Telepathy?
Leon was shaken.
Not only could this young girl survive in a cursed land surrounded by monsters, but she actually possessed such a miraculous ability!
He suppressed the surprise in his heart and tried to respond clearly in his mind: "My name is Leon, and I come from Yi Ti in the Far East. As you can see, I am an explorer who lost his way here."
At the same time, he felt his thoughts being transmitted through the contact of their palms.
Janice's beautiful left eye curved into a crescent moon; she seemed to understand.
She tried to mimic the pronunciation of Leon's name, but it sounded exceptionally awkward: "Li-o... Chi... an?"
She forced Leon's name into four disconnected syllables that sounded strange and exotic.
Leon couldn't help but smile and shook his head, correcting her clearly in his mind: "It's Leon. 'Liu' is my family name, which in ancient Eastern languages means 'Golden Knife'; 'Qian' is my given name, signifying 'Hidden Ability' or 'Concealed Edge'."
He tried his best to explain in a way she could understand.
A flash of realization crossed Janice's eyes, as if she had solved a profound riddle.
Immediately, her eyes filled with intense curiosity, and she asked in Leon's mind: "Lord Wizard, the fire you just summoned... was that magic?"
Clearly, she was deeply impressed by the Dragonflame that had incinerated the monsters, even using an honorific title.
He immediately responded in his mind, his tone gentle but firm in his correction: "Janice, please do not call me 'Lord'. My family is not a prominent noble house in Yi Ti, and my surname is obscure. Just call me by my name."
This was no lie; according to his memories, no Liu dynasty existed in the Golden Empire of Yi Ti. As for the Dawn Kingdom, it only appeared in ancient histories, and there were no records regarding the Emperor's surname.
He paused, choosing a relatively vague but truthful explanation regarding the Dragonflame: "As for that fire, it is indeed a form of magic. It mimics the power of a dragon's breath; you can call it 'Pseudo-Dragonflame'."
He did not fully reveal his trump card—the ability to transform into a dragon—only disclosing that he knew fire magic.
In these ruins, the identity of a 'Wizard' capable of self-defense might garner more subtle respect or wariness than that of a mere 'Adventurer'.
"By the way, I haven't asked why you're here. Also, are you a resident of the Valyrian Ruins?"
"I come from Teria, which is a few days' journey from here. I came out with my sister to search for ghost grass. However, we encountered many 'Scale Claws' nearby. My sister led those monsters away to save me and we got separated, so I was resting here, waiting for her to find me."
Janice spoke slowly, her words containing a massive amount of information.
Leon had not expected the legends to be true.
There really were Valyrian natives in Teria, and Janice actually 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 here, but during the Doom hundreds of years ago, they were affected by the Blood Magic in the air and underwent some kind of mutation, becoming what they are now."
"And your right face?"
Janice keenly caught Leon's gaze lingering on the right side of her face.
Her slender body jerked as if pricked by an invisible needle. Her left hand, covering her right face, tightened involuntarily until her knuckles turned white. Her beautiful left eye quickly cast downward, hiding deep self-loathing and shame beneath long lashes:
"My face is also because of this curse. Every child born in the lands shrouded by ash is polluted by the Blood Magic here. We are born with scales, and as we grow older, the scales spread until they consume us..."
The girl's tone was soft and mournful.
Leon was startled; it turned out the final fate of every Valyrian survivor was to become one of those bloodthirsty monsters.
Wishing to avoid this sad topic, he asked, "Can you take me to see the ghost grass you're looking for?"
Janice had mentioned earlier that she and her sister were searching for ghost grass, which surprised Leon. He very much wanted to see if the "ghost grass" Janice spoke of was the same thing he was thinking of.
ghost grass was a bizarre plant that lived in the Shadow Lands to the east of the continent of Essos.
It was said they could grow taller than a man on horseback, with stalks that were a sickly, milky-glass pale.
The Dothraki who lived on the plains regarded it with awe and terror. Legends said cursed souls gave the ghost grass its faint glow, and it was prophesied that one day, this pale grass of death would cover the entire world.
If they were talking about the same thing, how could this ghost grass, which should grow in the Shadow Lands, be here in the Valyrian Ruins?
Seeing the curiosity in Leon's eyes, Janice hesitated for a moment before nodding gently. She pointed toward a certain direction in the mist and said in Leon's mind: "It's over there... not far. That's where my sister and I got separated."
Just as Janice said, they hadn't walked far—about half a mile—when the scene before them changed abruptly!
Beneath a sloping hillside, a grayish-white "ocean" replaced the dead, silent forest.
Countless tall, pale plants grew densely, their stalks straight and generally exceeding two meters in height, topped with small, equally pale spiked inflorescences.
They were packed together endlessly, swaying with the wind in the thick fog and making a "shasha" sound, like countless ghosts whispering.
That purely sickly paleness formed an extremely jarring and eerie contrast with the surrounding charred and withered trees, filled with omen and strangeness.
ghost grass, this harbinger of death from the Shadow Lands, had actually formed such a spectacular sea of grass within the cursed ruins of Valyria.
Leon approached the edge, carefully avoiding the grass leaves that looked flexible but might actually be sharp.
He reached out and grasped a ghost grass stalk about the thickness of a wrist. It felt ice-cold to the touch, with a hard, smooth texture indeed like polished pale glass.
However, the moment his fingers touched the ghost grass...
A sudden change occurred!
An extremely rich and pure surge of magical energy, like a dormant electric current, suddenly surged from the ghost grass stalk. It followed his arm and poured continuously into his body.
Leon's whole body jolted.
On his retina, the number on the panel representing Mana actually rose by 1 point!
This ghost grass actually contained pure mana that could be directly absorbed?!
Leon abruptly looked down at the ghost grass in his hand. He saw that the stalk, which had originally emitted a faint milky-white glow, was now dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye after its mana was drained.
Following that, the pale, jade-like skin quickly lost its luster, turning a deathly grayish-brown.
Fine cracks spread like spiderwebs across the surface of the stalk. The previously plump texture became dry and brittle, as if all its vitality had been exhausted in just a few breaths, completely withering and dying.
A storm of shock rose in Leon's heart. He let go, and the ghost grass, which had turned entirely grayish-brown, snapped and shattered silently, turning into a small pile of lifeless powder.
A hypothesis suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Could it be that the fundamental basis for the survival of this legendary grass of death is to absorb and store the mana in the air?