The thick emerald sludge lapped against the stone bank, eating into the solid granite with a persistent, predatory sizzle.
Ye Chen knelt at the water’s edge, rolling his torn linen sleeve up to his elbow. He did not have a status screen to calculate toxicity percentages or generate safe contact windows, so he simply spread his scarred fingers and plunged his right hand directly into the glowing green river.
Sssssssss.
The caustic sizzle of acidic green mud bubbling against bare skin flared immediately, biting into his outer calluses like a thousand needle pricks.
THUM... THUM... THUM.
Beneath the riverbed, the deep, rhythmic thrum of subterranean magma lines pulsed through the earth, heating the water until steam coiled off the surface in sickly emerald ribbons.
Ye Chen scooped a han
