Marana

In the dark, damp underground space, ominous red light filled the air.

Huge, twisted plants covered the surroundings like living masses of flesh. A crimson "sun" hung from the cave ceiling, slowly writhing in the gloom.

The moment Lin Feng stepped into the cave, three massive energy arrows shot straight at him. The air around them gave off foul-smelling white smoke from the corrosive energy.

Feeling the astonishing malice, Lin Feng's hair stood on end. Before he could take in the cave's full layout, he hurriedly raised layer after layer of wooden walls before himself.

Emerald energy barriers intermingled with solid giant trees, forming a dual defense of energy and matter.

Just as Lin Feng's barricade took shape, the crimson arrows struck the brown-and-green defenses. Like scorching branding irons, they easily melted the sturdy outer wooden walls before being worn away by the tangible green energy.

About one-third was destroyed. Acceptable.

After assessing the Withering before him, Lin Feng steadied himself.

He maintained his defenses while observing through a gap near the cave entrance.

Lin Feng soon saw the final opponent he needed to defeat—the enormous Withering aggregate lodged within the core of the mushroom forest, one that had nearly developed consciousness and a body.

Sensing the omnipresent corrosive power in the air, Lin Feng understood that the rapidly expanding Withering within Avidya Forest and the increasingly lifeless Apam Woods both had the same culprit: the crimson "sun" floating above them.

"Aranajin, Ranjiru, Ranaga!" Lin Feng called to the three Aranara sheltered behind him.

"I'll maintain the defenses and protect you. Please break the seals on the Withering Branches as quickly as possible!" Lin Feng ordered the three little ones.

After condensing independently sustained Dendro Element shields around them, Lin Feng withdrew his defenses and attempted to counterattack the Withering before him.

Relying on his control over the elements, Lin Feng summoned vast quantities of Dendro Elemental Power from the surface to sink underground and gather around him. The excessively dense Dendro Elemental Power repelled the surrounding elements, forming a green domain around Lin Feng.

When the Withering Core fired another three enormous arrows, Lin Feng leaped forward and stood before Aranajin, who was breaking the seal. Gathering the Dendro Element around him, he condensed it into an arrow no thicker than two fingers and fired it head-on at the incoming Withering energy.

The tiny green arrow was nearly imperceptible before the Withering's attack, yet like a solid steel nail piercing a wooden board, it penetrated and annihilated all three massive arrows.

As the arrow, still carrying its momentum, was about to pierce the crimson Withering Core, the massive sphere seemed to sense the threat. It mobilized the power it had accumulated in the ley lines over hundreds of years, condensing a bright red barrier around itself that blocked the blow.

After the arrow shattered, the scattered Dendro Elemental Power returned to the domain around Lin Feng as though it possessed consciousness.

Aranajin, who had initially been somewhat frightened behind him, relaxed after sensing Lin Feng's reliable protection and hurriedly completed the first seal's removal.

"Good job!" Lin Feng sensed the Withering Branch emerge and praised Aranajin's efficiency.

Gathering the nearly tangible Dendro Element around him, Lin Feng casually annihilated the Withering Branch and the Fungi projections that were at least level 60.

Even incomplete, god-level elemental control was an inescapable death sentence to ordinary monsters like these.

"Ranjiru is going to be beaten to death by the bad mushrooms! Friend, save me!" Ranjiru, having successfully broken his seal, trembled in terror at the Withering Guardians that had suddenly appeared. However, he quickly realized that the Fungi could not damage the green shield around him at all.

Ignoring the little green cabbage that had suddenly become full of itself after realizing he was safe, Lin Feng casually dealt with the emerging Fungi and led the two Aranara who had completed their tasks toward the final seal.

When the Withering Core discovered that its branches had been destroyed one after another, even it, driven only by instinct, seemed to feel uneasy.

It condensed enormous red spheres the size of houses and fired them continuously at Lin Feng and the three Aranara.

With the exceptionally abundant Dendro Element in Apam Woods aiding him, Lin Feng was stronger than ever. For a moment, the three little ones behind him even thought the creator from their memories had appeared before them.

After condensing a massive green elemental shield to block the Withering's attack, Lin Feng destroyed the final Withering Branch that had appeared behind him and looked toward the Withering Core, which was preparing for a last-ditch struggle.

The enormous crimson sphere sensed that all its branches had been destroyed. Ready to make a desperate final stand, it summoned three ancient Fungi that it had infected ever since its birth.

After receiving the crimson core's all-out infusion of power, the three Fungi charging toward Lin Feng revealed an unprecedentedly terrifying aura as the Withering's final measure.

Individual Information: Fungus Beast—Ground Rockshroom

Level: 67+15 (An ancient Fungus Beast infected by the Withering at its birth. Having continuously devoured the Withering's power over countless years, it had become a formidable enemy that ordinary lifeforms could never defeat.)

Attribute: Geo/@#$%

Traits: Forbidden Power, Withering Core (Incomplete), Ancient One, Solid Physique 7, Earth Tremor 6, Destructive Charge 6

Emotion: @￥#%

Favorability: @#￥%

Seeing that the three Fungi had all reached around level 80 under the Withering's enhancement, Lin Feng nevertheless felt none of the helplessness he had experienced when first facing the Ruin Drake.

Using Elemental Power, he sent the three Aranara to the cave entrance. Then Lin Feng returned to the center of the cave and confronted the three Fungi head-on.

Perhaps angered by Lin Feng's contempt, the three Fungi led by the Ground Rockshroom became wrapped in ominous red light and accelerated their charge toward Lin Feng, who had returned to the center of the battlefield.

At level 82, the Ground Rockshroom's furious charge even generated intense wind pressure. Like a high-speed train, it carried an overwhelming sense of unstoppable force.

Facing the charging Ground Rockshroom, which resembled a brown shiitake mushroom, and the Winged Dendroshroom flying in the air, Lin Feng swiftly formed Vines from the Dendro Element. By hoisting himself high into the air, he evaded the incomparably deadly strike.

Unwilling to waste time entangling with them, Lin Feng, moving nimbly through the air with the Vines, began compressing the elements around him with unprecedented intensity.

Drops of tangible liquid elements emerged. Using these elements as a foundation, Lin Feng attempted for the first time to attack like an Adeptus with his incomplete "Authority."

As Lin Feng's will spread forth, countless giant trees and Vines appeared throughout the underground space. Lush flowers bloomed within the crimson Withering, and the power of "life" surged like an endless tide, binding, assimilating, and absorbing the three Fungi.

Relying on their immense strength, the Fungi and the Withering resisted the power of life surrounding them. Yet no matter how high their levels were, the Withering, which had never developed consciousness, was ultimately nothing more than a mortal thing.

Within the domain of vegetation Lin Feng created through his incomplete "Authority," the Withering's power was gradually worn away, while the bodies of the three ancient Fungi were completely absorbed by the writhing plants.

The once terrifying Withering regained its vitality in a single instant under the transformation of this power.