Deep within the fungal forest, there were several enormous Mutated Fungi that looked like trouble at first glance.

There were pure white, spherical Mushrooms tens of meters in diameter; giant mushrooms comparable in size to a traditional courtyard home; a boletus as large as an entire building; and a termite mushroom nearly a hundred meters tall...

To be safe, Su Ze didn’t provoke them, even making sure his Perception Tentacles steered clear.

Su Ze carefully scanned every inch of the fungal forest for clues, but a preliminary search yielded nothing.

He decided not to venture deeper into the forest, planning to wait for Mr. Ya to return before exploring further.

In less than ten minutes, Mr. Ya returned.

Su Ze told Mr. Ya his theory about the origin of the "Nihility" skill.

Mr. Ya nodded repeatedly in agreement with Su Ze’s theory. "Boss, what’s your plan?" he asked. "Draco discovered that body more than a decade ago. Surely there aren’t any clues left in this forest by now, right?"

Fungi are nature’s decomposers. In a forest teeming with Mutated Fungi, any clues left behind would have vanished without a trace after so many years.

Instead of answering, Su Ze posed a question of his own. "Mr. Ya, have you ever felt that your ’Nihility’ skill has abilities you can’t quite perceive? Hidden effects, so to speak?"

"Of course. For example, it’s very strange that I can’t seem to absorb any offensive skills," Mr. Ya said, scratching his head. "The description for the ’Nihility’ skill never said it would make me incompatible with offensive skills or give me an affinity for survival-type skills. But I don’t think this is my natural constitution; I feel like it’s a side effect from absorbing ’Nihility’."

"Anything else?" Su Ze asked.

Mr. Ya thought hard for a moment. "Also, it seems that when I use the same survival or escape skills as other people, they’re more effective for me. Take the Earth Escape Skill, for example. I can burrow faster and deeper than anyone else. Even with a Flying Skill, I fly faster."

Su Ze said, "My Divine Grace of Evolution skill was the same way before it was complete. It had many abilities that weren’t part of its official description, and I had no idea where they came from. But after I absorbed the complete Golden Bloodline Crystal, I understood. Those abilities didn’t come from the Divine Grace of Evolution skill itself, but from that Bloodline Crystal."

Mr. Ya’s expression flickered. "Boss, are you saying my ’Nihility’ skill is also incomplete?"

Su Ze nodded. "To be precise, you might not have absorbed a complete Bloodline Crystal.

"The Bloodline Crystal you absorbed should be the same type as my Golden Bloodline Crystal. However, you probably absorbed a larger portion than I did, which is why the skill didn’t hold you back even after you became a Saint-rank Overlord.

"There’s another reason I’m guessing this. I don’t know if you noticed, but when Draco described finding that rotting corpse, he said it was incomplete. There was only half a body!"

Mr. Ya instantly understood what Su Ze meant.

’If the body was severed in two before the Bloodline Crystal could form,’ he thought, ’then the resulting Crystal must have also been split into two parts, ending up in two different locations.’

’And the Bloodline Crystal I absorbed through that dung-eater’s extract was likely only one of those parts.’

Mr. Ya thought about it seriously, then nodded. "Boss, now that you mention it, I have had this feeling from time to time—that my ’Nihility’ skill has some potential I haven’t been able to unlock.

"After my fourth evolution, I was constantly looking for materials to upgrade my other skills, but ’Nihility’ never needed it. It was already beyond the scope of a Tier 4 or even a Tier 5 skill. However, after becoming Saint-rank, I’ve felt that it should have an effect that lets me phase other people along with me, but I’ve failed every time I’ve tried."

Su Ze gave a slight nod. "If my theory is correct," he continued, "we can speculate on the whereabouts of the other part of the Bloodline Crystal. First, the short black man might have found it and taken it long ago. Second, it could have been lost here in the Mystical Mushroom Forest and subsequently devoured and absorbed by some mutated beast. Or third, it could still be buried somewhere in the Mystical Mushroom Forest right now."

With his most important skill on the line, Mr. Ya grew serious and began searching the surrounding area with Su Ze for any trace or clue.

They split up the work: Su Ze used his Perception Tentacles to search the surface and the shallow earth, while Mr. Ya took on the deeper subterranean layers.

But after searching the entire Mystical Mushroom Forest, they found nothing.

The only places they hadn’t searched were the areas near the behemoths in the core region.

Mr. Ya gave a wry smile. "Looks like it’s not here. It was probably eaten by a mutated beast or found and taken by that black Defiler."

Su Ze pointed toward the core area. "We still haven’t searched around those behemoths."

Mr. Ya shook his head. "The core area is too dangerous. We should forget it. When I was underground earlier, I considered exploring beneath the core, but the soil there is riddled with dense mycelium. It’s even more dangerous than what’s on the surface.

"Those behemoths are at least Tier 4 Mutated Fungi, and there might even be a Tier 5. We should come back to explore when we’re stronger."

Su Ze replied, "If underground is more dangerous, then we’ll just approach from the surface. First, do a divination for me. See if it’s dangerous."

Hearing this, Mr. Ya stopped objecting. He decided they would base their decision to enter the core area on the results of the divination.

As the wielder of the "Danger Warning" skill, he never needed to perform a divination for himself; he would naturally sense when danger was approaching.