21: Soul bacteria

Qiao Yu, Luo Feng, and Yang Wu exchanged a few simple words and decided to split up, each going off to hunt alone.

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During the Warrior Combat Assessment, everyone faces the weakest Beast Soldier Level monsters, which are intended for Quasi-Warriors to practice on.

Every Quasi-Warrior needs to be able to independently handle various unexpected situations. Compared to hunting in the Wilderness Area, this assessment is practically a giveaway.

After separating from the others, Qiao Yu quickly concealed himself in the shadows.

"The monsters in this assessment mainly fall into three categories: 'Shadow Cats,' 'Iron-Bristled Wild Boars,' and 'Tiger Mastiffs,' testing the comprehensive quality of the Quasi-Warriors."

Qiao Yu was not in a hurry to hunt monsters. This assessment was a good opportunity for him to test the combat capabilities of the fungal swarm in the wild.

Qiao Yu put his finger in his mouth, moistened it with a bit of saliva, and adjusted his position while sensing the wind direction, trying to stay upwind.

After changing position, Qiao Yu closed his eyes, his entire body tensing up, ready to fight at any moment. From the pores on his skin, tiny, invisible flesh and blood mycelium spores continuously erupted outward.

When the flesh and blood mycelium gathers, it can enhance one's overall quality and cause the physical body to evolve.

The scattered spores could disperse into the air, and every single spore was equivalent to Qiao Yu's eyes.

Qiao Yu focused all his attention on the dispersed spores. Once the tiny, invisible motes spread out, the surrounding environment, in Qiao Yu's perception, had absolutely no blind spots.

Every corner of the house, every branch and leaf of the vegetation, turned into a transparent view in his perception. If he wished, he could know exactly what changes occurred in those locations without any blind spots.

However, this range was not extensive at the moment, covering only 50 meters. Therefore, to know information further away, he still had to rely on his eyes.

"Rustle! Rustle!"

Qiao Yu suddenly perceived abnormal shaking of the leaves in a bush twenty meters away.

"Something's happening!"

A feline creature, about the size of a large motorcycle and over 2 meters long, passed by.

"It's a Shadow Cat!"

With its pitch-black fur, the Shadow Cat was truly the king of concealment in the dark, but to the spores Qiao Yu had dispersed in the air, the Shadow Cat had nowhere to hide.

Qiao Yu controlled the spores to enter the Shadow Cat's body along with its breathing. The spores quickly followed the Shadow Cat's respiratory tract into its lungs.

The Shadow Cat seemed to sense that someone was watching it. The feeling of danger instantly made it arch the muscles on its back and twitch its nose, attempting to track the enemy's whereabouts in the air.

As the Shadow Cat breathed rapidly multiple times, more flesh and blood mycelium spores were inhaled into its lungs.

The tiny spores quickly began to take root and sprout inside the Shadow Cat's body.

The Shadow Cat did not know that the danger was not coming from the outside; it had already begun to lurk quietly inside its body, ready to erupt at any moment.

The Shadow Cat lifted its head to sniff again, and following the wind direction, it quickly discovered Qiao Yu's hiding spot.

It crouched low, trying not to make a sound. Evolved monsters have higher intelligence, and their hunting methods are more meticulous and professional than those of ordinary felines.

Despite having the size of a large motorcycle, through extremely slow and precise movements, the Shadow Cat managed not to make a single sound while moving through the bushes.

The Shadow Cat approached Qiao Yu's location inch by inch. If Qiao Yu hadn't relied on his spore perception to provide a panoramic view, the Shadow Cat might truly have gained the first strike.

Qiao Yu looked like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, full of weaknesses, silently waiting for the hunter's attack.

As the saying goes, advanced hunters always appear in the guise of prey. The Shadow Cat was completely unaware that the closer it got to Qiao Yu, the more spores it inhaled with its breath.

When the Shadow Cat was ready, five meters away from Qiao Yu, it arched its body and pounced toward him like lightning.

"Meow!"

When the Shadow Cat was mid-air, only one meter away from Qiao Yu, its movements suddenly distorted, it let out a horrifying shriek, and the entire cat plummeted to the ground.

"Puff! Puff!"

The Shadow Cat lay on the ground, staring fiercely at Qiao Yu, its nose still twitching incessantly, and blood faintly trickling from the corner of its mouth.

After Qiao Yu ended the Shadow Cat's life and cut off its left ear, he made the flesh and blood mycelium inside its body retract completely back into himself.

The Shadow Cat, which was originally the size of a motorcycle, now had a shriveled abdomen. The entire cat looked withered and weak, as all its internal organs and some muscle tissue had been consumed and dissolved by the flesh and blood mycelium.

This initial test of the flesh and blood mycelium's ability in actual combat showed that dealing with Beast Soldier Level monsters was completely effortless.

Monsters with Beast Soldier Level fighting capability are generally very unlikely to detect the fungal swarm parasitizing them, and the power of life and death over the parasitized monsters is completely in his hands.

However, Qiao Yu only dipped his toe in the water. He was worried that the army might discover issues with the monster corpses when cleaning up the battlefield afterward.

No one would care if one or two monsters died strangely, but if there was a group, it would be too easy for people to notice anomalies.

Just then, the Perceptive Spores floating in the air sensed a slight anomaly in the Shadow Cat's corpse.

Qiao Yu quickly closed his eyes and perceived through the spores that the Shadow Cat seemed to have stood up again.

"What's going on?"

Qiao Yu opened his eyes and saw that the Shadow Cat was still lying in place, completely motionless—deader than dead.

Only after Qiao Yu carefully distinguished the images did he realize there were actually two Shadow Cats in his spore perception.

And the Shadow Cat that stood up, to be precise, was floating.

Its entire figure looked somewhat translucent.

"What the heck is this thing?"

[Unknown energy detected. Analyzing...]

[Analysis complete. Congratulations, host, on discovering Soul Energy. You can use the Primary fungal swarm to consume it and unlock a new type of fungal swarm—Soul fungal swarm, creating something from nothing.]

[Note: The Soul fungal swarm can help the host nourish their soul, increase Soul Strength, and enhance Mental Strength.]

"I understand 'soul,' but what the hell is a Soul fungal swarm? Can fungi even consume souls?"

Qiao Yu was utterly astonished. Although most things in the world could become nourishment for fungi, allowing them to evolve into new fungal species, he never expected that souls could as well.

[Reply, host: Exaggeration is not nonsense. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Soul Fungi have always existed in the universe. Please utilize them well to strengthen yourself!]

"(⊙o⊙)..."

Qiao Yu attempted to make the Primary fungal swarm attach itself to this floating, illusory Shadow Cat for consumption.

As the number of fungal swarm increased, the Soul Energy, which was originally invisible to the naked eye, had now materialized. It materialized precisely because the Soul Energy was covered in tiny Primary Fungi.

The white Primary fungal swarm continuously consumed the Soul Energy, gradually evolving into the white-green Soul fungal swarm.

In just a moment, the Shadow Cat's soul was completely devoured.