Chapter 329

Chapter 329: Symbiosis and Assimilation

The milky gel-like substance stretched out long, delicate threads, forming a luminous catenary under the pull of gravity.

This entity seemed to possess a life of its own; rather than simply drooping, it swayed back and forth as if guided by unseen eyes.

As the swaying grew more pronounced, it finally adhered to the collar of Professor Lu, who lay immobilized from the impact of his fall.

The milky thread seemed to anchor itself firmly, and more of the liquid began to flow along this bridge onto the professor’s collar.

Amidst cries of helplessness and a fear that pierced to the bone, the milky liquid seeped into his nostrils and ears.

After a series of convulsions, Professor Lu finally collapsed, as if he had just undergone an intense full-body massage, still lingering in the aftermath of that peculiar sensation.

Yet, even now, his consciousness remained intact, for Lin Qingliu detected no sign of this memory coming to an end.

He continued to observe, watching the vision of this biology professor from the human home planet grow increasingly blurred, his body withering away, while outside the viewing window, day and night cycled endlessly.

Suddenly, Lin Qingliu felt the gaze rise, as though something within yearned desperately for the outside world, for freedom.

The mysterious material drew closer to the viewing window, now marked with radiating cracks, but unlike before, it did not seep through. It was as if its very essence had undergone a subtle transformation.

As the current inhabitant of this body, Lin Qingliu could still feel the growing strength within.

Finally, after several cycles of day and night, a smaller fragment of the viewing window was pushed aside, and freedom at last entered this coffin of the Old Era.

Through this unknown perspective, Lin Qingliu saw countless sleep pods scattered like discarded paper across the ground. Some had their lids forcibly torn open, others were pierced by spaceship debris, and still others were half-buried in the earth, their contents obscured.

The surrounding wilderness was desolate, the massive ring-shaped remains of the spaceship lying silent, its important materials scattered everywhere.

Occasional crackles of electricity echoed across the barren landscape, urgent communication requests came and went unanswered, and the relentless red alert flashed day and night, but all of it went unnoticed.

At that moment, Lin Qingliu finally looked down through this unfamiliar viewpoint and saw a yellow-white stem, a grayish, withered corpse.

Lin Qingliu realized whose perspective he now occupied—it was no longer Professor Lu’s, but that of an entity that had taken over.

With this realization, he suddenly understood where the genes first assimilated by the mycelium had originated—

Cordyceps.

Once he grasped this, he knew the dream was on the brink of collapse.

His perspective had shifted from that of a human to that of the mycelium, meaning the two had already merged into one.

He was no longer within a human brain or human thought, but within the mind of a symbiotic entity that had transitioned from active to passive, from master to subordinate.

Professor Lu might still exhibit signs of life, but he was no longer in control. Lin Qingliu’s intrusion into the dream had been detected by the mycelium, even if it was only within this small region, even if it was only the mycelium within the dream.

Though Lin Qingliu had halted the external flow of time, he had lifted the restrictions within this realm of consciousness and dreams.

To explore others’ memories, he could not leave them in a state of thoughtlessness.

And once this human brain began to function, the mycelium that shared a symbiotic relationship with it would awaken as well.

For the mycelium, a communal life form, the only response to an invasion of their main brain was—

Self-destruction.

"Zizz~"

The sun in the sky flickered twice, like an old light bulb with a faulty connection.

The sounds of wind, alarms, and communications vanished, and the world fell into an eerie silence.

In this soundless void, a sharp "crack" echoed. Lin Qingliu watched as the sky shattered into glass-like fragments, tumbling into an endless abyss.

Professor Lu’s brain had entered its final countdown; the dream had only slowed the process, much like a terminal patient feeling life slip away moment by moment.

Yet, the dream world showed no anomalies in the face of impending death, as if it had long awaited this moment.

Amidst the falling fragments of the world, the final words of an elder reached Lin Qingliu’s ears:

"Time, hurry. They are about to succeed."

Lin Qingliu had always despised two types of people: those who spoke in riddles and those who wouldn’t let him speak in riddles.

But in this serious situation, he could not disregard the advice of an elder from the Old Era.

This elder might have relived those days for decades, trapped between survival and death.

Even so, he clung to a faint hope, though its form remained unclear even to him.

Yet, in such a life-or-death moment, why couldn’t the other party speak plainly?

Recalling the mycelium consciousness that could destroy the dream if triggered manually, Lin Qingliu began to understand Professor Lu’s predicament.

What he saw, the mycelium saw; what he spoke, the mycelium would know. To convey information without rendering it useless, he had to rely on this cryptic method, requiring interpretation and guesswork.

As the dream shattered, consciousness plunged into the deepest darkness, and Lin Qingliu’s main persona returned from the brain.

Looking down at the human brain, he found it devoid of all life force, like a specimen preserved in formalin in a university laboratory.

The duration of [Stasis] ended, but the mycelium showed no movement—or rather, their movements were so slow as to be nearly imperceptible.

After the largest domain of [Stasis] faded, it gave way to the maximum [Ephemeral] and [Slow Time].

Lin Qingliu sighed inwardly. He looked up at the sky, so different from the sunlit wilderness of the dream.

Thick, oppressive clouds loomed overhead, as if threatening to crush the heavens.

Though it was morning, the light was no brighter than the onset of night.

The lingering [Divided Thoughts] outside resonated with his mind, having prepared everything for the main body.

Lin Qingliu ascended through the void, gazing down at the mycelium’s brain and the human graveyard below. With a calm wave of his right hand,

the matrix square above blazed as bright as day.

Passing through [Nature], the ability [Lightning Surge].

Countless threads of lightning rained down from the sky, striking the once-proud creations of humanity, carrying with them the fury of humankind.