"Old Li really didn't say anything wrong, for treating estrangement Ansheng has a special remedy..."
Ansheng sighed, covering his face with his hands, and waved over to Huang Ming and the others, indicating for them to come up to the car first and talk:
"You all get in, take me over to have a look!"
"Alright, alright..." Huang Ming jumped onto the car, sitting cross-legged in the car bed, his back upright, even the fatigue of travel on his cheeks seemed slightly eased.
Even though they hadn't worked with Master Fuli, the rumors about him were well known even to Security Bureau members like them stationed overseas.
Yesterday, it was said that Master Fuli single-handedly surrounded a fraud from the Imperial Knight Order, and with a single punch, all but knocked the crap out of them, and afterward, made them clean up before kicking them out the door.
Working abroad, though the pay was high, they didn't have the prestigious status like the auditors did back home.
Nonetheless, there was always this air of suspicion, now that Master Fuli himself was present at the front, it was like the sky was clearing up.
"Master Fuli is in the clinic ahead, we came to town as an advance team to gather intel before the Longevity Club moved in..."
"Xiaobao encountered an attack while gathering intel, by the time we realized something was wrong and found him, he was already unconscious..."
As Huang Ming led Master Fuli into the clinic, he began recounting the events that had transpired.
The situation was relatively simple, they encountered an unknown attack while inquiring for information from local bosses.
Even though Gold-digging Town was a feudal domain, it harbored a lot of illegal immigrants from Xia Country. Faced with a probing from the Security Bureau, they would often give in to some degree.
A seemingly simple task, somehow met with unexpected complications.
"Yo, Old Huang, you're back? How about some poker? I just won several boxes of snacks from Bonnie."
As soon as Ansheng entered the chaotic clinic, several foreign individuals squatting on the ground greeted Huang Ming with smiles, inviting him over to play cards.
"Scram, don't you see we're busy with serious matters?" Huang Ming rolled his eyes, gesturing to them to keep quiet until they took care of the business at hand.
Having said this to the foreigners, Huang Ming then introduced to Master Fuli, "They are a team from the Forest Wolf Organization in Europe, well... not exactly top performers."
The chaos in Gold-digging Town was no secret, various factions eyed a share of the action in hopes of bringing back some documents to study.
But once they arrived in town, they immediately got a taste of what it meant to get caught in a brawl; they were beaten badly by the combined forces of the two major groups.
Now, they could only shuffle cards in the clinic, occasionally roping in a Forest Resource Investigator for a small fondue party.
They couldn't fight back, nor dare to yell back, so they honestly treated this task like a taxpayer-funded vacation.
"Quite decent, at least they didn't succumb to anger and resentment."
After hearing Huang Ming's introduction, Ansheng chuckled and jested to the investigators.
He was aware of the Forest Wolves' lack of reputation; when the Dragon Man Ruins affair broke, Li Wenkang had directly summoned their envoy to reprimand him.
Yet, Ansheng hadn't anticipated that they were also so unwelcome in the eyes of the two big groups in America.
"Wow, a fluffy Arctic Fox." Bonnie from the Forest Wolf team collapsed onto the ground, smelling of alcohol, his eyes glassy as he gazed towards Master Fuli: "Come, come!"
"Sqwreee!"
Ansheng turned around with a full black-line face, swaying his tail, making a "sqwreee" sound with his mouth, enticing them closer.
"Oh darling~!"
Bonnie, in a dazed state, staggered over to Master Fuli, intending to touch the fox tail, but Ansheng promptly turned and delivered two blows to Bonnie's head, startling her to clutch her head, whimpering.
"Girls need to be careful when going out." Ansheng rolled his eyes and beckoned to Huang Ming.
"This way..."
Huang Ming, both amused and exasperated, internally agreed with his colleagues about the high temper of Master Fuli.
Upon reaching the second floor of the town clinic.
Ansheng saw Xiaobao, whom Huang Ming had mentioned, with a face around twenty-three or four, at the moment, his body was covered with some bizarre purple-black vein-like scars.
Xiaobao lay curled up in the shadows, his pupils slightly scattered and unfocused, with a few used Spiritual Particle Injection Pens scattered around him.
Aside from supplying the woodcutters, the primary use of Spirit Particle Potion was for battlefield first-aid, enhancing constitution through Spiritualization to prolong injuries, in combination with adrenaline injections.
With a glance around the clinic, Ansheng roughly inferred what had happened here.
"His symptoms show manic estrangement, wanting to flee to find a water source, but he calms down after being injected with Spirit Particle Potion, am I right?"
Ansheng asked Huang Ming.
"Amazing, Master Fuli, you got it all right." Huang Ming was astounded by Master Fuli's remark, responding with great delight, affirming what he said.
"Mild fungal infection, not lethal, but needs immediate repatriation for treatment."
Glancing at Xiaobao, Ansheng's eyes showed a peculiar glint, his fluffy tail swayed, beginning to absorb the spiritual particles surrounding the clinic.
The scars on Xiaobao were clearly indicative of the Second Epoch fungal parasitism.
Like the black slime mold from the Terra Cotta tribe, and the fungal parasitic beast, Xiaobao's current state was likely some mutual or parasitic symbiosis with the fungus.
Fungi are ultra-sensitive to spiritual particles, with them, they can perform remarkable feats; without them, they droop and might even go into dormancy.
Although Ansheng couldn't kill the fungi, he could forcibly cut off the spiritual particles, putting the purple-black fungi into dormancy.
As for... how to treat the fungal infection.
Ansheng suggested a gang-up strategy; the Security Bureau kept a lot of black ooze beasts and parasitic beasts, letting them gorge on spiritual particles, giving the purple-black fungi a hard time.
"Ah—"
Restrained by Master Fuli, Xiaobao's face contorted in pain, the once scattered and unfocused pupils regained clarity, the entire body in agony, he clenched his teeth in pain that made him shiver.
The purple-black veins gradually turned gray, the raised skin and blood vessels returned to their original state.
"Xiaobao, are you alright now?"
"You scared us half to death; in the middle of the night, you tore off your briefs and streaked in the artillery fire. If it weren't for Old Song holding you down, you would've lost your choice in partners." Seeing Xiaobao lying on the floor gasping for air, Huang Ming and the others immediately rushed to check his condition, faces brimming with excitement.
"Is it... Master Fuli?"
Gasping, Xiaobao, lying on the ground, forcibly raised his hand, cryptically pointing with his index finger on the ground:
"There's a spread..."
"Something's spreading the fungus on me, in the murkiness I could feel an external consciousness urging me to work, it wants spiritual particles, massive, massive amounts of them, it orders me to hunt Spirit Beasts."
Xiaobao couldn't comprehend what he went through, but during the time of connected consciousness.
Something was collecting spiritual particles, and it continuously hid underground devouring Beast Warriors' corpses.
If the Longevity Club and Mayflower were to check their inventory now, they'd be stunned to find the Spirit Particle Potion and Spiritual Particle Metal they brought over were swapped out.
The items on the front of the shelf remained untouched, but those at the back were all switched out.
Just last night, when Master Fuli was expounding on the Mayflower Organization, that will had summoned underground entities and all infected to steal away.
Xiaobao didn't know what those things were, he hadn't entered full infection, thus unable to merge consciousness.
But he could faintly perceive that underground there were eyes peering at the surface.