The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

The room was covered in mushrooms. From the top to the bottom, it was covered in mushrooms of various shapes and sizes, poking about from all sorts of places in their mini paradise inside this hidden area.

I walked in, staring around in wonder. I’d been thinking if spirit mushrooms could be an example of Gu spirit plants, but it seems I was way off the mark. These were brimming with Qi, so much so that I could almost taste it from merely breathing in the air. There was an odd glow to the place, and I quickly noticed the reason to be the spirit grass glowing next to the mushrooms, containing a strange glow to it.

I bent down, quickly picking some grass up for myself.

I reached out with my other senses for Gu, and was surprised to find a network of death energy in the ground beneath the mushrooms, and the walls and ceiling, and pretty much everywhere. It was minute, a very small amount, yet there was enough that cultivators should’ve noticed.

“Is this even part of the tournament?” I muttered out loud, looking around at the Qi-filled chamber, as I walked further.

Looking down, I grabbed one of the mushrooms out. I stopped upon noticing something weird, the mushroom didn’t have any roots, but had arm and leg like appendiges. I noticed the little thing start to kick and move as I turned it around and was greeted by a face, with two eye holes that did not look very pleased. I let go of the mushroom as it dropped onto the ground, and looked up at me with an angry expression, which shouldn’t have been possible as the only features it had were a thin mouth with no lips and two holes for eyes. The mushroom ran towards me, and bit my toe, it tickled somewhat.

My composure started to vanish when half of the mushrooms began to stand up from the ground and turn to look at me. Oh shit.

Putting my hands in my bag, I grabbed my drugnade, ready to throw one, yet one long look at the army of tiny mushroom people rushing towards me made me change my plans, as I decided to make a run for it.

Pushing Qi to my feet, I wind step as I shot forward. I tried to not crush any mushrooms under my feet, as I wouldn’t have the heart to see one squished with blood splattered around it and live with myself.

Trying my best as I dodged the barrage of mushrooms, who slowly but surely began to climb on me, I made my way to the other end of the room.

An altar of some sort formed of mud was present in the area, with the mural of a woman standing with her arms spread out, drawn on it. I saw little tiny mushrooms drawn on the wall.

“Ouch,” I muttered as one mushroom jumped from the roof, and grabbed onto my ear. I flicked it aside, studying the mural.

“Chii!” Twilight chimed happily as Labby shot off the mushrooms with her lightning. I maintained a light pulse of Qi around me to push them away though one managed to stick around by sitting next to Twilight on my head.

The little plant girl began to clap and play with the mushroom spirit, talking to it in her chimes and I shook my head, amused by all of it.

I extended my hand, touching the mural on the wall as the entire room suddenly stilled. I turned around to see all the mushrooms staring at me in utter shock as if they couldn’t believe what I’d just done.

Slowly, I saw one mushroom walk closer as it walked up to the wall, and with shivering hands tried to touch it. Qi flared as light rose from the ground, forming an invisible barrier that held it back, preventing the mushroom from touching it.

I saw the mushrooms that had climbed my body fall down, as they all stared at me. Then, all at once, they fell to their knees and began to bow their heads.

“Chii?” Twilight chimed with a note of confusion.

“Well… something’s going on. Though I’m not terribly sure what,” I said out loud, scratching my cheek as I looked around unsure of what to do. Realizing that I had a mushroom on my head, I grabbed the little bugger in my hands, as it squaked like a rubber ducky being pressed, shivering in fear.

“How do I get the spirit herb? Wherever it is,” I said out loud. These mushrooms were potent, but clearly, there was some sort of puzzle here, and the prize seemed to be beyond this.

The mushroom simply shivered more at my question and I sighed. I was about to start looking at the murals for an answer when Twilight jumped down from my hand onto my shoulder and made her way to my palm.

“Chi~ Chii Chii!” she exclaimed, pointing all sorts of ways before finally at me. The mushroom spirit squeaked, looking at her once, before back at me. Slowly it nodded, and I turned towards Twilight in confusion.

“Chii!” she explained and for some reason, even though her words weren't conveyed, I understood what she meant.

I bent down, letting the mushroom go as it jumped off, and ran up to the shivering mushrooms, groveling on the ground.

With a series of chirps, grunts, and squeaks, the mushroom called out. Its hands flared out, as it shouted, its voice shaking with emotion as the mushroom people began to rise one by one. Slowly they looked up as the mushroom spoke, and I saw a strange green liquid starting to flow down some of their eye holes as they stared at me.

“Squeadik!” the mushroom chanted with power, raising its fist as its speech reached a conclusion, and with a powerful and high-pitched roar, the mushrooms joined in all at once.

Together, they rose and opened their mouths, starting to sing a song, as I felt the Qi swirl around the room. The mushroom that had just talked to Twilight turned back at me, its expressionless eyeholes somehow feeling extremely determined.

It walked to the wall, putting its hands at the barrier that stopped it as it screamed and the mushrooms all screamed with him.

I watched in silence, my confusion growing more and more with each passing second. Twilight interrupted me, chiming as she pointed at the wall.

“Chii!!” she exclaimed, as the word played in my mind once more. “Help!”

“Wait, I’m supposed to help them… break that?” I asked, confused when Twilight nodded. I turned around to face the wall, before taking a quick breath.

Focusing my Qi I began to swirl it in turn with the mushrooms. “Tell them to focus it at one point,” I told Twilight, who climbed to my shoulders and chimed her words to the rest.

“Labby will help too!” Labby joined in, crackling at the invisible barrier.

I began to gather the Qi, using the swirling storm around me and focusing it at once more. The song of the mushrooms rose, as the barrier shone with power and I gathered it all together, bundling it together.

“Focus the Qi towards me!” I shouted as the mushrooms obeyed. A torrent of Qi flooded towards me, and I struggled to control it all. Gathering it together, I pushed it, pouring it near my hands. My control started to slip as my core began to strain itself, and when I was about to let go of the Qi, I turned towards the wall.

“Here goes nothing,” I let the QI lose, turning towards the wall and using the only move that was appropriate in the situation.

“KAAAAMEEEEEHAAAAMEE- HAAAAA!!!!” I shouted with all I had, as a beam of Qi shot towards the wall. With a shuddering explosion of light and dust, I saw the walls shake, as the barrier crumbled.

I coughed, waving the cloud of dust that filled the air away as I stumbled ahead. Beyond the wall, stood a pristine little chamber, with a single glowing mushroom present in it, so pure in Qi that I found myself drooling at it without realizing it.

“C-Can Labby eat that? Please? Please please please please??!” Labby exclaimed, her hunger spiking as if she’d just seen heavenly nectar.

“I’m sorry Labby,” I said, quickly waking ahead as I grabbed the mushroom, and turned around. I paused as I noticed the army of mushroom people, with the mushroom the leader mushroom all looking at me as if I was some kind of god.

Together the mushroom people bowed like I’d freed them from some sort of curse, and I returned a slight nod. For a moment, I stared at the mushroom leader, wondering if I should take him with me. It’d be really amazing to have a mushroom spirit with me and may allow me to study Gu more carefully.

“Would you like to come with me?” I asked the mushroom, as Twilight chimed, translating. The mushroom's tiny eyes widened, as it stared at me in disbelief. A moment later it turned to look at the mushrooms all within the room and shook its head.

“Squidik!” it exclaimed, and Twilight chimed a sad tone.

“People. Leader!” Twilight spoke to me, and somehow I understood what the mushroom meant.

“That’s fair. This is your home after all. As a parting gift, here, take this pill,” I said, digging out a plain Qi refilling pill as I handed it to the mushroom.

“Thanks for all your help,” I said to all of them, as I walked out to the cries of squidks from the mushrooms behind me.

For some reason, I felt like I’d helped create a historical moment in mushroom kingdom history that would be told of for generations to come.

Smiling at the extremely strange trial that I wasn’t even sure I had completed properly, I walked out of the cavern, as Twilight waved to the spiders on the ceiling.

I was about to do the very same, when a sensation reached me that made my smile slip as I quickly pulled up my guard, circulating my Qi. Labby crackled with lightning, sensing the same thing a moment later.

There was a cultivator nearby.