"Wah wah wah—"
A sudden incident occurred on the dormitory balcony. Ah Qing and Black Group, who were watering the flowers, cried out in surprise simultaneously.
Black fungus on the skull cap rapidly split and multiplied at a speed visible to the naked eye. In an instant, the sticky black fungus covered more than half of the balcony area.
"Audacious villain! How dare you!"
Sitting squatted inside the room, Ansheng, who was wiping his feet, looked at the black fungus rioting on the balcony and shouted in anger.
"Doo—"
Despair emanated from the skull cap, and the black thread-like things wriggled, making a series of aggrieved sounds.
I... I didn't do anything!
It was just Ah Qing holding a watering can to water the flowers, I saw the spout at a bit of an angle, reached out a tentacle to help straighten it, and then felt a rush of Spiritual Particles surging over.
Regarding the matter where Master Fuli said to execute the fungus as soon as he opened his mouth, the skull cap did not agree.
After all... I really didn't do anything.
"Cut!"
Master Fuli suddenly rushed out, raised his paw, and drew an arc in the air, cutting off the black fungus attached to Ah Qing's arm and pulling Ah Qing back into the room.
Meanwhile, the small tea tree and Black Chest Cockroach on the balcony saw something amiss, quickly flipped over, crawled out of the balcony, and onto the air conditioner unit outside, looking at the rolling black fungus inside the balcony with a face full of bewilderment.
"Wah..."
Ah Qing sat down on the carpet with wide eyes, looking dazed and uttered a subconscious murmur of surprise.
"Die!"
Ansheng took out a lighter and also picked up the cockroach-killing insecticide left by the Black Chest Cockroach on the balcony, spraying the high-concentration insecticide on the lighter's flame to ignite a pillar of fire.
The intense flames sprayed onto the skull cap's face, causing the skull cap to cover its butt and run into the bathroom, using its black tentacles to frantically press the flush button to extinguish the fire.
"Crash—"
Ansheng hooked his tail, heavily closing the balcony door to isolate a relatively safe area.
"Ah Qing, are you okay?"
Ansheng didn't care about the abnormality on the balcony, stood upright, and turned around to ask Ah Qing.
"Uh... no, nothing, just got scared."
Ah Qing regained her senses, responded to the little fox, and said somewhat weakly, "It seems like... it's transforming?"
"Like a game meeting certain conditions and triggering some strange plot?"
Ah Qing thought for a moment and gave a relatively apt description to the little fox.
During the brief contact with the fungus, although Ah Qing didn't understand what had happened, she could vaguely feel one thing: something had been unlocked.
And the prerequisite for unlocking the "special plot" should be eating black mushrooms.
Ah Qing could clearly feel that the food accumulation she felt after eating the mushroom broth sauna chicken the previous night had disappeared, and the black fungus had been summoned, relieving the food buildup.
Ah Qing even felt a bit hungry.
"Game plot? Skip with a spacebar, I can only kill. Later, I'll break its legs and stuff it into the cat litter box."
Ansheng took a moment to ridicule, frowning as he looked at the black fungus on the balcony.
The fungus's agitation came quickly and left quickly; it had now stopped rapidly splitting.
The fungi gradually gathered into a cluster, with the outer shell gradually hardening into a black mushroom, its appearance like a shiitake, though the stem was not rooted in the floor, just casually standing on the balcony tiles.
"Knock knock knock..."
Having had his butt singed by Master Fuli earlier, the skull cap, after putting out the fire, raised its tentacles and hurriedly knocked on the door, signaling Master Fuli to open the door quickly.
The dirty thing outside the door was somewhat dangerously fungal.
"That thing seems... to have stopped moving?"
Momo looked terrified, picking up a chair and keeping a close watch on the black mushroom on the balcony.
"It should have stopped moving."
Tang You and Lingren finished injecting Spirit Particle Potions, each picking up the most lethal items nearby, ready to confront the situation.
"What is this thing..."
Ansheng's face was full of strange expressions as he opened the door and sprayed the mushroom twice with the insecticide in his hand, seeing no movement from it.
"No Spiritual Particles lingering..."
Ansheng walked out to the balcony, poking the mushroom cap with the insecticide in hand, still seeing no reaction; it appeared dead, no longer absorbing Spiritual Particles.
"What use does it have?"
Ansheng looked at the skull cap and asked.
"Gulp..."
The skull cap, hiding under the table, shook its head, completely clueless as to why it would produce something like this.
You should ask Ah Qing about this matter.
"It has a pickup tag on its head." Ah Qing, having injected the Spirit Particle Potion, perceived the presence of the mushroom clearly through her biological radar and informed the little fox.
"A pickup tag?"
Under Ansheng's strange gaze, Ah Qing carefully approached the balcony, acting as if lighting a firecracker, trying to keep her body as far away as possible, and poked the mushroom cap with a finger.
When Ah Qing touched the mushroom, the pleats at the base of the mushroom cap quivered slightly, and a clump of mushroom spores erupted from the cap, scattering onto the canopy.
A large arrow appeared above the canopy, pointing north.
"Hm?"
The bizarre scene of the mushroom guiding the way left everyone in the room, including the fox, bewildered.
Ansheng thought for a moment, grabbed the mushroom, and turned to face the south direction.
Yet the arrow on the canopy gradually turned to point north on top of the mushroom cap.
"Is it guiding us north?" Momo had a subtle expression, saying, "Does it want to trick us into tomb raiding again?"
This situation seemed somewhat familiar, as Ah Qing previously had a gut feeling.
The dormitory sisterhood had followed Ah Qing's guidance to find the skull cap idling in an ancient tomb.
Now the mushroom that appeared was somewhat similar to Ah Qing at that time.
Or rather, the newly emerged mushroom acted as an amplifier of abilities.
Though not as comprehensive as the giant black fungus tree, it already provided an effect of amplifying the Power of Will.
"Follow?"
Momo looked at the mushroom with a strange expression, glanced at her sisters and the little fox, and asked.
"Follow!"
Ansheng nodded definitively, saying, "Let's see where it wants to take us later."
"It better hope it serves some purpose, or else, tonight, I'll fry it into king oyster mushroom tempura with pepper salt and flush it down the toilet."
Ansheng didn't know what the mushroom was, but he vaguely guessed it was likely related to Ah Qing's "ancestral student return" trait.
It was the chemical reaction produced by the Power of Will in her bloodline coming into contact with the skull cap.
"Alright, then I'll get the car..."
Momo laughed, since the afternoon was free from classes due to faculty meetings.
Momo turned around, rummaged through Ah Qing's bed, found Master Fuli's car keys, and prepared to drive.
"Bring the hammer!"
While packing the mushroom with a bedsheet, Ansheng secretly called, summoning the Triangular Hammer, being maintained at the Phoenix City District, through a blood and flesh imprint.
The Triangular Hammer, "huffing and puffing," carried the Gravity Hammer and the newly added New Energy Warhammer, avoiding crowds, taking alleyways to reach the College of Agriculture, and climbed onto the truck bed.
"Let's go!"
Momo didn't use navigation, instead, she followed the direction indicated by the mushroom sitting in the passenger seat, strapped in with a seatbelt, to drive.
Ansheng sat on the armrest box, while Ah Qing, Tang You, and Lingren were seated in the back, heading north the entire way.