Chapter 83: Mushroom Head

Walking once more through the ruins, Ji Yu found his spirits somewhat lifted. At the very least, he no longer feared that this city belonged to the humans of Blue Star, which further suggested that humanity still had time left on their world.

As he continued forward, Ji Yu discovered more evidence to support this. First, the buildings and houses before him were one or two meters taller than those built by humans. In addition, from the iron vehicles that gradually appeared by the roadside, he grew certain that this could not possibly be a human city.

Beneath the purple moon, Ji Yu’s mood grew increasingly relaxed. He began to think that perhaps his run-in beneath the oak tree had truly been nothing more than an accident—an unexpected encounter with a powerful, communal cluster of grassland creatures.

Here in the city’s ruins, the life-forms he saw were varied and strange in appearance, yet most were weaker than the small deer, and all displayed a keen instinct for self-preservation by retreating from his path. This was a fundamental instinct of living things: even when their minds were addled and bloodthirsty, they would still avoid contact with higher-level beings whenever possible.

During his exploration, Ji Yu glimpsed a bizarre lizard-like creature over ten meters long, clinging to the exterior wall of a building. The instant it met the deer’s gaze, it fled at lightning speed, giving Ji Yu no chance to react.

He also observed a multitude of earth-fowl, rodents, and beetle-like creatures of every description. These small beings either hid in the shadows of ruined buildings or concealed themselves among grasses and bushes. Wherever the deer passed, chaos erupted in his wake, as if the world itself was thrown into turmoil.

Perhaps this was a unique law of the purple moon world, a rule where superior beings suppressed the weaker. Or maybe it was simply that the deer, carrying the aura of this world, inspired deep wariness in its lesser denizens.

After all, the encounter with the oak tree had been quite different. Faced with such a creature, far surpassing ordinary second-level beings, even the carrot-like life-forms had dared to attack. Perhaps their collective nature made them fearless, or perhaps they were simply defending their territory from the intrusion.

In any case, Ji Yu realized he was still plagued with countless questions.

Thus he wandered, stopping now and then, taking in his surroundings—until he came upon a group of particularly audacious, peculiar life-forms.

From the shadows and the damp weeds lining the street, a handful of little mushroom-headed creatures suddenly leapt out. These beings had no eyes, only two nostrils, and relied on their sense of smell. Upon detecting the deer, they showed not the slightest trace of fear; quite the opposite, they clustered eagerly around it.

The largest of these mushroom-headed creatures stood no more than twenty centimeters tall, with the smallest barely a few centimeters in height. Their bodies were a riot of colors, and as they waddled along on stubby legs, their antics were almost comical.

Compared to the deer, they were minuscule. Ji Yu could not sense even a trace of purple moon energy from them. He only realized their presence when, after accidentally stepping on a few, he saw more of the little mushrooms scurrying after him in the street, tumbling and bumping into each other, sometimes falling over and kicking frantically before righting themselves and bounding after him once more.

At first, Ji Yu found their antics both adorable and amusing, but his guard did not waver in the slightest. Who could say what these mushroom-heads intended, or whether, like the carrot-grass he’d encountered before, they possessed some hidden, formidable trait?

Watching these little creatures, Ji Yu halted, determined to ascertain their intentions. The moment he stopped, the mushroom-heads grew even more agitated, as if his stillness had given them a clear target. Soon, hundreds of them had gathered—every mushroom-head life-form in the vicinity, it seemed. Though their numbers were great, their diminutive size rendered them utterly harmless in Ji Yu’s eyes.

He grew all the more perplexed, for the mushroom-heads merely bounced around him, never attempting to climb onto the deer—lacking arms, in any case, they could only hop. Their antics seemed almost as if they were saying, “Don’t we look delicious? Eat us?” Of course, this was merely Ji Yu’s fanciful, food-obsessed imagination; the mushrooms themselves never uttered such an invitation.

Utterly confounded, Ji Yu watched the jostling, jubilant mushrooms and even tried to intimidate them by letting the purple moon energy flare across the deer’s body. To his surprise, the effect was instantaneous: as the purple energy flashed, the mushroom-heads all squatted down at once, as if receiving a silent command, transforming into a patch of ordinary-looking mushrooms.

Ji Yu stared at the field of crouching mushrooms in hesitation. Observing that they emitted no hint of purple moon energy, he began to suspect something. Switching tactics, he allowed the deer’s natural life energy to radiate from its body.

What happened next astonished him even more. The moment the deer’s body emitted waves of natural life energy, the little mushrooms all sprang up again, bouncing about in delight. They crowded around the deer’s hooves and legs, pressing in close, rubbing affectionately against him. In no time at all, the four hooves were surrounded, forming a writhing mound not unlike a pile of ants.

Yet, though they swarmed the deer’s legs like a pack of hungry wolves, Ji Yu sensed nothing amiss. The mushroom-heads were simply drawn to the aura of natural life; no attack or hidden danger manifested, contrary to his previous suspicions.

Ji Yu found the experience utterly fascinating. It was as if he had discovered a tribe of light-dwelling creatures in the heart of a world ruled by darkness. Truly, the world of the purple moon was a place of marvels, and perhaps not all its denizens were bloodthirsty or chaotic.

No sooner had this thought taken shape than he realized his mistake. For as the deer’s natural life energy radiated outward, even the timid, ostrich-like creatures hiding within the ruined buildings began to poke their heads out.

At that, Ji Yu understood: perhaps these mushroom-heads were merely an anomaly in this world.

Predictably, after a lengthy and arduous struggle, he managed to clear away the other bizarre creatures that rushed at him. But this was only the beginning.

From the distant reaches of the ruins, Ji Yu heard the tremors of the earth—more terrifying, more numerous purple moon life-forms were converging on his location.

Without hesitation, Ji Yu lowered his head, scooped up the dozen or so surviving mushroom-heads in his mouth, and fled. He had no particular plan—he simply hoped to buy time, and perhaps, when he returned, see if he could carry these odd little creatures out of this world.