Rask struggled to move his bone-white fingers, mustering all his strength to turn over.

He lay on his back, and only then did Julian see that his face had been corroded down to the bone. He was barely breathing.

Ordinarily, he would have mercilessly mocked the insidious beastman. But now, looking at his dying body and thinking of Evangeline still inside the terrifying Venom Pit, it felt as if a red-hot branding iron was lodged in his throat.

Julian unconsciously clenched his fists. ’She’ll be fine... She has to be fine,’ he thought.

"...Hey, can you, can you not... just stand there watching? Help... save me..." Rask twitched spasmodically, his voice weak. When he turned to look at Julian, he looked like he wanted to cry but had no tears left, his whole body numb with pain.

Julian snorted coldly and was about to turn back to the stone cave when he suddenly heard Rask say, "I... I was inside. I saw the female inside. If you... apply medicine for me, I’ll tell you her... her current situation. How about it?"

He gasped for air, his breaths wheezing like a broken bellows. That short sentence seemed to have taken all his strength.

Hearing this, Julian returned to Rask’s side almost without hesitation.

He held the Jade Bottle. This was the medicine Evangeline had left for him, and the bottle still carried her unique scent.

A trace of reluctance flashed through Julian’s gilt eyes, but he still sprinkled the medicinal powder onto Rask’s hideous wounds.

He looked at the wounds on Rask’s body, corroded by the poison mist, and sneered, "You brought this on yourself."

A Toad Beastman with a Poison Attribute, corroded down to the bone by poison mist. How ridiculous.

Rask’s eyes widened, and he wanted to retort, but now he was like a beast that had lost its claws, able to do nothing but swallow his anger.

The medicine this Goldeagle was using on him was what the female had left behind when she entered The Venom Pit. He could recognize it. The stuff was extremely effective on wounds; as soon as it was sprinkled on, the soul-piercing pain eased considerably.

He had just caught his breath when he heard the Goldeagle’s sharp interrogation: "How is she?"

Rask thought of Evangeline strolling leisurely through the poison mist. His eyelid twitched, and he looked at Julian with a complicated expression. "This female... just what is her background? An ordinary Witch doesn’t have her kind of ability. Don’t tell me you’re from outside the Triangle Sea?"

Julian’s expression turned icy. He cut him off harshly, "Cut the crap! How is she?"

Although he had just heard Evangeline’s voice and knew she was mostly fine, he hadn’t seen her with his own eyes. And seeing Rask in such a miserable state, his heart couldn’t rest easy.

Rask lay flat on his back, not moving. "What could possibly happen to her? She’s so powerful, being in the poison mist is like being at home for her."

Julian’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly. He then asked, "Did she find the herb? Why hasn’t she come out yet?"

At the mention of this, Rask’s cheek twitched violently, and he grimaced in pain.

He sucked in a sharp breath of cold air, shot Julian a sidelong glance, and said sarcastically, "Of course. Is there anything that can stump this female? She can probably do anything she sets her mind to, right? What use are we males to her anyway?"

His original plan had been perfect. He’d wait for the female to be injured by the poison mist, then swoop in with the herb like a hero saving a damsel in distress. But who would have thought the female would be completely unfazed by the poison mist!

She even used some unknown method to make the poison mist in The Venom Pit even thicker and stickier!

Even a Beastman with a Poison Attribute like him couldn’t withstand it, but she was fine, still able to move about freely and stir things up inside!

This time, he had truly suffered a major setback. Not only did he get himself caught in this mess, but he had also completely offended the female!

Hearing Rask’s strange tone, Julian’s brow furrowed. He stood up and gave him a vicious kick.

"AGH—" Rask arched his body like a cooked shrimp, trembling all over in pain.

Julian ignored him and turned back to the front of the cave.

His gilt eyes stared intently at the dark cave entrance, an unshakeable worry swirling within them.

*

After warning Julian, Evangeline turned to gaze into the depths of the dark cave.

Her eyelashes lowered slightly, a cold light flickering in her beautiful eyes as she walked inside without hesitation.

This place was fraught with danger. She had to find the source of the poison mist and ensure it wouldn’t seep into the Beastman Continent.

’I’m certainly no saint, and I have no interest in being some savior of the continent,’ she thought. ’But my task isn’t finished yet. For the sake of those stubborn fools, for Bunny, and for Genesis, I can’t just stand by and watch.’

Evangeline’s slender figure gradually disappeared into the thick fog, her steps resolute.

The deeper she went, the thicker the poison mist became. Each step felt like wading through a viscous swamp.

The long whip in Evangeline’s hand cut through the air, its sharp, icy energy parting the poison mist, but the fog would gather again in an instant.

With a flick of her fingertips, clusters of fluorescent light shot out and hovered in various corners.

The light pierced through the thick fog, casting hazy shadows on the stone walls.

Suddenly, Evangeline paused. She saw patterns of varying depths on the rock face ahead, with something engraved on them.

She walked forward slowly, the dancing light from her fingertips illuminating the dense ancient totems on the rock wall.

"Murals?" Evangeline was slightly surprised. The glowing light from her fingers flickered in the poison mist, making the carvings on the stone wall appear and disappear.

She frowned, staring intently. The mottled lines on the stone wall were twisted and distorted, unclear and difficult to decipher.

Evangeline walked a little further along the stone wall and suddenly kicked something hard.

Looking down, she saw a corroded stone step before her.

Evangeline narrowed her eyes. Her long whip split the extremely dense black fog in front of the steps, and she followed up by flinging out several more points of fluorescent light.

Halos of light spread out like ripples on water. When everything came into view, Evangeline was shocked. ’An altar?’

Mottled stone pillars surrounded a circular stone platform, its surface covered in the same strange patterns as the walls.

Evangeline’s pupils contracted, and her fingers tightened unconsciously.

She had originally thought The Venom Pit was a natural formation, with some source deep inside that generated the poison gas. She never expected to find an altar here. ’Does this mean the poison mist is man-made?’

Evangeline mulled it over for a moment, then slowly ascended the stone steps onto the altar.

Reaching the center of the altar, Evangeline’s eyes glinted. She knelt on one knee and hooked a finger around an object on the altar.

It was a mottled iron chain as thick as her wrist, inscribed with dense, strange runes. A single glance sent a chill from her fingertips up her spine. It felt incredibly ominous.

’Iron chains? Would the Beastman Continent have something forged from refined iron like this?’

Evangeline’s lips pressed into a thin line. Thinking about what she had just seen, her heart sank slightly, and she suddenly applied force with her fingertips.

SCRAPE—

The chain made a piercing sound as it scraped across the altar.

However, her effort was clearly in vain. When she pulled the chain back, all she found was an irregular, broken cross-section.

Whatever had been bound and shackled on this altar was long gone.

Evangeline slowly straightened up. As she let go, the chain slammed onto the altar, emitting a grating metallic tremor that set her teeth on edge.

For the first time, a grave expression settled upon her stunning features.