Chapter 1589: King Fungus Cultivation Record
Liu Da laughed and said there was no problem at all. After saying goodbye to his wife, who couldn't move easily, and his injured daughter, he immediately took him out.
Seeing that he was walking down the stone steps, Xu Huo asked, "Didn't you say Butterfly Bone Town was mostly destroyed because of that fungus? How come that fungus is now growing under the stone crevices? Can people still live here like this?"
"Those who survived have adapted. They won't die. Besides, even if they wanted to leave, where would they find a suitable place? In the woods, even many mutant beasts can't live long."
Xu Huo didn't ask any more questions. He followed him to the depths of the steps and stopped when he saw a layer of black, mold-like substance. Liu Da warned him not to touch the black ash and then stood on a recess dug into the stone wall beside him.
Even though he was wearing a protective suit, Xu Huo didn't touch it directly. Instead, he used a specialized container to collect a sample. He crouched down and suddenly asked, "Why is this place called Butterfly Bone Town?"
Liu Da pressed himself against the recess and suddenly shouted loudly, "Watch out above!"
Xu Huo looked up and saw a massive boulder, as if chiseled out of this narrow stone crevice, rumbling down. Liu Da beside him was still shouting, "Hurry up!"
The recess wasn't deep, but it was spacious enough for two people to stand. It also seemed like the best choice.
Xu Huo stepped up and jumped in, but as soon as he did, a force suddenly constricted around his protective suit. Then the stone beneath his feet collapsed, and he slid down.
The collapse of this gap was perfectly timed, just enough for one person to fall through. Above, the stone sealed the opening tightly. Xu Huo had no choice but to fall into the hollow black ash, letting the boulder above block the exit.
Below the black ash cover, part of it was actually hollow. Inside, it should be a natural cave, with spaces of varying sizes and no regular passages like above. The stone that fell from above was undoubtedly an item. After landing, Xu Huo suspended his body and tried pushing the stone upward. It was quite heavy.
Since there was an item involved, a player must have intervened. Using such a simple "trick" wouldn't be enough to kill a player daring enough to venture into Zone 013. Their goal was probably to damage his protective suit.
Xu Huo used his blade to touch something that looked like a razor blade right in front of him.
It wasn't as flexible as he imagined, but it was very sharp. If someone fell unexpectedly, friction might accidentally tear their protective suit.
Besides that, there were a few small items set up below.
Telekinetically clearing away those small traps, Xu Huo took out a lighting item and shone it into the depths of the cave.
Although he knew before entering that this place should be similar to the underground fungus cave in Clown City, seeing it in person was still somewhat shocking.
However, what shocked him wasn't the scale, but the mountain of human bones.
The item that fell down had broken open a corner of the bone mountain, causing a large cascade of bones to slide down. As they flew and tumbled, one could glimpse the true appearance covered by a large amount of fungus. The clattering sound seemed to travel through a special acoustic channel, echoing throughout the entire underground cave, lingering for a long time.
All these bones were actually shoulder blades!
A mountain of shoulder blades... Not to mention seeing it, even hearing about it would inevitably evoke a sense of horror beyond belief.
If someone were collecting remains, they wouldn't collect only parts. Even if only parts remained, how could it be such a coincidence that they were all shoulder blades?
But if it wasn't a coincidence, what kind of situation could cause such a phenomenon?
However, this wasn't something to delve into right now. Xu Huo pushed aside the large amount of fungus hanging in the air and slowly descended to the bottom of the cave.
If one ignored the danger of these fungi, this underground cave could be called magnificent. Because of the variety of species, their colors were also different. Different fungi grew intertwined, and the various colors blended together, creating a strange sense of beauty.
After a brief observation, Xu Huo found a place where the fungus layer was relatively thin. He cut a small opening with his blade and poured the King Fungus liquid onto it.
King Fungus mycelium naturally cannot coexist with other toxic fungi. He didn't have much live mycelium with him, and it wasn't convenient to extract more on the spot, so he had to use it sparingly. He needed to first confirm whether the mycelium could survive in this environment.
He removed the surrounding fungi, but couldn't eliminate the fungi that might exist within the stone itself. He could only take a gamble.
Unfortunately, not long after, the King Fungus mycelium visibly changed color—this also meant it was about to die.
He repackaged the mycelium and moved to another spot.
After trying six or seven times without any progress, some fly-sized insects flew out from the bone pile.
First, there were about a hundred of them. After emerging, they headed straight for Xu Huo, emitting a high-pitched chirping sound. Then, large swarms of insects surged out from the bone pile, surrounding him in a dark mass.
To avoid damaging the fungus cave environment, Xu Huo didn't deal with them. He simply used a space barrier to block them outside and checked the information on these small insects.
It turned out they were poisonous insects that fed on decaying bones and fungi. Of course, they also attacked living people, but before hunting, they would release a hallucinogenic gas to paralyze their prey, waiting until a certain time to come back and claim their prize.
It had been a while since Xu Huo entered the cave, so they came out in swarms.
This should be the backup plan of the person who lured him into the underground cave. But escaping wasn't difficult. How many players would actually die here? This wasn't an instance dungeon.
Xu Huo confirmed that there was no second person in the underground cave. It seemed that setting this trap was also somewhat of a gamble.
Since he couldn't leave for now, he put this matter aside for the moment.
After more than twenty attempts using the Nuwa Stone, he finally found a type of white stone under the bone pile.
Even with the Nuwa Stone, the King Fungus mycelium would only branch out from its original base. It wouldn't attach to other objects. It was like a tree trunk with only one branch, with all leaves and flowers growing from it. Unexpectedly, when it landed on this white stone, the mycelium branches actually absorbed nutrients from it.
This discovery lifted Xu Huo's spirits. He cut the branched mycelium into several segments and observed their growth.
The King Fungus mycelium's ability to grow couldn't be solely due to a single stone. After testing the stone's composition, he also examined some of the surrounding fungi. He used the newly grown mycelium to test each one, wondering if the King Fungus might use other fungi as nutrients.
However, this kind of trial was tedious and time-consuming. After persisting for a long time without progress, he expanded the range of his space barrier, pushed the bone pile aside a bit, and added a few more experimental points.
After a while, when he was browsing fungus cultivation materials under the dimension, he received another message from Cong Yu. He was still coming to buy antidotes.
Unfortunately, the current environment wasn't suitable for making new antidotes. Xu Huo truthfully told him there were no more antidotes available. After waiting a moment without receiving a new message, he closed his personal panel. When he looked down, he had an unexpected surprise.