"CHIRP!"

Egg Pancake, who had just been viciously pounding on the mushroom head, was now like a child seeking praise. It placed the mushroom head’s corpse in front of Han Ning and held its head high.

"Good boy!"

Han Ning encouragingly patted its head, then stroked its snout. "Open your mouth and let me see," he said with concern. "Is your tongue all grown back?"

"CHIRP!"

Egg Pancake obediently opened its mouth, sticking out a tongue that was already two-thirds grown and still slowly extending.

The severed part was already healed, and the new back half of the tongue looked even more tender and pink than the front.

’It’s growing back so fast. Is this limb regeneration unique to the Guardian Race?’

He sighed internally. ’It would be great if humans had such powerful regenerative abilities.’

"Rest for a bit. Have something to eat." Han Ning instinctively reached for the pouch at his waist, only to find he had dropped its contents on the road long ago.

He pinched Egg Pancake’s cheek in embarrassment and shouted:

"Teacher Lü! Where are you, Teacher Lü?"

"Over here!"

Hearing Han Ning’s call, Lü Xiuning poked his head out from behind Lin Tianhe’s Silver Lotus Wood.

Worried that Egg Pancake might still have some residual poison in its system, Han Ning yelled to Lü Xiuning:

"Teacher Lü, could you please have your Silver Lotus Wood help my Egg Pancake get rid of the toxins in its body?"

Teacher Lü’s Silver Lotus Wood was at Entry Level IV and specialized in Spiritual Energy. It was more than capable of cleansing the toxins from Egg Pancake, so there was no need for Yin Yi.

"No problem."

Meanwhile, the battle in the Mushroom Forest was drawing to a close.

Of the three giant, ten-meter-tall mushroom heads, two had already fallen. Their massive bodies lay on the mushroom-covered ground, their surfaces covered in scorched black marks, and a strange, fragrant aroma filled the air.

The largest mushroom head, along with a dozen or so of its smaller companions, was being beaten back by Yin Yi and the Soldier Ants. Just like Han Ning had done earlier, they were retreating while defending. They clearly had a special method to link up and form a smaller light screen, struggling to withstand the attacks from Yin Yi and the others.

As for the remaining mushroom heads, the stronger ones were still fighting as they retreated, while the weaker ones had basically no hope of escaping the pursuit of Luo Chen and the Soldier Ants.

Luo Chen was very cunning, specifically picking off the smaller mushroom heads and leaving the tougher ones for the Soldier Ants to handle.

Lü Xiuning’s Silver Lotus Wood received its master’s command. Like a nimble Assassin, it weaved through the battlefield, quickly arriving at Egg Pancake’s side. It extended a vine and plunged it into Egg Pancake’s wound.

A verdant green light rippled out. The toxins that had been preventing Egg Pancake’s injuries from healing and lingering in its body were swiftly purged, dissipating into wisps of green smoke in the air.

"CHIRP!"

Once the toxins were completely gone, Egg Pancake’s body trembled slightly, and all the small wounds on its body healed in an instant.

After several battles, Han Ning decided to try a different way of allocating Attribute Points.

Instead of just dumping all the Attribute Points into his Soul Beast and maxing out its stats all at once like before.

He chose to add a point, train for a while, add another point, and so on, opting for a method of gradual, incremental increases over a short period.

He didn’t know which method was better yet, so he planned to try them all to discover a more optimal way to allocate points.

Of course, this was only when there was no crisis. In an emergency, it was naturally faster to just dump all the points in at once to solve the problem.

With this in mind, Han Ning only added one point to each of Egg Pancake’s three main stats this time. The growth cap for its Spiritual Ability Attribute wasn’t high, so he just maxed it out directly.

[ㅤ

Race: Swamp Guardian

Sex: Male

Talent: F

Level: Entry Level III (31/300)

Talent: None

Acquired Soul Techniques: Wandering Tongue Entanglement II (121/200), Mud Missile III (156/200)

Power: 11.5

Body: 14.8

Agility: 11.4

Spiritual Energy: 3

Elemental Affinity (Earth): 1.3

]

"CHIRP~"

A faint, earthy yellow halo appeared around Egg Pancake, but unlike the previous times he’d allocated points, it didn’t show a pained expression.

Han Ning took the two small Crystal Stones Egg Pancake handed him—one large and one small, one purple and one green—and called out, "Alright, let’s go. Time to catch up with the main group."

"CHIRP CHIRP, CHIRP CHIRP!"

As they ran, Egg Pancake used its other three paws to run while freeing up one to point at its own back, chirping incessantly.

"You want me to sit on your back?" Han Ning figured out what it was thinking.

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

He sized up Egg Pancake’s body. It was over a meter long and stood a few dozen centimeters high when lying on the ground, about the size of a small crocodile. Back before he transmigrated, it would have been considered a huge creature, but it was still a bit too small to carry a person. So he said, "Hmm... you’re still too small right now. Let’s wait until you’re a little bigger!"

"Chirp..." Egg Pancake looked down at its sturdy front limbs and decided it needed to eat more in the future!

Just as they were talking, a loud, muffled BOOM suddenly came from up ahead.

Looking up, he saw the giant, nearly 13-meter-tall mushroom head crash to the ground under the Flame impact of two tall Soldier Ants.

Crimson Flames instantly ignited its body, and the strange, fragrant aroma in the air grew even stronger.

Yin Yi’s Emerald Flower Thorns swept across the area, killing all the other dozen or so fleeing mushroom heads.

"After being repressed for so long since coming to this world, today is the first time I’ve felt this exhilarated. It’s all thanks to my Soldier Ant bros for letting me ride on their coattails." Lin Tianhe commanded his Xiaoyu to kill the last mushroom head, unable to suppress a delighted smile.

The corpses of several hundred mushroom heads lay on the floor of the Mushroom Forest. The tall mushrooms around them seemed to treat the bodies as if they were nothing, tirelessly continuing to spew spores that soon covered the corpses in a thin layer of powder.

"RUSTLE RUSTLE~~"

The Ant Soldier Leader directed the Soldier Ants to gather all the mushroom head corpses together.

"LING~"

With the battle over, Yin Yi floated back to Han Ning’s side and dove straight into his arms.

"Good work. Let me see, you’re not hurt, are you?"

Han Ning held Yin Yi’s face in his hands and examined it carefully.

"LING!"

Yin Yi lifted its head and struck a muscular bodybuilding pose, much like Egg Pancake’s.

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

Egg Pancake copied it, also striking a muscular pose.

Han Ning looked at them speechlessly. "Egg Pancake is already a bit of a goofball, so the pose is fine. But Yin Yi, you look a little weird striking that pose."

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

Hearing this, Egg Pancake let out an excited chirp, thinking its master was praising it. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

While the Soul Beasts were cleaning up the battlefield, Lü Xiuning looked up at the giant mushrooms nearby and asked curiously, "What do you guys think the relationship is between these big mushrooms and these smaller mushroom heads?"

"I don’t know. Maybe after they die, they turn into the big mushrooms?" Lin Tianhe guessed.

Han Ning let his imagination run wild. "Could it be that the small mushroom heads are mutated individuals from among the big mushrooms? I used to love reading Cultivation novels, where in some old, deep mountain forest, there would always be a few foxes out of a large pack that would achieve spiritual enlightenment and become spirits."

"You know, that’s actually possible," Luo Chen said, his expression shifting as he nodded in agreement.