NOVPUBLin Fan and Ho Ming walked among rows upon rows of peach trees.
Both held their weapons up on high alert.
They didn't know what else to expect other than the demonic mushrooms.
The huge tower looked like it wasn't too far away and most likely would take a few hours' time to reach it.
There was nothing unusual along the way until they came across a river.
Lin Fan noticed that along the riverbank, due to the moist and damp surroundings, there were many white-colored mushrooms that grew in abundance.
Ho Ming initially wanted to take the chance to have a drink from the river but stopped in his tracks when he also noticed the same thing.
They stood for a moment and watched intently.
As the sound of the water flowed continuously, nothing happened.
These white-colored mushrooms didn't move even an inch.
"I think it's best we get going," Lin Fan said, and Ho Ming nodded.
Even though there wasn't any danger from the white mushrooms, it was still taxing on their mental state to be on alert all the time.
Thud.
Lin Fan and Ho Ming leaped across the river and landed on the other side.
It was still rows and rows of peach trees as far as they could see.
"Senior martial uncle," Ho Ming shouted as he saw a familiar figure in front of him not too far away.
The figure, who looked like Zhao Qing Ying, instead of turning around, darted away.
He wanted to give chase, but Lin Fan held onto his arm and pulled him back.
"Ho Ming, there's nothing in front of us."
"But I saw..." Ho Ming pointed at one of the peach trees but stopped saying anything as he saw that Lin Fan was right.
There was no one anywhere except for the two of them.
Lin Fan quickly took out the Glorious Poison Recovery Pill and gave one to Ho Ming.
He and Ho Ming then swallowed the Glorious Poison Recovery Pill.
Soon, Lin Fan felt refreshed and as if a fog had lifted from his mind.
They must have breathed in spores that made them hallucinate where the white-colored mushrooms were.
This made Lin Fan uncomfortable.
Something that is unseen and odorless was much more dangerous than an enemy that can be seen. 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
"We better hurry," Lin Fan said, and they hastened their pace towards the tower, which wasn't too far away by now.
When they got to the tower, Zhao Qing Ying and Zhang Yi Nian were waiting for them at the entrance.
"Have you seen anything unusual on the way here?" Zhao Qing Ying asked as he took a mouthful of wine from his wine gourd.
Lin Fan briefed them on what they had encountered.
Zhao Qing Ying and Zhang Yi Nian looked at each other and nodded at Lin Fan and Ho Ming.
They also had encountered those demonic mushrooms and were only able to get rid of them after a tough battle.
For Lin Fan and Ho Ming to be able to do so unscathed, it meant that they were powerful enough.
"Come, let's go in and seek the Nine Heavens Cauldron."
Zhao Qing Ying said, and all of them followed him into the entrance of the tower.
...
Inside the tower, they got another surprise.
There was nothing up in the tower except for a carpet of mushroom mycelium.
The white fungus was fur-like and stretched all the way up on the wall of the tower.
No light entered the cylinder-shaped wall of the tower.
There was nowhere else to go except for an opening that went underground.
They followed the staircase leading them down and went into the tomb.
Only a single path lay in front of them.
They followed the path with Zhang Qing Ying leading the way, walking in front, and Zhang Yi Nian at the back.
Lin Fan and Ho Ming, sandwiched by them, felt safe with them leading the way and covering from behind.
For once, Lin Fan and Ho Ming weren't the ones doing that.
The path was lit with green luminous light that emanated from mushrooms that grew all over the wall.
When Lin Fan had a bad feeling about what he saw, they exited the path, and a huge opening was in front of them.
At the other end of the opening, there was something like a stone coffin that was surrounded with flowers from the peach trees.
Just as Lin Fan pondered who was the one placing the flowers on the coffin, he had an answer.
Demonic mushrooms that looked like those he had encountered earlier appeared out from the ground and started to advance towards them.
Zhao Qing Ying with his fingers swiped at the demonic mushrooms.
Whoosh.
A slicing wave shot at the demonic mushrooms.
Before the slicing wave could reach the demonic mushrooms, a wall of demonic mushrooms appeared.
They were all white and had armor plates all over their bodies.
Crack.
The slicing wave hit the armor plates of the armored mushrooms, and some of the armor plates cracked.
Some of the armored mushrooms were sliced in half.
It was, however, enough to protect the demonic mushrooms that were behind the armored mushrooms.
Boom!
The demonic mushrooms unleashed a volley of air cannons at Lin Fan and the others.
Lin Fan activated his Primordial Titan Bastion ability, and the air cannons could only scratch the surface of his skin.
Ho Ming didn't waste any time and activated his turtle artifact to protect himself.
Lin Fan took a deep breath and readied himself to unleash his Volcanic Roar ability.
Before he could do so, he felt something tugging at his feet.
A familiar sound erupted in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Detected soul with malevolent intent incoming!]
[Terminate tentacle mushrooms with malevolent intent for 500 vengeance points.]
He looked down and saw that there were small purple mushrooms with their purple tentacles entangling his feet and trying to bring him down.
Lin Fan roared out at the small purple mushrooms instead.
The intense heat and molten embers burnt the tentacles and the small purple mushrooms.
