Deep in the bamboo forest of Mt. Yougou, a deathly silence reigned, like congealed amber. The once-verdant bamboo leaves had long since withered and turned black, fluttering down in an invisible wind and dissolving into fine ash before ever touching the ground. Beneath their feet, the earth was an unhealthy purple-brown, thick and viscous like clotted blood, every step accompanied by an uncomfortably squelching sound. The air was heavy with a pungent mix of sulfur and rotting flesh, and every breath felt like swallowing scorching grit. The path Chiyo had pointed out was completely swallowed by crazily proliferating black vines that radiated an abyssal, faint glow, their twisted branches pulsing with ominous purple light like the blood vessels of a dying behemoth.
"Look out!" Yelan's cold voice rang out abruptly. The string of the Aqua Simulacra in her hand tightened instantly, and an arrow condensed with pure Hydro energy hissed through the air, piercing straight into the base of a seemingly motionless clump of vines ahead.
"Hiss—!"
Chapter 206