The sun in the sky warped into an irregular shape, and the mycelia on the ground resembled long snakes, flicking their tongues.

The whole world had become abstract!

Even he felt like he was flying, floating in midair like an inflated balloon.

’Hallucinations!’

Su Ze understood. His Unyielding Will allowed him to maintain a decent level of cognitive function.

This was a mental attack, a direct assault on his psyche. Given his mental fortitude, anything that could affect him like this was definitely not a Tier Four Mutated Fungus.

’So there really is a Tier Five Mutated Fungus in the core of the Mystical Mushroom Forest!’

Su Ze activated his Unyielding Will skill, continuously strengthening the link between his mind and body. He fought to clear his head and break free from the hallucinogenic effects.

At the same time, he contracted the range of his Perception Tentacles to enhance his immediate perception. He used the feedback from his tentacles to compare the true state of his surroundings with what his eyes were seeing, trying to distinguish reality from illusion.

Finally, in his dazed state, he caught a glimpse of reality. The real world and the illusion flickered back and forth before his eyes...

He saw a horrifying sight. In the brief moment he had been lost in the illusion, countless mycelia had already crept over half his body. Innumerable spores were clinging to him, using his body as a culture medium and rapidly absorbing its nutrients to grow.

Fortunately, he was currently in his liquid state. If a body of flesh and blood had to endure this, it would be far too horrific.

’Detach!’

A clean break was necessary. Su Ze knew that in a situation like this, he had no choice but to abandon the parts of his body entangled in mycelia and rooted with spores.

BOOM!

He unleashed Furious Waves. A raging torrent of air swept out in all directions, stunning the mycelia and spores.

The ground trembled violently, and amid the shaking, Su Ze finally broke free from the illusion’s influence and regained his true sight.

Seizing the brief opportunity, he began to sever the parts of his body where the mycelia had taken root.

This meant sacrificing more than half of his body, an act tantamount to sustaining a grievous wound.

However, his recovery ability was formidable. As long as he maintained his liquid state, he could minimize the impact of the injury and would self-heal given enough time.

If worst came to worst, he could always shatter his own Regeneration Core.

But just then, among the giant Mutated Fungi in the core area, an enormous Mushroom on the periphery suddenly stirred.

Its massive, perfectly round, and immaculately white fruiting body suddenly split open, spitting out several huge spores visible to the naked eye.

The huge spores shot over and attached themselves to Su Ze’s surface.

Since Su Ze was already planning to abandon that entire section of his body, he didn’t pay them much mind. He quickly finished the detachment and prepared to flee.

But the massive spores rapidly absorbed the body parts Su Ze had shed. In the blink of an eye, they swelled to several times their original size, becoming round, black objects that looked just like landmines.

’This is bad!’

Su Ze’s instincts screamed of danger.

A terrifying amount of energy was building within those huge spores, about to erupt.

Just then, not far from Su Ze, the shadow Mr. Ya had left behind suddenly flickered and solidified into Mr. Ya himself.

He had swapped places with his Shadow Clone.

Su Ze deactivated his "Expansion" skill, shrinking in size but maintaining his liquid form. He used Space Jump to close the distance to Mr. Ya, who simultaneously dashed over and activated his "Invincibility" state.

Almost at the same instant, the huge, dark spores exploded. The force of the blast was enough to startle even Su Ze, who was no stranger to explosions.

Some of the closer Mutated Fungi were instantly destroyed. The immense heat of the blast carbonized the mycelia on the ground, and black smoke and dust billowed out, staining the entire sky.

Su Ze and Mr. Ya were at the epicenter of the explosion, yet they remained completely unharmed under the protection of Mr. Ya’s "Invincibility" skill.

Su Ze knew that if Mr. Ya hadn’t returned to help, he would have either been killed and forced to revive or, at the very least, had to shatter his Regeneration Core to save himself.

This must have been the danger Mr. Ya foresaw when he read his fortune.

It was only then that he could finally confirm it: that massive Mushroom was the Tier Five Mutated Fungus of the forest!

After the explosion, dust and ash filled the air, drifting down like black snowflakes. Ignoring the acrid, burning smell at the scene, it might have even been considered a beautiful sight.

The ground, already shattered by Su Ze’s attacks, was now even more fractured after the explosion. The fissures were deeper and longer, like hideous, terrifying scars snaking all the way to the base of the Tier Five Mushroom.

Previously, Su Ze’s attempts to probe underground with his Perception Tentacles had been blocked. But now, these massive fissures provided an entry point. His Perception Tentacles flowed like water into the gaps, allowing him to glimpse a corner of what lay beneath.

Yet, that single glimpse was enough to horrify him.

Beneath that giant Mushroom, he saw so many corpses and bones!

There were bodies upon bodies, ensnared by countless mycelia, drained into desiccated husks or left as nothing but withered skeletons.

’Were these Evolved who had mistakenly wandered into the Mystical Mushroom Forest and died?’

Su Ze quickly dismissed his own theory.

In the small section he could see, there were dozens of bodies. Judging by the size and shape of the skeletons alone, he could identify the remains of stooped elderly people, small children, and even infants still in swaddling clothes.

These people couldn’t possibly be Hunters who came to the rainforest to hunt, much less would they have entered the Mystical Mushroom Forest willingly.

Furthermore, some of the corpses had barely decomposed, indicating they hadn’t been dead for long.

Clearly, these people hadn’t wandered into the Mystical Mushroom Forest on their own. They had been brought here.