Chapter 36: Seed
Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Seed
"You..."
Ma Laizi’s eyes widened. He looked down at his own chest, then back at Zhu Ge, his face filled with confusion.
And when Zhu Ge saw that Ma Laizi’s chest wasn’t bleeding at all, but was instead leaking the same crystalline fluid as Hua Liusha’s body, a smile appeared on his face.
"My apologies. In this entire village, only you were too much like a ’person’."
Zhu Ge retreated rapidly. "Scholar, he’s all yours!"
"Alright!" Yu the Scholar’s voice was dignified, yet tinged with a sigh. "I never thought you’d be right, Zhu Ge..."
Yu the Scholar had kept the character for "Confucian" on his chest this whole time. He didn’t even step forward when Hua Liusha, the supposed shrine for the Fungus God, collapsed. It was all for this moment.
"A scholar cannot be without magnanimity and perseverance. His burden is heavy and his path is long!"
As his voice fell, the "Confucian" character on Yu the Scholar’s chest passed right through his body and flew toward Ma Laizi, instantly appearing above both Ma Laizi and Hua Liusha’s physical forms.
"NO!!!"
Countless mycelial threads erupted from Ma Laizi’s mouth. The points of light at their tips drifted away like dandelion seeds.
Hua Liusha’s body, which had already fallen, stood up and began spitting out points of light as well.
But when those points of light encountered the "Confucian" character, they all melted away like ice under a scorching sun.
Dark green mycelial threads began to sprout from Ma Laizi’s limbs, torso, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. His eyes gradually grew dull and lifeless.
Finally, he collapsed to his knees with a THUD. Twisting a head whose eyeballs had already fallen out of their sockets, he looked at Zhu Ge. "Wh... why..."
Standing beside Yu the Scholar, Zhu Ge was slightly out of breath. He smiled and said, "I told you, you were too human. In the entire village, you were the most human-like one. And you were always staring at me. You were the first shrine!"
"Following me around every day, watching my every move. You perverted Fungus God!"
Human!
’Throughout the whole village,’ Zhu Ge thought, ’only Ma Laizi was far too human.’
In contrast, neither Yu the Scholar nor Zhu Ge himself were very human-like anymore.
After all, under the influence of a god, who could still be "normal"?
Furthermore, once Zhu Ge realized his memories were flawed, he suspected the Fungus God might have been laying a hidden trap.
Fungi, after all, were extremely weak compared to other races. Even when dealing with Zhu Ge and the others, it had to hide in the shadows and plot slowly. It was entirely possible that it was scheming behind the scenes.
That was when Zhu Ge noticed that something was off about Ma Laizi.
After a period of observation and probing, Ma Laizi had inevitably shown his true colors.
Zhu Ge suspected that the fleeting aura of the Fungus God he’d once sensed west of the village was because the god’s main body was incapable of becoming a shrine.
It was simply too weak!
Therefore, the Fungus God had used some method to parasitize Ma Laizi.
The villagers had gone into the western woods to pick mushrooms on more than one occasion.
Ma Laizi had likely fallen to his death during one of those mushroom-picking trips. Then, in the moment between life and death, he was turned into a shrine and stripped of his memories.
Ma Laizi was the first shrine!
Hua Liusha was the second shrine!
This Fungus God, according to the system of realms, had already reached the Second Realm. And because it had devoured the corporeal souls of all the villagers, it was on the verge of breaking through to the Third Realm!
Only then did Zhu Ge begin to lay out his series of subsequent plans.
For example, in his supposed plan to blow up the entire village, he had set a two-layered trap.
The first layer was a test for Ma Laizi, which the Fungus God passed by pretending not to know.
The second layer was a trap of strategy and intrigue.
He let the Fungus God believe all his preparations were focused on gunpowder and destroying the village, thereby misdirecting it.
In the end, the Fungus God was deceived by Zhu Ge.
By turning the tables, Zhu Ge made the Fungus God think he hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Ma Laizi, allowing him to easily finish the job.
Zhu Ge even suspected that the so-called plague that had lured away the Teacher was just another one of the Fungus God’s tricks to get him out of the way.
"I... am not... resigned..." Ma Laizi’s eyeballs fell to the ground.
The next moment, his body slumped over, finally dissolving into a pile of squirming mycelial threads that looked like roundworms.
Under the light of the "Confucian" character, they eventually dissipated into nothing.
Just as the bodies of Ma Laizi and Hua Liusha disintegrated, Zhu Ge felt a certain sluggishness within his own body disappear.
’Have the mycelial threads inside my body vanished?’ Zhu Ge realized.
Their bodies also contained mycelial threads—everyone in the village did. However, they weren’t real threads, but illusions created by the Fungus God using its soul power.
Now that these threads were gone, it truly meant the Fungus God was no more.
Zhu Ge’s body could now be considered completely "possessed" by his own soul.
Now, Zhu Ge was truly "Zhu Ge"!
Moreover, the remaining survivors of Jianshan Village could now recover.
It was just a shame the Fungus God had killed so many villagers beforehand. Now, only five or six people were estimated to have survived.
But he had done his best.
If Zhu Ge hadn’t gathered the villagers together, he probably wouldn’t have even had the chance to wake them.
"It’s finally back to normal." Yu the Scholar recalled the "Confucian" character floating in the sky. Then, casting aside his dignified image, he plopped down on the ground and grinned.
"Yeah, it is." Zhu Ge laughed as well.
Yu the Scholar was around the same age as Zhu Ge. The trust and effort they had shared over this period had forged a strong, unspoken understanding between them.
Meanwhile, the Double Happiness character that had been floating in mid-air slowly descended.
The Double Happiness character landed on Zhu Ge and sank into his body. It reappeared outside his giant, egg-shaped soul, floating gently.
"Brother! From now on, I’ll be with you."
Hua Liusha’s voice rang in Zhu Ge’s mind.
’With me...’ A realization dawned on Zhu Ge.
He was bound to the Xigui.
It was just like an Immortal Sword that recognized its master through a drop of blood, or a Spirit Beast caught in a Spirit Beast Circle.
He and the Xigui now shared an intimate and unspoken connection.
Seeing the Xigui enter Zhu Ge’s body, Yu the Scholar said, "Now that the Xigui shares your life and death, you’ve really lucked out."
"What do you mean?" Zhu Ge asked, curious.
Yu the Scholar smiled. "All things in this world can be controlled. Some people control swords, some control beasts, and there are many who control ghosts."
"With the Xigui that Hua Xiaomei became to help you, you’ll at least be able to attack and defend on a spiritual level."
"Furthermore, the special thing about ghosts is their ability to bewitch souls. It’s similar to seizing one’s senses, allowing you to influence others. It can be incredibly useful at critical moments, as I’m sure you’ve discovered."
"Indeed." Zhu Ge nodded, but he didn’t feel much joy in his heart.
He only had fourteen years of life left.
If he didn’t find a way to extend his lifespan soon, using the Kunpeng trait just one more time would leave him with barely any years at all.
Besides, even though the Fungus God was dealt with, the Teacher had yet to return, and the village wasn’t as safe as he had imagined.
The Tiger God was still nearby, and he didn’t know if Mr. Chong was a friend or a foe.
"Huh?" Just then, Yu the Scholar scrambled up from the ground and looked toward the spot where the Fungus God’s shrine had been destroyed.
"Did the Fungus God actually leave behind a seed? No, I suppose it would be what you call a spore?" Yu the Scholar picked up a single, sparkling object from the ground.
Zhu Ge looked over curiously. "You mean..."
"If we cultivate this spore, it might become a new Fungus God." Yu the Scholar narrowed his eyes, a flash of delight crossing his face.
"And it would be a completely new Fungus God, with none of the original’s memories!"
A new Fungus God?!
Zhu Ge was astonished. "Isn’t this just like what you and the Teacher originally planned?"
In the beginning, the Teacher and Yu the Scholar had planned to cultivate the deceased Hua Xiaomei, Hua Liusha, into a Wedding God, because her soul was exceptionally special and powerful.
But the plan ultimately failed. Without Yu the Scholar even knowing, Hua Liusha became a Xigui.
The underlying idea, however, was sound.
Due to the special nature of gods, there were many places where the Human Race actively cultivated and nurtured deities to protect their lands. These were known as "Earth Gods."
If they could cultivate this Fungus God into their own deity, then even if the Teacher wasn’t around, they would have some means of protecting themselves.
"But the urgent task now is to find a vessel," Yu the Scholar frowned. "The moon is reaching its zenith, and Midnight is almost upon us. The moonlight at that hour is too strong; it will destroy this seed."
"A vessel?" Zhu Ge was also troubled. "Everyone who died left only a corpse. We can’t just use a living person as a shrine, can we?"
Yu the Scholar nodded in agreement.
They didn’t know what material was needed for a shrine, but at the very least, the previous Fungus God had used a human body as its shrine—and it had to be a living one.
Many villagers had died, but a few were still alive. However, killing one of their own living villagers just to "plant a god" would be undoubtedly foolish.
Just then, Hua Liusha’s voice sounded in Zhu Ge’s mind:
"Brother! I have an idea!"