Yang Kai was overjoyed. "Can you find where its true body is?"
He had heard from Pu Baixiong before that within the Great Ruins Boundary, there were several Sacred Medicines like himself that had already taken physical form. Yang Kai had been quite interested in those Sacred Medicines, and he hadn't expected to suddenly stumble into one's territory. What's more, according to Pu Baixiong, this dense fog was actually the Sacred Medicine's doing!
Such an ability was bizarre and unfathomable — truly extraordinary. He had no idea what the "Little Mushroom" Pu Baixiong had mentioned actually was to possess such strange powers.
"What's so hard about that?" Pu Baixiong shook his head with a swagger. "I come visit her all the time. Master, just follow me — I'll take you to find her."
He leaped down to the ground and charged forward, dashing into the fog within a few steps and vanishing from sight.
Turning his head back, he burst into hearty laughter. "You brat, if you hadn't come in here, old Pu really wouldn't have had any way to deal with you. But you just had to walk in here looking for death. Now you're in for it!"
He was a Sacred Medicine that had taken human form — he had finally developed his own consciousness and intelligence, so how could he be willing to submit to Yang Kai's control? All his previous cooperation had been an act, a pretense while he waited for his chance to escape. And now that chance had finally arrived.
"Wait till I go find Little Mushroom and have her trap you here so you can never think about leaving again!" Pu Baixiong crowed triumphantly. "Trying to outwit old Pu — how naïve can you be!"
His legs, formed from roots, carried him at astonishing speed as he disappeared into the depths of the fog.
After a short while, he entered a cave. Pu Baixiong called out loudly, "Little Mushroom, are you home?"
His voice echoed through the cavern, but there was no response whatsoever.
Pu Baixiong muttered to himself, "That scatterbrain — has she fallen asleep again? Hmm, she must have, she must be asleep."
He strode directly into the cave and soon reached its deepest reaches. At the very back of the cavern sat a mushroom no more than half a foot tall, rooted in a patch of spirit soil. Its cap rose and fell gently, like a living creature slowly breathing. With each undulation of the cap, countless spores drifted out from beneath it — so tiny that the naked eye could barely perceive them. These spores permeated the air and earth, forming the bewildering fog that had lured Yang Kai in and ensnared him in illusions without him even realizing it, filling his vision with all manner of phantasms and cutting off any hope of finding the way out.
Across the surface of the mushroom cap, ethereal light shimmered and flowed, breathtakingly beautiful.
Pu Baixiong walked up and rapped his root-formed hand against the cap. "Little Mushroom, wake up! Business has come knocking!"
"Hmm?" A lazy voice rang out. Then, a pair of large eyes slowly opened on the cap, still heavy with sleep and grogginess. They glanced at Pu Baixiong, and the eyes closed again as the voice drawled, "What are you doing here again? Disturbing people's dreams. Go away, go away. I'm still sleeping."
The voice was crisp and childlike — unmistakably that of a little girl.
Pu Baixiong raised his hand and flicked the cap, making the whole mushroom shudder. "Stop sleeping for now and do me a favor."
The large eyes on the cap snapped open again, staring fixedly at something behind Pu Baixiong. They were filled with terror, and the voice cried out in alarm, "Pu Baixiong, why did you bring a person in here?!"
Pu Baixiong startled, whipping around to look — but there was no one behind him. He said, bewildered, "What nonsense are you spouting, little girl? There's nobody behind me."
"There obviously is!" the mushroom shrieked. The half-foot-tall colorful mushroom twisted and contorted, transforming into the shape of a little girl with a mushroom cap perched on her head. She plopped down on the ground and burst into loud wailing. "It's over, it's over, I'm done for! I'm going to be eaten!"
With her crying, the invisible spores erupted outward in frenzied waves. Pu Baixiong swayed dizzily. "Stop crying — if you keep it up, even old Pu won't be able to take it. Whoa, so many stars!"
"So you actually can see me? Of course — this fog is your doing, and since I'm standing in it, you'd naturally be able to sense me."
A voice suddenly materialized behind Pu Baixiong like a phantom. Pu Baixiong, whose vision was already swimming with hallucinations, turned pale with fright and spun around. Behind him, the air rippled, and Yang Kai's figure materialized before his eyes.
At this moment, Yang Kai was peeling a layer of gossamer-thin fabric from his body — the Shadowless Veil.
He had been careful from the moment he released Pu Baixiong from the Small World. Sure enough, this traitorous little wretch proved completely unreliable. If Yang Kai hadn't stayed close to him the whole time, he might very well have been shaken off.
"How are you here?!" Pu Baixiong's face went deathly pale, then he suddenly broke into a silly chuckle. "It's not you. It can't be you. This is an illusion! Wake up!"
The mushroom wailed even harder. "It's not an illusion! He's really here!" Tears streamed down her face in torrents, and before they even hit the ground, they dissolved into dense fog.
Pu Baixiong's neck creaked as he slowly turned to look at the mushroom. "Not... not an illusion?"
Yang Kai chuckled.
Pu Baixiong's root-legs went soft and he collapsed to his knees, shooting Yang Kai an obsequious grin. He pointed at the mushroom. "Master, I've found a Sacred Medicine for you! This little girl should be quite tasty — you could make soup with her!"
"Waaaah!" The mushroom cried even harder, kicking and punching at Pu Baixiong between sobs. "Stupid grape! Dead grape! You actually brought someone here to harm me! I knew knowing you would only bring trouble! I'm going to kill you!"
With that, she lunged at him, raining blows and kicks down on Pu Baixiong.
Naturally, Pu Baixiong fought back, and the two transformed Sacred Medicines went at each other ferociously right in front of Yang Kai. Before long, they were both bruised and battered. But all the while, the two Sacred Medicines were subtly inching their way toward the cave entrance, and they were just about to slip past Yang Kai—
Yang Kai bent down, one hand catching each of them.
Pu Baixiong sniffled, turned his head away, and looked off to the side with an expression of perfect nonchalance.