"You only have seven days left to live!"
These were the first words that greeted Meng Qiuzhen as he entered the Le Tu dream realm.
"What?" Meng Qiuzhen froze for a moment, blurting out the question.
Standing before him was an elderly Mushroom Person grandmother.
She let out a sigh and said with deep guilt, "Xiaomi, Grandma is too useless. There's really nothing I can do to cure your illness."
Seizing this brief moment, Meng Qiuzhen quickly scanned his surroundings. Not only was the Mushroom Person before him real — he himself had become a Mushroom Person as well.
They were currently inside one of the grass huts unique to the Mushroom People.
The walls were a deep shade of green, built from specially prepared grass and mud pounded into place. The roof was woven from golden straw.
The furnishings inside were simple, but they betrayed the home of a healer.
"Grandma, is there really no hope for me? Is there truly nothing that can be done?" Meng Qiuzhen put on a tone of unwilling resignation, carefully probing for clues within this dream scene.
The Mushroom Person grandmother hesitated, then murmured, "There is one other possibility."
Meng Qiuzhen immediately latched onto this. "What possibility?"
The grandmother shook her head, turned around, and walked over to a table.
The table was covered in medicine jars — white ones, grey ones, and most of them black. Some of the jars were open, holding dried herbs or pitch-black medicinal liquids. Others were sealed tightly with lids.
The grandmother seemed to be wrestling with complicated feelings. She unconsciously fidgeted with the jars for a moment before gradually calming down.
With her back to Meng Qiuzhen, she spoke: "The only person I can think of who might have any hope of saving you — it's not a method. More precisely, it's a person."
"A person?" Meng Qiuzhen stepped closer to the grandmother and noticed that every single one of these jars contained a stored Gu Insect.
The grandmother sighed again. "You should know who she is, too."
Meng Qiuzhen had no idea, but he was experienced and always had the right words ready. He said immediately, "Could it be... her?"
"That's right, it's her. The previous generation's witch of our tribe — Huang Wan," the grandmother said.
Every Mushroom Person tribe maintained a witch. Unlike the Holy Maiden of the Merfolk tribes, the witch did not hold actual political power, but she typically enjoyed great prestige.
This was because the witch was always the most capable female healer among the Mushroom People.
Without the support and blessing of the witch, the next tribal chief would face intense scrutiny, and in some cases, a chief could not even take the position.
"Only if you find the previous generation's witch, Huang Wan, will you have any hope of survival," the grandmother emphasized.
Meng Qiuzhen asked at once, "Then where is she?"
"Whip Mountain." The grandmother looked at him. "Xiaomi, you're a good child — Grandma watched you grow up. Right now, a plague is raging through the tribe. You wouldn't have caught it, but you insisted on helping Grandma treat others, and that's how you fell ill. You know a thing or two about Huang Wan as well. Her strength is extraordinary, but she betrayed the tribe, so you can only go in your own name. The tribe won't help you."
Meng Qiuzhen nodded. He keenly sensed that the grandmother seemed to have another layer of intent behind her words.
Suddenly, inspiration struck. He seized upon it and said, "But Grandma, with my strength, I could never make it there. I want to find Huang Wan and get her help — not just to save my own life, but to bring the cure back to the tribe!"
"Good child, good child," the grandmother said, greatly moved. "That's exactly what Grandma wanted you to do. Don't worry — your journey to Whip Mountain won't just be perilous along the way. Whip Mountain itself is territory of the human race. Would Grandma really just send you off like that?"
The grandmother stepped aside and uncovered every medicine jar on the table. "The Gu Insects in these jars — you may choose three to take with you. They will be of tremendous help to you."
"Thank you, Grandma!" Meng Qiuzhen thought to himself: Just as expected.
He had explored dream realms many times and possessed truly vast experience. With only a few exchanged words, he had already grasped the underlying structure of this dream scene.
"The key hidden element in this dream scene is the Gu Insect selection."
"If I hadn't sensed the grandmother's deeper intentions and proactively brought it up, I probably wouldn't have been given this opportunity to choose."
"Choosing three Gu Insects will certainly lower the difficulty of exploring the subsequent dream scenes."
"But which three should I choose?"
As Meng Qiuzhen carefully examined the Gu Insects before him, he secretly activated the Dream Butterfly Immortal Gu to conduct his scouting.
With the Dream Butterfly Immortal Gu's assistance, Meng Qiuzhen soon observed the various phenomena within the second dream scene.
"Choose quickly. Don't waste time needlessly. Cherish every single breath," the grandmother urged.
Meng Qiuzhen gritted his teeth. "Grandma, please give me a little more time to think."
But the grandmother's expression turned cold. "Hmph! You're already in this state — you cannot afford to hesitate. You must be decisive. Choose three Gu Insects right now, then follow that hidden path out of the valley. Once the time passes, that path will close for seven days. Choose now!"
Meng Qiuzhen could not afford to delay any longer. Fortunately, during this brief window, he had already gleaned a great deal of intelligence.
"I'll choose these three Gu Insects." From among the dozens of medicine jars, Meng Qiuzhen quickly pointed out three.
"Good. Good choices, all of them. Xiaomi — time is short, and this is all Grandma can do for you. Go quickly!" The moment the grandmother's words fell, Meng Qiuzhen's vision plunged into darkness.
The dream entered its second scene.
He possessed Third Transformation cultivation. Using his original Gu Insects along with the three newly acquired ones, he traversed the mountains and wilderness at great speed, pressing onward through extreme hardship.
He crossed a perilous man-eating forest, pushed through layers of bewildering mist, and cut across a swamp strewn with death at every turn. The final obstacle was a black bear of the Thousand Beast King level.