Chapter 169: Grafting

"Worship me, believe in me, have faith in me—it doesn't matter. As long as you establish a deeper connection with me, I can help you."

Words themselves possess magic, especially the words of a snake.

The source of a beast's power is undoubtedly its bloodline. When the source of the bloodline is willing to interfere, you, downstream, will naturally undergo change.

"Those who actively demand others believe in them are either liars or cultists. Well, well, I'll believe you a little for now. You are, after all, a person; please don't screw me over too badly."

Li En sighed; at least verbally, he might as well believe.

"Tsk tsk tsk, truly the most insincere believer. I am far stronger than those useless deities. Never mind, it'll do. Just remember to offer me more entertainment."

Snakes do not need believers, but they do need entertainment. In a sense, he might be the easiest "Great Existence" to deal with.

Even in ancient times, snakes disliked human sacrifice and ritual offerings. The rituals and supernatural abilities associated with him were often quite "peculiar," the kind capable of causing "big news."

"Slap!"

The sound of knocking on the door was already very close, seemingly right at the carriage ahead.

"Ah, ah, I'll pay, I'll pay! Don't kill me!"

The startled cry from ahead made Li En subconsciously grip his sword tighter.

But the more he displayed his unease and vigilance, the more the snake smiled.

He's panicked, he's panicked, ha ha.

"You are afraid, are you not? Uneasy?"

The snake had already, without him noticing, coiled upon Li En's head, its forked tongue licking the youth's cheek.

Retracting its tongue, it nodded in satisfaction. This was indeed the taste of fear and unease. What a naive Li En Sudar; it was truly something to look forward to seeing what ugly form he would eventually descend into.

But for now, better to take it slow. If you play him to death all at once, there will be nothing left to play with.

"You want to flee, don't you?" The snake's temptation whispered right in Li En's ear.

Li En looked at his reflection in the sword; the "Snake Eye of Desire" gave him the answer.

He wanted to flee from an opponent he could not defeat; he wanted to vanish within this carriage, a cage; he wanted, like the dazed merchant beside him, to wait and pay money to survive the crisis.

"Slap!"

Suddenly, the knocking from outside snapped Li En back to his senses.

"Open the door! Do you seek death?!"

Only then did he realize he had, without noticing, been bewitched by the snake.

And outside, the goblins were already banging on the door, slap slap.

It was too late; was he really going to be screwed over?

"No, no, no. A one-man show is too dull; monologues always lack persuasiveness. Your stage partner has arrived to play along. Aren't you happy?"

In Li En's eyes, the snake's face had already twisted. The original small black snake gradually transformed into a coiling, pitch-black long shadow.

Where it existed, whether air, light, space, or even time, was distorted by it.

This was still not its true form; it was merely everything it could allow itself to be perceived as.

"Your Snake Eye has awakened, hasn't it? You can see what that ogre and those goblins want. That's right, they want money. They are opening the door. Guess what they expect to find inside the carriage."

"It... it will be a merchant holding gold coins, just like these people." Under the snake's guidance, Li En voiced the bandits' desire.

He was currently drawing out the future they expected.

Inside the VIP carriage, the others were all portly merchants, and they had already prepared small bags of gold coins.

"Correct. You want to become one of the merchants. These merchants expect you to be one of them (no fight will arise). The incoming goblins and ogres also expect only merchants inside the door. How wonderful. Your goals are aligned; the future you expect has achieved harmony. Go open the door."

Li En stood up in a daze and subconsciously walked to the door, opening it.

"Why so slow! You want to die!"

The goblin's angry shout made "Merchant Li En" subconsciously step back.

Yet the vase in his hand had, without him noticing, become a small bag of gold coins.

"Heh, quite perceptive." The goblin's small eyes flashed with greedy ferocity. They always craved more; these portly merchants might have even more fat to squeeze.

"Ogre King, thank you for your mercy and wisdom." "Merchant Li En" summoned his courage, spoke loudly, and doffed his hat to salute the leader of the thugs.

Not far away, the Ogre King happily patted his belly, pulled up the screaming "Lich Hat," and returned the salute.

The Lich's gaze also turned that way. For this ordinary "merchant," he had absolutely no interest. In his Soul Sight, there was only a fat Dark Elf merchant!

The bosses were looking, so the goblins immediately fell silent.

They quickly looted everything and left. The last goblin even glared fiercely at Merchant Li En.

"Slap!"

When the door was shut again, everything returned to calm.

Merchant Li En vanished; Red Dragonborn Li En returned.

He felt a bit dazed. What exactly had just happened? He seemed to have truly become an ordinary Dark Elf merchant, slightly courageous but even more greedy in protecting his property.

The other merchants in the carriage finally reacted, looking at Li En with faces full of fear. They had also snapped out of it, yet they had absolutely no idea what had occurred.

But an existence capable of distorting one's cognition was absolutely not someone they could afford to provoke.

"Hee hee, was that interesting? This ability is quite suitable for pranks. You can help others fulfill their wishes, making them repeatedly experience 'Fan Jin Passing the Exam'." The mischievous snake happily watched this farce.

And only then did the Heroic Soul Codex belatedly react.

【Beast Transformation Degree exceeds 10%. Bloodline Ability Awakened: Grafting (Grafting): %&#: I just love this name! What 'Displaced Eyes', 'Cognitive Fog' is too low-class! Anyone who mentions Cognitive Fog again, I will ban their account.】

【Grafting (Cognitive Confusion): Guide the subconscious of life, confuse, correct, and overwrite its cognition.】

【Note: The subconscious possesses strong self-defense capabilities. It can only be guided, not modified; only fine-tuned, not forcibly implanted. The more the other party desires a dream, the easier it is to become reality; the more they resist a dream, the easier it is to become a shattered nightmare.】

Li En glanced at the Codex and subconsciously recalled the previous battle.

"This ability... wasn't this the one Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei used before?"

Yes, it was this ability; however, most Snake Witches and Outsiders referred to this ability as 'Cognitive Fog'.

Looking at the 10.9% bestialization, Li En felt he'd been tricked again by this little snake.

Not only had his bestialization deepened unconsciously, but he'd merely awakened a supernatural ability he was bound to awaken eventually—and in the end, it was still his own ability and the price he paid that resolved everything!

I paid you to do it, yet in the end, you just spoke, and I had to solve the problem myself—and bear extra costs. Is that fair?!

"Hehe, did I fulfill your wish?"

"... I did."

Li En sighed. He couldn't get angry at this thing.

The more emotionally agitated you became, the happier he was. And if he was happy, he'd likely find some new amusement.

Though their time together had been short, Li En had unconsciously figured out the other's personality.

The snake happily flicked its tail. If Li En had accepted or thanked him so easily, he'd have been truly angry—tricksters always crave their opponent's frustration.

But there was one important thing Li En had misunderstood, and the snake wouldn't remind him.

The bloodline skill tree originating from the snake, after awakening the Desire-Snake Eye that could see through desires, did not next unlock "Flower Transfer," the ability to manipulate or mislead desires.

The ability that should have awakened was "Snake's Honeyed Words," designed to suppress or amplify desires and the subconscious.

The snake did interfere, causing Li En to skip the third bloodline ability and directly awaken the fourth bloodline ability that could solve the current problem.

This supernatural system actually had a complete logical chain.

The first step was "Understanding Language," allowing you to comprehend the other's consciousness and cognition—through language, a mental link was established.

The second step was the "Desire-Snake Eye," which pierced the other's consciousness and desires; only after establishing a link could you perceive, recognize, and predict.

The third step was "Snake's Honeyed Words," which followed the other's instinctive desires, expanding or shrinking them—you could now partially guide and interfere with their consciousness.

By the way, Li En had tested this move many times these past days; the Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei used it with great proficiency.

The fourth step, the further evolved "Flower Transfer," could directly interfere with their selfhood and external perception—"Cognitive Mist" was in fact the true name most people understood.

What outsiders found utterly incomprehensible was, in truth, a complete logical chain and internal program—an ever-expanding, ever-enhancing function.

Outsiders found it unbelievable only because they couldn't grasp its essence.

"Is the next step already capable of confusing cognition and reality?" Logically, such a conclusion could be deduced.

There was actually an analogy: in the magic system, the ultimate goal of the Illusion school was said to be distorting the boundary between reality and illusion, creating tangible "material" from truth.

Though he'd skipped a step, Li En faintly sensed its direction of development.

"Hehe, you guessed right." The snake admitted openly.

"Did I guess wrong?" Li En immediately denied his own guess.

"Tsk." The snake flicked its tongue in annoyance—the soul link was annoying; mutual understanding came too fast, and the subtle truths beneath the real lies were easily accidentally exposed.

He looked at Li En with ill intent, making the young knight's scalp prickle—perhaps it was better to just play dumb from now on.

"Is this the snake's ability? Twisting cognition and consciousness?" Li En tried to change the subject.

"More accurately, it's my ability."

The smiling snake responded.

He was the snake, but the snake was not necessarily only him.

"Uh, are there other snakes?" Li En was puzzled—he'd encountered deer, and all their abilities were nearly identical.

Aren't all beast groups just bloodline derivatives of "Beast"?

"This is the greatest difference between the Seven Beasts and the Ten Thousand Beasts. Want to know? It touches on the fundamental gap between us—it should help you greatly."

"Yes." Li En truly wanted to know.

"Hehe, I won't tell you." The snake, as always, stoked curiosity but had no intention of satisfying it.

(End of Chapter)