Chapter 324: Spirit-Eroding Fungus King (2) |
The sickly, cyan-purple blotches spreading across the three stalks of Thousand-Ear Golden Light Rice grew more severe, like a festering blight upon their golden leaves.
The cause was as direct as the creature’s name suggested. It was the external manifestation of the Spirit-Eroding Fungus King’s invasion—a reaction to the specialized spores and invasive hyphae it secreted.
Old spirit farmers would say it was the plant’s cry for help.
And in a way, they were right.
One of the Fungus King’s primary abilities was to continuously saturate the air with microscopic Spirit-Eroding spores. These insidious particles would cling to the leaves and stems of spirit plants, worming their way inside through the plant’s own pores to inflict devastating damage from within.
In a desperate act of self-preservation, the plants would instinctively flood the invaded areas with Spirit Qi, creating pockets of suddenly immense spiritual density. This internal conflict, this war between plant and parasite, was what created the diseased, cyan-purple spots visible to the naked eye.
An experienced spirit farmer would react immediately, perhaps by introducing fire-attribute items to raise the ambient temperature or by laying down a formation to bolster the plant’s own Spirit Qi reserves. While these measures couldn’t solve the root problem, they could buy precious time.
The only true solution, of course, was to eliminate the source: the Spirit-Eroding Fungus King itself.
But the creature was sentient and pathologically timid. The slightest disturbance would send it scuttling away into the deep earth. Its subterranean speed was astonishing, far too fast for any ordinary cultivator to pursue.
But they were not alone. With them stood a Field Master and an Earth Vein Abyss Lord. The cultivation of these two masters was, at the absolute minimum, beyond the Golden Core realm. Furthermore, the Field Master was a wood Spirit Root cultivator, and the Abyss Lord, an earth Spirit Root cultivator. Both possessed Spirit Roots of exceptional purity, granting their spiritual energy a terrifying concentration.
Now, seeing their quarry slither into the trap, Zhu Fuxian and Shi Yuan shared a single, sharp glance—an entire strategy conveyed in an instant.
Zhu Fuxian struck first. His wood-attribute spiritual energy surged forth not as a gentle breeze, but as a verdant tide, instantly enveloping the three stalks of Thousand-Ear Golden Light Rice. A wave of life essence, so potent it was almost tangible, washed over them.
The cyan-purple blotches on the mutated rice stalks immediately began to fade.
This, however, only made the bait more irresistible.
Deep underground, the Fungus King sensed the surge of vitality and grew bolder. It released an even greater cloud of spores, greedily siphoning the rich Spirit Qi and nutrients from the recovering plants.
Yet, in the very moment of its gluttonous indulgence, Earth Vein Abyss Lord Shi Yuan made his move.
Yellow Earth Essence—a power far superior to common earth qi—erupted from him, instantly saturating the entire area. The very soil compressed, transforming into an invisible, inescapable cage.
The Spirit-Eroding Fungus King, ever the coward, instinctively tried to flee at the sudden shift. But this time was different. Every direction—forward, back, left, right, and deeper down—thrummed with a lethal pressure. Death awaited on all sides.
Only one path remained. Up. The pressure from above was minimal, and the tantalizing aroma of the Thousand-Ear Golden Light Rice beckoned.
With no other choice, the Fungus King began to burrow toward the surface.
Before the eyes of Jiang Chen, Zhao Feng, and Rong Fa, the black soil of the Spirit Farm began to swell. A mound of earth pushed upward, growing larger and larger until cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. A moment later, a thick, cyan-gray fog erupted from the fissures.
Jiang Chen knew this was no mere mist. It was a plague cloud of the Fungus King’s spores.
They were lethally potent.
If inhaled by a wood Spirit Root cultivator, the effects were disastrous. A mild case would result in stagnant spiritual power and discolored spots on the skin. A severe case could cause the Spirit Root itself to fester with mold, leading to a regression in cultivation. The most horrific outcome was being parasitized by the fungal nuclei, the victim’s body and soul twisted until they became a mindless Spirit-Eroding puppet.
Fortunately, Zhu Fuxian’s spiritual energy formed an impenetrable barrier, containing the spore cloud entirely within the confines of the single-mu, second-grade Spirit Farm. Not a single particle escaped.
With a series of sickening cracks, the ground ruptured, and a behemoth clawed its way into the open.
At first glance, it resembled a colossal mushroom. The cap alone spanned seven or eight meters in diameter, its shape an irregular, undulating wave of flesh. Its surface glistened, coated in a thick, viscous mucus that shimmered with a grotesque, phosphorescent light in the darkness. A nauseating stench of rot and decay washed over the onlookers. The cap was a deep, bruised purple, mottled with black and dark red spots.
Below it was a stalk nearly ten meters tall, so thick at its base that it would take several men to encircle it. Its surface was a nightmare of densely packed, weeping pores that continuously pulsed, releasing clouds of the cyan-gray spores. The stalk itself was almost black, its texture as hard as iron yet possessing the unnatural resilience of fungal matter.
From its base, a forest of countless black tentacles—or perhaps, hyphae—erupted. They moved with the piercing power of the metal attribute, burrowing through soil and stone alike as if they were water. They skittered and spread, rapidly colonizing the entire Spirit Farm and establishing their own horrific territory.
Jiang Chen took a sharp, involuntary breath. So this is the Spirit-Eroding Fungus King, worth tens of thousands of Mid-grade Spirit Stones?
He had only ever read about it in texts. Seeing it in person was a far more visceral, visually arresting experience.
By now, the Fungus King knew it had been deceived. There was nowhere left to run; the only escape route had been the entrance to the trap. The moment it left the safety of the earth, it had sealed its own fate.
Even so, it prepared for a final, desperate struggle.
It was a pity it had no idea what kind of beings it was facing.
With a mere flicker of his will, Zhu Fuxian commanded the three stalks of Thousand-Ear Golden Light Rice to tear free from the soil and fly to safety.
Then, Shi Yuan made a casual gesture. The dense Yellow Earth Essence permeating the area instantly solidified, locking the solitary, monstrous Fungus King in place. It was as if time itself had frozen around the creature.
For cultivators like Jiang Chen and Zhao Feng, capturing this beast would have been a monumental, perhaps impossible, task.
But for these two titans, it was utterly trivial. From the moment the Fungus King dared to appear, its defeat was assured. They hadn’t expended the slightest effort.
The Meridian-Reversing Worm Mother was caught. The Spirit-Eroding Fungus King was caught.
Just like that, the nascent plague that threatened the entire region was snuffed out before it could truly begin.
This was a monumental relief for everyone. The Zhao Clan could continue developing their Spirit Farms, and the other spirit farmers no longer had to live in constant, gnawing anxiety.
At that moment, Zhao Feng fumbled for a Storage Bag. He approached Jiang Chen, his head bowed. “Spirit Envoy Jiang,” he whispered, his voice strained. “If you hadn’t discovered the problem, our Zhao Clan… we would have faced catastrophic losses. This is just a small token of our gratitude. Please, accept it.”
Jiang Chen’s eyebrow arched. “What kind of person do you take me for?”
His expression turned severe, his voice ringing with cold authority. “I helped you not for some ulterior motive or for the promise of reward. As a Spirit Cultivation Envoy, this is my duty!”