Chapter 6

Lin Juan had fought his way here.

No, that wasn’t entirely accurate. After clearing the mushrooms around the path, Lin Juan tried to find the way back.

He grabbed the largest mushroom and punched it.

“Boom!” With a loud noise, the half-person-tall mushroom was smashed into a big pit.

The mushroom was slippery, with unknown mucus secreted from its cap. Lin Juan shook his hand in disgust, grabbed it again, and shook it hard. “Can you speak?”

The mushroom didn’t react.

“Can’t?” Lin Juan increased his force, his fingers digging deep into the mushroom. “Then do you have consciousness?”

The mushroom still didn’t react.

“Hey, give back the way out!”

Only when Lin Juan turned the mushroom upside down and shook it did Lu Mingxuan, who had been stunned the whole time, finally snap out of it. “L-Little Uncle, what is this?”

“A poisonous thing.” Lin Juan didn’t know how to explain the existence of weird phenomena and just said it casually.

“Then your hand…” Lu Mingxuan’s gaze fell on Lin Juan’s hand.

The young man’s fingers were slender and strong, looking even more appealing against the backdrop of the eerie translucent blue mushroom.

Looking again at the pits of varying depths corroded into the surrounding soil by the mushroom’s bodily fluids, Lu Mingxuan closed his eyes.

His little uncle’s spouse seemed far too terrifying.

He wondered if his little uncle would get beaten when he woke up.

Pushing aside the jumbled thoughts in his mind, Lu Mingxuan got to the main point. “Little Uncle, is it okay for you to do that?”

Lin Juan’s hand didn’t seem corroded at all.

Recalling the scene he had witnessed on the wedding night, Lu Mingxuan took a deep breath. His little uncle was truly strong.

Whether it was mutated frogs or mutated mushrooms, he could punch them all.

“It’s fine. We need to deal with these things first.” Lin Juan had discovered last time that he seemed immune to these weird phenomena.

Though he didn’t know the reason, it was good news for him.

After all, one of the hardest things to deal with about weird phenomena was the pollution that humans couldn’t resist.

Lin Juan had no such worry and could go all out without mercy.

After smashing the largest mushroom, the surrounding mushrooms suddenly decreased in number. Lin Juan looked around and spotted a breakthrough.

Not far away, a translucent high wall made of mushrooms was faintly visible. Lin Juan’s intuition told him the key to leaving was there.

“I’ll go take a look.”

“I’ll go too!” Lu Mingxuan refused to stay behind alone no matter what.

“What about these people?” Lin Juan glanced at the few people who had become listless with the mushrooms’ deaths.

After Lu Mingxuan woke up, these people had woken up one after another, but they weren’t fully awake. They were still under mind control, stubbornly walking toward the center of the mushrooms. They couldn’t be held back.

Lin Juan pulled out climbing rope from his bag and tied them up securely.

“I can’t protect them alone if I stay here,” Lu Mingxuan said with a crestfallen face. He was a science student, after all. He regretted slacking off during the martial arts classes his grandfather had signed him up for. “Little Uncle, I’m scared QAQ.”

“Fine, then we’ll go together. I can’t guarantee we won’t run into even bigger mushrooms.” Lu Mingxuan looked so pitiful that Lin Juan had no choice but to relent.

The unconscious people still had some mobility, which saved Lin Juan a lot of trouble. He pulled one end of the rope and walked forward, while Lu Mingxuan didn’t dare fall too far behind and stuck close to his side.

After walking for a bit, Lu Mingxuan felt an itch on his neck and scratched it.

The itch spread, and he reached back to scratch his back.

“So itchy…”

Glancing back inadvertently, Lu Mingxuan shouted, “Little Uncle, they’re turning into monsters!”

The people bound by the rope had blue skin and enlarged heads that gradually turned into mushroom caps. Their mouths opened, mucus flowed from them, and their bodies twisted and struggled as they mutated into mushrooms one by one.

“I-I’m mutating too!” Lu Mingxuan looked down and saw the blue skin on his hand. He nearly fainted.

He tentatively touched his head with both hands and felt a cold, inhuman texture. Lu Mingxuan froze, not daring to move.

“Am I turning into a monster?”

Overwhelming panic hit him, and Lu Mingxuan burst into tears. “Little Uncle, I shouldn’t have brought you here for an outing. It’s my fault. If I turn into a monster, can you kill me quickly? I’m afraid of pain. Waaah, don’t worry, I’ll send a message to Grandpa so they won’t blame you.”

As he spoke, he tremblingly took out his phone and tapped a few times before unlocking the screen.

“I can’t go back, Little Uncle. Don’t worry about me anymore. I…” His vision blurred, his voice trembled, choked with sobs.

“Wipe.”

A clean white handkerchief appeared before him. Lu Mingxuan took it and wiped his face haphazardly.

Lu Mingxuan finally broke down. “Little Uncle, I don’t want to die!”

He had seemed calm while giving his last words, but he was just an eighteen-year-old boy. How could he not be scared facing something like this?

“Who said you’re going to die?” Lin Juan spoke unhurriedly, his voice carrying a strange soothing power. “Remember Doctor Zhuang we saw last time? You’ve been infected by spores. He’ll cure you.”

Lu Mingxuan gradually calmed down. “What about them…”

“They’ll all be saved.” Lin Juan didn’t dare guarantee it, but he couldn’t let Lu Mingxuan keep breaking down.

Besides, Huaguo was always reliable in the face of disasters. He believed that even in the early stages of weird phenomena descending, the authorities had countermeasures.

If not, he could look for an ability user with purification powers.

The mushroom wall wasn’t far from them. Along the way, humanoid mushroom strips kept attacking them. Lu Mingxuan didn’t dare think if these mushrooms were mutated humans. He stayed by Lin Juan’s side, warily watching their surroundings and imitating Lin Juan’s method—punching any mushroom that got close.

Courage gave him endless strength, and gradually, he didn’t feel scared anymore.

“We’re here.”

Lin Juan stood under the massive mushroom wall. They didn’t dare get too close. Only upon approaching did they realize the mushroom wall was formed by huge mushrooms squeezed together, and at the edges, they were fusing.

Lu Mingxuan looked up and felt it stretched endlessly. “Such a huge mushroom.”

It was no exaggeration to say it blotted out the sky.

Dark blue mucus constantly flowed down from the mushroom wall. Any small mushrooms that approached were captured by the wall, melted, and merged into it.

Lin Juan observed that transparent mycelium kept extending from the mushroom wall, ensnaring nearby creatures of all sizes and dragging them to the wall to become nutrients.

“Watch out for the transparent mycelium!”

Just as he spoke, Lu Mingxuan jerked back, barely dodging the mycelium lunging at him.

“Don’t get close yet.” After instructing him, Lin Juan took two steps back and broke into a run.

Lu Mingxuan obediently retreated further. As he was about to speak, he saw Lin Juan sprint to the base of the mushroom wall and kick it.

His mouth fell open as the massive mushroom wall collapsed with a boom under the long-haired young man’s foot.

My goodness, just how strong was his little uncle?!

“Huh? The mushrooms here spit fire?”

Hearing Lin Juan’s voice, Lu Mingxuan cautiously poked his head out.

Whoa, there really was a big fireball inside.

Lin Juan spotted an acquaintance at a glance and greeted him. “Doctor Zhuang!”

Hearing the delight in his tone, Zhuang Yufeng suppressed his various emotions and asked, “Mr. Lin, how are you here?”

Sheng Tianzong withdrew his supernatural ability with a muffled grunt and spat out a mouthful of blood.

So it wasn’t the mushroom spitting the fireball—it was a person.

Zhuang Yufeng hurried forward to support him. “Tianzong, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” It was just some backlash from overusing his supernatural ability.

Zhuang Yufeng quickly checked his body. The heart he had been holding finally settled. Fortunately, though the backlash was severe, it was much better than the original doomed outcome.

Lin Juan curiously glanced at them and waved his hand.

A nearly fully mutated mushroom person led a group of completely mutated mushroom people out from behind him.

The Vanguard Squad members instinctively gripped their weapons and got into formation.

“Little Uncle…” Suddenly facing a group of heavily armed soldiers brimming with killing intent, Lu Mingxuan instinctively sought protection.

“They should be infected. Doctor Zhuang, could you take a look at them?”

After saying that, Lin Juan knew he couldn’t ask for free labor and offered proactively, “As payment, I can help you deal with these things.”

He hated bosses who made people work for free the most and refused to become one himself.

“I…”

Before Zhuang Yufeng could speak, Sheng Tianzong interrupted. “And who might you be?”

Sheng Tianzong took half a step forward, shielding Zhuang Yufeng behind him. The Vanguard Squad members swiftly gathered behind them, forming a defensive formation ready for attack or defense.

Though it seemed this long-haired young man who looked human had broken the 【Fantastical Mushroom】’s encirclement of them, he was too powerful. They couldn’t be sure if this was another scheme of the 【Fantastical Mushroom】.

Perhaps to catch them off guard with a fatal strike.

“I’m Lin Juan. Doctor Zhuang should know me.” Seeing their wariness, Lin Juan pursed his lips. “If it’s not okay, I’ll find someone else.”

Lin Juan turned to leave after speaking. He had a temper too, and he wasn’t blind to their obvious hostility.

Lu Mingxuan obediently followed behind Lin Juan, trusting his little uncle unconditionally.

“Wait—”

After two steps, Zhuang Yufeng’s voice came from behind.

Zhuang Yufeng knew he was gambling, but he had no choice. If not for Lin Juan earlier, Sheng Tianzong would already be dead.

Worst case, they died.

But what if he won the bet?

“I’ll treat them. No need for…”

Before he finished, Lin Juan spun around, shoved the rope into Zhuang Yufeng’s hands, and pushed Lu Mingxuan into his arms. “They’re in your care. I’ll go get to work.”

Next, the Vanguard Squad witnessed a scene that made them question their existence.

The giant mushroom wall that they had exhausted their supernatural abilities on and could only breach with mutual destruction crumbled like fragile tofu under the long-haired young man’s barrage of punches and kicks.

That wasn’t all. The young man rummaged through the shattered mushroom wall structure, dragged out a half-person-tall mushroom, and hoisted it up.

This mushroom was different from all the others outside. It looked more refined, with a deeper color and a shimmering glow. On its head grew a pair of eyes like snail tentacles, swiveling left and right as if searching for an escape route.

Lin Juan dangled the mushroom by its tentacle eyes on top and walked back amid everyone’s stunned expressions.

“This mushroom feels nice to squeeze. Wonder if it’s edible.” Seeing the mushroom reminded Lin Juan of roasting wild mushrooms in the mountains back in the day. He was hungry. “Doesn’t your team have someone who can breathe fire? Can I borrow a light?”

Everyone looked at him in horror.

Why would he think of eating weird phenomena?!