Chapter 442: Chapter 304: Encountering the Pope Again, Battling a Fifth-Order
Then, the contaminated Mutated Fungi uprooted themselves and surged toward Su Ze like a tidal wave, threatening to engulf him.
Fall back! Fall back! Fall back!
Su Ze’s scalp tingled as he watched the swarm of white mushrooms, which moved like a colony of ants.
He activated his Gravity Domain, and a powerful Repulsive Force resisted the approach of the fleshy mushrooms.
Still, some of the fleshy mushrooms broke through the siege and charged straight for him.
Others exploded where they stood, melting into pools of thick, flowing ooze that gathered on the ground.
As more and more of the white ooze collected on the ground, it formed a winding stream that resisted the Repulsive Force and crept slowly toward Su Ze.
Even the large mushroom he was holding as an umbrella underwent the Fatty Transformation, startling Su Ze so much that he immediately threw it away.
But once he discarded the mushroom umbrella, the white ooze dripped onto him, continuously contaminating his liquid body.
’There’s no escape,’ Su Ze thought. He expanded his body to its maximum size again, gripped his Crystal Sword, and cleaved the white cloud above him in two. The slash instantly created a clear space within the downpour of ooze.
Standing in this clear space, Su Ze could avoid being drenched by the rain of ooze.
At the same time, he continuously carved away the parts of his body contaminated by the ooze, as if excising necrotic flesh.
A violent electric current shrouded him, vaporizing any ooze that got too close. He swung his giant sword, relentlessly hacking at the approaching fleshy mushrooms.
Just then, a figure suddenly burst from the ground at Su Ze’s feet. Baring a pair of large, snow-white front teeth, it was Mr. Ya.
"Boss, I’m here to help!"
Mr. Ya shot into the air and circled Su Ze. A massive shield, as large as a door, appeared in his hands.
He plunged the shield into the ground at Su Ze’s feet. Another shield immediately appeared in his hands, which he planted as well. He repeated this, planting six massive shields in a row until they formed a complete circle around Su Ze.
"Rise!"
With a shout from Mr. Ya, the six shields rapidly expanded—growing taller and wider until they fused into a single, seamless barrier, forming an ironclad defense around Su Ze with no blind spots.
"Boss, you just focus on dealing with that thing up there. Leave the defense down here to me. I guarantee absolutely nothing will get near you!" Mr. Ya said, full of confidence.
"Alright!"
Su Ze could finally stop worrying about defense and focus entirely on the white cloud in the sky.
This white cloud was the true body of the Tier Five Mushroom.
Su Ze stretched his body upward, becoming as tall and thin as a bamboo pole, until he was level with the white cloud. His Crystal Sword, crackling with electricity, hacked at the cloud.
He could feel the white cloud’s volume shrinking with each of his attacks, but the progress was too slow.
Even when hacked into countless pieces, the white cloud would simply reform. Much like Su Ze’s own liquid body, it was not afraid of physical attacks.
Seeing this, Su Ze decided to use his ultimate move: his strongest punch.
It was a fusion of three skills—"Needle Strike," "Impact Cannon (Electric Current Cannon)," and "Furious Waves"—boosted by the bonuses from "Ant Power," "Expansion," and the "Bloodthirsty" effect.
This was, without a doubt, the most powerful attack Su Ze could currently unleash.
Before throwing the punch, he used his Gravity Domain to forcibly gather the scattered pieces of the white cloud into a single mass.
Then, he took aim and, with a light tap of his Crystal Sword, released the "strongest punch," channeling the attack through the blade instead of his fist.
The concentrated white cloud took the full brunt of the attack. Amid the fiery light of the explosion and arcing electricity, its form rapidly dissipated and shrank, like a snowball dropped into boiling water.
Perhaps knowing it was powerless to turn the tide, the remainder of the white cloud condensed into a small, solid sphere. It broke through the explosion’s energy barrier and shot straight for Su Ze.
Su Ze met it with a "Needle Strike," and the small sphere shattered, scattering into countless motes of powder.
He hurriedly tried to use his gravity control to gather the powder, but he was shocked to find that each tiny mote was unbelievably heavy—every single one had the weight of a meteorite!
The motes of powder rained down on Su Ze’s liquid body, causing it to burst and vaporize on impact. After penetrating his form, the powder began to burn, releasing a terrifying heat that instantly evaporated nearly half of his body!
’Terrifying!’
Horrified, Su Ze decisively abandoned the greater part of his body and rapidly shrank in size.
Mr. Ya was already prepared. He grabbed the shrunken Su Ze and quickly retreated.
The two fled several hundred meters in one go. Looking back, they saw flames soaring into the sky behind them. The air was thick with evaporated water vapor, and any ordinary person who approached the area now would likely be instantly scalded.
"As expected of a Tier Five Mutated Fungus!"
Su Ze reflected on the battle. If not for his many abilities and Mr. Ya’s help, the outcome would have been uncertain. He would have had to, at the very least, detonate his Regeneration Core, and might have even been forced to revive back on the spaceship.
However, he was also aware that this Tier Five Mushroom couldn’t be treated as a typical Tier Five Mutated Fungus, as it had been possessed by the Pope.
The Pope was a legendary powerhouse, and his soul came from a Thought Race Divine Spirit. Their methods and knowledge were far beyond anything a Blue Star evolver could compare to.
A Tier Five Mushroom possessed by the Pope was definitely far more powerful in combat than an ordinary Tier Five Mutated Fungus!
"Is that thing really dead?" Mr. Ya asked, still shaken.
Su Ze was hesitant, but just then, a massive surge of flesh-and-blood energy suddenly flooded into his body. He knew at once: the Tier Five Mushroom was truly dead.
His Bloodthirsty skill had already begun to absorb the Mushroom’s flesh-and-blood energy—that was the best proof there was.
The immense energy rapidly healed all of Su Ze’s injuries and pushed his power to a new peak, directly maxing out the power bonus from his Bloodthirsty skill.
But that wasn’t what concerned Su Ze the most. He carefully sensed within himself and, just as he’d hoped, found another mass of Silver-gray Energy!
He had extracted Silver-gray Energy from the Tier Five Mushroom as well, and it was a huge mass!
It was more than twenty times the amount he had extracted from the two Tier Four Mutated Fungi combined!
’What in the world is this Silver-gray Energy used for?’
Su Ze decided he would find out.
