Soon, the rushing fungal creatures were not even enough for these few people to kick. Seeing Hei Yanjing's mocking smile, Wu Tianzhen felt a surge of nameless anger. He squatted down and violently pulled up a fungal creature still lying on the ground, preparing to throw it away—
But at that moment, a few drops of liquid splashed onto his face.
These fungal creatures, forcibly pulled out by him, had their two arms tightly entwined and stretched straight, as if a needle had grown from their heads.
And from this "needle," scarlet blood was slowly dripping!
"What is this..." Wu Tianzhen paused, muttering.
And in that instant of his daze, the taut "needles" of these fungal creatures suddenly elongated, twisting to their limits in mid-air, heading straight for his eyes!
The sudden burst of strength made Wu Tianzhen lose his grip on the fungal creature. However, his body, accustomed to being tormented by Hei Yanjing, automatically dodged, falling to the ground in an ungraceful posture, narrowly avoiding the creature's long needle.
But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he became terrified—
"Pangzi, dodge!!!"
He had no time to react in that instant, but behind him, facing away from him, was Pangzi!!
Just as the long needle was about to pierce Pangzi's back of the head, the Black Gold Ancient Saber suddenly appeared, smashing the flying fungal creature to the ground like a game of whack-a-mole.
Zhang Qiling slowly retracted his saber, his face expressionless.
Most of the fungal creatures were smashed into a pulp of viscous flesh under this fierce force. Only one fungal creature, slightly off target, dodged the Black Gold Ancient Saber.
Seeing this terrifying scene, it no longer dared to attack and scrambled to escape. But just as it was about to flee to safety, it suddenly erupted in flames as if self-immolating, quickly turning into ashes.
Wu Tianzhen didn't know what had happened, but the raging flames looked remarkably familiar to him. Without time to brush off the dust on his clothes, he rushed to Zhang Qiling—
At this moment, Zhang Qiling was slightly raising one hand, watching quietly, his expression either indifferent or simply lost in thought.
On the raised hand, a thin bloodstain was slowly appearing on his pale wrist. A drop of blood slowly condensed, hanging precariously at the edge of his wrist, looking like a blood jade bead under the flashlight.
...The fungal creature that had self-immolated moments ago had come into contact with his blood.
"It's said that fungal creatures only live in places with good feng shui. I didn't expect them to be blood-sucking..." Hei Yanjing leaned in to take a look and clicked his tongue. "I thought they were like little sprites or something, but they're completely the stuff of childhood nightmares~"
"...Blood-sucking? What blood-sucking?" Wu Tianzhen wanted to bandage Zhang Qiling's wrist, but found that Little Zhang had casually lowered his hand without much concern. Just as he was about to try harder, he heard Hei Yanjing's words.
The blood on the arms of the fungal creatures when he had pulled them out flashed in his mind, and Wu Tianzhen suddenly paused—
"Could it be," he murmured, "that these fungal creatures, always stuck in the ground, have been living by sucking the blood of whales!?"
Upon hearing this, Pangzi, being extremely action-oriented, bent down and pulled out a few more fungal creatures from the ground. His posture of exertion was as if he were pulling out radishes.
When the white beam of the flashlight shone on them, all their secrets were revealed—
The hands of these fungal creatures were tightly wrapped in a layer of blood. They were probably scared by Zhang Qiling's previous move. Now, when pulled out, they not only didn't resist but also opened their mouths to reveal a fawning smile.
...And in their opened mouths, on their bone-white teeth, a bit of shredded meat still clung.
"Hoo—" Pangzi, with a complex expression, shoved the fungal creatures back into their original places, missing the holes in the ground and sticking several of them in the neck. "This whale brother is truly amazing, isn't he?!"
"After raising coral, they raise fungal creatures. If this Leshan Giant Buddha's spot isn't vacated for them to sit, I, Pang Ye, will be the first to object!"
Wu Tianzhen opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment—
"Shush!"
Zhang Qiling suddenly spoke. His voice was light and quick, but it instantly made Wu Tianzhen and Pangzi stop their actions.
They held their breath and waited for Zhang Qiling to point out the problem.
But the warning Zhang Qiling did not speak. It was Hei Yanjing next to him who, with a smiling, nonchalant air, said:
"The mute and I were just wondering why fungal creatures grew almost everywhere here, except on those stone sculptures..."
"So it turns out people were already living inside, and there was no room for them~"
Wu Tianzhen: ...No, when did you two communicate? How did you go from "The mute and I were just wondering" to this?!!
As Little Wu's confusion arose, the residents inside the stone sculptures couldn't wait to poke their heads out!
To say they showed their faces wouldn't be accurate. They didn't reveal their bodies at all. The fungal creatures surrounding the sculptures instantly ignited, announcing their arrival with layers of screams!
...It was an acquaintance, those transparent people from the palace on the back of the giant whale!!
Whether it was a sudden surge of intelligence or not, these transparent people directly abandoned confronting Zhang Qiling and the others head-on. They wound their way through the space, and the fungal creatures on the ground instantly burst into flames as if doused with hot oil!
In just a few seconds, the few people were surrounded by raging fires, the walls of flame soaring high, intending to burn them alive here!
"No, we can't just wait to die," Wu Tianzhen coughed several times, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve. "The oxygen here is already scarce. In a while, when the fire completely consumes the oxygen, even if we have the oxygen equipment, we'll suffocate to death before being burned!"
Thick smoke swirled in the space, and the vision instantly plunged into darkness. The flashlight beam was blocked by the dense smoke, only illuminating a small area.
"Blind!"
Zhang Qiling let out a light shout, and the Black Gold Ancient Saber in his hand spun in a flourish, then abruptly stopped and cleaved down with force!
This strike did not hit any of the hidden transparent people, but the dense smoke in front of them was instantly split in two by this fierce saber energy, scattering from the center!
The area ahead instantly returned to clarity, only to be obscured by smoke again soon after.
...But that was enough.
Hei Yanjing, who had seen everything clearly in the two seconds the smoke cleared, smiled:
"Follow me~"
...The fungal creatures on the ground were fleeing in one direction.
To have survived here for so many years without extinction, they must have mastered a way to coexist with the transparent people, or, they had found an escape route!
The direction the fungal creatures were heading was the exit!