Chapter 30

Flames wrapped around the blade, silently intimidating the enemy with an unheard language.

The mushroom cow seemed to be intimidated by the flames and actually stopped.

Lu Shiyu looked at her arm. After leaving the mushroom cow, the spread of mycelium slowed down significantly, but it was still growing towards her body.

Even if there is no problem at the moment, it does not mean that these mycelium are harmless and they still need to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Chen Yunliang walked quickly to Lu Shiyu with a medical kit, frowned, picked up his arm to observe it, put on a mask, and placed Lu Shiyu's arm on the fire.

"It might burn you, just bear with it."

The mycelium shrank rapidly after coming into contact with the open flame, and finally turned into black dots of varying sizes that fell from Lu Shiyu's arm. Chen Yunliang wiped Lu Shiyu's arm clean with a wet paper towel, looked left and right to make sure that the mycelium and mushrooms were burned clean, and wiped his arm with alcohol to prevent any missed parts.

Lu Shiyu looked at his arms that had become smooth again, and even the sweat hairs on them were burned off. Lu Shiyu inexplicably thought of burning pig hair.

The mushroom cow mooed and shook its body, instantly sending a bunch of spores floating in the air. Chen Yunliang quickly handed masks and goggles to everyone.

"It's so unlucky that we encounter such a troublesome deformed creature." Yan Hong put on gloves and was fully armed with no skin exposed. The other people were dressed similarly. Lu Shiyu didn't need to participate in the battle and naturally retreated as far as possible. He stood about ten meters away and watched them deal with the mushroom cow.

Several people surrounded the mushroom cow, but left some gaps.

When the Mushroom Bull finally realized that something was wrong, it rushed towards the gap to escape, but when the Mushroom Bull was about to escape, the gap would be blocked by a person, and at the same time another gap would appear in the other direction. The Mushroom Bull immediately turned around and rushed towards the new gap, but just when it was about to get out, the gap would be filled by another person, and the cycle would repeat.

After a few times, the mushroom cow, which was obviously not very intelligent, had almost no physical strength left and stopped where it was, no longer rushing towards the newly appeared gap.

Realizing that the time was ripe, several people began to tighten the encirclement until the gap disappeared. When the Mushroom Bull saw that there was no hope and was about to charge, everyone rushed forward.

Shao Xingyang swung a knife into the mushroom bull, allowing Yanhong to step on it and leap onto its back. Yanhong swung her arm around the bull's neck, holding the knife across its throat. Grabbing both sides simultaneously, she pulled back with force. Chen Yunliang aimed his crossbow at the bull's hind legs, piercing its thigh with an arrow, forcing it to lose its balance and fall to the ground. With its throat slashed and its hind legs pierced, the bull had lost most of its mobility. It collapsed to the ground, its three intact hooves staring in vain. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get back up.

The mushroom cow stirred up a cloud of dust, which were obviously spores. Because the mushroom cow kept rubbing against the ground, the mushrooms on its body exploded. Even the mask could hardly block the thick spores.

Tang Zeyu stepped forward and restrained the mushroom bull, and used his hands to forcefully hold down the bull's upper body so that it could no longer move. The mushroom bull used up all its strength in its dying struggle, forcing Tang Zeyu to use all his strength. The veins on his arms bulged, and every muscle on his thick arms was clearly visible. Tang Zeyu stepped on the mushroom bull's head, aimed his long knife at the position between the bull's eyes, and thrust it in with force. The mushroom bull became completely motionless, and its hooves, which had been moving around, lost all their strength and stuck to the ground.

To be on the safe side, Tang Zeyu stabbed the knife another inch deeper, waited for a while and made sure that the mushroom cow was completely dead before getting up.

"Solved?"

Lu Shiyu peeked from behind, and several people took off their masks and goggles. Lu Shiyu suddenly found that the effect of the hallucinogenic mushrooms had disappeared at some point, and now the people had regained their human form in her eyes.

Shaoxing Yang shook his hair to get rid of the spores on his head.

"Yawn! This distorted creature is as strong as a cow. Could it be a distorted cow?"

Chen Yunliang took out disinfectant alcohol from his bag and sprayed it on several members of the team.

Yan Hong looked down at the spores covering her body and gave up struggling.

"This place is no longer suitable for camping," Tang Zeyu said as he took off his goggles. "Let's go a little further before it gets completely dark."

Even if he was reluctant, there was nothing he could do. The area was already filled with spores shaken out by the mushroom cow, and he couldn't sleep anymore.

A few people packed up their things resigned to their fate, and only Lu Shiyu walked back to the mushroom cow.

Yan Hong put on her backpack and saw Lu Shiyu squatting next to the corpse of the mushroom cow. She warned him, "Be careful, don't get entangled by the mycelium again."

Lu Shiyu squatted on the spot and looked up at the people who had been cleaned up.

Chen Yunliang asked, "Is there anything else?"

On the way, I said nothing and blinked my eyes, as if asking for help but also feeling a little guilty.

Shaoxing Yang looked at Lu Shiyu, then at the mushroom cow next to him. Lu Shiyu's intention was obvious.

"You don't want to eat this!"

Lu Shiyu thought for two seconds: "Do you want to eat barbecue?"

Everyone was silent, Yan Hong was suffocating, Shao Xingyang was desperate, and Chen Yunliang closed his eyes and didn't want to watch anymore.

"Lu Shiyu, I suspect you have pica."

"I can only take one piece of meat with me," Tang Zeyu pinched his brows, "I can't take more than that."

"Great! Thank you Captain Tang!" Lu Shiyu happily began to think about which piece of meat to take away.

"No way, Captain! You really let her do this!" Shaoxing Yu was incredulous. "This thing looks like it's been affected by a biological weapon. Will it cause any problems if I eat it?"

"If it's food poisoning, Chen Yunliang can handle it," Tang Zeyu said, looking at Chen Yunliang, who was looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle. "Otherwise, why would we bring a doctor with us?"

Chen Yunliang's heart is now as calm as a pool of stagnant water. The point is not calmness, but death.

His special ability can indeed solve the problem of food poisoning. To be more precise, it can heal any injury, whether it is internal injury, external injury, poisoning or broken bones.

Although he has failed twice today, once he inhaled spores and lost consciousness and was unable to use his superpowers, and the other time he had hallucinations but there was no substantial damage so it could not be solved, but if there was a problem with the food and any negative effects occurred, his superpowers would work.

His responsibility is naturally to take care of any injuries within the team, but that's not how he's supposed to be used! He's the one who's supposed to clean up the mess after all the madness!

"Have you thought it through?" Tang Zeyu asked Lu Shiyu who was squatting on the ground.

"Just take one of the hind legs," Lu Shiyu said, pointing to the intact thigh that wasn't hit by the arrow. "Tinnel meat is delicious no matter how you cook it."

"Well, that's it."

Tang Zeyu took a kitchen knife and cut open the leg from the base. It was as smooth as cutting jelly. When he reached the joint, he used a little force and cut it open easily. The leg of the mushroom cow was easily removed.

The magical thing is that after the mushroom cow's legs were cut off, no blood flowed out. If you look at the mushroom cow's neck, you will find that there is not a drop of blood at all, as if the mushroom cow is a creature without any blood.

Before it got completely dark, they walked a little further and unexpectedly came across a lake.

At night, the lake is like a piece of shimmering black jade, reflecting the bright moonlight and diamond-like stars. Occasionally, a few ripples blown by the wind appear on the surface of the lake, which is quiet and mysterious.

Tang Zeyu walked in front. After looking around and confirming that there was no danger, he decided to camp at a distance from the lake.

The bonfire was quickly rekindled, dispelling the all-consuming darkness.

Yan Hong felt uncomfortable all over and always felt that the spores on her body made her uncomfortable.

"Captain, I want to go to the lake to take a bath and wash my clothes."

After the battle with the Mushroom Bull, several members of the Eagle Team were covered with spores. They couldn't get into the sleeping bags in this state. Tang Zeyu also felt that he needed to rest, so he agreed to Yan Hong's request.

Yanhong took out some clothes from her bag, pushed aside the bushes and walked towards the lake.

At this time, Lu Shiyu was studying how to deal with the leg of this mushroom cow. From the outside, it seemed to be no different from an ordinary cow leg, but if you look closely, you might even feel that it was an artificially fake cow leg.

Upon closer inspection, the cow hair on the skin did not look like cow hair, but more like moss that was too dark in color and too long. From the cross-section, the meat inside looked quite normal, but I don’t know if it was due to psychological reasons, but Lu Shiyu always felt that the meat inside was a bit strange, as if it looked a bit like the fruit of some plant after being cut open.

Give it a try.

Lu Shiyu sharpened the kitchen knife to ensure it was sharp enough, and peeled off the hide of the mushroom cow. The hide, when cut into pieces, looked more like a piece of moss.

Because we changed camps, we wouldn't have enough time to roast the whole leg, so we had to cut it into small pieces and skewer the meat before roasting.

Cut the beef leg into pieces of similar size, put a little light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, sugar, starch and cooking oil in a bowl, and finally beat a duck egg, pour the meat pieces in, mix well and marinate.

While waiting, Lu Shiyu observed the cowhide. Some fat could be seen inside, but from the outside it looked no different from a mossy lawn. Lu Shiyu looked at the mushrooms on the cowhide and realized that the mushrooms growing on the mushroom cow seemed somewhat familiar.

"Chen Yunliang, take a look at this."

Lu Shiyu handed the cowhide to Chen Yunliang and asked, "Is this mushroom the same as the one in the mushroom ring we found before?"

Chen Yunliang narrowed his eyes and observed, and finally confirmed Lu Shiyu's guess: "It is indeed the same."

"Strange, why does this kind of mushroom grow on this cow instead of other mushrooms?"

Although it was a question, Lu Shiyu actually had a guess in his mind: "Could the relationship between this mushroom cow and the mushroom ring be similar to the relationship between the snaketail chicken, the ants, and the flowers? Are they part of the same food chain, or are they in a symbiotic relationship?"

"For example, mushroom rings can cause animals to hallucinate, causing their spores to stick to the infected animals, and then new mushrooms will grow on the animals. Those mushrooms are carried around by the animals, allowing the spores to spread further."

Shao Xingyang asked: "Then why didn't we become covered with mushrooms like the cow when we stepped on the mushroom circle before?"

"Maybe it was just because we took timely measures," Lu Shiyu said. "We cleaned our noses and pricked them with needles right after the dizziness subsided, so we're fine."

Lu Shiyu tried his best to fill in the blanks in his logic. "Well, as for the mushroom cow, it might have experienced the same thing as us after inhaling the spores, but it didn't get treatment. It ended up being parasitized by the mushrooms, with mushrooms growing all over its body, becoming a mobile tool for the mushrooms to spread. As for why it's so close to people who've been exposed to the spores, it might be that the spores gave it the illusion that we're the same kind."

Lu Shiyu became less and less confident as he spoke, hugging his knees with his hands and saying, "But this is just my guess. As for whether this is the truth or not, I don't know. After all, I don't have any knowledge in this area."

Chen Yunliang pushed his glasses and said, "I think what you said is very likely. You have a lot of ideas. The captain should recommend you to try the laboratory at the base."

Lu Shiyu laughed awkwardly twice and said, "No need to say anything, because your captain has already decided to do so."