Chapter 168
Xing Nuo had lied.
Although he had released his golden mist, he had held back, its potency weakened.
He was the prettiest, cutest little mushroom in the group, his poison the most potent. It shouldn’t have only affected one person.
But as he watched the humans approach, he had hesitated, then decided to follow his heart.
He looked at the man called “Qi-dui” leading his team up the mountain and nudged Lu Qi, telling him to follow them.
An Zimuo wanted to come too, but Xing Nuo, glancing at the other mushrooms hiding in the soil, whispered:
“An Zimuo, you stay here with other mushrooms! I go find Mushroom King!”
Little mushroom legs couldn’t outrun humans.
An Zimuo reluctantly agreed and returned to the other mushrooms, hiding under a tree.
Lu Qi, having explored the mountain before, was faster, reaching the peak before Qi Yao and his team.
He led Xing Nuo to the Mushroom King’s territory, and this time, he wasn’t stopped, easily reaching the summit.
The Mushroom King opened its eyes, looking at the little mushroom, who had jumped out of Lu Qi’s pocket and was now anxiously reporting something, and chuckled.
“What’s the rush?”
Xing Nuo ran to the Mushroom King, bouncing slightly to make himself taller, his voice filled with anxiety.
“Mushroom King! Bad men coming! What we do? We can’t defeat them!”
The Mushroom King didn’t seem concerned, although it acknowledged the humans’ skills. It was understandable that the smaller mushrooms couldn’t stop them.
“They’re just walking to their deaths. Relying on props. Once time runs out…they’ll be mine.”
Xing Nuo tilted his head, his little golden cap bobbing, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and admiration for the giant mushroom.
“Mushroom King, you have way to defeat them?”
The Mushroom King, not realizing the little mushroom was trying to gather information, having seen his adoring gaze earlier, through its spores, didn’t suspect anything.
“Of course! I have many ways!”
It proudly raised its cap, its voice filled with confidence and disdain.
“I have a high-level energy stone. Unlimited power. These ants are no match for me.”
Xing Nuo gasped, then, noticing the trees nearby shaking, asked:
“High-level energy stone? Sounds powerful! Mushroom King, you hide it well!”
The Mushroom King chuckled, pleased by the little mushroom’s concern.
“Don’t worry. Just a few humans. No need for my energy stone.”
Xing Nuo nodded, then saw the shaking trees stop, and several figures, bundled up in protective gear, emerged.
Qi Yao, the first to attack, unleashed a bolt of lightning at the Mushroom King.
Xing Nuo, afraid of getting hurt, quickly hid in a crevice between two rocks, only his cap peeking out, watching the fight.
The Mushroom King hadn’t been lying. These humans were no match for it!
No matter what abilities or props Qi Yao and his team used, the Mushroom King’s wounds would heal instantly.
Xing Nuo, watching silently, realized it must be the high-level energy stone.
Qi Yao’s teammate also realized this and took a step back, his face grim.
“This monster has an energy stone! Its wounds heal instantly! We’ll exhaust our abilities before we even scratch it!”
Qi Yao gritted his teeth. It had been almost three hours since they arrived. If they didn’t kill this monster soon, they would be trapped here!
“This dungeon has a time limit! We can’t keep fighting like this!”
A quick-witted teammate, analyzing the situation, suddenly realized where the energy stone must be hidden.
Mushrooms preferred damp, shady environments. Why was the Mushroom King at the exposed summit?
There was only one explanation: the energy stone was hidden at the peak!
He exchanged glances with Qi Yao, who immediately understood.
Qi Yao started attacking the ground around the Mushroom King’s stem.
The Mushroom King, enraged by their persistence, seeing their exhaustion, its tentacles emerging from the soil, took a couple of steps forward.
A cloud of black mist erupted, engulfing the entire summit.
Before Qi Yao and his team could find the energy stone, they were enveloped by the mist, their minds becoming hazy.
A strange, seductive thought filled their minds: being eaten by the Mushroom King would be the greatest bliss!
One of the teammates, his resistance weaker, stumbled towards the Mushroom King, knelt down, and raised his arms.
“Please, eat me!”
The Mushroom King, seemingly pleased, opened its gaping maw, ready to devour him.
Just then, a golden mist, sharp and piercing, cut through the black mist, jolting them awake.
The two opposing mists clashed, their conflicting effects causing a sharp pain in their heads.
Qi Yao, the first to recover, clutching his throbbing head, pulled his teammate aside.
The Mushroom King, its meal snatched away, roared in fury, its entire being radiating a manic energy, and attacked them.
Qi Yao’s heart sank.
They couldn’t defeat the enraged Mushroom King!
Just as they were about to give up, resigned to their fate, a tiny, golden mushroom, smaller than a hand, unnoticed, scurried towards the spot where the Mushroom King had been standing.
A small hole remained where the Mushroom King’s stem had been.
The little mushroom climbed in and, digging frantically, found a small energy stone, slightly smaller than itself.
Seeing the humans losing, it took a bite of the energy stone.
A surge of energy coursed through its being, its small body rapidly expanding.
Xing Nuo, once so small that he had to look up at even blades of grass,
now felt the ground receding, the sky closer, the humans below smaller than his cap.
This sudden transformation stunned both the Mushroom King and the ability users.
They stopped fighting and stared at the giant, golden mushroom, now over ten meters tall.
The little mushroom, having devoured the Mushroom King’s precious energy stone, which it had been hoarding, was now even bigger than the Mushroom King!
Its cap, a beautiful, shimmering gold, with intricate patterns and a translucent sheen, its stem a luminous white,
towered over them, blocking out the sun.
Xing Nuo shook his cap, looked down at the tiny humans and the Mushroom King, his eyes crinkling into a smile, and said:
“You say… ‘All hail Mushroom King!'”
The ability users, stunned, exchanged bewildered glances.
The original Mushroom King, however, was furious, its voice booming.
“How dare you! You stole my energy stone!”
That was an SS+ level energy stone!
Xing Nuo, having absorbed the energy stone, sensing its origin, huffed.
“Not youws! You stole it!”
The Mushroom King had once been a small, insignificant mushroom in the horror world, often overlooked and bullied.
Then, one day, it had snuck into the Tulip Manor, its unassuming appearance allowing it to blend in with the other tulips.
The tulips had tried to chase it away, and the indignant mushroom, before leaving, had snuck into the storage shed and stolen two high-level energy stones.
It had absorbed the weaker one and kept the other, more powerful one hidden.
To avoid being found by Shen Wen, the Tulip Manor’s owner, it had escaped to the human world, claimed this mountain as its territory, and declared itself king.
It had been content with its life, ruling over its mushroom subjects, unchallenged by ordinary ability users.
And now, it had been defeated by a tiny mushroom!
“Give it back!” it roared.
Xing Nuo, swaying his massive cap, pleased with his new size, said:
“I ate it. Can’t give back.”
He smiled, and before the Mushroom King could attack, he rammed it with his cap.
The Mushroom King was knocked over!
It struggled to get up, but a golden mist, released by Xing Nuo’s cap, spread through the air, engulfing the summit.
The mountaintop was bathed in a golden light, like a shimmering veil, even the sunlight seemed to be filtered through it.
The Mushroom King, enveloped by the golden mist, shrunk, its massive form becoming smaller and smaller, until it was just a small, black mushroom.
Qi Yao and his team, their bodies also starting to transform, turning into mushrooms, their strength fading, unable to fight, collapsed to the ground.
The Mushroom King, seeing this, tried to burrow into the soil and escape,
but Lu Qi, who had been waiting, grabbed it and swallowed it whole.
Lu Qi, chewing thoughtfully, his face expressionless, said:
“Not yummy. Bitter.”
He then looked up at the giant, golden mushroom and smiled, his stiff features softening.
“Xing Nuo, you Mushroom King now.”
Xing Nuo’s eyes sparkled, his vision filled with golden light.
Looking down at the ability users, who had turned into small mushrooms, he suddenly realized:
“I weally was human…turned into mushroom!”
“Lu Qi, how I turn back?”
Lu Qi, approaching Xing Nuo, looking at his massive, beautiful form, the uncontrolled monster energy swirling around him, said:
“There’s a way. I absorb the energy for you.”
Xing Nuo, although his memories were still fragmented, trusted Lu Qi implicitly and nodded without hesitation.
“Okay. How?”
Lu Qi suddenly vanished.
Xing Nuo felt a sharp pain in his head and lost consciousness.
Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the hospital bed.
Xing Nuo woke up groggily and, seeing An Zimuo sleeping in the next bed, asked, confused:
“What happened?”
Their teacher, also hooked up to an IV drip, sighed dramatically.
“We went mushroom picking…found a poisonous mushroom…everyone got sick…ended up in the hospital.”
