He woo da Mao with ultra rare parasitic fungus.
I like interesting species as much as the next biologist, but you bring any of that nightmare-tier parasitic stuff anywhere near me I would burn you and everything around you down until I ran out of fuel. One of the only things that freaks me out more than cordyceps is the botfly. Seriously... if anything needed to go extinct ASAP, it is the human botfly. But yeah, that fungus is close behind.