My beast can't be a demon.

Chapter 311 Ghost Mushroom

Returning to Xin'an Beast Taming Academy again, Zhou Lu couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the familiar scenery in front of him.

Although he had been busy with the cultivation and evolution of Fireworks and had not stayed in the academy for a long time, and had not even had the chance to appreciate the scenery, Zhou Lu still couldn't help feeling a little nostalgic.

It is the first-year class time now, and there are almost no people in the college.

As the official has recently opened a batch of new secret realms, all beastmasters are exploring the new secret realms in search of new opportunities, especially those in school.

Zhou Lu originally wanted to get together with his old classmates before going to his senior’s laboratory.

After some inquiries, I found out that Xu Wuhu had gone to the Kaituo Army for an internship, and Li Yize had gone home to inherit the family property, so they couldn't be seen anymore.

Fortunately, Zhou Lu did not have too many feelings. After all, he had more important things to do now.

When I walked into the senior’s office, she was sorting things out.

Looking at the pile of various sundries in front of him, Zhou Lu looked at Xiao Xi beside him in confusion: "What is Sister Xiaoqing doing?"

Xiao Xi was yawning, looking like she was still sleepy.

Yesterday, her mother used her body to "fight" with Wu Xiaoqing, and the paint on the wall was worn off.

The result was naturally that the Tao-seeking Wood won - even though it borrowed the body of its own fruit, it was still a divine beast.

So Wu Xiaoqing, the defeated general, got up early this morning and started to organize the various results.

Wu Xiaoqing's research is very casual.

Even if she produced results for many studies that she was not interested in, she would often throw them aside and completely forget about them.

Usually she would only remember these forgotten achievements when someone asked her about their needs.

In her opinion, these results have not yet gone through a standard research process and naturally do not meet the standards for publication.

Wu Xiaoqing has achieved so many similar results.

Of course, many of these achievements were indeed useless from the perspective of the time, but as time changes, they often produce miraculous effects.

"Is Xiao Lu here?" Wu Xiaoqing heard Zhou Lu's voice from the pile of documents, and asked, sticking his head out.

Then she immediately saw the Truth-Seeking Wood on Zhou Lu’s shoulder.

"Really? You come again. I promised you that I would sort these things out." Wu Xiaoqing complained.

Zhou Lu looked at Qiu Daomu in surprise: "What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything." Qiu Daomu explained, "I just gave her a small task."

As the founder of the general fairy system, Qiu Daomu still has a little bit of power in his hands.

For example, depriving someone of the right to use the general fairy or something.

Of course, Qiu Daomu is not an autocratic tyrant.

Wu Xiaoqing will also be rewarded if she sorts out these unfinished research materials and then informs the general knowledge fairy.

According to Qiu Daomu, it will increase Wu Xiaoqing's query permissions in the future.

Because the senior sister has never had any high professional title, the information she can access from Xiaoxi is actually limited.

This is not because Qiu Dao Mu intends to restrict human access to the information in its knowledge base. It is the research institutions that actually set up the permission system.

But Qiu Daomu has the power to adjust authority.

"So, senior sister, do you really have a way to solve the problem of Qiudaomu?" Zhou Lu remembered the main purpose of this trip and asked quickly.

Hearing Zhou Lu's question, Wu Xiaoqing temporarily put down the work in her hands: "No."

"then you……"

"I just made sure it wouldn't die. That doesn't solve the problem in any way." As a scientist, Wu Xiaoqing is very rigorous.

Solving a problem and ensuring survival are two completely different things.

Qiu Dao Mu is already terminally ill.

The backlash caused by the wrong knowledge has left its body like a candle in the wind.

If it continues to spread, Qiu Dao Mu's body might not even be qualified to be a soul container.

While Wu Xiaoqing was speaking, she took out a small jar from the corner.

Unlike the other jars that contained spores, this one contained a whole mushroom.

There is a hint of ghostliness in the purple and white colors.

There seemed to be a layer of mist lingering around the mushrooms.

No, not fog.

It seems like some kind of soul.

When Hanabi, who was already very curious about all kinds of mushrooms, saw this, she ran over happily and held the jar with her vines.

"Huh? They look so familiar." Hanabi said puzzledly as she looked at the mist lingering around the mushrooms.

"It was originally cultivated using the residual soul of the immortal you captured." Wu Xiaoqing seemed very proud. "I spent a lot of effort to cultivate this guy."

Huo Huo actually captured quite a few remaining souls of immortals in the ancient city of the fairyland.

After the energy of these residual souls is absorbed by it, some ghostly mist will still remain.

Out of curiosity, Hua Huo collected these things, packed them up and gave them to Wu Xiaoqing as research materials.

But I didn't expect that Wu Xiaoqing would use these things to cultivate a mushroom that looked very evil but inexplicably beautiful.

Hanabi seemed to find this mushroom very novel and was eager to try it.

Wu Xiaoqing, who already knew Hua Huo very well, knew what Hua Huo's current state meant. She almost immediately took out another jar and handed it to Hua Huo's vine: "This one can't be moved, you should just play with it."

There was also a mushroom in the new jar, but the difference was that it was pure white.

After sending Hua Huo away, Wu Xiaoqing began to introduce the mushrooms in her hand.

According to Wu Xiaoqing, the main purpose of her research at the time was actually to develop a mushroom that could regularly produce harmless ghosts.

"Wait! Are you planning to create an artificial ghost?" Zhou Lu couldn't help but interrupt Wu Xiaoqing.

Just by hearing this beginning, Zhou Lu felt that the senior’s research was a bit too outrageous.

Now, it is generally acknowledged in academia that ghost is an independent attribute, and spirit animals with ghost attributes often exhibit similar characteristics.

However, there is still much controversy in the academic community about how ghost beasts came into being.

"Oh, no." Wu Xiaoqing scratched her head. "A haunted house gave me an order to make a prop that can produce harmless ghosts... This is the failed product of that order."

"Don't create this kind of supermodel for such an outrageous reason, damn it!" Zhou Lu's mouth twitched slightly, and he didn't know how to evaluate the unreliability of his senior sister.

Wu Xiaoqing asked in confusion: "Why is this tool so outrageous?"

"It's so outrageous, it completely overturns our common sense."

Many ghost beasts have the ability to devour other ghosts to become stronger, but because there are too few ghost beasts, they have never been able to make full use of their abilities.

Hua Huo had learned such a skill before. He thought it was another Sage skill, but he found that this bonus was not as outrageous as that of [Sage], and it did not give him the same palpitation feeling as [Sage].

Of course, this kind of enhanced devouring ability does not come without a price.

This type of ghost-devouring ability strengthens itself, and often absorbs the other party's memories and emotions in the process of devouring the ghost. Fear, anger, mania, sadness...

If the ghost is the unwilling soul of a dead spirit beast, then these negative emotions are almost inevitable. Using this skill for a long time to strengthen one's own existence will inevitably turn one into a schizophrenic lunatic.

"Let's not talk too much. You didn't succeed anyway." Zhou Lu came back to his senses and said.

Wu Xiaoqing's voice came again: "Who said there was no success?"

"Ah?" Zhou Lu was stunned.

Then Wu Xiaoqing raised his hand and pointed to something not far away: "This is the one in Hua Huo's hand."

I saw Hua Huo holding the jar.

The lid of the jar was already open.

Tiny white ghosts flew out from the pure white mushrooms.

Fireworks was like an anteater squatting at the exit of an anthill, eating popcorn one by one with great pleasure, as if it were a child having fun eating popcorn.

"..."

Zhou Lu was silent for a moment.

He still underestimated his senior.

Seeing how greedy Hua Huo was, Wu Xiaoqing immediately reminded him, "Don't eat so fast. The culture medium in the jar can't sustain such consumption."

At the same time, Zhou Lu had also sensed the changes in the fireworks.

The ghost's skills are indeed taking effect.

However, these ghosts produced by mushrooms are indeed completely harmless creatures as Wu Xiaoqing said, so much so that there is basically no change in Huo Huo's strength after eating them, and it can only be regarded as satisfying her appetite.

Zhou Lu suddenly had an idea for no reason: If the senior sister developed a ghost-producing mushroom that could replace the feeling of devouring its own kind, would it be possible for those immortals to no longer need to succumb to the desires brought about by the [Immortal] skill?
However, Zhou Lu immediately rejected this idea.

[Immortal] is not someone who can be satisfied so simply.

Both sugar and drugs are addictive, but the harm of the latter far exceeds that of the former.

Judging from the emotions expressed by Huo Huo, it didn't feel that this thing was very delicious, it just thought it was fun.

Zhou Lu didn't dwell on this matter too much. He turned his attention back to the purple and white mushroom in Wu Xiaoqing's hand.

"Can this thing keep the Dao-seeking tree from dying?"

"It can turn dying creatures into ghosts." Wu Xiaoqing's words silenced Zhou Lugan.

Become a ghost...

In a sense, it did save Qiu Dao Mu's life.

But at what cost?

Qiudao Mu will lose his body and the power of the divine beast, just like the remaining souls of the immortals in the ancient city of the fairyland.

"Wow, doesn't that mean that as long as we have it, all dying people can turn into ghosts?" Qiu Daomu didn't care at all. Instead, he looked at the mushroom in Wu Xiaoqing's hand with great interest.

The way it pondered seemed to be considering the pros and cons of this matter.

If the results of this research were made public, the powerful would surely rush to grab them. If the wise men in the family could gain a long life through this, the family would also be able to continue for a long time.

Such an outcome will inevitably lead to further social division.

Moreover, if this kind of mushroom becomes fully popularized, a large number of ghosts will occupy the human world and waste a lot of energy.

"I know what you are thinking." Wu Xiaoqing is just unreliable, not stupid.

She could guess what was bothering Qiudaomu from his expression.

"It's the product of the mutation of the white mushroom in a high-concentration soul energy environment." Wu Xiaoqing introduced, "I put almost all the soul matter that Hua Huo brought back into it, and it mutated into this mushroom."

"In other words, there won't be a second mushroom of this kind?" Zhou Lu asked.

Wu Xiaoqing shook her head and answered with the rigor of a scientist: "I can only say that the environment where it was born can no longer be found, but it may not be the case in the future. You also know that a high concentration of soul energy environment can theoretically be reproduced."

When Wu Xiaoqing said "theoretically", it was really just in theory.

"However, a ghost that inherits memories needs to consume a lot of energy to maintain its own existence." Qiu Daomu was actually very interested in Wu Xiaoqing's plan.

It actually doesn't care whether its own strength is retained.

It doesn't even care whether it can survive.

But it always worries that without itself, the era created by its master will just run wild on the road of location.

This is actually a very normal mentality.

After being parents for a long time, when their children start to live independently, they can’t help but worry that they will learn bad things.

The Qiudao wood is a divine beast.

If you want it to remain conscious and have complete memories after transforming into a ghost, the energy required is not something that can be easily estimated.

At least the kind of ghost produced by the white mushroom just now is definitely not able to bear such consumption.

"Master! Master!" At this moment, Zhou Lu heard Hua Huo's joyful shout.

Looking in the direction of Hua Huo, I saw that the jar had been overturned at some point.

Something had taken a bite of the mushroom inside.

Looking at the tail behind Hua Huo, Zhou Lu had no idea who the culprit was.

Stealing the test product again...

Zhou Lu was about to start scolding when he saw a pure white bubble suddenly appear on the vines of Fireworks.

As the bubble grew larger, it began to break away from Hanabi's vine.

Poof~!

A subtle voice was heard, and then a cute little ghost appeared in front of everyone.

"Master! Look! I can blow bubbles!" Huahuo said excitedly.

It did the same thing, and soon created a circle of ghosts around itself.

Looking at the fireworks surrounded by ghosts, Zhou Lu had an idea in his mind.

Obviously, several other people actually had similar ideas.

They looked at each other and soon smiled in tacit understanding.

Fireworks is a mythical beast.

Even if it still produces ordinary ghosts that are harmless and have no combat power, the energy contained in them is incomparable to that of the white mushroom.

In other words, the stable source of energy that will sustain the soul of the Dao-seeking Wood has been found.

"Speaking of which, I have a request." Wu Xiaoqing spoke up to break the tacit silence.

She looked at Qiu Dao Mu, rubbed her fingers, and said with a grin:
"You're going to die anyway, can you give me your body? I'll use it as a rootstock for growing mushrooms."

(End of this chapter)