Chapter 157: Unexpected Harvest

The ambush capability of the Ambusher is her greatest weapon. She waits in the shadows, possessing enough patience and greed that she would rather miss an opportunity than expose herself for nothing.

That first strike, which is very likely the only strike, can often completely turn the tide of battle.

When Li En acquired the knowledge of the deer, he inevitably acquired a great deal of knowledge about snakes as well.

Comparing the actions of Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei along the way, Li En completely understood how deadly the design of this "Ambusher" was.

She has been hiding, always waiting for an opportunity to backstab.

With only one Beast Prince controlled, and before the other Beast Princes had matured, she possessed a combat advantage sufficient to turn the situation around.

She could have stepped forward, reached an agreement with the Divine Maiden, and eliminated that Beast together, yet she waited and never acted.

"The failure rate would be too high. Even if we won, the other Beast Princes would all flee." Eliminating the Beast Princes was always her top priority as a snake.

As a snake, exposing oneself actively to the sunlight greatly reduces one's deterrent power.

She had been searching for an opportunity to completely eliminate them, waiting until now. When the second Beast Prince was controlled and both Beasts were linked to the Main Brain, the opportunity finally arrived.

"The premise of sowing discord is having two opposing forces on the same level of strength." The premise of slipping through cracks and using one's opponent's force against them requires at least two Beasts capable of fighting each other.

It is hard to say whether this opportunity was waited for by Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, or if she secretly pushed it forward.

Now that the opportunity had finally arrived, she acted without hesitation.

This is also the root of the fear felt by the Beast Princes and the Main Brain. They are not afraid of the snake itself, but rather fear the reality of the snake jumping out at this moment.

This means that one might have already been calculated into a dead end!

The snake jumping out might just be here to mock one's dead appearance!

The development of reality proceeded as expected; everything that happened next was like a carefully designed dead trap.

Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei successfully used the opponent's fear of her to draw all firepower onto herself, making herself the bait, and the premise of all this was...

"Two. Two snakes."

The mad Main Brain, in its last moment of clarity, might have already spoken the truth.

The candidate for this time, the one capable of releasing mental suggestion to the Main Brain, must be a privileged holder of the "Authority of the Heart." It can only be a snake of very high purity.

The reality is that Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei prepared the "snake venom" and let another snake (Li En) place it into her own "venom gland (brain)" for storage, and then let Li En deliver this fatal bite.

She might have been the guide, even preparing all the tools and means for it, but the one who ultimately delivered the fatal blow was indeed Li En.

【Awakened Divine Art: Challenge Evil (1st Level Enchantment)】

Having fulfilled his oath to slay the enemies of humanity, Li En felt that he had taken a huge step on the path of the Paladin.

He not only directly received a very precious Divine Art reward, but also felt a massive path reward.

"Uh, if I hadn't just become a 2nd-tier Paladin, this might have been enough for me to advance tiers. The evil was truly too heavy."

But these were still not the greatest reward Li En received.

When the extremely powerful psychic energy penetrated Li En's body, something unknowingly completed its incubation and even underwent a qualitative change.

【Host's mental ability awakened. Gained mental power: Mind Speech (Telepathy).】

In this operation, directly releasing a mental suggestion of this level, Li En's mental ability inevitably awakened.

This might be a destined matter; after all, it would be too absurd for a snake possessing the Authority of the Heart not to have mental powers. Li En was simply catalyzed ahead of schedule.

Even for ordinary people, with such an absurdly intense mental infusion, those with potential would naturally awaken mental powers. It is hard to say whether Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei designed it this way on purpose.

There are actually precedents for this; some mental races use the "Crown-Toppling Great Method" to forcibly awaken the mental powers of their own kind.

There was also a quite famous female hero of the mental ability school who awakened her powers while playing with a Purple Crystal Dragon (a giant dragon renowned for its mental abilities) since childhood.

It is said that when she used her abilities, she would naturally emit the radiance of amethyst; that was the mental energy reflection of the dragon nest crystals she encountered in her youth.

【The host's mental ability is still in its raw stone state. Please undergo professional training to catalyze it as soon as possible, otherwise it will decline on its own.】

It seems this unexpected joy is not yet stable. With Li En's current hardware level, the burden of mental powers on him is a bit too great.

Awakening a mental power does not mean one can use it; "Mind Speech" is just the most basic ability.

In the long history of epochal development, various races have developed relatively many mental-type professions, as well as systems specifically developed to utilize mental abilities.

The most common is Miss Shaliman's Mind Mage, but actually there are many choices such as Energy Manipulator, Mind Warrior, Psionic Druid, Arcane Vanguard, and Mad Thinker. Even the Mind Flayer can be viewed as a psionic advancement, and of course, the Snake Magical Girl is as well.

This cannot be rushed; mental abilities are safest with a mentor's guidance.

Li En might be able to look forward to future card draws; among so many Hero Soul abilities, there must be some specializing in mental powers.

Actually, the Dual Thought provided by Kuku is already very helpful for psionics and mental powers.

"Yay, we won!"

Among a group of madmen, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, happily waving her little fists, was particularly conspicuous.

She had some bloodstains on her, and the silver light flashing on her body was healing her wounds. At this moment, Li En would no longer think she was truly immortal. Activating the Beast's healing ability with mental powers meant the consumption had to be consumed, and the pain had to be felt.

Li En sighed. Although she had concealed many things from him, it seemed he had nothing to complain about.

After all, he had gained quite a few benefits himself, and he was also a result-oriented person; as long as it was not malicious concealment and deception...

"Uh, sorry. There are some things I cannot tell you in advance. It really isn't that I don't trust you; if you knew, even if you said nothing, it might be foretold." Looking at the girl covered in blood who ran over to apologize, Li En sighed. He had a premonition that if the plan truly failed, she would probably die before him.

"... Girls should pay attention to their appearance." Li En took out Mao Jin and wiped the girl clean again as she happily leaned in.

Seeing that Li En was not angry, the girl also breathed a sigh of relief. Although she knew Li En's character and could understand, being too concerned still made her feel anxious about gains and losses.

Li En's magical knowledge also told him that this was not an excuse.

Whatever is known and whatever is done must leave a trace.

Many powerful beings have crisis perception; psionic users are particularly skilled in this regard. Various abilities similar to "Death Sense" or "Spider Sense" allow them to predict danger completely unreasonably in advance.

After confirming "someone intends to harm the Emperor," activating various prophecy-type abilities might then inexplicably dig out the conspiracy.

Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei had the ability to hide her plans (Anti-Prophecy), but if she had told Li En, his level did not possess Anti-Prophecy capabilities.

In her calculations, to make the plan proceed smoothly, she had to conceal it from Li En.

"I believe you." The man put away the blood-stained towel, preparing to store it.

The words spoken halfway were stuffed back in by a patch of softness as the girl, moving like a teleport, rose on her tiptoes and leaned over.

This time, there was no annoying Miss Shaliman to hinder them, lasting for several dozen seconds.

Li En finally caught his breath after a long moment, pushing her away and opening his eyes to see those watery pupils and that sincere smile like a flower.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Li En was pulled into her embrace.

"Huff, huff, it's you. That's really wonderful." The Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei was struggling to suppress her impulses; some finishing plans remained incomplete, and the first time should at least be in a more romantic place.

Li En spent a long while before breaking free. He didn't know that it was fortunate this was still a battlefield; otherwise, he would have been almost impossible to escape.

But neither he nor the Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei knew that, in fact, the Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei was overthinking things a bit.

Even if Li En knew these plans, his "Undetectable" trait would not allow the opponent to prophesy their side's plans.

But now, Li En had more important work to do.

Life all around had basically gone mad; those slaves died instantly at the first moment, and most mind flayers exploded their brains and perished. The Elder Brain was still barely hanging on, held in the hands of a dangerous snake, having become a remote-controlled puppet.

In the huge hall, one creature had not gone mad, yet was on the verge of death.

Amidst this earth-shaking, mountain-trembling death match, the tube inserted into the black dragon's head, which had been caught in the crossfire, was already half broken.

At this moment, blood and brain matter flowed out continuously from it. The black dragon's formidable vitality prevented it from dying right then and there.

But perhaps, it was better off dead. The exposed brain had been buried in a pool filled with mind flayer larvae; dense things were swimming inside its brain. It was completely beyond saving.

Li En raised the Holy Sword, deciding to send it on its way and thereby complete his own initial evolution.

And when the sword tip fell, Li En actually saw gratitude in that huge dragon eye.

—

While Li En began the cleanup on his end, the battlefield outside did not end there.

The mind flayer forces were mostly finished; large numbers of mind flayers suddenly died or went mad, dragging down waves of slaves around them, and the front line collapsed instantly.

Logically, those dark elves should have seized the opportunity to attack, but now they only knew how to flee madly, not even daring to look back.

"Boom!"

The earth-shaking battle grew fiercer; numerous small mountains floated in mid-air, hurling "meteorites" at each other to inflict mutual damage.

Horn against horn, tooth against tooth, mad eyes against eyes filled with desire; both sides had long been unable to stop.

Two giant stags were still locked in mutual slaughter. Capable of regeneration, they maintained their killing intent and appetite, fighting madly against each other. Just like a stag with its horns entangled, only the death of one side could end this.

"What is going on?!" The other two Beast Princes, accompanied by the Magical Girls, watched all this, completely unable to understand.

Had the Elder Brain lost control? They could feel the shackles on their brothers loosening, but why were the two brothers slaughtering each other? Was this a struggle for the position of the herd at such a time? But why was the attack so ruthless?

However, although they did not know where the change came from, it seemed to be their opportunity.

Whether saving their brothers or completing their mission, the Beast Princes, ripened by psychic energy, might become quite useful combat reserves.

Being rational, they made their choice. They and their Magical Girls floated in mid-air, waiting patiently for both sides to determine the victor.

Even if only one remained, it would be enough; they did not want to sacrifice themselves by blocking their brothers' mutual slaughter.

But they probably would not know that they had already lost their last chance of escape.

The fighting instinct of the "Deer King" had been activated. Would the victorious Deer King spare the other stags?

If it were a doe? That would likely be even worse. The Deer King had also activated other desires; given the current size difference between the two sides, some unlucky ones would die in extreme agony.

The Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei certainly had the mood to play along with Li En. A single move by the snake had already forced all four Beast Princes into a desperate situation!

"It's fine, Li En. Evolve in peace; just wait outside to reap the harvest." The smiling Snake Witch had seen through everything.

(End of this chapter)