Yan Huan calmly chewed on a meat roll. Phainon smiled, fine sweat beading at his temples as he clumsily fought Yan Huan for the slices of meat churning in the pot.
He had discovered that this stuff was actually pretty tasty.
Dan Heng quietly ate the softened cabbage stalks. Every so often, he lifted his eyes, his steady gaze passing over the dancing flames and toward the bushes, where the firelight had barely driven back a small circle of darkness, yet which still appeared unfathomably deep.
His face, smudged with a little wood ash, showed an unusual concentration beneath the shifting light and shadow.
As though he were listening to the whispers of the forest, or perhaps guarding against whatever might be lurking in the depths of the darkness.
At the edge of the firelight, the damp moss and dark tree trunks had been plated in a warm golden red.
They formed a glaring boundary against the inky green beyond them, so dense it seemed incapable of dissolving, as though it rejected all light.
The fire's light and heat, the fragrance and bubbling sounds of the food, and the vivid life emanating from the three of them were utterly out of place beside the motionless Black Tide monsters lying not far away.
"We really should toss these pitch-black things farther away. They're pretty disgusting to look at," Yan Huan said, glancing at the remains.
Voidrangers, Void creatures, Mara-struck... they were all enemies, but at least they did not look quite so horrifying.
But the twisted forms of these Black Tide monsters were truly revolting.
On this contaminated land, the trio's composure and the boiling pot itself were a form of blasphemy against the Black Tide calamity.
The twisted trees silently surrounded them, bearing scrutiny and chill, while the soup in