Chapter 26 | The One Who Devours All

“I am a Parasitic Mushroom!”

The Heart Thief had revealed its true identity.

Who could have imagined that the notorious Heart Thief’s true form was merely a small mushroom?

“So those black tentacles are actually your mycelium? You’re a mushroom, so why steal human hearts? Is it to split and breed more monsters?” Yue Shi asked.

The Parasitic Mushroom, its mind already clouded, answered honestly, “By taking someone’s heart, I can inherit the skills they excelled at in life. I’ve already learned how to play the guitar, play mahjong, do square dancing, and I have a comprehensive guide to postpartum care and parenting...”

Yue Shi cut off its nonsense and went straight to the point. “If you take a transcendent’s heart, can you use their supernatural powers too?”

“Yes,” the Parasitic Mushroom nodded.

Yue Shi’s expression turned grim. No wonder Zhong Mo said this thing had incredibly high growth potential.

In its primitive state, the Parasitic Mushroom might be weak, perhaps only able to harm ordinary people and unable to fight transcendents at all. Moreover, no matter how many ordinary hearts it stole, it would be difficult to reach a level of qualitative change.

However, even though the threshold for its first pot of gold was high, once a single unlucky transcendent fell victim to it, the Parasitic Mushroom would instantly take off. After that, as long as it remained cautious and continued to hunt transcendents in the shadows, it would snowball and grow increasingly powerful.

Thinking of this, Yue Shi suddenly felt something was off. “Since you can disguise yourself as a human and even evade the supernatural detector, you could have easily stayed hidden, slowly infecting the population and approaching transcendents as an ordinary person before hunting them. Why take the risk of attacking Zhong Mo and me?”

Beside him, Zhong Mo glanced at Yue Shi, seemingly surprised by how familiar he was with such malicious tactics.

But the Parasitic Mushroom said, “No, I don’t possess the ability to disguise myself.”

“Huh??” Yue Shi was bewildered. “Wasn’t it you who hollowed out the bodies of the Niu father and daughter and hid beneath their skins?”

Parasitic Mushroom: “I only need the hearts. Besides, I have no way to keep a detached human skin fresh and looking as healthy and rosy as a living person for long.”

“Then what about Mr. Niu and Niu Xiaohui?” Yue Shi didn’t mention Old Man Qin.

The Parasitic Mushroom suddenly fell silent, as if fearing something. Even in its hypnotized state, it didn’t dare to speak easily.

“Don’t be afraid, just relax. Tell me everything you know,” Yue Shi continued to use Raven's Secret Whispers to coax it.

After a moment, the Parasitic Mushroom said tremulously, “It’s... it’s Boss Pi!”

“Boss Pi? Who is he?” Yue Shi followed up quickly.

“Boss Pi is a merchant. He can strip off human skin and make it into special ‘clothes.’ When a supernatural creature wears these human-skin clothes, they look almost no different from a real human. I bought clothes from him...”

As the Parasitic Mushroom told its story, Yue Shi and Zhong Mo gradually gained a deep and comprehensive understanding of its past.

At the very beginning, it was indeed weak and lacked intelligence, acting mostly on instinct. That was until it accidentally obtained its first human heart and began to learn and mimic human knowledge and wisdom.

It began to systematically kill and steal hearts, nurturing and expanding its splits. Unfortunately, both it and its splits were in the form of tentacle monsters, so they could only hide and act in the shadows.

It wasn’t until it met Boss Pi by chance that it gained the ability to integrate into human society.

Boss Pi’s clothes could deceive the detectors. Originally, the Parasitic Mushroom had obtained three sets of clothes. Its main body disguised itself as Niu Xiaohui, and two of its splits wore human skins and were controlled by it to approach “rookie” transcendents who were less vigilant.

Unfortunately, both of those splits were ruined.

The so-called less vigilant rookies were, in fact, more devious than the last. As soon as one split showed a hint of abnormality, it was decisively cut down. Its skin was also damaged, so the Parasitic Mushroom brought it back and haphazardly pasted it onto the wardrobe to hide hearts.

That was why the detector hadn’t picked up any supernatural fluctuations in the room until Yue Shi destroyed the wardrobe, causing the indicator light to change color.

The other split disguised as a human was Old Man Qin. It had lurked cautiously for a long time, but in the end, it was still brought to justice by Yue Shi.

That human skin belonging to Old Man Qin was currently locked in a morgue locker.

It could only be said that while the Parasitic Mushroom possessed human intelligence, it didn’t quite understand human nature. It only looked at the surface and misjudged everyone.

“The father of the girl whose skin I took was getting more and more out of line. I originally wanted to keep him, as his presence helped hide my identity, but he was so obsessed with making money that he started to interfere with me and increase the risk of my exposure. So, I sent him to Boss Pi to have his skin stripped and made into ‘clothes.’”

The Parasitic Mushroom spoke these words with a sinister tone, clearly loathing Mr. Niu.

“You could have easily gotten more human-skin clothes and developed slowly. With more splits mixed into the crowd, everything would have been much easier. Why were you in such a hurry?” Yue Shi suggested sincerely.

The Parasitic Mushroom’s ability was perfect for a sneaky bastard to develop in the shadows. As long as it laid low in the early stages and accumulated enough initial capital, it could have skyrocketed once it grew up.

“I wanted to develop slowly too, but reality wouldn’t allow it. I simply couldn’t do it!” The Parasitic Mushroom’s voice actually carried a hint of human-like resentment and melancholy.

“The number of splits I can control is limited. Once there are too many, my control precision drops rapidly. The splits might even develop an independent consciousness, which is often mixed with the will of the heart’s original owner. To maintain the uniqueness of my ‘self,’ I absolutely cannot tolerate such a situation!”

“I see.” Yue Shi suddenly understood. No wonder when there were many tentacle monsters before, they only charged around blindly. When the final five merged, their bloated form actually became more flexible and agile.

“And Boss Pi isn’t a philanthropist. Even if I provide the raw materials, the price he charges is still very high. I couldn’t afford the fees,” the Parasitic Mushroom continued.

“Oh?” Yue Shi narrowed his eyes slightly. “How much do you know about Boss Pi?”

“I don’t know him well. Every time I see him, he has a different appearance. He could be a beautiful woman, a handsome man, a kind old person, or a cute child. It’s less that I sought him out for trade and more that he actively found me and forced me to trade.”

At this point, the Parasitic Mushroom paused. “However, I know that if Boss Pi stays in this city for long, he will most likely target the two of you.”