Listening closely, Han Ning heard a dense, shuffling sound, like a swarm of insects writhing on the ground.

RUSTLE RUSTLE~

The sound was faint and indistinct, still some distance away.

"Han Ning, what’s wrong?" Lin Tianhe noticed his roommate was acting strangely.

"I hear the sound of creatures crawling. They should still be some distance away." Han Ning pressed his ear to the ground to confirm again. "That’s right. And it’s no small commotion—there are at least several dozen of them."

"Teacher Lü, should we go check it out?" Luo Chen asked, turning to Lü Xiuning.

"Wait. The drone is out of power. It’s best to be cautious."

"Alright." The other three nodded without another word.

With the enemy’s strength unknown, avoidance was the best policy.

However, after Han Ning’s sudden warning, everyone’s expressions grew serious, and they worried that an unknown creature might leap out and attack them at any moment.

A few minutes passed, but the faint, dense shuffling didn’t disappear. Instead, it grew louder and more chaotic.

"...I can hear it now, too. It sounds like a lot of things are moving across the ground." Luo Chen’s expression flickered. Tilting his head to listen, he couldn’t restrain his curiosity and suggested,

"How about... we go take a look? If we keep our distance, it should be fine."

Lü Xiuning glanced at him and uttered a single word: "Wait."

"Luo Chen, you’re just too impetuous. You have to remain calm when you encounter these situations."

"Mm... I understand, Teacher Lü." Luo Chen opened his mouth as if to argue, but then obediently sat back down.

Han Ning didn’t comment on Lü Xiuning’s decision.

’When you’re out exploring, it’s better not to go looking for trouble.’

After waiting for more than half an hour, the commotion in the distance finally faded away, until there was no sound at all.

Just then, Lü Xiuning stood up. "That’s enough rest. Let’s go and see if we can find any clues over there."

"Any creature that passes by, as long as it isn’t flying, is bound to leave tracks. We’ll identify the type of creature from their tracks first, and then we’ll decide what to do."

The four of them immediately gathered their packs and headed in the direction the sound had come from.

After passing through the dense Mushroom Forest and advancing for about 200 meters, the scenery ahead suddenly changed.

Unlike the giant purple mushrooms behind them, a forest of lush, giant green mushrooms now stood before them.

They also ranged from over ten to several tens of meters in height.

The color of their caps had changed from purple to a verdant, grass-like green.

Bright, beautiful red patterns crisscrossed the lush green, creating a stark contrast.

Like a sneeze, emerald-green spores were intermittently puffed out from beneath the giant green caps.

A few giant purple mushrooms were interspersed among the green ones. Green, purple, red... the mix of colors made it feel as if they had stepped into a fairy-tale world.

But this wasn’t what surprised Han Ning the most.

Beneath the green mushroom forest, strange creatures lay scattered about in disarray.

The moment they saw the creatures lying on the ground, looks of astonishment appeared on all four of their faces at once.

"What... what in the world are these things? Have I really stepped into a fairy-tale world?" Lin Tianhe rubbed his eyes.

On the ground of the Mushroom Forest, there were a total of three different types of creatures lying scattered about.

One type resembled the giant purple mushrooms scattered throughout the forest, except they were countless times smaller. The little ones were only about 30 centimeters tall, with round, purple mushroom caps and a pair of closed eyes underneath.

Han Ning wasn’t sure if they were actually eyes; he could only see that the eye-like area looked like this: ︶_︶.

They looked like two tightly closed slits.

With their round, purple caps and plump, white, cylindrical stems, they looked exceptionally cute.

Not far from the purple mushroom-people, a number of green-capped ones lay on the ground. Their appearance was nearly identical to the others, differing only in the color of their caps.

Lying among the two types of mushroom-people were several giant, fiery-red ants, each about a meter long.

Around each fallen, fiery-red ant, there were a few, or even a dozen, of the mushroom-people.

’It looks like a battle happened between the mushroom-people and the giant ants. Are they... all dead?’

Han Ning and the others observed cautiously for a while. Only after confirming that none of the creatures ahead were moving did they slowly approach.

"Yin Yi, can you sense if these mushroom-people share the same attribute as you?" Han Ning glanced at the fallen creatures before turning to Yin Yi.

"Ling~"

Yin Yi tilted its head, pierced one of the mushroom-person’s bodies with a vine, and focused for a moment before nodding at Han Ning.

"Teacher Lü! Han Ning! Tianhe! Come look, quick! There’s a mushroom-person over here that isn’t dead!"

The sudden shout came from Luo Chen, who was not far off.

Everyone’s gaze snapped in his direction.

They saw Luo Chen pointing at a green-capped mushroom-person about three meters away.

Its eyes and mouth were still in the shape of a ︶_︶, but a faint, weak cry escaped from its slit-like mouth.

"Migu~ Migu~"

"What are you saying, little guy?" Seeing how extremely weak the mushroom-person looked, Luo Chen moved closer.

Lü Xiuning frowned instinctively at the sight. "Be careful..." he warned. "Don’t get too close."

"SWOOSH!!"

Just then, not far from the green mushroom-person, a giant red ant that had been lying motionless on the ground suddenly opened its eyes and let out a sharp, short screech at the rapidly approaching Luo Chen.

At the same time, the weakly whimpering green mushroom-person suddenly threw its head back. Its tiny, slit-like mouth, only two or three centimeters long, split open grotesquely, rapidly expanding to become larger than its entire body as it lunged viciously at Luo Chen’s leg.

WHAP~

A green vine shot out, moving faster than the attack. It wrapped around Luo Chen’s neck and yanked him backward, letting him dodge the massive bite by a hair’s breadth.

Immediately after, a green light flared. Luo Chen’s Silver Lotus Wood reacted swiftly, shooting out a Silver Thorn that blasted through the green mushroom-person’s body.

"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF..."

Luo Chen’s eyes were wide, his pupils shrinking uncontrollably as he gasped for breath.

’So close. Just a little closer, and my calf would have been a meal for that green mushroom-person.’

"I warned you to be careful at all times," Lü Xiuning said, his face grim and his voice laced with anger.

’This is the first time Teacher Lü has gotten angry at a student since the transmigration,’ Han Ning thought.

"Yes... yes... I really get it now, Teacher Lü. Han Ning, thank you for your warning and for saving me." Luo Chen had finally snapped out of it, and he bowed apologetically to Lü Xiuning.

’If it weren’t for Lü Xiuning’s warning making me pause for a second... if Han Ning’s Yin Yi hadn’t reacted so quickly...’ Luo Chen didn’t dare to think about it any further.

"These seemingly cute mushroom-people... they’re really strange..."

Han Ning walked over to the mushroom-person that had been blasted to pieces, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the forest.