dazzled him and made his head spin. He couldn't help raising a hand to shield his eyes, but even that simple movement tugged at the wounds on his body.
The youth called Yuan Liang had little tolerance for pain. He winced and sucked in a breath, but the pain also helped his thoughts quickly fall back into place. He braced an elbow against the ground, and the boy who had roused him reached out to help him sit up against a tree trunk.
Yuan Liang looked around in confusion.
They were in an endless forest. More terrifying still were the plants nearby, all of which looked distinctly unnatural. Some were brightly mottled, bearing every color from red and orange to yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—obviously poisonous. Others looked like vines, but their dangling leaves gleamed like metal "blades." Some seemed ordinary enough, but their trunks were so thick that seven or eight burly men couldn't have wrapped their arms around them...
Most important of all, they could move!
Yuan Liang stared blankly for a moment, then abruptly remembered what had happened before he passed out.
He and his friend had been traveling together.
When they'd reached this area, they'd happened upon mountain mists flowing backward into the sky, with gleaming rosy clouds among the undulating peaks. The scenery had struck them as so beautiful that they'd entered the mountains late at night to watch the sunrise. To take a shortcut, they hadn't followed the usual mountain paths. That decision had caused them to lose their way. Not