Chapter 158: A Small Gift

Among Li En's team, there is one expert in psychic early warning.

Many may have forgotten that Sali Man is actually a psychic seer of the Divination school—the legendary Seer.

She specializes in using psychic abilities to foresee harm or hostility that she or those close to her will soon face, and avoid it. Her method mirrors that of prophetic mages, but she is far more sensitive to threats.

Especially when the threat concerns herself, her sensitivity can reach several times that of a prophetic mage.

After Li En vanished into the base, her warning remained active. That meant Li En had been in extreme life-threatening danger—and that she had subconsciously placed immense importance on him.

"Something's off. It feels like a crisis, but not quite."

Sometimes, this kind of foresight is useless—because you know a danger or trap is coming, yet you can't avoid it, leaving you helpless and anxious.

As the battle shifted dramatically and the giant stag suddenly went mad, the crisis she sensed regarding Li En vanished—but the next instant, she sensed another crisis!

This time, it seemed aimed at herself—and far more urgent, far more unsettling.

"What is this? My heartbeat's accelerating, I'm terrified. This is a great crisis, but why don't I feel a life-threatening danger? Is someone watching me?"

Sali Man was bewildered. She looked around, but saw no shadow of danger.

They were now at a considerable distance from where the two beasts fought. The squad was well-hidden. It should be fine.

"Sssss. Sssss! (Idiot! Super idiot! Someone's raided the base!)"

But clearly, Sali Man's core self, shielded by psychic suggestion, could not hear this.

"What's wrong?"

The sudden familiar voice startled everyone.

They whirled around and saw Zi Qiangwei, smiling, supporting Li En, who looked utterly exhausted.

"It's me, Little Qiangwei! I brought Li En back!" She waved her tiny fist.

Seeing Li En return safely, Sali Man finally relaxed.

But for some reason, seeing how close the two stood, she instinctively felt uneasy—another Sali Man felt it even more directly.

"Sssss (Stay away from him! Why are you so close?! Auntie, you're being outrageous!)"

Zi Qiangwei, wearing a pouty expression, responded immediately.

"Sssssss! (Outrageous! Too outrageous! We fought to the death, and you're still harsh with me? Li En's in terrible shape—I'm just supporting him!)"

The high-frequency Serpent Speech, laced with psychic riddles, conveyed vast amounts of information.

"Sssss (Then why are your clothes wet?)" This Sali Man was no easy opponent.

"Sssssss (We rolled around in a pool, okay? Don't rush—we fought the Overmind in a saltwater pool. Of course we got soaked. Smell it—you can still taste the salt, right?)"

No matter what "Sali Man" asked, Zi Qiangwei answered lightly.

Her old reliable psychic lie-detection was useless against her.

The two relatives were still bickering, but Li En yawned and fell into a drowsy sleep again.

He had just absorbed the Black Dragon's dragon soul and was still processing it. This was no safe environment—across the cliff, the brutal battle between monsters continued.

The Black Dragon's corpse had been collected by Zi Qiangwei. Li En's space bag was already full; it should yield excellent evolution material for Kuku.

In fact, even just the catalyzed dragon soul would likely require Li En to enter a long slumber to fully digest it, let alone the entire material.

But this might also mean a qualitative leap.

Li En felt anticipation—but he had to stay alert and observe the distant battlefield.

Zi Qiangwei said they only needed to wait for the harvest, but Li En still needed to keep watch.

"I don't see any dark elves—but they're probably watching from the shadows."

With the beasts retreating, the crisis at Madosilkar should be resolved.

That doesn't mean the war is over—the attackers haven't retreated. The mind flayers and slaves far away likely aren't dead, but they've been freed from the Overmind's control (the slaves beneath the walls are probably still under the mind flayers' command).

So even if they still attack, they lack real fighting spirit.

The besieging army was lucky not to be pushed back—they can no longer contain Madosilkar.

The dark elf elites must have observed this situation. The Goddess Sisters are probably waiting in the shadows.

Everyone awaits the giant beast's fall, ready to seize the greatest victory—even the two other Beast Princes still watching.

"Sali Man." Li En didn't speak, but a voice suddenly echoed in the girl's mind.

"Psychic ability?!" Sali Man was astonished. She hadn't realized Li En had such potential.

"Yes. It awakened during my battle with the Overmind. You know—psychic abilities often awaken when confronting powerful psychic monsters."

What Li En wanted to ask about was still the path of psychic professions.

He'd asked Zi Qiangwei, who strongly recommended the Snake Magic Girl path. Li En confirmed its strength, but couldn't bear the side effects (Zi Qiangwei had once cracked a grotesque joke about gender-change magic girls when they first met).

"You want me to guide your path?"

"Just keep the spark from going out."

A profession is the path ordinary people take through training and study to reach the level of the gifted and the specialist.

Psychic ability is, in a sense, an outwardly intense, high-strength, high-empathy form of spiritual energy—it's more like a flame seed. How to develop and use it depends entirely on the transcendent.

Left unattended, it naturally weakens, even extinguishes.

Perhaps a better analogy: it's like an "engine that burns brighter." The outer chassis is the "profession," and its function requires the chassis to manifest.

Each person's ideal chassis is different. Li En needs Sali Man, a professional, to advise him—even a random psychic profession will do, as long as it prevents the psychic flame from dying.

"Psychic sorcerer. You're not suited."

Psychic sorcerers are the most common psychic practitioners. Their core ability is mimicking a mage's spellcasting, and even mind flayers can be considered psychic sorcerers.

Psychic sorcerers even split into schools like mages, and many mid- to high-level psychic abilities have direct mage equivalents.

But how to put it—their effects are always rather subtle.

"Except for time abilities, psychic sorcerers' spell strength is too low compared to mages or sorcerers of the same rank."

High-huan is tolerable, but low-huan psychic abilities are truly miserable.

Those first-huan abilities—"produce sound," "slightly warm," "send a message," "illuminate"—make you wonder if they're all cantrips.

Even if Li En dual-classed, he'd likely remain low-rank, and low-rank psychic abilities offer him almost no help.

Useful time psychic abilities require not just talent, but at least sixth-huan.

Sali Man thought deeply, but couldn't find an answer. Her former resentment and unease had vanished entirely.

She seriously considered asking her master.

"Sssss (So easy to appease!)"

But the other Sali Man was not so easily placated.

"A small gift, in thanks for your past care." Li En casually pulled out a bag of crystals.

Sali Man touched them—heavy. She opened the bag and immediately smiled with delight.

It wasn't just because she received the gift—this material was genuinely rare and precious.

These were psychic crystals, used to store psychic energy and aid spellcasting, essential in many psychic rituals. They were extremely rare on the Prime Plane; some claimed only mind flayers possessed the production technique.

"If the base hadn't collapsed, I could've retrieved more." The entire base had been held up by the Overmind's psychic power. Its death caused total collapse, locking most mechanisms and passages.

Even so, Li En had gathered quite a bit.

"This is enough. More than enough. Before, I only had a tiny piece of excellent quality—probably from a high-rank mind flayer." No wonder she's rich—even this otherworldly material is within her reach.

Li En didn't need these. His psychic energy couldn't even lift a pebble. But for Sali Man, they were very useful.

Zi Qiangwei didn't need them either—she had better "beast materials."

And this wasn't even the most valuable loot from this battle.

"We got some cores from the mind flayer Overmind. Enough for several doses of medicine."

Sali Man nearly screamed, then quickly clapped her hand over her mouth.

Mind flayer Overmind cores are among the rarest materials that can permanently increase "spiritual energy," "psychic power," or even "intelligence." No spellcaster or psychic could refuse them.

"I'll provide something of equal value." This kind of gift surpassed mere generosity—Sali Man responded seriously.

Beside them, Zi Qiangwei watched Li En and Sali Man chat more cheerfully, and wore a subtle, utterly unreadable smile.

"Aoooo!" At that moment, the battle between the beasts seemed to have reached its end.

(End of Chapter)