Fungi had another advantage: they grew much faster than ordinary plants. There was no need to wait through a half-year growth cycle, and with Smith's cooperation, the experiment soon produced results.
The answer was yes, but further refinement was still needed. What Pamela had put in at the time was an ordinary fungal strain—the shiitake mushrooms people commonly ate. Schiller had mainly chosen them because they looked relatively approachable. Even if they underwent some morphological mutations, they probably would not look too ugly.
But he had clearly underestimated the range of possible mushroom mutations. Anyone who did not know better might have mistaken the grown shiitakes for hand grenades.
The entire mushroom was no longer flat and round, but tall and oval, covered in countless terrifying blackish-purple protrusions. Even Chinese people would not first consider whether the thing was edible.
Appearance was indeed a major issue. If it looked too ugly, even if it were advertised as a medicinal herb that prolonged life, it might still arouse public suspicion. Clinical trials alone would be difficult to conduct.
After repeated experiments, Smith discovered that what the mushrooms mutated into depended mainly on the cultivation substrate. In other words, they would grow according to the general nature of the corpses of those demons and monsters.
Wugui Niangniang was a purple-haired zombie, so the mushrooms grown from her were naturally blackish-purple and looked quite horrifying. Later, they found the corpse of an animal spirit, and the mushrooms it grew were golden, much more attractive.
Schiller figured that Chiyou had also been a tribal leader and, according to Yinglong, had not been too ugly. Although he had horns and looked different from Modern Humanity, mushrooms did not share humanity's aesthetic standards. As long as they did not grow into something completely appetite-destroying, it would