Chapter 16: The Crazy Little Mushrooms
Chapter 16: The Crazy Little Mushrooms
“Alienation Contamination Degree +0.5%!”
“You have been locked by the Evil God’s Eye and judged as a Transgressor. You cannot resist or dispel this state for the duration of one incense stick’s time! Under this status, any emotional fluctuation within you will be amplified three-fold, inevitably attracting attacks from Phantasmal Aberrations. All escape or stealth-type Dao Techniques will be rendered ineffective.”
“Alienation Contamination Degree +0.5%!”
“You have been locked by the Evil God’s Wall. For the duration of one incense stick’s time, none of your own Dao Techniques will assist you in leaving this area. You are lost.”
Four lines of information abruptly appeared, making Li Si quite ‘surprised’—especially the Evil God’s version of getting ghost-lost mentioned last.
He suddenly halted and calmly observed the three Evil God Cultists.
They were clearly all normal humans, albeit rather tall. And judging by their cautious, creeping approach, it seemed Li Si was the savage, brutish, ugly monster instead.
Also, all three wore grey leather armor, grey cloaks, and grey masks, making them hard to spot from a distance. It was impossible to gauge their strength.
Among them, two were men leading the way. One carried a strange crossbow, the other a heavy shield. A thick black mist constantly billowed from the shield yet remained contained within a specific range. Within it, strange roars could faintly be heard.
The last one was a woman, trailing a distance behind. Her figure was tall and slender, her steps light. At first glance, she seemed beautiful. But with each step she took, a small red, blue, or white mushroom would sprout swiftly, only to vanish into nothingness a moment later.
Clutched in her hands was a tablet resembling a spirit plaque. An overpowering Evil Qi emanated from it. Li Si could clearly sense it: the source of the Evil God’s Eye that had locked onto him came from this object.
“A shield warrior, a ranged attacker, plus a summoning priestess? Quite the excellent team composition.”
This thought flashed through Li Si’s mind. He immediately turned and ran again. But before he had taken more than a few steps, he realized the three Evil God Cultists had somehow reappeared directly in front of him.
In other words, by running away, he was actually running towards them. Not only did he fail to widen the gap, he was getting closer.
Getting ghost-lost indeed.
This bizarre scene caused a genuine flutter of panic in Li Si’s heart. Fear’s tiny claws felt like a tiny mouse scratching inside his heart, scratching, scratching…
“Pfft!”
A white little mushroom sprouted from Li Si’s chest. Then came a second, third, fourth…
The firepower was fierce! Truly fitting for a dedicated summoning priestess. But summoning those Phantasmal Aberrations with such reckless zeal, especially adding triple leverage—wasn’t she afraid of getting margin-called? (Meaning backlash).
A wicked smirk touched Li Si’s heart. If it were about other things, he might not be so adept. But mushrooms? He excelled at dancing around on his beloved little mushrooms, especially now that he possessed the supreme Heart Cleansing Curse. Hah! Triple leverage? Bring it on.
In the next instant, he was dragged into the Terror Illusion. But he understood: because his supreme Mind-cleansing Aura was active, what should have pulled him into the Terror Illusion within a second was actually delayed for three seconds.
Hmph! This was an unseen advantage over the enemy!
Within the Terror Illusion, the valley instantly transformed into a sea of bloodred. Countless disembodied heads, their eyes wide open in death, leered at him, heheheing foolishly. So terrifying…
“Alienation Contamination Degree +1.2%!”
The icy message jerked Li Si out. Ah, strangely disappointing. He had never once fully experienced any of the illusions these Seven Emotions Mushrooms induced. What was it like? Like a eunuch visiting a brothel, or like finding the book you’re reading abandoned midway by the author…
Eh, getting sidetracked!
An Evil-Warding Aura exploded violently around him. All four Terror Mushrooms were instantly obliterated. They were indeed bizarre, peculiar, hard to guard against, Phantasmal Aberrations summoned under triple leverage, linked hand-in-hand as they ventured into the Mortal Realm… but they really had encountered the wrong guy.
Once they manifested in the Mortal Realm and lost the initiative, Li Si found destroying them ridiculously easy. Under the supreme Evil-Warding Aura, one or ten made no difference—unless a full-fledged Seven Emotions Mushroom showed up…
Li Si shuddered violently. Without another thought, he recast the supreme Heart Cleansing Curse on himself. Sinful! Sinful! He had almost made a grave mistake.
Simultaneously, messages appeared.
“Alienation Contamination Degree +2.4%!”
“Slaughtered Phantasmal Aberrations: Terror Mushroom +4. Obtained 800 Gray Firewood.”
Li Si smiled with deep pleasure. How delightful! Thrilled, utterly cheerful—yet no Joyous Mushrooms sought him out. They’d all been annihilated. Even triple leverage was useless.
This was something the summoning priestess had no clue about. Ha! With skills like hers, daring triple leverage? If he didn’t make her lose her pants, he wouldn’t be Li the Plow!
Li Si reveled in his unleashed joy for three full seconds, successfully buying himself that time. During those three seconds, his enemies could only watch him helplessly, unable to attack.
Seizing this chance, he swiftly refined 10 units of Gray Fortune. He forcibly suppressed his Alienation Contamination Degree from 40% back to 35%. He then exchanged it for 1000 points of Magic Power.
But he still kept 5 + 1 units of Fortune as his last reserve.
Supporting warfare through battle—this was his greatest trump card.
Those three Evil God Cultists looked fierce, but since they hadn’t chosen a frontal assault initially and opted for this sneaky spiritual shenanigans instead, he was happy to play along until the very end.
His face turned deathly pale. He swayed as if grievously struck by ghosts. He stopped trying to flee. Instead, he casually cast an Evil-Warding Aura on himself. Then, like a vicious starving wolf, he lunged towards the three Evil God Cultists:
“Come then! Let’s perish together!”
“Stop him!”
The man with the strange crossbow suddenly shouted, though he didn’t loose a bolt. The shield-bearer roared. An enormous ball of black mist surged from his shield, shot into the air, and solidified into six black spheres spinning rapidly. Something seemed to be incubating inside them.
Only a second later, accompanied by piercing shrieks, bloodlight erupted from the six spheres. They streaked down like crimson meteors, plummeting towards Li Si from high above.
The spectacle was awe-inspiring and terrifying. Especially as they got closer, line upon line of messages flickered densely before Li Si’s eyes:
“Alienation Contamination Degree +0.001%!”
… over and over. The increment was minuscule, but it was relentless. There were far too many of them.
Against this? Li Si had no counter. He lacked a shield. He possessed no defensive Dao Techniques. Right now, the only option was to charge forward desperately. Since the cultists didn’t want him near, getting close was exactly what he needed to do!
He hadn’t covered ten meters before the entities within the black spheres were birthed.
They resembled apes, but each bore unique and monstrous alterations. One had two heads. Another sprouted six arms. Yet another bore a large, blood-veined eye on its chest. Each stood five to six meters tall. These behemoths utterly dwarfed Li Si in size.
Yet Li Si forcibly restrained himself from casting either the Demon Slaying Thorn or Iron Prison Discipline. Instead, he focused solely on the Evil-Warding Curse’s casting sequence in his mind, ready to unleash it at any instant.
The next moment, before the six fiendish monsters could even touch him, his Evil-Warding Aura detonated. Waves of Purifying Lightning swept outwards. Two fiends were annihilated instantly. The remaining four suffered critical injuries.
Li Si wasn’t surprised by the effect. Not breaking stride, he released a second Evil-Warding Aura. Effortlessly, he blasted past the remaining obstructing fiends. His face was a mask of vicious determination, radiating an aura of ‘Let’s all die together!’.
His attention, however, was laser-focused on the woman across from him. Now less than three hundred meters apart, his sharp eyesight caught everything.
Especially this: the moment he feigned rage, the woman instantly shifted the tone of her chanting. Well met, Master of Micromanagement. Farewell, Master!
Almost simultaneously, Li Si felt an unprecedented fury ignite and roar to life within him. It demanded he vent it recklessly, to destroy…
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Nine small mushrooms, vibrant red with golden fiery patterns, sprouted explosively from Li Si’s back. The Angry Mushrooms had finally taken the stage.
Instantly, Li Si was violently pulled into the Wrath Illusion. But here, there was no scene, no plot. Simply pure, insane rage—roaring, hacking, charging, charging again… total thumbs-down!
“Alienation Contamination Degree +2.7%!”
A message flickered. Reluctantly, Li Si tore himself out of the Wrath Illusion. Simultaneously, his Evil-Warding Aura raged violently.
“Alienation Contamination Degree +5.4%!”
“Slaughtered Phantasmal Aberrations: Wrath Mushroom +9. Obtained 1800 Gray Firewood.”
The rewards were always so gratifying. Yet Li Si continued to shift between feigned ‘rage’, then ‘terror’, back to ‘rage’, then ‘terror’ again….
Crossing just these hundred meters, his emotions were like a deranged rollercoaster, flipping wildly. He danced recklessly among the various little mushrooms.
Until… the woman suddenly sprayed blood from her mouth. She collapsed, limp and unconscious. Her hair instantly turned ash-gray.
Her position was liquidated!