The world enters the fungal world

Chapter 213 Strengthening the Limit (Thanks to Yimeng Hongchen for the donation)

Unfortunately, this leader-level deadwood worm mother failed to condense fungal source crystals within her body.

He could tell that the energy of the source crystal was hidden inside the spore nucleus the size of a basketball on the back of the deadwood insect mother.

If he hadn't possessed the power of Yin, the "Crimson Flame" he unleashed might not have been able to severely injure the Withered Wood Insect Mother. One can imagine how powerful this leader monster was, possessing a hidden power within its body sufficient to contend with the "Crimson Flame".

Almost everyone gained something; each person found enhancement crystals, symbiotic bacteria, or other special bacteria.

The found enhancement crystal core immediately fused with its own symbiotic bacteria to enhance its abilities.

Li Yu now possesses 5 intermediate-level enhancement crystal cores and 45 basic-level enhancement crystal cores, enough for a fifth enhancement.

According to his estimate, 81 primary enhancement crystals are needed for five enhancements.

Five intermediate-level enhanced crystal cores are equivalent to 45 primary-level ones. Adding the 45 primary-level ones he currently possesses, he has a total of 90.

He pondered the Sirius fungus in his right hand and the Death Mushroom fungus in his left. Both of these symbiotic fungi had been enhanced to level four, and now he needed to choose one for a fifth enhancement.

Li Yu decided to strengthen Sirius first.

First, he fused five intermediate-level enhancement crystal cores into the Sirius fungus. The energy inside surged violently, but it was still not enough to successfully enhance the fungus. Li Yu then took out the primary-level enhancement crystal cores and fused them into the fungus one by one.

Finally, after he fused with the 36th primary enhancement crystal core, a tremendous change occurred within Sirius.

His Sirius bacteria finally underwent its fifth enhancement.

The Sirius fungus, after five enhancements, underwent astonishing changes. Li Yu flipped his right hand, revealing the Sirius Blade. He discovered that the Sirius Blade, after five enhancements, had grown to an astonishing two meters in length, transforming into a truly gigantic weapon.

Its surface has a faint, almost imperceptible, dark blue sheen, making it look like a layer of liquid light is slowly flowing across it, giving it an indescribable mystique.

Li Yu knew that this was a phenomenon unique to the symbiotic bacteria after five rounds of enhancement.

The mycelium connecting his right hand and the Sirius Giant Blade was two meters long.

The five-times enhanced "Sky Wolf Slash" technique can unleash three sword strikes at once, each with a greater distance and power than the last.

The first flash of light could penetrate one meter through the blade, the second two meters, and the third three meters.

Ultimately, the power of these three sword lights can be superimposed and merged into one, transforming into a terrifying sword aura three meters long, with immeasurable power.

Feeling the amazing changes in Sirius after five enhancements, Li Yu took a deep breath, a hint of joy appearing on his face.

He could clearly feel that his strength had improved once again.

However, although Sirius Fungus received its fifth enhancement and the power of its fungal technique Sirius Slash was greatly increased, the power of the second fungal technique "Crimson Flame" that it fused into did not increase accordingly.

Clearly, this "Crimson Flame" originates from the Mycological Crystal, and its power is fixed. Although it has been fused into the Sirius Myc, strictly speaking, it still belongs to a relatively independent entity.

Strengthening Sirius does not correspondingly increase its power.

He had used up almost all the enhancement crystals he had accumulated recently, leaving only 9 primary enhancement crystals. Li Yu took one out, wanting to try to integrate it into Sirius.

He wanted to test whether the Sirius could undergo a sixth enhancement.

This time, Sirius bacteria showed no reaction and was unable to fuse with the enhanced crystal core.

Li Yu understood that the Sirius fungus had reached its limit at level five and could not be strengthened a sixth time.

It seems that there are limits to the enhancement of symbiotic bacteria.

"The next step is to upgrade the Death Mushroom to level five as well." Li Yu's eyes gleamed. The power of this level five upgraded symbiotic fungus is probably more than double that of level four.

Li Yu sheathed the Sirius Greatsword, which had been enhanced to its limit, and looked around. He found that there were about two hundred people gathered at the rift below. He didn't know if the other one hundred people were all dead, scattered, or had left.

Most of the people scattered around sat down to rest. Many of them were seriously injured and were now either eating Ganoderma lucidum or applying blood-patterned mushrooms to recover from their injuries.

Bai Yan, Nan Muyu, Wu Xiuchun, and the man in the black hat had made a great gain this time, and they were all beaming with joy.

Nan Muyu controlled dozens of crystal fragments remotely with her right hand. These crystal fragments were surrounded by a faint black light. Li Yu understood at a glance that this should be Nan Muyu's gains this time.

The crystal fragments merged with the black mystic light, increasing their power.

Wu Xiuchun stretched out his hands, and Li Yu saw that the surface of his hands had a faint yellow luster, making his hands look like they were cast in brass. Not only that, even his ten fingernails that extended outwards were stained with a yellow luster.

"It seems there were some great opportunities hidden in those three spore-bearing mushrooms. What a pity."

Li Yu glanced at it from afar and secretly lamented that he had to focus all his efforts on suppressing the constantly repairing deadwood worm mother and was unable to free up his hands to destroy the three spore mother mushrooms.

However, the reward for defeating the Deadwood Queen included Fungal Soul Liquid, which could help Yin grow, which Li Yu was quite satisfied with.

During the break, Li Yu looked at Lin Muying and the others beside him and asked, "How far are you from your peak?"

Given their perilous situation, they had killed quite a few fungal beasts in the past day or two, and given that they were eating level-three edible fungi, Li Yu guessed that their spore evolution rate wouldn't be slow.

Lin Muying said, "It has grown by about one-third to one-quarter. It will still take a lot of time to break through to the peak."

Zhou Xigang nodded and said, "We're about the same, it's still early."

"By the way, Li Yu, when are you going to break through?" Zhou Xigang thought that Li Yu was currently at the peak of the Spore Stage. If he broke through again, he would break through to the Spore Stage and above, which was the minimum standard to become a true resident of Lingxu City.

"Once it reaches its peak, the spore size will stop growing. It seems that some kind of new transformation is taking place inside the spore. I estimate that it will be possible to break through the spore stage only after the internal transformation is completed. As for how long it will take, I have no experience and cannot estimate it at present."

Zhou Xigang laughed and said, "Since Lingxu City has set a one-month limit for breaking through to the Spore Stage, with your abilities, breaking through to the Spore Stage should be easy."

Qian Lili said anxiously, "But we haven't broken through the peak yet. Will we be able to break through the spore stage before the fungal outbreak next month?"

Zhou Xi rolled his eyes and said, "We'll deal with whatever comes our way. What's the rush? We'll find a way eventually."

Qian Lili was speechless for a moment when she heard his answer. This Zhou Xigang was always so optimistic.

After everyone rested for a while, Li Yu stood up.

He decided to follow the crack, which, according to the map, would lead him into the core area of ​​the true Ancient Ghost Forest.

Seeing Li Yu stand up, Fang Mingxuan, Lin Muying, Qian Lili, and Zhou Xigang also stood up.

Then people around them gradually stood up.

Beyond the crack stood rows of ancient trees, their trunks entwined with thick, black fungal vines, and the crevices of the trunks were filled with the bones of humans or wild animals, all shrouded in a thick fog.

As the group entered the ancient tree, they soon encountered a swarm of fungus-armored mountain rats.

This burrowing mountain rat is about the size of an adult aardvark, with short, thick limbs and a knack for burrowing.

Its fur had long been eroded by the underground fungus, and its back, head, and the outside of its limbs were covered with a grayish-brown hard fungal shell, layer upon layer like armor, with fine black mycelial patterns on the surface.

Its abdominal skin and fur became ulcerated, and tiny, ghost-faced mushrooms grew on it.

The claws are wrapped with hardened mycelium, which has a dark bluish-green spore sheen. The tail is completely mycelialized and drags on the ground. They leave a fine mycelial trail wherever they go. They are thick and short, and the mycelium rubs against each other when they move, making a crunching sound.

Although it is a C-class elite beast, the Mushroom Armor Mountain Rat is not particularly strong overall and is considered a relatively weak Mushroom Beast among C-class elite beasts.

Its main skill is "Heavy Armor Charge". Once activated, it charges straight at the target with its limbs. It is bulky but has a strong impact. However, because it is slow, it is not easy to hit the target.

However, it has strong defenses, as the fungal armor covering its body gives it powerful protection.

A swarm of fungal-armored mountain rats appeared, and the group rushed forward to fight them.

Those who managed to enter this ancient tree alive during the spore stage, aside from a few who relied on luck, were mostly powerful beings among the top-tier spore stage cultivators.

The spore-forming mountain rat is relatively weak, so these top-tier spore-forming plants can basically kill a single spore-forming mountain rat.

As for the dozens of top experts walking in front, they were completely overwhelmed.

The number of top-tier experts among them has now exceeded sixty, and this number is being updated every day.

Soon, a group led by Li Yu went deep into the ancient forest. On the ground on both sides of them, there were countless mushroom-armored mountain rats that had been killed.

Li Yu picked up three primary enhancement crystal cores, but he stopped picking up the symbiotic bacteria that appeared on the corpses.

The backpack on his back contained the incubating fungal eggs, and the waist pouches on both sides were almost full. Even if he picked them up now, there was nowhere to store them.

As the group ventured deeper into the ancient forest, they soon encountered an even more powerful fungal beast: the Shield-Armored Ghost Rat, a rare C-rank beast evolved from the Fungal-Armored Mountain Rat.

The shield-armored ghost rat had nearly doubled in size, its fungal armor was fully mature and hardened, and its entire body was covered with dark fungal patterns.

The dorsal carapace rises to form a huge semi-circular shield, with a swollen black spore mother cyst embedded in the center of the shield, and bony spur-like protuberances extending from the shoulder plates on both sides.

Its ears are rotten, revealing white bones. Its face is sealed by a thin film of mycelium, with only a pair of greenish vertical pupils showing. Blood-sucking mycelium grows from the bottom of its four feet, allowing it to climb ancient trees and rock walls.

Compared to the Mushroom Mountain Rat, the rare Shielded Ghost Rat possesses greater defense, strength, and speed.

Although it is not particularly outstanding among C-grade rare beasts, it is much stronger than the Mushroom Armor Mountain Rat.

The fungal technique "Heavy Armor Charge" has evolved into "Chain Charge," which can launch three charges in succession. The second charge adds an armor-breaking effect, and the third charge can combine the previous powers to cause extremely terrible destruction.

Even a house can be easily leveled once it launches a "chain attack".

As hordes of shield-armored ghost rats appeared, the group's advance immediately slowed down.