The world enters the fungal world

Chapter 97 The Rotting Corpse with a Human Face (Thanks to 20200827171218928 for the donation)

No danger was encountered that night. Although there were occasional roars of beasts from afar, they did not disturb everyone's rest. During the first half of the night, Li Yu was mostly in a meditative state.

He could pay attention to the surrounding movements while sensing the subtle changes in the spores within his body. It seemed that his soul and mind were involved in the growth process of these spores, and this feeling of being connected to them was quite wonderful.

He deeply understood the true meaning of the natal fungus that Bai Xiuluo had spoken of.

The fungal spores that enter each person's body may be similar, but the fungi that are born after combining with a person's soul and body are all unique, simply because each person's soul origin is different.

Therefore, this pupil fungus is essentially a brand new soul born from the fusion of its own soul and the fungal seed.

"No wonder when I first dreamed of Pupil Fungus, its response to me was—it is me. Now I finally understand, I am Pupil Fungus, and Pupil Fungus is me—"

Although he had previously gained the power of the Pupil Fungus, he had a deep-seated aversion to this fungus, always feeling that something foreign had taken over his body and was parasitizing it.

Now that he had a clear understanding, Li Yu finally realized that it was not that some external thing was parasitizing his body, but rather that his own original nature was awakening and manifesting in the form of pupil fungus.

In the middle of the night, when Fang Mingxuan relieved him, Li Yu found himself full of energy and not sleepy at all; he was even more energetic than if he had taken a nap.

"It seems that interacting with pupil bacteria more often has some benefits."

Li Yu thought silently, then lay down. Unable to fall asleep for a while, he closed his eyes and continued to sense the growth of the fungal spores. This time, he drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

When he woke up, it was already daylight, and a new day had begun.

Everyone woke up, ate their fill, and continued their journey.

"If all goes well, we should be able to get to the hotel today." Li Yu looked up at the sky and found that it was gray and hazy, and even the sun, which usually had a halo, was gone.

Qian Lili said excitedly, "We've all become more capable now, so we should be able to get into the hotel this time, right?"

Lin Muying sighed softly and said, "I just hope that the Blood Mushroom Monkeys in the hotel evolve slowly."

These words caused a slight unease to set in everyone's hearts.

Although their strength has improved, no one knows what level the fungal beast in the hotel has evolved to.

Zhou Xigang felt a slight itch in his nostrils, reached out and scratched it, saying, "According to the original date, today is May 3rd, and there are still 5 days left until the bacterial plague that Bai Xiuluo mentioned on the 15th — I wonder if that bacterial plague is really as sinister as he said."

As they chatted, they continued toward the hotel, encountering attacks from fungal beasts along the way. Fortunately, most of the beasts that appeared were ordinary or elite, and not a single rare beast appeared. With their current strength, they could easily handle them.

When everyone stopped to rest at noon, they were less than two kilometers away from the hotel.

After opening his backpack and taking out the edible fungi, Li Yu looked up at the sky and found that the originally gray sky had become gloomy with dark clouds hanging down.

"There's something wrong with the sky; it looks like it's going to rain," Qian Lili said, looking up at the sky.

Li Yu picked up the iron spear that was placed to the side, stood up and said, "Let's go, let's get into the hotel before it rains, otherwise it will be troublesome if it rains."

The others also stood up and quickened their pace.

"You guys said the map says this northern area is a restricted zone, so why did Xiao Gang and his gang dare to come here, and even die here?"

Zhou Xigang looked into the distance, where he could vaguely see the Century Garden Hotel, and suddenly thought of something.

Li Yu said, "A map is just a map; it's not necessarily completely accurate. Besides, there are always people who don't believe in superstitions and want to come and see this so-called restricted area. Aren't we the same people now?"

Zhou Xigang smiled and said, "That seems to make sense. That Bai Xiuluo probably only treats us differently because we come from the North District, but he's been patient and hasn't mentioned it."

Lin Muying frowned slightly and said, "What he wants most right now is to break through to the peak of the Spore Stage. If our guess is correct, he should come to us to ask about the Northern District after he breaks through to the peak."

"Don't you find it strange? The map says this is a restricted area, but the fungal beasts here aren't very strong—" Zhou Xi had just finished speaking when he looked up into the distance and saw the familiar supermarket.

A few days ago, he was shopping in this supermarket when a loud noise transported him to this world.

Li Yu, who was leading the group, stopped.

They had been retracing their steps all the way back, and now they had finally arrived at the supermarket and the residential area where Zhou Xigang's family lived.

The battle between the mysterious creature with a cap the size of a house and a pair of dark wings and the cavity creature in the residential building caused the ground to shake violently, and many residential buildings to collapse. They fled this place, and the outcome of that battle is unknown.

Four days have passed, and the place has returned to silence. In the distance, you can see that the row of storefronts where the supermarket is located is still intact and has not been affected.

Only four residential buildings in the rear of the community remain intact; the rest have either completely collapsed or been severely damaged.

"Who do you think will win that battle?" Zhou Xigang asked in a low voice, curious. He wanted to go there and see for himself, but he was also a little scared.

Qian Lili rolled her eyes at him and said, "Who could guess that? Unless we go and see for ourselves?"

Zhou Xigang said, "How about we go take a look?"

Qian Lili immediately looked nervous and shook her head repeatedly, saying, "What are we going to do? They say curiosity killed the cat. I'm not going to do something so risky."

Li Yu was also a little curious, but after thinking about it, she finally gave up the idea.

The Century Garden Hotel is only a couple hundred meters away from here, so getting into the hotel is the most important thing now.

"Let's go to the hotel, let's not cause any more trouble." Li Yu carried the iron spear and tried to bypass the supermarket and residential area as much as possible, heading towards the hotel in the distance.

Zhou Xigang was a little disappointed and pursed his lips, but he also understood that going to the depths of that residential area was indeed risky, as no one knew what might be there.

The group had only walked a few dozen meters forward when Li Yu suddenly frowned and looked up.

Not far from them was an overpass, but now it was in ruins. One section of the bridge had completely collapsed, two giant piers had crumbled and fallen to the ground, and the ground was surrounded by broken reinforced concrete blocks.

On the broken bridge surface, there were giant, dark red mycelia hanging down. These mycelia were incredibly thick, with the thickest one being as thick as a water bucket. They hung down from above to the ground, extending in front of them and burrowing into the ground.

Li Yu stayed in this area for three whole days, so he was extremely familiar with the surroundings. He remembered that when he escaped here four days ago, there weren't such thick dark red mycelia.

Did these mycelia all grow within the last four days?

What caught his attention most were the densely packed suckers on the surface of these dark red mycelia, which made him feel somewhat familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

Just as this thought crossed my mind, the dark red mycelium that had plunged into the ground in front of me suddenly began to wriggle slightly.

Li Yu was slightly startled and immediately took a step back. Then, the mycelium seemed to come alive and was pulled up from the ground.

Everyone who saw this was taken aback and immediately moved away from the mycelium without hesitation.

Fortunately, the mycelium did not attack them, but instead curled upwards, like a dark red giant python exploring something in the air. The next moment, all the hundreds and thousands of mycelium of varying thicknesses hanging down from the cross-section of the overpass began to wriggle.

It seemed that what existed attached to the overpass was a living thing.

Even more bizarrely, the dark red mycelium clinging to the ground and buildings on the other side and in front of them also began to wriggle, as if all the mycelium in this area had come to life.

The sight sent chills down everyone's spines, and no one dared to approach. The path to the hotel was completely blocked by these wriggling mycelia. Fortunately, the mycelia behind them showed no abnormal changes, so they could only retreat.

"Damn it, now I know why this place is called a forbidden zone. It's inhabited by all sorts of bizarre and terrifying super life forms. This is the third one I've encountered."

As Zhou Xigang retreated, he muttered complaints under his breath. His mind was quick, and he suddenly thought of the cavity creature, then the winged flying monster, and then the countless dark red mycelium in front of him.

Each one of them was an ordinary fungal beast; they had never been encountered elsewhere, yet here they found three at once.

As everyone moved away, they looked at the overpass and saw that a large number of fungal filaments were constantly rising from the surface of the bridge.

In a short time, a colossal structure, over ten meters high and formed by countless entwined mycelia, rose up on the overpass, with even more mycelia growing upwards from all sides.

This behemoth is growing at an alarming rate, as if this unimaginable, terrifying being is awakening.

The dark clouds gathering in the sky grew lower and lower, and the world darkened at that moment.

"What do we do now?" Qian Lili was very nervous. Although she had grown to the intermediate level of the spore stage and obtained the powerful giant hook fungus, the strange scene in front of her still made her feel extremely nervous. She habitually clenched the corner of her clothes.

"Retreat, let's get out of here first." Li Yu lowered his voice and spoke from his throat. Just as he turned around, his body suddenly stiffened, and a look of shock appeared on his face.

Suddenly, about 30 or 40 meters behind them, a strange mushroom over 10 meters tall floated up, looking at first glance like a giant kite.

This mushroom has a grayish-white cap, but beneath the cap are not gills, but layers of withered human faces with empty eye sockets, from which black fungal sap flows.

The stem at the bottom is pure white, like a human spine magnified many times, covered with fine white hairs, and has two rows of wings, as thin as cicada wings, on its back.

At this moment, its wings flapped, and it flew in the air, its spine, which was more than ten meters long, swaying in the wind like a giant python.

Dark clouds hung low, and in the gloomy sky, what suddenly appeared resembled a ghost from legend. The five people were startled when they saw it. Qian Lili was so frightened that she couldn't help but scream, then immediately covered her mouth tightly, her eyes wide open, her face filled with terror.

"Rotting corpse with a human face—" Zhou Xigang's voice rang out in fear.

Li Yu's expression changed drastically. He immediately remembered that the booklet recording edible fungi and fungal beasts had mentioned this ghost-like creature in front of him.

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