Chapter 612: The Poison That Burns Pink
Ethan suddenly realized the conversation had gone completely off track.
"Enough rambling... how do we cure this poison?"
He turned back to Amber Zane, then fixed his eyes on Morzan.
"Uh..." Morzan blinked, as if only just realizing he’d gone sidetracked himself.
He spoke slowly, each word dropping like a stone. "Lust Serpent core poison, when ingested by women... has no antidote."
Ethan’s expression snapped. "Damn it... so you’ve been spouting nonsense this whole time?"
He’d been listening with full focus, and after all that buildup, this old man threw out a line like that. It made his blood boil.
"Don’t get impatient, let me finish," Morzan replied, his tone steady. "I said there’s no antidote. I didn’t say it can’t be cured. The only way to neutralize the poison is through intimacy between man and woman. If that doesn’t happen in time, the toxin spreads. It becomes lethal—the meridians rupture one by one, the blood vessels burst, and death follows. That’s why Lust Serpent core poison is called poison."
Morzan’s voice faded, and he fell silent.
Ethan just stood there, eyes wide.
"If you want to save her, act quickly. Any later and this girl is finished. I’m going back to sleep..."
With that final sentence, Morzan withdrew into silence.
Ethan clenched his fists. "Cure her... what the hell am I supposed to do?"
He was speechless. Amber Zane wasn’t just some stranger—she was Lyla’s childhood friend, her closest companion. Even if she hadn’t been, why should he be the one to "cure" her? What did her poisoning have to do with him?
But what Ethan didn’t realize was that Amber’s condition was tied to him in more ways than he knew.
On the fur carpet, Amber writhed, her body twisting as soft, unsteady moans escaped her lips. The sound sent a shiver down Ethan’s spine.
Then something Yaya had once told him surfaced in his mind. Back at the noodle shop, she’d said the Tree of Life inside him had changed his very constitution, making him immune to all poisons. Even his blood could act as an antidote.
Ethan’s eyes lit up. If that were true... couldn’t he just give Amber some of his blood?
He called out to Yaya in his mind, seeking confirmation.
Nothing.
Frowning, he called out again, then tried reaching Luna, Beastie, even the others. Still nothing.
Alarmed, Ethan swept through his Mindscape with Soul Sense. Everything—the Twilight War Spear, the Tree of Life, the four sealed islands—had reverted to their original dormant states.
Normally, those little troublemakers would manifest in human form, running around his Mindscape with endless chatter. They were so noisy that Ethan often had to seal off parts of his consciousness just to think straight.
But now... silence.
What was going on?
He stood there dumbfounded, his puzzlement only growing heavier.
"Mmm..."
A soft sound broke his thoughts.
Amber’s eyelashes trembled. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused and hazy, before she sat up slowly. One hand pressed to her neck, her skin flushed as if burning from the inside. Then, without hesitation, she clawed at her clothes.
"Hey... don’t..."
Rip.
The sound of fabric tearing filled the air.
Ethan froze, rooted to the spot. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Heat radiated off her body, a flush so deep it tinted the air around her. He couldn’t stop himself from swallowing.
This woman... her figure was beyond anything he had expected.
Amber’s head turned at the sound of his voice. Her gaze snapped to his face, and Ethan felt it instantly—two waves of fiery intent, sharp and aggressive, locked onto him.
"Shit... what are you trying to do? You... you... don’t come any closer!"
Amber moved toward him, and Ethan felt a rush of danger, as if the walls of the room themselves had shifted.
Ethan snatched the bedsheet off the bed and rushed forward, wrapping it tightly around Amber’s body before she could tear off anything else.
"Amber... calm down. I’ll find a way to detoxify you!"
His own body was heating up, the scent in the air crawling under his skin, but his rationality held firm. This was Lyla’s best friend. If something happened here, how would he ever face Lyla again?
"Mmm...!"
Amber let out a low, strange moan, her height nearly level with his own.
Ethan glanced at her face without meaning to.
Whoosh.
Amber exhaled, and from her mouth and nose poured a fragrant breath laced with shimmering pink mist.
"Uh..."
Ethan’s breath hitched. He inhaled all of it before he could react, every wisp of that cloying sweetness searing through his lungs.
"Damn... why am I getting dizzy? Am I not supposed to be immune to all poisons?"
From deep within the chaos of his Mindscape, Morzan’s voice drifted like a mutter in his sleep: "I said it’s only called poison..." A lazy wave of his hand followed, sealing the Mindscape shut as he dozed off again.
Light and shadow warped before Ethan’s eyes. The room dissolved, replaced by a hazy world washed in pink.
There, through the mist, Amber’s figure writhed. Her flushed cheeks glowed, her limbs trembled, her body shifting restlessly in the haze. Her eyes were glazed, unfocused, yet brimming with feverish need, and strange, broken sounds slipped from her lips.
...
Meanwhile, on the top deck of the cruise ship, the Zane family elder hurried forward.
"Got the coordinates..." he muttered, only to slam headfirst into something massive.
"Ouch!"
The elder stood perfectly still, while the man he had collided with—more like a walking mountain of flesh—bounced backward and crashed to the ground, rolling several times before coming to a stop.
"Damn it, old man, are you trying to kill me?"
It was, of course, that greasy fat man.
"You... who told you to suddenly block my path?" The elder scowled. If not for his strength, that belly would have flattened him.
The fat man dusted himself off, puffing up his chest. "Fine, I’ll let it slide. Just hand over the coordinates and you can go."
His tone made it sound like he was giving orders to a servant.
"Hmph. I need to check on Amber first," the elder snapped. His aura surged as he spoke, the oppressive might of a peak Sovereign-rank filling the air. Elementary Intent sharpened the pressure, forcing the fat man to stumble back a few steps.
Clearly annoyed, the fat man’s lips twisted, but before the situation could boil over, Emery Shaw hurried between them.
"Elder Alen, that Ethan boy is helping Amber detoxify right now. Let them be. Just give me the coordinates—we shouldn’t interrupt them."
The elder exhaled, his expression softening. "I’m Alen Voss," he said firmly. Seeing Emery’s respectful tone, he shot the fat man one last glare before passing a folded slip of paper to Emery.
"I’ll come back later. Amber is like a daughter to me. I’m already an old man, and she helped me secure this position. If something happens to her here, I won’t be able to forgive myself. This time... I really owe that young man my thanks."
He turned his gaze down the corridor, toward the closed room at the end, and let out a heavy sigh.
The fat man sneered, his lips curling into a lewd grin. "No need for your thanks. That Miss Amber will thank my brother herself, heh heh heh..."
If Ethan had heard that, he’d have definitely shouted, "Since when the hell did I become your brother?"