Following the dead Murong Elder's intel and the Black Moon tracking artifacts, the group left the sweet green mist behind and went down.
The change did not happen all at once. For a while the tunnels still tried to pretend they belonged to the poison farm.
Flesh-roots clung to the corners.
Purple veins pulsed underfoot like buried worms.
The air lost its cloying sweetness and turned dry, dusty, and faintly metallic, as if the rock itself had been crying for a very long time.
Gu Fan noticed the silence first. There was no weeping, no dripping sap, and no distant shrieks from the Murong dogs.
Just the scrape of boots and the faint hum of Black Moon compasses trying to stay useful.
The system chose that quiet stretch to finally speak up. He had ignored it during the massacre. It did not like being ignored.
[Ding!]
[Weeping Soul Venom consumed.]
[Heaven-Devouring Poison Body: compatibility confirmed.]
