Chapter 168

The reflection of the holy sword was crystal clear; under Li En's dragon eyes, he could even see the ugly warts on the ogre's face.

First glance.

"This bone helmet is so cool—it's even spouting blue flames! Uh, that ogre looks really tough—doesn't it burn?"

Second glance.

"Damn, there's a lich on his head! How is this guy still alive?!"

Third glance.

"Uh, this lich doesn't seem right—the skull's been split down to just the upper half, and the lower half has been inserted into the ogre's skull and somehow connected. And that ogre's gaze… it's off too."

The ogre wielding the large spiked club was ugly, yet strangely clean (an abnormality for a wild ogre).

Beneath his polished leather armor, the exposed flesh was bound with white towels, and most absurdly, his gaze—supposedly bloodthirsty and dull—was eerily calm when directed at other living beings!

An ogre who controlled his appetite? Impossible!

"We want money, not lives! Pay the toll peacefully, and we'll let you pass. We have no interest in going to war with Morso德尔卡."

And as soon as that fluent Orcish Common slipped from his lips, Li En went completely numb.

No accent, no slips, a logically speaking ogre—could this even still be an ogre?!

"Kill them! Eat them!"

But the helmet on his head seemed to hold a different opinion.

He adjusted his helmet, his eyes growing clearer.

"It's my equipment and advisor, but ultimately, it's King Momore who decides—pay the toll, and I'll let you pass. You can ask around later—check my reputation as King Momore. If you're not cooperative, my boys get extra dinner tonight."

Li En was utterly baffled—was this really an ogre with an IQ below three, whose belly replaced its brain?

"Fascinating—it's formed a symbiotic bond with the lich. Hmph, activated the two-headed ogre trait? Using the half-destroyed lich's soul as a second head."

The snake slithered onto the windowsill, watching leisurely, unseen by anyone.

Even with countless years of experience, it had never seen such a bizarre scene.

So strange—look one more time, it's too strange, look again.

With the snake elder's words, Li En suddenly understood.

The lich's soul was already incomplete, and the ogre was a special creature with potential for multiple thought streams—in fact, they'd stitched together a two-headed ogre?!

So the ogre king, fed by the lich, now possessed human-level intelligence?

"Don't ask how I did it—I don't know either. Weird. Look again."

Honestly, this weird thing made the snake genuinely intrigued.

Fate's favor and coincidence always produce things that defy all theory and logic—these "one-of-a-kind," "defective and limited edition" items are super collectibles no collector can resist.

"Uh, I kinda want to collect it… Li En, keep them intact. I'll find a way to trigger a bug and give you a bonus." The snake made no effort to hide its earlier lie.

"You want me dead."

Li En shot back, annoyed.

"Hah, true—you're in a situation that looks like certain death right now."

Both the snake and Li En reached the same conclusion: the bandits systematically extorting each caravan member were slowly cornering Li En into a dead end.

Even against an illithid elder brain or the Prince of Beasts, Li En still had a chance—but now he had no allies, no reinforcements.

"What are my odds? Can you say?"

"Zero. Absolutely dead."

"Tch. Same as my assessment."

Li En sighed—should he go worship a goddess of luck? How could he possibly run into something this bizarre?

The group hadn't forgotten the lich, but they'd all tacitly accepted it as irrelevant—a lich without its phylactery was, under normal circumstances, nothing but a slowly decaying corpse.

The phylactery had become part of the automaton apprentice Ophelia; without it, the lich was like a kite with its string cut, or a car without an engine—no need to wonder if it would die, only how many pieces it would shatter into.

A broken body without a soul source would steadily lose power, and with it, emotion, reason, and memory would fade away.

It was destined to end utterly insane. That was Kuku and Violet Rose's judgment—and theoretically, it was correct.

But now, it seemed the ogre king had become its soul source, not only halting its natural decay but restoring some of its reason.

This… was terrifying. A high-tier lich with even a fraction of its reason intact was now the enemy Li En was about to face.

"Can we escape?"

"In this wilderness, evade a lich who might be ninth tier? Hah, go ahead, try."

A lich suspected to be ninth tier was far beyond what Li En could currently handle.

They weren't even on the same level—even if Li En's strength multiplied several times, it would still feel like a beginner trapped by a demon lord blocking the village gate. Before, he could flee because the lich was mentally broken; now, it had regained some of its wits.

Li En was numb—others paying up was fine, but himself… it would definitely kill him.

"Invisibility ambush." Li En flipped through his spellbook—yes, there was a spell for invisibility. If he pushed himself to learn it, could he land a holy strike from the shadows?

"Look at the blue flames in its eye sockets—that's a constant True Seeing. You think top-tier mages don't carry anti-invisibility gear? And that ogre isn't easy to deal with either." The snake shook its head with a mischievous grin, one that felt oddly familiar to Li En.

And the logic held: liches naturally possessed spectral sight (or a constant spell to pierce illusions), and as top-tier casters, they were hyper-sensitive to magical energy—you might walk past unnoticed if you did nothing, but if you carried magic or spells, you'd be stared at immediately.

"Can't hide, can't avoid, can't fight—hah, kid, you're cornered."

Someone's reckless action confirmed the snake's judgment.

Several fierce-looking dark elf mercenaries in the caravan, thinking a few ogres and goblins wouldn't be hard to handle, charged forward.

"Disintegrate!" A green flash erupted from "Wang Guan"—instantly, the lead dark elf warrior turned to ash; his race's famed natural magic resistance meant nothing against this foe.

"Damn, instant-cast—no point even trying. We can't win."

But this was only the beginning.

"Command: Stun!"

As the eighth-tier enchantment spell manifested, every single mercenary was instantly paralyzed.

"Death Finger!"

"Death Finger!"

The mad Lich Crown used precious seventh-circle spells to name-check these rookie mercenaries one by one.

The four who charged forward either turned gray or became zombies (an added effect of Death Finger), and the caravan instantly fell silent.

An eighth-circle or higher Archmage?! Are you crazy coming to be a bandit? And specifically to rob us low-level caravans? You could be an elder in any family, or a noble in any city you joined!

"Look, we only seek wealth; otherwise, wiping you all out would be quite simple," said the self-proclaimed Ogre King, still smug about using a cannon to swat flies.

Li En took a deep breath and finally gave up.

This was not an opponent the current him could handle.

"Is there a way?" He felt this wasn't entirely coincidence, but he had no proof.

"Is there, or is there not?" The snake smiled cheerfully.

It still didn't care about Li En's life or death, but if Li En was finished right now, it would probably have to return too; it had only been playing for a few days, which was a pity.

"I can help you."

"What is the price?"

"No price." The snake, however, strangely became quite reasonable.

"State the price, make a promise; without a price, I am not at ease." Li En, however, responded quite coldly.

He had already determined that not even a devil was as cunning as this snake; the other party's help must have a clear price for him to feel slightly at ease, or at least not get scammed too badly.

"Tsk tsk tsk, not trusting a good person's heart," the snake wagged its tail, but its eyes looked toward the "distance."

"When you reach Radiance City, embrace the first person you see and lift them high."

"Just that? Fine." Li En agreed.

He actually knew this was a classic scam tactic: the initial conditions were easy to fulfill to get you used to the deal, then they would get higher and higher, until you lost everything all at once.

But now, watching the Ogres and Goblins constantly knocking on the door, Li En could only bow his head for now.

"Just once, just once..."

And at this moment, the snake smiled cheerfully.

Fate, truly interesting; the encounters between "people" always bring new amusement.

Stirring up fate and cause-and-effect to come to the present world, wasn't that exactly for this?

Li En's guess actually had a problem; this wasn't the snake acting on its own initiative. Rather, as long as it existed, fate naturally became full of variables and coincidences, and countless low-probability events would play out wildly.

Was this the result of his subconscious craving for more amusement? Or was it the world trying its best to satisfy him to prevent him from creating even more amusement, a special treat? Even he couldn't explain it clearly; it had always been this way.

"Then, worship me, believe in me, just as my priestesses do..." The path the snake pointed out also seemed full of problems.

(End of this chapter)