Chapter 22

Its cap was umbrella-like, entirely white, the stem about a finger’s length and half a finger’s thickness—what was this?

“Mushroom, mushrooms are growing out of the soil. But this place is damp and wet, so mushrooms growing here is normal. This should be a meat mushroom—fleshy texture, tastes like meat. It’s still in its juvenile stage; in two more days it should keep growing, reaching the thickness of an arm.”

No wonder he’s the God of Knowledge—he knew hundreds, if not thousands, of common fungal species, and even more rare ones. Nagris had identified the mushroom’s species at a glance.

But after all that rambling, Ang only heard one word: “Edible?”

“Uh, yes, you can eat it, but who eats mushrooms? They’re disgusting and nutritionally worthless.” Nagris said.

In eras of low productivity, mushrooms were rarely eaten because they required large amounts of fat and seasonings, or else they were inedible. The Undercity didn’t even have enough grain—where would they get fat? Even boiling the bull-woman might yield dozens of pounds of beef tallow.

Only hunters and herders, who had abundant animal fat, would simmer mushroom stews.

“Oh.” If it wasn’t tasty or nutritious, then no point growing it. Ang reached out to pluck the mushroom away—when suddenly, a cry rang out behind him: “Huh? Is that Holy Mushroom?”

Turning around, Lisa stood behind him, clad in a thin black gauze dress, staring in astonishment at the mushrooms.

The sheer black gauze clung tightly to her, outlining her plump curves—hard to believe she was the same withered lich from yesterday.

“What’s a Holy Mushroom?” Ang asked.

“It’s this meat mushroom irrigated with holy water. Fundamentally a meat mushroom, but it has some miraculous effects—removing negative conditions, toxins, plagues, curses, diseases, and so on. As long as they’re not too severe, it works.” Lisa explained.

After speaking, she smiled faintly and added: “The Church of Light cultivates vast quantities of these Holy Mushrooms, dries and grinds them into powder, then distributes them to priests and holy maidens to perform miracles. When we cure a child of food poisoning, the whole family’s gratitude and faith follow easily.”

Ang didn’t understand what she meant, but Nagris was already shouting in fury inside his soul: “So that’s how it is? So despicable! So disgusting! This is cheating! This is cheating! No wonder the Church of Light spreads so easily—they’ve been drugging people!!”

But Nagris’s outburst echoed only in Ang’s soul; Lisa couldn’t hear it. She only said: “My Lord, if you can grow large quantities of these Holy Mushrooms and turn them into medicine, they’ll be wildly popular. Then they’ll all eagerly beg to bathe in your radiance.”

A holy maiden who cannot spread belief has no value. The former Holy Maiden of Light yearned desperately to offer her strength to Ang, so she might earn his mercy and receive more power.

“Can I trade it for grain and seeds?” Ang asked. He had no interest in making others bathe in radiance—but if it was edible and could be traded for grain and seeds, then growing more was fine.

“Grain? It’s possible, but grain is a bulk commodity. All three cities here are short on grain. Even if they’re willing to trade, they can’t offer much. As for seeds, they have what we have. But Cold City has a small teleportation array connected to the human world—you can trade for some unique human-world seeds or high-value goods.” Lisa said.

“Teleportation array? A world transit station?” Ang tilted his head. He now knew that when these people said “world transit station,” they meant a teleportation array—the very place he’d been teleported to, which linked directly to one of the arches of Zhigong.

“No no no, it’s just a small teleportation array—tiny. Can’t even teleport a person, only small valuable items like magic crystals or magic ornaments.” Lisa gestured as she spoke. By her indication, the array was probably seventy to eighty centimeters in diameter—too small to transport large volumes.

“Magic crystals? Humans have magic crystals?” If Ang had ears, they would have perked up. He’d originally come to the Undercity with Aske precisely for magic crystals—magic crystals could activate the teleportation pillars, letting him return to Zhigong.

Ang had later asked Philin if there were any magic crystals. Unfortunately, the Undercity had none. Aske’s few crystals had been traded from Cold City long ago; he’d used up most of them and couldn’t reactivate the array. He’d used the last ones shortly after returning.

“Yes, Cold City has a teleportation array—they can trade with the human world for magic crystals. But we have nothing valuable to offer, so we get very little in return.” Lisa said.

Ang pointed at the mushrooms: “Trade for magic crystals.”

Since he intended to trade Holy Mushrooms for magic crystals, he needed a lot of them. Ang replaced all the stone planting racks with Holy Mushrooms. He’d seen mushrooms growing on decaying wood and roughly understood how they reproduced.

So when the first batch of Holy Mushrooms fully matured and began releasing spores, Ang cast a pollination spell, transferring the spores onto the soil, then evenly scattering the soil across the stone ridges.

Two weeks later, Ang harvested a full fifty pounds of Holy Mushrooms.

Lisa stared, dazed: “So much? I’ve never seen so many Holy Mushrooms piled together. How did you grow them? When I was in the Church, a single parish was lucky to produce this much in a year—you did it in just over ten days?”

“Grow them like this.” Ang explained his cultivation method. Compared to Lisa’s, he found several differences.

First, they never collected spores. Second, they never adjusted soil or humidity. Third, they didn’t have enough holy water to irrigate.

The Church of Light never treated it as a crop—it was seen as divine grace.

If Holy Mushrooms grew on a patch of land, they’d fence it off, station priests there to pray, sprinkle holy water, and wait for natural growth. They used little holy water, because the priests who purified it were usually busy.

This hands-off, nature-reliant method—of course the harvest was terrible.

How did Ang grow them? After collecting spores, he set up a series of controlled experiments—different light levels, water volumes, humidity, and temperature. He even tested whether five or six purifications of holy water yielded better results, then selected the combination that grew fastest and most abundantly.

Finally, he discovered: soil that was unpurified, clean, but rich in organic matter, irrigated with five-times-purified holy water, grew the fastest and best.

What organic matter was best? Dried moss. Fresh moss rotted too easily and was worse—only dry moss worked.

“Is this enough? To trade for…” Ang silently recalled—Aske had used about a dozen blue crystals. He needed at least forty: “Forty crystals.”

“More than enough, haha. Fifty pounds of Holy Mushrooms—grind them into powder, you get at least ten pounds. According to the old Church of Light prices, one pound of Holy Mushroom powder could be traded for twenty magic crystals. Of course, the Church didn’t lack magic crystals—none were sold on the open market. I’ll take five pounds first—enough to trade for over a hundred and fifty magic crystals. Take too much and the price will drop.”

Here, Lisa’s face lit up with Xiong Xiong’s battle fervor as she imagined something: “Seeing me like this now, that old witch in Cold City will probably kneel and beg me to unleash your divine power.”