"You're still alive," Lei Ming notes, smirking down at him, "I'll give you credit for surviving the Venom Heart Mirage. I suppose cockroaches really are stubborn."

Zhou Cheng pants softly, glaring heatedly at that smug bastard. Everything around him has… melted. Including most of his clothes, and at least parts of his skin. If he hadn't managed to bite down on one of the antidotes in time, he's pretty sure he wouldn't be standing here.

"Well, trash? Aren't you going to come get me?" Lei Ming leers, holding up a hand and allowing it to slowly be coated in a thin, translucent purple slime. "No matter. I can just come to you!"

He's forced to duck under the first swing - a wild grab - backpedalling swiftly as he tries to summon the strength for another breath. Lei Ming is no slouch however, and refuses to give him the opening he needs, constantly attacking and charging forward, flurries of wild and furious jabs and almost animalistic swipes.

But, Zhou Cheng notes quietly, only using the one hand. That Venom Heart Mirage technique was wildly destructive - if he just sent more of them at him, then there's no guarantee he could keep choking the antidotes down fast enough to avoid being overwhelmed, and even if he did, he'd surely run out.

That he's not is either Lei Ming's arrogance… or an inability to use that attack again. A powerful attack must require commensurate power. Even the fact that he is limiting himself to only one hand suggests the technique has left him more drained.

He ducks under another swing, gritting his teeth as Lei Ming tears through the old oak behind him. The poison erases anything it seems to touch in a matter of seconds. If Lei Ming can only use enough to coat one hand, then that might still be enough to kill him.

He has no room to be overconfident here.

Lei Ming's foot plants into his stomach, driving the air out of him and launching him back - and sending a hail of those needles at him again.

With no time to dodge mid air and no breath to defend himself with, Zhou Cheng slams his arms together and tries to protect his vitals at least. No stinging pain comes however, even though he can smell the needles and feel them splattering against his… vambraces?

Holy fucking shit they defended against his poison! Zhou Cheng has no idea who that disciple was, but he could kiss them right now!

Lei Ming seems much less elated at this. "Tch! Take this then! Venom Heart Serpent Strike!" The purple film that was clinging to Lei Ming's hand twists and bubbles, forming the head of a snake… and lunging forward.

But Zhou Cheng has recovered his breathing now. Fingers curl in front of his lips to shape the blast of air as exhales, jerking his head to the side. Breath of Heaven Splits the Horizon!

The blade of air blows straight through the serpent's open mouth and annihilates it. Poison splatters everywhere around them. For a moment, as though by unspoken agreement, both of them simply glare at each other, panting softly.

Then, at another unspoken signal, they both blur into motion again. He brings a knee up into Lei Ming's waiting palm, and he pushes the punch to the side with his own hand. He spins into an elbow strike that meets air, then twists out of the kicking counter. An arm blocks his palm. His knee meets a punch.

A flurry of jabs forces Lei Ming to bob and weave, back and forth, an unrelenting storm of attacks and Zhou Cheng has no intention of letting up for even a second but he can't land a single one in time to stop Lei Ming from going back on the offensive.

A puff of miasma forces him to leap back, eyes and nostrils stinging from even that momentary exposure. He can feel the poison setting in, burning its way through his body, but before he takes an antidote, he inhales deeply and lets out a storm.

Breath of Heaven Shakes the World!

It's enough to force Lei Ming back briefly, giving him enough time to bite down on another antidote. He doesn't have much more to spend frivolously, so he inhales once again and feels the thunder rumbling in his meridians. Then another pill - this time that boost Bang Yanhuo gave him.

He feels it almost immediately. A surge of power that washes away the aches and pains he's already suffering. Like this, he will surely-

A wave of power emanates off of Lei Ming, violet Poison Qi roiling around him like a mass of furious snakes. His hated foe lets out a bark of cruel laughter and matches his gaze.

A pill. He took a pill as well.

Of course he did. It was arrogance to believe he was the only person who could do such things. But it wouldn't matter. He would triumph here!

He lunges straight for him once again, wind twisting around his form, but Lei Ming darts away. Zhou Cheng pursues, tearing through whatever obstacles Lei Ming decides to put in his way, but with his newfound power, he starts to catch up. The distance slowly shrinks - but not fast enough.

"Coward!" he snarls, slamming his fist into a hunk of boulder hard enough to split it apart. He twists out of another rain of glistening pink needles, paying them no heed as they start to melt through the ground behind him. "Face me like a man!"

"Why should I?" Lei Ming counters with a twisted sense of triumph, "You're not a man, Zhou Cheng. You're nothing!" He spins around, swiping a hand out to send what looks like strings, each made of that same pink violet. The attacks are too broad and tight for him to truly dodge, so he exhales, directing the wind to force an opening large enough for him to dive through.

When he finishes rolling to his feet, Lei Ming has vanished.

"Show yourself!" he roars, twisting his head to and fro.

Something rakes across his side - something like a set of sharp claws. He can feel the wound burning. "Are you lost, trash?" Lei Ming's voice calls, echoing around them, "Of course you are. You don't belong here. It's the Heavenly Misty Peak - not the Filthy Disgusting Sewer."

It's a trick. He's done something. An illusion perhaps? If he can't rely on his eyes, then he'll use his nose… but all he can smell is poison. It's all around him! Everything smells like Lei Ming! Hearing, then? Taste?!

Razor claws swipe along his shoulder, and he hisses in pain, swiping back with a wild attack that hits nothing at all.

"Look at you. Stumbling around like a fool!"

He can't attack wildly - he's just tiring himself out. Maintaining the Thunderous Breath isn't doing him any favours on that front either, and the poison is building up… but he only has two antidotes left. He can't be reckless with them either.

He just needs a way to figure out where Lei Ming is! But he can't think of-

Something in his instincts scream at him - another attack, this time from the front. Claws rake across his stomach, and he swings on reflex and he can feel his fingers brush against something.

He… felt something there. Not the attack - he felt that obviously - but something else. Just as Lei Ming was coming in to swing, there was…

The air. I felt the air!

Of course! Breath of Heaven is a Style attuned to the Wind and Sky! With his power boosted like this, he's more sensitive to the currents! He's never really tried to sense them like this, but it's his best bet to find Lei Ming.

Focus on it. Feel them shifting. Where is he?

He can feel the currents, but understanding them is… harder. But he doesn't need to, right now. He just needs to identify where the movement is. The change.

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There!

The currents are rippling around something as it moves through them, and he lunges forward, wind sheathing his hand. He makes contact.

He tears through it, and Lei Ming howls in pain.

"YOU FUCKING PIECE OF-"

Another swipe, but this time it's dodged. The poison is racing through his veins now, so he bites down on the second last antidote. A wave of heat, enough to make a fresh sheen of sweat pour off of him, tinged with something… black.

But he can feel his fingers properly again. And more than that, he can see Lei Ming, shimmering into visibility now that his spell is broken. His attack has managed to tear a gaping wound in his stomach, but it's clearly not enough to put him out - and he can already see it closing up.

Medicine. Of course.

"I was going to do this slowly," Lei Ming announces, glaring with unreserved loathing, "Let you suffer and make that little fat fuck watch. But I see you're going to be difficult. Go to your grave with the knowledge that I will never stop cursing your name, Zhou Cheng." He holds his hands up, twisting them into a mudra. "But there won't be enough-"

He's heard enough. Zhou Cheng surges forward, intent on tearing right through Lei Ming's filthy fucking face.

Just as his fingers are about to tear right through him, he sees Lei Ming's expression twist into a triumphant smirk.

"Venom Heart Mirage: Detonate!"

Son of a fucking-

----------------------------------------

Zhou Cheng gasps for air. Everything hurts. He can't see out of his left eye, and he's pretty sure he doesn't have a right hand anymore. He barely managed to get that antidote in time before he was completely gone, and he'd managed to get another pill into him to regenerate, but it was working slowly.

He didn't have the energy. He needed another, something to boost himself-

Lei Ming's foot collides with his chest and sends him tumbling over the ground. "You… you pitiful little wretch. To think you drove me this far!" he snarls, panting just as hard as Zhou Cheng even though he is nowhere near as injured. "After I'm done melting you back down into scum, I think I'll feed whatever's left of you to that stupid fatass!"

"Leave… him… alone…!" Zhou Cheng snarls, staggering up to his feet. "I won't… I won't… let you… hurt him… anymore!" He reaches deep within himself, dredging up whatever power he can find. It doesn't matter what it costs him. It doesn't matter if it means Hei Lian will be safe.

The Thunderous Breath Technique has disastrous consequences if he doesn't control it properly - self annihilation is the least of his concerns if that happens. It could decimate everything around him. And that's just what he needs right now.

He'll take Lei Ming with him to the grave, even if it's the last thing he does.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it?" Lei Ming sneers, "You're half-dead already! The only thing you can do right now is die! SO HURRY UP AND DIE!" He raises his hand, ready to bring it scything down and Zhou Cheng condenses the energy in his lower dantian.

But Lei Ming doesn't follow through with the attack attack. Instead... he freezes. His eyes bulge out of their sockets, and for a moment, Zhou Cheng wonders if he's had some kind of aneurysm from being so fucking terrible. Maybe Heaven finally did something about him.

But it doesn't look like Heaven. Something black has started to spread through Lei Ming's veins. There is a slowly creeping scent that's starting to overwhelm the bitter, acrid tang of Lei Ming's poison and it smells like… star anise?

No. That scent…

Stepping out of the edge of the ruined forest around them is Hei Lian, a hand held up in a mudra - middle and ring fingers folded back into the palm and held by his thumb. "I believe," he announces calmly, "That's my line."

"You…" Lei Ming growls, burning with rage, "You…!"

"Me." Hei Lian is somehow the most beautiful thing Zhou Cheng has ever seen in this moment and the most terrifying. His hair falls around him in a lank, dark curtain, framing his calm, serene expression. There is no real power to him, a Cultivator maybe at the peak of Qi Condensation - not enough to threaten either of them, who are nearing the peak of Foundation Establishment.

But there is still a sense that there is something at play that could destroy him.

Acutely aware that this might be his best chance to recover if he needs it, Zhou Cheng bites down on another pill. He knows he'll be paying the price for this reckless abuse of them later, but until then…

Lei Ming straightens up, his breathing evening out a little. "You finally strike…" he laughs, a little hysterical, "But you're a fool! Using poison on me? Do you think I'm so weakened I could be struck down by poison?!" He holds up a hand, that wild, mad grin practically splitting his face. "I'll break it down and use it for energy and then I'll kill you right in front of your precious Senior!"

Hei Lian is unmoved. Unafraid. "Go on then. Refine it."

Lei Ming breathes deep, manic triumph bleeding into tight concentration. For a moment, Zhou Cheng considers interrupting him, to take this opportunity to strike, but before he can muster the strength for an attack, Lei Ming doubles over with a gasp of pain, eyes wide with terror as he looks up at Hei Lian. "What...? Im-impossible...! What have you-"

"It's not poison," he says casually, cutting him off there, "It's a Curse."

A Curse…? But… Curses are Demonic… aren't they?

Lei Ming's expression goes slack, confusion clear on his face. He hates to admit it, but it's a confusion he's feeling as well.

"We have time, so I suppose I'll spell it out for you." Hei Lian reaches up to tug at his own robes a little in the pregnant silence, loosening them up to reveal something that makes Zhou Cheng's breath catch in his throat. There, just over his chest is a spider web of black.

"My Yin Vessel Cauldron Technique allows me to use my body as a cauldron - and you know what? It turns out you can refine all sorts of things. Poison, Medicine, Qi… emotions. It's all about purifying it of what you don't want and concentrating what you do. So what you're feeling right now? It's my hatred of you. Refined over three fucking years." He taps the black markings on his own chest for emphasis.

Zhou Cheng cannot help but swallow as they pulsate sickeningly.

"Did you even notice I was infusing the meals with my Qi? Or did you just not care? Just a little drop every time. In your soup. In your tea. Building up in your system. It was much handier than I expected, you know - no matter where you go, I could always feel you. It's the same principle for the Compass Flags. Like attracts like. It's almost romantic, isn't it?" His eyes flash dangerously, tightening the mudra - and causing Lei Ming to gasp in pain. "How kind of you to accept my feelings, Senior."

Lei Ming tries to stand straight, but his shaking legs refuse to obey him. Wet, rasping coughs wrack his body, as that pitch spills past his lips.

"I had to be patient of course - wait for my opportunity. I was originally going to wait for you to try and form your Core - make it seem like a Qi Deviation, you know? All that impurity built up in your system… But this works better, I think. This way I get to watch you die."

Lei Ming lets out a furious snarl, but it dissolves into a wheeze as he tries to stumble towards Hei Lian. Zhou Cheng feels a spike of fear, but Lei Ming simply collapses to one knee before he can even take his third step. The poison that bubbles around his hand just melts away.

"I really hoped I'd enjoy this more," Hei Lian continues, almost blithe in the face of Lei Ming's imminent defeat and suffering, "They say revenge tastes best served ice cold, so I always kind of hoped it'd be like ice cream. Or like a sorbet. But honestly, all I taste… is fucking licorice."

Zhou Cheng can only watch as Lei Ming lets out another strangled cry of rage. The black has spread further now, to the point that even Lei Ming's eyes are beginning to turn pitch. "You... you fucking... you wretched fucking fatass..."

"Are those really going to be your last words?"

Lei Ming lets out another furious snarl, desperately reaching towards Hei Lian once again. And then he collapses. There's no fanfare. No triumphant feeling. All Zhou Cheng can feel is a gnawing sense of horror and fear at what Hei Lian has done to himself.

He wanted the first words he said to him in three years to be important. Momentous even. But all he can do is shout "Lian-er!" and rush towards him on unsteady legs, arms outstretched to catch his junior as he slumps forward.

"Sorry, Senior Brother," he mumbles weakly, offering him a pained grimace as black bubbles up past his own lips, "I just watched you get hurt like that… I'm an awful-"

"Shut up," he snaps, hands moving as quickly as he can, "You-you-you big idiot! I'm supposed to protect you!"

That gets a smile. A weak one. "Sorry," he repeats, "I keep forgetting. You don't need protection, do you?"

He can't help sniffling a little, emotions threatening to bubble up and overwhelm him. This isn't how the reunion is supposed to go at all! He doesn't know what Hei Lian has done to himself, but he can feel it - thick and cloying, stifling the flow of his Qi to something sluggish. He doesn't know much about Curses, but he knows one major thing.

There is always backlash - and right now, he can feel it squeezing through Hei Lian's veins.

"I'll be fine," Hei Lian mutters, "It's just a little… I just need to flush it out of my system, I-"

Zhou Cheng bites down on some of the last medicinal pills he has, feeling it flushing his system with renewed energy and vigor - and giving him the strength to hold Hei Lian firmly in place and start to cycle his Qi through him. "Stop moving," he snaps again, breathing still laboured, "You… Hgh! If your Curse is Hate, then I'll flush it out with Love!"

There was no response from Hei Lian at first, and then he let out a muffled snort. "That's… so cheesy…"

"Shut up," he mumbles, more petulant than anything this time. It's not his fault he couldn't think of something better to say! He can feel his cheeks starting to burn now, but he focuses on pouring his Qi through Hei Lian's meridians. He can feel something resisting him at first, but whatever it is, it starts to melt away under his touch.

"You know… you could've just given me the pill." Hei Lian's voice is a little light, but there was an edge of something there he couldn't quite identify… although he could feel his face heating up as well under his hand. "You didn't have to… do this."

"I wanted to. Lian-er was always taking care of me. Is always taking care of me. It's my turn to take care of you for once." He knows it's a little invasive to just start cycling your Qi through someone like this, but it's Lian-er. If he would do it with anyone, it would be him.

… although he had kind of forgotten how soft his belly was.

"That's-that's fair. It's just… you don't have any pants right now."

… Right. He had… mostly forgotten that Lei Ming had dissolved most of his clothes. "Ju-just focus on flushing your system…" he mutters, unable to meet his eyes.