The world enters the fungal world

Chapter 121 Fungal Nest (Thanks to Mingri Xingchen for the donation)

The mushroom cap is growing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Because it lacks a stem, the cap appears to have emerged from the bottom of the flower bed, and its original diameter was about three meters.

In a short period of time, it grew to four meters, constantly rising upwards, like a small black hill.

"What kind of monster is this?" A chill ran down the spines of the five people, and they retreated from the alleyway, preparing to leave.

Just as Li Yu turned around, he suddenly noticed four people not far away: three men and one woman. The one in the lead was the short-haired woman he had met twice before.

Li Yu never expected to see them here again.

The short-haired woman also noticed Li Yu and his group of five. This time, instead of avoiding them, she suddenly accelerated.

With a whoosh, it swept several meters and quickly rushed to within ten meters of the group.

Li Yu instinctively gripped the iron spear in his left hand, while his right hand was slightly open, ready to unleash the Heavenly Wolf Blade at any moment.

It's said that those who come with ill intentions don't come with good intentions. Could these three men and one woman be here for them?

Lin Muying, Zhou Xigang, Qian Lili, and Fang Mingxuan also tensed up immediately, their bodies stiffening. If something went wrong, they were ready to take action at any moment.

Those who dare to enter this central area are at least high-level experts, or even top-level beings; how could they dare to be careless?

However, Li Yu quickly realized that the four short-haired women were not coming for them, because her eyes only glanced at Li Yu and his group before landing on the flower bed behind them, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"A fungal nest?"

Her voice carried a hint of surprise as she slowed down and stopped five meters away from Li Yu and the others.

Li Yu's heart skipped a beat. She said "mushroom nest". Could it be that the strange black cap that can grow is a mushroom nest?

But what exactly is this fungal nest?

The black mushroom continued to grow, its diameter reaching about five meters before it gradually stopped.

A huge gap suddenly appeared in the center, from which a large number of black, hair-thin mycelia extended.

The gap was over two meters in diameter, and from a distance, the inside was pitch black, making it impossible to see what was hidden inside.

"The fungal nest has opened. How about it? Shall we go in together?"

The short-haired woman observed the black mushroom cap with the opening before turning to look at Li Yu and Lin Muying and the other four, and then spoke first.

Judging from the short-haired woman's appearance, she seemed to have no ill intentions. As Li Yu was considering how to answer, Zhou Xigang interjected, "My name is Zhou Xigang. What are your names?"

He knew they weren't familiar with each other, and he didn't know if the other party had any ill intentions. He also had no idea what the fungal nest was, so he figured he might as well try to get on their good side first.

Upon hearing Zhou Xigang's words, the short-haired woman frowned slightly before speaking, "My name is Tang Burou. The fungal nest has just opened, so let's go down quickly, otherwise, if we wait too long, more people might come."

The three men stood silently beside her, and it was clear that Tang Burou was the leader among the four of them.

Upon hearing her name, Li Yu's heart stirred; the name was intriguing. Suddenly, he heard "Tingjing" again and looked into the distance.

Tang Burou and the others heard it too, and turned their heads to look. They saw two men and two women appear from the other side of the giant black mushroom cap.

Some of them were wearing leather armor and knee pads, while others were wearing normal, ordinary coats. Two of them were carrying weapons, while the other two were empty-handed.

When they saw the black mushroom cap with a huge opening, their faces immediately lit up with joy.

One of the young men, whose hands were empty, said, "It's a fungal nest." As he spoke, he looked up at Li Yu and the short-haired woman, Tang Burou.

"Everyone who sees it shares in it. Since we've both run into it, why don't we go down and take a look together?"

The young man had good features; his eyes, nose, and mouth were all handsome on their own. However, when put together, they were not only not good-looking, but rather inexplicably ugly.

Li Yu understood that this was because his eyes were a little too close together and the distance from his nose to his lips was a little too long, which caused his facial features to come together, making his whole face look strange and awkward.

Tang Burou nodded and said, "I can. What do you say?" She looked at Li Yu and Zhou Xigang and the other four again.

Seeing their expressions, Li Yu knew there must be something good in the fungus nest, so he nodded and said, "We can too."

Seeing that they had agreed, Tang Burou raised her hand to brush her short hair behind her ear: "Alright, there are thirteen of us, so breaking through this fungal nest shouldn't be a problem."

As he spoke, he walked towards the mushroom nest.

On the other side, the two men and two women also walked to the edge of the mushroom nest.

At this moment, the fungal nest has stopped growing, and the open gap resembles the gaping maw of a giant beast, quietly waiting for its prey to arrive.

If Tang Burou and the young man hadn't recognized it as a fungal nest and thought it was safe to go down, given their experience, they wouldn't have dared to enter the crack in the fungal nest even if they had ten lives.

"I'll have to ask Bai Xiuluo again next time I see him. It seems there's still a lot of information here that we don't know or don't have," Li Yu thought to himself.

Everyone gathered around the mushroom nest, and the young man spoke again, "My name is Fang Qinian, and what are yours?"

Although he asked about you, his eyes were actually fixed on Tang Burou.

He could tell that Tang Burou seemed to be the leader among these people. A woman who could stand out among so many men must be extraordinary.

Moreover, she was quite pretty, which made Fang Qinian very interested in Tang Burou.

Tang Burou said her name, and with a flick of her right hand, a short whip appeared in her palm. Li Yu knew that this was a weapon-type symbiotic bacterium.

After exchanging names, Li Yu learned that the three men following Tang Burou were named Li Mao, Zhou Dingfeng, and Wu Qingyun.

The man with Fang Qinian was named Ma Ping, and the two women were named Bai Xiaowan and Yuan Shuyao.

Tang Burou was the first to enter the central gap, followed closely by Li Mao, Zhou Dingfeng, and Wu Qingyun.

Then Fang Qinian led Ma Ping, Bai Xiaowan, and Yuan Shuyao.

Li Yu and his group of five knew nothing about the fungal nest, so they were extremely cautious and ended up being the last to arrive.

This gap is the entrance to the fungal nest, inside which is a sloping downward slope, surrounded by mycelium, making it look like a dark cave.

From the outside, it was pitch black inside, seemingly so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. But once inside, Li Yu found that although it was very dark, he could barely see his surroundings.

The cave-like entrance was about ten meters long and sloped downwards. Li Yu estimated that they had gone at least five or six meters underground.

All around were densely interwoven mycelia, and numerous small mushrooms grew on the surface of the mycelia. Some of these mushrooms could faintly emit a light like fireflies.

The further you go in, the more of these glowing mushrooms appear, making the cave much brighter.

Tang Burou, who was walking at the front, suddenly spoke up: "Don't fight over the spoils of war later. Whoever kills the enemy gets to keep it. If there are any disputed spoils, then divide them equally. Since we came down together, we are teammates now, so let's not argue about it."

Fang Qinian chimed in with a smile, "Of course, I can guarantee on behalf of the four of us that we will definitely abide by this rule."

He paused slightly, then turned to look at Li Yu and the other four behind him, saying, "Brother Zhou, what do you say?"

Among the five, Zhou Xigang stood out the most, so they assumed he was the leader of their team and asked him for his opinion.

Zhou Xigang immediately patted his chest and assured him, "Of course, we all have to abide by it."

He was secretly excited, partly because he felt he had made a name for himself in front of everyone, and partly because, judging from their tone, going down into the fungal nest would probably yield a considerable reward, otherwise they wouldn't have offered to share the spoils.

After walking down the passage for about twenty meters, the group entered a giant cave.

The cave was also covered with countless mycelia, and the surface of these mycelia had stripes that looked like the folds on the inner wall of the cap.

This makes the cave look more like it's inside a giant mushroom stem.

The floor of this giant cave was piled with gray and white dead branches, which were also entwined with a large number of vines.

These branches and vines were covered with a large number of grayish-white mushrooms, each no bigger than a fingernail, densely packed together, piled on top of each other, and it was impossible to tell how many there were.

Li Yu followed them in and suddenly saw the withered branches and vines all over the ground. He was stunned for a moment, but then the branches and vines suddenly started to move.

The pile of gray and withered branches suddenly bulged upwards and quickly pieced together to form animal shapes.

The limbs were twisted vines, and old tree burls emerged from the beast-like shape pieced together from the branches and vines, forming a head.

The monster swayed and creaked, and a chill emanated from its body.

In the blink of an eye, the pile of gray and withered branches and vines had transformed into more than forty monsters.

They made creaking sounds from their bodies, began to wriggle, and lunged at the group that had just entered the cave.

A name immediately came to Li Yu's mind.

Branch Bone Shadow Beast, a D-class fungal beast, a rare species, is a bizarre fungal beast born from the condensation of fungi into dead wood, plants, and vines. It only dwells in the misty forest or the dark and damp underground world.

Tang Burou reacted with lightning speed. Almost as soon as the group of Bone Shadow Beasts stood up, she extended her right short whip, which was more than a meter long, and with a swift movement, she was the first to rush forward.

With a loud "crack," the whip lashed out and struck a Bone Shadow Beast in front of him.

The Bone Shadow Beast's body exploded instantly, sending numerous broken branches and vines flying everywhere.

With a single, effortless strike, Li Yu realized that Tang Burou was at least a top-tier expert, and the whip in her hand was incredibly powerful, most likely a top-grade weapon imbued with fungal techniques.

As Tang Burou made her move, Li Mao, Zhou Dingfeng, and Wu Qingyun behind her also rushed out and attacked the Bone Shadow Beasts.

Fang Qinian, along with Ma Ping, Bai Xiaowan, and Yuan Shuyao, rushed forward.

Zhou Xigang was excited by the sight of so many rare beasts and followed closely behind.

Li Yu, along with Lin Muying, Qian Lili, and Fang Mingxuan, took turns making their moves.

While making his move, Li Yu secretly observed the strength of these people.

Among these eight people, Tang Burou and Fang Qinian are the strongest, and they can almost kill this rare-level Branch Bone Shadow Beast in one move, so they are suspected to be top-level experts.