Chapter 2719

(Waiting for revision) He still hasn’t come out of his hallucination.

Incorrect cognitive judgment leaves him shackled and restrained. At this moment, he isn’t clear about his state, nor can he confirm the state of his surroundings. He doesn’t dare to easily use Superdimensional Space Power to attempt anything, or any weapon with destructive force.

Above ground, a heavy Defensive Clothing set can fend off the interference of Spiritual Energy. Generally, Players who haven’t undergone Secondary Evolution can remain clear-headed. Even though the Spiritual Energy underground is far higher than above ground, it shouldn’t affect him so deeply. This is Spiritual Energy brought about by the natural environment, indiscriminately spilling in the air; it shouldn’t possess such strong attack power.

Sure enough, his personal panel couldn’t be opened, or it opened without his awareness.

He rubbed the Return Ticket in his pocket but ultimately decided not to try it. If he truly left, coming back to find someone would be difficult.

After resting for a moment, he began to try entering the Mirror World. After entering, the positions of people and objects would be exchanged. People would phase through other objects as if nothing was there. He tried, but his palm couldn’t pass through the minerals on the stone wall.

This meant he had failed.

Back at the lowest level of the library building, he manipulated the core Materialized Item on the table, allowing black Psychic Power to flow down from the tabletop, gradually covering the ground. It moved along the spiral staircase and then covered the entire library building.

But this process became particularly difficult due to external Mental Interference. Even as his energy was scattered, the range of the Spiritual World shrank once again, and greater pressure assaulted him, causing his head to buzz.

After several attempts, he even began hallucinating, seeing Doctor Zhang stand before him, pressing his hands on his childhood-self, staring directly at him.

"You really let people down," "Doctor Zhang" said to him.

Xu Huo closed his eyes, as if talking to himself, or answering the other, "Do you think such mental control works on me?"

"You let me down," "Doctor Zhang" continued, "Even walking the road you used to walk has become this difficult; your brain regresses as you age."

"There isn’t only your path to walk in this world," Xu Huo paid no attention.

"Of course, you can’t be faulted for choosing a better path, but you can’t do it." "Doctor Zhang" said, "Does denying the fact that you once learned from me and benefited from it bring comfort to your conscience?"

Xu Huo opened his eyes, "Why would you think that? I benefited because I survived."

*

He seemed to have fallen into an endless abyss.

Without using Space Power to catch himself, Xu Huo swung the Spatial Ray, unsealing the Superdimensional Space Power from his fingers, casually reaching out his hand. Within just two seconds, the Superdimensional Space Power pierced a large hole in the place where he felt no physical presence, and he plummeted to the ground—the ground that was just a few meters below his initial height.

Having understood the situation, he didn’t rush to find a way out but instead extended his arms to explore the surroundings. Then he turned on the Communicator, and after the light illuminated, he found himself deep in a tunnel with the curved stone ceiling he had seen thousands of times above him. To the right, there was a huge cavern pierced through by the Superdimensional Space Power, forcing several nearby passages to connect together.

His perception spread through these passages outward. Standing still for a while, Xu Huo began to move along one of the passageways.

The plants on the stone walls grew increasingly bright, like they had absorbed more colorful powders. A peculiar smell seeped into his nose through the crack in his helmet, and the overly rich odor made him uncontrollably retch. Eventually, he couldn’t hold back and pulled off the helmet to vomit violently.

The Communicator was pressed against the ground nearby, and the faint glow blurred his vision, but he quickly adapted. In front of him, black blood filled with mycelium gathered in piles.

After purging the toxic blood, his mind became noticeably clearer. Raising the light once again, he realized the luminous plants on the stone walls had transformed into scattered, crisscrossing colorful minerals. In fact, he’d always been leaning against a stone in a sitting position, and somehow gained many wounds.

The mycelium from King Fungus extended from these wounds, from the gaps in his Metal Protective Suit, proliferating and spreading widely, covering several meters behind him.

The air was filled with the stench, making Xu Huo endure the smell. He didn’t break off the mycelium from his body but let them continue to draw power from the surrounding minerals.

It seems that the growth of so many mutant plants and the high concentration of Spiritual Energy in this zone are inseparable from the underground minerals. King Fungus only grows this quickly when attached to the Nüwa Stone.

Thanks to the rampant growth of King Fungus, the toxins in his body should have been nearly purged, and his mind returned to normal. Although he hadn’t found any trace of Yan Jiayu and Pu Yu, presumably they weren’t far from him. In fact, they hadn’t discovered any underground relics; they were just wandering in tunnel loops.

They must have fallen into the trap unnoticed since descending from the Sky Pit. It’s why they overlooked the anomaly of the instruments. On ground level, they could detect such high Spiritual Energy; it’s impossible for the underground situation to be better. The state of air in these passageways defied logic.

But what astonished Xu Huo was that he hadn’t noticed the influence on himself at all...no, he must have sensed it, but deliberately ignored it due to the dual impact of toxins and Mental Interference.

The endless passageways, the underground relics, and the figures within them were all the collective hallucination of the five of them. Every strange occurrence he identified was patched by his brain afterward, such as seeing the Outer Zone Player first and then those albino locals. After looking at photos, he belatedly realized these people don’t have good eyesight...

The air was laced with a large quantity of toxins. In terms of time, they had been inside for at least two days, superficially injured without understanding, and the hallucinations born from interference meant they must quickly find Yan Jiayu.

After confirming his condition had improved somewhat, Xu Huo tore the mycelium from his body to stand up and expanded his Spiritual World to resist the external Spiritual Energy. He felt the Spiritual World being immediately compressed to a hundred-meter radius; furrowing his brow, he followed the previous traces back.

But after walking a short distance, he realized something was wrong: his Spiritual World was too quiet. None of the other three personalities showed up. He searched the whole library building and found no trace of them...

Xu Huo stopped, and the multicolored minerals in the passage continued to emit a faint light. The varied light sources pulled endlessly at the Shadow behind him.