Telepathy?
Liu Qian was shocked.
Not only could this young girl survive in this cursed land surrounded by monsters, but she also possessed such a miraculous ability!
He suppressed the surprise in his heart and tried to respond clearly in his mind: "My name is Liu Qian, and I come from Yi Ti in the Far East. As you can see, I am an explorer who has strayed into this place."
At the same time, he felt that his thoughts seemed to be transmitted through the contact of their palms.
Janice's beautiful left eye curved into a crescent moon, seemingly understanding.
She tried to pronounce Liu Qian's name, but it sounded exceptionally awkward: "Li Ao... Qi... An?"
She forced Liu Qian's name into four unrelated syllables, making it sound strange and exotic.
Liu Qian couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head and clearly correcting her in his mind: "It's Liu Qian. 'Liu' is my family name, and in the ancient Eastern language, it means 'golden knife'; 'Qian' is my given name, meaning 'hidden ability' or 'deeply concealed sharpness'."
He tried to explain it in a way she could understand.
A flicker of realization passed through Janice's eyes, as if she had understood some profound riddle.
Immediately, her eyes filled with intense curiosity, and she asked in Liu Qian's mind: "Sir Wizard, was the flame you summoned just now... magic?"
Clearly, she was deeply impressed by the Dragon Flame that incinerated the monster, even using an honorific.
He immediately responded in his mind, his tone gentle but with a clear correction: "Janice, please don't call me 'Sir'. My family is not a prominent noble family in Yi Ti, and my surname is unknown. Just call me by my name."
This was not a lie; according to his memory, there was no Liu dynasty in the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, and The Great Empire of the Dawn was only mentioned in ancient history, with no records of the emperor's surname.
He paused, and regarding the Dragon Flame, he chose a relatively vague but close-to-truth explanation: "As for that flame, it is indeed a type of magic. It mimics the power of a dragon's breath; you can call it 'Pseudo-Dragon Flame'."
He did not fully expose his trump card of being able to transform into a dragon, only revealing that he could use fire magic.
In these Valyrian Ruins, the identity of a 'wizard' with self-preservation abilities might gain him some subtle respect or apprehension more than a mere 'adventurer'.
"By the way, I haven't asked you why you are in this place, and are you a resident of the Valyrian Ruins?"
"I come from Teria, a few days' journey from here. My sister and I came out to look for ghost grass. However, we encountered many Scale Claws nearby, and my sister got separated from me while trying to lure those monsters away, so I'm resting here, waiting for her to find me."
Janice spoke slowly, her words containing a great deal of information.
Liu Qian had not expected that the legends were true.
There were indeed Valyrian natives still living in Teria, and Janice even had a sister.
"Are the Scale Claws you mentioned the monsters I burned to death?"
Janice nodded: "That's what we locals call them. Those monsters were originally humans from here, but during the Doom several centuries ago, they were affected by the blood magic in the air and underwent some kind of mutation, becoming what they are now."
"Then, your right face?"
Janice keenly caught Liu Qian's gaze fixed on her right face.
Her delicate body trembled violently, as if pricked by an invisible needle. Her left hand, covering her right face, tightened unconsciously, her knuckles slightly white, and her beautiful left eye quickly dropped, deep inferiority and shame beneath her long eyelashes:
"My face is also because of this curse. Every child born in this ash-shrouded land is contaminated by the blood magic here and is born with scales. The older we get, the larger the area of the scales, until they consume us..."
The girl's tone was soft and mournful.
Liu Qian was shocked. So, the ultimate fate of every Valyrian survivor was to turn into those bloodthirsty monsters.
He tried to avoid this sad topic and asked: "Can you show me the ghost grass you're looking for?"
Janice had just mentioned that she and her sister were looking for ghost grass, which greatly surprised Liu Qian. He really wanted to see if the "ghost grass" Janice spoke of was the same thing he was thinking of.
ghost grass is a strange plant that lives in the Shadow Lands in the Far East of Essos.
They are said to grow taller than a man on horseback, with stalks that are a sickly, milky-white, like opalescent glass.
The Dothraki who live on the plains regard it with awe and fear, believing that cursed souls give ghost grass its eerie glow, and prophesying that one day, this pale grass of death will cover the entire world.
If the two were talking about the same thing, then how did this ghost grass, which should originally grow in the Shadow Lands, end up in the Valyrian Ruins?
Janice looked at the curiosity in Liu Qian's eyes, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded gently. She pointed in a certain direction shrouded in mist and said in Liu Qian's mind: "It's over there... not far. My sister and I got separated there."
As Janice said, they hadn't walked far, about a mile, when the scenery abruptly changed!
Below a sloping hillside, a grayish-white "ocean" replaced the desolate, dead forest.
Countless tall, pale plants grew densely, with straight stalks, generally over two meters high, topped with fine, equally pale spikelets.
They were dense and boundless, swaying in the fog with the wind, making a "rustling" sound, like countless ghosts whispering.
Their pure, sickly paleness formed an extremely jarring and eerie contrast with the charred, withered trees around them, full of ominous and strange vibes.
ghost grass, this harbinger of death from the Shadow Lands, had formed such a spectacular sea of grass in the cursed Valyrian Ruins.
Liu Qian approached the edge, carefully avoiding the grass blades that looked soft but could be sharp.
He reached out and grasped a ghost grass stalk as thick as his wrist. It was cool to the touch, hard and smooth, indeed like polished pale glass.
However, the moment his fingers touched the ghost grass...
A sudden change occurred!
An extremely rich and pure magical energy, like dormant electricity, surged from the ghost grass stalk, flowing continuously into his body along his arm.
Liu Qian's whole body trembled.
On his retina, the number on the magic power panel actually increased by 1 point!
This ghost grass actually contained pure magic power that could be directly absorbed?!
Liu Qian suddenly looked down at the ghost grass in his hand. He saw that the stalk, which had originally emitted a faint milky-white glow, was rapidly dimming and disappearing after its magic power was absorbed by him.
Immediately afterward, the pale, jade-like epidermis quickly lost its luster, turning into a lifeless grayish-brown.
Fine cracks, like a spider web, spread across the surface of the stalk. The originally plump texture became dry and brittle, as if all its vitality had been exhausted in a few breaths, completely withering and decaying.
A storm raged in Liu Qian's heart. He released his hand, and the ghost grass, now completely grayish-brown, silently broke and shattered, turning into a small handful of lifeless powder.
A sudden thought emerged in his mind.
Could it be that the very existence of this legendary grass of death was to draw and store the magic power in the air?