Ghost Grass

Telepathy?

Liu Qian was stunned.

Not only could this girl survive in a cursed land surrounded by monsters, she even possessed such an extraordinary ability!

He suppressed his surprise and tried to form a clear response in his mind: My name is Liu Qian. I come from Yidi, far to the east. As you can see, I'm an explorer who wandered into this place by mistake.

At the same time, he felt his thoughts pass to her through the contact between their palms.

Janice's beautiful left eye curved into a crescent, as though she understood.

She tried to pronounce Liu Qian's name, but the sounds came out awkwardly: "Lee... oh... chee... an?"

She had forced his name into four unrelated syllables, making it sound strange and exotic.

Liu Qian could not help chuckling. He shook his head and corrected her clearly in his mind: It's Liu Qian. Liu is my family name. In the ancient language of the east, it means "a golden knife." Qian is my given name, meaning "hidden ability" or "a concealed edge."

He tried to explain it in terms she could understand.

A flicker of realization crossed Janice's eye, as though she had solved some profound riddle.

Then her gaze filled with intense curiosity, and she asked in Liu Qian's mind, Master wizard, that fire you summoned just now... was that magic?

The dragonfire that had incinerated the monsters had clearly left a deep impression on her. She had even addressed him with an honorific.

He immediately replied in his mind, his tone gentle but firm in its correction: Janice, please don't call me "master." My family isn't part of the distinguished nobility in Yidi, and our surname is nothing notable either. Just call me by my name.

That was no lie. According to his memories, Yidi's Golden Empire had no Liu dynasty. As for the Great Empire of the Dawn, it appeared only in ancient histories, with no record of its emperors' surname.

He paused. Regarding the dragonfire, he chose an explanation that was somewhat vague but close to the truth: As for that fire, it is indeed a kind of magic. It imitates the power of a dragon's breath. You can call it "False Dragonfire."

He did not reveal his trump card-the ability to transform into a dragon-and only disclosed that he could use fire magic.

Here in these ruins, the identity of a "wizard" capable of defending himself might earn him a measure of respect or wariness that a mere "adventurer" would not.

"By the way, I haven't asked why you're here. Do you live in the Valyrian Ruins?"

"I come from Tyria. It's a few days' journey from here. My older sister and I came out to look for ghost grass. But we ran into a lot of Scaleclaws nearby. My sister drew those monsters away, and we got separated, so I rested here and waited for her to find me."

Janice spoke slowly, but her words contained a wealth of information.

Liu Qian had not expected the legends to be true.

There really were native Valyrians still living in Tyria, and Janice even had an older sister.

"By Scaleclaws, do you mean those monsters I burned to death?"

Janice nodded. "That's what we locals call them. Those monsters used to be the people who lived here. But during the Doom several hundred years ago, the blood magic in the air affected them. They underwent some kind of mutation and became what they are now."

"Then the right side of your face...?"

Janice keenly caught Liu Qian's gaze lingering on the right side of her face.

Her slender body suddenly trembled, as though an invisible needle had pricked her. Her left hand tightened involuntarily over her right cheek, her knuckles paling slightly. Her beautiful left eye quickly lowered, deep shame and insecurity lurking beneath her long lashes:

"My face is like this because of that curse too. Every child born in this ash-shrouded land is contaminated by the blood magic here. We're born with scales, and the older we get, the more they spread, until they consume us..."

The girl's voice was soft and mournful.

Liu Qian was shocked. So every surviving Valyrian was ultimately destined to become one of those bloodthirsty monsters.

Wanting to avoid dwelling on such a painful subject, he asked, "Could you take me to see the ghost grass you're looking for?"

Janice's mention of searching for ghost grass with her sister had surprised Liu Qian. He wanted to see whether the "ghost grass" she spoke of was what he thought it was.

Ghost grass was a strange plant native to the Shadow Lands in eastern Essos.

It was said to grow taller than a man on horseback, its stalks a sickly pallor like milky glass.

The Dothraki who lived on the grasslands regarded it with awe and fear. Legend claimed that cursed souls gave ghost grass its faint glow, and foretold that one day this pale grass of death would cover the entire world.

If they were talking about the same thing, why was ghost grass, which should have grown in the Shadow Lands, here in the Valyrian Ruins?

Seeing the curiosity in Liu Qian's eyes, Janice hesitated, then nodded lightly. She pointed in a direction veiled by mist and said in his mind, It's over there... not far. That's where my sister and I got separated.

Just as Janice had said, they had not walked far-roughly half a kilometer-when the view before them abruptly changed!

Below a sloping hillside, a gray-white "ocean" replaced the deathly still forest of withered trees.

Countless tall, pale plants grew densely together, their straight stalks mostly over two meters high, topped with clusters of tiny, equally pale flowers arranged in spikes.

They stretched endlessly in a thick mass, swaying in the wind amid the dense fog. Their rustling sounded like countless ghosts whispering.

Their sheer, sickly pallor formed a jarring, eerie contrast with the charred and withered trees around them, filling the scene with an ominous strangeness.

Ghost grass, that harbinger of death from the Shadow Lands, had actually formed such a vast sea of grass in the cursed ruins of Valyria.

Liu Qian approached its edge, carefully avoiding the blades that looked supple but might well be sharp.

He reached out and grasped a ghost grass stalk as thick as his wrist. It felt cold, hard, and smooth, truly like polished, pale glass.

Yet the instant his fingers touched the ghost grass...

Something suddenly changed!

An exceptionally rich, pure surge of magical energy shot out of the stalk like a dormant electrical current springing to life. It flowed along his arm and poured steadily into his body.

Liu Qian shuddered.

The number representing magic power on the Panel had actually risen by one point!

This ghost grass actually contained pure magic power that he could absorb directly?!

Liu Qian abruptly looked down at the ghost grass in his hand. After he had absorbed its magic power, the faint milky glow of its stalk was visibly dimming and disappearing.

Then its jade-pale surface rapidly lost its luster, turning a lifeless grayish brown.

Fine cracks spread across the stalk like a spiderweb. Its once-firm substance became dry and brittle, as though it had exhausted all its vitality in the space of a few breaths and withered completely.

Shock surged through Liu Qian's heart. He released his grip, and the ghost grass, now entirely grayish brown, silently snapped and crumbled into a small heap of lifeless powder.

A conjecture suddenly arose in his mind.

Could this legendary grass of death sustain itself by absorbing and storing the magic power in the air?