Chapter 186: The Serpent's Successor

As for the "little ones" moving in, Li En was quite welcoming.

He could feel that these seemed to be some pure-hearted good young men. The Snake confirmed that Li En's psychic abilities were operating in a bizarre manner.

Li En, it seemed, could vaguely sense the other's goodwill or malice.

From some knowledge he had heard, this appeared to be a primary commonality of manifesting psychic powers.

This made him hesitate a bit on whether to specifically sublimate it into an extraordinary class; he felt this was far more useful than most psychic abilities.

"The Mind Spark is burning now, and it will extinguish. Besides, this is only because the other party trusts you (as a Paladin). Psychic abilities not only consume the opponent's resistance but are also quite disadvantageous."

The Snake, however, held a different view.

In his opinion, enchantment spells and mind-invasion type abilities are actually the least cost-effective category; they work well against the weak, but the strong generally have powerful hearts and consciousness, making success rates and practical effects subtle. Even among the weak, one might encounter individuals with firm mental wills, and "Hypnotizers" often find themselves inexplicably at a loss.

And unlike in certain novels, unless you drop tadpoles into the neck like a Mind Flayer, such control is basically temporary. Those controlled who awaken will definitely fight you to the death, and mind-control techniques that make the other party forget specific matters involve the most difficult consciousness operations and are hard to achieve.

If long-term control is truly needed, one must implement a "Mind Network," which basically requires a powerful "Server," such as a Mind Flayer Brain.

It is also for this reason that solitary enchanters and psions like Miss Shaliman have always had weak combat capabilities.

They are more often support within a team; rather than attacking opponents, it is better to control the battlefield and buff one's own companions.

But if used for crime and seeking benefits, that is a different matter entirely.

"Any suggestions?" When it comes to psychic abilities, I'm afraid the world's strongest psion would not be the Snake's match.

Professionals who have grasped authority can basically be regarded as having administrator permissions for the world server, and the Snake's skills and knowledge in this area have been honed through countless ages, possessing a complete power system belonging solely to himself.

"Don't be greedy. I mean you can develop across multiple classes, so don't expect to do too much with a single class. The more a class specializes in a specific function, the more it suits you. A class is best specialized in just one thing." Speaking thus, the Snake revealed a pleased smile.

He had always looked down on other psychic extraordinary beings, a bunch of things that tried to do too much and chewed too much to swallow.

"Look at the Psion, claiming to be all-powerful, using various psychic abilities to imitate other mages' spells, yet ending up completely failing, truly all-around incapable."

The comprehensiveness of psychic abilities led many psychic classes to attempt to be all-powerful, but judging by the effects, it can only be described as subtle. In recent years, the most famous psychic extraordinary being on the Prime Material Plane turned out to be the Mind Flayer relying on psionic technology, truly a tragedy for the entire class system.

Of course, powerful psychic practitioners and psychic beings have always existed, but they are not regular extraordinary beings; many of them are alien psychic races that form their own "species" and are truly not weak. The Snake clan can count as one of them, Mind Flayers and Gith are also among them, Astral Naga and Astral Leviathan are extremely outrageous extraordinary psychic lifeforms.

They also often specialize in their own racial evolution paths; no one has ever tried to be all-powerful like a Psion.

It is also because powerful individuals have their own paths that the orcish psychic ability users, who are inherently deficient, appear even less capable. The Snake does not highly recommend Li En spending too much energy on this path.

"Even if your psychic abilities awaken by accident, your talent in this area is average. I suggest you simply give up, or like the Masked Long Qishi, find a special psychic advancement that is very strong at one or two tiers but doesn't exist at higher tiers, nurture the psychic power, and let it gradually grow."

Psychic abilities have many flaws, but one point is quite good: their support capability is very strong, and it grows continuously alongside the user's own growth without needing special management. To put it more bluntly, managing and practicing it specifically is useless.

That Miss Shaliman is a typical example of just letting it advance on its own.

"Do you have a suitable recommendation?"

"No, I don't know." The Snake remained complacent; with a supersonic fighter jet, who would go learn a propeller-driven fighter jet?

He truly didn't know; previously, he had almost no research. At his time point, there weren't many reliable psychic practitioners on the Prime Material Plane. He had researched a little these past few days, but not for the sake of the stinky man before him.

Yes, that's right, the Snake looked at "himself" as if looking at a stinky man, finding it impossible to like him at all.

But he didn't want to see Li En go down so quickly. He was still waiting to see the fun; the mines he had just buried hadn't had time to explode yet.

"My personal suggestion is that you focus on defensive psychic abilities. Since you have already started stacking armor, continuing to stack at least won't be wrong."

Psychic abilities are an interference power originating from consciousness; their effect outside the body gradually weakens and consumes the opponent's resistance very heavily, but inside one's own body, they are two hundred percent effective.

Using them for defense might not be the best choice for Li En, but it is definitely a choice that won't be wrong.

Li En's expression became a bit subtle; he quite wanted to float while walking and speak inside the opponent's head at every turn, just like in movies.

As the same person, the Snake saw through it at a glance. He laughed.

"I actually have a class here that fits your actual needs. Currently, it seems its main functions are support and defense."

"Didn't you say there wasn't one?"

"There wasn't one before, only these past two days. Once my disciple perfects it, you go find her to learn it yourself."

Having finished speaking, the Snake visibly gradually faded and vanished, leaving Li En with a completely blank expression.

"Disciple? When did you take a disciple? Did you take one these past few days?!" Li En was completely baffled.

But how would the Snake respond to this fool? He also wanted to know what kind of sprout the seed he planted on a whim would send up in these few days.

Expecting Li En to create a new class?

He simply didn't have that ability (tone)!!

The adult version of him had thoughts that were too mixed and chaotic, making it impossible to stick to one path with his whole life.

A class is life; it requires a lifetime of effort and energy to write. Li En simply could not achieve this.

This counts as the original "Li En Sudar's" inherent weakness; he wasn't "pure" enough. Having already filled himself up on Earth, he was destined not to be a qualified creator.

But those ragtag Li En Sudars mixed with alien qualifications and memory fragments could completely integrate into the local race and era at that time, using their whole lives on the soil of that civilization to sprout new buds with their alien talents.

But the original Li En Sudar was not without advantages.

"'Chameleon' has never been an excellent creator, but is a perfect user and integrator. Once she creates this path, just throw it to Li En to play with."

The Snake happily crossed the void, searching for his disciple.

"... He should be able to come up with some new tricks, maybe even produce some operations that make people's eyes go black."

In the next moment, the Snake, his tongue flickering, appeared simultaneously on the tables of three rooms. He hadn't said he only accepted one experimental disciple.

Kuk would be interested in things of the new era, leaving behind extensive notes and research ideas. The greedy and curious Snake also had too many interests.

"The Masked Long Qishi is of course for practicing martial arts, you fool. Come, try this Knight Kick. Shout out the move name, don't feel ashamed. Kill your opponent, and you won't need to be ashamed!"

"You idiot! You use a psionic weapon to chop people? Do you think you're a Force Warrior? I think you're a Force Stupid Girl! Come, try casting a spell with this thing, start with Force Lightning! Idiot, you actually electrocuted yourself!"

"Hiss hiss hiss (Idiot idiot idiot. How did you fall asleep again? How can you sleep at your age!)"

At the same time, he began forcing his three disciples to work overtime.

Only opening one path? Is that a bit of looking down on the Snake?

Being both a beast that indulges desires and a greedy Li En Sudar, he would definitely want it all.

He, who is skilled in psychic abilities, is quite skilled at "ripening."

Moreover, he could continuously perceive the future possibilities of these "experimental subjects," constantly fine-tuning them, forcing them to mature, and even if you currently lack psychic abilities, that was no problem.

"Huh? That child from the adventurer party actually has psychic talent. Hmm, quite interesting. Let's bury another one right next to Li En." Thus, the Snake split off a fourth Snake, preparing to activate the other's psychic abilities in advance.

Aftereffects of stirring up causality? Aren't these disciples all connected to Li En through causality? Hand it over to him!

As for whether they would eventually become indebted to each other, their relationships shaped by causality lines turning into a mess... does that have anything to do with him, who has already run away?!

And at this moment, Li En could only blow air toward the place where the Snake had vanished. This thing could not be tamed and showed no shame in its disdain for him.

"Tsk, I've also developed some applications of psychic abilities. Don't look down on me too much."

But his words were not entirely unanswered; a middle finger representing contempt appeared where the Snake had vanished.

Yet Li En spoke a great truth. In his recent practice, combining the Snake Eye of Desire with the Dragon Eye, he had crafted a "Predictive Sword Technique."

Using the Dragon Eye's long-range vision and observation to lock onto the target's "desire to attack" and "desire to defend" via the Snake Eye, he could predict the opponent's moves and defenses in advance, completely toying with his opponent.

"Again!!"

The dwarf warrior of this adventurer party was already furious, his hair standing on end.

He could accept losing, but he could not accept losing without even being able to touch his opponent—especially when the opponent was a paladin even more "clumsy" than a warrior!

Li En smiled with interest. "You want to play with me, practice swordsmanship with me? Of course, that's fine."

The dwarf warrior's open and expansive attack style was very suitable for prediction. In actual combat, Li En would probably only need seven or eight strikes to cut off the other's head.

If he were willing to take a hit, even three moves would suffice.

"This is already an overwhelming crushing of combat experience. This senior has experienced battlefields..."

And for the young adventurers, this made Li En's legendary background as an "old senior" seem even more real.

"Friend bad! Bullying Uncle Dwarf!" And Li En, the bully, suffered retribution, making the whole party laugh.

Even the dwarf, who was so angry he was blowing his beard and glaring, laughed the loudest.

But what happened next made him unable to laugh.

The little one took the field with a wooden stick and actually performed even better than the dwarf!

That stable and swift swordsmanship, that instinct for seizing opportunities as if born of a wild beast, even made the dwarf feel that if he went up, he would be easily shattered—even though he knew his hardware could easily defeat this little girl.

And Li En, who was forced into defense by her, was pleasantly surprised to find the weakness in his new technique.

For such a pure and persistent martial artist, knowing their objective could not determine the outcome; those swift, life-risking moves were never intended to be concealed.

Every strike by Miss Lana was extraordinarily pure, as if wielding the sword was her everything.

Her objective could not be concealed, nor did it need to be; even now, though weak, she still possessed the confidence to shatter her opponent.

But this, in turn, allowed Li En to find what he was looking for.

"Interesting... So its greatest function is not to evade the opponent's attacks, but to assist one's own attacks."

Li En swung his sword fiercely, forcing the opponent to subconsciously defend and expose their weakness!

Then, just attack! Force the opponent into a defensive state!

My armor is thicker than yours; I can evade your fatal attacks and see through your weaknesses! Let's see who dies first!

Even with wooden swords and wooden sticks, even while deliberately suppressing his strength and speed, Li En still displayed his talent for ability development, with each strike more dangerous than the last.

"Snap!" Carelessly, Li En used too much force and, with his wooden sword, shattered Little Miss Lana's "sword."

She looked at the wooden stick broken in two and first began to whimper softly.

Then, suppressing her crying, she squatted down, hugging her knees.

This, in turn, made Li En, who had just earned the title of "Little Girl Cryer," feel heartache.

"Don't cry, don't cry, Little Miss Lana can ride the big horse, no?" Looking at the centaur still bandaged, Li En turned his gaze to another.

"... Ride the dwarf instead."

"No! Uncle Dwarf smells like mud!" The dwarf uncle, who was just about to bow his head, stopped and instantly fell into disappointment.

This was probably more heartbreaking than being inferior to a little girl in swordsmanship.

And Li En, being stared at by the little girl with teary eyes... sighed and lowered his body.

"Let's make a deal first: don't tell anyone else. Tsk, who taught you this?" Li En had already seen through it; this little girl was pretending to cry.

"But Miss Shaliman taught me! Another Miss Shaliman!"

(End of this chapter)