Chapter 988: Blind Foolishness

The giant devouring worm's soul has been cursed!

Just like the Lord of Darkness's Blood Soul Curse that fell upon all humanity, this curse also comes from a deity, and it's obvious that it's from the Crawler Erde Lian.

Its Blind Foolishness Curse!

Lei En's Soul Eye quickly manifested the curse's effect; it can strip the giant devouring worm of its ability to think, leaving it without self‑awareness or emotional changes, only the instinct of a creature.

Without feeling, it naturally has no fear.

All mind‑targeting spells that cause pain, fear, hallucinations, or charm have no effect on the giant devouring worm.

Moreover, the giant devouring worm originally lacks sight and hearing—it cannot see or hear; it can only track nearby moving enemies through touch. The Blind Foolishness Curse further reduces its intelligence to near zero, its soul forever locked in blind foolishness, while its body remains immensely powerful, turning it into a living killing machine.

It's like using an "Idiot Spell" on a fool, or a "Blindness Spell" on a blind person.

Of course, it has no effect.

Lei En originally thought that only a legendary Element like "Truth Will", which keeps one's mind constantly calm and steadfast, could grant immunity to mental and soul attacks.

Now he knows that "Blind Foolishness" can work too.

Truth Will and Blind Foolishness are two extremes, but their effect is the same!

Blind Foolishness is common to most crawling creatures, and Erde Lian, as the god of the Crawlers, mastering this curse is unsurprising.

The Blind Foolishness Curse also has a controlling effect, ensuring absolute obedience to Erde Lian's commands.

To kill the giant devouring worm, the quickest way is to lift its curse; this is extremely difficult, as a deity‑placed curse can usually only be undone by a god.

However, the Wish Spell can do anything.

Lei En's mind raced; he is quite experienced in lifting soul curses.

He silently observed the giant devouring worm's curse while comparing it to the Blood Soul Curse; the Lord of Darkness's curse is clearly stronger and more terrifying than the Crawler's.

The Blood Soul Curse cursed all humanity in one fell swoop, lying dormant deep within human souls, passed down generation after generation, and for nearly four thousand years it has shown no sign of weakening, completely reshaping human history and destiny, creating the new era's overlords, yet it has also nearly caused humanity's extinction many times.

The Blind Foolishness Curse feels and works somewhat stronger, but it can only target a single subject and cannot kill instantly.

The gap between the two curses is like the gap between the Crawler and the Lord of Darkness— they are not even the same tier.

However, that does not mean the Blind Foolishness Curse can be easily lifted.

It is a curse personally placed by the Crawler Erde Lian!

Any method a deity employs, even the weakest god's, is hard for mortals to counter.

Lei En estimated in his mind that the price to lift the Blind Foolishness Curse would certainly be greater than the price he paid to lift the Blood Soul Curse for his two children.

And much larger.

The more difficult the wish the Wish Spell seeks, the greater the price, and when a deity is involved, the cost may surge tenfold, even tens of times.

He glanced at the Soul Power Reservoir.

Because the giant devouring worm has been hunting Demons, the harvested energy has been continuously fed into the "Heart of the Main Brain" and the enhanced Fully‑formed Dark Angel, keeping the Soul Power Reservoir near full capacity.

10,000 energy units!

Even using the Wish Spell to simulate a Ten-ring Spell would cost at most a few thousand energy units.

Such a massive amount of soul power is more than enough to lift the Blind Foolishness Curse.

Nevertheless, Lei En remains cautious and does not rashly attempt it.

He thought for a moment and shouted loudly:

"Nine-ring, Prophecy Spell!"

Tens of energy units vanished instantly, the spell completed; Lei En knows the Prophecy Spell's procedure, and while voicing his wish, he thought of the content he needed to foretell—whether the Wish Spell could lift the Blind Foolishness Curse.

Suddenly, a wave of information from the future arrived.

【8】 In Lei En's vision, a vague scene unfolded: on the Jia Ma Lan Plain's wasteland, the giant devouring worm was still alive, but a gaunt black silhouette hovered above it.

Lei En's vision unfolded a not very clear picture; the scene was here, in a wilderness on the Gamma Lan plain; the picture showed a giant devouring worm, still alive, but above it hovered a thin black silhouette.

The Prophecy Spell's image lasted only a few seconds before fading.

"Reslin?"

Lei En instantly recognized the silhouette as Reslin, his mysterious duplicate, and, feeling odd, shouted again: "Nine-ring, Prophecy Spell!"

The future‑sent image replayed in his mind once more.

This time he was certain it was Reslin, and he saw details: Reslin seemed to have restrained the giant devouring worm.

"How did he do it?"

Lei En couldn't help turning his head toward a nearby high spot, where Reslin was concealed.

Reslin's face was expressionless.

He is his own duplicate, thoughts synchronized, so of course he does not answer.

Lei En repeatedly cast the Prophecy Spell, and each future vision was identical; the repeated replays yielded no additional information.

But it is certain that he successfully lifted the Blind Foolishness Curse.

Erde Lian controls the giant devouring worm through the Blind Foolishness Curse; without lifting the curse, Reslin could not command its divine emissary.

Lei En also wondered why the giant devouring worm hadn't died.

What he wanted was its demon soul.

He fell into contemplation.

Soon, the giant devouring worm killed the surrounding Demons, burrowed underground, and tunneled toward another distant group of Demons.

Lei En followed behind; the Soul Power Reservoir's energy kept rising and draining.

Abyss Demons were powerless before the giant devouring worm; they were merely food for the massive beast. In less than half an hour, it devoured nearly three hundred thousand Demons.

"Lei En."

Ailuo Tixiya's mental transmission sounded, "If it really can't be done, we should retreat."

If we keep delaying, the Jia Ma Lan Plain's ruling system will collapse, millions of Demons will flee the plain, and rebuilding the army will be nearly impossible.

"Wait a little longer."

Lei En comforted her with a sentence.

Actually he also felt sorry, but his sorrow wasn't for the Demon's life. Even if half the Demons on the Gamma Plains died it didn't matter; after all he had absorbed their souls. What he regretted was that the Demons' corpses were eaten by the giant devouring worm.

With so many Demon corpses, how many Black Soul Mushrooms can be cultivated!

"Never mind, first lift the curse then consider it."

When the giant devouring worm drilled up from the ground again, Lei En's mind leapt above it, his right hand pointing at it, and he shouted loudly: "Lift the Foolish Curse of Crawler Erdelian from the giant devouring worm's soul that my right hand points to."

He expressed his wish with an accurate yet verbose description.

It isn't a simulated spell; when making a wish, the Wish Spell is very dangerous, and the wish's wording must be as precise as possible to reduce the chance of error.

When his words fell, the Wish Spell took effect!

In an instant, Lei En saw the energy in the Soul Pool plunge wildly, a drop so massive it could not be described as a flood, with over three thousand units of energy evaporating instantly.

Lei En inhaled a breath of cold air, feeling his spine go cold.

And the energy continued to drain.

After a dozen seconds, it finally ceased, with nearly four thousand units of energy gone in total.

The price of this wish was considerable; that soul power could raise a Holy Soul Wizard from Level 20 to Thirty-level. Conversely, it could drop a Thirty-level Holy Soul Wizard back to Level 20, even below Saint Rank, draining them on the spot.

"Huh……"

Lei En let out a light sigh, still with lingering fright.

Fortunately the price of this wish was within his own limits; no accident occurred, and his body and soul remained unharmed.

But did the Wish Spell succeed?

He kept his eyes on the giant devouring worm; when the Wish Spell took effect, its massive body suddenly froze, the rear half still underground while the front half lay motionless on the surface.

The Soul Eye saw a violent reaction in its demonic soul; the hidden Foolish Curse deep within was struck by an invisible force, and the pale flesh rune swelled dramatically, expanding a hundredfold, revealing a vague phantom with death‑white skin and huge claws, resembling a massive hairless mole.

When that hairless mole's image appeared, Lei En's eyes stung briefly.

Tears streamed out uncontrollably.

After a long time, Lei En saw something he shouldn't have, and he instantly understood: this was the deity's embodiment of Crawler Erdelian.

Sure enough, it matched the rumors.

Erdelian's true form is a death‑white‑skinned hairless mole; no one, not even any god, knows its origin.

However, Lei En's eyes were only uncomfortable for a few seconds and he suffered no harm.

His perception quickly recovered.

The Crawler's phantom within the giant devouring worm's soul struggled for a few seconds, but was still erased by the Wish Spell, as if it were an inexorable Natural Law; even a deity cannot defy it, no matter how it thrashes, it ultimately cannot avoid dissolution.

The Foolish Curse was lifted!

At the instant the curse vanished, Lei En heard a cold snort from the distant Void.

Clearly, Erdelian was very displeased.

But it took no further action; the Wish Spell represents the God of Magic, a great deity that Erdelian reveres and lacks the courage to confront directly.

The Crawler's gaze quickly receded, abandoning this giant devouring worm.

It possesses many giant devouring worms; losing one is insignificant and does not affect its faith or divine power.

Lei En's face broke into a victorious smile.

After the Foolish Curse was lifted, the giant devouring worm stood bewildered in place.

The Soul Eye saw it finally experience an emotional fluctuation, but its intellect was low; this never‑felt sensation left it panicked and its mind a blank.

Then, driven by instinct, its first thought was to flee.

The giant devouring worm raised its front end, opened a huge mouth, and a petal‑shaped terrifying maw spewed a stream of black ghostly light that pierced the Void.

It was creating a "wormhole".

Lei En could not let it escape; invisible magical currents radiated from him, instantly cloaking a spatial‑temporal radius dozens of miles wide.

Phase distortion!

The giant devouring worm's wormhole was instantly severed, and the ghostly light it had spewed vanished.

It tried again, found it could not make a wormhole, and grew even more frightened, instinctively trying to burrow back underground.

Snap!

Lei En casually pointed at it and unleashed a Nine‑Ring Mind Blast.

Without the Foolish Curse blocking it, the giant devouring worm's soul was exposed as if naked; its soul rank was not high to begin with, and the Mind Blast tore through its spirit, with a boom, its massive body collapsed, gouging a huge pit in the ground.

"Sss……"

The giant devouring worm felt pain for the first time, emitting a sharp hiss from its mouth.

But this was not fatal to it.

Lei En gave it no respite, casting continuously, hurling a dozen or so Mind Blasts, each Nine‑Ring.

The giant devouring worm's soul was almost Tear, rolling wildly on the ground as if an earthquake.

At this point, a single instant‑death spell could kill it.

But Lei En hesitated.

If it had been earlier, he would have acted without hesitation, eliminating the giant devouring worm and extracting its demonic soul, but after seeing the vision of the prophecy spell, he realized other possibilities.

"Nine‑Ring, Mind Control!"

Seeing the giant devouring worm about to recover, Lei En used the Wish Spell to simulate a Mind Control.

A transparent spirit rune coalesced, shot toward the giant devouring worm, and in an instant merged into its massive body, penetrating its soul.

Mind Control is the pinnacle of spirit energy magic, capable of dominating a target's mind and soul, turning it into a completely subjugated slave.

Brainwashing and Advanced Enslavement have similar effects, but Brainwashing is easy to dispel, while Advanced Enslavement casts quickly and is hard to detect; however, its duration is short, cannot maintain long‑term control, and the enslaved target loses autonomous thought.

Mind Control requires sustained duration, gradually infiltrating the target's soul until total domination.

No matter which kind of control spell it is, it can be dispelled by a spell.

No spell can permanently and effortlessly keep a slave under control; even with frequent casting to strengthen the control, mental resistance will gradually develop, awakening free will.

The Spirit-absorbing Monster's mortal enemy, the Gis Yankees, was born this way. They were originally slaves of the Spirit-absorbing Monster; over their long lives of bondage they developed strong resistance to mental control, becoming mind-warriors immune to control, rising in rebellion and overthrowing the Spirit-absorbing Monster's Empire.

A few minutes later, the Giant Devouring Worm ceased its struggling resistance.

Mind Control Technique complete!

Lei En looked at the Giant Devouring Worm that had already become his slave, yet he was not very pleased.

The Giant Devouring Worm's vitality was so great it was almost impossible to kill, but its soul was fragile, a weakness that was not hard to discern.

If I can control the Giant Devouring Worm, other casters can dispel it.

The Mind Control Technique's hold on the Giant Devouring Worm is also unstable; if it joins battle and the control is broken, it would be a disaster.

It would be better to kill it and extract its demon soul.

Lei En frowned; the information provided by the Divination Technique was too vague, often misleading, sometimes yielding a completely opposite interpretation.

Why is Reslin the one controlling it, instead of me?

Besides the Mind Control Technique and the Advanced Enslavement Technique, what other methods can control a target?

"Hmm?"

A flash of insight struck Lei En's mind; the Divination Technique showed that the Giant Devouring Worm's body was alive, but it did not indicate that its soul still existed.

A living target is hard to control permanently, but a dead one offers far too many options!

What spell can both extract the Giant Devouring Worm's demon soul and preserve its body intact, then allow control?

Lei En instantly had an answer.

He unhesitatingly activated the Wish Spell, shouting loudly, "Nine Rings, Ao Wo Soul-breaking Technique!"

(End of chapter)