Hallucinogenic Mushroom

While it was screaming with its mouth open, Tu Ran quickly pumped a few more bullets into its mouth.

There was no noticeable effect.

It only made it angrier.

Its remaining eye glared at Tu Ran as it lunged at her.

Tu Ran was forced to raise her blade and meet the charge.

Its assault was too ferocious.

Tu Ran wanted to pull the same trick again—lure it up a tree.

But she was so entangled she couldn't break free, and there was no time to climb.

Using all her strength, her blade, sharp enough to cut through iron, struck the Paoxiao's body, leaving only a faint scratch and nothing more.

She was forced back step by step.

A world-shaking swipe from the Paoxiao sent the blade flying from her hand, embedding it deep in a distant tree trunk.

She had lost her melee weapon in an instant. The Paoxiao's tiger-like paw came crashing down toward her head again.

It whistled through the air.

Fatty, who had been watching from a distance, couldn't bear to look and squeezed its eyes shut.

Boss, rest in peace...

On the edge of death, watching the claw descend like a mountain crushing down on her, Tu Ran refused to give up.

She pushed all her strength into her mechanical arm and met the blow with her fist.

The moment the mechanical arm collided with the Paoxiao's claw, the circuitry connected to the arm burst with a crack, and a jolt of electricity flashed past.

In that brief instant, the exoskeleton arm was completely destroyed.

But it bought Tu Ran a reprieve from that fatal blow, and the sudden impact knocked the Paoxiao back a few steps.

It gave her a chance to catch her breath.

She quickly shed the ruined mechanical arm, and as the Paoxiao charged in to bite and tear at her again, she shoved the mechanical arm down its throat.

The Paoxiao looked bewildered, trying to spit it out, but the arm was lodged in such an awkward position that it gagged several times without managing to dislodge it.

While it fumbled, the mechanical arm exploded with a bang in its mouth.

The Paoxiao was instantly knocked onto its back, all four legs in the air.

Several of its fangs were snapped off.

Its only remaining eye was exposed.

Tu Ran didn't waste the opportunity. She jumped up, yanked the long blade from the tree trunk, and charged at the Paoxiao.

Aiming at its good eye, she struck swift, accurate, and ruthless.

Agony sent the Paoxiao into a frenzy. It thrashed wildly, roaring at the sky as it desperately tried to fling her off.

Tu Ran was smashed hard against a giant sequoia trunk ten meters away.

The violent impact against her back sent spasms of pain through her entire body.

But it wasn't over—she then tumbled down from a height of two meters on the tree.

Secondary damage.

She spat out a mouthful of blood, splattering across the roots of the giant sequoia.

Damn it, even when she fought Xie Xu, she never coughed up blood.

Right behind this giant sequoia happened to be where Fatty was hiding.

It poked out its round head.

"Chirp chirp."

"Are you okay?"

"Not dead yet!" Tu Ran wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

Enduring the bone-splitting pain in her back, she struggled to sit up.

Just then, she spotted a mushroom.

It was growing right where she had spat blood, the size of a fist.

Purple and pink intermingled, its colors continuously shifting.

Tu Ran: "?!"

When had she fallen into a hallucination again?!

Was there a man-eating vine hidden here?!

Tu Ran's heart jumped to her throat. She quickly sat up and scanned her surroundings.

Fatty also spotted the shimmering mushroom and exclaimed in shock, "Ah! A hallucinogenic mushroom! There are bloodthirsty vines here?!"

Its tiny, mung-bean-sized eyes darted around.

"But this place gets plenty of sunlight. Why would bloodthirsty vines grow here?!" Fatty voiced its confusion.

Tu Ran's search for suspicious vines faltered.

She had once consumed the inner core of a man-eating vine.

Now a hallucinogenic mushroom was growing here.

And it was growing right where she had spat blood.

Was it possible that she wasn't seeing the mushroom because she was hallucinating, but that the mushroom's presence was what caused the hallucinations?

Her earlier attempts to control flying insects had failed—could it be because no hallucinogenic mushroom had been present at the time?

Tu Ran wasn't sure.

Just then, the Paoxiao, now blinded in both eyes, heard their conversation and charged toward them with full force.

Tu Ran stared at its approaching figure, chanting silently, "Stop, stop, stop..."

The Paoxiao's charge gradually slowed.

And then it actually came to a stop.

Its agitation seemed soothed, and it stood there, confused.

"Why did it stop?" Fatty whispered, puzzled.

Tu Ran didn't answer. Instead, she silently intoned: Open your mouth.

The Paoxiao obediently opened its jaws.

Tu Ran pulled out a bomb.

She silently commanded: Swallow whatever appears in your mouth.

At the same time, she hurled the bomb precisely into its open maw.

She quickly ducked behind the tree trunk, huddling together with Fatty.

A deafening boom rang out.

Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

Chunks of meat slammed against the trunk and the ground with splattering sounds.

After the bloody storm passed, Tu Ran stepped out from behind the tree.

The Paoxiao was gone, leaving only a gruesome mess of bloodstains on the ground.

Tu Ran looked at the mushroom by the tree roots.

It was soaked in blood, visibly shriveling at a visible rate until it turned into a black lump the size of a thumbnail.

Tu Ran looked away.

With the Paoxiao blown apart like that, there was no way to ask where the Paoxiao clan's inner core was.

She gave the blood-soaked ground a quick scan but spotted no glinting bead.

Tu Ran returned to the back of the tree trunk, where Fatty was still sitting.

"We need to leave now. This made too much noise, and I'm worried it'll attract other exotic creatures," Tu Ran said.

"Exotic creatures? What are exotic creatures?" Fatty blinked its tiny eyes curiously.

"You're an exotic creature. Anything that doesn't look like me is an exotic creature!" Tu Ran said impatiently.

She was aching all over and needed to find somewhere to rest—not discuss what counted as an exotic creature with one.

Fatty strained its soybean-sized brain to process her words.

"Then for us Danghu, are you two-legged beasts also exotic creatures?"

Tu Ran paused, then pressed her lips together.

"I suppose so," she said softly.

The exotic creatures invading this world of theirs—weren't humans just the same?

"Wow, Fatty is so smart."

"Cut the chatter. Are you coming or not? If not, I'll leave you here to fend for yourself!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Fatty hastily flapped its wings, then said dejectedly, "But I can't walk."

"If you can't walk, then roll!"

There was no way she could carry it now.

"Roll..." Fatty tapped its wingtips together. "But rolling makes me dizzy..."

Tu Ran: "Then stay here. I'm leaving."

With that, she made to go.

Fatty hurriedly blocked her with its wing.

"Ah ah ah, I'll roll, I'll roll, Fatty will roll. Just don't abandon me."

Tu Ran stopped, crossing her arms as she watched it.

Fatty lay flat on its back. Because its belly was too fat, its head and claws dangled in the air, barely touching the ground.

It began rolling with effort.

One roll, two rolls, three rolls...

It was rolling too slowly.

Tu Ran was disgusted.

"Get ready. I'll push you."

Fatty: "Huh?"