Chapter 389: Scapegoat

The fungal blanket was not as sensitive as other monsters; it was poured for a good while, and only discovered something was wrong after it was completely bloated. It was a pity that the Rosy Cape at the door was of too good quality, and it couldn't squeeze out. It wanted to disconnect from the ladybugs, let the Taoist friends die, not the poor Taoist.

However, it was too late.

Power ten times more surging than before suddenly sprayed out from He He Lingchuan's meridians, passed through the ladybugs' bodies, and instantly poured into the fungal blanket!

How could the fungal blanket bear it? In order to unload the true power, the mushrooms growing on it suddenly magnified ten times.

At the same time, twenty-four or five places in the forest all had fungal blankets exploding and expanding, quickly occupying the ground, rocks, and mountain streams, the ladybugs inside fled one after another, and the miscellaneous mushrooms of various colors on the fungal blankets also grew wildly, some even emitting blue and green fluorescence.

They exploded and grew, grew and exploded, trying to consume the excess true power, and for a time, the entire mountain forest was filled with strange poisonous smoke and fluorescent fire.

Birds and beasts smelled it and fell, and the rest fled wildly.

He He Lingchuan knew nothing about this.

He only knew that the true power in his body was like ten thousand horses galloping, and just when he was about to be blown to pieces, several hundred small holes suddenly broke on his meridians, and the true power leaked out continuously.

But, it was not enough, far from enough.

If he wanted to solve his own crisis, this little transmission flow was too small.

He He Lingchuan didn't know what happened, and at this time he had no time to think about it, just knowing to push the true power of Shanzhong and Qi-Hai to transport outward with all his strength.

Only by sending it out could he survive himself.

It was sent out.

The mirror witnessed everything before its eyes, shocked to the point of being unable to speak, only hearing a loud "pop"—

The fungal blanket exploded.

And it wasn't just this ground cave.

All the fungal blankets frantically bloating in the entire forest exploded at the same time.

Fungal threads, spores, dust, fluorescence, were scattered everywhere. Even if the Imperial Flowing Nectar descended yesterday, the entire forest had never been so strange.

Soon, all kinds of roars sounded everywhere.

As if a riot had begun under the cover of night.

But these disturbances did not affect the ground cave in the mountain stream.

After the fungal blanket exploded, the excess true power in He He Lingchuan's body was basically discharged, and his situation finally had hope of stabilizing.

The Shanzhong acupoint was successfully opened as a second dantian; although the process was too rough, the Imperial Flowing Nectar once again exerted its protective characteristics, repairing the damage it received one by one.

Now here it had turned from chaos into a sea of qi, and He He Lingchuan's practiced yin-yang true power officially entered, turned a few circles inside to adapt, and expressed great satisfaction with the new home.

After the second dantian was opened, the excess true power had a place to stay.

Now from Guan-Yuan to Shanzhong, true power could travel unimpeded, and even the Ren and Du meridians became high-speed channels.

He He Lingchuan was still not satisfied, took advantage of the heat to run a few large cycles, and only then slowly closed his power.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he sneezed a few times "ah-choo."

"What is going on?"

The stone cave was like a red snow, why were there strange silk-like things everywhere? He He Lingchuan found himself covered in dust and dots of fluorescence.

He shook his clothes, hey, what a big pile of dust!

And a few dead white insects fell off him, each... the size of a chicken egg.

"Wow, such big ladybugs?" He was seeing them for the first time, fortunately, they were all dead.

"I am here!" A weak voice sounded from the corner.

He He Lingchuan walked over and pulled the Heart-Protecting Mirror out from under a thick layer of fungal threads: "Why are you here? What happened?"

The Eyeball Spider didn't know where it drilled out from and jumped onto him.

"You were almost eaten by the man-eating fungus." The mirror didn't know how to explain, "No, you were already eaten. I watched the man-eating fungus suck the true power from your body, and it swelled itself. But not long after, the fungal blanket exploded."

He He Lingchuan finally knew what was on the ground around him. He had only heard of the man-eating fungus, never expecting that it would come to his door when he was practicing. "Where did it come in from?"

"Right here." The Heart-Protecting Mirror said, "That large piece of dry moss at the bottom of the cave was it!"

No wonder the defense he laid out was useless; those were to guard against external enemies, but he didn't expect the enemy to be behind him.

This was called a mistake leading to a mistake. Otherwise, the one who would have been blown to pieces by true power would have been himself. "So this thing helped me?"

"This is called helping?" The mirror couldn't laugh or cry, "You broke through?"

"Hmm, you could say that."

This works too? The Heart-Protecting Mirror murmured: "You are truly a lucky general."

He He Lingchuan gave a "hehe," he had already heard the words "lucky general" until he was tired of them.

Why was it so coincidental again? He was just unable to hold on, and the scapegoat came immediately.

He He Lingchuan's knowledge and experience had grown over time, and this kind of heaven-defying good luck instead made him feel hairy in his heart.

Regardless, surviving this disaster really had blessings afterward.

He put away the Heart-Protecting Mirror and the Rosy Cape, pinched his nose, and left the ground cave.

The tiger was at the cave entrance, wagging its tail when it saw him come out. It had wanted to go in earlier, but the Rosy Cape sealing the cave was too strong, and it couldn't squeeze in...

At this moment, the daylight was already bright.

Being able to see light while in the stream bottom, He He Lingchuan inferred that it should be noon now. "I actually spent a whole night?"

"A whole night? I bah!" The Heart-Protecting Mirror shouted, "You stayed in that broken cave for three whole nights!"

He He Lingchuan let out a light "hiss," he actually used two days and three nights for this meditation?

He held up the mirror to look, hey, disheveled.

Jumping out of the mountain stream and walking out, the air was filled with floating powder ash, and the visibility was very poor.

And then, he found dead animals everywhere.

The Heart-Protecting Mirror explained: "These dusts are poisonous. Even after being exposed to the sun during the day, ordinary wild beasts still can't bear it."

He He Lingchuan only then knew that he had walked through the gate of hell again.

At this time, there was a neighing sound ahead, and a large-horned rock sheep rushed out from the depths of the pine forest, followed by a giant bear.

Apparently, the bear wanted to eat the sheep, but the ambush failed.

It saw He He Lingchuan and shifted its target; two-legged beasts didn't run fast and were easier to eat.

This guy was fat and strong, running like a small mountain.

He He Lingchuan had just refined his power for a night, his true power was still surging, and he was full of eagerness to try, so how could he fear it?

He pointed his toes and drew his blade with a backhand.

According to reason, he should avoid the bear monster's first strike and go to the side to swing his blade and attack.

This was a mature and safe routine.

However, this time he just stepped lightly like a dragonfly skimming the water, and there was an extra shallow pit on the ground.

With a "whoosh," He He Lingchuan left a residual shadow in the air, and he was already in front of the bear's mouth, almost face-to-face with it.

So fast, it actually scared himself.

One step, he only took one step, and crossed a distance of three zhang!

Fortunately, the fighting instinct he had practiced day after day played a role, followed by a flash of blade light, and the big bear that had just raised its claws to counterattack was shaved off half a front leg.

The bear monster screamed in pain, and seeing a tiger rushing over from the dense forest with great momentum, its momentum was fierce.

How could a three-legged cripple be a match for this man and tiger? The big bear's mood instantly switched from anger to fear.

It fled, he chased, it couldn't fly even with wings.

Until the bear corpse fell to the ground, He He Lingchuan let out a long breath.

Not strenuous at all.

This kind of power, this kind of speed, this feeling of being like a fish in water...

It was a real breakthrough, a complete improvement!

He sheathed his blade and turned around, only to find that the large-horned rock sheep hadn't gone far, but stood not far behind, shaking its little tail, looking at him with a face of anxiety.

This sheep had light brown fur, black long spots on its belly, and a saddle on its back; he didn't know whose mount it was.

Actually, it looked more like a deer than a sheep.

But there was blood on the saddle, and claw marks; he guessed that the original owner probably encountered an accident.

Looking at the bear corpse, there were also many wounds, some looked like they were left by beast claws and sharp teeth, and some were caused by sharp weapons; its left large tooth was also broken.

It had fought no less with other monsters and humans. Even the two blood holes on its hind legs were likely left by the large-horned sheep, because He He Lingchuan found blood on the sheep's horns.

This sheep's temper seemed quite fiery too.

It seemed that no one had a good time in the forest these two days.

He walked forward two steps, and the rock sheep hurriedly retreated.

He He Lingchuan patted the rock sheep's neck lightly, said some sweet words, and took a corn candy to peel for it.

This guy showed rare docility, probably because He He Lingchuan's slash to kill the bear was clean and neat, which frightened

Of course, one candy is not enough; at least three are needed.

"You've come just in time; give me a ride back."

He He Lingchuan found a small stream to wash his hands and face, then vaulted onto the sheep and galloped out of the forest.

Along the way, he actually encountered two more attacks, both initiated by monsters. But his newly acquired mount ran incredibly fast, easily leaping over a zhang high with each bound, thus avoiding a lot of trouble.

The entire forest was immersed in chaos and mania.

He also encountered several human corpses; judging by the wounds, they all seemed to have died in the jaws of beasts.

Sure enough, chaos abounded after the Emperor Flowing Pulp; fortunately, he was not far from the edge of the forest.

As the culprit behind the turmoil in the mountains and forests, he felt no guilt and left the forest with great composure.

As for that fierce tiger, he withdrew the evil spirit possessing it and spared its life.

Through the connection of the Heart-Protecting Mirror, he knew very well that this fierce tiger held no grudge against him.

"Let bygones be bygones; let's form a good bond." With his blade in hand, he gifted the fierce tiger a jade bottle containing five newly refined Hundred-Good Pills to thank it for its service in guarding the Dharma.

Those who cultivate the Dao value cause and effect; since there was no longer any conflict between the two, why fight to the death? After the fierce tiger regained its senses, it did not attack him either; it just looked at him twice, tucked away the bottle, jumped into the jungle in two bounds, and ran off.

￥￥￥￥￥

Along the return journey, the towns and villages He He Lingchuan saw no longer possessed the tranquility of the previous days; the local defense groups patrolled back and forth, and the townspeople were clearing corpses from the woods or repairing damaged houses.

The number of pedestrians and merchants on the road had clearly decreased.

He did not delay any longer, traveling through the night to head straight back to Fufeng City.

Compared to the orderly state of the previous few days, Fufeng City now looked a bit different.

2022.12.26 Still haven't tested positive, advancing to the final round.

(End of chapter)