First time gardener.

I ordered a bunch of sweet potato slips and received them much earlier than I was ready (about 2 weeks ago). Since I often see sweet potato slips being grown in water until they are ready for planting, I put them into a couple of cups of water.

Here is when I first got them:

And now:

All of the original leaves have wilted. All the leaves you see in the last two pictures are new. As you can see, even the new leaves are yellowing and curling a bit, with some black spots. Of course, they're in a place that may not have the best light.

On the one hand, I'm getting new, clean white roots, but the rest of the stem is soft and slimy and its turning brown. There's a bit of an odor.

At this point, I don't know whether I should plant them into soil. From what I understand, I risk contaminating the soil with whatever fungus is on these plants.

Should I try to cut from higher up on the stem and try to re-grow the slips from new cuttings? Or should I just plant them and hope for the best?