What the hell was this?
The six burly men that suddenly leaped right into their faces stunned Linzhou's two Beast Tamers as well.
But this was not their first time fighting in a secret realm, and they reacted at once.
"Water Leap Frog! Use Water Leap Domain!"
The tall, thin man immediately ordered his spirit beast to defend.
Water Leap Domain was the Water Leap Frog's Racial Skill. Centered on its body, it formed a defensive ring made of a curtain of water that could block all projectiles traveling in a straight line.
It also had a certain obstructive effect against individuals launching physical melee attacks.
Water Leap Domain did indeed briefly halt the Delicious Mushrooms.
But in the next second, several vines suddenly burst from the ground and tightly bound the Water Leap Frog, which was defending with all its might.
The instant the Water Leap Frog was bound, the vines buried underground sprang out as well, extending all the way to the Delicious Mushrooms.
Those vines had all grown from branches Huohuo had planted in advance within the Delicious Mushrooms. Using Earth Escape, they had approached the Water Leap Frog from underground.
Even Zhou Lu was somewhat surprised by this sight, because Huohuo had never demonstrated such a use before.
Huohuo's branches could actually be planted inside mushrooms?
Sensing Zhou Lu's gaze, Huohuo put its vine hands on its hips and proudly raised its flowerpot.
Huohuo was amazing!
It had learned this move from the mushrooms while they were in the laboratory.
Since the mushrooms could attach spores to wood for parasitism, it could also use Branch Parasitism on mushrooms.
However, this technique truly was difficult to master.
If the roots were buried too deep, the mushrooms would die.
If the roots were buried too shallow, they could not grow branches or vines.
Huohuo had parasitized all six thrown mushrooms with branches, but only three mushrooms had successfully activated them.
It had to be said, this kind of sneak attack was impossible to guard against.
The Water Leap Frog was forcibly dragged by the branch vines toward the Delicious Mushroom, which was in a berserk state.
The Delicious Mushroom had no idea why the Water Leap Frog had flown toward it on its own.
It only wanted to beat someone up now, and the Water Leap Frog had flown right in front of it!
The Delicious Mushroom grabbed the Water Leap Frog.
The Delicious Mushroom used Beating on the Water Leap Frog.
The Water Leap Frog tried to escape, but its body was tightly bound by vines shooting out from the Delicious Mushroom. It had no room to flee and could only be brutally pummeled like a sandbag.
Seeing his spirit pet being beaten so savagely, cold sweat poured down the tall, thin man's body. He turned to seek help from his companion.
But when he looked over, he found that his companion was even worse off!
His own spirit pet was being held and beaten by a Delicious Mushroom, while his teammate and his spirit pet were both being held and beaten by Delicious Mushrooms!
Huohuo had successfully parasitized three Delicious Mushrooms, just enough to seize three sandbags.
What the hell kind of spirit beast was this?!
None of the spirit pets' counterattacks seemed to affect the Delicious Mushrooms at all.
They had clearly cut deep wounds into them, yet their opponents still continued merrily venting violence upon them, as though they felt no pain whatsoever.
However, the tall, thin man soon had no reason to feel so fortunate.
Seeing that their companions had found targets to beat up, the remaining three Delicious Mushrooms began walking toward him together.
Those gleaming muscles radiated a chilling coldness beneath the sunlight that made his heart quail.
The tall, thin man hurriedly backed away and shouted at the mushrooms, "Don't come any closer!"
But the Delicious Mushrooms, which only wanted to beat people up, were clearly unmoved.
"Junior! We were wrong! I'll give you everything! Let us go! Please! Let us go!" The tall, thin man immediately changed the target of his pleas and shouted at Zhou Lu.
Hearing the other man's begging, Zhou Lu revealed a helpless smile.
Once these Delicious Mushrooms were activated, none of their actions were under his control.
At their core, they were not Zhou Lu's spirit pets. They were merely spirit beasts acting on their own instincts.
After being stimulated, Enlarged Delicious Mushrooms would trigger all the energy within their bodies and vent it in a mad burst for a certain period of time. That was the principle behind them turning into Muscle Mushrooms and beating people up.
Once the energy in their bodies was depleted, they would rapidly wither and release all the spores within them.
However, considering that the Pioneer Army would use this mutant version on a large scale, Wu Xiaoqing had not only modified the Delicious Mushrooms so that they activated upon landing during cultivation, but had also eliminated the reproductive viability of their spores.
Yet doing so also weakened the Enlarged Delicious Mushrooms somewhat. But even weakened, they were still Tier 2 Spirit Beasts.
"Those people probably think I deliberately did this to swindle their money again." Wu Xiaoqing sighed when she mentioned it.
That was how it was for breeders. Since they could only guarantee the excellent quality of the current generation, they did not recommend keeping seeds, yet people always accused them of deliberately designing things this way to cheat them out of money.
Although there truly were colleagues who did it deliberately, Wu Xiaoqing had never harbored such thoughts.
"You can call them back now." Lu Rang's voice came from behind Zhou Lu. "If you don't retrieve them soon, those people will be beaten to death."
Zhou Lu gave a bitter smile. "I can't control these mushrooms."
"Oh." Lu Rang said nothing more.
Listening to the screams from across the bank, Zhou Lu could not bear it either and asked quietly, "Teacher, aren't you going to save them?"
"They're not the ones who hired me with Academic Credits." Lu Rang spoke as though it were only natural, then vanished again.
Good grief, was he really that decisive?
Those two unlucky fellows ultimately survived.
After all, they had paid Academic Credits to operate within the safe zone, so Linzhou Beast Taming Academy had assigned them a safety teacher.
If they had not had a Safety Officer, Zhou Lu would not have dared to let Huohuo throw the Delicious Mushrooms.
Enlarged Delicious Mushrooms were Tier 2 Spirit Beasts, after all. Throwing out six of them was somewhat unfair.
"What a vicious brat!" Seeing that Zhou Lu showed no sign of stopping, Linzhou's safety teacher finally made his move. Several streams of water wrapped around the two people being beaten and their spirit pets.
The force of the water was so great that it directly tore apart Huohuo's vines.
"It is merely a dispute over resources. Why strike with such lethal ruthlessness?" The other side's Safety Officer revealed himself, a translucent blue water snake coiled around his neck.
"They attacked first." Zhou Lu had reason on his side, so he gave the man no face at all.
The man clearly frowned, but when he saw Lu Rang appear behind Zhou Lu, he did not press the issue.
"Within the secret realm, Beast Tamers are fellow countrymen. It would be better to show some mercy in the future." The man glanced at the white jade snail shells on the ground. "I'll take them away. These are your spoils of war, so deal with them as you wish."
With that, he left directly without another word.
The other side's Safety Officer came and went swiftly, not even giving the Delicious Mushrooms time to react.
"Wang Miao, the eldest son of the Linzhou Wang Family and the teacher leading Linzhou's School Team," Lu Rang told Zhou Lu. "If you join the School Team in the future, you might encounter him."
"Never mind that..." Zhou Lu looked at the six Delicious Mushrooms in the distance and swallowed. "I want to know, if I'm beaten half to death too, can you intervene sooner, Teacher? Don't let me suffer so much physical pain."
Lu Rang was somewhat puzzled by Zhou Lu's words. "What do you mean?"
The Delicious Mushrooms looked around.
They spotted Zhou Lu.
They charged toward Zhou Lu!
"I told you! They aren't under my control at all!"
In the blink of an eye, the sprinting Delicious Mushrooms had rushed before Zhou Lu.
First update.
Before you continue