Chapter 142 – SWAT Team and FBI Mobilized as Florida Man Successfully Genetic-Engineered 7-Year-Old Girl into Adult WAIFU
While Leo and his people enjoyed their slow life, another place was thrown into chaos.
Death Sword Sect…
Death Sword Sect was one of the great sects among all clans and martial artist organizations. They were also the descendants of the sword saint, but they relied on a different cultivation method than the original sword saint's techniques.
They researched all sword saint boulders on the continent and discovered the completed sword techniques and the original cultivation method. However, instead of following the original guidelines and teachings, their sect improved the cultivation method to hasten the cultivation speed and growth rate of their disciples.
Regular practitioners and Life Sword Sect's disciples gathered Qi and obtained elemental Qi, such as fire Qi or metal Qi to become a good swordsman. On the other hand, the Death Sword Sect's disciples could acquire elemental Qi by killing their opponents and absorbing their Qi. Living creatures and monster beasts were also on their kill list!
Because of such a method, many sword practitioners abandoned the Life Sword Sect to join their counterparts. As a result, their sect exponentially grew.
Still, the Yan Empire had a strict law. They banned unethical practices and cultivation methods of unorthodox sects. As such, the royal family always suppressed and hunted down Death Sword Sect's disciples. The other unorthodox cults and sects were also purged.
It wasn't long until the Death Sword Sects, Fatui Cult, and other evil cults were destroyed. The Jianghu Alliance and the royal family then arrested all evil cultivators.
Unfortunately, humans were naturally greedy. The imperial family and the representatives from the Jianghu Alliance desired the secret cultivation method of the evil sects, but they were not shameless enough to openly practice the vile cultivation methods.
Instead of cultivating them directly, they hired the captives and rebuilt the unorthodox sects. Then, they deployed agents and spies into the organizations to learn and develop their secret arts as a pretense of working as their disciples.
Ouyang Clan, Situ Clan, and even royalty sent their people to occupy important positions within the evil sects and cults. After the imperial family and various major clans conquered the evil cults from within, these organizations became vessels of the royal family and big clans. Afterward, those unorthodox cults and sects used their connection to gain membership in the imperial court.
Years later, Emperor Yan and his sons seized the political advantage and took control of the Death Sword Sect and Fatui Cult. The major clans had no choice but to bow their heads and enjoy the leftovers from the royal family.
This status quo had been fixed for 300 years. No one managed to break their political alliance as all major clans enjoyed the new cultivation methods and rose in power…
…Until the recent mystic realm expedition.
.
The once wealthy Mantis Dragon City, the home base of the Death Sword Sect was no longer the same.
Buildings and structures of the city were covered by mysterious pink mushrooms and a thick fog of mushroom spore. It was devoid of cultivators and commoners. However, the population was replaced by something terrifying.
"Uuuuugh."
"Oooooooh."
"Eeeegh."
Humanoid monsters walked aimlessly in the city. They had four limbs and humanoid torso, but their head and blistered skin became the nutritious soil for hardened pink mushrooms.
Everybody's heads were deformed and mutated differently. The mushrooms that grew from their brains and skulls all had a unique shape and size. Some behaved like the mutated cultivator's mouth while several mushrooms transformed into an extra limb.
Regular mushrooms, spore spitters, fangs, hammers, spikes, eyes, limbs, beating hearts, hardened flesh, extra heads, extra faces, mouths, and even genitals emerged on everybody's head. Each carried a different trait and strength.
Floating over the mushroom city were two flying ferry ships. One of them belonged to the Ouyang Clan while the other one was from the imperial court.
Standing on the deck were the rescuers and the survivors of the outbreak. The rescued were without any garments as the court physicians and alchemists examined them thoroughly with their Qi.
Among the alchemists, one of them was a soul transformation cultivator. Coincidentally, he was from the Ouyang Clan and an elder of a prominent group.
He was Ouyang Ke, the grandfather of Ouyang Feng and an elder of the World Tree Sect. As his sect commanded, he and many alchemists were dispatched here to investigate the Mantis Dragon City as the imperial court had lost contact with their agents in the Death Sword Sect.
Ouyang Ke and others didn't need to spend too much time as the cause of this incident was apparent – Sweet Dream Mushrooms!
Although this discovery was huge, nobody onboard had the luxurious time to inform their superiors or headquarters. All able cultivators were busy expending their Qi, creating a wind storm and blowing the spores south. As for the physicians and the alchemists, their hands got tied down as they had to heal and filter the survivors.
While checking one of the naked sword sect's disciples, Ouyang Ke detected a movement inside the disciple's left thigh. The latter's blood vessels were black, and pink rashes were visible on his skin.
"Another infected!"
Ouyang Ke warned his colleagues and grabbed the disciple's head.
"ELDER, PLEASE SPARE ME!" The disciple cried.
"Sorry, brat. There is no cure!"
CRACK
Ouyang Ke twisted the disciple's neck. Then, he severed the young man's head and threw the corpse out of the ship.
"Next!"
After killing the 56th survivor, Ouyang Ke's bloodshot eyes stared at the remaining naked survivors.
The remaining disciples trembled in fear. They looked around, searching for a way to flee. Unfortunately, many nascent soul and soul formation cultivators surrounded them, blocking every possible escape route.
"Move!"
One of the cultivators pointed his long spear at the frontmost young man. The latter shed a tear of despair and walked toward Ouyang Ke.
Looking at the young man, Ouyang Ke grumbled, "Don't cry, brat. If you're not infected, we'll bring you to Cauliflower City. As long as you're not infected…"
"…"
Other alchemists and physicians also finished scanning their patients.
CRACK
CRACK
Out of a dozen inspected survivors, three of them got their necks snapped on the spot. Once again, the elders threw the infected corpses away.
As for the lucky ones, they cried tears of joy as they wouldn't get killed. They screamed and hugged each other.
Ouyang Ke was in a bad mood. He glared at the non-infected survivors and yelled at them.
"Bring them to the isolation cabins and seal them with cage talismans for seven days. We have to make sure that no spore is on them or that they are infected, but they don't show the symptoms! Be thorough! This is Sweet Dream Mushroom we're dealing with!"
The ferry guards gulped and saluted Ouyang Ke. Then, they dragged the inspected survivors to the cabins inside the ship.
The disciples cried as everything around them was unfair. They had just survived the sudden mushroom zombie outbreak, but they got caught and imprisoned by their allies.
Ouyang Ke and the other elders ignored their desperate cries and resumed their tasks. They were aware that one small mishap there could bring a calamity to the entire continent. Thus, they tried their best to contain the mushroom spores and the infected.
As nobody could predict where the spores would spread, they purposely sacrificed the southern region of their continent to the mushrooms. The only worrisome settlements south of Mantis Dragon City were Magpie City, Leo's shop, and Frozen Fire City, so the imperial court chose to limit the infection to their areas instead of letting it spread elsewhere. Once the reinforcements from the immortal realm arrived, they could remove these troublesome mushrooms and hunt down Leo altogether.
That was their initial plan.
"UUUUUUURRRAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
While everybody was busy scanning the survivors, one of the mushroom zombies below looked up to the sky and bellowed.
The ferry guards looked at the zombie. Then, they frowned as they recognized the person's aura and Qi's signature. Although his face and appearance had changed, his signature long swords and his black armor were recognizable.
That zombie was Hua Guanhai, aka Hua Jiashan's brother and the sect master of the Death Sword Sect. Because of the mushroom spore that he accidentally carried over from the mystic realm, he was infected first and became a slave of the mushrooms.
At first, the guards scoffed at Hua Guanhai.
"Are you angry, Hua Guanhai? Hahahaha! It must have felt terrible to be a slave of their own mind."
"Yeah, I can't imagine how sad it is to get trapped in their own delusion."
"Less talking. Let's ignore him. We can't let any survivor flee from here, or it will really be a disaster."
"But the south…"
"That rumored Florida Man is near Magpie City. I heard he killed the second prince, and the emperor wanted him dead. Well, since these mushrooms gradually multiply, we'll send these spores to Florida Man's abode and kill him altogether. We'll kill two birds in one stone."
The guards smirked as they were on the imperial family's side. They didn't care about the consequences of their actions.
WHOOSH
They would soon be rudely awakened. While they were chatting, Hua Guanhai kicked the ground and charged toward them.
SWUA
SWUA
Using his black long sword, he cut down ten soul-formation cultivators in the sky in one second!
"!!!"
Ouyang Ke and others sensed the terrifying presence of Hua Guanhai. They took arms and prepared for a fight.
"Dammit! Can Jiangshi fly, too?!"
"Hua Guanhai, you bastard!"
Hua Guanhai turned around and groaned. His mushroom head split open in half, revealing a large eyeball inside, which replaced his brain.
The eyeball glared at everybody. Then, Hua Guanhai sneered.
"Not good!" Ouyang Ke broke a sweat. He pulled out an emergency portal talisman and tore it.
WHOOSH
A red portal appeared. Ouyang Ke frantically jumped into the portal and escaped alone.
As for the other cultivators, they failed to react as fast as Ouyang Ke. They unleashed their Qi attacks on Hua Guanhai.
"UUUURRRAAAAAHH!"
Hua Guanhai screamed and summoned his new dao avatar. The pink fog below gathered into a mass of spore, then shapeshifted into a giant chomper plant.
"NOM-NOM!"
The Dao avatar uttered before it transformed into pink clouds. Like a sweeping sandstorm, it devoured everybody in the sky.
.
.
"ACHOOO! MEOW!"
While eating potatoes in her granary, Cat's humanoid head sneezed. Her green slimy booger splashed everywhere on the mountain of mutated potatoes.
"…"
Cat sweated profusely. Even though she wantonly ate everything that she could, she was afraid of Leo's paper fans and his scolding. As the potatoes were Leo's important ingredients for pills, he always told Cat not to leave some clean potatoes for his automatons.
Seeing how all the potatoes in the granary got dirty, Cat cut out the dirty parts and put them in her mouth, hiding the evidence.
The smell of her slime booger was worse than Leo's stool and rotten corpses, yet she hummed as it tasted different.
While Cat was enjoying her endless meal, Leo walked into the granary.
"Hey, Cat. Have you eaten all the cabbage and chilies? The donkeys are complaining that there are not enough cabbages!"
"No Nom-Nom Meow!" Cat feigned ignorance.
"No? Are you sure?"
Cat shook her head. She sweated profusely.
"…Okay, then. I'll go check the other granary."
Leo left Cat alone. She then let out a sigh of relief.
As she was worried that Leo would scold her for eating too much, she decided not to eat more of Leo's food. She got out of the granary and deeply inhaled.
"Meow?"
As her foodie instinct was sharp, Cat caught a sweet scent of mushrooms from the north.
"Nom-Nom Meow?"
Cat drooled. She sprinted and leaped over the junkyard and log fields. Then, she disappeared into the iron pine trees beyond Leo's domain territory.
After running 100 kilometers, she came across a pink fog, which slowly crept toward Leo's domain and Magpie City.
Cat tilted her head as she remembered the scent. It belonged to the sweet dream mushrooms that she once ate. Addicted to the unique taste, she rushed into the fog to find a similar mushroom.
"NOM-NOM MEOW <3"
.
.
"Umm…"
While Cat went out for food, Esen slowly regained her senses. Her entire body felt numb, and she could barely move.
Esen gazed at the ceiling and discovered that she was in her new house. She let out a sigh of relief.
'Geezer, you idiot. Your stupid water hurt my throat! You could have given me water nicely!'
She was still mad that Leo used a barbaric method to treat her. However, she also remembered how delicious Leo's blood was.
The taste was out of the world. She had drunk many types of blood, but Leo's tasted like a fine wine. Moreover, his blood was full of life force and pure elemental essence.
Thinking of Leo, Esen smirked. She then glanced down, looking at her paralyzed body. S
Esen tried to move her arms, fingers, and legs. Unfortunately, they wouldn't budge.
'Oh, dear. This takes me back. I guess I have to keep trying until I regain my strength. Oh, right. I can move my Qi and move like a marionette.'
Using her Qi as a string, Esen pulled her arms and legs up to restore her senses.
But as soon as she got to see her arms and legs again, Esen deeply frowned. Something wasn't right.
Her skinny arm was usually short, and her hands were small. However, they seemed longer and bigger. Moreover, her pale skin was so whiter than a sheet.
'Hmm?'
Not only were her arms longer, her legs got lengthened as well. Her slender legs and meaty thighs seemed unusual.
'Huh?'
Unable to contain her curiosity, Esen closed her eyes to scan her appearance with her Qi. Then, she saw herself in a bird-eye view in her mind.
'WHAT IN THE WORLD?!'
