Chapter 220: Qinghai’s Mystery part 1
Deng Xiao looked at the large mushroom beside him and hesitantly asked, “Do you think this mushroom is poisonous?”
Liu Fengyu raised an eyebrow, “Why don’t you try a bite and find out?”
Cheng Tianbi said, “Don’t touch it, try to avoid it.”
They were currently trying to enter the mushroom forest, but the mushrooms were growing densely. Even if their bodies didn’t touch them, their feet would inevitably step on some. Fortunately, after a goshawk touched one without incident, they felt much more relieved.
After walking about thirty meters into the forest, they saw a collapsed earthen house, which looked like an ordinary dwelling.
Cong Xia said, “This seems to be an architectural style from the Eastern Han Dynasty.”
Zhuang Yao nodded, “It is from the Eastern Han Dynasty. This underground city has a history of at least eighteen hundred to two thousand years.”
“Could it have been buried under the snow-capped mountain two thousand years ago?”
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Zhuang Yao said, “We are surrounded by many things now. Since they are not attacking, let’s ignore them for now, but be wary of sneak attacks at all times.”
Cong Xia wondered, “What are they waiting for…?”
Tang Yanqiu sighed, “How big is this forest? There’s no end in sight.”
Cheng Tianbi said, “It could also be because it’s too dark.”
Tang Tingzhi suddenly said, “The small device is reacting!”
Everyone turned to look, and sure enough, a red dot on the small device used to detect the puppet jade was constantly flashing. This meant that the puppet jade was within a two-kilometer radius. They had found the right place.
Cong Xia also perked up, trying to sense the puppet jade. His detection range wasn’t as large as the device’s, but the device wasn’t as precise as he was. Working together, they should be able to find the puppet jade in this underground cave. He knew they were on a countdown to a life-or-death struggle. He didn’t believe that these things would remain indifferent when they tried to take the puppet jade. Based on his experience, no matter where they were, no matter whether the animals knew the true purpose of the puppet jade, they would do their best to prevent it from leaving their territory.
“Let’s go in this direction.”
They carefully made their way through the mushroom clusters, heading deeper into the forest. Along the way, they saw many buildings from the Eastern Han Dynasty. Perhaps because they had been hidden from the sun for years, some of the green tiles still retained their color. But strangely, as the epicenter of the earthquake, the decay of these buildings didn’t look like it was caused by the earthquake, but rather by dampness and time. However, since the earthquake didn’t even collapse such a large hollow cave, it wasn’t surprising that this underground city wasn’t destroyed. They had experienced so many bizarre things that day that they were almost numb.
They walked like this for half a day. The red light on the small device kept flashing, but Cong Xia still couldn’t sense the puppet jade. Logically, they had walked more than two kilometers.
“What’s going on? Why can’t we detect it?” Zhuang Yao frowned. “Cong Xia, what’s your current detection range?”
Cong Xia was also quite puzzled, “About one kilometer. We’ve been walking for almost half an hour. If the puppet jade is really within two kilometers, I should have sensed it by now.”
Liu Fengyu said, “Could your perception be affected by something here?”
“Impossible, I can sense the puppet jade on Tianbi.”
Mr. Sun said, “Stop, everyone freeze…”
Everyone stopped and looked around.
Tang Tingzhi narrowed his eyes, “This place… seems familiar.”
Mr. Sun sighed, “It’s not Xiao Cong’s problem, we’ve been walking in circles for the past half hour.”
Everyone was shocked. Because there were tall and short mushrooms everywhere, and the light was dim, those whose eyesight hadn’t evolved particularly well only had a visibility of about 50 meters. This forest looked the same everywhere, so they had been walking around for a long time without noticing anything wrong. After Mr. Sun mentioned it, they realized something was strange.
Zhuang Yao pointed behind them, “Is that building over there the one we saw when we first came in?” With his eyesight, he could barely make out a dilapidated house in the dim blue darkness.
Tang Yanqiu said, “I’ll go check it out.”
After a while, Tang Yanqiu returned, his face grim. “It’s the one you were discussing, the Eastern Han Dynasty building.”
Zhuang Yao said, “It seems that it’s not that the forest is too big, but that we’ve been walking in circles within the same area. But we were clearly walking in a straight line.”
“The compass is also malfunctioning.” Tang Tingzhi took out the compass, and everyone looked down. The compass needle was spinning like crazy. It seemed the magnetic field here was seriously messed up.
“Let’s mark the mushrooms and try again.”
As they walked, they carved numbers on the mushrooms with their knives. After walking for an hour, they were disappointed to find that they had returned to the first marked mushroom.
Unwilling to give up, they changed directions and walked two more times, even dividing the team into three groups, 100 meters apart, but the result was the same. They were still going in circles.
Finally, they decided to retreat to the path they had come from to see if they could find anything. So they returned the way they came, retreating from the catfish-infested swamp. This time it went smoothly. They arrived outside the mushroom forest. Looking at the forest from the outside, it still seemed endless, without any change, which made them feel even more frustrated.
Shan Ming said dejectedly, “Damn… what kind of place is this?”
Curses rose and fell. The inescapable mushroom maze, the multiply mutated creatures lurking in the shadows, and the puppet jade that seemed so close yet so far away made everyone feel very depressed.
Mr. Sun said, “Let’s not go any further, rest here.”
Everyone chose a relatively dry spot to sit down, some eating, some drinking.
“Let’s analyze the situation.” Zhuang Yao cleared his throat. “First, we haven’t completely lost contact with the outside world. The small device can still detect the puppet jade, we can still sense the mutated animals around us, and we can even return the way we came. This maze is unusual. Normally, a maze not only makes people lose their way, but it also doesn’t give you a way back, but we got out easily. Second, we were just walking in circles within a diameter of two or three kilometers. The puppet jade is very close to us, but it’s outside this maze, more than a kilometer away from us, and Cong Xia can’t sense it. Third, those mutated animals don’t seem to be affected by the maze. They always keep a safe distance from us. With such poor light, such precise distance measurement ability requires familiarity with this forest.”
Cheng Tianbi said, “So, this maze is in the forest to stop us from approaching the puppet jade?”
“Very likely. The purpose of our trip is the puppet jade, so even if we can go back, we won’t really return empty-handed. Giving us a way back doesn’t mean much. We still have to go in, and we must break the maze.”
Cong Xia frowned, “What could be the reason for this maze?”
“It should be an illusion.” Mr. Sun said, “I’ve observed this forest. It doesn’t have the conditions to set up traps. Even if there were traps, they shouldn’t have escaped my eyes. I also considered a magic circle before, but since we can freely enter and exit, we can rule out the possibility of a magic circle. So the last remaining plausible possibility is an illusion. There’s nothing wrong with the forest itself, it’s our brains that are having problems. Once the nerves that perceive direction are disrupted, you think you’re walking in a straight line, but you may not be.”
“We’re all hallucinating?” Deng Xiao shook his head, “I don’t feel it.”
“If we could feel it, our brains would have reacted already.” Mr. Sun frowned. “It’s unusual that my brain would be deceived by illusions and lose its sense of direction.”
Tang Tingzhi nodded, “It’s because I couldn’t believe it that I couldn’t make this judgment. If any hallucinogenic effects invaded our brains, we should have felt it immediately, unless that power is too strong, able to easily deceive us.”
Tang Tingzhi’s words made everyone break out in a cold sweat. If even the brains of third-tier evolved humans could be deceived, then controlling them would be child’s play. That was too terrifying.
“Is there any other possibility? Could there be a more powerful brain domain evolved human than Mr. Sun in Qinghai?”
“Why not?” Mr. Sun said, “This is a forbidden zone, there might be brain domain evolved humans who are more powerful than me. However, this shouldn’t be the work of a brain domain evolved human, because to create illusions for a hundred people at the same time, and the illusion has to be realistic enough that everyone sees a reasonable scene, the energy consumption is astonishingly large. Even ten of me couldn’t maintain it for two hours, so I’m more inclined to think it’s the mushrooms.”
Mushrooms? Everyone looked at the large and small mushrooms, which looked quite beautiful and lovely. After hearing Mr. Sun’s speculation, and looking at the faint blue light they emitted, they looked more and more like ghost fires, eerie and terrifying. Even the way they gently swayed resembled a soul-summoning ritual.
Zhuang Yao said, “Many fungi have hallucinogenic effects, but they only work when consumed. It’s not surprising that these mushrooms have evolved such abnormal abilities, including the ability to create collective hallucinations. This forest is so large, there may be hundreds of thousands of mushrooms. If all the mushrooms have this ability, it wouldn’t be difficult to confuse us.”
Cong Xia gritted his teeth, “If you think about it this way, it makes sense. These mushrooms are the guardians of the puppet jade, preventing us from approaching it. And the multiply mutated creatures living here probably knew about the mushrooms’ trickery a long time ago. They’re waiting for us to be exhausted and hysterical from wandering in the mushroom forest before they attack?”
Deng Xiao said angrily, “Damn, even mushrooms are becoming spirits these days.”
Cong Xia snorted, “These mushrooms underestimate us too much. Do they think this can trap us?”
Liu Fengyu said, “That’s right, let’s burn them all.”
Zhuang Yao shook his head, “No, the oxygen content here is already low. If we start a fire, we’ll suffocate.”
Jacqueline said, “I’ll try to control them.”
Mr. Sun said, “You can try, but I don’t think it will work. These mushrooms have a strong group mentality. Look, regardless of their size and variety, the direction and frequency of their swaying are consistent. And the fact that they can confuse brain domain evolved humans means their energy is immense. You might be able to control a few, but I’m afraid you can’t affect their hallucinogenic ability.”
Jacqueline still tried, but after a while, she gave up. Mr. Sun was right.
Xiao Zhou said, “Then let’s chop them down.”
Mr. Sun nodded, “Chop them down, try not to damage the ancient buildings.”
Cheng Tianbi, Rong Lan, and Wu You all flew up and entered the mushroom forest. Several shadows flickered rapidly in the faint blue forest. One after another, the giant mushroom caps fell. However, although the upper parts of the chopped mushrooms died, the roots still emitted a faint blue light.
Zhuang Yao said, “These mushrooms aren’t dead, it seems we have to pull them out by the roots.”
Jacqueline said to Li Dao’ai, “Let us do it.”
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