Chapter 139: A Sliver of Light Through the Trees; the Rot-Claws Stir

The cold cave walls seeped through her thin clothing, threading chill into her bones strand by strand. Xiang Lingna curled up in uneasy shallow sleep, her body trembling now and then from cold and exhaustion. The jadeite shard pressed against her chest, its smooth warmth and faint heat the only pillar holding her spirit together. The fragment of Lin Mo-ge's agony that had crossed through space was branded into her mind like a brand, letting her cling desperately to a single thread of hope amid despair.

Outside the cave, the "night" of the gloomy forest seemed to deepen further. The churning dark-green clouds overhead blotted out every trace of sky-light; only the phosphorescent skull-flowers scattered through the forest lit up in the dark like countless eerie eyes, casting the twisted branches into savage silhouettes. Low, malice-laden hisses, the crawling sounds of unnamed creatures, and the sticky noise of some enormous thing dragging itself across the humus layer stood out with painful clarity in the silence, constantly needling Xiang Lingna's taut nerves.

She dared not sleep too deeply. The suppressed rot-eroding on the back of her right hand sent a dull, numb sting, warning her that danger was near. Every time an unusual sound drifted in from outside, her heart would clench, she'd hold her breath and grip the shard tight until the sound faded.

Time crawled by in torment. The glow of the phosphorescent flowers outside seemed to have dimmed a little, and the sounds from deep in the forest had thinned. Xiang Lingna judged that the high-danger period of "night" had probably passed. She licked her cracked lips; hunger and thirst had become unbearable. She didn't dare drink from the pool again — she needed to find new water and food.

She carefully tucked the jadeite shard against her body, the green glow hidden by her clothes. She poked her head out to scout the cave mouth. Hanging vines blocked most of her view. The inky-green river below was still eerily calm. The rock face she'd climbed down looked even slicker and steeper in the dim light.

Just as she was about to risk the climb down, something caught the corner of her eye — at the forest's edge not far downstream along the riverbank, there seemed to be a small patch where the phosphorescent flowers… weren't lit? That patch looked comparatively dim.

Curiosity outweighed fear. Xiang Lingna carefully adjusted her angle, peering through gaps in the vines. At the center of that dim patch, she could faintly make out a few oddly shaped plants. They weren't the twisted, moss-covered giants of the forest, but comparatively low shrubs. Their branches were a sickly grey-white, yet stubbornly sprouting a few… silver-white leaves? The edges of those leaves actually gave off an extremely faint, star-like halo of purifying light! Though far dimmer than the star-vein wood of the Withered Forest, and tainted with this place's signature dark-green air, that faint halo was like a lighthouse in the dark, barely holding back the phosphorescent flowers and the heavy stench of rot in a small radius around it!

An incompletely rotted variant of star-vein wood? Or an order-plant unique to this corrupted land?

Xiang Lingna's heart lurched! If she could get close to those plants and borrow what remained of their purifying power, she might better suppress the erosion on the back of her hand! And maybe even… replenish the jadeite shard's energy?

The discovery lifted her spirits! The will to survive was rekindled.

She drew a deep breath and began carefully descending the rock face. With her previous experience and the faint reassurance of a relatively "safe period," the climb went a little smoother this time. She tried to pick holds on rocky edges and thick roots, avoiding making any sound.

Reaching the riverbank, she immediately crouched low, using the jagged rocks along the shore as cover, watching warily. Confirming nothing was amiss, she slipped downstream toward that dim patch like an agile civet, each step light and silent, ears pricked to catch the faintest sound in the forest.

The closer she got, the clearer those silver-leaf shrubs became. Their shape was indeed similar to star-vein wood, but more twisted and stunted; the silver-white leaves were dotted with dark-green blotches, as if rusted. The purifying halo they gave off was extremely faint and covered a tiny area, but in this environment it was a precious pocket of order.

Just as Xiang Lingna was a dozen or so meters from the shrubs, about to sprint forward—

Hum!

The jadeite shard tucked against her chest began to tremble violently without warning! An intense, pounding throb surged through the shard! Not a danger-warning, but a… strange resonance! As if the shard had formed some deep connection with the silver-leaf shrubs ahead!

At the same time, the suppressed rot-claw erosion on the back of her right hand — like cold water thrown into boiling oil — suddenly exploded!

"Ugh!" Xiang Lingna grunted, caught off guard! A wave of bone-chilling, malice-laden corruption energy surged wildly out of the withered patch! In an instant it shattered the suppression the shard had set up! The numb, stinging pain shot up her arm like electricity! The dark-purple lines beneath her skin came alive like venomous snakes, madly spreading upward! Her whole right arm instantly turned cold, heavy, as if it no longer belonged to her! The spreading purple glow, in this gloomy setting, was like a glaring signal flare!

"Not good!" Alarm bells screamed in Xiang Lingna's heart! She dove behind a massive rock nearby, curled up, and pressed her left hand hard against her right arm, trying to use willpower and the shard's power to suppress the rampaging erosion once more!

But it was too late!

The strong resonance between the jadeite shard and the silver-leaf shrubs, and the unique aura — born of the Doctor's annihilation origin — that her right arm's rot-claw eruption gave off, were like beacons in the night, instantly rousing certain special presences in this forest!

"Hisssss—"

"Gaa—!"

Several shrill, brutal roars rang out from deep within the shrubs ahead! Immediately after, several swift black shadows lunged out of the silver-leaf shrubs! They were a few even more grotesque creatures — hounds forcibly pieced together from rotting vines and bare white bone, dark-green phosphorescent fire burning in their eye sockets, claws glinting with inky-green corrosive light! Clearly drawn by the "delicious" corruption aura radiating from Xiang Lingna, they lunged straight at the rock she was hiding behind!

What terrified Xiang Lingna even more was that, behind those bone-and-vine hounds, two "human-shaped" figures slowly rose from the shadows of the shrubs!

Their bodies were stooped, draped in rough cloaks stitched from rotting moss and some kind of dark-green scales. The faces under their hoods were pale and deeply wrinkled, eyes clouded to a dead-fish grey-white. Each gripped a twisted staff topped with a pulsing dark-green orb. A sickening psychic ripple, a mix of rot and domination, emanated from them like invisible tentacles, locking onto Xiang Lingna!

At their psychic command, the bone-and-vine hounds let out low growls and surrounded the rock Xiang Lingna was hiding behind from several directions!

Rot-Wardens! The masters of this corrupted land had sensed the intruding "prey" — and the "annihilation" mark on that prey that made them both salivate and wary!