Chapter 156: Snake Poison

When the creeping shadow fixes its gaze upon you, your fate is already sealed.

When you see it happily appear before you, check your vital points—you should already be dead.

Li En knew the "Snake" had a terrible reputation, but he hadn't expected it to be this extreme.

Someone who looked exactly like the mastermind behind the scenes and the ultimate boss suddenly let out a girl-like scream.

For a moment, Li En couldn't even tell who the real villain was.

"Huh ha! Stupid octopus head, come at me!"

Watching the girl cheerfully swing her flower-like fists (powerful enough to pierce the earth), Li En truly felt at ease.

If it were only me, I'd already be trapped in a hopeless situation.

Why is there a snake? Why was there no prior warning?

"Dumb, of course I hid it well."

At this moment, Li En remembered that since entering the underground world, Violet Rose had been remarkably low-key.

In many situations, she could have easily slaughtered everyone, yet she merely watched silently. She could have personally driven back the siege beast and secured the alliance with the underground world.

It seemed that, aside from the Divine Maiden, no one cared that she turned to look back—she must have been using mental suggestion to erase her presence entirely, and under these conditions, she naturally couldn't act freely.

The only time she truly acted was when she hunted down the runaway Beast Prince in the Spider Village, eliminating a potential high-threat target in advance.

As the legend says, the creeping shadow strikes only when it appears—and that strike is always fatal.

"Kill her! Kill her! Her frontal combat ability is the weakest of all beasts—we have the Deer! Yes, come back! Save me! Save me! Or we all die!"

The great beast on the battlefield, locked in combat with two of its own kind, froze in place at that moment.

"Woo." A long deer call echoed across the battlefield—the once arrogant beast actually retreated.

Merely by discovering the snake in its nest, it immediately prepared to turn back!

"Unfair! We're not the weakest! At least we're better than… uh, anyway, we're not the weakest!"

The pouting little girl seemed thoroughly infuriated by the "hard truth."

But neither friend nor foe took her behavior seriously.

The Snake's words and actions were all deadly lies!

"Don't respond to her! Don't try to understand her! Kill her!!"

The mastermind's escape route was already cut off, and the Deer's counterattack was still en route.

Amid its furious roars, the gray membranes over the eyes of the high-rank Mind Drainers glowed.

Instantly, fireballs, lightning, and miniature "black holes" tore through the scene.

One Mind Drainer made a bizarre gesture—and next, three elemental spells were launched simultaneously; it was evidently an extremely rare time-acceleration user.

The high-rank Mind Drainers' mental power surged rapidly, yet their first wave consisted entirely of elemental magic.

Because the knowledge chain shared by the mastermind revealed that the Snake was immune to nearly all mental and control abilities.

Forcibly contacting her mind would only lead to manipulation and backlash.

"A monster without a heart."

"A twisted creature wearing human skin."

Honestly, these Mind Drainers cursed like sailors—and their attacks were brutal.

And in their pale eyes, anger and murderous intent appeared—something rare and abnormal for Mind Drainers, who barely felt emotion.

Spatial rifts opened one after another, and the high-rank Mind Drainers, upon entering the hall, immediately joined the battle.

In this brief moment, the mastermind had dragged every high-rank Mind Drainer here.

At this moment, Li En finally understood the full extent of the "Snake's" reputation.

Yet facing such an opponent, Violet Rose still fought with a smile and delight.

Every strike, every kick, brimmed with pure joy.

The high-speed melee magic girl effortlessly dodged each attack.

"Huh? I've been ignored again."

At this moment, Li En realized the Mind Drainers and the mastermind had once again unconsciously ignored him.

This was clearly abnormal—even if Li En's power was negligible before them, he was only meters away from the mastermind!

"These Mind Drainers' emotions are off… Did they fall for something?"

It must be a similar ability to the one that previously buried Li En's presence within the Black Dragon Knight.

Now, Violet Rose had embedded Li En's presence within her own, making herself the target of all attention.

Clearly, this couldn't last.

Face-to-face deception could only briefly distract and create visual misdirection—was it really just for herself?

"Why… I get it. I understand."

Li En's pupils flashed with realization as he slowly, steadily walked toward the mastermind's pool.

The battlefield between Violet Rose, the Mind Drainers, and the mastermind passed right by him.

Each lethal spell passed harmlessly over him—he now knew his duty.

"You really trust me."

This had been Violet Rose's plan from the start—even her own emergence was merely to serve as bait and a decoy; the stronger the individual, the harder it is to ignore.

And for the Snake, a single kiss is enough to kill.

The Snake's sudden appearance instills fear and unease, causing opponents to unconsciously overlook other targets.

The cunning Snake even uses its own existence—and its abysmal reputation—as effective weapons.

Mental waves swept back and forth, but before Li En, who was already "controlled," these mental abilities were useless.

He only needed to avoid the fluctuations of elemental spells, lest he be "revealed."

For Li En, who possessed the Dragon Eyes, this was not difficult—for some reason, he could faintly perceive these monsters' "targeting," allowing him to dodge in advance (Desire Snake Eyes).

"Now, what should I do…"

Li En stepped into the mastermind's brine pool, blending in among the slaves massaging it.

He lowered his head and saw a faint silver frost spreading outward from himself.

So this was its poison.

"I see. Killing the mastermind alone won't solve the problem. Snake, you're so greedy—you want to consume everything."

If Violet Rose truly wanted to assassinate the mastermind, she had simpler, more effective methods.

But what would happen if the mastermind died? The Mind Drainers would flee, and the beasts would instantly become the primary threat—the two already matured Deer Princes would converge.

They would first destroy Mordosilcar, then either destroy Huicheng—or worse, ally with the Dark Elves and free the Demigod first.

"The virus has always been the Deer's own knowledge—its instinct."

Li En placed his hands on the mastermind, just like the other slaves, massaging it.

But the lethal "knowledge poison" began slowly seeping into the mastermind's brain—and then… spreading into the brains of the Beast Princes it controlled!

At this moment, Li En was "massaging" the brain of the great Deer Beast as well.

"Beasts are beasts of cycles—not merely the regeneration of their antlers, but also their…"

Understand it, empathize with it, resonate with it, suggest to it—this is the standard process of mental suggestion. No force needed—only gentle guidance.

"What do you want? I'll give it to you."

In Li En's mind, he recalled the twisted Holy Mother family—monsters who devoured their own children and kin.

"They… are monsters that devour their own kind!"

The Deer are scavengers—and rare carriers of prion infection.

This "virus" isn't a virus at all, but a mutated, twisted protein that contaminates animals—an infectious agent that, under certain conditions, is seen as a warning from the Creator, existing almost exclusively in cannibalism, with near-100% fatality.

As beasts of natural cycles, Deer are rare large scavengers, especially prone to consuming the corpses of their own kind.

Their antlers regenerate annually; flesh can be replenished through normal feeding, but rare elements, vitamins, and minerals are hard to obtain—cannibalism naturally solves all of it.

This is their genetic instinct, an unbreakable survival rule—their original sin.

"Respected Beast Prince, your kin have died—they are merely living corpses, and they look so delicious."

A powerful suggestion, released from Li En's body, flowed into the mastermind—and then was unpacked and unleashed within the Beast Prince's mind.

Both giant Beast Princes froze—their feeding and scavenging instincts activated. Compared to ordinary beasts, this instinct was a remarkably effective supernatural trait.

Before Li En, the Horned Ones used young beasts to compensate for their deficiencies—"cannibalism" was, in fact, the Deer's supernatural trait.

Violet Rose hadn't lied: in normal combat, the Snake was the weakest among all beasts—but those who wielded the Authority of "Mind" were the ultimate predators of all beasts, supreme masters of manipulating instinct.

"Huh huu!" The great beasts lifted their heads, gasping heavily—their feeding instincts fully awakened, overwhelming hunger clawing at them.

"So hungry… so hungry… so hungry…"

"So delicious… so delicious… so delicious…"

The two controlled great Deer simultaneously activated their cannibalistic instincts—the Snake's suggestion twisted their perception, making them gradually see each other as corpses—now edible!

Suggestions like this rarely succeed by forcibly suppressing instinct and desire—but when they align with instinct, letting the target believe "eating the good, playing the good," they succeed instantly.

This was merely the first layer of suggestion.

Mental suggestion grows deadlier when layered—it can multiply its power several times over.

"Look, there are so many lovely female deer around. That antlered male deer is so conspicuous. Kill him—all the females are yours!"

In nature, herds often consist of one dominant male with dozens of females.

But Deer are the most extreme—every female is the stag's mate, and his prodigious fertility forces him to fulfill his "divine duty" daily.

The Deer are beasts of desire.

The Snake, with her whispering voice, catalyzed this desire.

Damn it!!

Mine! All mine!

At this moment, the primal instincts of both great beasts were activated.

Beyond the right to survive, the first instinct of life is to eat; the second is to reproduce.

At this moment, these two desires were awakened, and the third impulse naturally triggered.

Kill it, kill it, eat it, eat it, it's all yours, all yours.

The urge to fight, the urge to kill, were also activated by the first two desires.

Deer grow antlers to display their strength and attract mates, and to win battles against rivals—they possess an intense drive to compete with their own kind!

With all three desires acting at once, the great beasts' minds now held not a shred of reason or logic.

"It wants to kill you, kill you! It wants to eat you, devour you!" Finally, when sensing the other's murderous intent, the survival instinct was fully activated.

When the brain held only instinct, they naturally reverted to true "beasts"—feral, instinct-driven monsters!

They were mad.

【Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!】

The central brain emitted a horrific scream—too many "desires" and "emotions" flooded its core, directly causing it to crash.

Outside, the world had become a living hell.

The great beast that had just been fighting the Divine Maiden, the monster that had crossed into Mosodilka and was slaughtering wildly, abandoned the battlefield and spun around violently.

On another battlefield, the other great beast, enduring attacks from two magical girls, its eyes blazing red, charged toward its own kind.

Boom!

Finally, the two monsters collided head-on with their antlers.

The two beasts, each generating their own gravity field, caused violent tremors throughout the underground world.

Cracks split the earth; countless rocks tumbled down, as if the entire region were about to collapse.

And between their antlers, their brains had already been crushed into pulp!

【I... h... at... ill... ate...】 Countless emotions clashed; ancient "desires" were forcibly pumped back into the central brain linked to the deer.

Thus, the central brain, too, went mad.

Then, all the mind flayers naturally went mad.

Next, the servants and slaves controlled by the mind flayers also went mad!

The entire battlefield was now utterly insane.

Li En Sudar, watching his own hands from within the pool, could hardly believe it.

He now understood why the snake, despite its relatively weak combat ability, carried such a "glorious" reputation.

"This... is snake venom?"

Zi Qiangwei is a snake—but isn't Li En Sudar one too?

(End of Chapter)