Chapter 91: Cave and unknown flower

The last shadow wolf popped into a cloud of black smoke with a pathetic piff sound. I stood in the middle of a clearing of scorched grass, completely surrounded by absolutely nothing.

“Forty-eight, forty-nine… and fifty,” I muttered, brushing a speck of ash off my shoulder. I turned back to Qing Yan, who was still sitting on the ground with her mouth wide open. “Hey, did you happen to see where number fifty-one went? I like even numbers. An odd number of kills just ruins my entire night.”

Qing Yan blinked, slowly pulling her jaw close. “You… you just destroyed an entire horde of Necis shadow beasts in less than three minutes. And you’re complaining about an odd number?”

“Consistency is key to a healthy lifestyle, Qing Yan,” I said, offering her a hand to pull her up.

She took it, but the moment she stood, her knees buckled. Her face was dangerously pale. Even with the tiny bit of energy I had shared with her earlier, her body was completely exhausted from years of demon captivity. Her Genesis-level core was starving for real rest.

Suddenly, the ground tilted. A roar ripped through the forest, so loud it tore the leaves right off the trees. The air instantly turned cold, and the remaining shadows on the ground crawled together, rising up into a towering figure. It was three times the size of the other wolves, sporting jagged horns made of dark ice and eyes that burned like twin blue stars.

The Alpha Boss of the Necis Forest had just woken up, and it looked incredibly annoyed that I had turned its entire family into background mist.

“Oh, perfect!” I cheered, pointing at the monster. “Number fifty-one! See? I told you things would work out.”

The Alpha lunged, slamming its massive icy paws down right where we stood. I grabbed Qing Yan by the waist, tucked her under my arm like a sack of potatoes, and leaped backward.

“Barry! Let me down!” she yelled, her face turning red as she hung upside down.

“Can’t do that. If I put you down, you’ll get stepped on, and I promised myself I’d bring you back in one piece,” I said, dodging another swipe of a frozen claw. “Besides, you’re a great shield. If it bites, it hits you first.”

“That is not funny!”

“It’s a little funny,” I grinned.

The Alpha bared its fangs, gathering a ball of blue, freezing energy in its jaws. The temperature dropped so fast our breath turned to ice in the air. It was a high-level attack, meant to freeze the entire clearing solid.

“Alright, playtime is over,” I said.

Holding Qing Yan securely with my left arm, I balled my right hand into a fist. I didn’t just activate my Ascendent aura—I compressed it, focusing every ounce of pressure into a single point on my fist. The air around my hand began to warp and crackle like breaking glass.

The Alpha fired its ice beam.

I didn’t dodge. I stepped straight into the freezing blast and punched the air right in front of me.

BOOM!

The force of my punch shattered the ice beam into harmless sparkling dust. The shockwave kept going, tearing right through the Alpha’s chest. The massive beast didn’t even have time to whimper before it exploded into a violent gale of wind, scattering harmless snowflakes across the dark forest.

When the wind died down, the path ahead of us was completely cleared, revealing a hidden opening in the side of a massive, ancient stone cliff. Inside the opening lay the dark mouth of an old cave, surrounded by ruined, crumbling pillars covered in glowing moss.

I carefully set Qing Yan back on her feet. She stumbled a bit, staring at the cave entrance, then at the falling snow, and finally at me.

“You are a monster,” she whispered, though there was a soft, exhausted smile on her lips.

“Hey, that’s offensive. I’m a highly cultured warrior,” I corrected her, walking toward the cave. “Come on. That giant puppy just opened up a perfect five-star hotel for us. Let’s get you inside so you can fix that broken power core of yours.”

Before stepping through the threshold of the cave, I dropped to one knee. The stone cliff was surrounded by dense thickets of strange, overgrown flora. I began gathering fallen branches and chunks of deadwood that lay scattered near the entrance.

“If we’re staying the night, we need a fire,” I said, tossing a log onto the pile in my arms. “Otherwise, I’ll have to keep making jokes to keep us warm, and honestly, my material is too high-quality to waste on an empty stomach.”

Qing Yan let out a soft laugh, leaning against the crumbling stone pillar. “I think the forest would prefer the cold over your jokes, Barry.”

As she stood there, her eyes caught sight of a strange flower growing right at the mouth of the cave. It was a beautiful, dark violet blossom with petals that seemed to absorb the dim light around it. Drawn to it, she reached out her hand, intending to move it aside as she stepped into the cave.

“Wait, don’t—” I started, but I was a second too late.

The moment her fingers brushed the flower, a thorn hidden beneath the leaves nipped the side of her palm.

“Ow!” Qing Yan winced, flinching away. She pulled her hand back, looking at the tiny drop of blood forming on her skin. She rubbed her palm against her tunic, shaking her head. “It’s fine. Just a little scratch. It barely even hurts.”

I frowned, dropping the wood inside the cave entrance and examining the plant. The violet petals were already curling back up into the shadows. “In a place called the ‘Suicide Forest,’ you probably shouldn’t go touching the somthing like beautiful decorations. Let’s just get inside.”

We walked deeper into the cavern. I piled the dry wood in the center of the ground, creating a neat stack.

“Alright, fire expert,” I said, stepping back and crossing my arms with a grin. “The hearth is set. Show me what you’ve got. Let’s see some of that high-level lighting.”

Qing Yan took a deep breath, steadying her posture. Even though she was exhausted, a spark of pride lit up her eyes. She closed her eyes, focusing on the suppressed core inside her. She raised her hand, snapping her fingers with a flick.

Fwhoosh!

A orb of pure fire erupted from her hand. Unlike a normal campfire, this flame burned with incredible purity, radiating a comforting warmth that instantly chased away the damp chill of the cave. The light caught the jagged crystals along the cave walls, refracting into a thousand dancing arrays of red and gold across the ceiling. It looked spectacular.

“Not bad,” I said, nodding in approval as she tossed the orb into the wood, igniting it instantly. “A bit showy, but hey, it saves us from rubbing two sticks together.”

“That ‘showy’ flame can melt iron when I’m at full strength,” she countered playfully, sitting down close to the fire. For the first time since I met her, a sense of safety seemed to wash over her. The warmth of the fire began to soothe her aching muscles.

For a while, we sat in comfortable silence, watching the flames crackle against the wood.

But as the night grew deeper, the atmosphere changed. Qing Yan’s playful expression suddenly vanished. She went stiff, her breath catching sharply in her throat.

“Qing Yan?” I asked, my smile dropping as I noticed her hands starting to tremble violently.

She didn’t answer. A low gasp of agony escaped her lips as she clutched her hands tightly over her chest. Her skin, which had been pale just moments ago, was suddenly turning unnatural flush. Sweat broke out across her forehead.

“It… it hurts,” she gasped out, her voice cracking with sudden terror. “My chest–my heart… it feels like it’s tearing apart.”

I went forward, kneeling right beside her. The moment I reached out to touch her shoulder, I had to pull my hand back in shock. Heat was radiating off her body—not the gentle, comforting heat of her Genesis fire, but a volatile, destructive heat. It felt like she was cooking from the inside out.

Beneath her skin, faint violet veins began to pulse, spreading upward from her hand toward her neck.

The scratch from the violet flower outside. It hadn’t been a simple thorn.

“Hang on,” I said, my voice dropping all its usual humor as I gripped her wrists, trying to channel my Ascendent aura to suppress the sudden poison. But the moment my energy entered her, the violet heat flared violently, fighting back against my power.

Qing Yan let out a strained cry, collapsing forward against my chest as the unseen fire inside her began to burn completely out of control.