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Eighteenth leaf
Yuu-chan 2025.05.29. 01:37
Lu Feng went out of the cave again.
Their food supplies were depleted, their water bottles were emptied. Even sacrificing human food consumption, Lu Feng couldn’t feed An Zhe like this. After three days of resting, he had to go out to find edible plants and mushrooms, and fresh water.
Thankfully, he was much more successful with nature’s “database”, than with that of the humans; mushroom mycelium and tree roots were the most reliable information sources in this place. He hadn’t even had to dig deep to feel the connection, and he was lucky that they ended up so close to the mushroom forest as well – he was able to find safe and non-infectious species, which An Zhe could eat.
There was another entrance to their cave. It was even closer to their camp than the other side, and it opened right into the mushroom field. The mushroom forest was cold, and the smells were different here, much more earthy and moist. It wasn’t the rose’s favourite place, he needed more sun, but it was full of nutrients that even humans could benefit of.
A few days went like this before he started thinking of going further to the South. He explored the place alone, turning fully into his rose form, moving up with his tendrils, climbing the highest mushroom trees while avoiding hurting them, so they wouldn’t try to poison him. He had never been able to turn into a plant form completely since he entered the base, and he realised, he changed a lot in this form too. Before this, he had never known, that he was able to stretch his vines multiple meters long and leave the soil with his roots to change place. Maybe it was a new ability, or he was just that unaware.
He felt quite good. He was free, and this gave him a sense of confidence that kept his optimistic view on their situation, and was able to stay calm and logical like his ancestor, finding the best solutions they needed at the moment.
Of course, he wanted An Zhe to come with him, but… the young man was still weak. His fever occasionally returned, and he couldn’t hold onto his strength for a long time. He had slept a lot, and sometimes Lu Feng had to wake him up to eat. But his wound seemed okay, so he must be recovering slowly.
He found that towards the South, there was an even larger mushroom forest, and the distant horizon seemed to be at least a couple of days away from them, where he noticed a mountain range, as he squinted his eyes. Maybe they can go tomorrow… He can carry An Zhe, it wasn’t a problem. He had a better understanding of the nearby monsters as well. He definitely could avoid them, and if there were any more caverns along the way, their journey to the southest South could be carried out without issues.
After refilling all the water bottles from a spring that bulged out a mossy rock, making jingling noises, he headed back to the cave.
He still shrugged going inside their hiding spot; it was even colder than out in the open. The rose missed the warmth, so he hoped that they could find a good place on the South, where it was still safe from monsters, but has sunny spots, busking in the light.
As soon as he arrived in the largest cavern, in their temporary camping place, he froze, and rooted in the imaginable threshold of the room.
An Zhe wasn’t lying on the floor, covered in the two blankets as usual.
He was standing in the middle of the cave.
Naked.
His white skin reflected the greenish and pinkish hues from the different mushrooms around the walls. Lu Feng was stunned, and he couldn’t help but warm up instantly, especially his face and his lower half. His reaction was justified; An Zhe’s condition didn’t let them experience a lot with each other, but this didn’t stop Lu Feng’s mind from imagining many kinds of things – things he never knew existed – and the mere sight of that velvety skin was able to throw him into that spiral.
He earnestly hoped that humans’ mating season won’t last as long as his blooming season otherwise he will be facing a long period of suffering.
An Zhe didn’t hear him first, he wasn’t looking at his direction. He was… admiring himself. This was so unimaginable for Lu Feng, that his mind went blank.
“What are you doing?”
An Zhe looked up; his face was clear from struggles, and he didn’t seem drowsy or in pain either. His light eyes reflected the green glow again, and he smiled, opening his arms as if he were saying “look at me”. He didn’t need to ask that, Lu Feng couldn’t NOT look.
“I’m feeling so much better!” An Zhe said with a cheerful and steady voice, which Lu Feng hadn’t heard from him in a while. “I don’t feel any pain or cold!”
“Oh…”
Lu Feng was puzzled; he wanted to be happy, and he was happy, but this scenery just shocked him too much to show his enthusiasm. Especially, when An Zhe took a few quick steps, and almost clashed into his chest; his arms enveloped his neck immediately, so naturally as if he was a part of Lu Feng’s body, and he stood on his tippy-toes to kiss him. He was clearly overjoyed.
“Take me out! I want to go out with you. I don’t want to stay here anymore!”
Lu Feng frowned, and while one of his hands hugged the small waist, he put the other one on the young man’s forehead. Indeed, he wasn’t hot. He wasn’t sweaty or pale, his white face was just his healthy skin tone this time.
“Okay, but you have to put your clothes on. Why did you take them off?”
“Oh.” An Zhe blinked a few times, and loosened his grip on him, standing back on the ground. “I don’t know, I just felt something weird. It resembled of when your hand goes numb, and later it feels as ants are crawling on your skin… you know, right? Or have you never experienced it?”
Lu Feng felt similar feelings, but not too often; regardless, he could imagine.
“And? What it was?” He asked urging the other.
“I still don’t know. When I started taking off my clothes, it disappeared, and I noticed that I was feeling much better. By the way, my guess is that the Abyss’s pollution level interfered with the medicines, so it took effect more slowly and delayed my recovery. But now I’m okay.”
Lu Feng still felt confused over this fast-paced change. He only left a few hours ago, and An Zhe was still a bit sleepy, lying down, and talking so weakly… Of course, he liked this change, but he felt as if something was wrong with it. But An Zhe truly didn’t seem sick anymore. They had come to an agreement, that An Zhe would eat his late breakfast, and then they can go out. While the young man eagerly ate every fruit and leaves Lu Feng brought him, the rose told him about the Abyss and their destination. An Zhe hummed and agreed to go further; fortunately, he missed the sun too, so he agreed to find a less shadowy and warmer place for themselves to possibly stay longer.
After eating, An Zhe didn’t show any abnormalities, and was as energetic as Lu Feng had ever seen him – but this wasn’t a surprise, after all. When he saw the Arbiter in the past, he was always on duty, working, and on the few occasions when he met him outside of his work, his aura was always a bit happier and overall cheerful. Now, he wasn’t an Arbiter anymore. The melancholic expression, the fake smile, the unchanging face… they were gone. In a sense, he was also free, like how the rose experienced freedom recently.
They headed to the South, and Lu Feng didn’t have to carry An Zhe anymore. However, he still helped him to climb through the uneven ground and the roots that were sticking out the soil, and held his hand and pulled him up on higher rock formations. Whenever they felt like a monster was coming, they lay low, and waited in a hiding position.
An Zhe also awakened his scientist side. As he told Lu Feng, he had never been out in the wilderness to take samples or observe a certain life form in their natural habitat, but he was always curious about them. Now, he felt courageous enough to inspect a few things in the world of plants and mushrooms, and he shared his thoughts with Lu Feng – who only could nod or hum as an answer because he had no idea what he was talking about. An Zhe forgot about that, and used many jargon that Lu Feng couldn’t possibly hear in his entire life. But he didn’t mind much, and An Zhe didn’t expect any professional conversations from him either. Lu Feng slowly thawed from his confusion, and caught himself smiling while they went forward.
But he should’ve known that luck always comes with misfortune, from the day they left the human base.
They were about to sit down and eat a late lunch or early dinner. Lu Feng reminded An Zhe, that now they could try to make fire if he wanted – Lu Feng didn’t like fire, but many food tasted better cooked or fried. An Zhe agreed, so they started looking for a few branches or fallen leaves that they could use to spark the fire.
They weren’t far from each other, but they separated a little. Lu Feng was facing a small patch of gray mushrooms with neatly packed twigs in his arm, and contemplated examining them with his tendrils if they were edible or not. They were so tiny, they didn’t look suspicious.
Then a muffled “thump” sound and a faint grunt travelled to him from the direction of An Zhe. Lu Feng abruptly straightened up, and turned his head towards the young man – he was lying on the ground. Just for a half second, Lu Feng thought, he tripped and fell, but right away he noticed that An Zhe wasn’t moving.
The branches he gathered fell on the ground, and he flew over him instantly, falling on his knees beside him.
“An Zhe.” He called him, and his voice remained calm and collected, despite his inner anxiety. He grabbed the young man’s shoulder, and tried to turn him on his back when he noticed something under his palm.
It wasn’t blood or any other liquid… Under the shirt, around the place where his wound was, now completely healed, without the need for a bandage, Lu Feng sensed some… bumps. Frowning, he pulled up An Zhe to a sitting position, and began undressing him. An Zhe’s eyes were open, and he turned his head towards him, but his face jerked into a grimace, as he was experiencing something uncomfortable.
“I…” He tried to talk, his voice hoarse. “Somehow it’s weird… Something… I don’t know…”
Lu Feng didn’t react, just pulled the loosened shirt aside to look at his wound.
He froze right as the skin was exposed.
It wasn’t his skin.
There were tiny, white, glowing mushroom caps bulging out of him… their hyphae enveloped the shoulder and reached the nape too, clinging to the warm body securely. Lu Feng recognised them right away – it was the same species they were neighbours with at their previous camping spot. But… Lu Feng always ensured that they weren’t contacting with the life forms in there, and especially didn’t let An Zhe’s wound be exposed to them… When did this happen… When he went out in the morning? Or was it sooner, only the effect came later? In the Abyss, infection occurred in a few minutes… But the wound was already in good shape, why did they wait for so long to infect An Zhe?
The rose panicked when he wanted to keep his cool the most. His mind was spiralling back to his memories of the cave and couldn’t come up with any solution, as he looked at the mushrooms.
An Zhe noticed his stiffness, and started tapping his own shoulder. When he felt the bumps, his moves froze too, and after pausing, he began inspecting the shapes with his fingertips.
“Are these… coming out of me?”
His voice was calm and kind as usual. This is how Lu Feng knew, that he was also distressed. His carefreeness were washed away just after a day of freedom. He was masking his real emotions again.
“I can try to remove them.” Lu Feng offered suddenly. “If I use my tendrils, maybe I can… pull or force out the mushrooms…”
But would that help with the infection? Won’t they just regrow?
“Wait… just… took out one. Just one, please.”
Lu Feng wasn’t sure, how that would be better, but after pondering about it for a while, he tried to remove only one small mushroom from his body. He gently squeezed it between his two fingers, and pulled it. It worked better than he anticipated. He didn’t need to force the mushroom to let An Zhe go, the mycelium slipped out of him like a suture from a wound. It didn’t leave any marks or fresh wounds, and didn’t even paint the skin red.
When An Zhe took it on his palm, he began inspecting it, poking it with his finger, looking under the small cap, and crumbling the hyphae, which from a few strings fell when he touched it. It was a delicate little thing, it broke so easily.
“I’m not sure without my equipment and tests…” An Zhe murmured in a low voice. “But I know about a type of mushroom that has inertia against infection… Lu Feng, can you remove the other ones too?”
Lu Feng didn’t move at first. The word “inertia” brought up a small memory-portion, and he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket. The vial that Dr Ji gave him that morning… He took it out, and the pearl-like liquid was slightly glowing under the shadows of the forest. An Zhe looked over, and his eyes widened, reaching for the vial.
“This… how did you get this?”
Lu Feng told him shortly, and An Zhe’s face twitched and his surprise vanished quickly, making a rare, resentful expression, as he looked at him.
“I told Jibran to handle this sample very carefully… He is so reckless… I hope he didn’t bring home more. If the Lighthouse would find out…”
He just sighed and shook his head, then, he removed the lid, and as an experiment, he poured one drop of the extract on the small mushroom on his palm, while Lu Feng continued to take out the rest of the mushrooms from his shoulder.
The tiny mushroom jolted before it began growing and glowing a bit from that one drop. It was now not so tiny, but still very small.
“Hm… It reacts to the extract positively. Then, I think I’m right. I think these are the mushrooms that the base created this extract from.” Lu Feng collected all the mushrooms on his palm, and held them out to the young man while casting a look at the newly healed wound. He didn’t find a single hyphae left, the skin was once again smooth like silk.
“So, what would that mean?” He asked. “Are these not infectious?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe they just rooted in me for some reason…” An Zhe’s voice halted, as he put down the mushrooms in the soil in front of him. The mushrooms didn’t do anything at first, but then, they instinctively started looking for the soil, and their mycelium grabbed on the leaves and roots of the other plants around them. They gradually formed a new little patch of mushrooms, standing together like a mini-forest. When An Zhe poured a few more drops of the liquid on their hat, they suddenly grew into a couple of centimetres tall mushroom-forest.
“Did they heal you?” Lu Feng asked as they both watched this event. It was nearly a miracle, but he was still tense. “Why did you collapse? Did they cause the tingling you’ve talked about?”
“Well… we couldn’t say for sure if it’s not infectious at all, it was just very likely the case.” An Zhe slowly began dressing up again. “I’m not sure if they are capable of healing me, per se. However, my fever indicated that my immune system responded to a disease. Fever is actually a good thing to help preserve body heat, but it should wear off eventually, especially when the cause of the fever is gone. Once my wound healed, I should’ve been alright… was I infected, or did I have bacteria in my system? Was this thing sensed it, and helped with its inertia to wipe out the remaining problems? Well, mushrooms have always had many benefits. So it is possible.”
“So, I should’ve used this extract on you way sooner.” Lu Feng concluded, somewhat understanding An Zhe’s explanation. “Dr Ji told me to only use it when it’s a life-and-death situation.”
“Because he didn’t know either if it would work.” An Zhe smiled lightly. “Back to this mushroom… I think they didn’t mean to infect me. Maybe I felt them wanting to leave after I was alright… Maybe we shouldn’t brought them out of the cave… That is their home, we need to take them back. But I still feel a bit slower now. I don’t feel sick… but I also don’t think I can go back to the cave…”
An Zhe genuinely seemed upset. He was torn between what he thought would be the right thing to do, and what he was able to do. Lu Feng looked at his struggling face for a while, before sighing.
“Let’s call it a day. We can bring them back tomorrow. Let’s eat and rest. Once you’ve rested, you should feel better.”
An Zhe looked up, and understanding what Lu Feng meant, a wide smile appeared on his face.
They made the fire, they fried the seeds and the grey mushrooms Lu Feng collected, and he joined to the humble feast this time. It wasn’t the best tasting dinner, but definitely nutritious.
They still had to find a place to hide for the night. Lu Feng looked around, but their luck ran out once again. The nearest cave was even farther in the South than the cave they used for the past few days. So, he decided to make a cocoon out of his branches and tendrils again. His thorns could give them a nice protection, and hopefully will chase away any monsters that would notice them.
An Zhe had fallen asleep very easily under his protection, but Lu Feng was drifting between dreaming and waking up. He hugged An Zhe under his cocoon, giving him his warmth. He unconsciously pricked up his ears and he let some roots dig into the soil for a wider net of information, but even then… he couldn’t notice the approaching danger fast enough.
All of a sudden, he was jolted awake by a commotion. Distressed signals ran into his roots from a certain direction – mostly from where they came from. The vegetation’s night sleep was interfered, and they changed their resonances as if they were being hit or pulled out.
As soon as he understood this message, he already noticed the rustling noises with his human ears. The intruder was pretty close to them. He also knew that this sound didn’t belong to the wilderness. It wasn’t just a mere guest from the flatlands or something. It was not a snake above them in the canopies, hunting; it wasn’t the weird-looking, bird-shaped thing that dug the soil at night to find food…
A particular swishing sound and small “thud-thud” noises came with the rustling, and at some point, an electric current’s white noise buzzed in the forest.
Humans.
Lu Feng immediately brought back his branches and tendrils.
The humans weren’t in his sight range yet, but he knew if they stay here, they will be discovered by them.
“An Zhe.” He called the young man whispering, and shook him gently. An Zhe grunted softly, and didn’t open his eyes. “An Zhe, wake up. They caught up with us.”
After so many days… Lu Feng didn’t expect people to not give up on them already. In addition, they even followed them here… from all places… He thought humans feared the Abyss. Even though they announced seclusion, even though they could not win anything by killing them, even though they’d already experienced a misfortune when they tried to chase them… they still came after them to the most dangerous and infectious place of all.
Maybe they should’ve stayed in the cave, or shouldn’t make a fire, but there wasn’t anything good in dwelling on their mistakes.
An Zhe seemed to have a very deep sleep. He woke up when Lu Feng jumped on his feet, but he fell into his dream again. As if he wasn’t able to come back from there. There was no time for this… The rose felt an increasing tension, and he had to make a decision.
He grabbed An Zhe, and left everything that they used to carry in their blanket-bag, he only could take that could fit into his own side bag.
Once An Zhe was on his back, Lu Feng started running. He had to be careful because he knew if he was able to hear the soldiers, they can hear him too – and knowing how well-equipped they were, they probably could see in the dark with their helmets and such.
He heard when they fastened their steps, and Lu Feng knew they noticed him, or at least, they were aware of his presence. But what can he do? Climb up on a mushroom? But mushrooms were too delicate. He had to be careful even in daylight because if he was causing any harm to their stems, these mushrooms would definitely react and protect themselves by letting out poisonous puffs or liquid… And they might not hurt Lu Feng, who was just a rose, but An Zhe… what about him? He was miraculously saved by that tiny mushroom, now, he had to risk his life again…
He couldn’t bring over insects now. However, he still tried and made a desperate move, letting his head and tendrils come out, and sent out a signal of distress along his way. He couldn’t root into the soil to use the deeper connections, but in the Abyss, many plants had their roots sticking out of the ground, and mushrooms could be more perceptive as well. Maybe he can increase other vegetation’s protection system, that would cause a slight delay in their persecutors’ movements.
He ran for so long that even An Zhe had waken up somewhat. He was still in a delirious state, not understanding where he was, and mumbling to himself, trying to regain his consciousness. Lu Feng hoped, that this wasn’t the after-effect of the tiny mushroom, but he couldn’t stop; and even if he did, and even if it was the after-effect, he couldn’t do much about it right now.
Occasionally, he heard a distant, muffled scream or a cursing sound, and he knew from those noises that their pursuers were not as close anymore as they were previously. It seemed like they didn’t know the area enough to follow them, or maybe, just maybe they lost his trace. Yet, he didn’t dare to stop until he reached a way farther point of the mushroom forest… so far that the mushrooms started to begin sparse, and he sometimes saw the aurora and an open space on the horizon, fairly close to them.
They’ve slowly reached the end of the mushroom forest.
By that time, he was extremely tired; running on the uneven ground in human form wasn’t at all an easy task, even with Lu Feng’s build, carrying someone else as well. He stopped moving for a little while, and tried to hear any unusual noise.
There was only his fast breathing and loudly thumping heart, and the familiar noises of nature. No more human noises.
Trees mixed into the mushrooms; both species grew giants in this area, and the plants started to shift from the many kinds of mushrooms to pine trees and large bushes. On the very edge of the mushroom forest, he found a tree that had a few huge roots bulging out of the soil, forming a comfortable bed, stuffed with soft moss. He decided to lie down there with An Zhe. He didn’t have water, so once he settled in, he let his roots reach the soil from this crib, and sucked some of the moisture out of the earth.
An Zhe looked up, his eyes unfocused a bit, and glanced around the place. From the green light of the aurora, they could see much better here, than under the large mushroom-caps.
“Uh… I had a dream about a mushroom.” He murmured before nesting his face in Lu Feng’s neck, hugging him again.
“Had you?” Lu Feng asked hoarsely, still exhausted from the running, and rested his face on An Zhe’s soft hair.
“Mn…” An Zhe growled. “I was a mushroom.”
“Was it fun?”
“I don’t know… I think it wasn’t… I was searching for something I’ve lost.”
Lu Feng hummed, and closed his eyes. His brain slowed down. He wanted to stay awake, but his body relaxed too much. At least An Zhe was fine. There was no need to think about his dream further. He knew that dreams weren’t particularly anything, just images that the human brain created. They had small meanings, but nothing sort of serious or fate-changing. Although it was possible that this dream came from the mushroom that took over his body for a while – just like how Lu Feng saw his ancestor’s memories.
He couldn’t help it anymore, his eyelids were heavy and dry, his heart slowed down, and exhaustion overwhelmed him. Maybe he would stay awake if he had realised in time that their pursuers didn’t disappear – they had been silencing themselves so as not to make their target run away. He didn’t hear them approaching, and he even missed when An Zhe was taken away from his arms.
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