Chapter 265 | Chapter 266 | Chapter 267
Chapter 265: Bitter Battle
The entire Daoist temple seemed to freeze.
Huai Yu shrunk behind the pillar, sweat pouring from her forehead in sheer anxiety—
Plants, plants, plants!
Why was this temple so empty, without a single mutated plant to be found?
And Zhou Qian—the blood on his arm was still streaming! But that mutated macaque looked so terrifying, its razor-sharp claws completely coated in crimson blood!
Huai Yu closed her eyes, taking deep, slow breaths, doing her absolute best not to draw a single shred of its attention. Then, she poured all her effort into sensing…
Plants!
Plants!
Even if they were just ordinary plants, as long as Zhou Qian could buy a bit of time, she could combine her two abilities and forge a sliver of opportunity! Pla—
Huai Yu snapped out of her thoughts and suddenly looked toward the altar table nearby, which was blanketed in a thick layer of dust. Curtains hung down beneath the altar, making it impossible to see anything inside right now. While keeping her eyes tightly locked on the macaque still facing off against Zhou Qian, her other hand stealthily parted the curtain.
Inside, aside from the four wooden legs, lay a vast, pitch-black space.
Huai Yu desperately suppressed her pounding heart. Holding her breath and enduring the roomful of dust, she crawled soundlessly into the space.
The curtain fluttered slightly, the poor-quality polyester fabric letting out a soft, rustling sound. The mutated macaque’s crimson eyes snapped toward the direction, but in the next instant, Zhou Qian charged forward with explosive speed!
“Skreeeech!”
Its attention was instantly pulled back, and it decisively swung its sharp claws, leaping straight toward Zhou Qian!
Beneath the altar table, the curtains hung low, draping the area in total darkness. Huai Yu couldn’t see a thing, feeling as though she had placed herself in an environment even more terrifying than the outside world.
But for some unknown reason, she could just sense that it would be very safe here.
As her palms groped forward, they brushed against layers of fine, tender, root-like structures that felt cool and slightly damp. They swirled and intertwined upward from the ground, only to recede without a trace in an instant.
What her hands managed to grasp next was a massive, flexible, and dense object.
What was it?
Huai Yu’s heart pounded wildly. Though she couldn’t see anything clearly, she knew the object in front of her was the tree cocoon she had been looking for all along.
The reason it was called a tree cocoon was because it was entirely constructed from a dense weave of milky-white fibrous roots. It felt slightly cool to the touch, but lying inside felt incredibly soft and substantial…
It felt like the safest fortress in the world.
Wait, a fortress?!
Huai Yu snapped to her senses. Without another word, she groped around to find the opening of the tree cocoon, then pulled, hauled, and dragged it outward with all her might.
Originally, she could sense that these fibrous roots had taken firm root deep underground; pulling them free would require ripping them apart. But as she exerted her strength, those roots proactively retracted one after another. As a result, with only a bit of effort, she managed to haul the heavy, dense, and massive tree cocoon out.
The moment she pushed past the curtain, Huai Yu carefully shrank behind the tree cocoon. With the bright light available, she could finally see what it looked like—
It was exactly as she remembered.
The white fibrous roots were densely packed, weaving together layer upon layer like a loofah sponge. It was so thick and solid that it didn’t even budge when pressed with a hand, and dragging it around carried quite a bit of weight.
The overall shape of the tree cocoon resembled a half-sphere, but the side touching the ground formed a clever flat surface, ensuring it wouldn’t wobble or tip over when placed on the ground.
Because it was spacious enough, although it wasn’t very long, even a burly man like Zhou Qian could easily lie inside as long as he curled his body up slightly.
If it weren’t for the open top, it would truly look like an impenetrable fortress.
By this time, the combat between Zhou Qian and the mutated macaque had reached a fever pitch!
Bloody gashes had appeared across his arms, chest, and waist, but the mutated macaque was merely baring its teeth and limping after leaping to the ground. It was blindingly obvious to the naked eye exactly who held the upper hand.
Huai Yu’s heart pounded violently once again.
Zhou Qian lacked an ability. Currently bracing himself against the ground with one hand, he was gasping desperately for breath. Droplets of sweat fell from his forehead, kicking up tiny specks of dust from the floor.
“Cough!”
The dust kicked up by the struggle not only obscured his vision but also hindered his breathing. Huai Yu was frantic with anxiety, but when she channeled her ability into the tree cocoon, it was like a drop of water into the ocean, producing absolutely no reaction.
A moment later, the mutated macaque shifted its limbs—it had already developed a human-like combat strategy, confirming before its final assault that the injuries on its body were inconsequential.
Now, even though Huai Yu didn’t understand the tactical situation, she could tell that both sides were exhausted and intended to end this quickly—especially the macaque.
If its claws reached just a bit further…
“Zhou Qian!” Huai Yu shrieked. As the mutated macaque leaped over like a bolt of lightning, she summoned an unknown surge of strength and yanked the entire tree cocoon upright!
Shhhk! Another violent, scraping sound of sharp claws echoed. Huai Yu curled up on the recessed side of the tree cocoon, trembling all over, but Zhou Qian realized—
The mutated macaque’s razor-sharp claws had failed to slice through the strange, bowl-shaped object before them.
His eyes lit up!
In the next instant, regardless of whether the mutated macaque could understand human speech, Huai Yu screamed at the top of her lungs with all her might: “Zhou Qian! Get inside, quick!”
She was about to lose her grip on this heavy tree cocoon!
Zhou Qian indeed rushed over with incredible speed. The mutated macaque’s competitive drive was so fierce; its sharp claws had been invincible in the jungle, yet they couldn’t scratch the object in front of it—
Shhhk!
Shhhk!
Shhhk!
The violent, dull thuds allowed Zhou Qian to close the distance rapidly, and he delivered a fierce flying kick!
Having not fought a creature in a long time, his combat instincts had remained stuck in the period before his legs were injured. But after the life-and-death struggle just now, he had realized that his prosthetic limb possessed far more power and defensive capability than his right leg!
At this moment, that savage flying kick was delivered precisely with that leg!
Huai Yu was struggling hard, arching her back to prop up the tree cocoon that was on the verge of pinning her like an overturned bowl—she had to hold it up! She couldn’t let it fall and give the enemy an opening, nor could she completely cover herself inside, which would prevent Zhou Qian from diving in immediately.
Consequently, she didn’t notice that Zhou Qian’s kick landed squarely on the mutated macaque’s face, exactly like the kicks he had landed on its legs and body earlier!
The moment contact was made, a cloud of yellow powder was shaken out by the violent impact. And this time, the creature’s face lacked the thick, oily, protective layers of fur found on its body.
“Get inside, quick!” Huai Yu was about to collapse under the weight.
Zhou Qian was also about to collapse—the wounds on his waist and arms forced him to concentrate all his remaining strength into his legs, and with the loss of blood, he was on the verge of fainting.
With that flying kick forcing the macaque to stumble back two paces and clear some space, he immediately dove into the gap Huai Yu had left open!
The two of them curled their bodies tightly, their hands yanking down on the sides of the tree cocoon. Then, with a loud bang, it crashed onto the ground like an overturned bowl, completely covering them.
Chapter 266: Do Not Think About It Anymore
Huai Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although the crisis hadn’t been fully resolved and the tree cocoon might not hold out for long, it at least gave the two of them time to rest and regroup.
Zhou Qian, in particular, was completely exhausted after a morning of frantic travel followed by such a bitter battle.
Right now, the dark, enclosed space of the tree cocoon was filled entirely with his heavy, ragged breathing. The smell of fresh blood was so palpable that Huai Yu’s throat tightened, and she found herself almost unable to speak.
“Brother Zhou Qian,” she finally said with difficulty after a long while, “can you keep holding on? This place was cleared completely clean; I can’t find a single wild weed. But there’s a small rose bush outside the Daoist temple. If we can buy some time, I might be able to force-grow it…”
As for what would happen next, Huai Yu didn’t dare guarantee.
In truth, thinking about the bizarre but thoroughly non-combat-effective things she had force-grown at home, she really couldn’t bring herself to say anything definitive.
If she had known it would be like this, she would have brought Da Zai and Er Zai along at the very least!
But although Da Zai and Er Zai had armor-breaking beaks, they were quite slow on their feet. Up against a mutated macaque that could leap all over the place, they would only end up being suppressed…
Tears couldn’t help but spill from her eyes.
If she hadn’t insisted on coming inside to take a look, Zhou Qian wouldn’t have had to encounter this danger.
Zhou Qian’s breathing was incredibly violent inside the enclosed space, to the point where it felt like the sound of blood dripping could be heard. Gasping for air, he let out a soft, hushed breath:
“Shh…”
“Listen.”
His voice was pressed extremely low: “Is it quiet outside?”
Huai Yu blanked for a moment.
At this instant, all her distress was pushed down. She also tilted her ear to listen, and only after a long while did she say in a daze, “It really is completely quiet.”
Not only was there no movement, but even though they were blatantly hiding beneath this tree cocoon, the other party hadn’t even attempted to flip it over—
Had the white fibrous roots of the tree cocoon activated?
Or… or did the enemy possess the intelligence of a hunter and was currently crouching to the side, waiting for them to walk into a trap?
The two stared at each other in the darkness. Through the faint light filtering through the gaps between the roots, they could only see each other’s glistening eyes.
After a long while, Huai Yu gritted her teeth: “Let’s wait a bit longer… I’m so afraid that the moment we lift the tree cocoon, its eyes will be right in front of our faces…”
Zhou Qian’s heart couldn’t help but give a sudden thump as well.
To tell the truth, his heart hadn’t pounded this erratically even when he was locked in combat with the mutated macaque, but the imagery Huai Yu described was something he couldn’t help but shudder at upon visualizing it.
However, after waiting for another ten minutes or so, it remained deathly quiet outside. With Zhou Qian’s current five senses, he couldn’t even detect the sound of the creature’s breathing…
He cleanly lifted the tree cocoon: “Xiao Yu, don’t come out ju—”
Then he abruptly fell silent.
The tree cocoon remained half-open, but his entire body froze on the spot, motionless and completely speechless. Huai Yu waited for a moment, then carefully poked her head out like a turtle—
“!!!”
“What is that?!”
Surprise was impossible to mask in her voice.
Amidst the wrecked, dust-laden main hall, right in the center of the clearing, a pile of brownish-yellow fur lay neatly stacked, looking exactly like a giant macaque plush toy.
Yet in the place where the head and face should have been, cluster after cluster and bunch after bunch of tender yellow, exceptionally familiar golden oyster mushrooms had erupted at some point.
Huai Yu opened her mouth, but no sound came out of her throat—everything before her eyes had truly breached the limits of her imagination; it was simply too shocking.
Only now did Zhou Qian cautiously step forward. “How… how could golden oyster mushrooms grow here?”
The two of them hurriedly checked the large back basket placed near the door. The basket was perfectly upright, not even tilted, and the large plastic bag where Huai Yu had gathered a wealth of spore powder earlier was still tightly sealed shut.
“Yeah…” she murmured in a daze as well, “where did the spore powder come from? And it’s all concentrated entirely on its face and head…”
Just looking at this macaque body topped with a massive, orderly clump of golden oyster mushrooms that resembled a fungus grow bag, Huai Yu could imagine exactly what a terrifying scene it must have been!
It probably happened the very instant she and Zhou Qian covered themselves inside the tree cocoon—the spore powder, coming from who knows where, had rapidly adhered to the mutated macaque’s face.
As everyone knew, fungi required a humid environment to grow.
And on a human or animal body, not only was the fresh blood coursing beneath the skin sufficiently damp, but if the spores burrowed into the body through the nasal passages and ear canals, or followed the eyes straight into the brain matter…
Bang!
Bang, bang!
No matter how hard a skull was, it couldn’t withstand the expansive force of growing fungi.
Huai Yu even immediately worked out a combat tactic—
“Brother Zhou Qian! Do you think if I practiced hard at force-growing soybeans, I could achieve a similar effect?”
Zhou Qian’s contemplative look was interrupted. Following her train of thought, he pondered for a moment, then couldn’t help but feel a bit hesitant. “So… in the middle of a fight, a bean sprout erupts out of the enemy’s throat?”
And then what? The enemy would either spit it out with a pfft or swallow it straight down. The worst-case scenario would probably be coughing the bean sprout into their nostril…
And then he would take the opportunity to step forward and deliver the finishing blow?
But… spore powder was light and stealthy, which was exactly why the mutated macaque had been caught off guard, becoming contaminated without any way to shake it off. A soybean, however, was such a large grain; even if her throwing accuracy was exceptional, mutated creatures weren’t devoid of reflexes.
Evading something like that would be effortless.
Huai Yu, however, muller over it. “Even though it sounds a bit funny, isn’t everyone saying that soybeans are currently a major tool for clearing soil pollution? Its rhizobia can actively absorb pollution values—which are mutation values.”
“Then, can it be used to absorb the mutations on a person’s body? Including their abilities?”
“Or perhaps…”
Huai Yu fell deep into thought. Recalling those mutated pollutions that would touch the critical threshold the stronger they became, she couldn’t help but fantasize.
In the next instant, her shoulder was firmly pressed down by Zhou Qian. “Do not think about it anymore.”
The wounds on his body hadn’t been treated yet, but right now, with these inexplicably manifested golden oyster mushrooms right before his eyes and Huai Yu raising such a terrifying idea—what was even more terrifying was that, with her abilities, if it weren’t a hostile situation, she might genuinely be able to pull it off!
“Do not think about it anymore!” Zhou Qian emphasized once again. “Xiao Yu, this idea is far too terrifying. The moment a single breath of this leaks out or if you actually succeed, you might not even live to see next month!”
“Pairing this idea with your ability, you would either be brought under total control or end up dead to end it all. I won’t be able to protect you!”
His expression was grim, a flush of intense emotion coloring his pale cheeks. “Forget all of this. Unless the day comes when you can protect yourself, you are absolutely forbidden from experimenting with this idea!”
Huai Yu’s face went pale.
She looked up at Zhou Qian. Faint blood vessels lined his eyes, and his brow was knit tight; he had unhesitatingly chosen her over helping anyone else.
At this moment, Huai Yu nodded with utter seriousness. “I will.”
“Brother Zhou Qian, don’t worry. I won’t think about these things anymore.”
And for now—
“Hurry up and sit down. Let me clean your wounds first! Why is this blood still flowing?”
Chapter 267: Eat It Together
Zhou Qian let out a sigh of relief.
He glanced askance at the wounds on his arm, waist, and chest, and couldn’t help but furrow his brows as well. “It’s fine. It didn’t hit the bone. I tried my best to dodge, and the cuts aren’t too deep.”
Although he was downplaying the severity of his injuries, Huai Yu still grew frantic with anxiety. On this trip to the mountain, they hadn’t brought any medical supplies at all—not even extra Kelang pills.
With Zhou Qian in this state, how was he going to make it down the mountain?
Her eyes welled up with tears, and she couldn’t help but cry again. “I won’t do this next time… I can’t just act recklessly relying on my ability, and I shouldn’t have intentionally left out the medical supplies just because I didn’t want to eat the Kelang pills…”
As she spoke, she suddenly remembered something and began rummaging through her pockets. Finally, she fished out a shriveled piece of a ginseng root hair!
She had picked this up from Da Pang right before they left.
Lately, Da Pang loved pushing its toddler walker around, running and stumbling over the uneven grass during the day. It would occasionally fall over, and a few root hairs would end up dropped in the bottom of the walker.
Huai Yu had spotted them and picked them up. Stuffed in her pocket, she had almost forgotten about them!
“Brother Zhou Qian, if we steep this in water right now and you drink it, will it help your wounds?”
It probably wouldn’t.
Zhou Qian gave a bitter smile. The previous two times he drank the ginseng tea, it had only had an effect on the biological materials used in his prosthetic leg.
While it made his left leg feel stronger and more resilient, it likely did absolutely nothing for stanching blood or healing flesh wounds.
But seeing Huai Yu so anxious that sweat beaded on her nose, he instructed, “Let’s give it a try. It might help—otherwise, we don’t have clean bandages right now anyway, so we might as well treat a dead horse as if it were alive.”
What kind of phrasing was that!
Huai Yu glared at him, then happily went to rummage through the back basket.
Would it be too late to boil water now? But if they didn’t boil it, would the ginseng tea be able to release its medicinal properties?
Or did she recognize any wild weeds or vegetables near the Daoist temple that could stanch bleeding?
Her thoughts were chaotic and rushed. For a moment, she completely forgot about the mutated macaque lying in the main hall with a head full of golden oyster mushrooms!
Meanwhile, Zhou Qian took the towel and rope Huai Yu handed him—the rope having been pulled from the sleeping bag—and carefully tied it near his wounds, which barely managed to slow the bleeding.
But this was not a long-term solution. It merely bought Huai Yu a bit more time to make mistakes, allowing her the leeway to rush outside and gather a large pile of dry leaves and twigs.
Except this time, Zhou Qian couldn’t help her snap those long branches anymore.
While she urgently lit the fire and brought over a few incense burners from the altar table to use as a makeshift pot stand, Zhou Qian was still wondering: where exactly did the golden oyster mushrooms come from?
Could they have brushed onto them, and then accidentally transferred to the mutated macaque during the fight?
If that were the case, the danger level of that giant mushroom would have to be completely recalculated. Because if contact with the golden oyster mushroom worked this way, he would have to adopt a quarantine stance to completely block out any harm to others.
And Huai Yu had actually wanted to cultivate such a dangerous thing on a large scale…
He knit his brows tightly. Sensing his increasingly exhausted spirit, a surge of worry rose in his heart.
This anxiety was not just about the inexplicably hazardous golden oyster mushroom, but also about his own current condition and Huai Yu’s state of mind.
If he couldn’t return down the mountain in time, even if these wounds weren’t fatal, a delay could…
If it weren’t for the realization of this underlying danger, given Huai Yu’s steadiness from having experienced life and death, how could she easily shed tears again?
Afraid that his expression would betray his thoughts, Zhou Qian simply turned his head, no longer looking at Huai Yu, who was sweating over the fire in the middle of the hall. Instead, he fixed his gaze back on the corpse of the mutated macaque.
He stared so intently that when Huai Yu looked over, she didn’t realize his eyes were wandering. Instead, she asked hesitantly:
“Brother Zhou Qian, are you hungry?”
“If you’re hungry…”
She bit her lip, making a difficult decision:
“If you still want to eat grilled mushrooms or mushroom soup, I’ll go pluck some for you!”
Zhou Qian suddenly snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing her call. He processed her words, looked at her expression of absolute martyrdom, and a thought that no normal person would ever have suddenly flashed in his mind.
He was so exasperated that he broke into a laugh:
“Go ahead and pluck them.”
“How can I eat them alone? If anyone’s eating, the two of us are eating them together—go pluck them.”
This brat!
He had thought she was sensible just a moment ago, but looking at her now, why did she still have the mindset of a child?
Even if he starved to death, would he ever eat golden oyster mushrooms that grew out of a creature’s brain matter, nostrils, and mouth?
Huai Yu, however, couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. “It’s good that you don’t want to eat them.”
Even though Zhou Qian was weak and covered in wounds, he still managed to accurately deliver a highly sarcastic scoff:
“Heh.”
Huai Yu: “…”
Enduring it silently, she poured the pale yellow ginseng tea back and forth between a cup and the pot. Once it was finally cool enough, she hurriedly brought the pot over:
“Quick, quick, quick! Drink it!”
If he could regain some strength and spirit after drinking it, they would need to discuss how to head back as quickly as possible! After all, a makeshift tourniquet couldn’t be maintained for very long.
However, just as this warm cup of ginseng tea was handed over and the faint aroma of ginseng drifted through the rising steam, a slender root suddenly poked out from the ankle area of Zhou Qian’s left leg. It began tracing a path, crawling straight toward the ginseng tea.
Zhou Qian: …
This sight was quite bizarre, because he himself didn’t feel anything. But the attraction of this mutated ginseng to the mutated biology—even if it was now just a length of material—seemed undiminished.
Seeing that he didn’t stop it, a second and third root hesitantly poked out in quick succession. Zhou Qian didn’t even know if they could directly submerge themselves into the hot tea, nor did he know if absorbing it directly this way was more effective, or if he needed to drink it himself.
But this question didn’t stop him from quietly observing, until a sudden strange sensation hit his lightweight pant leg—
Where his ankle and the top of his foot should have been, because the primary material had rapidly stretched forward, the remaining offshoots had already scattered into large swaths of vines.
And nestled amidst the green vines lay cluster after cluster of pale yellow spore powder.
This familiar sight instantly reminded Zhou Qian of what happened when they dug the vegetable garden—
Because he had stood in the dirt barefoot without protection, he had to frantically wash away the soil, dust, and everything else trapped inside the Boston ivy when he went back that night!
He was instantly amused and exasperated!
Although these mutated spores had technically saved his life, he hadn’t forgotten—ever since early this morning, how he had trudged forward with a leaden leg, and how it had felt significantly more exhausting than usual!
It turned out that while he was resting last night, his obedient prosthetic limb had developed a mind of its own?
