The possessed Hubert, his destructive fury unstoppable!
The survivors of the mushroom garden were all converging towards the same spot.
The hillock where the mushroom master resided.
Allen and Sonia were also among the fleeing crowd.
If even the mushroom master couldn't stop the possessed Hubert, the mushroom garden was doomed.
They had no other choice but to flee the secret realm.
Crowds of mushroom people gathered around the hillock.
There were also a few surviving possessed apprentices and human demons.
The faces of the refugees were filled with unconcealed fear.
Allen and Sonia blended into the crowd.
Behind them, heavy footsteps approached.
The possessed Hubert's towering form appeared at the end of their sight.
A terrifying atmosphere spread.
The crowd was in turmoil.
Prayers and suppressed cries echoed in Allen's ears.
Just as everyone was in a state of panic...
The mushroom master had finally awakened!
Silver mind spores quietly diffused, and a gentle voice reached the hearts of the crowd.
"Don't be afraid, children."
The mushroom master soothed them through telepathy.
"I will protect you."
The mushroom master's thoughts possessed a magical power to soothe people.
Everyone, including Allen, calmed down.
Then, the entire hill began to shake!
The sand clinging to the hill's surface fell away.
The master of the mushroom garden revealed his true form.
This behemoth was beyond description.
For in its essence, it had no fixed form.
Drawing on his knowledge from his past life, Allen initially speculated that the Master of Fungus was some kind of giant slime mold.
The enormous slime mold slowly wriggled.
It secreted countless long, slender, flexible mycelium.
Each mycelium carried a variety of spores.
Silver mind spores and green parasitic spores were the two most conspicuous.
Dense mycelium rapidly extended in all directions, targeting the corpses in the mushroom garden.
Whether it was Hubert's natural sorcerers or the circus' possessed magicians and demons, any relatively intact corpse was entangled by mycelium.
Various spores, using the mycelium as a medium, were injected into the corpses.
The most crucial of these were the "parasitic spores."
These miraculous green spores actually pulled the dead back to life, resurrecting them on the spot!
The "resurrection" of the dead is merely an appearance.
Corpses infested by spores are actually more like zombies.
They are not undead creatures, but rather belong to the category of supernatural fungi.
These are the so-called "fungus beasts"!
The fungus master creates a vast number of fungus beasts using parasitic spores.
At the same time, it can use mind spores to communicate telepathically with the parasitic spores that dominate the fungus beasts, thereby controlling them.
The fungus master infuses the fungus beasts with magical power through his mycelium.
The fungus master's magical power is as vast as the ocean.
The mycelium radiates in all directions, like infusion pipes, forming a network.
Each pipe connects to a fungus beast.
The fungus beasts, nourished by magical power, revitalize the warlock's bloodline within their dead bodies, and collectively initiate a reversionary transformation!
In a flash, dozens of corpses transformed into various atavistic forms.
Under the control of the Fungus Master's mind, they collectively pounced on the possessed Hubert, launching a fearless siege.
The Fungus Beast was already dead; it no longer had any fear of death.
A melee of unprecedented scale erupted.
Alan and Sonia watched from the sidelines, deeply shocked.
From the scene, this "ant-killing-elephant" tactic had a bleak future.
The atavistic Fungus Beasts, though numerous, were unfortunately too weak compared to the possessed Hubert.
What would the outcome be if a group of infants attacked a strong man?
The possessed Hubert casually slapped the atavistic Fungus Beast into a meat patty.
While frantically attacking and killing, the monster also ate.
Caught casually, it grabbed the atavistic Fungus Beast and stuffed it into its gaping maw in the tree hole.
Hubert, possessed by the demon, devoured the atavistic fungus beasts frantically.
If this trend continued…
Alan frowned, secretly worried.
At most, they could hold out for half an hour before the fungus beasts were completely annihilated.
However, a strange scene gradually unfolded on the battlefield.
Alan noticed that a dense mass of wood ear mushrooms and fungi had grown on the trunk of the demonized Hubert tree.
Various fungi were burrowing through the bark at a speed visible to the human eye, taking up residence on the trunk.
The fungi parasitic on Hubert's body were proliferating rapidly.
At the same time, Hubert's movements became sluggish.
The once thick and sturdy branches were now covered in large patches of decay.
As if he had transformed from a young man into an old man, his once smooth and firm skin had been eroded by time, becoming wrinkled and spotted.
This eerie scene reminded Allen of a story his teacher had told him in biology class in his previous life.
Long, long ago, during the Carboniferous period, plants evolved lignin, becoming incredibly tough.
At the time, no living organism in the world could break down and digest lignin.
And so, disaster struck.
The world's greatest source of pollution at the time came from plants.
As plants died, vast piles of wood lay strewn across the landscape.
This indecomposable waste piled up into mountains.
The rampant growth of plants emitted vast quantities of oxygen, exacerbating the greenhouse effect and glacial retreat.
Fires broke out all over the world.
Giant insects swarmed the skies.
This was the famous "lignin crisis" of prehistoric times, also known as the "green pollution event."
It wasn't until the Permian period that certain fungi, such as mushrooms, evolved ligninase, enabling them to degrade wood and consume plant matter. This crisis was resolved.
So, in a sense, it was mushrooms that saved the world!
At this very moment, the degradation process, accelerated a thousandfold, was unfolding within the demonic Hubert.
The fungus-infested tree trunk was rapidly decaying, unable to support its immense weight.
Finally, the demonic Hubert collapsed.
His massive body crumbled, disintegrating into a pile of rotting sawdust.
In the mushroom garden, peace returned.
Sonia was the first to recover, tugging at Alan's sleeve.
"Hurry!"
Alan understood and followed her, running towards the corpse of the demonic Hubert.
The tree trunk, splintered on the ground, lay in pieces.
A faint glint of light shone through the cracks in the wooden debris.
Those were the magic stones that had spilled from the storage bag.
Sonia, accompanied by two demon wolves with keen senses of smell, quickly found Hubert's storage bag and collected the scattered magic stones one by one.
"We've made a fortune!"
Sonia was beaming with joy.
"So many wood-attribute magic stones!"
"Brother Allen! We're going to make a fortune this time!"
Alan smiled, ignoring the magic stones scattered at his feet.
He focused on collecting two things: pollen and tree heartwood.
Hubert, possessed by the demon, was a Level 4 mutant Hangman Tree.
The toxicity of its pollen had also increased to Level 5.
Alan collected the pollen from the mutant Hangman Tree to replenish his toxin reserves.
At the same time, his poison resistance bar finally reached full size, reaching Level 6!
Similar to the heart of the woad, the mutant hangman tree also has a gnarled "heart."
Alan had no idea what this organ's specific function was.
But the system told him that the heart of the mutant hangman tree was a unique ingredient!
Alan dissected the rotten stump and pulled out a large, gray lump of wood.
Thankfully, the ferocious little mushrooms hadn't had time to degrade the heart yet.
Alan picked up the heart and took a deep bite.
It crunched, and the texture was quite crunchy.
The juice that came out of it was quite sweet and delicious.
Ding-ding—
The system notification then sounded.
"Consume special ingredient: Mutated Hanged Tree Heart!"
"Potential +2!"
"Physique +1!"
Current Attributes: Physique 23, Agility 20, Spirit 28
Potential Reserve: 4