The journey into the heart of the Azure Province was a descent into a silent, grey hell. For five days, the four of them walked, following the invisible thread of necrotic energy that only Wei could perceive. The landscape grew progressively more ruined. The vibrant green forests of the sect's outer territories gave way to grey, skeletal trees, their leaves like brittle stone that shattered when the wind blew. The rivers ran sluggish and thick, the water a slate grey color. There was no birdsong, no buzz of insects, no rustle of animals in the undergrowth. There was only the crunch of their own footsteps on the petrified ground and the heavy silence.
The team moved in a tight formation. Wei walked at the very front, his eyes closed, his entire being focused on the faint, black thread of the curse's echo that only he could perceive. He was the navigator, the compass pointing them toward the heart of the disease. Right behind him, a half-step to the side, was Elder Jin, a walking mountain of muscle and grim determination. He acted as the vanguard, his spiritual sense on high alert for any physical threats that might ambush their guide. Elder Lihua and a subdued Sun Ling followed closely behind them, their roles now relegated to that of observers.
Sun Ling was a changed person. The fiery arrogance had been extinguished, replaced by a sullen, resentful obedience. She followed Wei's orders to the letter, her face a mask of cold fury. The humiliation in the shuttle, followed by the catastrophic failure of her purification art, had been a brutal lesson. She now understood that her power and ideals were not a universal solution. In this land of death, the Poison Elder's dark knowledge was the only thing that held any value, and this fact was a bitter pill for her to swallow. She watched him, not with simple distrust anymore, but with a fearful respect, trying to understand the man whose power was so antithetical to her own.
On the sixth day, the necrotic trail grew stronger. The air became colder, and the grey mist that clung to the ground grew thicker. They were entering a vast, petrified forest where the trees were twisted into agonized shapes.
"The anchor is close," Wei said, his voice cutting through the silence. "The concentration of necrotic energy is increasing exponentially. Be on your guard. The curse may have... defenses."
As if summoned by his words, a low, grinding sound came from the mist ahead of them. Elder Jin, positioned at the front, immediately tensed, his body becoming a coiled spring.
From out of the grey fog, a figure stumbled. It had once been a massive forest bear, but it was now a horrific version of life. Its fur was a solid, matted sheet of grey stone. Its eyes were hollow sockets, but within them burned a faint, malevolent red light. Cracks ran along its body, leaking not blood, but a slow-dribbling black ooze that sizzled when it touched the ground. It was a Curse Beast, a creature that had been consumed by the Grey Rot but was still animate, its body a vessel for the curse's will.
Before anyone could react, the stone bear let out a grating roar and charged, its movements impossibly fast for a creature made of stone.
"I will handle it!" Jin bellowed, stepping forward to meet the charge. He was a body cultivator, and this was a test of pure, physical might. His fist, glowing with a golden, metallic sheen, slammed into the bear's head.
The impact was deafening. A shockwave of force erupted from the collision, shattering the nearby stone trees. The Curse Beast was thrown back, a massive, spiderweb crack appearing on its stone skull. But it was not dead. It simply shook its head, the red light in its eyes flaring with renewed intensity, and charged again.
"Its body is incredibly durable!" Jin grunted, surprised by the creature's resilience.
"It feels no pain!" Elder Lihua called out, her healer's senses analyzing the creature. "There is no life force to disrupt, no nerves to sever! It is a puppet animated by the curse!"
As Jin engaged the bear in a brutal brawl, more grinding sounds echoed from the mist. Two more figures emerged—a petrified wolf and a massive, stone-skinned boar, their eyes glowing with the same red light.
"We are surrounded," Lihua said, her face pale.
"Master, allow me!" Sun Ling exclaimed, seeing her chance. This was not a delicate rescue; this was a battle against mindless, dark creatures. This was what her light was for.
She stepped forward, her hands forming a series of intricate seals. "Sacred Art: Sunfire Lance!" she cried. A spear of pure, condensed sunlight, blazing with purifying energy, materialized in her hand. She hurled it at the charging wolf.
The lance struck the wolf square in the chest. There was a hiss as the energy made contact with the necrotic curse, but the result was not what she expected. The wolf was thrown back, but the point of impact on its stone body began to glow and pulse. The curse, instead of being purified, seemed to be feeding on the energy of her attack. The wolf's stone body began to bubble and warp, and from its back, a series of sharp, stone spikes erupted. It rose to its feet, now faster and more dangerous than before.
"My light... it's making them stronger?" Sun Ling stammered in disbelief.
"Of course it is," Wei's cold voice cut in from the front. He had not even turned around. "You are trying to cure a symptom, not the disease. The curse uses life force as fuel. Your attack is pure, concentrated life-attribute energy. You are offering it a feast." He shook his head in disdain. "Stand down. All of you. You are contaminating my laboratory."
He stepped forward, past Elder Jin, who was still locked in a stalemate with the bear. Wei walked calmly into the center of the clearing, the three Curse Beasts turning their glowing red eyes upon him, their new, primary target.
"Your methods are based on the principles of life," Wei said, his voice calm, as if he were delivering a lecture. "You attack with force, or you try to purify with light. You are trying to solve a complex equation with simple arithmetic. The Grey Rot is not an enemy to be fought; it is a mechanism to be understood and dismantled."
He raised a single, slender finger. From his storage ring, he summoned his Cauldron of Myriad Venoms. It hovered beside him, humming with a low, dark energy. He then took out three small, unassuming herbs from his collection.
"Observe," he said. He tossed the three herbs into the cauldron. They were a 'Silence Moss', a 'Stone-Heart Petal', and a drop of 'Spirit-Sealing Sap'. The cauldron flared with a purple light, and within seconds, it had produced three drops of a clear, viscous liquid.
Wei coated three of his Venom-Quenched Soul Needles with the liquid. The Curse Beasts, their simple, malevolent intelligence identifying him as the greatest threat, all charged at once.
Wei did not move. With a single, fluid thought, the three needles shot out. They did not aim for the eyes or the joints. They struck the beasts in the exact center of their chests, where their hearts would have been. The needles did not even scratch the stone-like surface. They simply phased through it, a property of their legendary-grade craftsmanship, and embedded themselves deep within the creatures' bodies.
For a moment, nothing happened. The beasts continued their charge. Then, the red light in their eyes flickered, dimmed, and went out. Their charge faltered. The grinding sound of their movement ceased. They stood perfectly still for a second, like statues in a garden, before their stone bodies began to crumble, not into dust, but into fine, inert, grey sand.
"What did you do?" Lihua asked, her voice filled with awe.
"The curse requires a medium to operate," Wei explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It uses the victim's own spiritual channels, their meridians, as a conduit to animate the petrified body. My poison was not designed to kill the beast or to fight the curse. It was designed to do one thing: dissolve the meridian system." He gestured to the piles of sand. "Without a path for the curse's energy to flow, the puppet's strings are cut. The animation fails."
He had not fought the curse. He had simply unplugged it.
Elder Lihua could only shake her head, "Such a method is unheard of."
Wei, for his part, ignored their awe. He walked over to the piles of sand and knelt, scooping some of it into a vial. He also retrieved a small, pulsating black crystal from the center of what was once the bear's chest. It was a 'Curse Core', a condensation of the necrotic energy that had animated the beast. To others, it was a foul, dangerous object. To Wei, it was a priceless research material, a key to understanding the 'Dao Severance' poison on a deeper level.
He stored his samples, his face betraying a flicker of genuine, academic satisfaction.
"The trail is much stronger now," he said, standing up and turning to the east. "The anchor is very close. Let us proceed."
He began to walk once more, leaving the three of them to follow in his wake.