Spirit Gathering Mushroom

Zhu Zhuqing followed without hesitation. Xirui hesitated briefly, but she didn't fall behind either.

The closer they got to the spot they had sensed, the richer the ice attribute in the air became, gathering into a bone-chilling cold.

With Mu Qian's command of both ice and fire attributes, it was nearly impossible for him to misjudge.

Besides, the temperature had changed so noticeably that anyone could feel it.

Yet the sun was shining brightly overhead. Even with the towering trees blocking its rays, the temperature shouldn't have changed so drastically.

They continued forward with faint doubts. Before long, after passing through a low thicket, they finally saw the source of the disturbance.

Five bodies stood in neat formation on the ground ahead.

They were "standing corpses" because they had already been turned into solid ice statues, every trace of life gone.

The five statues were transparent from head to toe, their faces vividly lifelike and their expressions utterly peaceful. They even seemed to have retained the expressions they'd worn before the incident.

It was as if they'd been frozen in an instant, without the slightest awareness of danger.

And yet, despite the presence of Spirit Hall's experts, these five people had died without anyone intervening.

"Wait. Nobody go any closer." At Mu Qian's grave warning, all three stopped at once.

The two girls obediently moved behind Mu Qian and looked at the scene in the distance.

"What happened to them? They..." Zhu Zhuqing's red lips parted slightly, her eyes full of shock. Unconsciously, a faint fear of the unknown rose in her heart.

She only recovered after she felt that familiar hand enclose hers.

Mu Qian shook his head and closed his eyes, carefully sensing the energy among the dark purple trees.

The temperature here had dropped considerably, and the air was filled with a potent ice-attribute energy. But this chill wasn't enough to freeze someone in an instant.

"Something ahead seems to be blocking my Spiritual Power from probing." Mu Qian murmured softly as he gazed forward.

It was as if an invisible, intangible barrier stood there. The moment his Spiritual Power touched it, it bounced back as though it had struck a highly elastic balloon.

"What should we do, A-Mu? Maybe we should..." Zhu Zhuqing looked worried. She didn't want Mu Qian to put himself in danger.

But before she could finish, Mu Qian cut her off. "Wait. Someone else is coming. Let's watch first."

With that, Mu Qian immediately withdrew his Spiritual Power and spread it around the three of them, so no one would discover them.

Not far off to the side, someone else had noticed something strange and was making their way closer through the surrounding thicket.

All five were boys, and they looked like newcomers taking part in this round of testing.

"Huo Sheng, Wang Qiming, Zeng Zhi, Xu Kun, Zhao Lele."

Mu Qian recognized them a little. He couldn't help it: they were the first five names called yesterday, so they were hard to miss.

Judging by the way they stood, the boy at the front, Xu Kun, seemed to be the core of this temporary group.

Mu Qian and the two girls watched their reactions closely.

When the five saw the statues, they were just as shocked, even visibly frightened, but they quickly regained their composure.

Not one of them spoke. They communicated almost entirely through glances, and they certainly looked like they'd worked together before.

"If they didn't already know each other, then developing this kind of teamwork in just one day means these five are no ordinary people."

Watching their reactions, Mu Qian couldn't help feeling a measure of admiration.

Zhu Zhuqing nodded. "Spirit Hall Academy is renowned across the continent. It's no surprise that people who already know each other would come together to apply."

"After all, for them, this is a perfectly reasonable way to pass the test."

Mu Qian said nothing, but his eyes showed that he agreed.

While they were talking, the five people ahead had already taken action.

After exchanging glances for a moment, Xu Kun picked up a stone and threw it at one of the frozen corpses.

The stone struck the ice statue, which shattered with a loud crack, scattering ice fragments across the ground.

The Soul Power-infused stone didn't lose its momentum. It continued flying forward, landed on the ground, and rolled a few times before coming to rest.

The five exchanged glances. Aside from stirring up the smell of rotting leaves on the ground, the stone seemed to have suffered no ill effects.

Xu Kun still didn't let his guard down. He took a small squirrel from his backpack. They'd caught it earlier, likely intending to use it to scout ahead, and had kept it for that purpose.

Without a moment's hesitation, he threw the squirrel.

Mu Qian watched the squirrel carefully. While it was still in the air, it seemed to sense something terrifying. It grew frantic and struggled wildly, trying to change where it would land.

Unfortunately, it was only an ordinary animal. With Soul Power in its body and no ground beneath its feet, it couldn't escape its grim fate.

The instant the squirrel passed the ice statues, Mu Qian's pupils contracted. He sensed the ice-attribute energy ahead surge to a terrifying critical point.

The squirrel froze solid in an instant, meeting the same fate as the statues. When it hit the ground, it shattered into glittering powder.

"Th-this energy..." Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded in Mu Qian's mind.

It was Jinyu, the Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum, who had been almost entirely dormant for nearly a year as she recovered her Spiritual Power.

"Xiao Qian, there's something ahead that's very important to me. I can sense it. It seems to be... the aura of a Spirit Gathering Mushroom!" Jinyu's voice trembled slightly, and her words were charged with barely contained excitement.

"A Spirit Gathering Mushroom? What is that?" Mu Qian asked in confusion.

He wasn't all-knowing. It was only natural that the Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum, who had lived on this continent for two hundred thousand years and mastered the ultimate form of Spiritual Power, knew more than he did.

But as Mu Qian focused on his conversation with Jinyu, he missed a subtle detail unfolding around him.

At the instant the freezing aura turned the squirrel to ice, Xirui, standing behind him, also looked thoughtful.

"A Spirit Gathering Mushroom is a rare natural treasure. It possesses an extremely powerful ice attribute, whose strength is almost at the very peak," Jinyu explained in Mu Qian's mind, trying to suppress her excitement.

"Unfortunately, no matter how old a Spirit Gathering Mushroom is, it can never develop intelligence, so it can't become a Plant-type Soul Beast like us."

"For both Spirit Beasts and human Spirit Masters, a Spirit Gathering Mushroom is considered highly poisonous. Not only is it dangerous to consume; even approaching one risks freezing you with its extreme cold."

"That terrifying icy poison could even leave a Titled Douluo with lasting damage that would be almost impossible to remove if they weren't careful."

Hearing this, Mu Qian looked astonished and couldn't help asking, "If it's poisonous, why did you say it was so important to you?"