Mycelium

Li Nanzhu scanned their surroundings, a sudden sense of unease washing over her. "Does anyone else feel like... these mycelium threads are moving?"

Liu Qingyang followed her gaze. The fungal filaments on the rock walls were indeed writhing slowly, creeping toward them as if they were sentient beings.

"It’s not a hallucination," he whispered. "They really are moving."

Suisui, cradled in Li Nanzhu’s arms, suddenly began to struggle, its skeletal claws pointing toward the ground.

Everyone looked down and discovered that at some unknown point, several strands of mycelium as thin as hair had already coiled around their boots.

"Get back!"

Zhu Yinxi’s sound waves instantly shattered those filaments, but the breaks immediately oozed a blue mucus. More mycelium surged toward them from every direction.

"This damn place is even more sinister than the centipedes!" Duan Xianxing swung his sword to sever a patch of encroaching mycelium. Thunderlight danced along the blade, but it had little effect on the threads.

Liu Qingyang quickly pulled out several grains of explosive flame sand. "Try fire!"

The crimson grains exploded upon hitting the ground, and flames swept through. The mycelium emitted eerie hissing sounds in the fire, curling back as they retreated.

However, as soon as the flames died out, they grew back at an even faster rate.

"It’s no use! We can't burn them all!" Cold sweat broke out on Liu Qingyang’s forehead. "The regeneration speed of these fungi is faster than those centipede larvae!"

"Use physical attacks!" Zhu Yinxi’s flute sliced out a blade of sound, severing a large swathe of mycelium. Blue juice sprayed from the cuts, and new fungal colonies grew immediately where the liquid hit the rocks.

Li Nanzhu suddenly pointed toward a spot. "There’s a corpse over there!"

Deep within the fungal thicket, a cultivator’s corpse was tightly wrapped in mycelium, leaving only a grayish-blue face exposed.

Most horrifyingly, small blue mushrooms were growing out of his eye sockets and mouth, quivering slightly with a rhythmic breath-like pulse. The blue spores in the air were emanating from here.

Li Nanzhu suddenly covered her mouth and nose. "Wait... these airborne spores..."

Before she could finish, Liu Qingyang let out a sneeze.

The drifting spores formed a blue mist in front of him, and several particles clung to his eyelashes.

"I’m fine." Liu Qingyang rubbed his eyes. "It just itches a bit—aaah!"

His eyeballs suddenly bulged, and spiderweb-like blue lines surfaced on the whites of his eyes.

Zhu Yinxi yanked open his collar. Blue, webbed patterns had already appeared below his collarbone, spreading toward his heart and brain.

The end of the flute precisely struck several acupoints, and sound waves shattered the mycelium that was just beginning to take shape.

"Don't look!" Zhu Yinxi’s voice transmission exploded in everyone’s minds. "The spores parasitize through the eyes!"

As if to confirm his words, the fungal caps on the rock walls all turned toward the four of them. The spore sacs beneath the caps contracted like lungs.

Another corpse embedded in the fungal thicket suddenly twitched; it was a young female cultivator.

"Back off!" Just as Li Nanzhu’s talisman left her hand, the female corpse’s chest cavity burst open, and countless spores gushed out like smoke.

An explosion talisman detonated a burst of fire within the fungal mist, but it was instantly swallowed by the blue spores.

Liu Qingyang began to cough violently, blood mixed with mycelium seeping from between his fingers. He staggered back, hitting the rock wall and shaking down a rain of spores.

Suisui shrieked and scrambled back into Li Nanzhu’s arms. A squelching, strange noise echoed from the depths of the fungi. All the mycelium threads pulled taut simultaneously, as if receiving a command.

"The ground!" Liu Qingyang’s voice cracked.

The fungal carpet was writhing, slowly transporting the corpses embedded within toward the depths.

Even more terrifyingly, those corpses suddenly twisted and crawled to their feet. Rotting fingers tore open the mushrooms on their chests, revealing the dense spore sacs inside.

"Those mycelium threads can control corpses!" Li Nanzhu quickly pinched a talisman. "Watch out!"

Just as she suspected, a fungal corpse suddenly pounced. The mushrooms growing from its chest sprayed spores, but Li Nanzhu shoved an explosion talisman directly into its gaping chest cavity.

Boom! The explosion’s fire was instantly smothered by spores, but the shockwave still knocked back three fungal corpses.

Liu Qingyang finally couldn't help but gag. Tears mixed with blood flowed down his face. Although the mycelium from before had been shattered and stopped growing, it had still affected him, and the spores floating in the air were flying toward his face.

Duan Xianxing hurriedly used his sleeve to wipe the man's face, but the moment the fabric touched the spores, those blue threads actually began to grow wildly along the fibers of the cloth!

"Throw it away!" Li Nanzhu used fire to burn off Duan Xianxing’s cuff. When the scrap of fabric hit the ground, it had already turned into a writhing mass of fungal carpet.

Duan Xianxing suddenly let out a muffled groan. A needle-like pain radiated from the back of his neck. Reaching back, his hand touched something wet, and he felt the sensation of writhing mycelium beneath his fingertips.

"Don't move!" Li Nanzhu’s dagger flashed with a cold light.

The moment the blade sliced across his skin, Duan Xianxing saw his own blood spray out and freeze into eerie blue ice crystals in mid-air.

The intense pain made his vision go dark. In a daze, he actually saw Mu Wenyan standing deep within the fungal thicket, reaching out a hand that was as warm as ever.

"Eldest Senior Brother... it's dangerous..." Duan Xianxing instinctively stepped forward, and his life-bound sword clattered to the ground.

"Seventh Senior Brother!" Li Nanzhu’s roar was accompanied by the explosion of a fire lotus.

The heat wave knocked back the approaching fungal corpses and tore through the hallucination. Duan Xianxing snapped awake, only to find his left hand had already pulled open his own collar, baring his chest to welcome the spore invasion.

"Shit!" He hastily picked up Wait a Moment, but found his movements sluggish, as if he were bound by something invisible.

"These spores are affecting our minds!" Zhu Yinxi’s sound waves rippled out again, but this time the effect was noticeably weaker, and his face began to pale.

Li Nanzhu took advantage of the gap in Zhu Yinxi’s sound waves to shove a pill into Duan Xianxing’s mouth. Duan Xianxing gritted his teeth; though the taste was revolting, the effect was excellent. Moreover, the wound was only superficial, and it healed within a few breaths.

By this time, Liu Qingyang had finally managed to use his spiritual energy to completely expel the mycelium from his body. When his gaze fell upon the ground in the distance, he was startled. "Look!"

Several magic tools and storage bags were scattered on the ground—the belongings of previous intruders.

Most chilling was that these storage bags were also covered in tiny mycelium threads, as if these fungi could even infect inanimate objects.

"We have to get out of here," Li Nanzhu said, hugging Suisui tightly. "These fungi are more dangerous than the centipedes. They’ll slowly wear us down."

Liu Qingyang’s Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty. "The swarm didn't come in because they were afraid... but because this place has already been occupied by something even more dangerous. This mycelium..."

The four of them stood back-to-back in a circle, warily observing their surroundings.

The mycelium had completely blocked their path of retreat. The centipedes were still guarding the perimeter of the glowing mist, leaving them caught between a rock and a hard place.

"There seems to be a path ahead." Liu Qingyang narrowed his eyes. Through the ghostly blue mist, a passage could be seen extending forward.

"Go deeper!" Zhu Yinxi cleared the way with sound waves. "Find the control core!"

Forced deeper into the fungal thicket, the surrounding fungi became increasingly bizarre.

Some fungal caps were as large as round tables, with mycelium threads hanging like human hair from beneath the caps; some bore fruit-like spore sacs, within which curled embryos were faintly visible.

"Wha—what are those..." Duan Xianxing’s voice trembled.

Deep within the fungal net hung a dozen or so cocoon-like objects. Semi-transparent fungal membranes encased cultivators who had not yet been fully transformed.

In the center, a giant cocoon was pulsating, its surface mycelium flickering like blood vessels.

"It’s the mycelium core." Zhu Yinxi’s flute vibrated slightly. "The hub of the entire fungal colony."

"You all... go first..." Liu Qingyang suddenly spat out another mouthful of blood, but this blood was actually laced with mycelium threads.

"What’s going on! Didn't we just clear it out!" Duan Xianxing hurriedly supported Liu Qingyang, only to feel a hand full of moisture on his back.

"It was the wound from that centipede earlier, cough." Liu Qingyang struggled to suppress his coughing. In the frantic escape, he hadn't even had time to take a pill, and the wound on his back had been parasitized at some point.

"Stay focused!" Duan Xianxing poured thunder spiritual energy into his meridians, directly shattering the mycelium once again. Fortunately, Liu Qingyang was a cultivator with a single fire spiritual root; his meridians and body were filled with fire-attribute spiritual energy, so the mycelium couldn't parasitize him quickly. Coupled with Duan Xianxing’s thunder spiritual energy, they were shattered instantly.

With a swift move of his sword, Duan Xianxing sliced away the piece of flesh on the man's back that had been parasitized. Li Nanzhu also forced a healing pill produced by their Third Senior Brother into his mouth.

The good news was that he was alright; the bad news was that he couldn't use spiritual energy for a short while.

Luckily, since Liu Qingyang was a refinery master, he had plenty of magic tools in his storage bag. He tossed them directly to Li Nanzhu, and the two weakest members pressed close together.

The moment the giant cocoon contracted violently, the entire fungal cave seemed to come alive.

The mycelium surged like a tide, and the hanging cocoons all burst open. The semi-fungal humans that crawled out had twisted limbs but moved with terrifying agility. The front row crouched to spray clouds of spores, the middle row used mycelium like spears for thrusting attacks, and the back row constantly regenerated the damaged fungal carpet.

Although it was inappropriate, Li Nanzhu really wanted to complain right now—was she filming Train to Busan?

No, this was even scarier than Train to Busan!

Li Nanzhu’s grip on Suisui tightened. Suisui seemed to sense her unease and suddenly began to struggle violently. Seeing this, Li Nanzhu recalled Suisui’s discovery back when they dealt with the mirage sand and decisively let go.

As soon as Suisui hit the ground, it began to frantically devour the mycelium. Wherever it bit, the mycelium turned into metallic rust.

The star-patterned iron scraps embedded in its bone crevices were glowing with a strange luster. Those scraps, which Liu Qingyang usually fed it as snacks, now gleamed with an eerie silver-blue light under the fungal glow.

Liu Qingyang had once joked about 'you are what you eat,' and he had accidentally hit the mark, creating a path to survival for them!

"Follow Suisui!" She shoved a few more talismans to Duan Xianxing. "Star-patterned iron can suppress these fungi!"

Hearing this, the soulfire in Suisui’s eye sockets flared brilliantly. Its skeletal claws tore through the mycelium blocking the way. Any mycelium it touched withered as if encountering a natural predator, forcibly carving out a narrow passage.

The four of them stumbled after it into a rock crevice. The mycelium behind them pursued relentlessly like a living thing. Zhu Yinxi stayed at the rear to hold them off. Fortunately, his spiritual energy was still sufficient, giving him enough strength to fend off the mycelium from one direction.

The inside of the crevice was dark and damp, with blue mucus constantly dripping from the ceiling. Luckily, a faint light shone from the end of the crack. But just as they were about to burst out, the entire passage shook violently.

The mycelium at the top dropped down like a waterfall, instantly sealing the exit.

Liu Qingyang coughed up blood-flecked foam and let out a laugh. "If I’d known... I should have fed it more star-patterned iron..."

"Shut up and save your strength!" Thunderlight coiled around Duan Xianxing’s sword blade. "Once we get out, I’ll treat you to a whole year of star-patterned iron feasts!"

Just as Suisui was about to pounce directly at the mycelium, Li Nanzhu suddenly noticed an anomaly on the rock wall—the mycelium there was much thinner than elsewhere.

Without hesitation, she slapped her final three explosion talismans onto that spot.

"Get down!"